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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

February 7, 2015

Harris English

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Harris English, tied for the lead. Harris, talk about a little bit of a difficult day for you today.

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, it's hard to play Torrey Pines and not be a difficult day. I got off to the start I wanted, striped it down the middle on 1 and hit it to about three feet. You don't get a whole lot of that at Torrey Pines. You got to take some chances and play really aggressive out here to have 3-footers for birdie. I played pretty solid. I got a little carried away with my lie on number 4 and I ended up making double bogey there. But I didn't let it affect me. You got to stay patient out here. That's what my caddie has been telling me all week. This is a hard golf course, this is one where pars are good, and don't compound a mistake with another mistake by getting frustrated. I didn't want the double bogey to get me frustrated and then to start pressing a little bit and trying to make birdies, because once you do that and you start hitting some crazy shots and the kind of shots that are pretty stupid out there and that's where you make a lot more bogeys. So I felt like I did a good job of maintaining my composure and playing my game. I feel like I had a good stretch there hitting the ball 15 to 20 feet a lot of holes and giving my putter a chance. That's where I'm going to play good. This place is put the ball in the fairway and give my putter a chance to make birdies. So, I'm pleased with how I handled myself today. I know 1-over par is never good on the PGA TOUR, but today it keeps me in the tournament. I could have easily pressed a little bit and turned that 1-over into a 3- or 4-over. But making putts like I did on 17 were huge. That's the putts that keep you in the golf tournament and keep your momentum going and that's how I did it. I'm coming off the day very pleased and looking forward to tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Questions.

Q. We didn't see 4. Because they were late serving lunch. But, anyway, what was your lie like and what were you trying to do with it?
HARRIS ENGLISH: I was fully expecting that ball to be in the bunker. And it ended up on the top of the rough, which wasn't very thick. I guess it's zoysiagrass or something. It was different than that thick ryegrass they have in the rough. And I played too aggressive. I thought I could turn that lie into a good break and ended up going at the pin and I tried to play it back in my stance and draw it into that pin and the rough grabbed a little bit, pulled it left. Felt like I was playing smart with the chip by trying to run it up the hill and it came out of the lie really soft and ended up checking into the hill and didn't come back down. So I had to putt it from the zoysiagrass, which I ran it probably six feet by and missed that. But that's the kind of stuff out here, you can't put it in those positions and expect to still play aggressive. I should have known that ball was in the rough and then played short right of that hole and taken my par chance and ran with it.

Q. You kind of addressed this earlier, but the previous three tournaments you played this year, you shoot 73 and you're 40 spots down the leaderboard. Do you enjoy this more?
HARRIS ENGLISH: I do. This is a lot different than say the Humana Challenge a couple weeks ago where if you have a stretch of six holes and then don't make a birdie you feel like you're getting lapped. Out here you're just holding on and you do make a birdie you feel like you're picking up shots on the field and that's the beauty about tomorrow, there's so many guys within three or four shots of the lead that somebody can get hot and move up the leaderboard with a couple early birdies and even that back nine means so much more because a birdie 15, 16, 17, means so much.

Q. I don't think you ever had the 54 hole lead or could he lead, how do you expect to handle this?
HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, it's not a whole lot different. I remember in Memphis I think I was one shot back going into Sunday; and my win in Mexico I was really close to the lead, probably one shot back or so. But I love being in this spot. This is why I play golf since I was 10 or 11 years old, this is what I want to be doing and this is why everybody on the PGA TOUR practices so much is to be in this position and I'm just looking forward to getting to tomorrow and being around the lead or in the lead with six holes to play. That's kind of always my goal and that's why I do it. So I'm -- I love the nervous butterflies on the first tee and especially when all the people start watching on the back nine. That's awesome.

Q. Coming out here how much of it is a mental test almost rather than a physical one, not feeling beaten when you first get out here, because you don't like the golf course or you know it's going to be hard, how much of it is that, that you have to come out here with the right attitude about Torrey Pines?
HARRIS ENGLISH: I would say having the right mental attitude is 95 percent of it out here. Yeah, you got to hit the ball in the fairway and make putts, but it's all about not getting down on yourself when you do make bogeys or you do hit bad shots. Because you got to realize that this is one of the hardest golf courses in the world. It has been for some time now. When they put some of those new U.S. Open tees a couple years ago, this golf course is a beast and you got to realize that. This is almost like a U.S. Open tournament. Yeah, the rough was probably a little higher and greens a little faster, but this is a U.S. Open golf course and you got to treat it like that.

