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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 7, 2019

Bubba Watson

Orlando, Florida

Q. I don't know what's for dinner but I suggest eggs because you hit that fried egg pretty good on 18 and got up-and-down for par.
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, it was one of those where we had a long way to the pin, so I had lucky -- I was lucky there. But it looked like it was going to come out really, really slow and it came out hot and luckily with it being that high on the up slope it slowed up, so I had a chance to make a 15 or so footer.

Q. It looked like you changed your mind on club, was the wind a factor in that decision?
BUBBA WATSON: No, the wind was bothersome all day. We played here enough, we have seen it enough, we're just trying to commit to each shot. But the lie, a couple of these lies in the fairways, a couple of these lies in the first cuts -- in the rough, it's always tough -- but in the first cuts -- like Pat Perez's was sitting up very nice, he could hit any shot he wanted to hit. And mine looked like it was sitting down, so we thought it was going to jump. So 177 hole, I tried to hit 9-iron and I shot it -- at the last second you see that water, so I kind of shoved it just a little bit. But it would have been a perfect club if it would have just hit the green. But again, lucky to get up-and-down for par.

Q. Are you comfortable with the longer putter now? Earlier in the year I saw you had a thicker grip on it, it looks like you have a little thinner grip and you're gripping down on it instead of resting it against your forearm.
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, it's resting against my forearm, just not as -- I'm not as much leaning forward as I would say Matt Kuchar and then like Webb Simpson, I think Bryson's is more upright, so mine's not quite as upright as his. But I'm getting used to it. I putted good the last couple weeks. Obviously whatever putter you're using you get nervous out there. We're all professionals, we all get nervous, we want to make them.

Q. General thoughts on the first opening round playing in the afternoon.
BUBBA WATSON: It was good. Any time you can shoot under par on this golf course, the rough is up, the greens are going to get tougher and tougher. The wind's up, but it was a favorable condition today the way the wind was going, so the par-3s were a touch easier than normal. I didn't feel the best, this whole week I haven't felt as good as I wanted to, but we, the strategy was just hit greens. Somehow hit greens today. I think I hit quite a few, I haven't looked at it yet, but it feels like I didn't miss too many greens.

Q. You've had a number of starts here, about a dozen or so, you've had kind of a mixed bag of results, do you work something out each time that you come here that you learn?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, this golf course, even though it's long, and especially when they have added some length this year, but you got to play it a certain way. It's kind of right in front of you, but you have to play it a certain way and I get bored hitting irons off tee, so I try to hit driver a lot, which obviously back fires sometimes and sometimes it's good.

Q. How much did you play here when you were living in the area?
BUBBA WATSON: I played here a little bit. I came and played the 12 o'clock game. And I stopped by just to see Mr. Palmer every once in a while. But I'm a member here, still a member here, just because of I love it. I love being able to come here when my kids want to go to Disney and I can come and hit some balls here. So it's nice.

Q. Since Phoenix is that kind of a nice jump start just to get the year started on a high note after Hawaii?
BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, Hawaii I had some different equipment, and so we tried some equipment and on paper it looks bad, it looked like I played bad, but I just tried some different equipment. It wasn't to my liking. But the only way for me to really test something is to put it in the bag under pressure. And those two weeks I put it under pressure and I didn't like it. Then we changed the putting, the putting's been probably the best two weeks I've ever putted stat-wise the last two tournaments. So, yeah, so we're moving in the right direction. It's a long year. All it takes is one win we can forget about everything else.

Q. Plenty of personality in your group today. What was that walk like?
BUBBA WATSON: Oh, man, those are two great guys. It's fun. We talk about everything but golf. We don't care less about golf. We're having fun, we love the game of golf, but we're talking about all the other stuff. And now they're new dads, Harman's not quite a new dad, but Pat is, so it's interesting talking to them and them realizing there's other parts of the world than not just golf. So it's interesting talking with them.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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