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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 22, 2007Steve FleschVERONA, NEW YORK DOUG MILNE: Steve Flesch, welcome back to the press room. We appreciate your time. Great round today. Just a couple comments, general comments about the round; there weren't too many downs but the up-and-downs and so forth. STEVE FLESCH: Boy, I played good today. You know, continued to strike it well. Worked on a little something in my swing that I kind of saw in the paper this morning, and it just worked out. It's funny how you can notice one little thing like that, but when you're playing -- you know, that's why you have an instructor; a second set of eyes can really tell what you you're doing. Struck it well. Hit a lot of greens again, and, you know, those birdies on four of the last five are great. The whole back nine played tough into the wind. But you know, it's very reminiscent of how I played in Reno, just struck it well and got the putter going, a little streaky with the putter, and here we are. DOUG MILNE: Was there something that kicked in on those last five holes? STEVE FLESCH: Not really. You know, I don't think I made a birdie since 6. And I hit some okay iron shots but I didn't get it very close to the hole. And then 11 was a tough hole today, really tough. Basically the 6-iron I hit into 14, it just came off perfectly. The yardage was perfect, everything, for the 6-iron. I hit a great shot and that putt kind of -- you know, whenever you kind of make a bogey, you always want it get it back quickly. So I made a birdie at 14 and it just kind of relaxed me a little bit and I made a couple of great shots coming in. I don't know, that's about it. Q. How long was the shot on 14? You took a very bold line there. STEVE FLESCH: I did take a bold line. You guys can believe that that's the line I was intending to hit it on, too. (Laughter). No, I had 170 yards I think, but it was just straight into that wind and I usually hit a 6-iron about 180. And the hole before -- I was looking in my yardage book, the hole before I hit a 5-iron 178 and it came out dead-perfect, hole high. I knew it was a 6-iron, just a matter of what line I wanted to take, because I didn't want to try to hit it right-to-left and hold it up against that wind because it might -- if I miss-hit it, it could go in the hazard. So I just squared up to it and aimed it right at the hole and the wind didn't even touch it. I hit it maybe just a groove down on the club, which kind of flighted it down a little bit lower, went right through the wind and it came off perfectly. So, you know, I wasn't trying to hit it one groove down. I was just kind of trying to hit it at the hole and let the wind with my normal draw get it in there about 15 feet right of the hole. You know, sometimes you've got to manage your miss-hits and that miss-hit came off perfect. Q. The putt at 18, how long was that? Pretty delicate putt. STEVE FLESCH: Pretty fast. And I was thinking about that 9th hole when I was standing over that putt because it was just as downhill, and it actually was the same putt. It just had just about a ball or two of right-to-left break in it. I knew I just had to get it going, and it just -- I used the line on my ball to line up where I go and when I get over it all, all I think about is speed on that line and it just kept turning over and turning over and it just ran right in the middle. So just good read and you know, got the speed right. It was probably about, oh, 18 feet probably. Q. And how about the ninth hole, I think you're putting for birdie and everybody is watching LSU and Louisville on TV. You noticed that, didn't you? STEVE FLESCH: Oh, we saw the board over there, watching Louisville lose to Syracuse. Actually my caddie was really bummed today (laughter). We watched the first quarter and they were already down 14-7 at halftime, so I was needling him all day. I was like, "Man, you guys are back to being a basketball school." Now they lost Kentucky last week and Syracuse this week. Wow, that's a blow to the program. So he was bummed. But we were walking up to the ninth green and we saw the big board over to the right and it had the end of the Syracuse game on and I just said: "Just keep walking straight, don't look right." Yeah, that was funny. (Laughter). Q. All three days you've had real big runs, real good birdie runs and the eagle in the middle of it yesterday. Is that part of your mental thing of, "I'm going and now I'm just going to run them on off" or does it just happen? STEVE FLESCH: You know, not really. I'm a streaky player and I play on a lot of momentum. And I might play a little bit more aggressively, you know, when I'm striking the irons the way I am. But a lot of it truthfully is just that, you know, kind of the runs in here where I've had, I've had just great yardages and good fits for the clubs that I'm hitting. You know, it's a right pin with a perfect 9-iron or a perfect 7-iron. I mean, it's just -- and that's kind of how it worked out. 14 was a perfect 6-iron. 15 was a perfect 6-iron. 17 was a perfect 8-iron. Then I made a good up-and-down on 18. But you know, my putter is streaky. It always has been. You know, I always hit it pretty good, but I get that putter going, and that's kind of my streaks. You know, I kind of thought about my rounds the first