	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

DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 30, 2008

Tim Clark

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Tim Clark to the interview room here at the Deutsche Bank Championship, 9-under par 62. I know you're a little disappointed in that finish, but still, if we can get some comments on what was a tremendous round of golf.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I felt like I played good golf yesterday. I've been hitting the ball nice, and today I came up and it just was strange. I felt good all day and just kept making birdie after birdie after birdie, and then on the front nine, my back nine, a couple eagles really boosted the round. For a while there, there was certainly a chance of 59.

Q. Some of the last few tournaments you've played, the PGA and last week, pretty high rough, tough conditions. Is it nice to have a place that's given you some chances this week?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, for sure, and obviously these greens are running good, so the guys are making a lot of putts, too. But this course certainly isn't easy. It's got a lot of long holes out there. In the past this course I thought was actually a little bit too long for me, but they have shortened it, and it's certainly given me a chance to contend now. Yeah, it's nice to see some under par-rounds on TOUR. I think we certainly get tired of shooting over par, and I think it's nice for the public, also, to see that we can actually still play golf.

Q. Just talk about what was going through your head once you made the eagle on 4. Kind of take us through the rest of the day. At that point did you have 59 in your head?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I hit that tee shot up there, and just walking up that fairway, I thought to myself, if I can roll this in there's a great chance with the way I was playing. I felt really comfortable. Although I had 59 in my mind once I made that putt, it certainly didn't affect my golf. I hit a couple bad tee shots coming in, but I certainly felt I could hit a few good shots. And after 7, making that birdie there, that was huge for me because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to lay up to a good enough spot to get close to that hole where it was tucked, and I knew I couldn't get to the green in two. For me I played the hole the only way I could have played it to make birdie.
I certainly felt like if I could get to 18, I'd certainly have a chance. I know that's a birdie hole -- 9, sorry. But 8 was always going to be tough. I needed to hit a good shot there, and the hole is playing, what, 222 or so, and just came out of one there.

Q. You had a lot to go through on the 6th hole, through the trees, bunker, and then waiting for a while. Did that kind of take a toll do you think?
TIM CLARK: No, I think that probably helped me, being able to wait. 5, I had played a good hole on 5. I thought my second was going to be closer there when I hit it up there. I still had about 20 feet. No, the wait certainly didn't affect me. It allowed me to calm down, and I needed to make a good up-and-down there. Again, I got in that trap thinking, well, why don't you just try and hole it. It was a case of just trying to make as many birdies as I could coming in. It wasn't really about making pars. It was a good save from there.

Q. You went really deep a couple of times in last year's FedExCup, I think. You had a really low nine at the BMW, and you had a 62, I think, at the TOUR Championship. Now you've done it again. What is it about the FedEx series that brings this out of you?
TIM CLARK: I guess I keep coming into it way out of the picture. I came into it -- before Greensboro, I was about 80-something or 90-something in the FedExCup, so I certainly wanted -- my goal was to get to TOUR Championship. I guess I'm just focusing a little bit more, trying harder. I didn't play a practice round this week. I didn't really even come to the course. But that's when I seem to play my best, when I relax off the course but I come out here to be focused and really try hard. Obviously that's paying off for me.

Q. Just what's your overall feeling after your round today? Is it disappointment you didn't get the 59, or is it satisfaction that you're leading the tournament?
TIM CLARK: Well, at the start of the day I just wanted to make the cut to make sure I got into next week to be honest. I got off to a good start and it just snowballed from there. But I'm certainly not disappointed. I've still got 36 more holes to play and a lot of golf left. Disappointed about the 59, but still, at the end of the day, when I was out there, it was still early in the second round of the tournament, and I need to keep going if I'm going to win this tournament because the scores I think are only going to stay low.

Q. Were you nervous the last couple holes?
TIM CLARK: Right around No. 4 I probably started to get a little bit nervous. But like I said, it wasn't bad energy. I still felt good. It was really more adrenaline for me, and it just caused me to focus a little bit more.

Q. What did you hit on 8 there?
TIM CLARK: That was a 3-iron for me there.

Q. And standing over that putt, kind of do-or-die for the number?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, and I actually felt like I hit a good putt. I'll be the first to tell you if I don't. I thought I hit a good putt there, tried to hit it left edge, and it just seemed to go the other way at the end. A little bit deflating, but obviously I could play the last hole relaxed, which obviously that didn't help. But at least that was off my mind.

