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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 24, 2017Rickie FowlerPalm Beach Gardens, Florida Q. Thoughts on today -- RICKIE FOWLER: Speed's been pretty good. I wouldn't say perfect. I left some short. Just because you do have to be a little careful in some areas where the green starts to run away by the hole and you could easily run it four or five feet by. I think I got a little cautious at times for the right reasons. I made a lot of putts with good speed this week. Q. This one at 17 today -- RICKIE FOWLER: I poached it. But that's why you aim left and hit that shot. I was trying to hit it just a little left of the hole and gives you some room. Nice that there was just enough room right of the flag. Q. You put a new driver in play, 43 1/2, missed seven fairways through two rounds. You must be pretty happy with the change. What was the reason to go shorter, when you were normally at 45? RICKIE FOWLER: I was playing 44 1/2 leading up to this week. Still missing seven fairways, I'd like to narrow that down a little. It's been good. I had a couple that I missed just barely. It's been a good week so far with driver and the reason I did that was start -- I played short with my irons, my 5-wood and 3-wood are both short and if you look at the progression of my 5-wood and 3-wood to where my driver was, they are roughly an inch apart except when I went to 3-wood and driver. Right now it's actually at a perfect progression and they are all roughly the same swing weight. I'll tell you, what it feels pretty good to step up there with 43 1/2 inches. Doesn't start off line very much and doesn't move much from there. Q. Anything you're going to try to do differently going into the weekend? RICKIE FOWLER: Just make sure I get a little bit more committed. I had a couple loose shots out there coming in. I left a wedge out on 8 that I shouldn't have and left a drive out on 9 on my last hole. Had to scramble for par. Just make sure I get really committed out there, dial in some lines. We're going to have to take some tight lines at times on this golf course. Becomes kind of a fine line there on a few holes. It's going to be fun. Swinging well, putting's been good, good stroke and good speed, so looking forward to this weekend. Q. When we spoke after yesterday's round, you said consistency is the key, back-to-back 66s, but do you feel different about this one than yesterday? RICKIE FOWLER: Not too much. I mean, pretty similar. Some good shots out there, a couple loose ones. Made a couple putts, and nothing too special. I feel like I got off to a better start today. I gave myself a few more looks today and yesterday, and just had a few slide by. Had a lot that were close and today could have been a pretty low one, but I'm happy. Off to a good start and a good position and looking forward to tighten things up for the weekend. Q. Do you gain confidence knowing your lines are pretty much right on? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it's definitely good. I like where the game's at, where it's heading. To play well but not get the most out of it the first two days, with some putts sliding by; I did scramble and made some good up-and-downs yesterday. Not going to lie about that, but there's still some better golf out there for the weekend. Q. You mentioned tighten things up. Is that something you'll work on on the range or is that a mental thing? RICKIE FOWLER: More so just a mental thing. Swing well, know what to do, and it's just about commitment and actually doing it and not bailing out. Because there's definitely some fine lines out here, and you have to be pretty spot on, line and distance. It doesn't really give you any areas to bail out. So when I do get wedges or short irons in my hands, I want to be able to take advantage of that and then really commit to those tougher mid-iron and long-iron shots. Q. Back-to-back rounds of 66, how excited are you by the consistency of the game? RICKIE FOWLER: Feeling really good about it. I've hit a lot of good drives, a lot of good iron shots, some good, key up-and-downs and made a few good putts out there. So definitely some loose swings, which you're going to have some missed shots here and there. I can deal with that, but I'd like to minimize them and get rid of a few of those and just make sure they are going to get fully committed this weekend. I feel like I'm in a great spot and definitely feel like I'm ready to go get this job done here. Q. Going back to the driver, it seems like it's become quite a weapon in your arsenal. How much does it take the stress out of a very, very difficult course like this when you're driving it as well as you are? RICKIE FOWLER: It's nice. Yeah, I actually went with a new driver this week. Same head I've been playing but I'm actually playing 43 1/2 inches. It may look normal in my hands because I'm short, but no, it feels great. I may be giving up a little bit of distance, but still, I was able to get a few out there yesterday and getting it plenty far out there. I feel like I have a bit more control. The club is out in front of me a lot easier and with it being a little shorter, it is easier to save when it does get a little out of position. Q. Despite the benign conditions, still very hard to score around here. RICKIE FOWLER: I mentioned the fine lines out here. There's a few shots where you get short irons and wedges and you might be able to take advantage of those, but even if you're off just a little bit with those, whether it's distance or line; if it's both, you're done, but even just one of those could put you in trouble. There's some really hard shots out there all through the bag, tough drives, some second shots going into the holes with, like I said, from wedges all the way to long irons. If you're not dialed in and knowing where the ball is going to be going, it makes it tough to scramble around this place. If you don't drive it in the fairway, then you're not going to be too happy. Q. Got to be feeling good to be home and also to be in the lead and going into the weekend? