THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 20, 2013

Richie Ramsay

Q. (Inaudible.)
RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I wasn't too sure if it was getting into going home knowing that I could always come back, if I hang around here -- it was torture. So I went home and then as I was getting in, I was kind of trying not to check my phone, but checked my phone every half hour, and then it started getting close and then I got in, and I was just praying that it didn't change, really, to be honest. I got lucky. I got very lucky.

Q. Did you have to change your accommodations?
RICHIE RAMSAY: Well, accommodations for the week, you have to have it for seven nights. So being a Scottishman, obviously, I didn't really want to have it for the full seven nights, but now I've got the use of it. I was much pleased with that as to get in the tournament. But, no, it was great. Obviously tough first two days, and the way I finished, especially in the second round, was disappointing knowing the shots I can hit and not to be producing them. It just gave me another opportunity to get there and kind of put a round together. I think every day I've played better, I've got a better idea of the greens. But it's really hard out there. I thought I played really good today. If I had a couple of putts, I would have shot 1-under and I would have been really quite happy with that. I think the guys that are teeing off after one o'clock have got a hell of a job on their hands. You'd have to hit -- like 2, the way the wind is, the pin position, you'd have to hit a big cut in there to hold the green. And then you just can't miss it. In certain spots you can't miss it or you're going to have like 20 feet coming back. It's not probably as severe as the first two days, but the greens are getting firmer and of course the wind is up today. And it just is a really tough test. There's no letup and you have to have all different types of shots. But the thing is that's what you've got to do in an Open. Well, I don't know, but I imagine they want to test you to all your abilities. And they've done a great job of that, I think. This afternoon the guys, it's going to be entertaining watching them playing, because they're going to be trying to just get it around. You par like four holes in a row, and you're thinking to yourself, I'm probably going to move up. It's almost not defensive golf, but you need to be sort of passive aggressive. The pins are in certain positions, and you can't miss it some sides. You have got to hit it 20 feet right. So lag-putting, having the pace on the greens is going to be really important. Crisp iron shots to get a ball to stop. But you've got to get it in the fairway. The last few days -- I think I've had two 6-irons yesterday and two 5-irons off the tees just to get it on the fairway. And I hit a 7-iron on the 12th today because it was playing downwind. There's a bunker at 245 and I'm hitting 7-iron. I'm hitting it and it just thinking, is that going to bounce and get in the bunker? You get down there and it's 25 yards short of the bunker. Like some of them are just like runaways, like 12. 14 is not so bad. 15. 15, I hit 5-iron, 8-iron, and it's -- I don't know what it is, it's 470 yards or something like that, and I still had a 20-footer coming back. You've just got to be so patient out there. To be honest, it's a great test. You've got to embrace the challenge, if you don't, it will just eat you up and spit you out pretty much.

Q. You've been brought up on links courses, but nothing quite like this?
RICHIE RAMSAY: It's funny, when you play here, you go back to the way you used to play in amateur golf, wind off the right, hard fairway. Well, you have to cut it in order to hold the fairway. You don't stand up there and bomb it right-to-left. I watched Tom Watson yesterday, it was interesting seeing him hit off 10. He tried to cut the wind off the right, knowing that the ball was going to land softly. And your target is going to be a lot wider. Whereas it can be more one dimensional when it's soft, because you just stand up and hit it. And the ball doesn't land, and if you miss it a little bit, it doesn't kick off. So it's just a better challenge. It brings the playing field down to a level that like guys, it doesn't matter how old you are, if you're 15 or you're 50, as long as you put it in play. Because guys are generally hitting the same clubs into the greens.

Q. What would you be doing late last night if you didn't make the cut?
RICHIE RAMSAY: Like I mean, after we were going to go out and grab some food. And I was going to get up, going to go to bed early and go to the gym in the morning, because like I was still kind of -- I went to the physio truck last night and did like 20 minutes on the bike to kind of get everything out of my system. And I was still driving home and it wasn't -- it was still there. So I was like -- it's one of those things where I don't do well like the day after, it's like all I can think about is trying to get better. I don't know, I just hate losing -- look at it and work out why I didn't perform the way I could have. And it's like I've got to get better, I've got to do this. And to be honest the last thing I think of is going out and getting drunk. It's just not -- like I had my uni days and I enjoyed that. I've got a wife now, so I don't need to go out and chat with the birds (laughter). So, yeah, she can stay out as long as she wants. And I'll just go in. I don't know, that's the only thing I can think of, like getting better, it's just something that -- I don't know, you can't really teach it, it's just something that you have. It's one of the main strengths that I have. I'm really not very good at losing; don't take it that well, to be honest. I just totally focused and I just get tunnel vision, and what can I do to get better? I need to do this, formulate a plan, I'll work on it and get better. I chatted with Thomas Bjorn in the practice rounds. He's beaten Tiger Woods, played Ryder Cups. But obviously had like kind of a lull in his career, and he came back up. And he was like, yeah, it's just about formulating a plan, all about the process. You focus on that, and there's going to be an end result down the line. And I think that's what I try and work on these days. A good friend of mine also says if you're plotting a graph, and you have all these different points, you've got to look at the general direction. If it's an upward trend, you're moving the right direction. You're going to get anomaly weak, like the last couple of weeks, where you're going to plot it on the graph and it's going to be way down here. But if you look at it, the general trend is going upwards. I think that's what I'm good at. I think there's a lot of guys out here that can make knee-jerk reactions, changing coaches, trainers, everything, but if nothing is broke, you just stick with what you've got.

Q. Do you try to shrug off anything bad that happens out on the course?
RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, that's something that I've had to work on, because I'm very, like, the two minutes after I'm like what did I do wrong there. But if I can produce an answer I'm all right. I get over it. But the biggest thing for me is not kind of committing to the shot. If I stand up there and I go through a pre-shot routine and I hit it. Like today, I hit it on 13 and I was trying to hold it into the wind. I hit it, and I just didn't hold it enough, it took one bounce and bounced in the bunker. And I thought I can't do that. I kind of cleared that hurdle. But it's when I stand up there and sort of double cross it, and I'm like, why did I do that? And generally it comes back to mental toughness, the ability to commit to a shot when you know there's trouble left. And if you watch any golf tournament, you see more or less the amount of guys who go right, it's unbelievable. And just down to the last, it's just like the pot bunker left and even right, there's nowhere to really hit it. But if you're going to hit driver, you've got to commit to it. Like today I forced it down the middle and that's what I'm good at. If I do miss it, I just accept it. And as long as I commit to the shot, that's the only thing I can focus on. And I can be too analytical sometimes with everything.