CHUBB CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SERVPRO

February 15, 2025

Justin Leonard

Tiburón Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Justin, another nice round today. Just start with some general comments on the round and that nice bounceback on the 18th hole.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, thank you. Got off to just a really nice start. I had some wedges early on and I was fortunate to get quite a few of those inside of five or six feet.

And then reading the putts correctly, making them, and just really kind of fell into a nice rhythm with the round. You know, unfortunate to make bogey there at 17. You know, it's a tough hole so it's not certainly the end of the world, but then nice to get one back at 18 and finish on a good note.

You know, it was a fun day. It was solid. I think the wind was up enough to where it had my full attention all day long, and that's a good thing.

Q. You were telling John Cook a little bit ago that you put in some extra work on Thursday coming into the competition rounds. Can you talk us through what you were doing there?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, so with this golf course, you know, a lot of the areas that you're trying to hit it into are very shallow from a green depth standpoint.

So you got to be precise with your yardages, and I wasn't very good with my wedges, hitting little 9-irons and thing like that in the pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday.

So Thursday afternoon I spent some time on the range on my launch monitor just trying to get those numbers dialed in.

I think I love to practice, but you practice a lot of full swings, and there is days when it seems like you got good yardages and everything and so you don't have to think about, okay, I need to take five yards off of this or that.

I think it was a good thing in the practice round I was in between yardages for two straight days and realized, okay, I need to put some work in.

Nothing technical, but just work on hitting those numbers, and I did that. Certainly it was better yesterday and it was very good today.

Q. Do you think that moving down to Florida here a couple years ago, has it better prepared you to play in those Florida conditions first as living in Colorado and coming down and playing in the Florida swing before ya'll head off west?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, living in Florida prepares me for everything. Certainly I grew up playing on some bermudagrass, not necessarily putting on a lot of bermudagrass in Dallas, and so being in Florida, practicing bermuda, I think that is a bit of an advantage. Especially on a golf course like this because there is a lot of grain, not just the greens, but around the greens and things like that. I think being able to practice day in, day out on bermudagrass, it certainly helps when the tournament is on there.

How does it translate to west coast? It probably doesn't. Hey, look, I'm in good weather and a lot of sunny days and able to work on my game when I want to.

Q. You've mentioned to John Cook earlier you have been in this position plenty of times before. Do you take kind of any of the learnings from those in your PGA TOUR days and your position now to compete and try to win tomorrow?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I've won golf tournaments before.

Q. Yes.

JUSTIN LEONARD: It's been a very long time. So to have the opportunity is something that I -- that's why we're all out here playing.

So to be able to have the opportunity tomorrow and be in a good position, you know, I'm going to sleep well tonight and wake up tomorrow and, you know, it's not going to change how I feel about myself, whatever happens tomorrow.

I'm just excited to have the opportunity to try and win a tournament out here, you know, and to be able to go up against Ernie and the other guys. It's a treat. This is why we put in the work during the offseason and the weeks off and even the weeks on, to be in this position.

So we'll just see what tomorrow has in store.