	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

THE HONDA CLASSIC

February 25, 2018

Luke List

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

JACK RYAN: Luke, obviously wasn't the finish you were looking for, but surely there are a lot of positives you can take from your play today down the stretch and throughout the week.

LUKE LIST: Yeah, I mean, obviously it hurts right now, but I think that when I look back on it, I'll be proud of the way I hung in there and especially on the back nine and after that slow start on the front.

Yeah, I'd like to have that tee shot back in the playoff but that's the way it goes sometimes. Overall, I hung in there really tough and you've got to give it to Justin. He played nice.

Q. Was it hard to stay within yourself after the bogeys on 3 and 4, and secondly, some details on the shot you had on 18.
LUKE LIST: Definitely, and I've been in situations, maybe not in the final round, where I've gotten off to a slow start and that's when why you are brain starts spinning a little bit negatively and I was able to kind of bring myself back in.

My caddie was a huge help, and just telling myself there was a lot of golf left. I was playing well and rolling the ball really well. Just telling myself that and kept telling myself that. I hit some good putts, even on 8 and 9, hit some good putts.

Yeah, the back nine, I'm really proud of that effort, just making a few birdies coming in.

Then 18, I hit a great tee shot and then I had maybe 220 front and then like 240-something hole. So I hit 4-iron, really good swing. Not sure exactly where it landed over the bunker but rolled out and actually had a tricky putt. Hit a nice putt and obviously Justin hit a great wedge. You have to hit the fairway there, and going for that green in two is kind of an advantage for the long hitters like Justin and myself. Putting myself off the fairway was not ideal.

Q. Can you talk us through the drive on 18, the playoff, and what were your options?
LUKE LIST: Not great. Honestly the lie wasn't great. To me, that tee shot, it's kind of a right-to-left wind, a little bit in, so to me the tendency would be to overswing and draw it towards those bunkers. I just held on to that one a little bit. I had not made too many bad swings with the driver all week really.

No big deal, but I got a little -- I was trying to fade the one away from the water a little bit and that was my only option to kind of blast it over there in the crowd really. Fortunately I had an angle. I know that took a little bit, but hit a great wedge shot and just miss-read the putt a little bit.

Q. You seemed to make quite a few sizable putts today starting on 1.
LUKE LIST: Yeah, that was huge. Didn't hit a really good tee shot off 1 with a 6-iron and I really didn't have an easy second shot, so to hit it over the green there, didn't have much to make a 25-footer for par on the first holes. That was a huge start.

Made kind of a sloppy bogey on 3. That was being a little too aggressive there, not really sure what shot I was trying to hit there and not making birdie on par 5s wasn't ideal. But from No. 5 on, I really played nice.

Q. My point is, the greens the way they were, didn't seem to bother you?
LUKE LIST: Yeah, trusting it, especially under pressure, holing that putt on 15; I actually hit a pretty good putt on 16. That was a huge putt. I feel like if I had made that, I really would have been able to close the door. Because Justin hit a good putt, too, and his didn't break and mine broke a little bit. I felt like my make that one, I might be able to close the door. But that's here nor there.

Q. On the putting, when did you start using center shaft?
LUKE LIST: I've been putting with a center shaft putter for a little while. It's funny because it's completely plank. Byron Morgan, a guy from Huntington Beach made it for me and he didn't put any stamps on it. It looks like kind of a homemade putter.

Yeah, I've been rolling it really nicely for that. It's more mental than anything else for me. I've always felt like I had a good stroke and just trusting it. I was able to do that today for the most part pretty much all day.

Q. What was the club on 3?
LUKE LIST: Yeah, I had like 256 hole and I hit like a driving iron, like 2-iron.

Q. The other thing I was going to ask you, if you listen to Patrick at Riviera, he was talking about full effort on every shot. That was one of your comments, as well. Is that something you pick up on your own?
LUKE LIST: Yeah, that is something Jamie preaches very much. I actually have been having some conversations recently with a guy named Brent Stevens, or Moose, he's a former Aussie Rules Football player. He lives in Melbourne and he's friend with my caddie, Bussie.

We played round one at Riviera last week, and we got to the range after the round and I started practicing, and got to a point, I was like, what am I even doing. I'm flushing it and putting well, but I'm not scoring and I'm not in the right head space.

He's like, just give this guy a call, and I talked to him for almost an hour on Thursday afternoon at Riviera. He just said some stuff I like that I wrote in my yardage book and I was flipping through that all week and looking at that, just little reminders. We always work on our golf swings and our short game and our putting but sometimes we forget to work on our mental game.

I think for me, that's an area where I know if I can get to this level of playing, it's going to be kind of, you know, cage bar the doors. I feel like I'm ready to play at this level for a while.

Q. Do you know anything about Aussie Rules Football?
LUKE LIST: My caddie showed me some stuff and he's a very fit dude. He's got some clients that he brings down to south of Melbourne, run the sand dunes, and if we keep in contact, which I'm sure we will, I'm going to have to go down there and get my butt kicked.

Q. What were some of the buzzwords?
LUKE LIST: "Effort over result," that was a short little phrase I had all week. It's so easy out here, for someone in my position, maybe not Justin, but I'm trying to get my first win and get in that next level of tournaments.

For me I feel like I've got the ability to play at that level. It just hasn't quite happened yet but the more I think about it, I feel like the worse I do. So the more I focus on what's in front of me, the effort into the shot; I did a really good job of that this week.

Q. Have you talked to Moose since then?
LUKE LIST: We traded some text messages throughout the week. He was really encouraging and said some great stuff. Another thing he mentioned was enjoying the competitiveness and enjoying yourself out there. That sound trivial but I was able to do that a lot, too.

Q. Had you struggled with that?
LUKE LIST: Yeah, maybe just like relishing on the bad shots and not congratulating myself enough on the good shots. Trying to be nicer to myself, all that clichÃ© stuff is just kind of beating in your head.

Q. You talked last night about staying relaxed and having fun. Did you do that, and secondly, did that become difficult as you were starting to slip back?
LUKE LIST: I felt good. Making the par on 1, and just made a bad swing on 3. Actually the putt on 4 is when I started getting a little, you know, wishy-washy with some of my thoughts. Then caddie roped me back in.

After that I was pretty good. I hit some good shots. It's just tough to get close to the pins. I hit a good shot on 6, good shot on 7 and it was 40 feet over the green on 6. It's tough to get it close out there. I felt like I wasn't having any opportunities but I really had to be patient.

You know, this golf course makes you do that. I feel like no one is really going super low in the final couple groups. I kept an eye on the leaderboard just knowing that if I shot a couple under on the back, I would be still in it.

Q. Self-love, is that what you are doing, loving yourself?
LUKE LIST: You have to, right? If you don't love yourself, who is going to.

But I'm really happy off the golf course and got a great support system, my wife and coach and caddie, everybody, I speak very highly on everyone because I'm lucky to have a great team. I'm just excited to keep going with this attitude and feel like I've got some good stuff in front of me.

JACK RYAN: Thanks for your time, Luke.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297