May 23, 2009
QUICK QUOTES FROM:
ROSS DRUMMOND
JAY DON BLAKE
BERNHARD LANGER
MARK MCNULTY
CHRIS STARKJOHANN
BRUCE FLEISHER
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
ROSS DRUMMOND
Q. Can you talk a little bit about today's
round. Was the course playing different than
yesterday?
ROSS DRUMMOND: As far as difficulty
you wouldn't say so. I don't think the course was
playing particularly difficult today.
As far as my round was concerned, I really
just lost it on the greens. And that just kind of
spilled over into my game.
Just had too many 3-putt early on. And I
lost it there. It was just some poor putting and then
just a lack of confidence.
Q. What are you planning on doing
tomorrow, you're only five strokes back and
anything can happen tomorrow. What do you
think you'll do to prepare yourself?
ROSS DRUMMOND:
Hopefully I can
come out in a better, just a better frame of mind.
It's not as if I wasn't in a good frame of mind today,
it was just as the round unfolded, I just struggled
on the greens for some reason. I don't know what
it was if it was focus or concentration, but I just
need to try and improve on that tomorrow and just
roll the ball much better on the greens.
Because the golf course is definitely out
there. I know the greens are difficult, and really the
3-putt I was having, it wasn't as if I was having
tough putts, I was just very tentative at times.
Q. Was there, was that the main thing
that was giving you problems was the putting?
ROSS DRUMMOND: I would say so. I
think the front nine I played -- I think I played fairly
solid. But as I said, I just threw away too many
shots on the greens. And then once you feel the
round slipping away from you, then it's just really
difficult and the decision making becomes difficult
and it's just hard to get it back. And actually I
scrambled a lot of shots on the back nine. I think I
had like five bogeys on the back nine. Is so it was
just a tough round.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
JAY DON BLAKE
Q. Tell me about your round.
JAY DON BLAKE: It was a tough round. I
felt pretty good just kind of couldn't calm my nerves
down. Because it just seemed like I was too far
behind up and kind of -- I thought I hit some good
shots and they all kept running through the fairway
into the rough.
And once you get in there, it's kind of
tough to kind of hit them close and I made a couple
bogeys, I bogeyed yesterday the same thing, 4
and 5, I bogeyed those two holes yesterday.
So I just need to get off to a little bit better
start on those holes there and then I start kind of
calming down and I started hitting a lot better
shots. So 17 was a little unfortunate. I thought I
hit a pretty good shot. If it would have stayed up --
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I ended up 3-putting. But other than that I needed
to make a few more putts coming in, because I had
a lot of chances coming in the last seven or eight
holes coming in and I never did. And I would have
been, I'm not too far out of it now, but I would have
been right there close and knocking at the door.
So I felt good about it, I just got to come out and
grind it out tomorrow.
Q.
Tomorrow you
1-under on the back nine?
JAY DON BLAKE: Well.
certainly
take
Q. Knowing where you are right now in
the top-10?
JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, I would. It's a
tough course, I'm sure you're going to put the pins
in some interesting spots, so I just go out and see
what I can do and I don't really like putting a score
out there unless something happens and you get a
few more birdies, you would hate to say, well I got
three shots cushion here, so I'm just going to go
out and hit the shots, execute the shots that I'm
trying to at that time and see if I can make some
birdies.
Q. Anything memorable about your
birdies today? Or were they routine as a birdie
can get on this course?
JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, birdied the first
hole from about six, seven feet.
Then the next birdie was a 2-putt par-5. In
fact I birdied 10 from about nine feet on 10. So
nothing spectacular, just, I mean I -- on 15 over
there, I probably had it maybe 10, 11 feet for eagle
and couldn't capitalize there. So that's kind of the
shots I had. I had a lot of opportunities, but just
couldn't get them to go in. The greens are so
quick you got to be so delicate. I mean you play
10 feet and you got to play, six, 10, you know, two
feet of break on some of them. I mean you're
trying to die it, so you don't have a whole lot of
speed so the ball's really breaking off and it's just,
it gets frustrating, but everybody's having the same
problems so.
Q. Do you think tomorrow with the
earlier tee time and finishing at three may make
the greens just a little more bear able as you
come down the home stretch?
