KATHIE SHEARER:  So close Louis, you made it really exciting at the end there.  That eagle, we were on the edge of our seats, on the edge of our toes.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  I think coming on the back nine I just wanted to try and get some numbers up there so that he’s a little bit under pressure, but he did really well and the whole day he was three shots ahead.  I had to do something and I went for it on the last and it paid off and made a nice eagle.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Looking forward to next week now.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  Yeah, flying in about two hours’ time so I’m ready.  Game face is on now and I’m ready.

Q.  How much confidence do you take out of this week?  You seemed to get better every day.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  A lot.  I used this week as preparation for next and obviously, Aussie Open is a great event to play.  First time over here, we had a good time, got the family here.  But I’ll take a lot of confidence out of this and hopefully we can pull it off next week.

Q.  President’s Cup next week, everyone at the moment is talking about Patrick Reed.  Could that possibly galvanise your team a bit more?  You’re represented by nine countries, is that the sort of thing that brings you together?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  I don’t think we’re going to spend much time on that.  I think the crowd’s going to have a nice time with him.  We’re focused on what we want to achieve and what we want to do.  He brought those things on himself so I can imagine he’s going to have a tough time next week with the crowd.

Q.  Could you imagine if you were on that team, would you be disappointed if a team mate had done that leading into such a major event?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  I think a little bit.  I think a little bit you will, but I’m pretty sure the boys have spoken to him already about it.

KATHIE SHEARER:  I spoke to you at the beginning of the week and you said, “I’m not playing so good.”  What happened?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  Maybe I was playing good, but the course, it’s difficult.  The greens are really fast and hard and the fairways as well, so it’s tough.

KATHIE SHEARER:  You must be thrilled, two in a row?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  I didn’t expect this today, especially in the play; really exciting.

Q.  When you teed off this morning you were a long behind, did you have any thoughts that perhaps at the end of the day – we know it’s golf and anything can happen, but?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  We knew that two holes maybe and it could be all tied, so we knew we had a chance.

Q.  During that back nine, at what point did you realise that (a) you were tied for the lead and (b) that those behind might not be able to catch you?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  We didn’t see it until maybe when we have finished, we recognised they were struggling on the back nine as well, so we were ahead.

Q.  I was standing behind you on the playoff hole for your third shot.  What an atmosphere, how did you manage with that?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  I don’t know.  It was nerve-wracking but it worked out.

Q.  Terrific reaction from the crowds I thought, from everybody here, you enjoyed all that aspect?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  Yeah, really good.

Q  What now for Johan Kammerstad, two time Australian All Abilities Champion?

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  We’ll see.  It’s winter back home in Sweden so we have to get through that first and then we’ll see what’s happening in the Spring.

KATHIE SHEARER:  And with the ISPA Handa, they have been great supporters of you and this event.

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  Yeah.  I’m not that used to that company, I don’t know really, I know they support disabled golf, but I thank them for it.

KATHIE SHEARER:  It’s great to have companies around you that can really help you move along.

JOHAN KAMMERSTAD:  Yes, exactly.

Q.  Congratulations on winning your second Australian Open title, but also qualifying for the Open at Royal St George’s next year.  What does it mean to you?

MATT JONES:  I’ve played in maybe five British Opens and it’s the one Major I would most like to win.  To be able to do that and plan a schedule around that, will be fantastic. 

Q.  This is the third time you’ve qualified for the Open via Open qualifying series here in Australia, it’s a really great and big opportunity, isn’t it, for Australian golfers?

MATT JONES:  It is.  As you can see by the two guys that qualified, for them to get into a British Open is fantastic.  I love coming back here because it’s a great chance for me to do it.  I’ve been lucky enough to do it a few times and I’ll be back next year.  Hopefully I don’t have to do it next year, but I’ll be back here for it if I have to.

Q.  Thanks very much.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Not the way you wanted to finish, solid but not what you’d hoped I’m sure when you went out this morning.

MARC LEISHMAN:  Yeah, I got started pretty well, 2-under through eight was playing pretty tough and then just hit a bad shot there on nine and didn’t have too much chance from there with the way Jonesy’s playing especially.  It probably didn’t matter what I had of shot today, but got the start I wanted, but just couldn’t quite finish it off.

KATHIE SHEARER:  You’ve still got plenty of juice in the tank for next week?

MARC LEISHMAN:  Yeah, for sure.  We’re ready to go, looking forward to it.  It’s been a pretty easy week this week energy-wise, so yeah, excited about next week and hopefully we can play well.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Are you leaving tonight to go to Melbourne?

MARC LEISHMAN:  Leaving tonight yeah, so I’ll get down there tonight and then try and have a day off tomorrow, then into it Tuesday.  So, it’ll be good.

