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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 4, 2009

Ross Fisher

SHANGHAI, CHINA

SCOTT CROCKETT: Congratulations on last week, a fantastic week.
ROSS FISHER: A tremendous week. Obviously my first one to play in, so it was always going to be a very good experience. I felt very honoured and privileged to get a chance to play, and it was a different format. So I think everyone was upbeat and excited about the new format, and obviously managed to squeeze through and got through a dramatic semi-final obviously to win.
SCOTT CROCKETT: It's the type of format that you can build momentum, as well, can't you.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I felt like I was getting stronger and stronger as the week went on. Even though I played a lot of holes, my game against Anthony was really solid in the last two rounds, and in the afternoon I felt like I played very steady. Very pleased.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Looking ahead to this week, obviously another big one.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, another big one.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Obviously the game is in good shape.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, the game is in good shape. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling a bit tired. Looking forward to getting to the physio this afternoon and a good rest before tomorrow. It's nice to be back as a prestigious event like this.
Obviously this week now being a WGC event makes it more special. The field is very, very strong and obviously for me to have fond memories of a couple of years ago doing so well and having a great chance to win, it's just nice to be back and playing in China again.

Q. It's the right time of the year -- always a good time to win, but a good time with The Race to Dubai and Ryder Cup points, as well?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, it's given me a chance to do very, very well and put myself in a strong position, with The Race to Dubai just around the corner, and it's great for Ryder Cup purposes as well; not only more points and World Rankings, but obviously it was a match-play tournament. So Colin was there and he watched my game throughout the week, I'm sure, and hopefully that gave him something to think about.

Q. Did he speak to you afterwards?
ROSS FISHER: Just wished me luck on -- I forget which day it was. Him and Corey were on the tee one of the days. Just wished me luck which was quite nice.

Q. Your game is obviously suited to match play, semi-final at the Accenture. Have you surprised yourself or do you expect to win when you go into match play?
ROSS FISHER: No, I wouldn't say I expected to win. It's just a different form of golf. It's not stroke play. It's match play. If you have a bad hole you shake it off and lose one hole; whereas in stroke play, you can drop two or three shots to par. Just seems to suit my game. Aggressive, when you can, pretty much all the time in match play. Kind of a into-fare gung ho attitude where in stroke play you need to be a bit more cautious and careful. So in that sense, yeah, it does suit my style of golf.

Q. Did you learn that from playing members for money at Wentworth?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, a bit of that and a bit of county golf, as well.

Q. How many matches have you played at Wentworth?
ROSS FISHER: I've played loads. I've played a lot of money games. I played with Ross Abbott before. But just loads of members, junior, friends, county matches, England games. I used to play a lot of match play and a lot of money games, so I got used to playing big games.

Q. Were there times you could afford to play for that money? You were a young kid.
ROSS FISHER: Not really.

Q. What are we talking about here, your week's wages?
ROSS FISHER: No, maybe sort of five, ten or a straight ten or 20 pounds. Sometimes you used to do 20 and presses, and sometimes you do flat pay for bits, as well. So you get a pound for a birdie and up-and-down and all sorts.

Q. Is this as a junior?
ROSS FISHER: No. More so, last sort of six to eight years, I'd say. Not so much as a yachty -- well, I was so young, a younger junior, anyway.

Q. That could be scary, couldn't it, the Wentworth members, the Wentworth set are quite well off, aren't they.
ROSS FISHER: Reasonably, yeah.

Q. Have they taken your money?
ROSS FISHER: Early days, no, it was quite difficult to get beaten because I used to find a good partner. But I imagine you get beaten, you can lose sort of 40, 50 quid. But majority of the time, you get a good partner, you can definitely win some. It's good fun. A lot of them when they beat the likes of myself or whoever I'm playing with who is another pro or someone like that, the talks around the club, oh, they took you out and stuff like that. So it's quite good fun.

Q. The situation you're in now with The Race to Dubai, do you now find yourself studying the Order of Merit a bit more?
ROSS FISHER: Not at all. I knew I had slipped to seventh, and obviously found out I got to fourth and obviously World Rankings, as well. I mean, I pay a little bit of attention, but to be honest, everyone else is out of my hands. All I've got to do is concentrate on myself and if I can do well this week and give myself a chance to play well in The Race to Dubai, hopefully things will take care of themselves. I can't do anything about Lee or Martin or Rory or any of the other guys.

Q. Do you consider even though this week and next week will be a pretty big cheque that it will come down to The Race to Dubai?
ROSS FISHER: Oh, it will all come down to The Race to Dubai. If one of the top four or five wins this week, it will be difficult to catch whoever wins. It's very, very tight at the top. I'm not sure how much I am behind Westy, but not very much. All it takes is a couple of good finishes and someone could be out in a commanding lead. Hopefully I can try and make that myself.

