	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

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 9, 2007

Arron Oberholser

TULSA, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Arron Oberholser, ladies and gentlemen, in with a round of 2-under par 68. Lowest score thus far in the opening round of the 89th PGA Championship. Arron, nice playing. Some thoughts on your round and the conditions out there, please.
ARRON OBERHOLSER: Thank you. I think everybody knows what the conditions are like. I don't need to restate it. I played really solid today. Stayed out of my own way, just really had a good time out there. I didn't think much and focused on the golf. And 68 is great. I had one hiccup and it didn't upset me, to be honest with you. I think it's part of the maturing process and realizing you're at a major championship and the golf course is very difficult and mistakes like that are going to happen. You just have to accept it and move on and realize that everybody's going to do that this week, especially on a golf courses like this.
KELLY ELBIN: Can you go through your card including the one hiccup at 16.
ARRON OBERHOLSER: You want descriptions of the birdies?
Let me see. 2 was a driver and a 5-iron, and I had about 50 feet there. Made a seagoer. Those are always nice as a bonus.
4 was -- what's 4? 3-wood in the first cut over on the left side, pitching wedge just short of the pin and made about a 15-footer down the hill.
10, I hit a 5-iron just through the fairway. Hit another pitching wedge to about two and a half, three feet and tapped that in.
11, I hit an 8-iron to about 20, 25 feet behind the pin and made that. And then 16, hit my drive right in the rough and tried to punch out and was successful in the pitch-out back into the fairway.
And the only time my leg didn't work well was on that sand wedge and I chunked it, chunk hooked it, sand wedge left to the green and it spun down and I hit a poor chip and a very poor putt and that adds up to 68.

Q. How far was the putt?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: Six, seven feet for a bogey.

Q. Just curious, a lot of guys were scoring well on the backside around the time you were out there. You were one of the few guys that were scoring well in the front. How much more difficult is the front?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think the front's just longer. I think what helped me out on the front was I hit a lot of fairways on the front. I think I hit every fairway -- I take that back. I missed the par 5 fairway.
And I think when you're able to keep the ball in play on that front side, on any side, but you really have to keep the ball in play on the front side. When you start hitting the ball out of play on holes like 2 and 3 in the rough, those greens are really difficult to get the ball up and down on as well. And I know the PGA says the rough is playable, but it's really difficult, if you put it in there. It's coming out fairly straight, which is nice.
The club's not getting tangled in the hosel, but for me, personally, it's not going anywhere. I have yet to hit a green or even -- I have yet to hit a green practice round or today from the rough on this golf course. So it's healthy.

Q. When I last saw you at the fourth round of the Carnoustie, you seemed very dejected and talked about all the problems you were having physically and you couldn't wait to end the year and here you are one of the leaders?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I still can't wait. I want to rest, man. I feel good right now. But I never know when this fractured hamate bone is going to creep up and start bugging me again. It's behaved itself for the most part this week. But I haven't really prepared or practiced like I normally would going into this week. That's a good thing for me.
When I fractured it, I didn't know I fractured it. So I played for about three months without knowing that I actually had a fractured bone in my hand. And when I found out, it would ache at times. Obviously I've developed tendonitis in both elbows because of it, compensation in one arm because of the lack of strength in the other.
I just need to rest it. And as soon as I get -- as soon as the year is over or as soon as my FedExCup run is over, then I'll be able to sit down for three weeks, which is what the doctor says and not do a thing and rest it.
But I just never know when it's going to creep up and start aching again. That's the thing. The more golf I play, the more it tends to ache.

Q. Does the heat help you?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: The heat, you know, it does. Cold hurts more. The British, the final round, it was killing me. I took four Advil and I could still feel it.
But today, with the heat out here, it was fine today. And last week, it ached a little bit in the final round, but not real bad. Certain shots it hurts. If I gotta really dig one out of the rough, which I don't think I'll have to this week, where the club's going to stop on me, those hurt.
If I bury one in the bunker, those hurt. Other than that if I continue to sweep the ball off the turf I really don't have any issues.

