	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 18, 2015

Daniel Berger

Lake Forest, Illinois

MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Daniel Berger. You're also at 13-under, going to go into the third round with a share of second place with Brendon Todd, who was your playing partner. Yesterday you holed out on your last hole for an eagle, today you watched him do it. Just kind of take us through those two shots and then we'll go into your round a little bit.

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, yesterday I had a great number, and I hit a shot that maybe looked like it took a bad bounce, and luckily enough it went right in the hole, and then today Brendon hit it just a little past the hole and spun it back in. But it's great to see him play well, and we kind of fed off of each other today. We were making a bunch of birdies, and it's always fun when that happens.

MARK STEVENS: What's your thoughts as a rookie with the position you're in right now and what you're trying to do to move on to Atlanta next week?

DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, regardless of what happens I've had a great year so I'm kind of looking at it more like that. It's fun to be in contention. That's always what you want to do. But regardless of what happens, it's been fun.

Q. Just talk about 65-64 normally is pretty good, but I guess not this week?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, the course is actually -- I don't think it's really that easy. I played pretty good to get to 13-under. Obviously Jason is playing really good yet again. But I got to play with him last week, so it'll be fun to compete against someone who's probably playing better than anyone else in the world right now.

Q. Can you just talk about how the course is holding up or how much it's changed after all of the rain from last night?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, yesterday it was really, really firm and fast. Like on 18 I think I chipped a driver and it almost went in the hazard, right through the middle over there, and then today I hit one really, really hard and it was 50 yards short of the hazard. The course is a little bit wet, but overall it's really good. I think when it gets this wet you've got to make sure you hit some fairways because the rough gets pretty sticky, but other than that, it's in great shape.

Q. You said you played with Jason a couple weeks ago in Boston. What was that like? Did you see this in his game, how he's playing right now? I know he didn't play his best golf when he was playing with you, but were there glimpses of how good he's playing right now?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think the funnest part about playing with Jason is the crowds. You've got thousands of people watching you. For a young guy like myself, that's the most fun is to have a bunch of people watching. He didn't play that great, but he probably played, what, five or six weeks in a row and contended in PGA and then the next couple weeks, so that's tough.

But I think I thrive off of playing with good players, and it's going to be fun to get to experience that again.

Q. Can it help you having just played with him a couple weeks ago tomorrow?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think so, having been used to the big crowds and the noises with people walking around. But he's a really nice guy. He's fun. He's motivating, and I like to be around him. That's the type of person I like to be around.

Q. I'm just wondering what the mindset will be this weekend when you're chasing a guy that doesn't really show any inclination to be backing up, that's obviously at the top of his game. Is it one of those things where you have to stay aggressive all the time because you know he's not going to come back to you?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, obviously it's going to take a lot under par on the weekend to win this thing, but I'm just going to stick to what I've done the last two days to get to where I've been, and if it happens, it happens, and if not, then like I said, I've had a great year. To be a rookie and to be, whatever, 40 something in the FedExCup, having a chance to make it to the TOUR Championship, that's all I could really ask for.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about -- run us through the lost ball search, how many balls you wound up finding and what kind of help you got or didn't get?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, we had plenty of people definitely helping us look. We had probably 25 people. At what point I offered the crowd $500 if they could find it. Seriously, I did. I said, $500 if you find this ball. I don't know, maybe they don't like money. But we found like -- we probably found 20 balls. If we had probably 10 more minutes I'm sure we would have found it. But it is what it is.

Q. Was there any TV people out there helping you at all because they had the cameras kind of showing where the ball went in?
DANIEL BERGER: It was a pretty bad snipe hook. I don't deserve to find that ball.

Q. Can you talk about the possibilities of going really low out here? Obviously two years ago Jim had 59, Jason had a shot at it today, and it seems like with the current conditions and getting the extra boost from that, that the possibility of going real low is out here all weekend?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think if it stays soft like it is right now, then yeah, I think there's a chance of going really, really low, but if this rain misses us and the fairways begin to firm up again like they did earlier in the week, then a couple under par every day is going to be really good, so it really just depends on what the weather does.

Q. Usually there's an official or a volunteer or somebody out in areas that kind of help you look for your ball or at least designate where it might have gone. Was there anybody out there on 14 when that happened with you?
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, there was a volunteer. They do a great job, but sometimes they can't see everything. I mean, it was a bad swing. I didn't deserve to find that ball.

Q. So they didn't even know where it was?
DANIEL BERGER: No, they had no idea, like literally there was like five or six people that were sitting right next -- there was a house right there and they were sitting there right where my ball would have landed, and I asked them and they said they didn't hear or see anything. I don't know, that's one for the books. I couldn't tell you where that ball is.

Q. You got off to a great start this year and then had a little bit of a lull and now you're kind of rallying. At what point during the year did you feel secure or relieved or feel like you'd made it out here or had established yourself?
DANIEL BERGER: I mean, I'd say probably after the Honda where I had a great chance to win. But I might have taken it a little too easy coming into the weeks after that. I mean, it's all a learning process. This is my first year. There's stuff that I'll be better at next year, and I'm sure the year after that I'll be even better.

It's all about just getting better every day.

Q. What got you out of that recent tailspin?
DANIEL BERGER: Honestly, I'm playing the exact same way I did three weeks ago, I'm just -- a few putts start to fall and you get a little bit of confidence, it can really go a long way.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297