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FARMERS INSURANCE OPENJanuary 29, 2010Ryuji ImadaSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Ryuji Imada, thanks for joining us here after a second round 68 on the South Course today. Well, excellent start two rounds in the 60s, and you certainly have to be happy with a 68 on the South Course. Opening comments? RYUJI IMADA: Very happy. 68 on the South Course is great score any day. It did play a little easier today without the wind and the warm weather, but 68 on that golf course is a great round. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: No bogies over the first two days. Obviously the short game is pretty sharp. Maybe some comments about that. RYUJI IMADA: My irons have been really good. I've hit a lot of greens, and my putts from longer distance have been really good as far as the distance -- judging the distances. I was able to make those two to three footers, too. I'd say I haven't had to chip too many times this week yet, but I was able to hit the shots on the greens and be able to two-putt or one-putt depending on how close of a birdie putt it was. Q. Ryuji, it seems there's always something going on besides the actual golf. As you know, it's been Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. Now we have this whole thing about are guys cheating because they're using the Ping i2 irons. Are the golfers out there discussing this, and do you have any opinions on it? RYUJI IMADA: Well, it is what it is. The rules are rules, and if it's allowed by the rules of golf, sure, you can use it. But I don't agree with it. I don't know how else to say it. If everybody else is having to have to play the V-grooves, I think everyone should have to play the conforming grooves. Q. Have you found much difference in your wedge game since the switch to the grooves this year? RYUJI IMADA: Sure. Maybe not so much this week, but say like Sony, Bob Hope I saw a good bit of change, because you're not going to be able to hit those low skippers that spin quite a bit. Some out of the rough, too, it's easier to catch a flier than having to hit -- having to hit it at the hole and just stopping it. So there's quite a bit of difference. Q. Some guys are calling it cheating. Do you consider it cheating? RYUJI IMADA: I don't consider it cheating, no. If it's allowed by the rules of golf to use that particular wedge, you're allowed. But it's not really up to us to decide. But I don't see that as cheating. But I don't see it -- I mean, I don't agree with the fact that some guys are being able to use a wedge that's not conforming -- well, it is conforming, but it's not. Q. You say for you the switch is an adjustment. You're leading the tournament, so obviously it's not that big an adjustment, or have you not needed -- have you been down the fairway most of the time? RYUJI IMADA: No, I have not been in the fairway too many times this week, actually. My irons have been really good. I've been able to hit the greens out of the rough, and the greens are really soft. You can put -- you don't have to really put a lot of spin on it, it'll just dig in and stop. It's been a big help. Wedges, this week I don't see too much necessity for having square grooves per se, because it spins enough. I don't need any more spin on my wedges this week, so I'm just trying to take off a lot of spin from the fairway to keep it from spinning back too much. Q. What is it you like about this place so much? Your record is pretty good here. RYUJI IMADA: Well, I was asked that yesterday. Good weather, good food. The golf course is really tough. It's not a golf course where you want to play every day. It's a very tough golf course. Q. The South Course? RYUJI IMADA: Yes. But I just love coming here. Like I said yesterday, I struggled a lot with my putting last week, and I come here, and all of a sudden my putting is -- putting feels great. I don't know what it is, but maybe it's the poa annua greens or speed of the greens. I don't know, but I have been able to play well here for some reason. Q. Is it completely different than it was for the U.S. Open, or is it recognizable? RYUJI IMADA: I wouldn't say it's completely different. Obviously the rough is a lot shorter, the greens are softer. But I think on most of the holes they kept the same width of the fairway, I believe. You know, with this golf course they don't have to do too much to make it tough. If they grow the rough two more inches and make a greens a little bit firmer, it's going to be a U.S. Open golf course any day. They don't have to do too much. Q. Did that weather last week, which was pretty miserable, did that affect your putting? In other words, the course is just so sloppy that you couldn't do things that you wanted to? RYUJI IMADA: No, actually the greens were perfect. They were probably the best greens we putt all year at Bob Hope. You know, it's just one of those things, you just don't feel comfortable. The greens look perfect, the lines look good, but they're not going in. And this week it's a different story. I just feel comfortable just putting on these greens. Q. You talked about food here. They've got pretty good food in the Palm Desert area, they've got good food in Honolulu. What do you like about here particularly, special restaurants? RYUJI IMADA: Being Japanese, I like to eat a lot of Japanese food, and there's quite a bit of Japanese population here, and there's quite a few to choose from in this area. Good ones, too. Q. Honolulu has got a few, too. RYUJI IMADA: Yes, yes. The whole West Coast is great for me. I don't have to go too far to go to good restaurants. Q. How did you happen to go to Georgia? In other words, you would think maybe coming here you would go to school someplace on the West Coast. RYUJI IMADA: I went to Georgia because I knew the coach well from AJGA. He used to work for the AJGA, Chris Haack. You know, if I'm going to play for somebody, I want to play for someone that's fun and a great coach, and that was him. It was a no-brainer for me. If I had to do it again, I would go there again. Q. Do you have any problems -- you've been on TOUR a while, but did you have any problem finding Asian food in Athens, Georgia? RYUJI IMADA: It was difficult, but there was a Japanese restaurant that I went once in a while. I didn't really have that much money back then, and Japanese food is pretty expensive, so it was tough for me to go there every night. But Chick-Fil-a and Subway and Blimpie's came in handy when I was in college. Q. Do you find now in traveling the United States there's many more international restaurants than, say, when you came here? Do you have an easier time finding, say, Japanese food or other type -- RYUJI IMADA: I don't know because I never really looked for them when I was growing up. I never really cared what I ate. Obviously now I can afford it a little bit more than back then, so I'm going to look for it, somewhere that's nice to eat. But back then I was just looking for something that's quick and cheap. I don't really know if there's any difference from the early '90s to now. Can you tell? Is there more? Q. Well, I think there are. I mean, there's so many more ethnic restaurants, and I think -- the whole coffee thing is just an example. Coffee in this country used to be terrible. Now everybody -- Starbucks and all these other espresso places because people have gone to Europe. Same thing, you can find sushi almost everyplace as you know on the West Coast, but even restaurants that are not Japanese restaurants are serving sushi and sashimi. RYUJI IMADA: Well, I definitely wouldn't eat sushi at places that aren't really serving sushi. I like to eat at a place where they specialize in sushi. Q. Not 7-11? RYUJI IMADA: I don't recommend that, no. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Ryuji, thanks. End of FastScripts |
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