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THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 2, 2007

Robert Allenby

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA

CHRIS REIMER: Welcome back, Robert, a 68 today, 5-under for the tournament. Up-and-down day, must have been nice to finish there with a birdie on 9. Just talk about your day a little bit.
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, obviously when you tee off before 7:00 in the morning, the body is not quite in the fluent way it should be. But yeah, bogeys at 10 and 11 wasn't the greatest start in the world. I hit a lot of good shots after those couple of holes, sort of knuckled down a bit. I guess for the first hour and a half, I had no wind and it was a perfect opportunity to make some birdies. And when you start with bogey, bogey, you're thinking to yourself, "Well, this is not good, because it's only going to get harder from here."
But I made a couple of nice birdies on the back nine, I want to say 13, 15, 17, which 15 and 17, you make birdies there, I think you make up a couple of shots there because they are two very tough holes. I hit a couple of great iron shots into both of them and only to a few feet.
And the front nine, you know, I pretty much hit a lot of good shots. I hit some good putts and hit a couple of average ones, but it's just one of those days. The wind was ever so slightly a different direction, and it seemed like a lot of the holes were more across today than into. If you were just slightly off with your irons, you just couldn't quite get it close enough. But a good way to finish at the last, hitting a wedge to five feet or whatever.
It was a good way to finish. I'm happy with 5-under. I think 5-under is a pretty good score after two days. This golf course is only going to get tougher from this moment on, so I know I'll be somewhere around the lead come the end of the day, maybe two or three away from the lead. But you can make them up pretty easy on this golf course, and you can lose them pretty easy, too. I'm just happy that I'm in a good position for the weekend.

Q. Weather shows no signs of changing; do you figure maybe single figures wins?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I'm going with double digits. I said double digits at the start of the week, I thought 10-under, 11-under would probably win this tournament.
I'm 5-under at the moment. I can definitely shoot 5-under on the weekend, even if it blows on this, if I'm on my game and if I can play the way I know I can play. It just depends. Stranger things have happened.
You know, I didn't hit the ball as good as I did yesterday, but I nearly scored as good, so that's the most important thing when it's blustery like this, you know, it's gusting a fair bit. So you've got to be -- you've got to accept that you are going to make up-and-down a few times, and especially where they are putting some of the flags, they are tucking them and making them pretty tough to get to.

Q. Was there a point maybe earlier in your career you might not have handled starting with those two bogeys, 10 and 11, to start your round as well as you did today?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, absolutely. It's not the greatest start in the world, but I guess at the end of the day -- I was a little frustrated early. I was probably more tired than anything. I had only just woken up an hour and a bit ago prior to that.
You know, probably in the past I might have been -- might have carried it on a few more. I nearly did carry them on quite a few holes. I had to make about an 8-footer for par on 12, so, yeah, things were getting a bit edgy there.
But I made that putt and I made birdie at the next, so that got me going.

Q. Is part of that, too, maybe just you mentioned it yesterday, trying to be more positive and look at the bright side of things?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously I'm trying to be positive, but really just get out of my own way and let myself go and try not to hold myself back and just see a shot, the first one that comes to mind and just stand up there and rip it.
You know, when you do that, you hit great shots, and because you don't give yourself time to think of anything negative. I guarantee every golfer out there, if you spend enough time over it, you can think of something that's negative. And that's what I'm working on. That's what I'm trying to achieve. Out of everything, that's my main goal. Obviously main goal is to win tournaments, but you've got to think, how am I going to get to that position to have a chance to win, and that's to get out of my own way and just let it be.
You know, the more you dwell on something, the less it's going to happen. So I think it's just important to forget it as quick as you can whenever you do hit a bad shot and just move on. I'm always telling myself, you know, get over it and move on. That's just what you've got to do.

Q. When you tee off that early, was vision at all an issue this morning or was there enough?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I was fine on the first tee, yeah, not a problem. By the time we got to the tee it was fine. It was probably 20 to 7:00 it was pretty good.

Q. When you go off that early, though, how long does it take for your back to really get loose? You've had some chiropractic done on your back --
ROBERT ALLENBY: What time is it now? (Looking down at watch.)

Q. A little after noon. (Laughter.)
ROBERT ALLENBY: It's still not there yet. I'm definitely an afternoon person. Normally, I mean, I work out in the gym, I was up about 20 past 5:00 this morning, and I got here, just trying to think -- actually I'm trying to think what I'm. I think I got up a bit earlier than that. I might have got up before 5:00. I left the house at 20 past 5:00.
So I was up I think 20 to 5:00 maybe. I worked out for about half an hour in the trailer here, jumped on the treadmill and then I go through all of my stretches and then I have a full-time trainer that stretches me. So, you know, I go through a series of exercise; by the time I get to the driving range, I'm pretty good. I'm ready to go. The body was awake but the mind wasn't.

