	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

WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2009

Justin Rose

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

DOUG MILNE: Okay. Justin, open with 5-under, 65 today. Very well done. Just a couple comments on the round today and kind of the state of your game as you put Round 1 behind you.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I mean obviously it was a pleasing start today. Really was a low stress round of golf. I hit every fairway today and 17 out of the 18 greens, and the green I did miss it was on the edge of the green, I putted.
Really a good ball striking round. Good start, yeah. I 3-putted 18 for my only bogey. I think it would be disappointing if I was to lose the tournament Sunday but it's obviously Thursday and all in all a good start.
DOUG MILNE: How are you feeling about your game coming into the week, pretty confident?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I missed the cut by one last week. I also made 9 birdies in two rounds of golf around a pretty different golf course. There was a lot of good stuff happening.
Up until the PGA, I played pretty much 11 out of 12 really solid rounds of golf. It was nice to get off today and get some momentum going.
Probably one thing I haven't been doing of late is getting off to good starts. I've been grinding on Friday to make the cut and battling on the weekend to have a respectable finish. Little nicer today to get off to a fast start.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. You called it a low stress round today. Is this a low stress golf tournament or is there such a thing on a PGA tournament?
JUSTIN ROSE: It's a great tournament to come and be a part of. Obviously we're out there early, there wasn't much hullabaloo going on.
Last week I played the group in front of Tiger and Paddy and Rich Beem, thousands of people everywhere.
Today was just a nice, solid round of golf. But I mean it's got a potential to be a great tournament on the weekend. Very well staged. Great grandstands coming in on 15, 16, 17, 18. The course has got a great flavor to it. It's a fun tournament to play.

Q. Can you talk about playing a Ross course and maybe compare some other -- just the Ross course design you played today, and just maybe compare that to other courses? Did you enjoy it?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, sure. I think it's -- it's a very strategic golf course. I hit a lot of 3-woods, 5 woods off the tee today just to keep it in play. I don't know how the course played last year but I think the bermuda rough out there is tough.
The ball is sinking right to the bottom of it and if you don't drive it straight, there's really no way to play this golf course.
Having said that, once you're in play it's a great iron shot golf course. Lot of humps and hollows on the green. If you hit the correct iron shot the ball feeds to the pin.
Like on 18, that's probably the toughest pin on the green, top right. I hit a great shot in there. Obviously you're aiming it a little bit more to the middle of the green, funneled down the ridge and left me a really tough two-putt which I think is the characteristic of the golf course.
Greens are a little slow right now. Hopefully they'll speed up a touch towards the weekend. You're kind of having some tough putts up ridges. You got to give them quite a hit. Once it gets over the upslope it can get away from you.
Long putting around here is pretty tough.

Q. How many fairways did you hit today?
JUSTIN ROSE: All of them, I believe, yeah, 14 out of 14 -- if there are 14, I guess. Hundred percent. That was nice. I haven't done that for a long time.

Q. When was the last time you did that?
JUSTIN ROSE: Certainly not this year, I wouldn't think. Yeah. I mean I may have hit like 12 out of 14, but that's certainly my best for a long time.

Q. Justin, did you prefer the quietness you talked about having today without the thousands of people around?
JUSTIN ROSE: I love the atmosphere. I really enjoyed last week in terms of playing in front of that big crowd and that's what you strive for. Obviously if you're winning a golf tournament, that's what you're facing. That certainly is what gets the juices flowing.
I think I tend to like playing in the morning, though. Once I'm up, go -- the shock of my 4:45 alarm call, get over that shock, once I was up and about I felt like I enjoyed being out there in the morning golf course and conditionwise.
I think the point is today, it was nice -- I think everyone knows the greens are going to get a little rough this afternoon with how soft they are and obviously the traffic of a full field out there.
So, it was nice to take advantage of the fresh greens this morning. They were rolling nicely, especially on the front-9. You could see even when you turned after 9 holes you could see the extra traffic had been through there, although I putted much better on the back-9 than I did on front. Even though they're looking a touch rough, they're still putting okay. It was nice to take advantage of the morning round.

Q. Justin, do you think with the scoring the way it might be, do you think four 65s is what it's going to take to win this thing?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think that would certainly win. I was thinking 4-under a day was probably a pretty good total. Like I said, I wasn't here last year but I think the rough I heard is thicker this year, you guys can comment on that, but -- that to me makes it difficult. You drive -- you're having a hard time hitting the fairway -- I mean hitting the green from the rough.
That means it's not going to be easy. Guys are going to miss fairways. Yeah, I would take four 65s, that is for sure.
DOUG MILNE: All right. Justin, we appreciate your time as always. Best of luck tomorrow and into the weekend.
JUSTIN ROSE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297