Q.  What did you like most about your form this week?

MARC LEISHMAN:  Probably the way I drove the ball; the way I drove the ball and then the way I chipped, particularly chipped.  I putted well, I just wasn’t reading the greens awesome, but yeah, off the tee and around the greens I was pretty pleased with.  If I could take that over into next week and sharpen my irons up a little bit, should be good to go.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you for speaking to us and have a great week next week.

AARON PIKE:   I know it’s a British Open venue.  I’ve watched a few films of the Tournament but in all honesty, I would have liked some of the other Open venues, I could probably pick apart the golf course right here and now in front of you.  Royal St George is probably not one of those but it’ll now become my most favourite if I do happen to get one of them spots.

Q.  Greg Norman won there in 1993.

AARON PIKE:  Obviously, I know that.  He’s won at a lot of places, to be fair though.

Q.  It’s been a great week for you, not just getting into the Open but also in terms of Australian Open finish too.

AARON PIKE:  Absolutely, it’s one of the biggest Tournaments we’ve got in Australia – the Australian Open, the Australian PGA are probably our two pinnacle events and I love playing the Australian Golf Club, so I was always happy coming back here.  I hit it really well.  The first couple of rounds, I probably cost myself a few shots.  I don’t know if I ever would have got to Jonesy in all fairness, but I reckon I would have been low, mid-teens no problem if I had my head on right the first two days.  I managed to actually meet up with a guy who’s helped me out a lot mentally previously.  He steered me in the right direction and I really do put a lot of that down to the back nine today; which was great.

Q.  What does it mean to you to be able to play at the British Open and when did you start seriously thinking that it was on the cards?

AARON PIKE:  In all honesty, I know the spots are up for grabs and I knew going into the last day I was running top 10, so I had that idea in my head so to speak.  The 16th I saw a board and I realised that Louis would have been in because he’s won one and Matty Jones will definitely take one, because he’s not going to finish with five doubles or whatever it is and then I knew someone else there or thereabouts might get another one, so I’m going to have to put my foot down.  I birdied 17, I tried to birdie 18 to keep going, but it’s the biggest Tournament in the world for me.  It is.  It’s as simple as that.  It’ll be amazing to get in it.

Q.  Have you got an Open Championship favourite moment?

AARON PIKE:  Mine?

Q.  Yes.

AARON PIKE:  Probably Justin Rose, when he was an amateur, ironically enough.  It’s probably not in most other people’s up there, but it’s probably because when I turned pro or I was an amateur, I was leading the Australian Masters and I actually got to play with him and it was unbelievable to play with him after everything he’d been through, so it stuck in my head.  It’s really resonated.  So, him on the last when he hit that beautiful chip shot, to me that really does resonate in all honesty, just because of the guy, I think.

Q.  What year was that Australian Masters then?

AARON PIKE:  2006 Australian Masters, I ran fourth.

Q.  What about ’98 at Royal Birkdale?

AARON PIKE:  That was ’98 and then he turned pro and he missed something like 18 or 19 cuts consecutively and now he’s one of the best players in the world.

Q.  Were you in a similar spot last year, sort of flirting with the British Open as well?

AARON PIKE:  Yeah, I was.  I was second last group and I actually played with Dimitrios and he ended up getting one of them.  He’s a very good friend of mine and I remember I was egging him on, trying to get him over the line and he ended up finishing second.  I think that helped a lot this year.  I was kind of immune to it all, I didn’t really worry about it too much, just one shot at a time, just keep plugging away and I just kept hitting good shot after good shot.  The putts weren’t really dropping for me early, but I just stuck with it and I hit a lot of good shots late; they went in and then it looks like I’m going to get through.

Q.  You’re good friends with Jason Day, will you be looking to him for a little bit of guidance around how you handle yourself at a Major?

AARON PIKE:  He’s played plenty of them, I haven’t played any of them so I think I’ll give him a call, yeah.  We might play a practice round or two.  He’s a great ally to have.  I’ve spent a lot of time with him, this year especially and I probably wouldn’t be in the position I’ve been in lately without him.  He’s given me a lot of help and assistance, so I’ll definitely be bouncing more off him.

KATHIE SHEARER:  How do you feel now you’re in the British Open?

TAKUMI KANAKA:  I feeling so great, yeah, so excited.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Do you know the golf course?  Do you know St George’s?

TAKUMI KANAKA:  I haven’t been St George’s but I can’t wait to the Open next year.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Will you go there beforehand, before the Tournament, will you go and look at it if you get the chance, before the Tournament, will you go to St George’s and have a look?

TAKUMI KANAKA:  British Open is tough conditions, so windy, rainy, sometimes switching, so very difficult, but yeah, I prepare perfect so I look forward to British Open.

