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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 17, 2008

John Rollins

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank John Rollins for joining us here in the media center at the Verizon Heritage. Great start to the week. 4-under, 67.
Talk about what you did well out there and anything that changed the round for you.
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I putted good. I hit the ball good, obviously. I gave myself a lot of opportunities but I managed to make some putts early and kind of got some momentum going. A little stumble on 11 with the double and came right back and birdied 12. And a big putt really that kept the round going was 13. I hit it in the right bunker. I had no shot, went probably 18 feet to make it for par and keep the round alive and keep the momentum.
Other than that it was just a good putting day, and a great day to be out on the golf course.

Q. Can you talk about the conditions out there and mainly kind of the wind not blowing out towards 18, it was relatively calm today, what that does to the golf course. We're seeing a pretty jumbled leaderboard, does that have a lot to do with it?
JOHN ROLLINS: It's perfect out there right now. The course is there for the taking. I'm sure you'll see some low scores this afternoon if it stays the way it is right now. But the big thing around here is even though it's calm, you still have to hit the ball the right distance. The greens are small, the fairways are tight. There are a lot of trees that overhand the green. Some of the pins they had tucked around the trees, so even if you're in the middle of the fairway it's still not an easy shot to set up the birdie.
It's just a great golf course. It's fun to play. You're always kind of hitting it left and right, right to left, and you have to hit all the shots. But the conditions right now are very favorable for low scores.

Q. You talk about the double you had on 11. How did you get yourself in trouble? What did you do in the aftermath to get yourself back on track and regain your focus?
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I hit a bad tee shot left, pitched it back out under the trees, back out in the fairway. And then these fairways are in perfect shape but they're so tight that I had like a 70-yard shot and I tried to hit a high soft shot, because the pin was tucked on the right corner behind the tree. I tried to hit a high, soft shot and completely hit it fat. I followed that up, hitting the same shot again. I was kind of on fire there for a while. I was gaining on the green, I just couldn't get there.
And then I chipped it up and made my putt for double. But I got to 12 and just hit a good tee shot. I hit a great shot right at the flag, and made like a 15-footer or something down the hill to kind of get it going again. But really I was playing good all day. The double, it stung little bit, but I didn't walk off the green fuming mad, like I lost the whole round. I knew I was swinging well and hitting it well, I just needed to give myself an opportunity.

Q. Kind of got off to a slow start this year, anything happen recently, any changes that got you back playing the kind of golf you expect?
JOHN ROLLINS: I think today it's just been putting. This whole year it seems that I haven't made the putts that I made last year. I haven't hit the ball quite as consistently this year as I did last year. No real changes in my game, just have been struggling. It's a crazy game. It's there one minute and gone the next. So it's nice to see that some of the work that I have been putting into my putting and to my game is starting to take some shape. I've seen signs, it's just I haven't put it all together. Today was nice to go out and hit some good shots and make some putts.

Q. You were so close to winning a couple of times last year. Can you talk a little about the fine line between winning and coming in second or third out here on the Tour and how that relates to this course as far as the difficulty of it.
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, it is a fine line. It's a matter of chipping in a putt on Sunday or making a four-footer on Thursday. You just never know. You need the breaks. You need to make putts and you need to hit the ball well for four days. It sounds easy, but it is so hard to win out here that it's unbelievable how good the players are, how deep the fields are week after week.
But this golf course, I mean it doesn't seem to be that hard. It's not overly long. But again it's the kind of course that we don't play very often, and that you have to hit all the shots. You're going to have to cut it. You're going to have to hook it. You have to hit it low, hit it high. You have to hit all the different shots and these greens are so small that it's hard to control the ball the right distance to have good birdie opportunities.

Q. Do you like the course? Does this suit your game?
JOHN ROLLINS: I like the golf course, yeah. I've always felt that it suits my game, and I've always been a pretty accurate driver of the golf ball. I've always put the ball in play pretty good, pretty consistently. But for some reason, whatever it is, maybe I've been a little too aggressive at this golf course. I know a lot of guys don't hit drivers that often out her. They hit 3-woods and irons off the tees. I've always kind of lived and died by the driver. And maybe I won't do it that this year. I still hit quite a few today because the conditions were pretty benign. But as the week goes on, if it firms up maybe I'll start hitting some 3-woods.
I do like the golf course and I feel like it suits my game.

Q. How many drivers did you hit today, do you know?
JOHN ROLLINS: I don't know. I'd have to sit here and count every hole, and I'm sure we don't want to go through that.

Q. What did you do last week and on the weekend particularly? Did you watch any of the tournament at all?
JOHN ROLLINS: I went out with 16, sat with the patrons and ate some egg salad sandwiches. We weren't going to leave to come over until Monday. So when I invited the few friends that got to come, they were so excited. Even though I missed the cut, it's The Masters, they were going out to watch golf. I somehow got talked to going out on Saturday. I did not go Sunday, but we just sat on 16 behind the green and I had a good time, actually. I thought about kind of heckling the guys a little bit, maybe yell out and see if they'd see me. I kept quiet. I figured I'd keep my ticket privileges alive.

Q. What was the highlight that you saw Saturday?
JOHN ROLLINS: The highlight on Saturday was probably Justin Rose hit it right of the green in the bunker and the pin was back right and he made it. I would say that I was predicting the ball to be all the way down to the bottom and no chance, and he made me obviously look like a fool to everybody and he holes it out. That was probably the highlight.
A couple of good shots, not many, as that pin is probably the toughest one on the green.

Q. How often do you ever spectate at a professional tournament? Is that like the first time ever?
JOHN ROLLINS: Not the first time. First time since I've been a professional. But, yeah, it would never happen. It just happened to be the type of tournament that it was. Like I said, having friends and everybody out, I didn't just want to leave town and head over and do nothing for a couple of days. Hang out with them and have a good time. Spend some time with them. They just wanted to go out and watch, and I figured I'd go out and join them rather than sitting home.

Q. Did you get any new perspective?
JOHN ROLLINS: It was different. I would say it was weird. I would much rather have been inside the ropes. But it was fun, you know. It was a different experience and it's not that I really learned anything by watching them. It wasn't like I was there to do that or anything. I was just there to kind of have a good time, and it was just kind of neat, different.

Q. Would you do that again? Not necessarily Augusta, but say if you'd gotten off to a bad start here and missed the cut, would you think about sticking around?
JOHN ROLLINS: No, I would be at home on Saturday, or maybe Friday night, depending on my tee time.

Q. No change in your lifestyle based on that?
JOHN ROLLINS: No change. I'm hopefully not going to make a habit of watching golf on the weekend (laughter).

Q. What do you know about Anthony Kim?
JOHN ROLLINS: I don't know much about him. I know he's from Dallas or lives in the Dallas area. But I've never played with him. I haven't spent really any time with him. He seems to be a very confident, good, young player.

End of FastScripts

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