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May 1, 2007
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Lucas Glover to the interview room here at the Wachovia Championship. Lucas is a former Clemson Tiger. You were out there today in a practice round with some of your brethren and you auctioned off the right, so to speak, to caddie for you and help raise some money for the South Carolina Junior Golf Association as well as Clemson golf. Can you talk about that a little bit?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, it was something we started two years ago. Our tournament has been going on, this will be the fifth year, but last year we did it for this event and it went over very well and had a good time. This year we did it at Hilton Head and here, as well. I auctioned it off twice this year. It's fun. It's kind of a big draw for people to get inside the ropes and hang out with Kym and the guys here and then Steve Wilmot and his crew are nice enough to get them badges and let them do it.
We had to work with the tournament a little bit, but they were nice enough to let us do it. It's fun for those guys and it's fun for us, too, because we get to hang out with them and show them what we do out here.
Q. Who else played with you?
LUCAS GLOVER: Jonathan and Charles Warren, Jonathan Byrd, Charles Warren, and we had two guys and their sons that caddied for us, and oddly enough the dads traded off. They went three-hole intervals. They tortured the kids and made them carry the whole way. It was fun, we had a good day and they had a good time.
Q. Just to follow up, is that auction held on-line? How do people bid?
LUCAS GLOVER: It's a live auction. We had a fundraising tournament and then a silent auction, live auction at night. It's a live auction night.
Q. It's the one later in the summer?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yes, sir. It's usually the Monday -- excuse me, the Thursday and Friday after Q-school ends.
Q. Can you talk about your game? Obviously last year this course suited you pretty well. Are you confident this week?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I like it here. It's definitely a ball-striker's golf course, and when you're hitting it good you're able to get to some of the holes, and then if you putt well, obviously. But it does suit me because there's a lot of draw tee shots, and it's playing fast.
Length is a strength for me, so I can get some shorter clubs in. But a lot of the holes I just stand up on the tee and they look good to me. I've had good success here, I like it, and pretty much a home game for me.
Q. Does that help or hurt, the home game?
LUCAS GLOVER: I think it helps. You can't ever have too much support, you know? But there's a few more distractions. But that goes with the territory and you learn how to deal with it.
Q. Do you feel like your game is starting to get into the groove a little bit, you played well in New Orleans, played well at The Masters? Do you feel like you're making strides?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I hit the ball pretty well today. I didn't make as many putts as I wanted. A little driver change, hit some more fairways in New Orleans than I had been. You know, I have been -- I've had a good week of practice and a week off last week, so I'm ready to go Thursday, I think, just iron out the putting and get going.
Q. Talk about the relaxed environment playing with your buddies today. Y'all do that a lot?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, you do. If you can't relax on Tuesday, you're sure not going to be able to relax on Thursday. It's fun, and you've got to -- it's one or the other. You either play Tuesday like you're going to play Thursday or try to relax and get ready for Thursday, so one way or the other.
Q. What do you actually try to achieve in a practice round? What happens during that?
LUCAS GLOVER: For me it's getting comfortable with the tee shots because no matter how many times you come to a course, you've still got to try to hit the fairway. If you're not comfortable with a club or one of the holes, you've got to work on it.
And then the speed of the greens Tuesday and Wednesday is very important, to be comfortable with that, especially on greens like this. If you're not hitting the ball off the tee well, you hit a couple and then work on your long putts on the green. That's me. Everybody does different stuff.
Q. The last three holes here get all the attention, but is there another hole or two that sort of scares you when you're out there that you've got to be careful?
LUCAS GLOVER: I think the 3 through 7 stretch is just as important as the last three. 3 and 4 are good par holes, 6 is a great par hole, and then 5 and 7 you've got to jump on because you're probably not going to play 3, 4 and 6 even or under. Starting on the front is an advantage because you can get under.
If you start on the back, you've got those right in the middle and they can either make or break a round in my opinion. But I think the 3 through 7 stretch is very important because you can attack a little bit.
