Ross
Fisher will be aiming to become the first player since English compatriot Lee
Westwood nine years ago to successfully defend The European Open title when the
tournament returns to The London Golf Club in
Fisher held off the challenge of Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell at the Ash
venue last year and completed an emphatic seven stroke victory, despite
contemplating withdrawing from the event at the beginning of the week due to
fatigue.
Fisher, who uses a Titleist 905R driver, Titleist 659MB irons and Titleist Pro
V1x balls, is keen to repay the loyal home galleries with a strong defence of
his crown.
“It’s going to be tremendous to go back to The London golf clubs to defend my
title,” said Fisher, who is based at Wentworth Club.
“Hopefully I can put in a strong performance and make a good defence. It
would be great to follow in the footsteps of someone like Lee and successfully
defend the title but to do so I will need to play really well because it will
be another very strong field. I will have to be on top of my game.
“The course suits my eye though. To shoot a 63 in the first round, having
not seen the course before, shows that. I had a lot of family and friends there
last year and I think quite a few more will be coming down again so I’m really
looking forward to it.
“There was a tremendous amount of support for me and to win in front of a
home crowd was amazing – it was such a great week,” he said.
“It’s always nice to do well in your home country. To win is always a
massive thing on The European Tour but to win The European Open was even more
satisfying because it was against such a star studded field and because of the
manner in which I did it. It was a tremendous achievement.
“To beat Sergio by seven shots is some achievement and I played some great
golf with my golf equipment that week. It was
probably the closest to perfection I’ve been with my game.
“It almost didn’t happen because I was quite tired at the start of the
week and I was close to pulling out but with it being so close to home I
decided not to. I went to Wimbledon on the Tuesday to watch the tennis and
didn’t play a practice round so I didn’t expect much but I had a remarkable
start with the course record and just went on from there. It sounds incredible
when you’ve won by seven against such a strong field but I feel like I could
have won by even more.”
Fisher followed his European Open title by finishing sixth on 2008 money list
and came close to landing another title when he was involved in a three-man
play-off in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews in October.
The 32nd edition of The European Open will be staged at The London Golf Club, close
to Brands Hatch in North Kent, for the second consecutive year after
successfully returning to
last year for the first time since 1994 following 13 years at The K Club in
