THE AMERICAN EXPRESS

January 22, 2022

Lanto Griffin

PGA WEST Pete Dye Stadium Course

Quick Quotes

Q. 15-under par, nice round out there today here. Just some general impressions on the round.

LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, it wasn't as clean as the last couple days, but this week is kind of a warm-up week to start the year. I'm battling a little bit of a back injury and today it was a little cooler, the Santa Ana winds coming in, so I think all three courses are going to play tougher today.

So I would have been happy with 3-under at the start of the day, just knowing the winds and the way my back feels, so yeah, I'm pretty surprised to be in the situation, to be honest. Tuesday we weren't sure if we were going to play, so we kept expectations low. Hit a few wayward shots today but managed my game really well and I feel like the putter's rolling really nice.

Q. What's the issue with the back?

LANTO GRIFFIN: So I picked my dog up, it was about 1 a.m., his hips were hurting him a little bit, so I was trying to carry him up the stairs, felt a little bit of a pop. And it's just kind of a bulging disk hitting a nerve and some inflammation. So doing everything I possible can.

I was bummed to miss Sony, took that one off and just, I figure I would come out here, better to be out here in the warm weather and get ready for Torrey, Torrey is one of my favorite events of the year.

So it's feeling a lot better than I thought it would and I'm playing a lot better than I thought I would so it's been a really fun week.

Q. When did you pick the dog up?

LANTO GRIFFIN: It happened about a week before Sony and I was fully planning on going to Sony. I was playing -- which is probably why it didn't get better -- but the night, Saturday night I was supposed to fly to Sony Sunday morning and I couldn't really bend over to pack and I called my caddie and I was like, Man, 15-hour flight. So we decided just to take it off and I got a lot of PT work done and still hit some balls and took four, five days off that week and got back and, yeah, I guess it's a good decision to come out here to the desert and hopefully it holds up tomorrow.

Q. How much has that affected you on the course this week and have you kind of geared it down a little bit than you would usually do?

LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, so the first day it was, it wasn't feeling great Thursday, I hit a lot of really low drivers, just teed it up low and just playing within myself, knowing what I can do.

So today we hit more irons off the tees and I'm putting really nice, so I'm just trying to give myself looks and see what happens. But yesterday it felt great, I didn't feel any tightness, no pain at all. Today was a little bit, you know, kind of in the middle. So hopefully tomorrow's going to feel a bit more like yesterday and I'll go back tonight and watch my Niners hopefully beat the Packers, but get some rest tonight and get some treatment and see what happens.

Q. Speaking of yesterday you had a sparkling round out there on the Stadium Course, you get to go tackle it again tomorrow. Just thoughts on what you can draw on from yesterday and just looking forward to tomorrow?

LANTO GRIFFIN: I think the wind's going to be I think seven to eight tomorrow, I don't think we're going to have the wind we had today. It's a tough golf course. If you play well you get rewarded, so it's a typical Pete Dye. If you think your way around and you hit the right shots you can go low like I did yesterday, but it's one of those courses where if you're a little bit off it can bite you.

So we'll have a good game plan. For me it's going to be rest tonight, trying to bet the body feeling good enough tomorrow to just go out there and not really have to think about tightness or making a full turn or anything like that.

So I feel comfortable out there and I know Sunday's going, it's going to be a fun battle tomorrow.

Q. Most importantly what sort of dog do you have and what's the dog's name?

LANTO GRIFFIN: His name is Troy. I love him to death. He didn't ask me to pick him up, so that was all on me. But he's like a Lab Shar Pei, we got him from the shelter when COVID hit.