Q. Could you talk about winning golf tournaments on two levels; one, obviously getting your first win on TOUR and trying to get over that hump; but at the same time, you're here, and for whatever odd reason, I've seen you win twice already, CVS Charity Classic a few miles away, and back in college you won another tournament in Rhode Island, the Adams Cup. Can you talk about why you play so well here and getting on with that first victory?
TIM CLARK: I don't think there's any correlation to playing well here, but obviously I've been chasing my first victory for quite a while, and it's just one of those things that hasn't happened. I've had quite a few seconds and felt like I've played good, but it boils down to a bad nine here or there and you don't win the tournament. I guess that's what I'm still trying to figure out.
I've won possibly on other Tours, but it's definitely different out here. It's tough to win. I can only hope once I do get over that hurdle there will be more to come. But I'm still enjoying it out here, and I don't see that I put my added pressure to go out and win. I feel like the best way to go about it is go out and play golf, and if it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

Q. You talked about added pressure. With just 8 and 9 to come, was there a part of you that was trying to bury thoughts of a 59?
TIM CLARK: A little bit, but I still felt pretty good. It wasn't like I was shaking nervous out there. I got on 8 and said, well, just make a birdie. That's all you can do, really just try and hit the shot. I just hit a bad shot; that's going to happen. I could have been 3-over for the round and still hit the same bad shot. It certainly wasn't the situation that caused the shot, it's just one of those things.

Q. Just on the playoffs themselves, you mentioned that at the start of the day you just wanted to make the cut to get to St. Louis. How often during the year do you go into the second round after a 65 wanting to make the cut, or whatever your score is? It seems like it's an odd thought process for a lot of players this week, to be wrapped up in making the cut or else you lose 2,000 points.
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I think last week surprised the guys. They didn't realize how much movement there was going to be just by missing or making the cut. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. The only criticism I have is now going into next week where there's no cut, if you're not in the Top 30, it's going to be almost impossible to move up. I realized this week that I need to get myself in the Top 30 before next week because it's going to be hard to move.
My first goal was to get off to a good start today and make sure I had the cut behind me and then I could get going. Obviously I saw all the guys at 10-under, 11-under; the scoring obviously was good this morning. Once I started to make birdies on the front nine, it relaxed me, and like I said, I just kept going.

Q. What one shot set you off do you think?
TIM CLARK: Well, I birdied the first, and that was it. I birdied the first, and actually I birdied the second, the par-3, 11. Again, that's playing, what, 220 up the hill, and I birdied there. So I birdied my first two holes, and that really was --

Q. Not tap-ins, either, were they?
TIM CLARK: No, I made -- the 10th was about a 20-footer and the 11th I only had about 12 feet.

Q. I was thinking more from the stretch from 17 on around the turn, then 1, 2, 3. Was there anything that triggered anything?
TIM CLARK: No. Like I said, I felt really relaxed. I've been comfortable with my golf game. At the start of the year I was fighting a lot of things. I couldn't feel -- really feel my swing very well, and like I said, the last few weeks I've just stopped thinking about my golf swing just going out and looking at the target and swinging. That's just, I guess, how I seem to play my best golf.

Q. Just the second shot on 9, what was the distance you had to the green?
TIM CLARK: I think I had 179 to the green.

Q. Did you over-club that?
TIM CLARK: Well, if I was in the fairway I would have probably hit 6-, maybe even 5-iron, and I knew I was probably going to get a jumper there. If I took the 7 and it didn't jump, I was going to be 20 yards short of the green. I figured, if anything, have it hit the flag and go in the hole rather than come up 20 yards short.
JOHN BUSH: Let's go through starting with the birdie on No. 10.
TIM CLARK: 10, I hit a 7-iron there to about 20 feet and rolled in the putt.
A hybrid 3-iron into 11 and made I'd say about a 15-footer there for birdie.
14, driver, 5-wood to 15 feet, made the putt.
17, a 3-wood and a really small 7-iron to I guess it was one or two feet or so.
And then 18, knocked a 5-wood on the back of the green and two-putted.
1, again, 3-wood, 9-iron to probably eight feet, seven or eight feet.
2, I hit driver, my hybrid 3-iron to probably eight feet again.
4, well, we saw that, driver to the front edge and made the putt.

Q. Were you on the green?
TIM CLARK: Just off the green. Normally I don't think I can get there, but today I just felt with the way the round was going, it was worth me taking a driver and giving myself a chance. Yesterday I tried to lay up with a hybrid, hit in the rough and then you're almost struggling to make 4, so I figured today just give it a rip, probably my best tee shot of the day.
7, driver, 5-wood, laid it up to about 74 yards, which turned out to be perfect just to get it to that flag and hit that to a couple feet behind the hole.
The bogeys, I just lost a shot right on 8 with a 3-iron and didn't get it up-and-down, but I felt I hit a decent pitch. I thought it would be a little quicker, and then I hit a decent putt.
9, again, I lost one to the right. I hit that fairway and that gives me another chance to make a birdie.
JOHN BUSH: Tim, thank you. Play well and good luck the next two days.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297