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FRYS.COM OPENOctober 10, 2014Martin LairdNAPA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Okay. We'd like to welcome Martin Laird into the interview room. Second consecutive 5‑under par 67. Martin, continued your good play today. If we could get some comments on your round. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. A little different today. I didn't drive the ball as well today, but I putted really well. Yesterday I putted nicely, didn't feel like I made a lot, but today I felt like I kind of rolled in a few, two or three bonus putts from 30 feet or so. But generally, again, solid round, I think only one bogey, so obviously very happy to follow up my first round with another one this morning. THE MODERATOR: Take us through that stretch in the middle of your round, the birdies on 8, 9, 10 and 11. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. I was a little‑‑ I made a bad bogey on 6, so that was nice after that, and then a nice up and down on 7, which was kind of a big momentum thing. And then No. 8, I'm trying to think of the golf course now. No. 8, oh, yeah, No. 8 was the one short par‑4 up the hill, and I had a nice shot in there to about 10 feet and made that one. And then No. 9, you know, it's a reachable par‑5, and I think it was the only fairway on a par‑5 I hit today. Managed to get that just in front of the green and get it up and down. No. 10 was an example of what I was seeing. I drove it in the left rough, kind of in the middle of the green and made a nice putt from there; and No. 11 the pin was tucked on the par‑3, and again, just kind of hit it in the middle of the green where it was a safe play and I think made about 25, 30‑footer there, so it was nice to make a couple of those putts in a row, and to make four in a row is obviously very nice. THE MODERATOR: And then the birdie on the last, take us through that. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. As I was just saying, I drove it in the right bunker on the last. I had to lay up, tried to lay up to 80 yards and laid up at 78. So it was nice to go down there and hit a nice little wedge shot in there to about three feet and made that. Kind of hacked my way up 16, another par‑5, and []holed about a 10‑footer for par, so it was nice to birdie one of the last two par‑5s. THE MODERATOR: All right. Great. Questions for Martin. Q. Does this course suit your style of play? I mean 67, 67 is real nice. You've been working hard‑‑ I was reading the press notes from yesterday ‑‑ on your game. Does this kind of suit your eye playing out here? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. When I played on Tuesday, I liked the golf course right away. You know, I think it does suit my game because the greens are getting kind of firm, especially in the afternoon. And with the course not being the longest golf course to play, there's some tight pins on the front of the greens that some guys just can't get to if you don't hit it high. And you know, I hit it high. So coming in with mid irons, coming in landing soft is definitely a big advantage as opposed to maybe hitting a slightly longer club and coming in a little flatter. And also there's two or three‑‑ I like to cut the driver, and there's few holes that set up just perfect for cutting a driver, and then I like to draw my 3‑wood and there's kind of two or three holes where I would hit 3‑wood anyway. They're right‑to‑left holes. So yeah, as soon as I played here on Tuesday, I liked the golf course. It sets up good for me, and hopefully I can continue. Q. You already commented on this, but just the fact you had your first bogey of the tournament on 6 and rebounding after the next par and then you had four straight birdies. Just rebounding from that bogey, I mean everybody bogeys once in a while, but still, you know, to come back from that quickly like you did. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. I mean 6 was‑‑ you know, it was a bad bogey. I just didn't have very good tee shot in the fairway bunker, and I didn't hit a very good shot from there. You know, decent bunker shot and missed the putt. I'd say the next hole was the big hole. I missed the green on the par‑3. It was a tight little pin, and I didn't have very good lie on the rough and I chipped it to, I don't know, 7 feet maybe and I had a kind of downhill break and 7‑footer. And normally no bogey up to that stage. If I'd gone back‑to‑back bogeys, I wouldn't have been really happy. So to make that one was kind of a nice one to see go in, and then to run off four in a row after that obviously was nice. So I'd say the par putt on 7 was a big one for me because if I'd have made back‑to‑back bogeys, I'm not saying my game would have been downhill, but it maybe would have been a little bit of a shock. Q. You talked about last season talked about switching coaches and then going back to Ronnie McCann maybe and just the changes he might have made throughout last season. Was the seven weeks off a time where you really got to work on some stuff and get into form? