ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 5, 2021

Lanto Griffin

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. Assess your day, if you could, please.

LANTO GRIFFIN: It was solid. It was probably one of the better round I've played this year. Swing thoughts are pretty simple and putter feels great.

So I just kind of plodded my way around, played a little bit more conservative off the tee today and it paid off.

Q. What made it one of your better rounds in recent memory?

LANTO GRIFFIN: A lot of my good rounds this year have felt kind of high stress, kind of where I don't feel like I'm swinging it that great and I'm kind of scrambling around all over the place.

Today it felt pretty comfortable and in control of what I was doing. So that was nice. It was nice to not be all over the place, like I have been the last few months.

Q. The course seemed like it's kind of playing a little sneaky tough. Last year on the weekend it just, the wind blew, it firmed up so much. But you haven't had a ton of wind and there's some rain to soften it up, does it feel like it's kind of playing sneaky tough this week?

LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, 14's a good example. Me and Patton both hit pretty good iron shots in there and my caddie gave me my putter, and Patton thought he was on the green too, and we get up there and we're in the back bunker.

So the greens were firming up perfect today. I think some of the moisture, it felt like, kind of came out of the greens from yesterday. But the greens are perfect and they're fast. And it's not an easy golf course, even when it's low winds like today.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow, hopefully it doesn't rain too much and we can still play a fairly firm golf course, because it played perfect out there today.

Q. What do you like more, a tournament where you have to make a ton of birdies and it might be 16-, 17-, 18-under that wins or one that's more like this where maybe 10-under may win?

LANTO GRIFFIN: I like the lower, the lower the score I like. I like plodding my way around and I like when the field kind of separates, because it rewards good shots.

As long as it's playing fair. Last year it got kind of ridiculous on Sunday, just how firm the greens were. But even that's fun.

Any time you kind of really have to think through every shot is, and where to miss it and what shot you're hitting off the tee, that kind of suits my game. So courses like this and Riviera and Torrey Pines are, I like, I really enjoy playing them.

Q. I don't know if I've ever got this story about player and caddie.

LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, Andy, I didn't know exactly who he was, and I was making a little bit of a change. And I asked a couple of my buddies that caddied some really good names, and I asked John Limanti and the first thing I told him was, I'm not asking you to leave Adam Scott, but I asked him if he had any suggestions. And he threw Andy Sanders in there. And he's had a ton of experience. I mean, he had 10 good years with Jimmy and won a major and so he's been in the heat. And he's great out there.

He gave me a good putting lesson last week after Friday at Concession. My posture was way off and it clicked immediately and the putter's been good ever since.

Q. Does it help that not only does he have that vast experience as a caddie, he's also a good player? But like what's been the best part about you guys meshing, like your personalities?

LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, he's chill. I try not to get too high and too low. Attention to detail. He's always in it, in it with me. I don't feel like, if I hit a bad shot, I'm going to let him down. He's experienced and he's a two-time All-American in college, I never won in college. So I always tell people, he was better in college than I was. So I respect his opinion a lot. So we work well together out there.

Q. What's your mindset heading into the weekend. Is there one thing, if you do it well, you'll have success this weekend?

LANTO GRIFFIN: Just doing exactly what I've done the last -- swing started feeling last week at Concession. I've been getting back to kind of -- the last six months I've been trying to get the same feels I had in the end of 2019 and I haven't been able to get there.

Last week was kind of the, kind of a big week, not so much the way I finished, but swing thoughts and being out there and seeing shots, instead of worrying about everything in my golf swing.

So I got real simple swing thoughts right now and just that's kind of what I was thinking today, tempo, rhythm, keep my head up, nothing crazy.

Where, in the past, it's been kind of all over the place. One week I try one thing, next week I try something else. So just going to focus on what I did the last couple days. And obviously the weather's going to be different, we're not sure, I haven't looked at the forecast today, but it sounds like it's going to be raining and we're playing in it. So just roll with the punches and just take it how it comes.