THE MODERATOR: Delighted joined by the 2023 Abu Dhabi HSBC Champion Victor Perez. An emotional day, try to sum up what's going through your mind right now.
VICTOR PEREZ: Yeah, very hard to describe obviously. You start the day and 15 guys are within three shots of the lead. You know it's going to be a dogfight, and the course sets up for it. It was reasonably windy at the start. You get some chances, you have to take them, because once you turn, once you get to those exposed holes 13 and 14, and then you turn back into the wind, any birdie is a bonus. So you really have to take advantage of that first stretch.
You know, we were fortunate to play 2 downwind which made the hole short relative to early in the week. You had to get off to a good start, which I was able to do, but it was only half the job done and was able to hang in in the end, basically.
THE MODERATOR: You played extremely well but talk us through 17, that moment out of the bunker.
VICTOR PEREZ: I was saying, it's probably going to be shot of the year already. I'm expecting great shots as well. It's one of those, I had a bit of fortune because it was downhill to the hole but into the wind. So I was just like if it comes a little hot, it's probably going to stop out of the hole somewhere.
If I hit it a little heavy, my release, in any mind, I'm expecting Seb to make 2. I have to make three just to keep -- basically be square so I'm thinking, almost I might be down going into 18.
And then I was just trying to flight it all the way to the hole, and came up a little further than I thought, and then the spin back into the hole is just a massive bonus. Then he ends up missing his putt, and then you have a two-shot lead going into 18 which is ginormous, going into a par 5. Because now he obviously has to do something great, and I have to do something poor, which I did, and luckily he wasn't able to make 4.
THE MODERATOR: Like you said there were a lot of players within a couple of shots at the start of the day. What did you think you needed to do at the start of the day?
VICTOR PEREZ: I never really set myself a target. Like I never set myself a number because you never know. Like you don't know what's going to happen. Obviously I got off to the perfect start birdieing 1 and 2 and then making it as stress-free as possible and I hit it really close on 6, 2-putt 7.
So I wasn't feeling like I was doing anything special. I didn't hole a bunch of 30-footers to get off to a good start, basically, which I was happy with, and then I made a nice putt on 10. My ball was just past the hole and I hit an uphill putt which was pretty rare for that pin location.
Then definitely the momentum really stayed in my favour on 11 after a decent drive but rolls into the bunker, and then was just able to pitch out and hit a 9-iron again stiff to where you don't have to putt. It's just very difficult to hole putts when it's windy and the greens were fast. It marks down towards the end of the day obviously.
So I was able not the have to do -- the only putt that I really made was 15, which was huge after bogeying 14 to come back straightaway. It's very easy to bogey 14. You might not hit the fairway on 15 with the wind off the left. Now you have a flyer. You may not. You're thinking, just making par.
And Seb hits driver, 4-iron to five feet. I don't know how many birdies were on 15 today but in that situation after I hit my shot to 20 feet, I knew he wasn't going anywhere. It was great. Obviously very lucky to get away with it at the end with six on 18.
Q. Winning right at start of the season, it's a big year with The Ryder Cup, how does it feel to get off to such a flyer?
VICTOR PEREZ: Yeah, I felt like I had a great preparation. I had a really big break of work that I was able to do, which is difficult and rare to have time off. I think now the season is so packed. There's so many events. It's so hard to train. You either train or you rest. It's hard to prepare.
I was actually able to have a nice block. I decided not to play in December to focus on the season ahead with all the objectives that are coming up with the ten cards for the PGA TOUR. There is The Ryder Cup; there is so much going on.
Last week was a nice glimpse of where my game was at but again, it's match play. You have a partner that's going to help you out. Guido bailed me out many of times last week where it made me look good and all of a sudden you're playing your own. I had a really good single against Jordan on Sunday, which gave me some confidence, but again it's one round and it doesn't really mean anything.
To come out and put it together for 72 holes on a tough golf course with the wind, having played only one round with cool weather on Friday morning, yeah, I was delighted with the victory.
Q. As well as you played today, you will admit to it that fortune favours the brave and you were lucky at various points today which showed at 17 and 18. What are your thoughts on the luck part of it as well?
VICTOR PEREZ: I don't know, I feel like you make your own luck a little bit. I felt like after I birdied 15, and Seb birdies 15, I didn't really know where everybody else was at. But in my head I was like, if I can beat Seb, I'm going to be pretty close at doing something great. I can't imagine beating Seb and then not being in the playoff at worst. That was my mindset.
After we both birdied 15 going into 16, they moved the tee up which was a bit of a curveball because all of a sudden, the bunker is not really in play. In my head we were going to play from the back and I was going to have to hit driver, anyway, because the wind was a bit more north today than off the water.
