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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 13, 2009Hunter MahanCHASKA, MINNESOTA KELLY ELBIN: Hunter Mahan, ladies and gentlemen, in with a 3-under par 69 in the opening round of the 91st PGA Championship at Hazeltine National. Hunter, good start on a difficult golf course. Comments on your play today, please. HUNTER MAHAN: Played well. Hit it good. Did all the right things. Hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. And played it pretty well. I gave myself a lot of good looks for birdie. Just could have made a few more. But pretty happy to get off to a good start. KELLY ELBIN: Can you give the length of the putts, the birdie putts, the four birdies and what happened on No. 9 with the bogey. HUNTER MAHAN: Birdied 2 from about, I don't know, 10 feet straight up the hill. Pretty easy putt. 3, had about, I don't know, 10, 12 feet for birdie. Kind of just a little left to righter, but had a good look at it. Greens aren't too fast yet. You can be a little aggressive. Birdied 7. Two good shots. About 30 feet away. Ran it just by the hole for eagle. Easy birdie there. Bogeyed 9. Probably one of my best swings from the fairway. 8-iron. Flew 175, went about 186. So not thrilled with that. Birdied 15, par 5. And made a nice putt up over a mound from about 15 feet. So birdied the par -- three out of the four par 5s which is nice, makes it easier. Q. You've been in here with us at other majors. What's it going to take this week for you to be back here with us Sunday night? HUNTER MAHAN: I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing right now. I can't ask to swing any better. I feel real comfortable on this golf course. Everything feels good. I have to keep doing what I'm doing right now and keep a good head about me. Q. Is this the best feeling you've had going into a major? Can you compare it? HUNTER MAHAN: Probably, yeah. I felt good all year with majors and stuff. But I feel very confident in what I'm doing. I think I know how to fix it if it goes wrong. And I'm trusting it, which is extremely important. KELLY ELBIN: Hunter tied for sixth at the U.S. Open this year and tied for 10th at the Masters. Q. You talked about your success on the par 5s; did you have a game plan going in how you were going to approach them? We heard so much talk about the 600-yard par 5s, three of them. So did you have some kind of an idea what you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it and did you pull it off, obviously, with the birdies? HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah, you know, with the wind going right now, 15 you can reach, with a good drive. Hit driver 3-wood, didn't hit a very good 3-wood out to the right. Got it up there far enough. The pin was back. It was very accessible. But I'm not going to play it too aggressive unless -- if I know I can get there I'm going to try it. But if I can't get there, I'm going to try to hit to the widest part of the fairway. I'm not going to force it into a sand wedge yardage if it's a little tight. I'm going to lay back and give myself a wedge or a 9-iron. Because I feel pretty confident with those clubs. I don't feel the need to force it up and hit it in the bunker or hit it in the rough and then make the hole harder than it is. So pretty safe unless I know I can get there then I will go for it. Q. Golf was added to the Olympics this morning for 2016. Have you given any thought to that? And if so, what are your thoughts about possibly playing? HUNTER MAHAN: Well, that's pretty exciting to think that you could represent your country in the Olympics. I don't know what kind of format they're going to use. The qualification system, I don't know any of that. I think there's a lot to be determined, I'm guessing, but it's pretty exciting the fact that you can win a gold medal in golf now, it's a pretty neat thing. KELLY ELBIN: Golf was recommended as a sport in the Olympics 2016. It's not been finalized yet. Hunter Mahan in with 69. Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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