What they said: Ross Fisher

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MORE INTERVIEWS: Accenture Match Play Championship transcript archive

Q. Obviously not the result you were liking for today, but it looked like a great match. And I think you entertained the crowd. Your first visit to the Match Play. Just give us your thoughts on the match today. You were 2-up early and obviously it was pretty dramatic at the end.

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, obviously it was going to be another tough match. Stewart's a great competitor, and his match play record in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups is obviously very strong, so I knew it was going to be a tough game.

And it's always tough to try and get up for a third or fourth place playoff. But there's a lot of World Ranking points at hand and a big difference in cash. So you got to try to get yourself up for it. I felt quite up for it.

He got off to a very quick start, and just in the middle part, he maybe -- I maybe gave him a hole on the par-3. And then kind of from maybe I think it was the 9th, 9 through 13 I felt like I hit four really, really world class golf shots.

And 9 it pitches and stopped dead. So I gave him a hole there. And 10 I hit a great shot in there. It was maybe a yard, probably not even that, probably a foot left and it rolls back and it's stone dead.

Same thing on 11. And then he hits 5-iron on 12 and I hit 6 and instead of pitching into the ridge it goes over the green.

Q. Did you feel like you just never got your momentum back?

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I felt like I was hitting good shots and it was just getting so frustrating for myself. And we thought we hit four quality golf shots, and I think we lost two holes out of it, where a yard or two either way I could have won all four holes. But that's match play and it's fine margins, but I gave it my best, gave him a big fight.

I got it back to all square and then got it to 1-up and then unfortunately he birdied 16, and fortunately I stuffed it in there on 17. So I expected him to hole that and go up the last.

And it's probably one of the poorest swings I've done all week. And it kind of -- well, it kind of cost me, but I hit a great third in there and I had a 5-footer, and you kind of don't expect him to hole the bunker shot, but you kind of do. And he produced a great golf shot and it was under pressure when he needed it.

Q. Did you exceed your expectations on your first trip to the match play?

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. I wasn't coming here just to compete, I was coming here to compete and win. I felt like I was good enough to compete with these guys. My game was getting stronger and stronger every single match.

And it's probably the best I've swung the club for a long time. I felt like I hit the ball so good this week. And I think the worst score I had was probably my first game was 2-under. I was about 7-under against Pat, and maybe six or seven against Jim and maybe six or seven against Justin.

So there was some really good golf out there. So I can walk away with my head high and very, very pleased, but at the same time slightly disappointed. But to finish fourth and to be disappointed, there's a lot of positives to take out of the week.

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