Q. When you were playing here last year, there was an awful lot of attention on you because of what was going on with the Ryder Cup and that sort of thing. Can you talk about how your mindset is this year as compared to this time last year? Are you more comfortable with where you're going?
LUCAS GLOVER: Well, I think the results from this week jumped me up into the position. I think that got me to 6th or something.
The mindset this week for me is just kind of have fun with it because of all the friends, family and other stuff going on. It's similar to a Hilton Head or a Greensboro for me, that you just enjoy it and have fun and just get prepared best you can, and then it's almost better the other way because you might not have time to hit a thousand balls or putts or whatever.
It'll be similar to last year, just try to get ready and get comfortable with the golf course because it's going to be different this year. It's a lot firmer and a lot faster already, and I know it's supposed to rain a little bit tomorrow night. Not much rough, but it's a firm course and we're not going to need it. Maybe laying back off the tees and hitting some longer shots into the green just to make sure you're in the fairway. It'll be a tougher course in that regard.
Q. Can you put it into words how tough it is to win a golf tournament, especially one like this with everybody here?
LUCAS GLOVER: It's very hard. I might not be the best person to ask because I haven't won very often. You know, for me it's -- I haven't done very well lately in contention. I'm feeling how hard it is.
The more you get there, the more comfortable you get. Maybe the second one is harder than the first. I couldn't put my finger on it. If I could, I'd be doing it, I promise you.
Q. Some courses test imagination and creativity more than others. Where does this rank in the way it's playing?
LUCAS GLOVER: It does test that because you have to work it into the fairways, work it into the greens, draws, fades, highs, lows, and then around the greens, as well. Because of all the roll-offs and chipping areas and the way the greens are, to be honest with you, you've got to think a lot more out there than you would at some other courses because of where you can and can't miss it because there are places that you can't get it up-and-down from. You can't roll it by 50 feet and expect to make that putt.
Imagination is a big part of it because you have to hit all the shots.
Q. If I can follow up, there's some talk that creativity has kind of gone by the wayside in some ways because of the equipment changes, the ball. Is that true? Do you find that to be -- shaping shots, that type of thing?
LUCAS GLOVER: For me, no, because that's -- I play that way. There are guys out here that don't that are very successful guys out here that don't. There are very successful guys that do.
As a whole, maybe a little bit, but the way technology has gone, the ball doesn't curve as much. That's not our fault. I'm saying that as a whole. We get criticized because everybody says we're robotic, we're this, we're that. Well, it's the hand we've been dealt. You're not going to play two or three off-suit in a hand of poker. It's what you've got. You wait on that good hand, and we got it.
Q. Everybody has lists. This golf course is not in the Top 100, yet it gets all the praise, and 28 of the Top 30 in the world are here. What, if anything, does that say about this golf course or ratings?
LUCAS GLOVER: It says everything and nothing about the other (laughter). But it says everything because it doesn't matter what their date will be, they'll always have a good field here because of the golf course. You know, hospitality is wonderful, everything about the tournament is wonderful, but the bottom line is the golf course.
You know, all you've got to do is look at the list of guys that are here, and you ask every one of them why they're here, the golf course is awesome and they treat us great. Seldom do we hear the other way around in my opinion. But I don't know how it's not in the Top 100, but it's not. Maybe we'll invite them down for this week and let them see how it looks.
Q. Ever since you came out there's been a lot of attention on you. You've been considered amongst the top young players under 30 and all this sort of thing. How do you look at expectations like that, and are they in your mind on any kind of regular basis?
LUCAS GLOVER: You know, I've answered this question the same way for a long time, is that my expectations of myself are a lot more than what have been put on me. I think that's probably true for any player out here is shoot 66 and you want to shoot 65. Nobody is ever happy. You shoot the best round of your life and you missed a six-footer. My expectations of myself are very high, and I haven't reached where I think I should be.
So it's really not -- I really don't think about it that much because of what I expect of myself.
STEWART MOORE: Lucas, thanks for your time. Best of luck this week.
End of FastScripts
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