home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2006

Brad Bryant

EDMOND, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, playing in his second th Senior PGA Championship. Brad is in with a 4-under par 67 today. One shot out of the lead at this point. Brad, it looked like everything kind of revolved around the back nine today.

BRAD BRYANT: Well, yeah, a little bit. I mean, actually, I played pretty good today and I putted very well. Probably one of my best putting rounds. I had a 3-putt on the 7th hole from just off the fringe, but other than that, I just, I putted beautifully. I've had nice control of my speed all day and I just kind of happened to finish fast. I finished eagle, birdie, par. And so that kind of, when that happens, you know, you kind of gain two shots on the field there real quick.

KELLY ELBIN: Would you go through your card, particularly with the eagle at 16.

BRAD BRYANT: Well, let's see. What did I do? I bogeyed 7.

I birdied 9. I made real nice putt at 9.

I birdied the 12th hole. Made about a 15 footer there or maybe a little longer putt, I can't remember. I'm old and I forget.

Then, I just really kind of played well. I hit most of the greens and then on 16 I hate 3-iron, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and a 3-iron to about 18 feet and Loren kind of chipped his ball right down my line, so I really knew the line of the putt and I hit this putt that just, it was just a beautiful putt. It just went right in the middle of the hole.

Then on 17 I hit an 8-iron about 10 feet, I guess, and made a real nice putt there.

So that was kind of the day. It was -- therefore 15 holes it was just kind of play along and I actually made a real nice par at the 11th hole. I drove the ball to the right with a 3-wood in the bunker. Which is just a horrible bunker and wedged it out of the bunker and wedged it up about four feet and made that for par. I think that was kind of a, that was one of the big holes in the round was to make par at that hole. I made par at 11 where I could have made bogey pretty easily. So that was kind of, that kept my round going at that point.

Q. You may be in the last group, you may not, whoever you're going to be with, it's a prominent name, won a lot of tournaments with a pretty aggressive leaderboard. But on a golf course like this, is it, are you more worried about your game against the course or does it matter who you play with out there tomorrow the next two days?

BRAD BRYANT: We have been playing golf together for about 35 years. All those guys up there (Indicating) I've been trying to beat them since 1976, I ain't done it yet. So, you know, it's pretty funny. We have known each other, like I played with Loren Roberts and Mark James today. And although Mark and I have kind of gotten to know each other through the SENIOR Tour, we had known each other before and of course Loren and I have known each other since Loren first came on TOUR and Loren and I are involved in the bible study together. Have been since we have very first started on the PGA TOUR. And so we just, it's always good being with Loren and playing with Mark's always a hoot. He's quite a character. But with all the guys, you know, I've known these guys for so long that I feel pretty comfortable with most of them.

Q. One of your earliest coaches was a native Oklahoman, can you tell me about the impact that Bill Aldrich (phonetic) had on your life?

BRAD BRYANT: He hurt me a lot.

(Laughter.) No, Coach Aldrich (phonetic) was I think I probably owe a lot to Bill, to Coach Aldrich (phonetic). He kind of kept us going. We had a, when I played high school we had a pretty unbelievable team. We had three scratch handicappers on my high school golf team. And we shot under par a couple of times as a team in high school. So that was pretty significant. And I think coach was, he was always there sort of pushing us and kind of always on our side. It's real funny because back then we were kind of taught to swing the golf club the wrong way. And coach, you know, he tried to help us learn to swing, but the main thing that he did was he kept us playing and he kept us going. And that was all we did. He would pick us up in the dark before school, we would go to the city park and hit golf balls. Then we would go to the golf course and those of us that didn't have rides home, generally he would take us home in the evening, if we needed a ride home. And with that type of dedication, it was pretty good.

Then we also had several parents that were just really helped us too. That all rallied around the coach there. And so it was pretty neat. It was a great place to learn to play golf because we kind of had our on driving range and we had the free run of the golf course, which was only nine holes and no sand traps, and in the summertime us kids took care of it. But it was a great sort of training ground for us. And we had several guys that I believe could have gone on to become really good golfers and just chose to do other things. But coach didn't do too bad because he had two guys that won on the PGA TOUR from his teams.

