	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

SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 22, 2009

Brad Bryant

BEACHWOOD, OHIO

KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, ladies and gentlemen, in with a bogey-free 3-under par 67 in the second round of the 70th Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. Two day total of 140. Even par. Brad, congratulations, looked like a very solid round of golf from start to finish.
BRAD BRYANT: Yeah, I played very well today. With just the exception of a couple of shots. I hit sort of a loose shot off the first tee and got a nice bounce. And then turned it into a nice par.
And then the 16th hole I hit a pretty loose tee shot and hit it way left and kind of made a nice save for par there, just pitched it down the fairway and then got it near the green and made a nice up-and-down.
So those were kind of the two that looked like I might be pretty loose, but the rest of the day I hit the ball really well.
KELLY ELBIN: Could you go through the two birdies that you made on the par-3s on the front and then the birdie on 15. Clubs you hit into the green and then the length of the putts, please.
BRAD BRYANT: I hit a 6-iron on No. 2 about 12 feet below the hole and made a nice putt.
On number nine I hit a 7-iron about 10 inches. So it was, I was pretty high percentage from there.
KELLY ELBIN: You can make that.
BRAD BRYANT: Sometimes.
(Laughter.)
Well most of the time any way, I feel that's the one place where we feel fairly confident.
Then on the back nine I made a birdie on the 15th hole. I 2-putted from just an inch on the back fringe.
And hadn't, and had quite a few other looks at birdies today, I just didn't quite, I didn't putt the ball, didn't make many birdie putts, but I made a couple of par putts.
I actually made a putt, now that I think about it, I guess it's the fourth hole. I drove it well right and I hit the tree and it bounced way right and pitched it out and made probably a 12, a good 12 to 15-footer there for par. So that was really a big putt early in the round to make that one.
I missed a very short birdie putt on 3 and then turned around and made a 12 to 15-footer on 4 for par. So that kind of kept the round going. And that was maybe a spark that kind of helped the day along.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record Brad had 29 putts today. Open it up for questions.

Q. Seems like the tougher setups, you always play the tougher courses well. Do you feel like that's true and obviously this week is another real tough one.
BRAD BRYANT: I don't know, even par is, on a tough golf course, even par is a good score. So I don't know that I necessarily play tougher courses better, I just maybe find a way to keep it near par. And then I've been fortunate a couple of times to be near par and then finish well.
I did that at the PGA a few years ago, at Oklahoma, and then did that at Whistling Straits. And last year at Sonoma I did basically the same thing, I just kind of hung around and hung around and finished strong. And so if you kind of hang around near the top and then have some nice things happen on the last day, it turns into a good week.
KELLY ELBIN: Brad was runner-up in 2006 to Jay Haas at Oak Tree in Oklahoma. Questions?

Q. The course appeared to be playing a little softer today, did you find it that way and how did it change the way you played?
BRAD BRYANT: Well, yesterday afternoon it was really baked. It was -- I mean you got to face the fact that you're playing about 98 percent poa annua on the greens and late in the afternoon they're going to get spongy and ugly. That's just the nature of the type of, whatever you want to call it, poa annua. It's just what it is.
So early in the day the poa annua, after they mow it, it's a lot softer and the ball gets through it better and make as little better ball mark. So the course plays softer. So yesterday we had a breeze and lots of sun and that spells disaster when you're playing on poa annua.

Q. How is nature of your game going into this tournament and after two rounds are you confident that you can do what you've done in the past and put on the charge that you are talking about?
BRAD BRYANT: I have no clue. It's been a tough year. About a year ago now I really kind of lost my golf swing. I really had it there. For about a little over two years I was really pretty good.
Last year I kind of lost it and so I struggled through last year and I've kind of struggled through the first part of this year.
I'm good in spurts, and you get a little older and you're not always good, you're only good sometimes. And yesterday and today I hit the ball a little better. Last week I hit the ball really good the last round in Birmingham. So it seems like I'm on an upward trend.
And I've kind of found my golf swing a little bit too over the last couple of weeks. I have some good things to work on now where I've been searching for a long time, so hopefully we'll turn it around a little bit. I'll just have to wait and see.
KELLY ELBIN: Brad, you said that you lost your golf swing. Particularly any one part or was it a combination of things?
BRAD BRYANT: Well, I used to hit kind of a high hook. Kind of quit hitting a high hook and hit low slices and big hooks and crooked and unsolid. I mean that just happens, it's one of those things. That's the way golf is.
Golf is like riding a roller coaster, hopefully you kind of keep things for a long time, you hope that the, that up-and-down is more up than down. And so there for awhile it was pretty much that way and if things go south it's been a good run and who cares.

Q. How do you go about fixing it?
BRAD BRYANT: You know, if I had that answer I would be under par. So I'm not sure.

Q. You don't have a swing guru?
BRAD BRYANT: Well, I took lessons from David Leadbetter for a long, long time and of course if it weren't for David I wouldn't have a golf game. I think everyone knows that pretty much.
It was David in, after having my shoulder operated on in the '80s, David was the guy that really helped me rebuild my golf game, up until my back went out in '96. And I really played well. And so basically I do the, try to do the same things that I've been doing for the last 12, 15 years. I'm not trying to change anything. I'm just trying to get back to where I was two years ago.
And a couple of years ago at Birmingham I hit 53 or 54 greens, I hit 34 of 36 greens at Whistling Straits on Saturday and Sunday. And I just haven't had that type of ball striking for the last 10 or 12 months.
So today was a little better. I kind of felt like that I had a little more control today and so I'm hoping that the things that I'm working on will begin to sort of fix my swing.
But I don't really take lessons any more. If I were on -- if I were still young and on the Regular Tour and going to play for 20 more years I would be working with David probably once a month right now. And that's how you fix it when you're young.
When you're old, the old saying, you don't teach an old dog new tricks, you just try to get him to do the old ones better.
KELLY ELBIN: Brad Bryant, the old dog in with 67. Thank you, Brad.
BRAD BRYANT: Guys, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297