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RBC HERITAGEApril 18, 2015Troy MerrittHILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome our 54‑hole leader here at the RBC Heritage, Troy Merritt, 2‑under par, 69. If we can get some comments on your round. Tough hole there on No. 8, but you fought your way back. Just get some thoughts. TROY MERRITT: Yeah, I got off to a good start tempo‑wise in my speed. Hit a good couple drivers off the first couple of holes and the iron game followed suit, and made a couple quick birdies. Then just played pretty solid golf. I had a little bit of a tug with a 6‑iron on 8, and unfortunately watched it splash into the water. But it was a spectacular splash. I enjoyed that. I didn't hit a good fourth shot. I ground out a six‑footer for double. You don't want to walk off that hole making 7, when you're playing pretty solid. 6 was fine, knowing that I was coming up to 9, where I made a couple of birdies the first few days. And I was going to try to get the momentum back. And I was able to do that. I birdied 9. The tempo was good on the back nine. Pretty stress‑free all day. Would have been nice to make a couple more, but nonetheless I'm happy with 69. JOHN BUSH: You've got a three‑shot lead going into the final day. Just comment on your goals for tomorrow. TROY MERRITT: Keep it one shot at a time. It was great playing with Kooch today. He's very supportive. He wants you to do well. He wants you to do well because he wants to beat you, and that means he has to play well. It's always fun to play with a guy like that, saying, "good shot. Great shot. Nice up and down. Good birdie." I gave it right back to him. He played real solid golf today and got unlucky on 7. He's a true champion, he's a great defending champion, and I know he's going to put some good pressure on us tomorrow. Q. You were second I think in Memphis last year. Anything you can take from that Sunday afternoon to apply tomorrow? TROY MERRITT: I think it will be nice playing in the final group this time around.  In Memphis we were delayed all week, and we just kept the same groups from the third round to the fourth round, and I was in the second‑to‑the‑last round. It will be nice to see what everybody is doing, see what the guys in my group are doing, the guys closest to me. And just play solid golf. Put as much pressure on them as I can, and make them try and take the risks, and just try and play solid, make pars, throw in an occasional birdie, and make them come and get me. Q. Do you like the fact that they've moved the tee times up to the morning, so you don't have to sit around all day and think about leading a golf tournament, just wake up and come here and hit 'em? TROY MERRITT: It was nice this morning. I sat around, decompressed, kind of thought about what went well yesterday and how I could improve on a few things that didn't. And I just kind of not really worry about things. I did a good job of staying away from today's round this morning before we got here. I will say that it will be nice playing morning golf, not having to get up at 5 in the morning. 9:30 is a pretty good tee time, and I think that's the last group. It's a good morning round. Hopefully the weather stays away, like it has all week. We've been very fortunate. And we can play it out rather than doing a start‑and‑stop game. Q. You said yesterday that being up front is not new to you. You've been successful at the amateur level a bunch of times. Does tomorrow present any kind of mental challenge for you, not having been in this kind of position? TROY MERRITT: You know, it's funny you ask that. Last night and this morning I was starting to feel the fear and being afraid, like I would when I was an amateur. It's not a bad fear; it's the fear of being caught. And I think it's worked for me in the past. It's not that you go out and press and take chances. You go out there, play solid golf, take care of your business and you see how the other guy is doing. If you have to adjust your game plan, you have to adjust it. Just do what you do well and make pars and throw in a couple of birdies. Q. Did you draw on that at all today maybe after the double and your lead is down to one simply because the other guys were out super early and putting up low numbers again today? TROY MERRITT: Well, the nice thing about is when my lead went to one, at the time those guys were finished. So they weren't going to catch me today unless I came back to them again. So it gave me a little bit of breathing room. I felt good about my swing. I knew I had holes coming up that I could make birdies on. And I took the stress out of the back nine. I really didn't have to struggle for a par. I think I hit eight greens and had a kick-in up and down on 11. So I didn't have to work too hard, which is always nice. Q. The way this week has gone with an awful lot of low numbers, we don't know exactly what the weather is going to do, the wind could change that, obviously. Given that, do you have to be a little more aggressive than you otherwise would be with a 3‑shot lead on this course? TROY MERRITT: I tell you what, if the wind is down tomorrow, like it pretty much has been the last two days, and guys are firing on all cylinders and creeping and creeping and creeping, then you have to go out and attack the golf course a little bit more than you may have wanted to. If it's breezy‑‑ nonetheless, these greens are so small, even your conservative lines are 15, 20 feet away from the target, and you still have to put an aggressive swing on it to hit that target. So you still have to go out with an aggressive mindset, just not to an aggressive spot. Q. On No. 8 when it splashed, what was the first thing that went through your mind? Was it like, "uh‑oh", or was it "nice splash, let's go from there"? TROY MERRITT: Well, I know the 3‑wood didn't roll out anywhere. It just kind of kicked three or four inches to the left. So I was trying to actually figure out if I tugged it 20 yards or caught a little bit of mud and started out left. I didn't see any, so I'm going to chalk it up to user error. But just kind of get it out of your head. The tempo was good up to that point. I knew it was still there. My initial thought, was let's go up, and I could probably get a good angle from the left rough and maybe make a 5. So let's not make more than a 6. And after the poor fourth shot, I got in scramble mode, and I was really happy to make that putt. JOHN BUSH: Blue shirt yesterday, yellow pants today. What do you have in store for us tomorrow? TROY MERRITT: I got another blue shirt. Solid blue, but the pants aren't solid. But they're classy. You have to see tomorrow. As long as the rain pants aren't on. Q. What color yellow do you call those pants right now? TROY MERRITT: I'm a guy. They're yellow (laughter). JOHN BUSH: Best of luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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