	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

TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIP

September 21, 2007

Jeff Maggert

VERONA, NEW YORK

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Jeff Maggert to the interview room here at the Turning Stone Resort Championship. Jeff, it was a fantastic second round 64 out there today. You hit 18 of 18 greens in regulation. Obviously, I assume, no complaints?
JEFF MAGGERT: No, not at all. You know, I actually played a little better than my score yesterday. I had a couple of double bogies yesterday, so I was looking forward to getting out here this morning. I felt like I could shoot a good score.
I was starting to putt the ball pretty well yesterday afternoon, so things worked out very well for me. I putted very well all day long and got the ball in there close enough to give me lots of opportunities.
STEWART MOORE: You're kind of viewed as one of these steady-eddy-type players on the PGA Tour. But this is your third round 64 or better on tour. You really are one of these guys when the putter gets going, you can go really low.
JEFF MAGGERT: Definitely. I think putting's kind of held me back the last few years or so. Certainly this year was a slow start for me with the broken rib earlier in the year, put me down for probably three months. So I feel like this is kind of the meat of my schedule right now, even though we're kind of winding our season down.
I'm looking forward to these last six or seven tournaments. We've got some good tournaments on the schedule and, hopefully, I can play well and get back in the winner's circle.
STEWART MOORE: On that same note, you played the first two events of the FedEx Cup and then as far as FedEx Cup you were done after Boston. You really get the batteries recharged coming into the Fall Series after two weeks off?
JEFF MAGGERT: Certainly having two weeks off always helps. I was hoping to play a little bit better and maybe having a chance to play in Chicago. The Tour Championship was kind of out of reach for me, but I have been playing better the last few months.
So I was definitely looking forward to coming up here. I heard some good things about the golf course, and certainly the golf course did not disappoint me. It's in fantastic condition. You know, condition-wise, I'd say this is probably in the top four or five tournaments we've played all years as far as course conditions. The greens are excellent. There's just no complaints with anything about this tournament.
It's nice to have a new sponsor, who is, you know excited about being part of the Tour. And you know, hopefully we have these guys around for a while, because certainly I think this tournament's going to have good success.
STEWART MOORE: Questions.

Q. How many consecutive birdies did have you have today?
JEFF MAGGERT: The most I ever had in a row was just two. Two in a row on 6 and 7. But you know, I had a good start. I birdied four of the first seven holes, and then had a couple of early birdies on the back nine. So I just kind of kept the momentum up all day. Didn't really have any low spots where I was struggling to make birdies.
I was hitting it close most of the day. Missed a couple short birdie putts, but I also made a few long ones to make up for it. So everything kind of balanced out today.
You know, drove the ball a little bit better today, had more opportunities to hit the ball close to the hole.
STEWART MOORE: On that birdie note, do you mind briefly going through your birdies?
JEFF MAGGERT: Birdied started on the front nine, birdied number 2, and then the 4th hole --
STEWART MOORE: What club?
JEFF MAGGERT: Now you're making me think. See I'm getting older, I don't remember this stuff (smiling). Second hole was 7-iron, made a long putt there, probably about 25 feet.
The 4th hole, I hit a sand wedge in there pretty close, about three or four feet. The 6th hole, probably, let's see, I hit 7-iron there, probably 15 feet.
7th hole, I hit an 8-iron probably another 15 to 18 feet. Then made the turn. Birdied 10, hit a 9-iron about four feet.
Number 12, I was just off the fringe of the green in two, and two-putted from the fringe for a birdie.
16, the par 3, 6-iron was probably about 15 feet. And then 18 pitching wedge, about six or eight feet.
It was nice today and yesterday just making a lot of putts in that 10 to 15-feet range. That's kind of a distance where I've been struggling the past few years, so I feel really confident. Almost feel more confident from 10 feet than as I do 4 or 5 feet. Sounds strange, but I just have a real good confidence now from 10 or 15 feet. So getting a lot of birdie putts in that range and making a lot of them.

Q. If you had to compare the shape of the greens here, not so much the speed, but the shape of the greens undulations to the other tournament sites you play at, what other courses would come to mind?
JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think if I'm not mistaken this is a Fazio design, and I'd say the greens are maybe a little bit tame for him(smiling). In my opinion, that's good. I think some of his courses have overdone it. But in general, most of the courses that we play are going to this type of greens, the big undulations. I'd say this is very similar to most of the tournaments we play.
I know the scores are pretty good here. I think if the greens were a little bit firmer, the speed of the greens would get a little bit faster. They don't need to be that much faster, they're pretty quick now. But if they were just a little bit firmer, I think the scores would be a lot more difficult to shoot out there. Just makes the pin placements a little bit more difficult to get at.
And the fairways here I would say are a little bit more generous in width than some of the courses we play. But, you know, you can do little things to the golf course. You can, you know, grow the fairways in 6 or 7 yards and toughen the course up if that's what they want to do.
But, you know, the design of the golf course is good. It's penalizing if you don't play well, and if you play well, it rewards you with a good score.

Q. After this event in this Fall Series, how many other ones at this point do you plan on playing?
JEFF MAGGERT: I've committed to four more tournaments, Texas, Phoenix, and then the last two in Florida.
Really, I can't say the FedEx series really changed my schedule any as far as my planning for the year. And certainly, you know, missing a few months earlier in the year definitely just kind of made my schedule where I was going to play a lot towards the end of the year anyway.
So I try to play 25 tournaments a year, and I kind of spread that over the whole season. You know, try not to go any stretches where I'm playing three or four weeks in a row. So I'd say this is a pretty normal finish for me. Maybe one more tournament than what I'd normally do.

Q. Is there a difference between yesterday and today? Seven-shot swing, is it a putter or iron or both?
JEFF MAGGERT: Little of everything. I didn't drive the ball as well as I normally do yesterday, kind of put me in some awkward positions. The two double bogies obviously was a result of some poor drives. And it just coincidence I three-putted both of these greens that I made double bogey on.
So other than those two holes, I could say that I had 34 very good putting holes (laughing). But ifs and buts in this game they don't get you a whole lot.
STEWART MOORE: Jeff, great round to day best of luck this weekend.
JEFF MAGGERT: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297