TRANSCRIPT | Michael Hendry, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4 - PGA of Australia

TRANSCRIPT | Michael Hendry, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4


Michael Hendry, 2019 Australian PGA Championship, Round 4

Q.  Michael, obviously a bad break there on 17 (inaudible) the trees?

MICHAEL HENDRY:  Yeah, that’s always a risk because that big tree always comes into play.  You’ve just got to try and skim it basically, otherwise you end up over the back.  I just tried to hit the shot and I did, just flicked the top of the tree.  Then obviously got (inaudible) but that’s golf.

Q.  You weren’t expecting it to (inaudible)?  

MICHAEL HENDRY:  Not quite as deeply as it did, no.  There a lot of sand out there on the face of the bunker and it is what it is.  I’ve had that sort of thing happen before and I’ll have it happen again.  It’s golf.

Q.  Talk us through this morning when you were heading to the range and you weren’t too sure about how you would fare on the first tee.  How was the warm‑up?

MICHAEL HENDRY:  The warm‑up was terrible.  I honestly thought I wasn’t going to get through the round.  So quite honestly, my goal today was just get through 18 holes and finish the event regardless of what the score was.  Lo and behold, I hit it really well. 

It was painful all day and I just kept trying to basically man up and hit the shot.  Maybe that was the thing that I needed to take my attention away from what was happening on the golf course.  It was more about trying to make good swings under a little bit of pain, and I made a lot of good swings.

Q.  You’ve won tournaments before.  How did today, the atmosphere and things, was it different at all to the New Zealand Open or playing in Japan?  

MICHAEL HENDRY:  Yeah, it was a little bit different.  I’ve never been in the situation physically and been in contention at the same time as today, so like I said, it was an odd one for me today.  I kind of ‑‑ like I say, anything above and beyond 72 holes to me was a bonus today, and to go out and shoot 69 in pretty tricky conditions, just get through (inaudible).

Q.  Did you have a look at the leaderboard?

MICHAEL HENDRY:  Yeah, yeah.  I look at leaderboards, I know what’s going on.  If you want to win tournaments, I think you’ve got to know when you’ve got to push the button to attack and when you can be defensive.  So I was very aware as to what was going on. 

Like I said, I’m pretty happy with the way I played considering physically what was going on.  It’s a shame that I didn’t end up winning, but when you’re not 100 percent and you’re trying to chase down one of the best players in the world, you’re up against it.

Q.  Tee shot at 15, were you concerned that with the rib pulled you might pull the shot?

MICHAEL HENDRY:  Well, it seems to be the scenario when it hurts, I pull it because I can’t rotate through the shot as I want to.  So yeah, and after hitting that exact shot yesterday in the water I was a little concerned about that.  I just thought just make sure you at least give yourself a chance at birdie.  If I blasted it out to the right, so be it because I probably got a chance to (inaudible) for three.  I stood out there, tried to hit a good shot and just sort of I suppose over‑corrected.


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