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THE BARCLAYSAugust 21, 2014Bo Van PeltPARAMUS, NEW JERSEY CHRIS REIMER: We welcome our current first round leader here at The Barclays, Bo Van Pelt. Your 65 out there included a good finish with a birdie on 16 and eagle on 17. Talk about finishing up what was already a good round today. BO VAN PELT: Yeah, I got off to a good start and I hit a real poor shot on 15, chunked a wedge in the bunker and I was able to get it up‑and‑down, kind of kept the momentum going. Hit a good shot into 16 off an awkward lie to about ten feet behind the hole. You know, 17, I hit a really good drive. The wind was perfect and it was kind of down off the right. I was able to kind of sneak it down the left side. Had a hybrid and came up just short. Pretty straightforward chip. I didn't catch it real clean but it was on a good line and it just kind of rolled out perfect. So made a nice par on 18. CHRIS REIMER: Talk about this course, fits your eye. Is it a course you like to play? BO VAN PELT: Yeah, the course I grew up on is similar. A lot of trees and slopey greens and bentgrass, obviously was a little shorter maybe than this one. But I love coming up here to bentgrass and slopey greens and stuff that I'm used to. Kind of takes me back to being a kid. I've always kind of loved this layout. I love Tillinghast designs. Yeah, it's fun to play. Q. Tillinghast have a course in Indiana? BO VAN PELT: No, but it was built in kind of the same era, like 1928, 1929. So has some similarities. Q. What's it called? BO VAN PELT: Forest Hills. Q. You're kind of the outside looking in as far as FedExCup is concerned. Can you talk about that and how you keep it out of your mind or do you use it for motivation? BO VAN PELT:  Well, as poorly as I played at the start of the year, I'm just kind of glad to be here. I was pretty poor, my golf was, for the first probably half of the year. Then felt like I played pretty well the last half and didn't really get much out of it. I had a good week at the John Deere and was in pretty good shape at Colonial with three or four holes to go and bogeyed three of my last four. Then last week, I played with Camilo and he won the tournament and I felt like I played really well on Sunday. Just didn't convert. So things have kind of been trending I guess in a lot better direction. So I felt fortunate to be here with the position I was in three months ago. So I just felt like if I kept doing what I was doing, hopefully I would at least get to next week and then kind of cross that bridge when I got there. So I was just kind of enjoying, my game felt good. I had two weeks off prior to last week and I ended up not going to Reno. Very seldom do we get two weeks off, and there's something special about two weeks off. You can take one week and really get away from it, and the second week you can get prepared for coming back out. I felt like I was able to do that, and so I felt really rested coming into Greensboro. And so to answer your question, I had not really thought of it. Once I knew I was getting here, that was a big relief with how poorly I started and I was just having fun with it. Q. Why don't you take two weeks off more often. BO VAN PELT: No kidding. I probably should I think. But I do a pretty good job of that. Sometimes even when I play week‑after‑week, I'll go home for a couple days, which that kind of helps me, too. I think when I get burned out is when I go week‑to‑week. It's weird, but I would rather travel and be home for a day and a half, two days, than just going to the next tournament and sitting around in a hotel. There's just something about it that I've always enjoyed. It was tough. I was kind of in that bubble position but I felt like I played good enough at John Deere that I was probably safe to get in here no matter how I played in Greensboro and I didn't feel like going to Reno. It was a good call on my part to take two weeks off. Q. As long as you've been out here and as steady as you've played over the years, does panic set in when you're on the bubble and it's getting middle of the season and you're kind of stinking it up‑‑ or playing poorly, sorry. BO VAN PELT: It's been a while since I've been in that position that late in the year where I wasn't. But I think the good part is, I have been out here long enough to where every year is kind of unique. There's some years you get off to a good start and you play bad for a while and you might play good again. Historically I've never gotten off to that quick of starts on the West Coast. I wasn't that nervous about it. I was just more, you know, I wasn't making a lot of birdies, and I felt like every time I hit a bad shot, I was making double or triple. So that's a bad combination. So it was just more of getting frustrated. I felt like my game wasn't that bad but my scores were pretty horrible. So I just felt like, man, if I could just get