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THE 50TH BOB HOPE CLASSIC HOSTED BY ARNOLD PALMERJanuary 21, 2009Ben CraneLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Ben Crane to our interview room, Ben with a 9-under par 63 today. Maybe just talk a little bit about your round and we'll open it up for some questions. BEN CRANE: This is my first round of the year, so coming out, very low expectations, and I've been practicing very hard with my instructor and caddie and we put a lot of effort in, but you certainly don't know how it's going to come out. And today was, things came together a lot better than we thought. It was obviously a great way to kick off the year. JOE CHEMYCZ: So the 63 surprised you as your first round of the season? BEN CRANE: Yeah, I mean, I'm very confident about my game right now, I'm excited about all the stuff I'm working on. I feel like I'm working on just great stuff. But I certainly didn't have a target score of 63 today. My high school coach used to say, "Okay, target score for you is" -- you know, well why don't we set a target score at 45, you know, let's just, if you're going to set a target score. Anyway. (Laughter.) Q. So much for the rust and so much for finding your way around the new golf course. You now have the course record, the tournament course record of the Nicklaus Course because you're the first guy off the tee. BEN CRANE: Oh, really? What about -- Q. No, that was Q-School. BEN CRANE: That doesn't count? Q. No. BEN CRANE: Okay, well that's four shots better. Q. Had you played that golf course much between your time around here? BEN CRANE: I played TOUR school here, that would be nine years ago. And I played a lot here. I used to, my instructor used to be over here at the Jim McLean Golf School, so we used to come over here and play a bunch. So I played all these PGA West courses probably at least half a dozen times. Q. Is that a -- obviously it's a new course for the field and a lot of people say it's maybe a little easier, the scoring's going to be a little lower because The Classic Club is out and that course is in, do you think that's true? BEN CRANE: Yeah, I think that this course isn't quite as long as The Classic Club and obviously you don't have the element of the wind. So, I mean, if you're playing well you're going to make a few more birdies over here. I remember at the Classic Club I think I hit 5-wood and 4-irons and 3-irons into some par-4s and you don't do that all that often out here. Q. That's off the tee here. BEN CRANE: Right. Q. Is there anything that was working particularly well for you today and what specifically? You say you've been working on a lot of good things, what were the things that were working today? BEN CRANE: We changed my swing slightly, so we're doing some stuff with that. And then we worked particularly hard on my putting for the last two and a half weeks, really. We have really been working on my putting. And today was probably the best day of putting we have had in that stretch. So just it kind of happened at the right time. They ask you what your score is after Sunday, so we're a long ways from anywhere. But first things first, I'm very happy with the way I played today, I made some great putts, and the stuff we're working on -- I was having some trouble with some alignment so I changed putters so that when I set the putter down I wouldn't have to correct it so much. And when I set it down it just all of a sudden it's sitting more on my line. And that's been a huge help. So that with my old putter my routine was much longer just simply in the sense that I was having to adjust the putter to the line I wanted to put it on, whereas the putter now we have set it up to where I set the putter down and I look down my line and there's really not a lot of correction, not much of a correction to be made. Which has helped. Q. Have you played any practice rounds recently here? BEN CRANE: We just drove around every course. Since I played every course, we drove around the courses and just got targets and did some work on the greens and stuff. But we haven't played these courses this year. Are we talking on the mic for a reason when they're everyone's -- Q. They're taping. BEN CRANE: Oh, okay. Q. Given the courses in the rotation this year, and if the wind doesn't kick up, do you think the 36-under record is in jeopardy? I mean, there are 40 guys 5-under or better right now. BEN CRANE: It's not my job. That's your guys' job, figure that out. I have no idea. I don't look at the scores, I don't know anything about anything. I'm turning my phone off. I'm going to go hang out and relax, hang out with my kids. I got a two and a three month old and I'm just excited to go home and play with the kids. So, I mean, it could be. JOE CHEMYCZ: Talk about the eagle first to kind of get you started. BEN CRANE: Yeah, I parred the first few holes and I was happy that I was hitting some decent shots and hit some decent putts that just didn't go in. Then all of a sudden I had a couple good shots there and I was just off the green about four feet and hit a nice putt and it went in. So that was like whoa, all right. JOE CHEMYCZ: How far was that? BEN CRANE: That was probably 30 feet. Q. Just kind of off the subject, what do you think of the big rock out on 2? BEN CRANE: I don't mind it at all. Especially with a back pin placement. If it's a front pin I think that you got stress. But with the back pin, no issue at all. Gives you something to shoot at. No problem at all. Q. And that pin was -- BEN CRANE: And it's not like it's not authentic. It's not like they put it there. It was there. (Laughter.) JOE CHEMYCZ: All right, Ben. Thank you. BEN CRANE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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