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VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 12, 2015Henrik StensonPALM HARBOR, FLORIDA Q. Is this a Valspar-inspired sort of look to go with the baby blue all the way throughout? HENRIK STENSON: When I entered the clubhouse this morning and I saw all the volunteers, I thought -- I guess I'm in the right colors today. It might be something else tomorrow but yeah, it worked out fine for that. Q. The same shirt as the volunteers out here. Did anybody ask you for directions today on the way to the course? HENRIK STENSON: No, it was fine. I told a few of the people to standstill. Q. This is your first round around this golf course, first time playing in tournament. Are you satisfied are you with the result? HENRIK STENSON: I'm very pleased with the score especially since my warm up was a little bit all over the place, then I got on the golf course and gave myself five really great birdie chances straight off. I managed to take three of them. Kind of a great start. And stalled and not too much going on in the middle of the round and I missed a few greens, made four up and down for a par, finished up with a birdie. Pleased with the score and the way I was keeping my patience and hanging in there. Q. What is the biggest challenge you face playing a new course in tournament conditions for the first time? HENRIK STENSON: I think first you got to have a good plan and my caddy was around on Tuesday, I saw it on Tuesday, walking around, and then play the Pro-Am. It's pretty straightforward. There's a few holes it's good to know some lines but it's not too much off the tee where you need to take on the corners and so on. It's straightforward and you should be able to figure out a golf course in a couple of rounds. So, obviously it seemed like I did. Q. Now you've seen it, does it fit your eye and how do you foresee the next couple days going? HENRIK STENSON: It fits my game. Normally when I'm playing well I'm a pretty strong iron player, and middle iron. You have anything from 4-irons to 7-irons here in the greens and five par-3s. Suits my game pretty well and I'm still going to go work on my game a little bit. I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with the way I played, but I'm satisfied with the way I finished my round. Q. Henrik, you said yesterday iron play would be crucial. How did you feel out there as far as your irons? HENRIK STENSON: I played some great shots early on. I had a bit of a poor warm up. I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to in the warm up. Once I got on the golf course I hit some great shots to start with and I could have started out with five straight birdies which would have been nice but I made three out of five and from there on it was yeah, not as good but I kept it in play and when I missed I missed in the right spots and that's key on these greens to be able to leave yourself an uphill hip and uphill putt. I did that. I scrambled four holes in a row, middle of my back-9 and hit a nice drive on 9 here, my last hole and good approach and made the putt. So, finished with a birdie, always going to makes that lunch taste a little bit better. Pleased with the day's work. I kept my patience and kept to my game plan and ended up pretty well. All in all, a good day. Q. What's your thoughts on playing on this course? HENRIK STENSON: It's a course that suits my game. I think it's a course where you kind of play a bit more defensively off the tee, lay back on quite a lot of holes and at least that's the way I see it, then you can hit mid-irons into the green. That's one of the strong parts of my game. It sets up quite nicely for me and if I can just, you know, keep on hitting fairways and greens I should be giving myself plenty of chances. Q. You're one of the bigger names in this tournament. Would you like it if some of those other big names were here, too, competition-wise? HENRIK STENSON: The better the field, more world ranking points it's going to be about. We've got a very strong field here this week. I don't know exactly how many of the Top 20 in the world rankings are here. It's a strong field. If you end up winning a tournament with -- like this, of course, it gives you that extra bit the stronger the field is. Still a strong field and a good tournament. Pleased to be here and hope I can continue to play well. Q. It was announced this morning they're going to pretty much tear up this course and kind of start from scratch a little bit. How much do you expect it to change or would you want it to change? HENRIK STENSON: I don't know. Like I said, it's my first time around here so I wouldn't be the one to ask. You know, be better to find someone who has played numerous times around here, but depends on what you're looking to do and what the reason behind it, if it's to give the grass kind a fresh start or if there's design things that you want to changes. There's always room for improvement on any course. It's up to whoever owns it and what they want to do going forward but it's a nice tract and I like that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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