a little momentum going the right direction; and Colonial, Memorial, I played pretty well and I played good in the U.S. Open Qualifying, made the cut there. So it was kind of starting to go the right direction over the summer. You try not to freak out because you have been out here long enough, but it's not the best position to be. Q. What's your number now? BO VAN PELT: I was 104 going into the week. That's all I know is I was 104. Q. A lot of good scores out there today. Does this seem like it's going to turn into a tournament where you're going to have to shoot 15‑, 20‑under par to win? BO VAN PELT: You know, it just depends. If they keep getting a little bit of rain overnight each night to keep the greens maybe a little softer than they would like and the fairways a little softer where the balls stay in the fairway, that's huge help. Because as many doglegs as there are here, the fairways are softer; it widens them out for us a little bit, and the greens, you keep the ball on the greens. You know, there's 125 really good players here or 122, and a bunch of guys I feel like are playing well at the end of the year. Whoever ends up winning is going to have to play pretty well. And I've always said, I think a good tournament and a good course setup, a guy shoots 12‑under, is about right. To me, a guy averages three or four a day, 12‑ to 16‑under, I think the best players in the world should shoot there. Even a course being fair can be tough. So who knows, we'll see. I'm not good at picking winning scores. I'm the worst guy to ask. Q. The eight guys tied for second‑‑ BO VAN PELT: I saw that the lead was five at one time, I kind of looked up. And I think that it goes back to, it was just a little softer probably today. I know they didn't get a ton of rain last night but even just a little bit helps. And if you drive it in play, there's enough short irons that guys can get at a few. I think pin placements will get a little tougher over the weekend, and it just makes it more penal if you go at those pins and don't come off. I think that's the genius of a golf course like this when you have a lot of slope like that. It will tighten up a little bit. You look at historically most TOUR events, whatever is leading after 36 holes, it doesn't double. It always comes back a little bit. Q. Is there anything about your game that's different in the second half of the season than the beginning? BO VAN PELT: You know, I'm probably driving it a little bit better. I went to the Armlock putting and Tampa was the first week I did it, and it's probably helped steady me a little bit. I think I have one or two days where I've gotten real hot with it. I might not get as hot with it but I don't think my bad days are as bad. So I think that's probably the thing. It's been a little bit more consistent. And I think my golf swing, I've gotten into just some sloppy habits and it's taken a while to get out of those, and so I've hit more fairways and more greens, and I think when I've hit more greens, I've started to hit the ball a little closer if that makes sense. I was hitting a bunch of greens early in the year but I was a long way away. If you're hitting it 30 feet, you're not going to make too many. Q. Staying out of the rough today‑‑ BO VAN PELT: That's key, and when you get a short iron in, take advantage. There's a couple holes if you hit drive, you know if you have wedges or sand wedges in, you have to get those because there's enough long, tough holes or holes where you might hit it in the rough that you're going to struggle to make par. CHRIS REIMER: Did you do anything noteworthy in your two weeks off? BO VAN PELT: My nephew is going to college this weekend to play golf, and so he came out and we worked a little bit. Made me get out and practice a little bit. I went striper fishing on Tuesday so I caught some fish in the east river, so maybe that was my good luck charm this week. Q. Where is he going to school? BO VAN PELT: IUPUI, Indiana. Q. What East River? BO VAN PELT: Here. Q. I hope you didn't eat. BO VAN PELT: No. (Laughter). Q. Were they glowing or anything? BO VAN PELT: No, it was fun. Q. Have you ever fished in the East River? BO VAN PELT: No. Never thought I would, either. A buddy of mine invited me, so I was like, I've got to take you up on that. I've got to check this out. Q. On 17, what did you hit? BO VAN PELT: Hit a good drive, kind of around the corner. Hit a really good look. Had a good yardage for my hybrid. Came up just short. Had a real simple chip. Caught it just a little thin but it rolled out nice. I thought I left it two or three feet short and it just kept rolling. I couldn't believe it. I told my caddie, I said, I couldn't hit it like I want to; I would have probably hit it six feet past. That was one of those you kind of get away with. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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