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BMW MASTERS PRESENTED BY SRE GROUPOctober 26, 2013Luke GuthrieSHANGHAI, CHINA PAUL SYMES: You said on the way over you couldn't quite get it going today but still in a great position going into the final round. LUKE GUTHRIE: Yeah, beginning the week, if I was tied going into the fourth round tied for the lead, I'd have taken it, take my chances for tomorrow. Excited for the day. As today went, it was a little frustrating. Just kind of when I made a couple birdies, seems to kind of step on my own foot a few times. Like 18, kind of didn't hit my greatest shot obviously, but wish I didn't have to chip it on the green to sort of get it close. Just overall, I was hitting it well, putting well, and just kind of let a few shots get away toward the end and that's never fun really. Like you said, I'm tied for the lead going into tomorrow and I'm excited. PAUL SYMES: Be a few nerves knocking around on the first tee tomorrow morning? LUKE GUTHRIE: Yeah, definitely. It's a good thing that I guess I look calm on the outside but I think all of us are pretty pumped up when you're in that situation, especially on the first tee, 18th hole and stuff like that, so I'm looking forward to that. It's a great feeling as a competitor, and bring it on. I'm excited. Q. What do you take from Honda that will help you tomorrow, do you think? LUKE GUTHRIE: A lot. Just to be in that situation, I believe I was tied for the lead that weekend on Saturday and Sunday, so Michael played great, Michael Thompson played great that day and was proud of the way I hung in there, just hope a few putts that need to go your way to win a golf tournament happen tomorrow for me. And I'll just kind of go out there and have experience in the back of my mind and just kind of plug along, hopefully get off to a good start and be there in the end and hope to put it away. Q. What made you decide to chip the ball on the green on the last hole? LUKE GUTHRIE: There's a big slope coming off the back of that green, and the only way I probably could have got it within ten feet was for me to putt it a little bit through the rough, and that if I miss that little rough, I would miss‑read it going up into it and it might go 20 feet by. I thought it was less risk to chip the ball. I feel like I'm a pretty good chipper, chipping it off a tight lie like that. Doesn't bother me too much. I thought I could get it a little closer. Just didn't quite nip it enough to get that check right on top and get the stop and trickle down. But no regrets on that one. I couldn't have got it closer with the putt. Q. You have some Chinese fans following you today, does that make you more nervous? And some people said you are a little slow play; what do you think about that? LUKE GUTHRIE: Did you say for the first one, a lot of people following, did it make me nervous? No, it's fun playing in front of people I think. It kind of makes it more exciting. The more people, the better. It's fun. And yeah, I have a tendency to play a touch slow, especially when I make a bogey or two and kind of‑‑ I'm kind of working on that a little bit. But I'm just trying to, I don't want to hit a shot until I'm completely ready, and tomorrow I'll make it a goal to be a little more decisive for sure. Down the stretch I was a little indecisive and took me a little bit, which kind of‑‑ I can't think of the word, but when that kind of happens, I tend to make worse swings, so I should just commit to it and just go for it. Q. You are a PING player, so please talk about your new club, like S55. LUKE GUTHRIE: Yeah, I've been a PING player since any junior year in high school, and I love PING, and as a company and the people that work there, they are great people and they are very family‑oriented, loyal company, and my S55s, I put them in the bag‑‑ where did I put them in the bag, maybe the PGA last year, or maybe a little after that. Maybe during the Playoffs, The Barclays, was my first time with the 55. It's a great iron. It's done nothing but great things for me and it's definitely going to stay in there. Q. I would imagine, even in college and Web.com and PGA TOUR, you're in the locker room and you see the names on the board etc. And you know plenty of people in the field, what's it been like this week? How many people do you think you know outside of John Daly? LUKE GUTHRIE: Kind of the younger guys, my age, like Peter, Mu Hu a little bit. Besides, that I haven't been in the fields too much with the bigger names, per se. Hopefully get to know them a little better here and there.  