|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 26, 2015Ben CranePALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA Q. Ben, 1‑under 69 in the first round, little bit of an up‑and‑down round the second nine? BEN CRANE: This is one of the toughest golf courses we play all year. It's in perfect shape but it's so nice to get to these bermudagreens because the ball just stays on line. But I played great today. Made a lot of birdies, and you're going to have to make a lot of birdies on this golf course in order to score because you're going to make some bogeys. You're going to drive the ball in the if you have and if you don't get the ball up‑and‑down from a hundred yards you're going to make bogey. It's a great test of golf. I know a lot of guys really love this golf course. Q. You played this course a number of times. Is this the common wind out here or is this an exception? BEN CRANE: This is traditional wind we see. It might have been quartering a little more, I don't know my directions exactly, but this is a similar direction we see. Certainly the Bear Trap there, when we get that into the wind, we get the opposite wind there, it can play extremely tough. Today the rules officials, they did a great job. They moved a couple of the tee boxes up. Like 10, it's like a par 5 but they moved us up a little bit. So they made some good adjustments so we can actually reach a couple of the par 4s. Q. With an opening round of 69, in these conditions with this wind, how good do you think 69 is? BEN CRANE: If someone told me you can have 1‑under par on this golf course before I teed off, I would have said that's probably four better than I'm going to play. I played great and made a couple key up‑and‑downs and some‑‑ one of the things that people don't talk about in the wind like this or whatever, you get some like 6‑ , 8‑footers for par and you get the crosswind going and you have to play like a ball over a couple breaks sometimes off the line you want to hit it. So it takes a lot of trust and I made a couple of those momentum putts to keep my round going. Overall the golf course is in perfect shape. I played great, off to a great start. Might have some weather this afternoon, so might get a little extra rest before we tee off tomorrow. Q. Would you say putting would be the hardest shot in the condition? BEN CRANE: I think so. You're dealing with grain. We're in Florida now on bermudagreens, which I love. So you have to take into account obviously grain, slope, and then wind. So it definitely is one of the toughest shots. Certainly controlling your distance into some of the wind holes, like 11 today, I had 215 yards away after a decent drive I'm hitting 3‑wood and the wind stood it up just perfect to 20 feet. That's a very difficult shot and that's one of the toughest holes on the golf course, I'm sure. Q. Expecting the wind to progress and some rain coming in, what kind of mentality do you have to have on this golf course to beat those conditions? BEN CRANE: This golf course, is put it in play. Distance is not a premium here. There are some long holes but the premium is putting the ball in play because if you drive it in the rough on those holes, doesn't matter how far down you've got it, you are generally not getting it on the green. But if you hit a short but straight drive in the fairway, you can always get on the greens. The premium over the next few days in this wind is getting the ball in the fairway off the tee, and you can score on this golf course. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|