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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2019

Justin Harding

Augusta, Georgia

Q. Nice to see a South African at the top.
JUSTIN HARDING: I think during the course of the day myself, Louis and Gracey were all up there. Somebody must have taken a screen shot of that. But it's all good fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I handled the emotions of the day quite well, better than expected and, yeah, just kind of worked my way in. I made a couple coming in and then obviously the bogey on 18 was a bit naughty, but I was seeing stars in that bunker, the bunker is bright.

Q. Do you think it's an advantage that it was your first round in a competition here?
JUSTIN HARDING: Notoriously, they haven't done very well. It's pretty much how I've been playing for the last, let's call it 15 months, I'm seeing the golf course for the first time almost every week. So I'm not taking any real demons, any bad shots or any bad memories into them, I suppose.
But then again I also watched the Masters a few times on TV, so you see where everybody hits up to. But, no, I enjoy it. Ultimately we executed our plan and played away from flags when we needed to, counted on a good putter and that certainly worked for the most part today, I feel like I rolled it pretty good. And, yeah, just happy with today's performance.

Q. What do you attribute that good play over the past 15 months?
JUSTIN HARDING: Consistency. Becoming a little better mentally. No longer really going through the highs and lows and emotional roller coaster, so to speak. But that also comes in not really playing the aggressive mindset game that I was in the past. I'm hitting 3‑woods off tees a little more often now, laying back on drivable par‑4s, just trying to get a little bit smarter on the golf course, making less mistakes and hoping a couple birdies come.

Q. Did you got any advice from your countrymen, including Gary Player?
JUSTIN HARDING: I haven't spoken to Gary yet. I spoke to Ernie and chatted to him a little bit about the back nine when I played in San Antonio last week. And then obviously I had practice rounds with Grace and Schwartzel and Oosthuizen and Jovan Rebula and both him and I were just trying to pick each other, pick the big boys' brains and it's just helpful.
I mean, as I said, you, we played the golf course in our brains a few times, having watched it on it TV, you know where to hit it, it's just a matter of handling the nerves and executing the golf shots.

Q. How did you get the practice in? Because there was a couple of days of rain.
JUSTIN HARDING: No, I did nine, nine and nine. We, I had a terrible front nine on Tuesday and I decided to try it again on Wednesday morning and it was a bit better and I actually negotiated it quite nicely this morning. But I didn't really, I didn't want to overdo it. Everyone sometimes kinds of comes to Augusta and tries to play as many rounds as they can. I kind of wanted to stick to the same sort of game plan and setup that I normally have every other week.

Q. How disappointing was that bogey on the 18th?
JUSTIN HARDING: It was naughty. It really wasn't actually that bad a shot, I was aiming right of the flag and it kind of popped up on me. Probably would have been better off in the fairway, but it is what it is. I kind of thought I hit a half decent bunker shot and I just misjudged the speed of the putt because I thought I holed it when it came off the blade. But at the end of the day you're going to make some mistakes out here. I would be surprised ‑‑ nobody really goes bogey‑free, it's just a matter of making more birdies than bogeys and seeing what happens over the weekend.

Q. When did you start using the word naughty? It seems to pop up every now and then.
JUSTIN HARDING: No, quite honestly I have no idea.
(Laughter.)
Q.(No Microphone.)
JUSTIN HARDING: It was, look, I mean, I played, I made a good par save on 13, I had a mud ball and I was by no means going anywhere near the flag, but kind of just grinded my way through the back nine.
I hit a good shot on 15 and hit a pretty good shot on 16 too, that putt was lightning.
17, I hit a good one as well and made a putt.
So I would love to have got into the clubhouse at 4‑under par, but I was actually trying to give myself another birdie chance, sometimes it doesn't quite happen. It's all right. We got lots of golf left to play, I'll be all right.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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