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SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2007

Brad Bryant

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, in today with an even par round of 72, for a two day total of 143, 1-under par in the 68th Senior PGA Championship.
Brad, a lot of activity on that scorecard for a even par round. Five birdies, three bogeys, and one double bogey.
BRAD BRYANT: Yeah.
KELLY ELBIN: Interesting day, huh?
BRAD BRYANT: I played well today. Didn't hit the ball quite as well as yesterday. And I hit my worst shot of the year today, which was on the 10th hole. I sort of kind of half topped a 3-wood down into the bushes and ended up in a footprint in sort of a sandy area and could only advance the ball just a little ways and just ended up making a double bogey all because basically I just hit a really, really bad shot.
So Tony was making fun of me, telling me I should have used a tee. But that's okay. All in all it was all right.
KELLY ELBIN: Would you go through your birdies and your bogeys and give us also a sense of the difference in conditions you encountered this morning versus yesterday afternoon.
BRAD BRYANT: I'll start talking about the conditions. It was a little less windy today. So the wind was a little more difficult to figure. We had it figured really good yesterday. And today it was actually having a little less wind made it a little more difficult on some of the downwind holes because we weren't sure how far the ball was going to go off the tee.
I know that on the 7th hole, the par-5 there? Is that what it is?
KELLY ELBIN: Yes.
BRAD BRYANT: Yeah. I hit a really good drive there and we misjudged how far the ball's going to fly and ended up in one of the real deep whatever you call them, sand areas.
And even though I hit a good shot, it turned out very bad. And that was just because of the wind difference between yesterday and today. We just misjudged how much the wind was going to help us. So it took a few holes to sort of get used to the wind not being quite as strong.
I started today, I bogeyed the first hole. I just hit a really bad iron shot there for some reason, I'm not sure exactly what happened.
Then I birdied 3 and 4. On both of those holes I just hit sort of excellent iron shots. Probably less than 12 feet, I guess.
The fourth hole I hit a 5-iron to about three feet. That was probably the best shot of the day.
Let's see, 6 I made a birdie. Oh, yeah, I hit an 8-iron in there about 12 feet again and made a nice putt.
Then made the double at 10.
11, I 2-putted from about 40 feet. I hit a 4-iron on the green.
Bogeyed 14. I 3-putted that green. I hit what I thought was a pretty good second putt and the ball just tried to take a victory lap, but instead it didn't make it quite all the way around and in, it only made it halfway and out.
Then 15, I made a nice putt there. My longest putt of the tournament probably about a 25 footer or something like that. 22 feet there. That was a pretty long putt.
17, I hit my tee shot a little left and ended up in the trap. And if you're in that left hand trap you basically play for a 4. And I just hit my second, my bunker shot a little too far left and made bogey and then.
And then almost birdied the last hole.
KELLY ELBIN: Open it up for questions, please.

Q. You were in here Tuesday that you had not played the course and you said by Friday you and your caddie would have it figured out where to hit it. Have you figured it out after two rounds or has the wind been a detriment to that?
BRAD BRYANT: Well, the one thing we definitely know is that 80 yards in the bushes off the 10th tee is not a good spot. We have got that figured out.
We figured today, both yesterday and today we managed the course very nicely. Today we missed a couple on the downwind holes where the into the wind holes we figured it just right. So I think that both Tony and I have a pretty good feel for the golf course and now it's just a matter of hitting the ball where we're looking. If I can hit the ball where we're trying to hit it, it sounds real simple, I guess, but that's part of the figuring out what the wind is doing.
So if the wind remains the way it is, I think that we have got a pretty good handle on the golf course. I'm not sure that I have a real good handle on my golf game, but we had a good handle on the golf course.

Q. Are you satisfied where you are at this stage, halfway through now, in relation to the field?
BRAD BRYANT: Yeah, well, we don't know what they will do this afternoon. It's not quite as breezy as it was yesterday. Most important thing is I made the cut. I get to play on the weekend. So that's good. So I guess that where I am in the tournament I'm pretty well satisfied.
I've played a couple of holes not very good. I haven't played the par-5s very well yet. And I made the double bogey today.
So all in all, I'm kind of fortunate to be under par, actually. With the holes that I played poorly.