JAY DON BLAKE: Well, it's going to help.
Because in the afternoon they get baked out, poa
annua starts growing, gets a little bit more bumpy,
so I don't know, with the weather, are they
predicting rain tonight.
Q. Not any more.
JAY DON BLAKE: I know they had a little
bit of forecast of it. But it's going to help. The
greens will be a little bit more receptive, they will
probably put a little splash of water on them tonight
and it will be a little cooler tonight so it won't get
too baked out too quick, so it should be all right.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
BERNHARD LANGER
Q.
Tell us a little about your round
today.
BERNHARD LANGER: Struggled today a
little bit with the long game, the swing, the rhythm
wasn't there, I was swinging too fast, I think, and
just blocking a couple. And didn't hit as many
fairways and greens as I wanted to and then
struggled all day somewhat with my long game.
Q. So that was the big difference, it
wasn't putting or?
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, I didn't putt
great, but I didn't putt any worse than the other two
days and just didn't hit the ball as good.
Q. What's your mindset now going into
tomorrow? Do you feel like you've got to put
up a pretty low number now?
BERNHARD LANGER: Yeah I got to be
aggressive tomorrow, I think, and actually as you
say, put up a low number and hopefully put some
pressure on these guys by creeping up the
leaderboard and posting a good score.
Q. Do you feel like with the earlier tee
times and the way this course is playing that
you might have a slight advantage going off a
little earlier?
BERNHARD LANGER: Well, no, a half
hour an hour is not going to make much of a
difference. It would be a difference if you, you
know, it was two or three hours earlier the course
might be a little bit different, but I don't think it's
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going to be a huge difference.
Q. So do you go to bed tonight with a
number in mind?
BERNHARD LANGER: No, not really.
Just going to play every shot as good as I can and
hopefully go into the 60s and as I said, post a good
score.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
MARK MCNULTY
Q. Tell us a little bit about your round.
MARK MCNULTY: A little better. I guess
the work paid off. I'm still not quite exactly where I
would like to be, but certainly there's a lot more
light at the end of the tunnel and believe it or in the
today my putter let me down a little bit where the
first two days it was magical. But thank God it was
magical.
So, I'm happy. I suppose if after the first
nine holes the first day you said I was going to be
1-over at this stage of the game I would be
delighted. So hopefully tomorrow will produce
some better results than today and we'll see. But
all in all I'm very happy.
Q. How does it feel to be in the hunt?
MARK MCNULTY: Oh, nice. I wouldn't
like to say I'm in the hunt. I've got a lot of work to
still do. But the course is there to be played and if
you can keep it in the straight and narrow then
you're going to get the dividends.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
CHRIS STARKJOHANN
Q. First of all, are you inventing a new
way of playing golf here? It's one par on the
front, five total overall, and yet still a pretty
good 72 I think it was.
CHRIS STARKJOHANN: 72, yeah.
Q. And still kind of right there in the
mix. What do you think about it? It's a tough
golf course to be such a roller coaster?
CHRIS STARKJOHANN: Well, it was
either feast or famine, I either hit it really good and
missed the putt or I missed the fairway by a little bit
and got myself in a little trouble and didn't get
up-and-down.
So really the only hole that I really made a
bad swing was the crowd got me in the middle and
I hooked it a little bit left and it went in the hazard
and I made double. So other than that I would
have shot even par with maybe six pars. So that
would have been really good.
Q. Talk to me a little bit about now your
expectations for tomorrow? I mean you're
right in the mix. You're right in the hunt.
CHRIS STARKJOHANN: Is four leading?
Q. As far as I remember.
CHRIS STARKJOHANN: I kept looking at
the scoreboard coming down on 17 or whatever
and it looked like there was only seven guys under
par. So, yeah, I -- yeah, I'm just, again, playing
each hole at a time, trying to make the best shot,
because some of these fairways I just, you have a
hard time visualizing where to hit it and what kind
of shot and I haven't done very well on a couple of
them.
And I'm just trying to improve on 6 and
maybe 5. 6, for tomorrow. I 3-putted 17 from the
top left there or top right. It was top right and I had
to putt it down.
Q. Even those pars some of those were
kind of interesting.
CHRIS STARKJOHANN: Yeah, I made a
really good par on 12. I made a good par on 18.
