Andrew Martin (18-under, 61)

On the impact of the eagle at the third hole

“I think I felt it was a bit of a bonus. It didn’t leave the flag – I hit a good shot – and I’d only hit nine shots to then and it was feeling pretty good. To play that shot was a bonus and to get through the first six holes at better than even par was a bit of a bonus. I probably felt that I had a couple up my sleeve at that point.”

On how he felt after chip-in at nine

“I was a little bit embarrassed. To be honest, I said walking down 10 that every shot for the eagles were awesome shots, just didn’t miss. They were exactly how I wanted to play all of them. It was a good thing for it to go in.”

On when he considered himself a chance of winning

“After eight when I chipped in there I thought, I’ve got to be close. There are a lot of scoring holes and Charlie has been playing quite good up until today so I just wanted to shoot a good score to be honest. Try and jump up the leaderboard and four eagles obviously helped that. After I holed the putt on 11 I thought I must have been right up there. Without having scorecards you don’t have it there to look at every time you open your yardage book and see your score. I was putting the scores in after each hole and putting my phone back in my bag. You can click the lederboard on your phone too but I decided to just keep doing what I was doing and then sign the screen when I got in.”

On birdie at the 72nd hole

“It was a bit more icing on the cake for the one on 18 to drop. I had 126 in and there was a tree slightly in my way for the shot that I like to see in there. The wind was into off the right so I hit a little 8-iron and tried to ride it in there with the wind. I thought I might have left it a little too far right but the wind brought it back for me which was good and then I had 12 feet for birdie.”

On leading into the final round of the 2019 Thailand Open and finishing tied for fourth

“I got off to a slow start with that one and when you’re leading going into the last round you know you’re dropping away from the leaders. Thailand got away from me a little bit but I thought I played the last four holes quite well, it just wasn’t my day. They say that when an opportunity comes you’ve got to take it so in that sense it was a little disappointing whereas this one I was able to take my opportunity.”

On any difficult times the past 15 years

“2015 was probably an average year where I didn’t have a great year and then ’16 I just had the pro-am status. But I still had the love for the game. I made a couple of equipment changes and then started to see what I wanted to see in terms of ball-flight. I’ve never really fallen out of love with the game. I’ve always wanted to do it and if I was ever going to stop playing it would be a hard pill to swallow because I still feel there is a lot I want to achieve. This is one little box ticked but there a couple more I want to do. It’s just good to show that my game is still there.”

On the emotions immediately after winning

“It’s still a bit of a whirlwind. To shoot 10-under, that’s still hard to get through my head, but mainly just the support of my family and my wife Rachel has given me to be able to keep doing this because it is tough in Australia to make a living here. I can’t wait to be able to get back overseas because I feel like my game’s as good as it has been. A bit of maturity and learning your own game, not trying to copy anyone else and do what’s best for you and how you perform.”

Charlie Dann (16-under, 71)

On how his round derailed after the turn

“Once I felt in control, that was probably the worst way to feel. Things spiralled for me at the eighth by hitting that chip into the grain and didn’t make the contact I wanted. I was also fighting for a par on the next, the par 5, which has been good to me this week. Things just went from there and in this game when you’re in a bit of a spiral times the pressure of the situation, it just kept happening and I was trying to work for a par. Very different experience for me for sure. It’s definitely called the bogey train for a reason; that train was moving and I had to make a long two-putt on 13 to rectify par. I kept fighting my hardest but I guess I can dig into that and find out what happened in my mind.”

On giving himself chances to draw level late

“I felt really nice on the last four or five holes. I had a really good chance on 15 and pulled that putt a little bit down the hill, that chance went begging, a poor pitch shot into the grain again on the next and just wasn’t as sharp. That’s what you’ve got to deal with when you’re facing all different circumstances. I’m upset I didn’t win but I’m not upset about my performance. Just a bit unfortunate today.”

On returning home to Sunshine Coast for Queensland Open

“My golf’s been trending on the up since the first event at the Super 6. I’m just going to keep knowing that I’m doing a good job out there and I’m not going to let a performance such as someone shooting 10-under to win get me down. I’ll move on and defintiely looking forward to it.”

Elvis Smylie (15-under, 65)

On his reflections after first professional event

“It was cool. Everything is still sinking in right now. Obviously I didn’t win but I felt like i gave myself the best chance at winning. I did all the right stuff, I was really aggressive coming down the stretch, there were no shots that I regret not hitting. I hit 3-wood on 17 to try and go for the green and managed to birdie that to feel like I had a shot, not knowing that Andrew Martin was going to come out and shoot 10-under. The fact he went eagle-eagle-eagle was crazy. I did everything that I felt like I need to do in order for me to win but at the end of the day it wasn’t enough. I’m super proud and happy of the effort that I gave this week. Nothing’s different from amateur to professional golf, you just don’t have an ‘a’ next to your name and you’re playing for money. Nothing changes. I’m excited for Queensland Open next week and then NSW Open after that.”

On responding after the triple bogey at 14 on Saturday

“The 14 tee shot I hit OB onto the range. I just hit this smothered draw and just completely switched off mentally. Times like that are going to happen, you’re going to hit shots like that and they’re not going to happen at a good time. It happened to me on Saturday in the third round and if I could have those four shots back, I would have been pretty close to winning today. I holed a lot of 40, 50-foot putts throughout the week though too so that probably evens it out. I’m not thinking about the negatives, I’m thinking about the positives and there were a lot of them next week.”

On how he will spend part of his first pay cheque

“It’s all new for me, I’ll probably shout my parents dinner. That should be a start as a way of saying thanks for everything they have done for me. Dinner with the family.”

On what 2021 looks like beyond the NSW Open

“My dad will be managing me for my career which is really exciting and there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that I don’t really know about. My job is to play the best golf I possibly can and then everything else will take care of itself. I can say for a fact that it is looking very exciting. It’s going to be a good year, I can tell. A lot of opportunities and I’m going to grab it with two hands and do as best I can with that.”