	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

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

July 29, 2016

Jimmy Walker

Springfield, New Jersey

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 96th PGA Championship. Pleased to be joined by Jimmy Walker who put up a 65 yesterday and followed that up with a 66 and he's 9-under currently.

Obviously some strong play today and you've put yourself in an enviable position. It's a new position for you. What's your mind-set here as we go into the weekend?

JIMMY WALKER: I've never done it before, but I would imagine just more of the same. It's just golf and you have to go out and hit the golf shots. Doesn't matter what tournament it is or where you're at. Any tour event, you still have to go out and hit the golf shots. That's how I look at every week.

JOHN DEVER: I know we talked to you yesterday a little bit. What part of your game is really, you feel good about right now? Which one would you, if you could turn a notch and tighten it up a little bit, going into this weekend?

JOHN DEVER: You know, hit a few more fairways, that would be good. I still feel like I've got a decent amount of control out of the rough. I was in it a couple times today and hit some good shots out of it. But yeah, that would basically be it. I feel like I'm striking my irons well, and been chipping and putting nice, too.

Q. Your putting was pretty fantastic today. A lot of the other guys were saying later in the day, the poa annua gets up and gets much harder to judge. Talk about your putting game on these greens and how you're able to put it together so well.
JIMMY WALKER: You know, you could -- it's like putting in California. You've still got to pick the line, put a good stroke on it, and more often than not, when you do that, on any green, a lot of times, they just kind of roll right through all the junk.

That being said, you're going to get a few bad breaks here and there, when the poa gets -- and they were soft. The greens were soft. We had a lot of foot traffic today and we had a lot of rain last night, and you knew going into the day at the end of the day they were going to get a little bumpy. There were spots on the greens that look like they got burned out and they were quicker than the rest of the green and you're always kind of trying to judge a little bit.

Coming down the last hole, I had I think the longest putt you could have on the golf course basically. It's tough to judge, up, and down, and then back up and I left it a little short. I felt like I put a good stroke on the last putt and it looked like it kind of just wiggled around a little bit, and it's just part of bent, poa mix.

Q. How hard did you think of pulling a Matt Jones and hitting it off the hospitality tent carpeting there on 17?
JIMMY WALKER: I didn't even go up and look at it honestly. I knew we were going to get a couple good drops there just from the foot traffic and the hay they put down. They said the hay was ground under repair, and so I knew I was going to get over there and get a nice, flat lie and it looked like it was pretty clean. I didn't really worry about it, look at it.

Q. What happened with the tee shot on 18? Did it kick to the left and how much did you have for the shot to the green?
JIMMY WALKER: I started it down the left center with a draw and it had a nice, tight little draw and I thought it was going to fall out of the air, and actually catch first cut or the fairway, and it just kind of kept going. I don't know where it landed. They said it landed obviously outside of the rough; the CBS guys were down there. Landed and kicked left into the lake. It had a little draw on it and that whole thing banks to the right. It could easily have kicked right.

I felt like I hit a good one drive there, after not hitting a couple bad tee shots left in a row, I got up there, I'm going, I'm sending it, right down the middle. Could just have easily hit a 3-iron off the tee but wanted to post something out there. Put a good swing on it after not putting a good swing on a couple. Then I had 231 to the flag, 3-iron that didn't cut much. I was trying to hit a high cut up to the middle of the green and it went straight and that's why I went a little deep.

Q. In light of what you told us yesterday, it's been kind of a bumpy season. What does it do for your confidence to follow up such a good round with another good round?
JIMMY WALKER: Feels good. I was excited to come play today. I felt like I could go out and shoot another good score. I saw what the weather was going to do and knew that it was going to be out there to play good. If you hit the shots, you knew it was going to be there for you to make some birdies.

I was excited to go play today, I really was. I was nervous, but excited. I'm real happy with today.

Q. It's the fourth time in the last eight majors that a player has either set or tied a scoring mark. Any reason that you can point to for that?
JIMMY WALKER: I don't know, I think it's all course condition. I think there were -- my tee time got pretty good weather the last two days, but I played really well. But I don't know of any -- I didn't know of a scoring record or tying anything. I mean, I'm not thinking about that when I'm out there playing.

But it's all conditioning and weather. I mean, you could see what happened in Canada last week. Played really firm and really fast. When you lose control, when you lose the ability to control your golf ball, golf gets hard. And that's why scores are down.

But when you have control, everybody out here is really good, and when there's not a lot of wind, guys can pick apart a golf course pretty easily. And that happens week-in and week-out.

I mean, you watch the tournaments where it gets firm and fast, and the scores, it gets hard.

Q. You said you were nervous going into today. Do you think you'll feel the same way tomorrow, and will it be a matter of maybe feeling a little antsy with that late tee time tomorrow, too, having to kill all that time?
JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, I'm sure I'll be excited/nervous. It's not like nervous, oh, my gosh. It's more like, man, this is going to be fun; I'm nervous; I'm excited.

It's not a negative. It's just a new -- it's going to be a new experience, and it will be fun. I mean, I've been in these situations before; not in a major, it's still golf, and you want to go out and win. And you still have to go perform. Doesn't matter what tournament it is.

I'm excited.

Q. Have you ever led a major after 36 before, and if not, can you recall how close you've been to the lead through 36?
JIMMY WALKER: I have not. Maybe the Masters has been as close as I've been to a lead after 36 holes. I don't know. I'm not really up to speed on all my stats.

Q. You're still working with Butch, right?
JIMMY WALKER: Yes.

Q. And I just noticed something about your lower body being quieter this week, or at least you've been working on that. Is that like a unifying kind of thought as far as your ball-striking this week?
JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, it is. Just looked at wedge play this year, has actually been really good. And why is it good? And I started breaking it down, and everything's a lot quieter, standing a little closer to the ball, you're more on top of the ball, clubs are more out in front of you. So we started applying that to the longer stuff, and felt great driving the golf ball last week and still feel great driving it this week.

Sometimes the hard part is -- I've always been kind of a big mover of the ball and sometimes like now it doesn't move as much, so aiming points are a little different.

But it's felt great. I've been excited to hit the ball. I feel like I've been in nice control last week and this week.

JOHN DEVER: Jimmy Walker, thank you, sir, for your time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297