10 I made a great one out of the bunker and then
short left and I chipped out and made about a
12-footer there. So, yeah, I've been putting really
well for three days.
Q. Do you get more out of a round like
this where you salvage a score being all over
the board or is fairways, greens and 2-putts
kind of the -CHRIS STARKJOHANN: Well I'm going to
forget about today and just go back to try -- my
strength is hitting fairways and I drive it straight,
but here you drive it straight on the wrong line and
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you're in trouble. So you got to take the right club.
And I'm still experimenting on a couple, I
may hit maybe a 3-iron or maybe a 3-wood on 18
tomorrow. I may hit a 3-wood on a couple other
holes, but I got to hit the fairway on a couple of
these, because it's tough to make par if you miss
the fairway on 6 and 5 you can't do it.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
BRUCE FLEISHER
Q. Put yourself right back in it, haven't
you?
15. And then I birdied 10. I think I birdied 5. I-5 or
6. I think I birdied 5. Yeah. I birdied 5. Yeah. 5,
10, 15. And I bogeyed 1, and I 3-putted 11.
Q. Did you hit 15 in two?
BRUCE FLEISHER: No. No. Are you
kidding me? No, I hit driver, I didn't hit it very well,
and then I hit a 5-iron.
Q. To how far.
BRUCE FLEISHER: About a hundred
yards. And I made about a 15-footer after that.
And that was really unexpected because it was
downhill, the ball was humming, it was humming.
But probably my best shot of the day was,
well, two shots, the one on 18 with a 4-iron, and
then the shot on 10, I had an about a 195, I hit a
5-iron to about eight feet. That was probably my
best shot of the day.
BRUCE FLEISHER: Did I? I don't know.
Q. Well three back at the moment.
BRUCE FLEISHER: Really, three back at
the moment? Well a fun day playing with Joey and
them. I hit a lot of good shots. Didn't drive it well
today, not very solid. But I did keep it in front of
me for the most part. So that's what you got to do
around here.
Q. So going into the last day, assess
your chances?
BRUCE FLEISHER:
Anything can
happen.
The first hole has given me some
problems. I haven't missed a shot on that hole yet
this week and yet I'm 2-over. It's a funny game.
You never know what the nerves are going
to be like tomorrow. But I felt pretty good. Like I
said, I have nothing to lose, nothing to prove,
except to myself, so. Just going to try to play like
I've been playing.
I give up a lot of yardage and Joey is 40,
50 yards in front of me, it's frustrating in that
respect. Except he's 51 and I'm 60. So I got to
look at it that way.
But I like the golf course. And the good
part about it is that par is a good score. I mean
this just proves it. I predicted that 1 or 2-under
would win this thing and it looks like my prediction
could be correct.
Q. Go through your card today, if you
would with the birdies and pars.
BRUCE FLEISHER: Well, let's see. You
know what, that's a good question. I know I birdied
Q. Has everything worked this week?
Has there been one thing that you've really
done exceptionally well?
BRUCE FLEISHER: I've actually, I don't
want to step on my foot, but I've actually made
some good par savers. And that's getting it
around. That's good for the round.
Q. Do you really relish being in the
hunt tomorrow?
BRUCE FLEISHER: Oh, absolutely. You
know, what, sometimes it's nerve wracking, but at
this age, you know, you always fight your self
esteem, your ego, but that's what we're out here
for. When you're not in the hunt, then you go
home, honestly.
For everybody, you know,
certainly being in the hunt it gets your emotion up.
And it tests you, this golf course tests every
emotion you have. You know, I hit the ball, I kind
of slapped it around all day, but I held in there, I
fought it off. I kept my cool, I kept my composure, I
can say that now, you know. But as I say, I made
some par putts. But it was just a great testimony to
this golf course.
Q. You're how old now?
BRUCE FLEISHER: 60.
Q. So that's a testament to yourself?
BRUCE FLEISHER: Well absolutely.
Q. It's been a long time since you --
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BRUCE FLEISHER: It's been a long time
since I've been in this position. But I actually
played some good golf this year. I finished eight
one week, 13th one week, Top-20. So I'm feeling
more comfortable. The only person I'm scared of
tomorrow is myself. Well try to see what happens.
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