Q. Come Sunday afternoon if you're in a position where you're coming down that stretch against the wind and you need to pick up a stroke what do you think is the better strategy? Can you be aggressive on any of those holes or do you hope the wind and the course kind of take its toll on somebody? How do you look at that?
BRAD BRYANT: I don't think that you -- it's very difficult to say at the moment. If the wind remains the way it is, you can be pretty aggressive with your iron shots. Getting -- you just have to get, if you get the ball in the right position off the tee you can be aggressive into the greens. And so this golf course is sort of all about driving the ball in the right spot.
If you drive it in the right spot then it's -- there's a few holes where you cannot be. You cannot be aggressive on the 14th hole. You just hit it in the middle of the green and try to 2-putt. There's a few other holes where if you hit a good drive, you can hit the ball close to the hole.
And I think that by the end of the day you'll see that. You're going to see lots of birdies today. Even though you may not see lots of low scores, you're going to still see lots of birdies made. So that just tells you that given the right drive, you can make some birdies on the golf course. And I think that, for instance, picking your spots to be aggressive will be very important.

Q. Have you played on this paspalum grass in the past and do you have any thoughts, is it good, bad, bumpy, true, what are your thoughts on the grass?
BRAD BRYANT: I don't like it very much. That's just a personal preference though. You say, what is it that you like? I don't like cherry soda. But I like Diet Coke. So it's kind of really a matter of personal preference.
I think that this particular grass tends to be a little on the bumpy side. And it suits -- this are some guys that putt it better than others. For instance, Fred Funk's won twice this year both on paspalum greens. So it does not -- my putting stroke is much better on Bermuda, or maybe slower bent grass, that type of thing.
This grass is very difficult to get the, to kind of get the speed of. And it tends to be a little on the bumpy side. But I don't know that you could grow -- you certainly couldn't grow bent grass out there, so.

Q. You mentioned earlier that we would probably see a lot of birdies out there and I guess there are also going to be a lot of bogeys and others. Do you think that makes for an exciting golf tournament from your standpoint, from a professional standpoint?
BRAD BRYANT: Well, I can tell you -- I can give you my personal preference and then you decide, okay. How is that. Most people think I'm nuts, so why not you guys too.
For instance, I think the 17th hole at TPC at Sawgrass is the worst hole in golf. It takes no imagination, everyone's playing exactly the same shot. Everyone has to hit it the same way. So it take as way the sort of the imagination and the talent that some guys have for doing things differently.
There are some holes out here on this golf course that are pretty much the same way. You have to hit the ball into the middle of the green, takes no imagination, they don't give you the chance to run the ball up or play anything other than a shot into the wind that stops on the green.
So my personal preference is a golf course where you can roll the ball around the golf course, where, especially for a Major Championship, I like to see a guy be able to do lots of things with his golf ball and still get the ball on the green near the hole. Rather than just having to hit the same kind of golf shot.
On this course, for instance, the 17th hole here, it's taking a 4 or 5-iron and trying to hit a low shot. Everybody is trying to hit the same shot and whether you actually hit it or not. You know, today I hit a 5-iron, tried to hit a low cut with a 5-iron, hit a little hook, my ball went in the bunker. D.A. Weibring, his ball buried in the bunker. Playing with Takahashi, all of us hit exactly the same shot. Takahashi's faded five feet ended up on the green. Mine ended up hooking a little bit, ended up in the bottom of the bunker. D.A.'s flew 15 feet further than mine and he had to take an unplayable. And yet we all hit essentially the same shot. So that's my personal preference.

Q. Does the, especially on short putts does the wind and the combination with the little rough surface make things even that much more dicey?
BRAD BRYANT: Yeah, this is, I mean, the -- when I say that the greens are difficult, I'm talking about for me. The greens are actually in really good shape. I felt like the greens today were much smoother than they were yesterday and that may be from just playing in the morning. There's nothing at all wrong with the greens. So, but you asked my personal opinion, but I can tell you that there's no question no matter what kind of greens we're playing on right now, anything inside of five feet, three to five feet is very, very difficult out there right now. Because the wind tends to blow you around, so for me, yesterday I practiced on the putting green, I tried to move the ball back in my stance slightly. And hit down on the ball slightly more so that I hold my position a little bit better. And today I handled the short putts pretty well. And I think that that's going to, by the end of the week, that's going to be something that's going to be real marked in the guys that play well, because the guys that play well and shoot low scores are those guys that are going to really trust their stroke and really stay down and low through the ball on those short putts. Because as soon as you come up out of one, the wind catches the ball and catches you and you hit it off line. So it's, there's a lot of discipline to hitting those three and five footers out there right now. Just staying very, very still and making sure you stroke down and through the ball.
KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant at 1-under par through two rounds at the Senior PGA Championship.
BRAD BRYANT: Guys, thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

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