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. You know, struggled last season, as I said, and then I switched back to Mark McCann, and would have been before I went over‑‑ before I went over and played Scottish Open, so about the time of the Open championship. And then just started working on some things. There was a couple of little bad habits. I'd go in, just started working on some things we used to work on, and right away saw results, started to turn around. And then kind of kept that going. Gradually played better at Canada and Reno and Wyndham. Every week I started to feel like I was playing better; I was getting a little more comfortable. And then over the seven weeks I had my coach come up to Charlotte a couple of times and we did some work then, but when he came up, I mean we really worked on short game. He came up, and I was hitting it good. My swing was looking good like it had at the end of the regular season last year. So I think that was a good thing. I probably worked more on my short game in the last month than I have in a long time, and I've definitely seen it this week. I'm putting good, and my wedge game, especially. My wedge game was pretty bad last year, and we really worked on that, and my shot on the last‑‑ it's nice when you do the hard work and then you hit wedge shot on the last hole to tap‑in range almost. It makes it worthwhile. Q. The first stuff in June, July was ball‑striking stuff? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. When I first switched back, yeah. I like to see the ball left to right, predominantly. I'm not fine on missing it left, and I'd just been missing it left too much all year, and we really just got back to getting my swing in a position where I don't really ever miss it left, or not that often. And then I felt like I could kind of free myself up and play a little more aggressive when I wasn't worried about the left shot. And that was really the first two months when we were back together working on that, and then it kind of all fell into place and it's just been short game. Q. With the weather having changed overnight, did you have to fight to get that score today because of this fog and marine layer? Did the ball fly as far as you wanted it to go? Did you have to gut your way through this round today? MARTIN LAIRD: It definitely was playing longer. I mean the first hole yesterday I hit sand wedge in; today I hit 8‑iron and that's a pretty big difference in one day when there's no wind. It's not really that wind difference. So yeah, the first maybe six holes it played a little longer. But after that the ball started going again. I mean not as far as yesterday, but it started going pretty good, and it was, you know, definitely a little different, but I mean this morning the greens are perfect, and there's not a breath of wind. So it's really ideal scoring conditions. Q. You mentioned something interesting, the first six holes. Are those the toughest six holes in a stretch on this golf course? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, I don't know if I've played the course enough to work out what the toughest stretch of holes are yet. You know, the whole golf course is good. It's what's great about this golf course is every single hole‑‑ I mean holing No. 4 is a short little hole. It's a 3‑iron and 9‑iron for me, but it's one of the hardest hole out here because the greens are so severe. And I like that about a golf course where you gotta think about where your miss is going to be if you're going to miss it as opposed to just picking dead aim all the time at flags and firing away. You know, it's just a tricky little golf course. If you get it in the wrong spot, it's very hard to get it up and down or to get it close to the flag, so you've gotta kind of ‑‑ even if you miss it in the rough, if you miss it on the right side of the fairway, you're okay. That's what I like about it. You gotta think about your way around this golf course. Q. You mentioned the greens complexes. Are they unusually small for you guys on this big tour? Are you used to bigger greens, bigger landing areas? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, there's a few that are small. I wouldn't really say I've noticed the greens being that small. Most of them are decent size. You know, there's two or three, like the No. 4 is pretty small. No, I wouldn't say it's really the size. It's more the severity of the slopes on some of them. They play very small. There's some greens that are 35 yards deep, but there's only really five yards of green that you can put a flag on. They're so severe. No. 3 is a perfect example of that. There's been only two or three pins on that green, even though it's a big green. So they play small. It's small targets on some of them to get it close, but in terms of actual sizes, I wouldn't say they're overly small. Q. How motivating was it for you to see what the Europeans did at the Ryder Cup especially doing it in Scotland? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I mean I watched. You know, I didn't see too much with the time change, but I watched, and it's obviously nice to see the Europeans play well. It was bittersweet in terms of I would have liked to have been there in Scotland, but that's okay with me. And it's‑‑ you know, it was just fun to watch a Ryder Cup in Scotland and how much the crowds and everyone got into it. In talking to a few of the guys that played on both sides this week, they all said they had a great time. It was a great venue and it was a good spot and a good week. So it was great that it was back in Scotland, and I know everyone that was there loved it. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? All right. Martin Laird. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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