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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 20, 2009Lucas GloverFARMINGDALE, NEW YORK Q. Were you sitting there thinking you can get that 63? LUCAS GLOVER: I had a decent putt on 9. I left it a little bit short. I'm a little ashamed I did leave it short. But I played well. I'm very pleased. Probably as good a round of golf as I've played. I'm very excited. Q. How are the course conditions? Are they spongier, balls sticking there? LUCAS GLOVER: Very similar. We weren't backing up drivers like the previous couple of days. But still soft. The greens are still holding, mid-irons, long irons. Still very soft. Get in the fairways, birdies to be had. Q. How excited are you to tie the course record today? LUCAS GLOVER: That's cool. That's great. I'm excited. Q. What time did you get to bed last night? What time did you have to get up this morning? LUCAS GLOVER: I think I probably laid down about 10:45. Read until about 11:30 and got up at 4:50. Q. And now what? LUCAS GLOVER: Go take another nap. (Laughter). But, yeah, I got some time to kill. So hit the grocery store and get some food for the bag and get a little sleep. Q. How big an advantage was it to play all the holes yesterday and today over the guys who were going to be going out this afternoon? LUCAS GLOVER: I said it earlier, I think yesterday in between rounds that if you know you're going to play a lot and you get it going, it helps, because you've got good momentum. And that's my feeling anyway. Those guys that had to play five, six holes and then break off and come back yesterday and sit around until mid-morning, it's kind of tough. So luckily I had some momentum. So it was nice to be able to keep going. Q. Cuts haven't been particularly kind to you in the past. Did you come to this place thinking maybe -- LUCAS GLOVER: I think I knew what to prepare a little bit more for. I concentrated on hitting my driver, hittiing it straighter and a lot of 6-footers because you're going to have those for par around here eventually. With three missed cuts I knew what to expect and what I needed to work on. Q. Is there a different kind of mental mindset, throttle it down and get used to the par mentality versus of shooting 65 every day like you were across the -- LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, it's a different mindset for sure. But we went through it a little bit at Memorial, greens were very firm and fast there. And Tiger's 65 there to get it to 12-under was pretty remarkable. But a lot of us were playing for pars that week. Q. Can you knit the two together and what's been the key? LUCAS GLOVER: I drove it great. I drove it great for the last 27 holes. And driving the fairway at an Open you're going to have some birdie chances. I drove it good and hit my irons the right distance a lot. The greens aren't huge. If you hit it the right distance a lot you'll get nice birdies shots. I hit it in the fairway a lot. That's encouraging. Q. You played in a major where you were able to stop the ball and spin it on greens? LUCAS GLOVER: Maybe Medinah when it was pretty hot that year. I think the greens were pretty soft early. Yeah, unfortunately we're hoping 4-irons. But it's the same golf course for everybody. Q. Lucas, did you ever think for a minute about 63 and what was your putt like on 9? LUCAS GLOVER: I had about 20 feet. I thought about it. Then I weannied out and left it short. But, yeah, I had a good read, right edge read. Right-hander likes a right-to-lefter. This would be pretty cool. And I left it short. I wasn't going to run it by five feet either. Q. You grew up in the Masters and sort of with that. What do you remember about watching the Open? And did you project yourself ever being there? LUCAS GLOVER: You aspire to be here obviously and you think about it. But when I was growing up going to the Masters guys were making birdies and making charges on Sunday. I don't remember that at Oakman's. It was a survival test. And that's the difference in the two majors. I think it's great. But Augustus scaled back some now and par's pretty good around there and similar to an Open with the length now. Q. Might see it this week. LUCAS GLOVER: With different conditions, you very well. With the guys playing now that are close to the lead, you're going to see some birdies. Q. U.S. Opens are hard enough just under regular conditions, how much harder is it when you're stopping, going, don't know if you're going to play -- LUCAS GLOVER: I don't know. I'm kind of thankful for the rest. But yesterday was tough. It was so grueling. Every hole out here can bite you. And mentally I'd say it's harder than physically, because we're all in pretty good shape and we walk a lot. That's not an issue. But the mental grind is what's tough. Q. You're one of those guys coming into here that's supposedly a longer hitter's type course, top 10 in driving distance since day one. You wouldn't be a surprise; there's a pretty eclectic mix of guys, Mike Weir. Are you at all surprised about that? Do you have any explanation as to how he's up there? Obviously he must be working the hybrids pretty good. Long, short pros, amateurs, eclectic? LUCAS GLOVER: Every major is a shot-maker's course. Doesn't matter what club it is. You gotta get it in the fairway. Get it around or on the green. Everybody knows Mike Weir can really putt. So that's the key. In soft conditions it's putting. And he's a great putter. Q. With all the rain we've had and all you heard about 2002, one guy breaking par here, does that kind of blow your mind? LUCAS GLOVER: No, it's soft. I was here then. And without that rain Thursday, it was really firm. The rough was a lot worse. It was ankle-high everywhere. We got the graduated rough now. So that helps. You hit a decent tee shot on this fairway by a yard or two, got a chance and chip out. There's four shots. Maybe more. But with soft conditions it's going to be easier, you give us a 6-iron where it's going to stop, most of the time a decent shot is 15, 20 feet. So I think that's where the lack of defense for the course comes. It's definitely not length or anything like that. It's just the conditions. Q. Couple of people mentioned mud balls yesterday. Have you had that problem? LUCAS GLOVER: Actually had one on the first hole yesterday. And the 9th hole. You get some. And some of them affect your shot. Some of them don't. I've had a few. I think I've only had two that really I went, whoa, that's not supposed to go there. But other than that it's just the way it is right now. It's getting better, though. I mean it's by no means terrible. Yesterday I didn't have one casual water all day. That's pretty impressive. Q. Can you at this point, knowing that whenever the third round starts you're at the end, can you get more jazzed up or is the trick for you just to make it another golf tournament? LUCAS GLOVER: Just the same stuff I've been doing. Only halfway through, I'm only halfway through. Some guys aren't even a quarter of the way. So it is what it is. I'll just take it easy and see if they give me a tee time this afternoon, be here. If they don't I'll be here tomorrow. Q. Your game has been over the last several years, do you feel like you're ready to win a U.S. Open? LUCAS GLOVER: Might as well be here. Haven't won in a while. But I've been working hard. I feel like I'm working on the right stuff. I've been playing good. So I'll take it whenever it comes. Q. What did you think of your chances when you first saw the course this week? LUCAS GLOVER: I liked it in '02. I just didn't play well. And then, like I said with the graduated rough and the soft conditions, and I hit my long irons and mid-irons very good Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So I had a pretty good vibe coming in Thursday. Q. Are you still working with -- (inaudible). LUCAS GLOVER: Mike Taylor at Sea Island. Q. Are you impressed with how DJ putted with his driver? LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, he putted great. I think he shot even par something with his driver. So on the front, that's pretty good. Q. Do you know how to do that? LUCAS GLOVER: No. End of FastScripts |
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