|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 7, 2009Jonathan ByrdPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA CHRIS REIMER: Well, Jonathan, thanks for coming in. Obviously a good day and a good start building on the momentum of a T-5 last week at Quail Hollow. Maybe if you could, what do you have working for you right now? JONATHAN BYRD: A little bit of confidence, which always helps. You know, I made some changes this off-season, and just my instructor, Mike Bender, has been telling me and my mental instructor has been saying, hey, just keep building, keep building, it's going to keep getting better and better and snowballing and it's going to be great. I said if I can just get one good round, one good tournament, and just kind of see some potential and see where it can be. And last Sunday I just played awesome. I shot 6-under on Sunday. And it really wasn't that day, last week I birdied the last two holes, hit it a foot on the last hole to make the cut and the number and then played great all weekend. I had a great week. I'm hitting it great. My instructor is helping me out a lot. I'm thinking well. Everything is pretty good. I've just got to go out there and do it. CHRIS REIMER: This is your first opening round in the 60s at this event. How important at a tournament like this is it to get out early and to score early. JONATHAN BYRD: Especially the way the course is playing, you just had to stay aggressive all day. I kept wanting to kind of hit it on the fat of the green and play the course like I normally do. But you just don't normally see the course playing like it is now and when you have the opportunities, you've still into the to respect it, but you still have to go after it and get it. And I felt like I did a pretty good job with that. CHRIS REIMER: Was that the rain last night, is it softer or the rough a little different? JONATHAN BYRD: Well, I think the rough is very playable, but just the firmness of the green, because that's it, and no wind right now. A lot of 3-woods out there for me. I drove the ball pretty well. When you can stop it on the greens like that it's -- when you don't normally have it like that, you've just got to stay aggressive. Q. Did your brother also give you a tip last weekend or something, a putting tip? JONATHAN BYRD: He gave me a short game tip. Q. Can you talk a little bit about that? JONATHAN BYRD: Well, we just -- he came out, I let my caddie go home, because he lives in Charlotte that afternoon, on Saturday. We went to the range, he watched me hit a few and I told him my short game is not where it is, I'm not swing the ball as much as I usually do. He was watching me chip and he noticed my vision, I was picking the wrong shots, kinds of the easy dump and run shot and not picking the more spinning shot and fly it further. And the heel of my wedge was digging a little bit. So he got me a little closer to it and got my heel off the ground and started spinning it more. But we pretty much just went out and chipped and hung out and had a good time. He gave me a little tip. I told him when I got done on Sunday, I shot 6-under, I had about four balls I got up-and-down that I wouldn't have probably the day before and I said, man, you made me a bunch of money today. So I'm going to have to give him a cut. Q. Did he start you playing golf? JONATHAN BYRD: No, our dad did. CHRIS REIMER: Mind if you go through club selection here and the birdies and the bogey. Starting with -- JONATHAN BYRD: First hole, driver, wedge, 20 feet behind the hole, made a good putt. 2, drove it up on the green -- second shot up on the green, side bunker, just off the greenside bunker and chipped it a foot. And 7, terrible bogey, hit a driver, 9-iron 20 feet, 3 PUD. Made a great save on 8 out of the left bunker. Made about a 7-footer for par, there. Birdied 9, wedged it to a foot. 11, greenside bunker, got it up-and-down, made about a 10-footer. The par-3, 13, like that green, softer. I was able to hit it right at it, hit it about 8 feet and made birdie. And then 16, hit a driver, 5-iron on the front left portion of the green and two-putted. Q. Can you talk about the confidence factor? Was it the confidence of getting a good round under your belt or getting a good round under your belt with the conditions and with the players' names on the leaderboard? JONATHAN BYRD: I'd say both. More so playing a good round under the conditions on that golf course than in the field. I can't control what the field does. But it was more just kind of I knew -- I've been making plenty of birdies, it's just making the par saves when you need to, to keep your momentum or getting a wedge up-and-down here and there from the fairway to keep a birdie and keep it going -- make a birdie. And that was the ticket. The T-5 obviously is a good thing. But anytime -- you make the cut, the number, and you finish in the top-10, you just leap frogging people shooting a low round on Sunday, that's -- just leap frogging people and playing great on a tough course. Q. Did you make any change to your equipment when you come here? Forget about clothes for a minute. JONATHAN BYRD: How can I not think about clothes when you ask a question? Q. All right. Tell us about the clothes, first, and then we'll follow-up -- JONATHAN BYRD: I want to answer your first question. Do I make any equipment change? No, I don't. I don't make equipment changes during the season, really. Q. So whatever you start with the beginning of the season that's -- JONATHAN BYRD: Well, if something is not working well, it's not performing well. But I think Tiger does a good job of not changing a whole lot. I don't think he's changed his equipment a whole lot since college, he's still playing the blade iron, his loft and lies are about the same, the shaft is about the same. You're filling in your gaps from lob wedge to a driver, having the right gaps in your irons and woods. And then I think you just be an athlete and adapt and play a course. But, no, I haven't changed my equipment pretty much all year. I've put two new clubs in the bag about two months ago. I put a Mizuno 3-wood and a Mizuno hybrid 2-iron, which I've never had a hybrid, and those two clubs have performed really well for me. Q. It's going to be hot, it's going to be muggy. Are you going to stay with white, what are you going to do? JONATHAN BYRD: I've picked out my outfits yesterday for the week and white pants every day and just different shirts. Q. Works for me. JONATHAN BYRD: I think in this temperature I think it's a good call. I saw somebody in all black this morning and I went, uck, it's going to be hot. Q. Polo is coming with all black in the fall with a special material that's supposed to be very good. JONATHAN BYRD: How do you know this before me? Q. That's my job. JONATHAN BYRD: I just wear what they tell me to. CHRIS REIMER: Good round today. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|