Q.  Did you know you needed to sink the last putt to get that spot?

TAKUMI KANAKA:  Yeah, I was seeing leaderboard.  I make putt, so I joining a British Open, so, so nervous.

KATHIE SHEARER: Paul Casey said that you had a fabulous round today, very solid. Can you do that tomorrow?

MATT JONES: I started off a little shaky and I knew once you get through a certain hole, you’ve got more holes later on in the round that you can make some birdies and I was lucky enough to get through them and got to the back nine and I made, I think, five birdies on the back nine to have a good round.

KATHIE SHEARER: The guys are also saying that the pin placements were quite difficult out there today.  Did you think they were?

MATT JONES:  Yes, they were.  They were tough to get close to the hole with the wind we had too, but there are a couple of holes out there, with a little bit of local knowledge, like on 13, you know you can miss it right and bounce it down off the hill; 11 – I didn’t birdie it, but to hit it long back off that hill can be helpful.  It was playing difficult; the wind was tough.

KATHIE SHEARER:  You see when you had a bogey, you had a birdie right away,  you never let it get away from you.  You were very much in control of your game.

MATT JONES:  Yeah, I did, and that’s a good thing to be able to do.  I was very calm out there today.  My caddy said on the first tee if you’re not nervous – I can’t remember what he said – then I must be wrong, because I wasn’t very nervous, I was very comfortable and excited to go out and play. I played with Paul for many years in college and it was fun to go out there and play with him.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Are you thinking of a winning score tomorrow?

MATT JONES:  I honestly have no idea.  I know I’m leading, but I don’t know by how many.  But no, it depends on what the conditions are like; just try not to make a double and a triple on the front nine like I did last time and make it a little easier.

Q.  Matt, you covered it a little bit in what you’ve said already, but there was a lot of jockeying for positions early on.  The golf course was clearly playing a lot more difficult today with that wind.  Are you able to quantify how more difficult it was compared to the opening two days?

MATT JONES:  It’s just not a normal wind, I don’t find out here from years of playing, the easterly’s not a normal wind.  I find it normally a north or a south wind.  So, you’ve got some side winds out there.  It was just tricky because it kept going from east, then it went to northeast, then it went to southeast and it’s just tough to trust some of those numbers.  It got Paul on number 9 where he hit a perfect shot and it came up in a bunker.  It was tougher and the pin locations were tougher.  It was tougher to get access out there.

Q.  You looked like you were struggling with your back a bit, stretching a lot and moving around.  Is it troublesome, is it affecting you at all?

MATT JONES:  No, it’s fine.  It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with plenty of times in my life.  I’ll be fine.

Q.  It’s an ongoing sort of a soreness sort of thing?

MATT JONES:  Yeah, it’s something I’m sure every golfer would deal with.  We all have a bad back, but nothing that I can’t play with and play through.

Q.  You just touched on your start on the final day in 2015.  You still came through and won that day, what can you take from that and do tomorrow if you’re having moments where it’s not going well, what can you take from it?

MATT JONES:  Just to stay patient, give yourself opportunities.  It’s the old saying, one shot at a time, which is kind of true.  Just to play smart and give yourself birdie opportunities.  I know the golf course.  I know the breaks pretty well on the greens, which I feel very comfortable on putting and if something does happen like that, like it did in ’15, I’ll be comfortable enough and I won’t have to worry about it.

Q.  Can you give us an insight, the discussion with the rules official there at the end of the round, near the end of the round when you were in the trees there, what was that discussion about?

MATT JONES:  If I was in a tyre track or not and then where my nearest drop would be.  The lie wasn’t too bad in the tyre track and I didn’t want to drop it, because it could have plugged in the dirt, so it was an easy decision.  But I hit it to the right.  I hit someone, which I didn’t know and I feel bad about that, I hope they didn’t get hurt.  But yeah, it was just a very simple question.

Q.  Then when you saw the ball rolling down the slope into a much better position than it was, what was your reaction there?

MATT JONES:  Yeah, that’s where I was trying to leave it on my second shot and then I was happy where it ended up.  I chose the wrong shot on my third shot, which was disappointing but I was happy for it to end up there, because I know the shot I had to play and I just played the wrong one.

Q.  Having won an Australian Open already, does that make it a bit easier tomorrow?

MATT JONES:  I’m sure I can draw on it.  I haven’t won a lot of golf in my life.  I’ve won Houston Open, won a couple of other smaller Tournaments and then the Australian Open, but it’s only four years past and I’ll draw on some of that experience tomorrow, of course.

