To read part 1 of the interview click here
How good are you at the mental side of it?
That is one of my stronger points, I learnt a lot with Jeremy but you still look back at the end of a week and there will be more mental mistakes than playing ones.
At the last tournament I started with a double and then had two birdies. The next day I started again with a double after hitting a shank.
I know I always hit one in my warm-up with the wedge and then I think ‘great, it’s out the system’ but I didn’t have one in the practice so I was waiting for it to happen.
The next day I holed my second shot so you never know what is going to happen!
You have a particularly successful record in qualifying for Majors, coming through three Opens and the US Open. What was your mindset when you topped the qualifying for Pinehurst?
I love the course at The Bucks so that was good and I didn’t look at who was in the field. You know that it is over 36 holes so people will get a bit tired and drained and I shot one-under in both rounds and just played steady golf. Then I came in and expected the scores to be a lot lower.
How hard was Pinehurst?
It is definitely the hardest course that I’ve ever played.
You had to hit a lot of fades and I was hitting a draw. If you knew before you would be able to prepare better.
The grass is cut into you so you couldn’t chip it very easily and you would have to putt or play a little rescue, it was so hard to get the distance right. On the final round of the men’s tournament we got to walk inside the ropes. We started off with Martin Kaymer and Rickie Fowler but there were so many people inside the ropes so we watched Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott – they were both really friendly. You could hear people saying ‘is that their girlfriends!?’
You come from a golfing family so how natural was it to get into the game?
Yes, my dad is a pro and I took it up at six. One of my sisters is a teaching pro and the other used to play for Wales, she got down to three or four but didn’t have the right temperament for the game!
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I was entering tournaments like the Wie Wonders at eight or nine, that really helped my mentality and you have to be quite confident to enter events at that age.
I then entered events like the Junior Wales Open at Celtic Manor and won that twice. I always felt bad beating my next older sister though she never felt bad for beating me!
My mum would always come with me to events and caddy as my dad was busy in the pro shop. They have been huge in helping and supporting me and it was great that they could both come to the US Open last year.
Did he coach you at any point?
He did coach me at the start and we got on really well. He is not too technical and he still has a look at my swing.
I am now coached by Robert Rock who plays on the men’s European Tour. He’s a great guy and will do anything to help. I was out in Abu Dhabi where my sister was working at the time and I knew his caddy and he introduced us, and I now go to his academy.
He also coaches my best friend on tour Kelsey MacDonald as well as Oli Wilson.
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