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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AMFebruary 11, 2018Ted Potter, Jr.Pebble Beach, California Q. Yesterday a career best 62 round. Today you're out there with the world No. 1 on iconic Pebble Beach and shoot 69 and win the tournament. Just try and sum up how special that is? TED POTTER, JR.: It's very special. Yesterday was a great moment, shooting 62, but today started out tied for the lead and finished the golf tournament in the lead by a couple. It was just truly unbelievable. This is pretty exciting. Q. Obviously started with a bogey at the first, a great bounce back birdie there at the second and then this one at the fourth. Just talk about this one. TED POTTER, JR.: I had probably 104 hole. I took my 54 degree wedge and just tried to land it right around a hundred and tried to get some right-to-left English on it. It spun towards the hole, so that was pretty good there. I was happy after the last hole wasn't too good of a wedge shot and to come back and hit a really good wedge shot was really key. Q. The 7th hole. Signature hole here chipping in. Tell us about this one. Delicate shot. TED POTTER, JR.: Yeah, I seen Dustin's and we knew it was still pretty firm there and trying to get some loft and spin on it and I couldn't ask for anything else there. That was just one of those moments. Q. You looked incredibly calm down the stretch. What was going on inside? What were you feeling? TED POTTER, JR.: I was just trying to take one shot at a time, hit the fairway, hit the green. It seemed like it took a lot of time coming in there on the back nine, but just tried to pick the widest part of the fairway and focus one shot at a time there. Q. With the broken ankle you had, you've been away from the game, you battled your way back. What does it mean to you to win? TED POTTER, JR.: It's definitely a big confidence boost. Being away from the game, I hadn't won since 2012. But after the ankle and everything I've gone through playing the WEB.COM last year to get my card back and to come back this early until the season is just crazy. I'm very happy right now. Q. What a wild ride it's been for you from a win at the Greenbrier Classic, through some injuries, through the WEB.COM, now once again, a winner on the PGA TOUR. You have to just be ecstatic. TED POTTER, JR.: I'm definitely thrilled. I'm so happy right now to get it done today, especially against the world No. 1, playing with him today. And it was definitely, the win here at Pebble is just unbelievable. It's beautiful. Q. Jordan Spieth told me earlier in the week that you judge a tournament by its list of champions, by the quality of the golf courses. You don't get better than this and your name now listed as a champion. Tell me about the chip in at the 7th. TED POTTER, JR.: The 7th hole, I hit a decent shot off the tee and just kind of bounced over the green. I got a little bit of a read off of Dustin's. He was only a couple feet from me, so I could see that was a pretty firm chip. But I just tried to get some loft under it and get as much spin as possibly as I could, but the hole got in the way and so thank goodness there. Just happy it went in. Q. To me, I'm not a mind reader, but it appeared you were just so focused in the moment, you didn't write that victory speech on the 15th green, you were just shot by shot, really showed a lot of discipline playing into the fat of the greens. TED POTTER, JR.: Yeah, coming down the stretch there it doesn't matter if I have a five-shot lead, you just got to take one shot at a time and pick a small target and just go like that. You start thinking ahead out here coming in, wind coming different directions, you don't know what's going to happen. Q. You only missed two fairways. TED POTTER, JR.: That's pretty good. I'm pretty happy about that. Q. The back nine you were the guy everyone was chasing. What were your emotions like? TED POTTER, JR.: I was just trying to take one shot at a time, pick a small target on the fairway, pick a small target on the middle of the green. I knew I had a couple shot lead going into the back nine, so I knew that they were going to have to make some birdies and the back nine's tough, especially with the wind how it is right now. So I just wanted to give myself plenty of opportunities coming in. I just tried not to attack the pins, but give myself good 20-footers to have a chance to make birdie. Q. Six years ago you won on the PGA TOUR, four years ago a freak accident injured your ankle, kept you out of the game for more than a year. What did you prove to yourself today, not only to be back here, but to once again be a winner? TED POTTER, JR.: That I can still do it. Even though my ankle is not a hundred percent and that -- but it's getting better each year. It's gotten a lot stronger since 2015 and 2016, so it's headed in the right direction. My golf swing, last couple weeks has been working hard on it and it shows that what I'm doing is working. Q. We can see the emotions. Did you ever wonder will this day ever happen again for you? TED POTTER, JR.: Of course, I mean you never know. There's so many great players on this TOUR. You've got to have everything go right for you. You've got to chip in, make a 20-footer or 30-footer from off the green or something to happen to win out here. You've got to have a little luck, but there's a lot of skill involved too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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