Q.  There’s been a lot of work done on the fairways over the last couple of months, how did you find the lies today?

MATT JONES:  They’re good, they’re very tight.  The fairways are very firm and that’s why that shot on 17, I chose the wrong shot.  I know you can’t go high with anything here, especially short.  I should have gone low and I went with a 60 and the bounce on these tight fairways, I had too much bounce on my club to get under it.  But they’re totally fine.  They’re as good as I’ve seen them for a long time.

Q.  We were having a blue on the radio coverage about how long your putt was for birdie on 18, what do you reckon it was?

MATT JONES:  Three feet.

Q.  I lose.

Q.  It looked like it lipped in, it actually reminded us of the putt that you won the Open with.

MATT JONES:  It was definitely on the low side, yeah, definitely caught the low edge.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you, thank you for coming, hope we see you there tomorrow.

Q.  Would you have taken 1-under at the start of the day?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  Not really, I thought I was hitting it a little better than that, but clearly when I got out on the golf course it was a bit of a struggle, especially off the tee.  I’ll probably have to take 1-under, but a good start and then sort of just fell apart really.  But still probably only three or four back, so fine.

Q.  The numbers say that the front nine is the harder one to hang on and the back nine is where you make your scores, was it the reverse here today?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  Yeah, you still have to hit good shots.  I wasn’t hitting close to good enough shots to be scoring on the back nine, so it was always just a fight to get through the round, not make any more mistakes.  I got lucky with a putt off the green on 17, pulled a horrible lie in a divot on 18, so the last punch in the guts.  It was disappointing but I’m still in it, so just need a good day tomorrow.

Q.  Matt at this stage is 4 in front, could possibly go to 5 with a birdie at 18.  Is that too much?  What do you need to happen tomorrow?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  I think around here it’s not too much. You can really get it going around here if you start making a few putts, the greens are so good.  No, I think it all depends on your start.  If you have a good start and he just goes 1-over maybe through five holes, then different story.  I think it’s all on if he’s going to start really well and pull away from everyone, then it gets difficult, but I need to start well tomorrow.

Q.  Best of luck.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN:  Thank you.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Great finish, birdie on the last all ready for tomorrow?

PAUL CASEY:  Yeah, it was a flat day, I just never really got going, not much to really say, I didn’t do a hell of a lot wrong but when I had opportunities, I didn’t capitalise and there was obviously a couple of errors in there.  But how do you get around this course without making errors? 

So, Matt played fantastic golf I thought, really good stuff and if he plays like that tomorrow then I think he’ll probably be a bit too tough, because I’m too far back probably, but we’ll see.  I played a wonderful round of golf on Friday; I need to try and replicate that tomorrow.

Q.  Rare for good players to have poor rounds back to back – not that today was a poor round, but you expect them to have a hot round somewhere.  You had one on Friday, is there another one out there tomorrow?  Is there a low number in this course still tomorrow?

PAUL CASEY:  Well, Pampling’s done a 61 round here, hasn’t he?

Q.  A 64 today.

PAUL CASEY:  There you go.  Without question, there is, but you have to be precise, maybe a little bit of good fortune here and there.  It’s amazing, it’s just the little things and I think one of the things I struggled with today was just getting the wind direction right.  It felt like I was in between clubs a lot of the time and some days you just get that and some days everything clicks.  So, I’m not worried.  As I say, I hit some really, really nice shots today.  I just need the fortune to turn around.  The game that infuriates us, sometimes it gives back on occasions as well. Maybe it can give back tomorrow.

Q.  Last one from me.  The numbers suggest that the front nine you hang onto your hat and the back nine you can make a score.  Does it feel like that to the players and are we in perhaps for some fireworks late in the day tomorrow?

PAUL CASEY:  You say that, I agree with you about the front being maybe tougher, but then I birdied my last four holes, which was 6, 7, 8 and 9 on Friday, to finish off my round.  There are some other opportunities on that front side.  If you get through that front side at 2 or 3 or 4-under, you could have an absolute flyer.  What was the rest of the question?

Q.  Is the potential for fireworks late in the day tomorrow?   For us as spectators, to see perhaps a bit of a shoot-out.

PAUL CASEY:  Yeah, hopefully those fireworks are all birdies and eagles.  I felt for Dimitrios today, he hit a guy in the shoulder or arm and then it went in the water and then stuck up a tree on 13 or 12 or whatever.  You can’t make that stuff up.

Q.  No other game could do it to you.

PAUL CASEY:  No, brutal.  He handled it beautifully though, great attitude.  Hopefully those fireworks are positive stuff tomorrow and not negative.  Hopefully there are.  Matty had some great playing during the middle part of his round and the crowd got going a bit, but it feels like it’s been a bit flat.  We need something.

Q.  Thanks for the entertainment so far.

PAUL CASEY:  Thanks mate.