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THE GREENBRIER CLASSICJuly 3, 2014Jonas BlixtWHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA JOHN BUSH: Okay. We'll get started. We'd like to welcome Jonas Blixt into the interview room. Our defending champion here at the Greenbrier Classic, and off to another great start today, 6‑under par. Jonas, if we can get some comments on your round. JONAS BLIXT: I don't think I hit the ball as well as I did yesterday, but I got a couple of good breaks, and I hit a bunch of good shots that kind of ended up kind of close to the hole, and took advantage of my opportunities, and I also made‑‑ I don't know how many putts I made that was about 10 feet, and I think that was‑‑ kept the momentum going through the round. And I'm very happy about that. JOHN BUSH: Okay. Let's go right into questions. Q. This was a year ago. This might seem like a silly question, but at the same time, is there a bit of momentum carried over from winning this last year? JONAS BLIXT: I mean the conditions this morning was exact same conditions last year in the last round. No, I mean the golf course is in perfect shape, like last year. The greenskeeper should get a lot of credit for it. I mean it's very scorable. The greens are not very hard, and I mean if you hit the fairways, you can definitely attack the pins, and if you're in the rough, you can still hit the greens quite easy. And you know, just coming back, you come back with a bunch of confidence knowing that you won here before. And you really don't know what to expect, to be honest with you, but I think it helped me a lot after the first win I had and going back there, I felt, I think a little too comfortable, and coming back here you gotta realize that it's a new golf tournament, and you gotta go out there and play it and play hard and try to make birdies and try to win it. So you just start from scratch, and that's what I'm trying to do. Q. Jonas, you chipped one in on 16. You tapped the flag stick on 8. Talk about your day chipping and your short game in general. JONAS BLIXT: You know, I've been working a lot on my ball striking this year. I think that has showed‑‑ if you look at my stats this year, that I haven't been chipping or putting as well as I have in the past. But I worked quite a bit on it last week, and I feel like I'm coming back to where I've been before. So I'm very happy about today's round. I feel like it was a big step towards getting back into playing good golf again. Q. Jonas, do you like being‑‑ it looks like it's going to be another birdie fest at this thing again. Do you feel like it sort of fits you to get in that scenario where you just stay dead red? JONAS BLIXT: Well, you never know really. But I talked to my caddie about it, and on the first tee there was no wind, so just said to him I'm going to be really aggressive today, and he was like, yeah, I like that. Just go out there and make as many birdies as possible. And you know, I hit a couple of shots, and I managed to make up‑and‑downs on them and took advantage of a couple others. If I can get my putter to work the way it did today, I felt like I hit the ball on line every time, and it could be a really good week. Q. Under the circumstances, Jonas, the conditions and everything, how low do you think somebody can go today? JONAS BLIXT: I mean the wind is picking up a little bit, so that's going to make it a little more difficult, but yeah, no, you can definitely shoot a couple more under there. Absolutely. Maybe not 59 right now, but no, I really don't think I'm going to be the clubhouse leader after the first round. Q. How much of an advantage is it to have a morning tee time as opposed to playing in the afternoon when, as you say, the wind's picking up? JONAS BLIXT: Yeah, no. Absolutely. If you can go out there and play no wind, it definitely helps. You can attack everything and you don't really have to consider anything, but I feel like you never really know here. I mean it feels like there's weather coming in over the mountains, and sometimes it can probably be breezy in the morning and you know, be calm in the afternoon. So I'm not a weather meteorologist, but kind of sometimes it's luck of the draw, too, and you know, tomorrow it might be perfect again in the afternoon or it could be really windy. So yeah, we'll see. Q. That was four straight birdies around the turn. How important was that stretch and what was working for you at the turn? JONAS BLIXT: Just have to go back and analyze it a little bit. No, I mean the beginning of the round I got some good breaks, and then I was playing a little better around the turn. I had a bunch of good opportunities. I mean the chip kind of got me going, got me moving the right way, and then you know, you got 17 that you can really take advantage of, have a wedge in, and yeah, you have a couple of wedges really, except for 18 maybe. And it's nice to take advantage of those. Hit a couple of good shots there and then struggled a little bit coming in. Q. Jonas, you had a really nice threesome there, another champion of this tournament and the points leader. That certainly gets the juices flowing, I would think? JONAS BLIXT: Oh, yeah. No, you definitely‑‑ it's a lot of fun playing with those guys, and they know the golf course really well. I don't think Jimmy walker has finished, I don't know, outside Top 10 or Top 5 or anything the last couple of years. And Scott hit the ball great today. I think both of them hit the ball really good today, just didn't make anything. I think I got their birdies today. But no, they definitely deserved to shoot a couple more under par than their scores are showing. No, it's just fun to walk around there and see good shots, and you get inspired to hit good shots yourself, and instead of looking for pars, you're looking for birdies. Q. It's always gotta be scary to come in the clubhouse not necessarily your 6‑under is going to hold for the day, but it's always gotta be scary to play so well in the first round, because you see how other guys, they go low in the first round and then they struggle. How do you keep that from happening? JONAS BLIXT: Did you call it scary? Q. Yeah. JONAS BLIXT: Yeah, no. I've never been scared of having a low scoring round in the clubhouse. Yeah, but I know what you mean. You definitely‑‑ you need to back it up, and I think you go back to being comfortable and feeling like I'm in the hunt, I'm doing well. You might change your mindset a couple of times, but you know, I'm going to go out there and play aggressive tomorrow, too, and I hope I make as many birdies again and hope I can shoot four 64s this week. That would be hard to beat. So you know, sometimes you have good days. It's hard to have good days every day, so that's why it's so hard to back a really good round up. So wouldn't call it scary, but it's hard to have two of those good days in a row. JOHN BUSH: All right. Jonas Blixt. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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