	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

BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 27, 2008

Ryuji Imada

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

CHRIS REIMER: We want to thank our runner-up at the Buick Invitational, Ryuji Imada, for joining us in the media center. Nine birdies on a day that there were only two rounds in the 60s. Pretty good round of golf.
RYUJI IMADA: Yeah, I'd say so. I obviously got off to a good start having to birdie 2, 4 and 6, and that just got me off on the right track. The first five holes are very important on this golf course. Pretty tough holes, 1 being very tough, 3, 4 and 5 are really difficult. That just got me really loose.
On the back nine I didn't drive it all that great, but I made some key putts on the back nine, dropped some long ones, and that helped me today.
CHRIS REIMER: Coming off a career best year last year, which included, I believe, at least your best finish in a playoff loss to Zach Johnson. It's a little different finishing second this way than losing a playoff, a little easier to swallow?
RYUJI IMADA: This is the Tiger Woods Invitational, isn't it? I thought he was the host (laughter).
Finishing second was not all that fun for me at AT & T Classic, but this time finishing second feels real nice. You know, my goal today going in was to finish second. Obviously first place was a little bit out of reach I figured. I tried my best to finish second, and I did just that, so it was great.

Q. So much was made of the weather early on and concerns going into this round. How did the course play? What was your perspective on how it played today?
RYUJI IMADA: Well, the golf course didn't play all that much different from the first three days. The greens were really soft. You've really got to watch out from about 100 yards or 120 in from spinning it back off the green.
But the wind blew a little bit more today, so it made it a little more difficult. And a little cold, too.
I don't think the golf course played any different. It's still a tough golf course. It's a U.S. Open-caliber golf course. You've really got to play well to shoot in the 60s. My round was pretty much a little bit of luck, and I played some good golf.

Q. As a player trying to put together your first TOUR win and you have a great round or a great four days and then you still lose by seven, is that still just discouraging a little bit?
RYUJI IMADA: I don't think it's discouraging at all. My goal going into today was to finish second, and you know, that's almost like winning the golf tournament to me. With Tiger having an eight-shot lead or whatever -- how many shots did he have on me? 11 shots. There was pretty much no chance for me to catch him. Finishing second was a little bit different this time around than when I lost to Zach Johnson last year in a playoff.

Q. Did you look at the scoreboard at all today to see where Tiger was, or were you just focused on second and didn't even worry about him anymore?
RYUJI IMADA: I took a peek once in a while, but obviously Tiger was -- like I said, he was out of my reach. It didn't matter what he did, he was going to win today. You know, 67 today was pretty much the most I could get out of it. I did the best. I didn't really look at the leaderboard much until about 17, 18.

Q. Any added satisfaction shooting as well as you did on a course hosting the U.S. Open? Does that make any difference when you take a step back and look at your score?
RYUJI IMADA: It does and it doesn't. The golf course is going to play totally different in June. I don't think it's going to be as soft. The rough is going to be a little thicker. The fairways are going to be narrower. It's just going to be a totally different golf course. And I've still got to qualify for playing the Open. I'm not really looking that far yet.
CHRIS REIMER: Thanks for joining us, and congratulations on a good week.
RYUJI IMADA: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297