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SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPENOctober 16, 2014Martin LairdLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Q.  Martin, nice solid round of golf. My first question was going to be a little different if you didn't make that putt at 18, but I see the smile on your face and it was like, finally, a little relief. That was a simple round of golf today. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, like you said, that one on 18 feels nice. I missed a bunch of opportunities on the back nine, putted great on the front and hit it actually better on the back than I did the front nine, just kept missing eight, ten footers it seemed like, and then I said to my caddie walking up the last, watch, this will be typical, I've just missed three or four eight‑, ten‑footers, and I'll probably make this 50‑footer, and I did, so it was just one of those days, and it was nice to see that one go in. Q. Everybody is going to make five or six birdies a day; it just happens. You stayed away from the mistakes, and it was effortless in that sense. You hit every green today. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, even my poor shots I missed it in the right spot. This golf course, even though you have to make a lot of birdies, there's a few holes if you go at the flags and don't hit a perfect shot, your chances of getting up‑and‑down are very slim. I've played here enough and kind of understand the golf course a bit now to know some of the holes you can just accept pars and some of the ones you can be aggressive. I did that nicely today, and hopefully I can keep going. Q. We always talk about patience on the hard golf course, but on the easy golf course it almost more comes into play because if you get on a run where you aren't making anything, don't be aggressive and be foolish and lose one somewhere. MARTIN LAIRD: Exactly. I just missed a short putt on 14, 15, and 16 is an easy par‑5, made par, and then missed a short one at 17. Even though I had wedge into 18, I said to my caddie, let's just hit this kind of long right and see what happens, and I ended up making it. There's a perfect example, the pin on 18, you've got wedge in, but if you go at that pin you'd better hit a perfect shot or you're going to make bogey or worse. As I said, that lunch tastes a lot nicer after that big breaker on the last. Q. Great conditions, and you took advantage of them. But I know you're playing well right now. We saw that last week. How would you rate this round today? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, it was‑‑ I putted great on the front nine. I hit it good but not great, but I putted unbelievable, made a few long ones. It was nice to do that on the front nine. And then on the back nine I kind of sorted it out and hit it really well and didn't make as many putts. It was nice to birdie the last. If I had made par at the last, I probably would have felt like I left a few out there, but I can't complain after making about a 40‑, 50‑footer on the last, so it feels good. Q. You won here in 2009, you lost in a playoff with Jonathan Byrd holing out. You've had great success here. Give me a sense of your comfort out on this TPC course. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I don't really know why it is, but I do. A lot of the tee shots just set up perfect. I like to cut the driver, and a lot of the tee shots where guys that draw it can't really hit driver, I can hit driver and kind of shape it with the hole. So for me, I like to just go out and play aggressive. It sets up for my style of golf. I like to hit driver as much as I can, and this is a golf course that allows me to do it. The greens out here are kind of tricky. You've got to play the valley a little bit and the strip, and I know a few guys with that, but for some reason I've always putted pretty decent on these, and as I said, I made a lot today, so hopefully it can continue. Q. Did you have a sense when you teed off today that you would put up a pretty good number? MARTIN LAIRD: I knew I was playing well, and I knew I was putting well. Just you never know what you're going to shoot. You know, I've been playing well recently, and came into a place that I like a lot, obviously. I feel comfortable on this golf course. You never know if you're going to play well, but I'm confident when I go out here. Q. You said at Frys you felt like it was going to take a little bit to get over that one. You were disappointed. What was that process like? MARTIN LAIRD: I did. You know, Monday ‑‑ Sunday night it wasn't‑‑ I probably wasn't in the best mood for finishing third, but you know, it was one of those tournaments, you have some weeks where you finish third and you leave, and you think, I'm really pleased with where I finished. That was one of those weeks I left, and I know Sang‑Moon Bae played great, but I know if I had just‑‑ I played average on the weekend. If I had just played solid on the weekend, it was my tournament to win. You don't get that feeling too often, so when you