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NORTHERN TRUST OPEN

February 20, 2016

Dustin Johnson

Pacific Palisades, California

ALEX URBAN: We'd like to welcome Dustin Johnson, one off the lead here. You were runner-up last year and lost in a playoff, and you're in position to contend on another Sunday at the Northern Trust Open. Talk about the first three rounds and what's gotten you here.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I'm definitely happy with my position. I think the last three rounds I've played pretty solid. A few mistakes here and there but it's going to happen. Seemed like I bounced back right after making bogey, I make a birdie. I feel like I'm swinging it well. I'm driving it pretty well. Hit a couple bad drives today, that was it. But saved par most of the time.

Hit my irons really good, too. If I drive it in the fairway and just keep having a lot of looks at birdie, it's going to be -- it's always a good day.

Q. What is it about 17 that makes it the hardest of the par 5s for you?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I have no idea.

Q. Is there anything to explain -- it's the only one you haven't birdied at least once this week.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I've hit my drive in the same spot every time, I think just in the left rough, or I hit in the fairway one day, too.

Today I was in a good spot with my second shot, so I hit it right where I wanted to, just short of the green. Had a fairly simple chip. Hit it a hair or two hard, like six or seven feet by the hole but hit a good one put, just lipped-out. Don't feel like I'm playing it badly, just not making birdie.

Any hole out here, it's easy to miss putts. I think that's just what it is. Just hadn't made any putts on that hole.

Q. Seems like that hole owes you on Sunday.
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, hopefully. Last year I bogeyed it, which was awful. I hit it in the bunker with a lob-wedge. That was a great shot. And so, hopefully tomorrow, I'll do a little better.

Q. With a bunched up leaderboard tomorrow, how does that change your mentality going into the final round?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I mean, it doesn't really change how I'm going to play the golf course or anything like that. I feel like if I have the same mentality I have today -- you've got to attack the golf course when you can. Obviously there's a bunch of difficult holes where four is a good score.

But there's a lot of holes where you can make birdie. Just keep doing what I'm doing. Get it in the fairway and then attack the course when I can.

Q. Having finished second two years in a row here, I know you want to win all the time, but do you want to win this one a little bit more?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I mean, I want to win any tournament I'm playing. But yeah, I mean, this is a tournament that I really enjoy playing. Really like this golf course, and obviously I've done well here the past couple years.

Yeah, I'd love to win this one.

Q. Which do you think is more likely: Someone going out and shooting 66 to win tomorrow or the field kind of backing up into a big glob and somebody going to three holes of playoff?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Somebody's going to shoot low tomorrow. There's so many great players that are up on the leaderboard that are within a couple shots of the lead. I think it's going to take -- yeah, I would guess 17-under, 16-under, somewhere around there, would get it done.

Q. Is there any concern with how the course played today, that with more of this, one more day, that it will get back to the old Riviera in terms of how it's responding on the green and you have to make a whole other adjustment for the final round; did you sense it drying out a little bit?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: Maybe a little bit but it's still not dry like it was on Wednesday. Wednesday the golf course was absolutely perfect. It was playing tough. And unfortunately we got a lot of rain Wednesday night.

But the golf course is still perfect. It's just soft, and I don't think it's going to, it's not going to firm up, not much, at least.

Q. Bubba seems to think fairways hit is not a big deal as long as you're having the right angles and missing on the right side. Do you agree there? Do you mind one way or the other?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I prefer to be in the fairway. I don't care if the rough is short or not. But I still like being in the fairway. I think you have more control.

But I mean, he is right, where it doesn't matter if you're in the fairway or not on a few holes, as long as you're on the correct side. For me, sometimes it's really hard to hit the fairway on a few holes.

Q. Chez Reavie said the distance was perfect for his driver on 10 today. Obviously it wasn't for the longer hitters. Is it tough to attack that hole? Do you play it differently, strategy, every day?
DUSTIN JOHNSON: I play it the same every day. I hit 3-wood. I mean, it's a good number for my 3-wood. Today I just hit a terrible shot. I snap-hooked it over there left. If my ball goes a foot further or a foot shorter, I've got a fairly easy shot but I was dead stymied behind the palm tree.

I made a better score than I did yesterday, so I can't really complain.

ALEX URBAN: Good luck tomorrow, Dustin. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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