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BOB HOPE CLASSICJanuary 23, 2010Alex PrughLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA DAVE SENKO: Alex Prugh, thanks for joining us. 7-under 65. Now you're 21-under. Maybe just talk about your day over at La Quinta. ALEX PRUGH: It started out a day, kind of hit my drive first hole great. Noticed it wasn't going very far. A little disappointed with my par there, but was able to birdie the next three holes, actually. It was one of those days where my third hole, I believe, yeah, hit a great 5-iron in there to about six inches, and I think whenever you do that, it's going to be a good day. Unfortunately, I parred a couple par-5s up there, but I came around and saved a shot on 9 chipping in from the left rough. And then honestly just made a couple 2-putt birdies on the back side on the par-5s and one more birdie on, it looks like, 17. So other than that, it was a pretty boring round, made a couple good par saves, but that was it. DAVE SENKO: It was nice to have nice weather today, I guess. ALEX PRUGH: It seemed like it took a little 180 from the last couple of days, definitely. It's nice to be sunshine again for sure. Q. Congratulations on your start here. Can you talk about how it feels to be in this position right now and how you're dealing with your emotions with a couple of rounds to go? ALEX PRUGH: Obviously, I haven't had any emotions yet. I think this tournament is such -- the format to -- where everything's so spread out, you have four different courses, you're playing with amateurs, it's kind of hard to get yourself caught up in everything. I'm just playing golf. I'm just trying to entertain my amateur partners as well as I can, and hopefully they get their money's worth when they're out here. Q. So does the fact that it's spread out actually help you in some ways to just play and don't think about anything? ALEX PRUGH: Definitely it does. There's a disadvantage of that, and in the fact that I got to play one practice round maybe and got to walk around like the first three courses we played, I haven't ever hit a shot on any of them. But at the same point in time, it's just golf. A 6-iron is a 6-iron. It goes 180 yards. So I've been really enjoying it, and I haven't really gotten caught up that much because the crowds are all so spread out. I mean it might be a little different on Sunday, but hopefully I'll play well enough tomorrow, I can get myself in good position that I don't have to worry about that. Q. Bubba was in earlier and shot 68 and was far from thrilled with his round. You shot 67, or excuse me, 65. And yet you are not like crazy happy about your round it doesn't sound like. Is that just a byproduct of the fact that everybody expects to shoot 62 out here or is it just that today was one of those days? ALEX PRUGH: I think it was just one of those days where I had a lot of opportunities. And like I said, I 2-putted for a couple pars and/or 2-putted for a couple birdies, and actually 3-putted for one par. And you leave a couple shots out there like that, and you kind of do get disappointed. But I look back at it at the same point in time, I made a bunch of great bunker up-and-down saves on the back nine. I'm very happy about that. But honestly today was a really boring round. I was almost bored with myself a little bit. I kept on -- like it's not a bad thing, I was hitting the driver very well, and I kept on hitting fairway after fairway. And I'm just like, it's kind of boring. It's kind of like you start trying to shape shots in there or something like that, which I didn't, but I'm like just keep yourself, keep it boring, and actually boring rounds are actually fine with me. Q. So you're not trying to knock it off a condo and onto a green like that? ALEX PRUGH: Not like that, no. It's hard to complain from the center of the fairway. Q. Martin was in here and he's a rookie and he's one shot out off the lead, you're in the lead, he talked about the Nationwide Tour, you talked about the Nationwide Tour earlier this week. What is it about the Nationwide Tour that takes the fear out of coming on to the PGA TOUR away from guys like you? ALEX PRUGH: It's a big level TOUR. It's going -- I mean minus the fact that you have more grandstands and more people, I think the level of competition is pretty dang similar. Minus those couple top guys. I think the Nationwide Tour is a great place to play. It's one of those things where it, I think the competition level is very similar. So I think you're very well prepared after coming out of there. Q. Could you teach us how to be bored hitting the ball in the fairway every time, first of all. It's an interesting outlook. ALEX PRUGH: True. I think it was one of those things, if you look at my round, it wasn't very flashy. I mean there was moments, you know, a chip in on 9. But that was because I pulled my 7-iron from the center of the fairway. (Laughter.) I mean, there's other moments you make a great up-and-down on 16 and from the right bunker, that's because I was in the center of the fairway and missed it to the right. So there's just little things here and there that I think I can improve on, but for the most part it was boring. I mean how fun is it to see someone 2-putt for birdie? Kind of boring. (Laughter.) Q. So should we assume that if you win this thing you're not going to be dancing all over the green and jumping up-and-down or is that your personality or what? ALEX PRUGH: Well, no, that's all situational. I mean, eagle a hole or hole a shot on the 18th hole or something like that to win, you'll see me jumping in the pond probably. (Laughter.) But I'm pretty even keeled. I don't show a ton of emotion, but at the same time it's all situational. Q. Jumping in the pond is the other tournament they play here. The LPGA tournament. ALEX PRUGH: Oh, I know. If I holed out for double eagle I think I might do it though. (Laughter.) Q. You go to SilverRock tomorrow. You've seen that course, but not played it again, right? ALEX PRUGH: Actually that is the one course I did play. Q. Any thoughts about going over there? ALEX PRUGH: I guess it's going to be really hard to miss the fairway, I can tell that you much out there. It's just a longer course. Fortunately it drys out and hopefully I can get a little bit more roll on things to make that course play a little shorter. That's my biggest concern. But beyond that, I feel like as long as you get the putter hot, anything can happen. Q. You mentioned that the level of the competition is similar to Nationwide Tour, except for minus some top guys, and obviously we're minus some top guys here, so does this appear to you then as a great opportunity for someone like yourself? ALEX PRUGH: Oh, definitely. I think any time you tee it up though is a great opportunity. Whether you're playing in the Masters and you do have all the top guys in there, I mean, someone has to win, why can't it be you? I mean, everybody strikes lightning, everybody has had a putt fall before. It's just a matter of putting those all together. Q. You've won on the Nationwide Tour. Is that a factor here, having done that; and have you ever been in an interview room three days in a row at a tournament before? ALEX PRUGH: Probably on the one Nationwide Tour I won. Down at the New Zealand Open. Definitely it helps. That tournament's playing this next week. It definitely helps. Coming down the stretch, I think I was, I ended up winning by three, but realistically when I was on about hole 15 I was tied for the lead. I had a great finish. I finished with a birdie and an eagle and my opponent finished with a bogey and a birdie, before you know it, you know, you separated yourself. So it wasn't too stressful. It was actually very stress-free on that 18th hole. But I think still putting myself in the situation and knowing that I can come down the stretch and make some birdies and eagles is a great feeling and I definitely learned from that. DAVE SENKO: Okay, thank you, Alex. ALEX PRUGH: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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