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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 25, 2015Woody AustinSACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Up next, Woody Austin, 3 under, 67 today. Q. Really good round of golf today in the afternoon. Keys to the day? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I really started off driving it good which, obviously, in the Open, especially with the rough here, that really got me settled into the round. Birdied the 1st hole and then just made a bunch of pars after that because I was in good shape. Never got the ball close enough to the hole. Kept hitting it 15, 20 feet, but real solid. Then I didn't drive it quite as good on the back nine, but I hit a few iron shots a lot closer. So made some birdies. But all in all, I played really solid. The course played a little easier than I was anticipating. So it was important to shoot a red number today. I had no -- never would have guessed that many people would have shot under par, the way the practice rounds were. So they watered the fairways. I even caught a serious mud ball on No. 4 today. That was quite shocking, that they watered the fairways as much as they did. They made sure the course played easy today. So it was vital to shoot a good score today. Q. 16 and 18 are playing as the two toughest holes so far with the scoring. You've come to expect that kind of thing? WOODY AUSTIN: The whole thing is you can't miss a fairway. If you miss a fairway on 16, it's one of the few holes that has water. So you can't hit it over the water, so you're going to lay up. It's not a short enough hole for us. It's not like the young guys tour, where you're hitting it down there and you only have 120 yards and you can muscle it out of the rough. If you have 180, which is what we're having in there, we're not going to muscle it out of the rough 180 yards in the air. So you miss that fairway, you got nothing but a layup. So you have to layup there. 18, pretty much the same way. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty hot lie, but by the same token, I knew I wasn't going to keep it on the green either. Even though I knew I could hit it over the hazard, I wasn't going to keep it on the green. But I just hit a really good chip. Those two holes are long enough and tough enough where, if you miss the fairway, you're asking for it. Q. Any particular up and downs that were particularly pleasing? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, well, let's see. I'd guess I'd say 17 was probably -- 18 was way harder, though. You don't want to bogey the last hole. So I'd have to say 18 was definitely the one. It was kind of an in-between lie, and I judged it perfect. 17 wasn't a hard shot. It was whether or not I could keep my balance. The lie was okay. It was whether or not I could stay teetering on the bunker. Other than that, any of my other ones -- I didn't have a hard shot on 13. I had 40 yards of green. I had a bump and run. I could just run it back there. I just didn't hit it hard enough. I still only had a 10-footer. I just didn't make it. Q. Only one back has to be a pretty good spot all in all? WOODY AUSTIN: Absolutely. It was important today to shoot in the red. I screwed that up last year. Last year, the easy day, everybody's shooting 65, and that was my worst round last year. So I needed to make sure I didn't make that mistake again this year when I needed to get after it on the easy day, I didn't fall back. So it was important to shoot a red number. I like it when it's tough. I hang in there a lot better than when I see a bunch of guys shooting a lot of low numbers. So it was important for me to go play good when it was an easy day. Q. When you're coming in an afternoon wave time, do you look at the leaderboard before you go out? WOODY AUSTIN: Absolutely. I was shocked at how many guys were 4 under and stuff this morning. Because I said when you played your practice rounds, the way they rope off the par 3s and everything, the golf course was playing very long. But we played a lot of tees up. The par 3s were nothing compared to what they were in the practice rounds. And then like I said, they obviously watered the place pretty good because it was very playable. So those guys this morning, they definitely could get at it. Us this afternoon, the greens got firmer. The longer holes, No. 3, that green was pretty firm. That was a hard one to hit. Obviously, 14, the par 3, even though the flag's on 28, you've got to land it on 5, whereas this morning I'm sure they didn't have any problems. So obviously, it was there this morning because there was enough guys. So when I came out here today, like I said, I knew I had to shoot a red number. Q. Is it a little advantage to do that in the afternoon wave? WOODY AUSTIN: To your point, again, it's still, if you were at a golf course where the premium wasn't on ball striking, then you could say that. But this week, with it being that way, if you play bad, it doesn't matter if you played bad in the morning or in the afternoon. You keep hitting it in this rough, it will get you. Q. Speaking of looking at the leaderboard, what was your reaction when you saw Watson at the top? WOODY AUSTIN: I've played with Tom enough. I played with him at Shoal Creek. He swings the way he always has. That's what's great about him. You sit and think about what's happened to, let's say, any of us as we get older and your body starts to break down, your swing might change, this, that, and the other. Or as I say, you look at the young players nowadays, you look at a PGA Tour event, and everybody's got their swing coach on the driving range because they don't have a clue what their golf swing is. His never changes. There's a reason why he's that good, and there's a reason why he's still that good at 65 because he knows what he's doing and he doesn't change. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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