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LEGENDS RENO-TAHOE OPEN

August 7, 2009

John Rollins

RENO, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome John Rollins into the media center after a very good round. You're 33rd in the FedExCup. Solid there. Shoot a 62, ties the course record. You have good memories from last year. Tell us about your round.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, just one of those days, I guess. You hit a lot of good shots, obviously, made a lot of putts. But I mean that's really all it is. You just make putts. Again, I hit the ball really well all day and just managed to make the putts where, you know I'd say the last, you know last month or couple months or so the putts haven't really gone in for me and today they went in quite often. So it was fun.
THE MODERATOR: You had a good streak. You tied the record this year for the best birdie/eagle streak as you got going. What was your mindset when you hit No. 11, birdied that and what were you thinking?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, I mean it was just one of those stretches where I really, honestly, wasn't thinking anything other than just keep hitting good shots. It wasn't like I was out there leaderboard watching a lot. It's only Friday. So we still have two days to play.
But I knew that I was swinging well. I felt very good with my swing and I felt good on the greens. And I just wanted to make sure I didn't get ahead of myself and start thinking about a score, because that's usually the kiss of death. And like I said just kept going and hit solid shots and just kept trying to make putts.
We kind of cooled off after 11. Had some good opportunities but just couldn't quite make the putts. And then managed to squeeze the last two out of it to get the 10-under.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How do conditions vary from today compared yesterday? High wind yesterday. Everybody said that was the big factor, what about today?
JOHN ROLLINS: It's definitely scorable out there today. Greens have softened up some. I don't know if it's from overnight rain or if it's just from watering the greens or what. But they're firm in spots.
But, again, they're holding shots better than they did yesterday. And obviously the wind. That was huge. Yesterday we had -- the winds were all over the place, swirling around and my caddie and I are standing in a number of fairways where the wind would turn two or three times before we would hit a shot. So you're kind of -- seemed to be just a guessing game yesterday of which way the wind was going to come from.
And then you just had to somehow figure it out and just go with what your instinct telling you or what it's doing at that time. But just the lack of wind and the softer greens today I think is part of the reason why it was easier to play.

Q. You said you cooled off a little bit after 11. Did you have the same aggressive mindset the rest of the way in you had through that time or did you maybe back it off a little bit and play it safer?
JOHN ROLLINS: I felt I was still pretty aggressive. I still -- I hit good shots. It wasn't that I was all of a sudden hitting it 20, 25 feet from the hole. I was 12 after that. I probably had maybe 12 or 15 feet. And then the little short par-4 13 I hit it in there probably eight feet. 14, I made a good saving par after a poor tee shot. Then again on 15 had it maybe 10 feet. And then managed to birdie 17 and 18. But I didn't really back off. I was still hitting drivers. And I was still playing pretty aggressive and sticking to my game plan that we had for the golf course.

Q. On 17, the par-5, that was a sand save there, was that an important thing to kind of finish out?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah. You know, it wasn't as easy of a shot as people may have thought it was. I didn't have very far to the hole. I probably only had maybe eight or nine yards to the hole. But it was on an upslope in the bunker. But the ball, once it rolled back into the trap, it kind of nestled down into its own little path. So it wasn't sitting the greatest. And I knew it all kind of ran away from me.
So I hit an okay shot but it chased out again, probably whatever it was, 15 feet or something like that, maybe, and managed to make that. So, yes, that was big to save the birdie after hitting a great drive and what I thought was a pretty decent second shot to set up what I was hoping to be an easier birdie. But a birdie is a birdie.
THE MODERATOR: I'd like to ask you about yesterday. You hit eight of 18 greens. Today you hit 16 of 18. What was the difference?
JOHN ROLLINS: Wind, as I said a little bit ago. I think yesterday was so difficult to really stand over a shot and be 100 percent committed to what the wind was doing. Because you just -- one minute it's right-to-left. Next minute it's left-to-right. One minute it's down. The next minute it's in.
For me, at least, I just had a hard time really settling in and trusting what the yardage is or what the shots were going to play based on the direction of the wind.
And today a couple of times we had some wind to factor in, but for the most part it was get your number, factor in the altitude all the other things you're doing and just hit your shot.
THE MODERATOR: Does a 70 hitting eight greens is that comparable to shooting a 62 today?
JOHN ROLLINS: Probably yesterday was a saving round for me to get 2-under and missed a short one on 9 to shoot 3. But to get 2-under the way I hit it yesterday was really good.
I mean, it could have been 75 pretty easy. And those are the kinds of things you have to do, you know, when you play well, if you're going to try to give yourself a chance to win golf tournaments, is you've got to turn those 73s and 4s and 5s into 70, 69s, things like that.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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