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BOB HOPE CLASSIC

January 20, 2010

Heath Slocum

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

DAVE SENKO: Heath, thanks for joining us. Maybe get us started, 6-under, 66, just some general thoughts on your round and it looks like six birdies, no bogeys.
HEATH SLOCUM: Yeah, I got off to a pretty good start. I think it was what, 13, 14, 15. Three birdies in a row. Hit some good shots into 16, 17. And made a good putt on 18 for birdie.
Kind of rolled to the back and the wind started picking up and it cooled off and that's when it just got more difficult.
I still played solid, made a couple birdies, and a couple good par saves, and especially on 18, No. 9, my 18th hole was driver, 3-wood into that cold wind. So I made a par there. I was happy with today's round for sure.
DAVE SENKO: Maybe just talk a little bit about the weather. You alluded to it, but maybe just what conditions were like when you started and when you finished.
HEATH SLOCUM: When I started the wind was actually blowing for, I want to say a hole and a half. Then it just got calm. It was Palm Springs golf. There was not a lot of wind. Starting to warm up.
And then all of a sudden when I made the turn it definitely kicked right back up to the wind started blowing and it cooled off and I put the sweater back on. And obviously the golf is a little more difficult.
I was hitting it solid, making some putts. So I think this, I definitely got a good break with the weather, teeing off early today.
DAVE SENKO: Maybe go through your birdies real quick. 13 shot sequence on those three in a row.
HEATH SLOCUM: I hit driver, 7-iron to probably four feet. Made birdie.
Then I hit driver, laid up with a 3-iron. Hit a wedge in there, made probably a 10-footer.
Par-3, hit an 8-iron to about seven feet. Six feet. Made a good putt there.
9, or 18, I hit driver, laid up with a 7-iron, hit a wedge and made a 10-footer.
So then we go to 2. Hit it right up next to the green, chipped it to a foot.
Number 4, I hit a driver, wedge to four feet.
Then I just made the good up-and-down on the last to kind of cap off the day.

Q. On your last nine, was the wind consistent or was it kind of changing directions?
HEATH SLOCUM: It seemed to be consistent. We had -- the forecast called for like out of the south, south, southeast. It seemed to be pretty consistent, away from the mountain it seemed pretty consistent. It blew and it was coming the same direction.

Q. Normally at this tournament the first round 63, last year 61 was the leading score. Looks like maybe 65, 66 today. Do you feel like maybe, like you say, you did get away with it early today?
HEATH SLOCUM: No doubt about it. I caught a good break. Just relatively no wind this morning, and it's going to be windy for the rest of the day. Yeah, there's no doubt. It actually warmed up.
So, yeah, obviously over a five round tournament with the tee times, you're not too far apart so you're not going to get too, too big of an advantage. But I definitely got a good break this morning.

Q. These courses don't have a lot of rough so I don't know if it makes much difference, but what's your opinion of the new grooves? Has it affected you at all just even in practice? Do you find any difference there?
HEATH SLOCUM: I haven't really. But I was never, I haven't been a high spin guy whatsoever. So I didn't spin the ball a lot with the wedges around the greens or even with full wedge shots so I haven't seen much difference. Yet I haven't played a whole lot with some in some of the dry Bermuda where you're going to catch a few more fliers.
I'm sure it's going to make a difference around the greens in some of the Bermuda, which I haven't played in competition yet. So that being said, the two courses that I have played, the two tournaments, I haven't seen much difference.

Q. Will it affect your sand wedge? I know Pat Perez was saying he couldn't, he used to spin it out and now the ball is going 10 feet by.
HEATH SLOCUM: Mine have always gone 10 feet by. So maybe 12. I don't know.

Q. Obviously the forecast isn't great for tomorrow. Rain tonight. Rain tomorrow. We don't know. Does that impact the way you start looking like we might have a rain out and you show up tomorrow and if they let you play, you play?
HEATH SLOCUM: Pretty much. Yeah, I don't want to start thinking we might not play tomorrow. So I'm going to prepare just like I'm going to play and if we don't, I'll deal with it then. But I'll prepare like we're going to play. The courses I think can hold a lot more water than we think. Depending upon the weather, I heard it was pretty bad storm coming, but I'll just prepare like normal.

Q. The rotation that you have starts at PGA West both the first and second day. Last year they were the two easiest courses. In fact I think the Nicklaus Course had the lowest stroke average on TOUR last year. Is that something that you think about when you come to this tournament? Where you're playing, what day you're playing, stuff like that?
HEATH SLOCUM: No, I don't. I think that no matter the conditions, tomorrow, what course you're going to play that you're on, there's going to be birdie opportunities. Some holes are going to be more difficult and you might have to play a little bit, I won't say more conservative, but accept par as a good score.
You're still going to have opportunities to make birdies out here. Some of the par-5s are even going to play probably shorter. You're going to have a shorter iron into them or be able to get to them in two.
So with that you're just going to have to go out and try to make your birdies when you can and par may be a better score out here. The conditions are harder, so you just take some of those pars and just go to the next.
DAVE SENKO: Okay. Thanks, Heath.
HEATH SLOCUM: Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts

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