Q. Did the course play a little easier today or it played about the same as yesterday?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I would say that the first six -- I'd say the first seven holes, eight holes on the back nine, played a lot easier than what they did yesterday, sure, because there wasn't hardly any breeze at all. It felt like the front nine played a lot tougher today. I think because the angle of the breeze was just going -- for instance it was more into your face on the first hole than yesterday it was more off the left.
So those -- it just played different. It just played a couple of yards longer each hole it seemed to me, or a couple of yards shorter, depending which angle of the way it was going. I think with the way the wind is going today, it's only going to get a little bit stronger. It will probably play a bit tougher than yesterday.

Q. On No. 10, the 525 (yard) par 4, when does it start getting to be too many yards for a par 4 in your mind?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Oh, that's not far. Before 7:00 this morning, I was hitting driver, 4-iron, so that's not that far. I've played longer holes in U.S. Open than that. There's been U.S. Open holes that have been driver, 3-wood.
I think that's fine. They could go back -- they could nearly play us off the back tee. I mean, we're off the front, we're not even playing often back tee, the tee that we're meant to be playing off.
They are just being considerate with the way the wind is blowing. They know that the wind is going to come out of the -- what is it, the southwest or whatever it is, southeast I think it is. You know, they are being smart about it. They are not being silly. The TOUR are pretty good like that.
And if we know that the wind is going to come out of the north, then they will probably put the tee back. But I think we are going to have pretty much the same wind I think for the rest of the week.
Is there a change tomorrow coming?

Q. I think maybe Sunday.
ROBERT ALLENBY: So Sunday, that might come oust the north then. Normally when he can when he can when there's a change it will come out of the north this time of the year.

Q. Isn't 525 yards --
ROBERT ALLENBY: It's not playing that. It's downhill, two yards. (Laughter) Just enough.

Q. Do you have friends, family out here watching you even that early in the morning?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I've got quite a few of them. Actually most of the crowd were all my friends -- well, I had to pay them to be my friends. (Laughter).

Q. The issue of spectator cameras is not new, but with what happened yesterday, one seemingly actually caused an injury to a golfer, do you think it puts a new spotlight on the issue?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't know a thing about it. Can you fill me in?

Q. John Daly yesterday was teeing off, his third hole. Camera flash went off on his backswing and he tried to put the brakes on and wound up hurting his shoulder or rib or something and had to withdraw.
ROBERT ALLENBY: Oh, really? I saw he withdrew, but I didn't know what had happened.
That's just -- that's just a freak thing I think. He's in pretty good shape, so -- (laughter).

Q. Do you think it calls for more vigilance on cameras?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I wouldn't go right into it. I think it's just a waste of time, that's all. That's just a freak thing. That's like just getting hit on the head with a golf ball. Pretty one in a million.
I mean, I know it could happen -- a camera could go off a lot more than getting hit on the head by a golf ball, but yeah, I can't comment. It's not my place to comment on really. I mean, that's a shame because he's a huge draw card for the tournament, so that's a huge loss for the tournament. He's a great player and he attracts a lot of people. When you are like that, you are going to get some people that do have, you know, cameras. They want a photo of him, you know. He's a special person.

Q. Is it rare when you're playing, the groups you have following you, is it rare that something at this point would even bother you? Are most people that are around you, when you're out on the course and you have a group following you, don't 99.9 percent of the people understand: Don't talk, don't use the cell phone, don't walk around when somebody is in the swing?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I would say most of the people don't understand. Even the marshals don't understand. They are the ones a lot of the time that move more than the spectators. Because they think they are doing the right thing by moving over closer to the spectators and putting their hands up. But you know, eight times out of ten, when they do that, you're over your putt and they are in line with you and on the other side of the hole so to speak.
Just, you know, we deal with that every day that we play golf on Tour. It's not only in this country; it happens in Australia, it happens in Japan. I mean, most of the other countries around the world, in Asia, the cell phones go off like 10 a hole. So you learn to adapt and you learn to put up with it. At the end of the day it's no big deal and if you are concentrating properly, it shouldn't put you off that much.
CHRIS REIMER: Let's go through your club selection real quick, bogey to start on 10.
ROBERT ALLENBY: That was a driver, 4-iron, left trap.
And then 11, I hit 3-wood, 5-iron into 11 to about 35 feet. I 3-putted it. I hit the first one too hard and hit the second one too soft.
Birdie at 13. I hit driver and then I was semi-plugged in the bunker on the left and blasted a sand iron to about five feet.
15, 7-iron to six feet.
5-iron at 17 to about eight feet.
4, 5-wood off the tee and then a 7-iron to about three inches.
7, tried to hit 6-iron, hit it in the left trap, had the worst lie possible and didn't make up-and-down.
9, 3-wood, pitching wedge to about five feet.
CHRIS REIMER: Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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