	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

CAREERBUILDER CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATION

January 21, 2016

Jeff Overton

La Quinta, California

Q. 8-under par, consisting of nine birdies. Is the key to a round like that simply on the greens?
JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, absolutely. That and wedges. I think out here you get some good wedge looks and I've been really working hard with my teacher, James Siekmann, and my wedge game has been very good and then because you get some 6-, 7-footers and you see those go in and the next thing you know the 15-footers go in. So definitely it's short game, especially out here, kind of early in the year on this course, this was probably the easiest of all the ones we're going to see this week.

Q. You came in here after a good week last week, but a frustrating day on Sunday. How were you able to come in with positive thoughts to today's round?
JEFF OVERTON: I knew I played really well last week and just kind of tightened up once the cameras got on me last week. And I talked to my short game coach out here and he's like, well that's the whole reason why you're out here is because you want to have the cameras on you every week, so get used to it. So I just kind of thought about that a little bit and I knew I was playing good and just I chipped in on the third hole and next thing you know I birdied a lot of holes.

Q. Great round. Good luck the rest of the week.
JEFF OVERTON: Appreciate it.

Q. Congratulations. Nine birdies, just one bogey on the card. Your thoughts -- any time you can put together five birdies in a row on your opening nine, that's a great start. Your thoughts on how you played today?
JEFF OVERTON: I played good. I left the ball in the fairway quite a bit. I got off to a little shaky start and then chipped in on the third hole and from there on it was just like birdie, birdie, birdie, and hit a bunch of really good wedge shots and that's pretty key out here, especially when you get four par-5s that you're going to have, you have three wedges in. So I had the hiccup on one of them, one of the par-5s off the tee and couldn't get there. So it was good to get off to a good start. 8-under is always awesome. I think my caddie and me, I was talking to him, I think he worked for 17 rounds now, that's the fourth 64, so you got to love shooting 64. So, hopefully, keep them going.

Q. You putted really well because when you think nine birdies, you think well he had a bunch of 2-footers, but you drained some long putts today.
JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, I feel like I've been putting it pretty well and last year was very frustrating. I felt like I didn't hit it any different than what I did say today and I would shoot 2-under. And it was, you just keep doing that and doing that and doing that, it's so frustrating. And then for some reason the putter kind of clicked at Sea Island. And those 10-footers, 12 footers, start going in and you hit 440, 460 yard par-4s, it's not easy to hit the ball in there to five feet, especially with where they put these pins. You hit it to 12 feet, it's a good shot. But you got to make the putt. So rolling over the edge doesn't do you any good if you hit it right down the middle, hit the next one to 12 feet. So, anyway, it was good to see some putts going in and it's everything. As you obviously know, you watch Jordan Spieth just make everything, I'm putting like that guy right now, I guess.

Q. The Nicklaus Tournament Course, this is the first time in this rotation for this event. Had you had much experience on it before? What did you think of the layout?
JEFF OVERTON: I had very kind of sour vibes coming into this place, because I really like the ones we played last couple years, and then for my first year on TOUR I think I wound up playing 11 tournaments in a row my first year on TOUR and had to come back to Q-School. And I played here and I was so tired and hit it so bad, I didn't even go see the courses then. And I just remember playing really awful and I kind of was a little sour grapes about coming here. But I was like, you know what, I'm playing great, it's going to be totally different. And I drove around the course and it sets up really nice. You hit the ball in the fairways, you're going to get some wedge opportunities. The other course we're playing tomorrow probably might be one of the tougher courses in this whole little area. It's a very good test of golf. So, you're going to have to hit it a little straighter than maybe the one we played today. But it was good to kind of play this one first and get everything, get off to a good start and go hit some fairways tomorrow and make some more putts.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297