	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

U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEE

July 18, 2008

Kent Jones

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

STEWART MOORE: Thanks for spending a few minutes with us here in the interview room at the U.S. Bank Championship after a great second round 65 out there. Right now you're tied for the lead, leader in the clubhouse at 9-under par. You obviously had a good day.
KENT JONES: Yeah, it was a good day. It was beautiful, a nice morning out, not too much wind, overcast, so it was -- and then we had a great group where everybody was playing well, so it was a lot of fun.
STEWART MOORE: Bit of an up-and-down year for you so far, but a couple weeks ago at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut you had bookend 66s on Thursday and Sunday, some good rounds at the John Deere Classic last week. Did you see some better play on the Horizon.
KENT JONES: Yeah, better last week. I don't know about up-and-down. Down, yes, but I don't know if there have been many ups. I drove it really well last week and didn't score very well, but I felt like my putting was getting a little better. I felt maybe a little bit confident coming in here. I had played pretty good here before, and knowing that you have to drive it well here and it's sort of a position golf course that that would -- I felt good coming in here, and then I've putted much better these two days, so that's always a big help.

Q. Is the putting the main thing?
KENT JONES: Definitely. I mean, for sure. It's not been very good this year for a while, and it's -- it's been much better these two days. I've putted really nicely.

Q. Just going off that a little bit, something with the stroke? You're just not getting the speed right?
KENT JONES: I think last week -- the greens were really slow last week and I had a hard time just hitting it hard enough. And again, this week, they're not very fast. But especially in the morning they rolled nice. So I actually put some extra weight in my putter to make it a little heavier, and I think that's helped. It's made it a little easier, I think, to get the ball to the hole.
Other than that, just continually working and probably being able to play a little bit more, playing four out of the last five weeks, is the most I've played all year, so I think just playing some rounds has helped with that, as well.

Q. What kind of putts were you making? Any long putts today?
KENT JONES: Well, both. I made like the third hole, it must have been 40 or 50 feet kind of across the green. And then another probably 15-footer on 6, and then a lot of nice three-, four-, five-footers for par and birdie.
Then on the back nine I hit it close a couple times, so I had a couple short birdie putts, but made a nice putt on 17. But just not missing any short ones, and it's just been solid.

Q. With the threat of rain this afternoon, are you real happy that you had this great weather?
KENT JONES: Yeah, I'm happy to be done, for sure, not to wait around. Yeah, it's always good to get it in.

Q. I've noticed over the years that a lot of guys seemed to find their putting stroke or their putting game here. Is there a reason for that? Is it because the greens don't have a ton of undulation?
KENT JONES: Right.

Q. Guys that sometimes struggle with the putter putt well here.
KENT JONES: Well, I think for me this time of year where we're playing it's a lot of bentgrass greens and they seem to be pretty good so they roll nice. For me that's where I'm the most comfortable. I struggle more on Bermuda, or some of the poa annua on the West Coast is tough. I think they're just smoother greens.
Like you say, there's not -- they're a little bit slower so you can be a little more aggressive. So there's a little bit of slope but not a lot, and it's really effectively taking the slope out because they're not real fast. For me I think that's why I start putting it better.

Q. I noticed you had a couple WDs earlier this year. Was there an injury involved there?
KENT JONES: Yeah, in Atlanta. I played the first round in the morning and then in the afternoon it started raining so I quit practicing, I went in the fitness trailer, down on the treadmill, started running on the treadmill and fell and sprained my ankle, so I had to pull out that week.
I tried to play three weeks later. It improved some and I tried to play, and I played one round, and I shouldn't have even really tried, so I pulled out.

Q. That's not something you usually expect on a treadmill.
KENT JONES: No, it wasn't much fun, I'll tell you (laughing). I don't know how it happened, just running along and started talking to J.J. Henry and caught -- whatever. He was standing right in front of me, but I caught my foot, whatever, and rolled it, and I went down.

Q. You went off the back?
KENT JONES: I somehow did not fly off the back (laughter), but I fell down and somehow got off -- I don't know.

Q. You did a side dismount?
KENT JONES: Yeah, exactly.

Q. Is that something that's completely healed now?
KENT JONES: Well, it's healed. I wouldn't say it's 100 percent, but it's a lot better these past two weeks. At the Travelers it felt pretty good, and then -- but I think just playing all week it sort of fatigued it and the next week it didn't feel very good at Flint, and then I had a week off, worked on it some more and got better, and then the last two weeks it's been better.

Q. Left or right?
KENT JONES: Left.

Q. As a veteran how do you feel about the TOUR's drug-testing program which is now underway?
KENT JONES: I don't know. I guess it's something that had to be done. I don't know if it's -- obviously we'd rather not have to do it or not put up with it. It's just a sign of the times, I guess, something we have to do. I haven't been selected yet, so I haven't had to go through it. But I guess it's what we have to do, so just deal with it.
STEWART MOORE: Kent, thanks so much.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297