Q. Gil Morgan began obviously is from here and Peter Jacobsen is playing with him, taking tips from him. What's your story? How are you doing so well out here? And do you like going up against Gil, who knows the course so well and his sharing his tips with Peter.

BRAD BRYANT: Gil probably didn't share any tips with Peter. I think that we all, we all watch Gil because he is such a great player. And always has been. You don't, all you got to do is just hang around Gil for awhile and you learn a lot. So he's one of my favorite guys out here. I like Gil a whole lot.

Q. Growing up around here you must have played in the wind a lot. Do you prefer to play in the wind and do you think that's an advantage this weekend for you?

BRAD BRYANT: I prefer to play when it's calm and cool. But we will play in whatever it comes tomorrow. That's, you know, that's one of the things, it's not for to us decide what we play in, we just go play.

I don't know. I don't know whether I want the wind to blow or not. It's a real hard thing to say. Normally I do better when there's not a lot of wind and when the ground is a little softer, because I tend to carry the ball pretty far with my driver. So I have an advantage if the ground is soft and it's calm, because I can fly the ball so far off the tee.

Having said that, this golf course probably needs a little bit of wind. If you have, if you can read the wind right out here, which Tony, my caddy, and I have done pretty well so far, the wind can actually be your ally on this golf course. And you just, you really have to pay attention to it. But if you're really paying attention to where the wind is, the, you can use the wind to kind of blow the ball into the hole, especially with your iron shots. And I think that's kind of a big key. I think that Gil's played here so much that it's just for him it's just kind of second nature. He knows in this wind, this is where you hit the ball and I think that that's an advantage here. I also think that, I don't know you, how is David playing?

Q. 4-under today.

BRAD BRYANT: With two holes to play? So my two picks this week are doing pretty good so far.

Q. So I assume you were in attack mode when you made your eagle on 16. How many holes can you be in attack mode out there with this course? With the wind.

BRAD BRYANT: I don't think you're ever in attack mode on this golf course. I made an eagle because I hit a good 3-iron and made a nice putt. On this golf course it's much more important, if you can get the ball in the middle of the green pin high, you're going to have lots of birdie putts. That's the hard thing is getting the ball pin high. And there were some holes today where quite honestly, you didn't want the ball pin high because it was, they were kind of sucker pins. There's a few pin placements out here that I would not have, I wouldn't have built. Pete kind of likes doing that. And so I don't think that you can really attack -- there's only a few holes where you can really attack the flag.

Back right on 10. If the pin is back right on 10, we're firing at that one.

Maybe back left on 11.

All the way back on No. 1. You can go at that pin, if you drive the ball in the fairway.

If you're going to go at flags here, you better have the ball in the fairway.

But for the most part you're better off just trying to get the ball pin high. That's the most important thing.

Q. You played the back nine in 7-under par in the first two rounds and the front nine in 1-over. Any particular cause or reason for that?

BRAD BRYANT: I've played the par-5s on the front nine two over. That's the difference.

Yesterday the third hole I drove the ball so far I think we didn't really know what to do, so I chose to lay it up behind a tree, which is always good. And then I hit, I actually hit it on the green and 3-putted.

So what is it? The fifth hole, the other par-5. I think they ought to just destroy that hole. I don't like that hole. It is okay, but they didn't ask me about it to start about. But I like the rest of them pretty good, but I don't like that hole. But there again, the lay up area is kind of real iffy, and so I drove it, like I, today I laid up with a 7-iron because you drive the ball down there and then they got, it's just kind of goofy. And you can hit a 7-iron 200 yards for your second shot there down wind, but you can't really go at the flag with a 4-iron. It's really not my favorite. And so yesterday I made bogey there by hitting the ball, I hit a bad shot, chose the wrong club and hit the ball in the sand trap and hit the ball over the green into the sand trap again and then made a six. So.

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, tied for second at this point in the Senior PGA Championship.

BRAD BRYANT: Guys, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297