Andy tweeted “Not quite on it this week but lots of positives moving forward” after his T-25 in Abu Dhabi. Give us your reflections from the season opener?
Very rusty. Obviously, it is hard to stay at home for a month over Christmas hitting it into a mat. He likes to enjoy himself as well so we will let him off. It is difficult to get straight back into the form he was in at the end of last year but it’s good that he managed to shake off a lot of rust off towards the weekend especially. We saw a bit of the game we saw at the backend of last month so we are excited for the next few weeks.

What do you do in the days between events? A day off or all work and no play?
It used to be very much a day off and a bit of relaxing but Andy turned into Andrew recently and he is working hard, he is at the gym, not so much at the golf course. He is trying to shift a few Christmas pounds, still got a long way to go though…

How’s the boss feeling heading in the ODDC?
He is feeling great. He’s always wanted to win this golf tournament, he has come close a couple of times and he loves the course.

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And the Majlis, how’s it playing?
It is playing pretty long actually, a couple of new tees, the rough’s pretty juicy in a few spots and the rough around the green is quite big so I would say getting the ball on the fairway mostly and then the second shots are the big part of how well you’ll do this week. The greens are still rolling nicely so I’d say it’s more the second shots this week.

Let’s rewind to the caddie crossover piece you did with GolfTV last week, recording a six on the 9th at Abu Dhabi. Not the worst score on that tricky par-4 but did your caddie, Andy Sullivan, perform up to expectation?
We have an old saying: You are only as good as your player and I was awful so you can work out the rest!

A new appreciation for the pressure the guy you normally hand the clubs to is under then?
I was extremely nervous mainly because I haven’t hit a shot in six months and the last time I did, it was not very good. So maybe a warm-up would have made me have slightly less nervous. The appreciation comes when there are about 5000 people on the tee box and around the green but don’t tell him that.

Do you still play?
My home club was Wentworth but I haven’t been a member there for 14 years now. I think I got down to one at Wentworth itself and then went to a slightly easier club to get to scratch because I couldn’t get around a Wentworth. It’s a bit too hard!

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Sully’s 53rd in the OWGR, close to the tipping point. What the goals for 2021?
When we get to the top 50 it opens a lot more doors, especially over in America. As for goals we just want to keep doing what we are doing, focus on the process and the results will come by themselves.

Sum up 2020, the win at the English Championship, T-3 at the BMW PGA, T-2 at the Golf in Dubai Championship and plenty of other top results besides. 12th in the Race to Dubai…getting back to where Sully belongs?
I think 2020 was a learning experience for all of us, especially Sully. The lockdown did him a world of good, he really knuckled down, came out on tour hungrier for the game again. Stopped all the mucking around, got his head down and focused, he matured as well. He came back after a long, long break and he was ready to go and he showed it; getting 4th on the first week and winning after week three, it was very nice getting the win out of the mind. The only thing Sully wanted to do after a five-year wait was to win. You try and take the focus off winning by just doing what you are doing and it was really nice to get that one out of the way. As soon as he won, that was like weigh off the shoulders and more good results came. It was a great year and I am very much looking forward to this one and getting Sully back to exactly where he belongs.

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