do, you want to try to take advantage of it. You know, Monday I didn't play, just had a travel day Monday, and then came out here Tuesday and did light practice and played 18 holes, and by then it was over. Once I got around this place and remembered playing here and liking this place, I kind of forget about the previous week and start focusing on this one. Q. How much does winning help in terms‑‑ every year is a different year and little subtle changes, but does having won here help to a degree? MARTIN LAIRD: It does. I mean, I remember you can still‑‑ we've got kind of sick brains as golfers. I can still remember most of my shots probably from 2009. When you win, you remember things like that, and if you're not playing great‑‑ I remember one of the rounds, I played the last six holes in 6‑ or 7‑under or something stupid. You remember those things and try to stay patient if you're not going great. Yeah, definitely just‑‑ when you've played well somewhere before, you know you can play well there again, and that gives you a lot of confidence. Q. Do you feel like the same level as 2011, 2012? Do you feel like you've gotten through a lull in a sense? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I definitely do. I mean, last year I just really didn't hit it very well, and my short game is better now than it was back then. I'm a better putter, I think, and I'm just more complete I would say from 100 yards and in than I used to be. My bunker game is way better. I've always said when I was struggling the last couple years, if I can start getting back to hitting it how I used to, I'll feel like I will be even better than I was because my short game is better. You know, I'm not far away now. It's hard to remember exactly what I was playing like, but I feel confident right now. I like where my golf game is at, obviously, and I keep working at it. I still feel like I can get better. My wedge game is still not great. I hit a bunch of pitching wedges from the middle of the fairway today that I hit to 40 feet. I mean, still tidy that up a little and hopefully keep getting better. But the biggest thing for me is I'm enjoying playing golf again. I mean, I really didn't enjoy playing golf last year. After playing well for four or five years, to have a year where you really just struggle all year, it's a long year, and you don't really want to go and play tournaments, you want to kind of hide away from it sometimes. I battled through it, and now I'm enjoying tournaments. Q. What was the toughest part about last year, the frustration of not being able to just play to your potential? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah. You know, when you play well, you kind of‑‑ you don't expect to play well, but you know what you can do, and then when you really are not even close to what your standard is at, being the previous four or five years, my worst year on TOUR was worse than my rookie year on TOUR. You don't ever want to have those lulls, but you know, a couple of guys out here last year said to me, you know, that's golf. Don't worry about it. There are ups and downs. Very few people get up to the top and sit there for 10 straight years. Hopefully I'm on my way back and keep climbing. Q. Guys are always trying to get better, experimenting and trying different stuff. Is that kind of like a necessary risk of the career, sometimes things you experiment with don't turn out how you think? MARTIN LAIRD: I think so. That's why I made the change trying to get better. You know, it's kind of a best of both things. I do things now because of what I worked on the last two years, I'm better at stuff now. I've gone back to a little more what I used to do, but it's better because of‑‑ because I made some‑‑ the big thing for me last year was a posture change, and that took a while, whereas now my posture is better, and now I'm back to swinging it a little more like I used to. All around my short game got better in the last couple years. It might have‑‑ who knows, it might be something that even though I had a year or two where I didn't play great, especially‑‑ or a year where I didn't play great, that maybe in the long run some of the things I learned from that, that I've brought with me, might make me be better three or four years down the line. I'm reaching the prime age for golf, so I'm excited. Q. Do you think the fact that as you're getting older, you're able to handle those valleys better than you would have had you been younger? MARTIN LAIRD: Oh, yeah, I was not very patient my first few years out here, and that was something that always kind of held me back a little. Even when I was playing well, 2010, 2011, I still was not‑‑ looking back at the times when I know I was getting mad, it's like, man, what was I thinking. But you've got to kind of experience it just to work your way through it. I think that just comes with age and things like that. It's not as easy for someone to tell you to be patient, but it's harder to do it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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