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THE IRISH OPENJune 30, 2012Anthony WallPORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND PAUL SYMES: Starting with the par on the last, probably one of the better pars of your career. ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, it was lucky and unlucky. PAUL SYMES: Tell us about your round in general, you must be absolutely delighted with a 67 in those conditions. ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, it was great. We started off pretty cold and we got even colder and we got even wetter. Early on it did make it a bit easier. It was straight downwind because you felt like you could fire at some of the pins and I managed to get off to a sort of get off to a fast start. You obviously felt like you needed it, because 7, 8, 9 were always going to play tough. You're almost trying to give yourself a bit from the bounce really. PAUL SYMES: I know you're a big fan of the course, saying St. Andrews used to be your favourite but Royal Portrush might have overtaken it. ANTHONY WALL: It's a great design and it just seems very fair. It's tough now with the rough because it's all been pushed down. It has become quite tight in places around the green because there's so many people walking around, but it makes it more fun. The atmosphere is fantastic. PAUL SYMES: And you have some Irish roots in the family, as well? ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, my grandfather is from Sligo, so I've always enjoyed coming to Ireland, I have to be honest. I always seem to try a bit harder. The golf courses we play are always big golf courses in Ireland and the atmosphere is great. It does inspire you, no question about that. PAUL SYMES: Tell us about your accommodation this week. ANTHONY WALL: I'm in a caravan park, a very nice caravan park. I'm with Andrew Marshall as well and the caddies. We've had a good laugh, good fun. Q. With all your money, why are you staying in a caravan this week? ANTHONY WALL: Well, it's quite a posh caravan. Got running water. It's got gas. I didn't want to stay in town, because it was going to be quite boisterous, so I wanted to stay away from it. Then I tried a B&B, but it didn't look the greatest. So I opted to stay in a caravan and give a go. More the fact that it was with a good friend I don't see very often, and I knew we would have a bit of fun and every night we have had a bit of a laugh, watching the telly and TV and football. It's been nice to relax where normally half the time you seem to be on your own and you're sort of killing time, where this week it's actually been really fun. Q. Woosie always used to say he stayed in a motor home because it was a good crack, and I assume youÂ’re finding the same thing? ANTHONY WALL: It's been exactly that‑‑ a bit of breakfast, just wasn't comfortable. I thought I would change it around a little bit. Q. As someone who is also staying in the caravan this week with a couple of colleagues (laughter). I just want to know, who got the master bedroom and how did you determine? ANTHONY WALL: I did funny enough. Unbelievable. It did go on‑‑ I had nothing to do with the booking process at all but the fact that he gave me the big one‑‑ (laughter). Q. On a serious note, I remember in South Africa when you won your first title; in the intervening years, how would you sort of talk about your career? ANTHONY WALL: It's a difficult thing, because the time has flown by. It's incredible really. 12 years has gone so quickly. I remember three or four years after I won, I definitely lost my direction. The whole thing, I didn't really have any real help. And I think that's the one thing that these young kids have now, they have so much good advice, and it keeps them on the track. I think the other guys, just got on with it yourself and you didn't know what you were doing. You were just getting on with it where before‑‑ well, suddenly, you've missed the boat. I do feel I've been a late starter in a number of things over the years. I'm 37 and feel as good about my game as ever. I'd like to think that I've still got a long time left playing, because I do enjoy it. But I do regret a little bit not having as much direction in the middle years as I probably should have done, but if you don't know, don't know what to do, you just keep going, don't you. Q. Where does that round rate, and give us three or four highlights of it today? ANTHONY WALL: I have to say, probably close to the best I've ever had. That first round at Hoylake when I shot 67 in the British Open was a great round. Thursday funny enough, another really, really good round. I probably played better on Thursday this week than I did today, but I just managed to make some more birdies in bad weather. But yeah, if I had to say, I would say today is probably the best round I've ever played, actually, now that I think about it. Q. You've always managed to make plenty of money from the game.  Was that another reason perhaps that you didn't kick on perhaps as much as you would? ANTHONY WALL: No, I've never had enough money to be fair‑‑ on a serious note‑‑ Q. It always looks ‑‑ but it‑‑ ANTHONY WALL: I've made money, being out here 15 years‑‑ any job you do, you can do all right, 15 years' work. I don't look at‑‑ yes, it was nice, but still got to go home and think could have done a bit better there. You've still got to look at yourself. Q. Highlights of the round? ANTHONY WALL: Highlights of the round, probably the 9th was the best one. I managed to get there in two. It was strange, the wind, and it was pouring down and probably the best driver and 3‑wood I've ever, ever hit and got it on front to an elevated green. That was a real highlight. 15, I hit a perfect drive, perfect 3‑iron, 8‑iron to about ten feet to a back pin that was quite tight and managed to hold it. So it was good to be finishing strongly really. The last, I hit down the left and hit someone and kicked into a bush. Dropped it out and hit a 7‑iron to about six inches, so it was a great finish. Q. You said you didn't have any direction when you first came out. How have you lasted this long than other guys you came out with that are not out here anymore? ANTHONY WALL: Probably down to hard work and determination. My dad always put that into me; that if you're not prepared to work, there will be somebody who will, so I always just get on with it and work hard. I try and not complicate things. Might not necessarily be the right things you work out, but you complicate the best things, they are probably not going to work anyway. So just keeping your focus and trying to improve what you know you can improve on, rather than looking for something that might never happen, and just generally working hard and being‑‑ also, fitness as well. Thankful that I've stayed quite fit for a long time. Other guys have niggles here and there and it does stop their progress. I've been pretty lucky really. Q. What piece of advice do you wish you'd been given in the early days? ANTHONY WALL: They prepare you now, but no one prepared me for playing week‑in, week‑out. When you're an amateur, you play one every few weeks and prepare for each one. Now we have to go and play ‑‑ the players have to play 25 to 30 weeks a year and you just have to keep going with what you've got, and no one prepares for weeks you're not playing well. It can then drag down further; you can find bad habits, and before you know it you're well away from where you should be. Where if you play one, two, three, every three or whatever, you can get back to where you should be. I think a little bit of that happened to me, to always playing, you want to keep your card, you want to stay on Tour and all this stuff. It is difficult. It is difficult. But you've just got to stick at it, stick at it really. Q. So less is more sometimes? ANTHONY WALL: I think it probably is. Paul Lawrie would say that, he's playing less and he's playing far better, but not easy to do that when you're not Open Champion. Q. Have you ever had a time where you thought, it's a grind and it's almost boring and would rather do something else? ANTHONY WALL: No. I think everyone involved in the European Tour are quite lucky because we are all still working and a third of the country aren't. I play golf because I enjoy it‑‑ it's all lovely and stuff, but you go home after six missed cuts in a row and it's not about the money. It's about how you failed six weeks in a row and that's how it feels. Especially when you've not been a mega winner, it feels like you've failed. This week, 85 guys will fail and none of them will feel great about that. You just have to get out and keep coming back. Q. Still doing a lot of gardening at home? ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, I've cut down, one or two issues with my back but still love being outside. Q. WhatÂ’s the best hotel youÂ’ve stayed in this year, and did you have as much fun there as youÂ’ve had in your caravan this week? ANTHONY WALL: No. I have to say that Celtic Manor is always a great spot. I love playing there. That's a great hotel. But it's not as great as this week, we've had a great laugh, we really have. Abu Dhabi, that's another good one‑‑ not a lot of walking around there (laughter). Hoping I might get a sponsorshipfrom the caravan; make a bit more money (laughter). PAUL SYMES: Thanks and play well tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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