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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIP

October 2, 2008

Tag Ridings

VERONA, NEW YORK

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Tag Ridings into the interview room here at The Turning Stone Resort Championship. 3-under par, 69. Tag, that's a nice start at tournament. If we can just get some comments from you on your day.
TAG RIDINGS: Well, nice round out there. Couple little mistakes here and there, couple good up and downs, but the temperature is the main factor. The wind is also a factor. But when you add the temperature in there it does make it a little more difficult.
JOHN BUSH: No. 152 on the official Money List, so the Fall Series is an important time for you in the season. To start off 3-under, 69 is a great start. If we can just get you to take us through your birdies and bogeys, starting on the Par-4, 13.
TAG RIDINGS: That was a great birdie. I had 142 yards to the hole a little into the wind out of the left and hit a 7-iron to about a foot. So that was a nice way to get it going.
My playing partners had just birdied the Par 5 right in front of me so I was like, Ooh, I'm kind of getting left behind already. So that was good.
And then it was just a really vicious left-to-right crosswind there for about three holes in a row, so it was a tough stretch coming in.
18, back to even par, but I hit a really good tee ball on 18. It was dead downwind and I was able to carry the bunker off the tee. Gave me a reachable yardage out of just a little bit of a ball-below-my-feet lie in the rough.
I really could've got on it on the green and didn't hit a very good second shot into the bunker, which was the second bunker back. Hit a really nice pitch out of it and had a really good lie in the bunker.
The key out here was that I made a bunch of slippery little six-footers. That was the second of those that I made. The wind blowing you got to have some good touch on those six-footers.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through those last two birdies on 7 and 8.
TAG RIDINGS: 7, I hit it on the fringe. Hit a perfect tee ball up the left side and a little 7-iron on the left fringe. The only spot below the hole on the whole green. Just short and left, and hit a good putt from just kind of brushing the rough with my putter and it rolled very nicely right up there in the middle the cup.
8, I hit a really good tee ball on the Par-5. I got about 255 to the hole, which is a perfect yardage from my hybrid. Tugged it in the bunker with a big right-to-left crosswind. Tough lie in the bunker. Hit a good shot and had a another little slippery six-footer that I got in the hole there.
JOHN BUSH: All right. Questions.

Q. You mentioned weather. Obviously that's the big issue here today. Did it make a difference with shot selection or keeping your body and hands warm? What was the big problem out there?
TAG RIDINGS: For our front nine it was especially both of those. I mean, a combination where the ball is not traveling as far because of the cold, and then you get some wind affecting it.
Then you got kind of a double hit there. On top of that, at about 40 degrees with that much wind you're not moving as fast as you would normally and the hands aren't as quick. Kind of a triple threat there.
My 7-iron usually goes 180, and that first one I told you I hit 142. I hit it right on the screws, and I was actually telling it to get down. Thought I hit it too far. That is the toughest part starting out here in the mornings.

Q. Does it affect your concentration, or just more of a mental strain the entire way?
TAG RIDINGS: It can tire you out, and it'll get you towards the end of the round. I think it helps more than anything starting the round. You get rid of jitters and you get rid of wayward thoughts, because you have to concentrate in that stuff.

Q. In second place right now. Do you think it helped or hurt you with the early start? Would you have liked to start later? Did the weather get better or worse?
TAG RIDINGS: The temperatures certainly warmed up after the seventh or eighth hole. So the guys that are playing in the morning wave of tee times maybe would have had a slight advantage in that regard. But the wind is still picking up. It's not getting any easier.
Maybe their last hour of play could be even harder than what our first hour of play was. As far as the tee time wave goes, I like my wave because it actually has a chance to be decent tomorrow afternoon for our tee time. I don't think it's going to be decent this afternoon at all.

Q. You mentioned it was a vicious left-to-right crosswind. Which holes was that crosswind the most difficult?
TAG RIDINGS: 13, water on the right is probably the most penal of those holes.
14, water on the left. You don't want to ne aiming at that water, so that makes you think a little bit.
15 is a very long par-4 and a very difficult green. Also in the right rough there makes it almost an automatic bogey, so those three in a row.

Q. I don't know if you really said, but you described the individual shots. What is it about your game that let you go low today? Was your short game just on?
TAG RIDINGS: The putter was really stable in the wind. You know, hit some really good pitches when I did need to short game-wise. Couple here and there that weren't so great, but everybody is going to make bogeys on this golf course.
The key was I got a couple good yardages and hit it tight twice today. If somebody hits it tight more than twice I'd like to shake their hand, because that's pretty good today.

Q. Was it playing particularly long? Was it wet out there?
TAG RIDINGS: It's wet, and it is helping to play a little longer. That's an advantage for me, so that's good.

Q. Were the greens pretty quick?
TAG RIDINGS: The greens are lightening, and they're perfectly smooth and probably in as good a shape as we see all year. They have been that way every year we've been here.
So normal conditions that's an advantage for us, but when the wind is blowing it makes it tougher.

End of FastScripts

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