Then now, the tee was up, and I still thought, may as well hit driver because I can make the hole short. I didn't want to putt too much weight on one swing with, okay, you chipped a 4-iron now, and now you probably have a 4-iron again to the back end and the green is really narrow. I was trying to make it a little easier on myself, and I was able to advance my drive in a good position, which I felt like was, you know, I'm always like that, and I think a lot of players are. I tend to be sometimes too aggressive in crucial moments because I hate to back away from shots. Sometimes it pays. Sometimes you die in flames, as we say.
Q. Obviously today has meant a great deal for you but how does it feel to be top Scot ...
VICTOR PEREZ: You don't have to tell me that with Bob's agent staring me in the face. Now you're putting me on the spot.
Yeah, I mean, it's great. I think it was a great event for me personally but I think European golf is in great shape and we saw it last week at The Hero Cup. I'm more happy with that than my personal.
Q. More seriously, how big of a contribution has it been living in Scotland?
VICTOR PEREZ: It's been fantastic. I've been living in Scotland six years, and living in U.K., the U.K. golf culture really helps my game. People live, breathe golf in Scotland. They are always supportive and want to you do well. They are not intrusive by any means.
I think people have a great deal of respect for professional golfers, which is really rare nowadays, I would say. Everybody, we're so approachable in a sense, because we try to be, but I think a lot of players will say, oh, when I go to my club, I have people coming up to me asking me for pictures or sometimes a lesson, and we're working. Even as much as it's a hobby for them, we have to put our work in when we practise and I think Scottish people for that are fantastic. They really don't mind. They are happy to watch you practise but they are not intrusive, and that's been great for me.
Q. You just said European golf is in a great shape. Now with the passage to the PGA TOUR at the start of the season, winning such a big event, does it change or elevate your goals for the end of the season to play the other tour?
VICTOR PEREZ: Ideally, I think that's everyone's goal. I think the Tour has done such a great job giving us the opportunity. I was saying, I think it's never been easier to get on the PGA TOUR for European Tour players because now we have those ten cards. You have all the Rory McIlroys and Jon Rahms of the world that are on list but are going to be taken out.
So it's really going to drop to, whatever, the 20th position and gives us a great category when you get to America and it doesn't have to go through that Top-50 world, which if you have a limited amount of points, forces you to perform or forces you to go to Korn Ferry finals which is very difficult to go through and then you might not have a great category. You might be called last second to play an event. And whether people want to believe it or not, when European Tour is playing in America, it's an away game in a sense. You might not be welcome and you might not be in a similar environment that you're used to in Europe, and you have to prove that you can perform and play well in big tournaments.
I think there's a lot of Europeans that are starting to break through and go over there. I think you know, you see guys at The Hero Cup last week playing very well, and then going back to the PGA TOUR. That's inspiring and something that I think we all want to do.
Q. 2019, you rose to 29th in the world and it turned out to be a good year. I know COVID was difficult for almost everybody in the world but what happened in those two years, and how do you feel about your resurgence towards the end of last year and started playing again so well?
VICTOR PEREZ: Yeah, I think COVID affected people differently. I think for me it was really difficult because I was riding such a high wave of performance towards the end of 2019 and the start of 2020. I finished second in Abu Dhabi in 2020 on the other course that we played last week, and it was just the momentum was really flowing. Get inside the Top-50. Every dream that you had as a kid to play in the Masters, to play the majors with the big crowds, and all of a sudden overnight, everything stops, for the better, and I think nobody is going to argue that what happened, it was terrible for all the people that passed obviously from the disease.
But the fact that it forced stops and the measures that were in place were necessary and allowed us to perform, and we only had a short break, basically, maybe four months before PGA TOUR was back on track with some regulations.
But yeah, for me it was very difficult because I went away to America. We couldn't practise in the U.K. for the longest time and then you go, and in hindsight, you still believed that you can perform, and I think every player in every room is always going to tell you, like, I think I can do it.
But when I look back now two years later, how realistic was it to go out to America and perform when you haven't played golf for four months, when you haven't practised. You're going to play against guys that know the course, that have practised; it's not a fair fight.
You know, I may have played with a bit of ignorance, but it was not like I was not going to go and play. So in that regard it was a bit of a slap in the face. You come back and it's humbling, but I think every career is like that. You're going to have highs and lows and players are going to play well, they are going to have good years, bad years. There are only a few outliers who are at the top for the longest time, and I think it's not realistic to base your standard at that, you know, thinking that you can stay in the top 5 or top 10 or world for 15 years. You might, but you are going to have to work very hard for it.
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