|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 20, 2016Troy MerrittOrlando, Florida Q. How was the ride from your perspective here? TROY MERRITT: For the most part today I played really solid. Just overcooked an 8-iron on 3. Had the two bad ones on the front. I thought I hit a decent 6-iron on the last hole. Came up almost ten yards short of where we thought it was going to land. All in all, pretty solid. My hat's off to Jason. He played championship golf coming down the stretch. Chappy played very well as well. Two very good players and Jason came out on top today and well deserved. Q. After struggles on the front, the double on 9, where did you muster the courage to rattle off five straight birdies? TROY MERRITT: We still had 9 to play. I knew on the front-9 I only missed two greens and the putter was rolling nicely and just felt if I could give myself 9 looks at it I could make five or six hopefully and we made four and then holed out of the bunker on 14 for birdie but just kept grinding it out. You still trying to do the best you can no matter what position you're in. Q. You chipped in on 17 to save par. Did you have a sense maybe this was your week? TROY MERRITT: Well, I just knew I would have a chance on 18, not necessarily that I would win the golf tournament but it was giving it my best. I did see that Kevin bogeyed 18 before I hit my tee shot and when Jason hit it right in the rough, get it in the fairway, make a birdie, potentially sneak one out here. We gave it a shot, came up short. We'll try again next time. Q. Can you take us through 18 and what you were faced with the second shot? TROY MERRITT: Would have been nice to hit the tee shot on the face. Hit it high off the toe. Didn't get it down there as far as I had the first three rounds. As a result we had a little down slope and 6-iron in. The first three rounds I had 8-iron, pitching wedge and 9-iron. Would have been better to have one of those clubs. We're trying to hit at the middle of the green, let the 6-iron drift in there to 20 feet left. We kind of felt it was mostly left to right, maybe slightly helping. 189 hole. 6-iron 193. Hit it solid. Got eaten up once it got to the top. Came up ten yards short. I wasn't shooting at the flag. Looking that way a bit of a stinger at the end but where we were at the tournament turn it was pretty solid finish. Q. It was crazy day in that with the doubles and still hanging in there and having a shot at the end. TROY MERRITT: You don't expect to do that playing in the final group. Seven birdies obviously helped. Would have been nice to get that one in on 16 and get to 17-under but just played a little bit too much break and just hit it too hard for the line and walked away a par and still had to try to find one on 17 or 18. The flag 3-iron on 17, didn't get what we were looking for and nice to come away with a par there and give ourselves a chance on 18 and just wasn't our day. Q. You said before that these good weeks sometimes come out of nowhere after a few missed cuts in the row. What can you do to build on this to try and have more sustained success? TROY MERRITT: Not play next week or the week after that. I have a tendency not to -- play really well and not play well again. Go home, take a break for two weeks get ready for Augusta. I know that I can control my nerves with thousands of people watching, playing with Jason, the second ranked player in the world in the final group on Sunday at a tough golf course at Arnie's place. Confidence is there. The nerves were there. We just didn't execute that last iron shot. Q. What was it like inside the arena that you had four guys tussling around back and forth just to be inside that, what was it is like? TROY MERRITT: Kind of cool when I threw my hat into the fray on 13 and 14. Just nice bunker save on 15, giving ourselves a chance and fortunately didn't come away with birdie on 16 but, yeah, just giving ourselves a chance especially where we were after making the turn was a pretty successful day I would say. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|