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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLASeptember 13, 2007Tim ClarkATLANTA, GEORGIA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Tim Clark in to the interview room. Tim, with an 8-under par 62 today. Maybe just talk a little bit about the round. You got off to a great start with birdies at 2, 3 and 4 and a solid back nine, as well. TIM CLARK: Yeah, I think just overall throughout the round I played well. Having a good Sunday round last week I had a bit of confidence. You know, I didn't play a practice round this week, I've just sort of shown up and come to play, and I guess it worked out. Yeah, I didn't expect much, but I went out and got the speed of the greens really early and was able to make some putts. JOE CHEMYCZ: Why no practice round? TIM CLARK: I was tired (smiling). Q. You say you didn't expect much. Because you hadn't practiced? TIM CLARK: Well, I had not been on the course. I wasn't quite sure in what conditions the green were. For me it was all about getting here this week, and I think once I was here, a bit more relaxed, and that's probably why I've been able to shoot the round I did today. Q. Padraig was just in here, and he said the course didn't change that much before and after the rain delay. Do you agree with that? TIM CLARK: Yeah, it didn't actually. I thought the greens would be really a lot softer than they were this morning. It didn't change that much, just the fairways weren't running out quite as much. Yeah, the course held up pretty good. Q. How is your neck doing? How much time did you miss this year due to your neck? TIM CLARK: I think I missed probably five tournaments, four or five, that I would have played. You know, it's been doing okay, and obviously it's been a big stretch this last month and a half. Obviously after this week we'll take some time off. Q. Do you remember where you were heading into the FedExCup four in the points off the top of your head? TIM CLARK: I was like 35 or 36. Q. So you had to rally to get here? TIM CLARK: I think I went to 31 after Westchester, then I missed the cut at Boston and fell to 33rd and then moved up to 27th. Q. So right there on the bubble, huh? TIM CLARK: Yeah. Q. Three hours is a long rain delay. What did you guys do to stay fresh? TIM CLARK: We just sat around, really, and chatted. Not really a whole lot you can do. Yeah, it was tough to -- I think we only got about half an hour to get ready once they told us the range was open. Again, I wasn't sure how I would come out and start my round off again, but I got off to a good start -- I was in the middle of the fairway on 12 and hit it to about two inches there, so got back into it again. Q. Can you talk about the 9th hole and your par save there and gets you going on the back? TIM CLARK: Yeah, that was obviously a big momentum boost. I got off to a great start in the round, kind of slowed down, and then on 9 hit a stroke in the rough, and I hit a terrible pitch shot. Once I hit in the rough there I pitched out and I'm still hitting a wood in for my third. I couldn't even get on the green. I made about a 20-footer there, and that's the sort of thing that can kick-start a round again like it did for me heading into the back nine. Q. You had an eagle somewhere on the back nine. Can you walk through that one for us? TIM CLARK: 15, drove it in the fairway, hit a 3-wood in there and pulled it left of the green. Just a little bit lucky, holed a pitch shot, really. It had a bit of speed on it when it hit the hole and probably would have gone by about a good eight feet. That's one of those fortunate things to happen on a day when I was 6-under at the time was pretty nice. JOE CHEMYCZ: It's listed at 60 feet. Q. Did 59 enter your mind at all on the 16th tee? TIM CLARK: Not really. I kind of knew if I birdied the last three holes, but unfortunately they're not birdie holes. You know, I was certainly trying, but I hit a few loose shots coming in. Overall I knew if I parred the last few holes I was going to be pretty happy with the round. Q. For all the advance warning that you heard about the greens, what's your assessment? TIM CLARK: I certainly was expecting a lot worse, for sure, after everything we had heard. You know, they've done a good job to get them where they are right now. I think the only tough thing is possibly the footprints. But being one of the first groups out there, the greens looked fine. Q. It strikes me that you're going to -- you just tied the course record here, and because there's this FedExCup thing out there going on simultaneously, you might not be the story tomorrow. Does that strike you a little bit odd because we've sort of got the simultaneous two things? TIM CLARK: No, not really, and maybe that's a good thing for me that the attention is somewhere else. I don't have a chance to win the FedExCup, so really about me, it's about this tournament right now. The guys out there fighting for the FedExCup have probably got a lot more on their minds than I do right now. Q. Is it hard when you get on the roll and then you have the rain delay to come back out and keep that momentum going? TIM CLARK: It normally is tough, but I was fortunate to birdie my first hole back out. But normally it is tough, yeah. Q. You're kind of a guy who's made your reputation on playing well on really difficult courses where par means a lot. I'm wondering how comfortable are you, kind of a free-wheeling thing like this week is looking like it's going to be where you've got to make birdies and you've got to attack -- TIM CLARK: I never thought it was going to be like that. It's just so happened. Really, I have to just keep playing like I did today and go for birdies because normally I come to this course and par is a good score when the greens are firm. But the greens are soft, and like I say, all these hybrids and 5-woods I'm hitting in are stopping, so it's giving me a chance. Q. When you heard last week that the greens here were troubled, 62 probably wasn't any kind of realm of thought. TIM CLARK: I wasn't even sure I was going to be here until my round on Sunday. I just wanted to be here. I couldn't care less what the greens are like, I just wanted to be in the tournament. Q. And how did they putt? They putted pretty well? TIM CLARK: I certainly made my share, so I'm not going to sit here and complain. They're obviously not to the standard that we're used to on TOUR, but with all they've gone through they've done a great job to get them where they are. Like I said, being one of the first groups out there was probably an advantage. We didn't have the footprints. Q. What was your club into 18 today? TIM CLARK: It was a 5-wood. JOE CHEMYCZ: Tim, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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