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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 28, 2016

Greg Owen

Jackson, Mississippi

Q. 10-under par through two days for Greg Owen, and Dicky Pride when I talked to him yesterday mentioned that he was in the same group or at least played with you at Bay Hill on Friday to get ready for this tournament. You beat him by a couple of shots here today. What happened last Friday?
GREG OWEN: Took the money again. But no, Dick is a good friend and it's fun playing with him all the time. I played nicely at Bay Hill and it got me ready for this week, and I just continued to putt nicely. My coach, Tony Ziegler, has really been doing some research and got me into a good putting routine right now. So hopefully it continues for the weekend.

Q. Getting it to the greens has been a challenge for some of the players particularly if you find the rough out of the fairway. What has made it so difficult to play from outside of the fairway here this week?
GREG OWEN: It's hard to judge how far the ball is going to fly. One minute they'll just drop out of the sky and the next minute they'll stay in the sky and keep going and obviously with the smaller greens and some of the pins are located behind bunkers, you gotta hit it in the right place and it's just not that easy to control. So fairways are pretty soft, so when you pitch it short, it's not going to bounce up, and then when you fly it all the way, it's going to bounce and roll back. It's just a good course to hit fairways and greens.

Q. Greg, you have a one-shot lead, but definitely not comfortable with 13 golfers two shots behind you. This is going to be a horse race over the weekend.
GREG OWEN: Exactly. There's lots of birdies out there. If you hit the fairways every hole is a birdie chance. You just gotta keep going. It's a good start. I'm happy. It's nice to get out this year and get back playing and playing decent and holing some putts but there's a long, long way to go.

Q. You say hit the fairway, but if you miss the fairway then you're scrambling.
GREG OWEN: Yeah. Most of the time. You can get lucky out there. I hit a couple -- I mean I had to pitch out sideways a couple of times, once today and one yesterday, but saved par on one of them. And it's all, as it is every week, making sure you hole the putts at the right time.

Q. What is the key this week so far that's working so well to have you 10-under?
GREG OWEN: Holing the putts at the right time. Taking my chances. I've had a lot more chances than I've actually taking, and if I keep making chances then sooner or later they're going to fall in. It's been nice to putt well. I've not driven the ball today, but I got away with it and I putted nicely.

Q. Just comment on your round for us, if you can.
GREG OWEN: Pretty solid. Got off to a nice start, birdied the first hole, par-3 and just putted well basically. Every putt I hit was on the line I intended to take. Whether it's the right one or not doesn't really make any difference. If you're hitting on your line you're putting well, and that's what I did. And some of them went in. And that's the main thing out here. You're going to have chances. If you can keep the ball in play, you're going to have chances, and make the most of it.

Q. I heard you say earlier that it was nice to get back to playing well and everything like that. What's changed in your game outside of the putting, is there really anything else?
GREG OWEN: No, I'm not playing any differently. Just my practice routine is a little bit more stable, making sure I do the same thing over and over and just putting better. Got my eyes in the right place, and I'm hitting the lines I want to hit. As I say, don't hole everything, but at least they're going on the lines I want to hit them.

Q. Yesterday guys were talking about 20 under after Kevin shoots 9-under. What are you looking at now, do you think?
GREG OWEN: I don't do scores. I just play and take my chances and see what happens. I'm too experienced to be thinking of targets. I'm just going to go out there and try and make as many birdies, because everybody else -- it's going to be -- with the weather as good as it is and the course is in great shape, you gotta be making plenty of birdies. So that's the goal.

Q. You talked to one of the TV guys a little bit about the rough, and if you hit it in the rough you don't know what's going to happen. As long as you stay out of the rough you got a good chance. Could you expand a little bit on how difficult or maybe tricky this rough is for you guys?
GREG OWEN: The ball sits right down in the Bermuda. And sometimes it's thick and the club will just stop and the ball will just bloop out and won't go anywhere, and the next thing it's really light and the grass just gets stuck between the club and it like bounces out and the ball just springs out and just stays in the air. So it's an educated guess. But at the end of the day you gotta play the percentages try and look where you want to miss it if you gotta miss it and hopefully make a chip and a putt and go away with par.

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