	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

FBR OPEN

January 31, 2008

Brian Gay

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

DOUG MILNE: Well, Brian Gay, thanks for joining us after your bogey-free round one, 5-under par 66 here at the 2008 FBR Open. Got off to a cold start, but it obviously didn't impact you. Just a couple opening comments about the round.
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, it was freezing this morning. Being a Florida guy, I don't like the cold very much. My fingers were a little numb, toes were a little numb, but I hung in there early and kept the momentum going.

Q. Can you just talk about, like you said, overcoming the elements there early on? Is there anything that you do or anything that you did to combat it?
BRIAN GAY: You know, I rode a bike for ten minutes to try to get really warm before I went out there and then we had a delay so we were standing around extra time on the range, so that didn't help staying warm. Other than that, I didn't do anything different. I had some mitts, mittens, hand warmers.

Q. In between shots?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, I wore the mittens for four or five holes.

Q. Do you do that very often?
BRIAN GAY: I try not to. I try not to go anywhere when it's that cold.

Q. What was your take on the course? We had some rain earlier.
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, the course played long. It played longer than I've ever seen it. Fairways were soft still. There's a lot more grass out there this year. I don't know if they've had more rain in winter or not. But the rough is thicker, fairways have more grass on them and they're softer.

Q. What was the key to your consistency, do you think, today?
BRIAN GAY: I rolled the ball, putted nice, kept it in play. Like I said, I made a good save on 12 and 14, birdied 13, and 14 really kept the momentum going and just played steady after that. I think I missed one or two greens after that maybe.

Q. Was the crowd on 16 kind to you?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, I was surprised. There was actually a lot of people there. It was early. I hit a good shot but I didn't make a putt. I hit it right underneath the hole about 15 feet.

Q. Did you get booed?
BRIAN GAY: No, they didn't boo me.

Q. Apparently it's commonplace to boo. It was early in the day. They probably hadn't drank enough.
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, they were all still sober.

Q. Is this your third event this year?
BRIAN GAY: Third.

Q. I know it's obviously early on, but maybe just kind of assess some of the things you've noticed that are really shaping up and taking place in your overall game in '08.
BRIAN GAY: Really I've just been working on some putting stuff, started off well in Hawai'i and putted miserable on the weekend, especially on Sunday. It was windy and I putted miserable. I played pretty solid at the Bob Hope but I hurt my neck during the tournament and was lucky enough to play even, was 12-under. But didn't putt very good there, either, on Sunday. Just relaxed last week and got my neck worked on all week at home and came out here pretty fresh.

Q. How did you hurt your neck?
BRIAN GAY: It just spasmed, locked up when I was warming up the first round of the Hope on the range.

Q. Do you play here a lot? Have you had much success here?
BRIAN GAY: This tournament, I've played, yeah, every year. I always come. I've done all right here. I've never finished really high. I don't know what I've done here. I don't know when I've missed the cut here, but I've done okay here. I like it. I enjoy this tournament.

Q. What are your goals for the season?
BRIAN GAY: I want to win for sure. I've been out here long enough, it's time to win a tournament.

Q. Are you going to the Super Bowl?
BRIAN GAY: No, I was hoping my Cowboys would make it and I would definitely try to go, but now it doesn't interest me that much. I don't know if we could even get there in time anyway.

Q. Do you have a prediction?
BRIAN GAY: No, not really.

Q. What do you think you need to do to break through and win a tournament? Is it something that -- why haven't you won?
BRIAN GAY: I think it's just confidence and believing in yourself when the time is -- when you're in that moment and coming down on Sundays at the end of a golf tournament, just believing in yourself and staying focused on what you're doing.
DOUG MILNE: If you can just run through your birdies and give us some clubs and yardages, we will make you a free man.
BRIAN GAY: I started on the back. 13, I hit a pitching wedge about 18 feet.
17, I laid up off the tee and hit an L-wedge about 14 feet.
3, I hit a pitching wedge about six feet.
5, I hit a driver and a 6-iron about 15 feet under the hole.
And 7, par-3, I hit a 5-iron about six or seven feet under the hole.

Q. What were the saves that you were talking about?
BRIAN GAY: 12, par-3, I hit it in the left bunker, the pin was back left and I hit a great bunker shot and the green was actually still frozen. My ball landed just on the hump and it hit and it rolled 20 feet by and I made it for par. So that was nice to -- it felt kind of like payback, though. Even the guys I was playing with were like, man, it was a great shot. It was icy there. It was still in the shade on the left side, it was just brick hard.
Birdied 13, and 14, I drove it in the fairway bunker and the wind was left to right and I pushed a 5-iron and hit the cart path and bounced like four times and went 40 yards by the hole over the green and I got it up-and-down. I pitched it back over the bunker to about six feet and made the par putt.
After that it was pretty steady.

Q. Were any of the par-5s reachable in two shots today?
BRIAN GAY: Not for me, no. I drove it in the rough on 3, and 13 wasn't reachable.
DOUG MILNE: Fred had mentioned out there that you're not the longest off the tee, but obviously you didn't need to be today. In your opinion from your experience here, does it reward generally the longer hitters more so?
BRIAN GAY: Yeah, there's more rough this year. The rough is thicker. Yeah, generally the longer hitters can knock it on 17 and reach the par-5s. You know, if it's dry I'm not going to get to -- depending on the wind obviously, I can sometimes reach some of these par-5s. But it's always an advantage to hit it far if you can get it in the fairway.
DOUG MILNE: Brian Gay, thanks for your time. Best of luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297