	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

BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 8, 2009

John Rollins

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

MARK WILLIAMS: Welcome to the interview room at the Buick Invitational. It was a tremendous battle out there. Just tell us your thoughts and the way you were feeling the last few holes.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, it was tough out there today. Nick played great, hit the ball well all day, made some good putts, and my hat's off to him. 4-under par on Sunday is a great score out there today. I just seemed to kind of struggle to get anything going and got off to a bad start bogeying 1 and 2, kind of gave the guys a little bit of life, and then started to right the ship kind of halfway through the round, and then the eagle putt on 13, when that fell for me, that was a big boost there to get a three-shot lead back.
But just unfortunately I didn't drive it well enough today to keep the ball in the fairway to sort of attack any of the flags or anything else. I was always kind of playing defense. Again, he played a wonderful round.
MARK WILLIAMS: The shot on the last, was the intention just to hit it on the green?
JOHN ROLLINS: I was just trying to hit it on the green. Obviously I saw him knock it on, and I knew to give myself either a possible chance to make an eagle to win or just a two-putt birdie, you never really know what'll happen. That's a tough green when you hit it way up on the back where he was. It's tough to judge the speed, and he did it beautifully. Unfortunately I got over my second shot a little bit, left myself in a tough spot in the bunker and hit a pretty good shot but couldn't convert.

Q. What yardage did you have on the last hole?
JOHN ROLLINS: I think we had 235 or so to the hole I believe is what it was.

Q. It looked like you were plugged pretty severely on 16, so kind of some bad breaks. Was there anything that you'd like to have back?
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I mean, obviously I'd like to have some of the three-putts yesterday. My only three bogeys were three three-putts, so that right there is the tournament for me. You know, today three-putting 1, kind of getting off to that bad start, I'd like to have the start over and of course would like to have my second shot on 18 over again.
You know, I played well. I mean, I gave myself a chance. That's all you can ask. Unfortunately I just didn't really hit it as well today as I hit it the first three days and still had a chance to win. But Nick, like I said, he just played a great round of golf. To shoot 4-under out there today was great playing.

Q. Yesterday you said that you had done a good job of not beating yourself up after missing some putts here and there. Same thing today in terms of you get off to the rough start. How were you able to kind of keep it going?
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, even with the two bogeys I still had the lead, so it wasn't like I was tied and then all of a sudden I'm two back after the first two holes. So I still had the lead, so I still was pressing on and trying to extend the lead or trying to get back in control of my game.
You know, I never even -- even after the bogey on 16 and Nick making his birdie to get tied, I went to the 17th tee after all that we had gone through and was still ready to play the 17th hole and was trying to make a birdie or still trying to win the golf tournament.
Like I said, I played with the lead the whole day until 16. You know, who knows what would have happened had I been tied for the lead and then was two back after the first two. But I just continued to battle, and again, it was a tough golf course out there today I thought and just wasn't my day.

Q. Do you take encouragement out of this or disappointment?
JOHN ROLLINS: I mean, it's definitely encouraging. I mean, I played good on a good golf course. You know, I was right there, obviously the 54-hole leader, and it came all the way down to the 18th hole. I mean, I just hit one kind of poor shot on 18 that sort of took my chances away from me to have a fairly routine birdie, and Nick executed it the way he wanted to do it and two-putted and got out of there with a victory.
You know, I take a lot of positive out of this week. I'm looking forward to coming out to LA in two weeks and playing a golf course that I really love playing, and hopefully we can carry this on with us.

Q. How much does the three-stroke lead enter into your thinking down the stretch in terms of what kind of shots you play, strategic moves, that sort of thing?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, the thing about this golf course versus some others, you can't play very conservative. You lay back off tees or something like that, you know, these greens with some of these pins and everything, the way the course was playing, I mean, it's tough. These closing holes are good closing holes out here, so you still really have to suck it up when you get on the next tee are or whatever hole and hit really good golf shots all the way into the house. So there's really no shot out there that you can just kind of play conservative and try to protect any sort of lead. You've got to go, I feel, that way for the most part all the time.

Q. Nick's putt on 16, how difficult was it? Was it like a 1 in 10, 1 in 20?
JOHN ROLLINS: It's hard to say. It looked like it was 1 in 1 (laughter). I mean, it was a tough putt, up and over kind of a ridge, and that was a really tough pin placement today, especially with the wind coming off the left. It looked like it was going to run out of steam just a little bit at the hole, but it sort of wriggled back to the right as it lost speed and fell in the front door.
You know, it's just inches from a possible miss, and who knows what that could have changed. But that was a great putt.

Q. Talk about your lie in the bunker. It looked pretty -- ?
JOHN ROLLINS: It was as bad a plugged lie as I've had in a while, and then you've got a steep face in the bunker. My main goal was to make sure I got it out of the bunker, and from there, there was no way of holding the green unless you miraculously hit the flag and it would stick.
You know, it was an unfortunate break in that stage of the tournament. Things had been kind of going along okay, and then that got me there on 16.

Q. You drove it pretty well all week, and then today it looked like maybe you were fighting it just a bit. Was that the case?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I thought for the most part I kept losing shots to the right. Not really big to the right but just enough to miss the fairway. And again, this rough being wet and thick the way it's been all week, it's just almost impossible to control it that way, much less get it on the green with a reasonable putt at birdie.
Like I said, I was always playing defensive.

Q. Was it harder to sleep last night than it will be tonight or vice versa?
JOHN ROLLINS: No, I still made $574,000 (laughter). Life isn't too bad. I mean, again, I'm happy with the way I played. It's unfortunate that I came in with a three-shot lead and couldn't get the victory, but as I said yesterday and this morning before I went out, if somebody came out and played a great round of golf and came out on top, then my hat's off to him, and that's exactly what Nick did. He executed the way he should have today, and he got me by the one. So we'll move on for LA.
MARK WILLIAMS: Appreciate your time, John. Thanks for coming in. All the best the rest of the season.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297