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I tell you what, I love having late/early the first two days because now I get to relax, and it feels like you get a break for the weekend. Well, I love late/early when you play good. When you don't play well, then you're done early. It is nice, because you keep the momentum, you play the first two rounds, and now I'm going to get it seems almost a 24-hour break to chill out, recharge and play two more rounds of golf. Q. Do you feel pretty ready to win again? RICKIE FOWLER: I do, yeah. Got some good work in Phoenix, playing well there. Nothing great. Just got it around and gave it a little bit of a charge on Sunday. Felt very good with where the game was and where it was heading. Got some good work in the past couple weeks. And like I talked about yesterday, I got to go play with Butch last Friday. It's kind of just been trending the right direction. I feel really good with how we've played the first two days and mentally I can definitely get a bit better. Swinging great, but the mistakes I'm making are just mental and causing myself to make some bad swings. It's going to be fun this weekend. Q. Looking back, after you won in Abu Dhabi last year, did you put any extra pressure on yourself? Do you look back and say, you know, maybe I was trying too hard there for a time? RICKIE FOWLER: No, not necessarily. I came right back and I was right there in Phoenix, and then at Quail Hollow, I was right back in the mix. Just doesn't have the Sunday that I wanted, and I felt that I was very much out in front and in control of that tournament. I had a mud ball on 7 that kind of set me back a bit. So until I had that, I actually made a good swing and ends up costing me a few shots. Tough to kind of come back from that. But from there, it wasn't -- it's not that I played bad but I didn't play good. To go and be able to play the teams that I got to play on, from the Olympics to Ryder Cup, World Cup, finally getting to be a part of a winning Ryder Cup Team; I don't look back and look at it as a bad year. I mean, definitely some stuff to improve on individually on my own. It was a special year for me to be a part of the teams. Was able to build some confidence off of that, just being around guys playing well and myself playing well. Q. What's maybe going better now than was late last summer, last fall? RICKIE FOWLER: A little bit of everything. I would say putting is better. It's still not great. Scrambling, chipping is quite a bit better, chipping and bunker play. And I'm driving it better right now, which I think at one point, I was between 50 and 60 -- kind of mid 50s driving percentage, which half the fairways isn't great. Driving it decent this week so far and have a new driver in the bag, so just a little bit of everything just making things a little easier. Q. What kind of mental mistake did you make, just for example, today? RICKIE FOWLER: Just not committing. Just knowing where I'm starting it, with the shot I'm trying to hit and just not committing and making an aggressive swing. Q. Was that on 2 -- RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, on 2 -- I hit the same shot on and 8 I actually thought I hit a good shot on 7. I looked up and it was a little further right than I was expecting. 7, I ended up making bogey without making really a bad swing. It felt good to me. But yeah, the ones where you have a short iron, whether it's wedge, 9-iron, and kind of hang those out right, hitting it outside of 20 feet, that's kind of unacceptable. Especially when you're on a golf course like this that's pretty demanding and fine lines, you've got to be able to take advantage of 8- and 9-iron on down to be able to give yourself some good looks out here. Q. Is there any sense of unfinished business given where you were at this point last year? RICKIE FOWLER: Not necessarily. I mean, I feel like it's time for me to start finishing off some more events when I am in this position. I wouldn't look just back at this specific event, but there's been a few where I've had a chance, and I feel very good out front or around the guys in the lead. I'm looking forward to this weekend; a place, on a golf course I feel comfortable and I'm comfortable with the game right now. Yeah, it's going to be a fun weekend. I know there's a few guys up around the top right now and probably some more that will move in this afternoon. It's going to be jam-packed. Q. The scoring, more than typical, is there a reason? RICKIE FOWLER: Having soft greens helps. It makes it somewhat playable out of the rough. Once this play dries out over the weekend, you're not going to be able to stop the ball on the green unless you have maybe a wedge out of the rough. You have to hit fairways, and there's a lot of spots where if you're just off, whether it's distance or line, you know, it can be -- when there's water around, it's a two-shot swing pretty quickly. Other ones, it might just be a bogey, which it's going to happen out here. It's tough to go around this place for one round, especially 72 holes, without a bogey. Q. Last year to this year -- RICKIE FOWLER: I think they are pretty similar. I don't remember too much -- I know I swung well and hit it well last year. I don't remember too many of the shots or anything like that. But I've done a good job of managing everything this week, accepting bogey when I'm in a bad position, not trying to get too much out of it. We'll see if we can kind of get rid of, like I talked about, some of the mental mistakes and making sure that we're just going through the process, committing, and not leaving any shots out there. Q. How does today's 66 stack up? RICKIE FOWLER: It was good. I didn't get everything out of it I would like to. Got a lot of good looks. Got off to a nice start and just missed a few after I got on to the front nine, which was my back nine, and really felt like I could have got out in front a bit. But I'm happy about it. Two 66s around this place, put myself in a good position for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Q. How do you approach the opportunity? RICKIE FOWLER: Just tighten up some mental mistakes. Make sure I'm going through the process and really committing to each shot. Other than that, I'm swinging well, body feels good, keep hitting fairways and greens and if I can roll in a few putts this weekend, it will be good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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