Q. What you described that happened to you on 4, those are out there all over the place on this golf course, right? So, a bunched leaderboard like this, I assume you give quite a few guys a shot tomorrow at making a run.
HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, I feel like anybody five shots from the lead are in this golf tournament. That's what makes it so much fun. This golf course is going to come down to the wire every single tournament. That's what makes that back nine so fun. You got some really tough par-4s and you end on a great par five. Hopefully they will move the tee up a little bit where guys can go for it. It's going to be a great, very exciting day today many. I'm going to tighten some things up and see if I can bring my A game tomorrow.

Q. Before that double bogey you hadn't even had a bogey in the tournament. So, what is your thought process, knowing how tough the course is, are you almost thinking like it's coming, it's coming, or are you feeling like, I'm indestructible right now?
HARRIS ENGLISH: Well, I've definitely had some opportunities to make bogeys the past two days and I've made some good putts for par. I chipped in for par one time. So, you just got to hang in on this golf course. It's like a boxing match. You know you're going to take some blow, you know you're going to get your shots in when you can, but you just got to know that the fight's there and you got to stay in the present on every shot. You can't get complacent with, okay, I hit this fairway, this is an easy shot, I can go right at the pin. You got to still give some care to every single shot out there.

Q. At what age did you have your first formal lesson?
HARRIS ENGLISH: It was probably eight or nine years old, I would say. I worked with a pro in Thomasville, Georgia, Rob Little, who is now in Chattanooga. I saw Jack Lumpkin when I was younger, probably the first real official lesson I had when I was 12 or 13. But there were some other pros down in south Georgia, Bill Connelly, Chay Reese in Atlanta and recently Mike Taylor in Sea Island. So I had a lot of good guys to help lead the way and show me how to play golf.

Q. Jimmy said his first formal lesson was his junior year in college. What's your reaction to that?
HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, guys have different ways of getting in the game. For me, I played every sport growing up. I would go out to the golf course with my dad and he would film me on one of those old school cameras back in the day. I do want to go back and look at some of my first lessons as a little kid, because I know I would get so mad and throw clubs and the complete opposite of what I do now. So it's pretty funny to see yourself as a little kid and for me, I never really got technical in the game, even though I took lessons, it was from guys who were old school who were simple. We would have more playing lessons. I would go out and play with Bill Connelly or play with Chay Reese and we would throw balls in the woods and learn how to curve it around trees. He would throw us some balls in the rough and get it up-and-down. It was more of that instead of sitting behind a TV or looking on the computer screen about what positions your swing was in. So that's how I learned to play and that's how I love playing the game.

Q. When is the last time you threw a club?
HARRIS ENGLISH: It's been awhile. My mom really got into me when I was a kid about my temper. She really didn't care a whole lot about how I played, it was more about how I carried myself on the golf course. So I learned really quick that I got to play every day like my mom's watching. I don't want to make her upset and have to Yang me out.

Q. What's your most embarrassing moment as a kid?
HARRIS ENGLISH: I don't think I've ever broken a club in competition, but I remember getting upset at the Future Masters a couple times. Well, first of all, I wouldn't want my parents to watch me. I was so nervous around them. They would have to hide in the trees and watch me from behind trees. So it was -- I remember my temper getting the best of me when I was 11 years old at Future Masters, because every kid wants to go out there and win every tournament. And watching Tiger on TV, I felt like that's how I had to play. I had to play like him and I mean every kid, you get so upset, you feel like every shot is the last one you're going to ever hit and I've learned to watch guys like Freddie Couples is one of my idols growing up, Davis Love. So those are the guys I try to emulate my game after and to carry myself on the golf course like them. Because watching Freddie play, you never know if he hits a good shot or a bad shot. He makes an eagle, he makes a double. He's acting the same every time.

Q. Pat Perez ever on that list?
HARRIS ENGLISH: Pat Perez? Pat's one of my good buddies, but I would not, I probably would not teach my kid to play like Pat Perez.

THE MODERATOR: Harris, best of luck tomorrow.

HARRIS ENGLISH: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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