couple days, and a lot of what happened, like yesterday, I got off to a great start -- where was yesterday, round two -- I got off to a great start but then those middle holes on the front nine, I hit a lot of in-between clubs. Like a 7-iron to the left pin but it's not a full 7-iron, it's like a chip 7-iron. And I'll play conservatively then. I won't try and work it in there and short-side myself and make a bogey. I'm content hitting it 25, 30 feet and just give myself a birdie putt. A lot of the pars I've made, that's just the stretch of yardages that I get. If I get good yardaging with my irons, I'll go; I'll go right at it. Just growing up and watching Tiger, watching Nicklaus, those guys are always aiming in the center of the week and work it toward the flag. If they don't have a good fit, they will hit it 30 feet, that's fine, and every once in awhile you'll make one of them. That's kind of how I've always played. If I get a good fit with my irons, I'll go ahead and go at it. You know, the putter is a big part of it. Q. How long have you been using the belly putter? STEVE FLESCH: My first win in '03 in New Orleans was with the belly putter. I've been using it since about -- that was, New Orleans is April, May -- I'll tell you exactly when. Bay Hill of '03. I sat on the putting green Wednesday night after the Pro-Am contemplating whether I was going to pull the trigger or not. Seriously it's like 7:30 at night and I'm putting just under the lights of the clubhouse at Bay Hill. I thought security was going to ask me to leave. I'm being honest; this guy was sitting there and he was just like, "Dude, you're the only guy here, and you've been here for two hours. Can I leave?" (Laughter). I said, "You don't have to stay." It's a pretty safe neighborhood we're in there at Bay Hill. I sat there and putted and putted, first round was on Thursday. I had like an 8:30 tee time, I can't remember who I was playing with, and I put it in the bag and I remember distinctly walking off the first tee thinking, "There's no going back now because it's in the bag." And sure enough I hit it about 30 feet above the hole and I run it about six feet by. (Laughter) And I was like, "What the hell did you do now?" But I made it. I made every one of them that day. My speed was a little off because I wasn't quite used to it. But I tell you what, I made every 6-footer. And I've been on and off. I think in '04 and 05, and even last year, '06, I never used one time. I didn't use it one time for three years. You know, this year I kind of went back to it -- I've been on and off with it most of the year this year. I think since April I think I've been kind of on and off with it. Yeah, like I said, I didn't even have it in the bag with me on Tuesday playing here. The hardest part about a belly putter which is hard to understand sometimes is there's so much mass in that putter, that sometimes the shorter putts are harder than a 15-footer. I think from ten to 20 feet, it's phenomenal, because really alls you've got to do is get the weight of that putter going; and the momentum of that large head, I'm not saying it swings itself, because you have to get it on line, but the weight of it will roll it 15, 20 feet, no worries. But sometimes when you get a six-foot breaker like I had the first round here on 18, you know, six-foot, that's got about two cups of break, it's hard to only move that belly putter back and through two inches. Because it's such a big -- I call it an apparatus; it is. (Laughter). There's so much mass there it's hard to hit it just a little, just a short distance. So sometimes those shorter putts with a lot of break are the tricky ones. But from ten to 20 feet, I think it's phenomenal. Q. Your win at Reno what kind of conditions? We weren't there obviously, but were they blustery? STEVE FLESCH: The last round had wind about like this, yeah. But the rest of it was pretty calm most of the week. But the last round, it blew 15, 20 miles an hour. Q. So you're hoping for another windy day tomorrow? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, you know, believe me, if you're not hitting well, you don't want to play in winds because it just magnifies your errors. But if you are hitting it solidly, wind can only help you. It can only separate you from everybody else. Today I was glad that it blew and I hope it blows tomorrow. It eliminates, you know, a certain percentage of guys that are going to go out and shoot 62 or 64. I think Parker McLachlin shot 65 today, and I don't know if he was in as much wind as this, but that's a hell of a round. You know, you've got to do some work to shoot 6-, 7-under in wind like this. So the windier it is, your odds of doing it just aren't as good. Q. Does it make this course one stroke harder, two strokes harder? STEVE FLESCH: Well, today when we were playing, I told my caddie, I said, "This is why the fairways are wide out here." Because if this is the normal wind, you know, 20-, 30-yard wide fairways would make this place brutal. It is, but when you get calm conditions and wide fairways are guys going to shoot low, but on a day like today there are a lot more over-par scores and guys are not hitting greens in regulation. So, you know, today is the best -- is by far the best ball-striking round I've had all week, and good putting, too. I made a couple good 5-foot par