Yeah, I mean, I've got my brother here, I've got my agent back there, and so it's been a good trip. Q. What do you know of Cabrera‑Bello and Gonzo? LUKE GUTHRIE: Honestly not much. I've just seen their names on European boards for the most part. I think he's played a few Majors, hasn't he, at least, last year he played well a few times. I remember seeing his name a decent amount. Obviously he's a great player and looking forward to meet those guys and hopefully we'll have a good day and a good battle and I think it will be fun. Q. Do you think they know you? LUKE GUTHRIE: Probably this week is the first time they have heard me, I would assume. Q. If you get a chance to get the trophy tomorrow, would you consider also joining The European Tour and playing in other cities outside of the U.S.? LUKE GUTHRIE:  Yes, I definitely want to be a more global player, but my commitment would be back with the PGA TOUR. I probably would not become a Member of The European Tour. I would definitely love to come over here and there more, because there's a lot of great players, a lot of great events out here and I just like to travel. I would love to see the world, and what a better avenue to do that than through golf and get to compete and go to different part of the world, that's pretty cool. When those opportunities come present themselves, I'll definitely hop all over them. Q. What made you want to do this? You talked all week about wanting to travel; what made you think that way? LUKE GUTHRIE:  Wanting to travel? I don't know. I've always liked it. For the most part, I've only been in the U.S.. my parents always took us, me and my brother, quite a bit, got to go to Harbour Town, got to go to Sawgrass when I was younger and things like that. It's just cool to see kind of different people, different climates, different just everything. With golf and the PGA TOUR, I got to go see Hawai'i more and California and now here I am in Shanghai. Now it's very cool, the doors open, and it's just fun to see the world. Q. After three rounds this week, compared to most of the golf courses you play on the US PGA TOUR, difficulty‑wise, is this a difficult one or similar to one you've played before? LUKE GUTHRIE:  The difficulty of this golf course compared to the PGA TOUR would be I guess I would compare it kind of middle of the line. But the conditions, the defense of this course would be more, there's not that many trees, so fairways are bigger. But also allows the wind to blow. So this week, this course is kind of showing its teeth. When the wind blows here, it's going to be a difficult golf course, and every course is a little different. There's places on the PGA TOUR where it's a little tighter but tree‑lined. It doesn't blow and whip around as much. Kind of every course is different. Q. After Jordan Spieth got a captain's choice playing The Presidents Cup a couple of weeks ago, and such a young player and now you're only 23, and playing so well this week, is playing The Ryder Cup maybe this year one of your goals? LUKE GUTHRIE: I know Jordan pretty well, and obviously he had a great year last year. Really happy for him when he got that captain's choice, and to play as well as he did; he made like a hole‑in‑one I think in the practice round, that was cool. Yeah, I'm a young guy, I'm 23, but I think he's 20. So I feel kind of old when I get compared with him because there's a lot of young guys out there. Yeah, Ryder Cup would definitely be a goal. I mean, I don't really focus on that. I'll focus more on the process and winning tomorrow, winning in the future, takes care of those kind of goals. I'm going to focus on the present and hopefully get the W. Q. Do you practice much chipping on the green, and how often do you do something like that on the 18th hole? LUKE GUTHRIE: I don't ever really practice chipping off the green at home. I don't think the local grounds crew would like that if I did that every day. But I've done it a few times. I think that was probably, maybe my third time in competition I've chipped off the green. The last few times, it worked pretty well. I did it at Torrey Pines, actually, on the 14th hole. I had to chip up and over a bunker, and knocked it in there to like two feet. I did it in a college event in Augusta, Georgia and about made the shot. That was like one of my favourite shots I've ever hit. That was pretty cool. Yeah, besides just messing around with your friends and kind of slapping a few shots around, I don't really practice that. Q. Players like Tiger Woods and Phil, didn't come out for the tournament, but you and like Peter Uihlein, you like to go abroad. ‑‑ do you think it's a trend for the young American golfers to go abroad, to go outside the U.S.? LUKE GUTHRIE: It seems like younger players kind of for sure, like a decent amount of Americans, I don't know if it's because of the PGA TOUR change now with the Qualifying School and the Web.com, more and more younger players out of college are going to European Tour school it seems like. I don't know if that's the influence, but it seems like the younger generation now more so is coming over and playing over here. I don't know if, like I said, you want to pinpoint that back to the change in Q‑School and the tours and stuff. But I think it's important, like I said, to play over here, and exposure yourself to different things. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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