Q. Do you feel this course owes you one?
ROSS FISHER: No, I wouldn't say owes me one. It was my fault that I didn't win. I should have won the tournament and I didn't. That's plain and simple. I had it in my own hands and unfortunately it wasn't meant to be that year. That was obviously disappointing, but I'll take a lot of positives and fond memories; I took Mickelson on Saturday and Sunday and beat him 36 holes stroke play, but unfortunately when it came down to it, I didn't manage to finish him off.

Q. As a player how do you compare to two years ago?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, obviously a lot more confident, technique is a lot better. Short game is definitely a shot sharper. You know, I'm probably thinking better. Just overall, just a more steady golfer, really, more consistent, as well.

Q. So you talked about the second round; how near to that was the best round of golf that you played? It was as good as it gets?
ROSS FISHER: It was pretty good, yeah. Probably the 63 at European Open was pretty solid, as well. But no, the round of golf on the Sunday was not eye on perfection. If I had holed that little putt on 7 it would have been. That was probably the only real hole, but like you say, I didn't miss too many shots. It was pretty good. It was nice to see a few putts go in, that's for sure.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You have Mr. Woods for company again starting tomorrow. Is Dubai the last time you played with him?
ROSS FISHER: Yes.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thoughts on that?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, playing with Tiger and Thongchai, played with him a few times, and obviously to play with the world's No. 1 is a real honour and privilege and we are obviously going to draw quite a crowd, so it's going to be fun. I haven't played with Tiger for a long, long time and obviously his game has changed and evolved a lot, and things have changed, so it's going to be interesting to see his game up close and personal. You know, hopefully I can go toe-to-toe with him.
SCOTT CROCKETT: As you say, you've evolved as a player, from the time you played with Phil a couple of years ago, presumably you'll feel the same playing with Tiger since you played with him in do you buy, that your game has evolved, and you'll be able to handle all of the stuff that goes on roundabout him, all of the distractions.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, hopefully. It was an experience playing with him in Dubai, but I felt like I handled myself really, really well. If it wasn't for a couple of putts here or there, I would have beaten him on the Sunday. He holed about a 15-footer on the last to beat me by a shot. So I felt like I handled myself really well that day.
So I'm just looking forward to tomorrow and Friday and you know, fingers crossed, I can handle myself just as well if not better and try to beat him over 36 holes.

Q. Is there something to do with the injury in how he swings or how he swings since the injury or what is it you want to look at?
ROSS FISHER: No, obviously he's the best player in the world so you want to watch what he does and how he goes about his business on the course, because he is the one that everybody looks up to because he is far and away the best player in the world.

Q. What did you notice last time that he did?
ROSS FISHER: Just his mental strength was very, very good. He wasn't playing his best. He hit a few poor shots: He skied a 3-wood off the first and fatted a 5-wood off the 10th and duffed a chip on 11. But all of a sudden he chipped in on 15, birdied 16 and birdied 18. So you know, it just shows you the class of the player.
So I'll obviously be focusing in on what I'm trying to do and trying to beat him but if there is anything that you can learn from him from watching and take from him and put into my game, I'll be doing that.

Q. Are you aware of the situation that's developed with Doug Barron in America?
ROSS FISHER: No, I heard briefly about it.

Q. Have you any thoughts about the adoption of the drug policy into golf; is it a positive step?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, definitely, anything that will help the sport and keep the integrity up, definitely all for it.

Q. What are your thoughts of playing with Ian in the World Cup?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, really looking forward to it. We had a great time last year. We got off to a shocking start on Thursday. I think we shot something like 3-under in fourball, which is just horrendous, but we battled away and I think we had a 65 on Sunday in foursomes.
So we ended up a really poor week finishing quite strongly and finishing fifth. So we are looking to going -- he's just won, I've just won, we are going in with high hopes and feel like we can really contend and we are one of the strongest teams there. There will be some strong teams there but we are both really up for it and really looking forward to it, and I'm sure it will be a great week. But obviously have to focus on this week and Race to Dubai and once that's over, we will probably both think about the World Cup.

Q. Good friendship?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, very good. I played with Poults, a few practice rounds this year in the majors, at the Masters. I think we played maybe at the U.S. Open, PGA we played, a couple of the World Golf Championships events. We get on really well. He's a good crack. He's just good to be around. He's fun to be around, him and his caddie, Terry, they are a good bunch of guys and we have a good laugh together.

Q. What did you learn about Poults that you didn't know before through playing with him last year?
ROSS FISHER: Probably just his sheer confidence level. He's so confident in his own ability, really stood out. He's just massively confident in what he can do, what he can achieve, which is great. So I think that would be, I would say, one of the strong things that I took from Poults.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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