putts, and you know, I putted great there at the end. But today is the best I've played of all three days, and it was the windiest conditions. So if I had hit it today, the first two days, I probably would have expected to really shoot low. But it was tougher today, no doubt. Those holes, once you got to 11 tee, you had to really pay attention because there's some tough shots on 11, 13, 14, 15, it's a lot harder. And if this is the normal wind, they don't need to narrow it up. Q. Did you plan on hitting 3-wood on 18 all day or just you wanted to take the bunker out of play and knew it was going to be a three-shot hole? STEVE FLESCH: You know, when I played in the practice round, I didn't think anybody was going to be getting home, but guys are getting home with 2-irons and 3-irons. The only reason I hit it is because, one, it was 290 to carry the bunker, and even though it was straight downwind, I can't carry it 290. So if I try and work something, get fancy around that bunker, you know, I'd rather just go ahead and take a nice swing at something. I knew 3-wood couldn't get through because if I hit my driver straight through right of the bunker, it would go through into the rough; it was like 320 straight downwind. It's like, why get up there and try to do something fancy with a driver? I didn't see how anybody that hit it over the bunker could keep it the fairway, and the last thing I wanted to really do was try to kill one and come over that lip. Because the problem is if you're trying to barely cover that lip; and you don't, you're right up against it. It's one thing if I would really miss-hit it with no wind and I get in the back part of it where I did in the first round, I can just lay it up with a 7-iron. But that 290 carries straight downwind, it's right on the fringe of not carrying it. And if I do carry it, it's not going to make the fairway. So I just hit 3-wood down there and knew I could lay it up to a good number. It was kind of a relatively easy pin with the backstop. You know, with my layup, it careened like the third turn at Indy there into the right rough. I had a good yardage, 85 yards. If it was in the fairway, it would have been a pretty easy pin to get to. I just kind of played it as a three shot hole knowing I couldn't get my 3-wood through the fairway. Q. What are you looking at tomorrow with a four-shot lead? How do you approach that? STEVE FLESCH: You know, a lot like Reno. I'm going to play -- you know, bottom line, only thing I'm worried about now is getting my tee ball in the fairway on the first hole. I can't say I'll change anything I'm doing, because, you know, I don't hit a shot that I'm uncomfortable with out there. I think that's one thing I've learned in all my years out here. If you're not comfortable with it, you'd better pick a shot you are comfortable with because your bad ones really become bad. There's a lot of penalty out here if you really hit a bad shot sometimes. You know, I'll take the opportunities when they present themselves. I mean, God, it's cliché after cliché. (Laughter). Q. It's true, though. STEVE FLESCH: It is. I hate to say it. It's golf. (Rolling eyes). I'll be aggressive when I can. I'll try and make some strokes -- get some strokes on the par 5s. I played the par 5s well this week. Depends on the wind, truthfully. The conditions are going to dictate how aggressively we're going to be able to play. But you know, I know Carl and Charles who are four shots -- I know both those guys can make a ton of birdies. And Charles is a bomber; par 5s are par 4s for that little guy. I can say that because I'm not big, either. You know, I'll just play the same way I am. Hopefully I'll drive it well. And my iron game has been good so I don't expect that to change. You know, boils down to putting. Hopefully make some birdies early on, relax a little bit. I'll watch the board, but, you know, I'm not live or die on the score board because I can't affect that thing. DOUG MILNE: Lastly real quick, you've given us clubs on last four birdies. If you can just give us some clubs on the birdies and one bogey. STEVE FLESCH: On the second hole, I hit a good drive and hit a pitching wedge from about 135 to about eight feet and made that. On 5, the par 5, how did I make birdie on 5? I don't remember. I drove it down the right side and I laid up with a 6-iron, and I hit about 85 yards and I hit a sand wedge about 15 feet left of the hole and made a really good putt there. Broke about two feet left-to-right. And then on 6, I hit a 6-iron to about two inches, almost made a 1. And then my bogey on 11, probably the only -- you know what, the wind and the pin placement there, just never got comfortable really. It was 192 yards into the wind, and with a right front pin, just kind of made a bad swing. Just held onto it, a 5-iron, a little bit. Left it short left. Kind of chunked my chip. I was trying to pitch it on the green and I caught it just a little heavy. It was into the grain. You know, left it 20 feet for par, 2-putted. 6-iron about eight feet on 14. 6-iron to about six feet on 15. 17, I hit an 8-iron about 20 feet. And then 18, I made about a 20-footer down the hill. DOUG MILNE: Steve, this is your second 66 of the week. Good luck tomorrow. Thanks for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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