Q. One of the first things you said when you came in here was you didn't think too much, you didn't have any thoughts today, like you were surprised. Is that something that is an issue for you?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: Well, this year it has been. I've had a rough year this year, mainly because of my body. My body -- the guys that I've been working with, they have changed my posture and inherently when you change your posture your golf swing changes.
It's changed for the good, my posture, but I've had to change my golf swing. My playing has changed on my golf swing I don't want to get too technical. Some of you guys might know technical stuff about the golf swing. But basically my golf swing has changed. My playing has changed so the way I enter the golf swing has changed, so the shot pattern has changed.
Where I knew my misses were going last year and the year previous, this year I really struggle about not knowing where my misses are going. So I've struggled with my ball-striking, and I mean in my two -- in the two main ball-striking categories, greens and regulation and fairway percentage, I'm six and eight percentage points down from last year.
So that's quite a fall, in my opinion. That's quite a jump. I'm not striking the ball nearly as well as I am. It's starting to come around. I think at the beginning of the year, hurting my back over at Kapalua, really stunted the progression of what I wanted to do. But it was actually something that it stunted it; at the same time it helped it because I went and saw these guys and they said, Well, you want to get your back better, you'll have to strengthen this part of your body and you're going to have to, you know, just get stronger so that -- and inherently my golf swing has changed because of it.

Q. Given all the physical issues you've dealt with, going back to the back and missing Pebble, can you describe what this means for you emotionally dealing with stuff you didn't have to deal with last year?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: It's been tough. I haven't played to my capabilities any one year, in my opinion. I've struggled in pretty much every facet of the game this year except maybe getting the ball up and down. I've done pretty good because I've missed so many greens. (Smiling).
But I guess all you can do -- it's upsetting. But it's part of the growth process. And if I can learn to trust it and trust this new swing, then this year will be a positive going into next year. If I can learn to trust this new posture and where my ball position is and the whole nine yards with the golf swing, technically, if I can learn to trust it, then this year will turn into a positive going into next year and I think I'll be even stronger next year.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Aaron's 68 today matches his low in PGA Championship play. The other round coming on the second round of 2005 at Baltusrol.

Q. Clarify a couple of things and I have a question. The hamate would be the left wrist?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: You have two one in the left and right. It's this one right here (indicating).

Q. The problem was in your left hand?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: It's in the hand, the left hand, yes. I actually broke the other one in the right hand in 2001 and I don't even have a hook, what they call a hook of the hamate. I lopped it off completely and had to have surgery. So that one is not even there anymore.

Q. What was the term you used for the putt you made on the second hole long putt?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: Seagoer? You never heard of that? You have to hang around a golf club.

Q. West Coast term?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't know if it's West Coast. Hang around the Munis, hear people talk about seagoers.

Q. What are your thoughts on seeing Daly on the leaderboard? Do you know him and hung around him? Seems like whereever he goes there's always a story?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't know John personally. My college golf coach was teammates with him at Arkansas. So we heard some good stories. None that I'll share. (Laughter) but we heard some good John Daly college stories.
KELLY ELBIN: Who was your college golf coach?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: Mike Ketcham, an AD at some school in Iowa.

Q. Hogan won a major being barely able to walk. Can a guy with a broken hand win a major?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm sure he can. I'm sure I can. Yes, like I said, it's not that bad to where I can't perform up to my level. It's just more of trusting my golf swing that I'm trusting this new sort of golf swing that I'm trying to learn, this new plane that I'm on now. That's been the hardest thing this year.

Q. Who are you working with now and when did all this start?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm not working with any new teachers. This is an exercise program and I'm just basically getting into correct biomechanic positions, in which I was never -- I was never in before. And it was causing back problems, my old posture.
So the guys I'm working with are Jay Schroeder and Denis Thompson from EvoSport and out of Minneapolis and Mesa, in Arizona. They have two places.
And it's called ARP. Oh, my God, I'm blanking on the acronym.

Q. Advanced Rapid?
ARRON OBERHOLSER: I can't believe I'm blanking on it. I've only been doing it for eight months and I can't remember.
But the protocols are pretty intense. The workouts are pretty intense. A lot of NFL football players use it. A lot of Major League Baseball players use it. I'm the only PGA TOUR doing it. Freddy Dockinson came in earlier in the year and worked with me on a wrist issue, but I don't think he's following all the protocols that I'm doing. I'm doing the whole nine yards. Actually my fiancee got me into it. She started it four years ago because she had some back issues. And she hasn't had a back issue since.
So the proof is in the pudding. It's impressing how much stronger she got too in the last two to three years.
KELLY ELBIN: Arron Oberholser in with a round of 68 in the PGA Championship.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297