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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 14, 2016

Ken Duke

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. Talk about the conditions. It was a different golf course today than the first two days.
KEN DUKE: This is the kind of PLAYERS Championship that we usually see with the wind and the firm greens. The first two days, I don't know where that came from, the soft conditions, and obviously the scores really showed it. This is THE PLAYERS with the wind and the firmness. It was tough out there. You had to respect the whole golf course.

Q. How did you figure out this course and the conditions?
KEN DUKE: Well, I'm just a player on the PGA TOUR. They're all good out here, and when you get some good numbers and make some good putts, the scores are there, and that's kind of what happened today. I've been playing pretty good but just nothing is happening. The scores haven't been showing it. We're just fighting hard every week and every day trying to do our best we can do.

Q. Johnny Miller said on the air that your 65 was better than any of the 63s that were shot this week given the conditions today. How good in your opinion was that round in your career?
KEN DUKE: Well, that's a pretty good compliment from Johnny to me to be honest with you. But it was a great round. I've played some good rounds on the TOUR, but this one today was right there, up there. This golf course is very difficult with this condition, and it was a really unbelievable round.

Q. You can understand how difficult the conditions were from being out there, but are you looking at scoreboards? Do you know exactly how high the scores were in relation to yours?
KEN DUKE: When I made the turn, I was 1-under and I was at 4, and I kind of peeked up that I was like 30th. So I'm like, wow, a lot of people are getting off to some tough starts, which is so easy to do. The greens are so much faster than they were the first two days, and you have to respect that. Then the wind on top of it, it's even harder.

I just got off to a good start on the front and just kept going. When you play a good round out here, you move up the board pretty good.

Q. When was the last time you had five birdies in a row in a competition, and walk us through that five-hole stretch there.
KEN DUKE: I wish I could tell you that answer, but I do not have an answer for that. I made a good long putt on No. 3 but I hit it close 4, 5, 6, 7 and made all those putts, which out here you make the three- and four- and five-footers with the wind blowing, that's the key. The greens are so crusty and the wind is blowing very tricky. I made them all today.

Q. Would you rather play this course like it was today or the first two days?
KEN DUKE: For me it's easier the first two days. Today it didn't show it, but I played better than this. But I think in a championship like this, I think we should set it up like an Open, like a U.S. Open. I think this is our championship, THE PLAYERS, and it should be set up as difficult as possible, and the conditions today, it shows it. You have to play your best golf around here, and obviously the best players in the world are here.

Q. You played today with James Hahn. When you're going through a tough season, how much do you draw upon a performance like he had last week to show how quickly it can turn for you?
KEN DUKE: That's golf for you. We all know that. I've never missed eight cuts in a row, but that's great for James, and we're good friends and John Curran played with us, as well. We all just had a good time chatting about whatever. They all knew I was on a little roll and they said a few things here and there, but nothing in the fact that, hey, you're really playing good. But no, it's a great energy to see what he did last week, and you see it every week out here on the TOUR. The big guys play good every week, but there's those guys that put it all together.

Q. This is the second straight round for you in the 60s, which is, I looked, the first time in 10 months you've done it. Whatever happens tomorrow, is it a result you can take with you the rest of the season?
KEN DUKE: Yeah, I've been struggling, broke my wrist back in September, and I'm off a medical, and I've been putting some good rounds together but not putting four good rounds together. Just got to keep working hard and keep doing therapy and just keep believing in my golf swing, and my caddie and I are just working on our yardages and our mannerisms every day, and we just have to keep going forward.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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