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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 12, 2015Ben MartinCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Ben Martin into the Interview Room here at the Wells Fargo Championship, making his 3rd start at this event. He's coming off of a tie for 4th place last week at The Players Championship. Ben, nice showing last weekend. If we can just get some comments on the state of your game. BEN MARTIN: Yeah. Last week first time at The Players Championship so even though I had played the course 9, 10 times before, I was comfortable there but still first time playing in a tournament you don't really know what to expect. So I was very pleased to put together four good rounds and four rounds under par, I was -- showed some consistency throughout the week which was nice and, you know, I guess the final round I felt was big for me just because I -- first time being there, I didn't put too much pressure on myself. I was comfortable, I was relaxed. So I think for me it was a sign that my kind of career is moving in the right direction, my season is moving in the right direction and I'm getting comfortable in that situation. JOHN BUSH: Back at Quail Hollow for the third time. Comment on this course and how it suits your game. BEN MARTIN: This is pretty much and even though I live in Greenville, South Carolina we're not in South Carolina but this is the closest event to Greenville, an hour and a half down the road. It's pretty much my home game on the PGA TOUR and played the event twice. This is one of my favorites event. Most tournaments where I can drive to I enjoy but the crowds are big, the tournament gets a lot of support in Charlotte so almost has kind of a Major feel to it a little bit and I mean the PGA is going to be here in a couple years. The course is obviously good enough to host a Major and Presidents Cup coming up, great city and crowd and looking forward to the week. JOHN BUSH: Questions. Q. Had you come to this tournament previously as a fan or did you try to get in through sponsor exemption or anything prior to playing here the first time? BEN MARTIN: The only tournament I grew up going to, I grew up in Greenville. Little south of Greenville, was the Masters, like an hour from Augusta. I may have gone to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst or the PGA in Atlanta. I went to those two events. I never came to a normal PGA TOUR event, and sponsors exemption-wise, I think -- I got my card right out of Clemson so I had status my rookie year. I can't exactly remember if I was right on kind of the border of getting in out of that category and they were going to give me a sponsor exemption if I wouldn't have gotten in. I think I got in on my number. Q. You did. BEN MARTIN: I did. I probably have a better relationship with the people at the club here. I still work with Charles Frost, he was formerly assistant pro here. I came up from 2012 to 2014 to get lessons from him so I have good relationships here and an event that I look forward to throughout the year. Q. Ben, you did play really well last week. Were you a little surprised by that being the first time you played at Sawgrass as far as the tournament? BEN MARTIN: You know, expectations-wise I don't really put expectation on finishes at all during the week. I just try to expect more out of my preparation and out of -- more out of just things I can control. Really at the end of the day you can't control what place you come in. So I thought I put in a good week of practice. I played -- had played good at the Match Play and then I also had a couple stretches of bad golf. So I was a little bit mixed coming out of San Francisco how I was going to play. But just kind of as the week progressed and I seemed to -- everything was kind of coming together. I was driving it in the fairway, hit my irons well and putting well. As I got into the weekend I felt like if I kept doing what I had been doing then come Sunday I'd be in the mix. Q. Since you got the win at Shriners, do you approach tournaments any differently? BEN MARTIN: I think after I won I did kind of start expecting to be there a little more often and I did become a little bit more focused on the outcome and what place I was coming in and I think that added pressure to my game. So, I want to say somewhere coming off the West Coast this year is where I kind of had that realization that, hey, let's get back to how I was playing well in the fall, get back to the things that I was doing well and that was really not -- not worrying what place I finished, just going out, playing the best round I could each day. But I think also winning you gain a little confidence and it's -- my career has never been one thing that clicked. I don't think that win made it click but I think it's just part of the process of getting more comfortable out here. Q. So you don't think it freed you up. Some guys might feel freed up after they got that win and kind of everything comes with the win. You actually feel put more pressure on you because you were trying to -- BEN MARTIN: I think you're exactly right.  Instead of freeing me up it locked me down to kind of try to validate it maybe, if that makes sense. JOHN BUSH: Anything else? All right. Ben Martin. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. BEN MARTIN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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