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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

January 30, 2010

Ben Crane

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome Ben Crane to the interview room, 69, 3-under 69 today in the third round to be 11-under. Obviously started with a bogey, which set you back, but it looked like you came smoking home with a 6-under on the back side. Talk about your round.
BEN CRANE: You've got to stay patient on this golf course and just kept doing that. Anything can happen out here. The greens are obviously receptive, so you're going to have an opportunity to fire at some flags if you drive the ball in play, and just stayed patient and was able to capitalize on a few putts coming in.
MARK WILLIAMS: Were the conditions a little more difficult as you got to the back nine?
BEN CRANE: Yeah, the wind picked up a little bit, and so certainly it was a little breezier today and a little cooler, too, so the ball wasn't flying quite as far.

Q. Everybody talks about the length on this course. Why do you do so well here?
BEN CRANE: It's just a hard test of golf. I don't know, I don't think it's the fact that I do well here, I think maybe it's just a grind mode that players get in. I think there's no let-ups on this golf course. I don't know, I sure appreciate the scenery, appreciate God's beauty, and that certainly gives me a sense of peace. When I look out at that ocean, I go, oh, my. I think it's a big deal playing in this golf tournament, but God is a lot bigger than that. I'm just kind of reminded of my place and love it here.

Q. A little different than Dallas?
BEN CRANE: Yeah, in Dallas we don't have a lot of oceanfront property, but I do have a lot I'd like to sell you, Dougie.

Q. I mean, you've had a lot of good results here, haven't you?
BEN CRANE: I don't even know honestly. I know I played well here last year, but I actually forgot to do the refresher on my record last night to come in to prepare for this interview, so I feel a little unprepared.

Q. Were the pins a lot tougher today than the first round on the South?
BEN CRANE: Certainly. When you're looking at some of those holes and you're going, man, there's green over there? Yeah, there definitely were some tough pins today. It's one thing if you're hitting a 5-wood into a hole and the pin is in the middle or something on a par-4, but there are some pins on the edges, so it was certainly -- certainly played to the middle, be conservative and try to putt over for the most part.

Q. Any in particular that were tougher than you'd seen?
BEN CRANE: Yeah, is it 14, the little dogleg par-4 there after the par-5? That pin was all the way shoved over on the right there. Most of the time you can play left of that hole location or a hole location like that, but there's no green back there. It's hazard. You kind of have to go at the pin there and hope for the best.

Q. We had Mickelson with a ball lost in a tree and D.A. on the 14th chipped up over the flag and down into the hazard. Did you have any kind of trauma today? And is that hard to avoid around this course?
BEN CRANE: It's very hard to avoid around this course. You're just hitting a lot of long clubs, and you're going to be in the rough and trying to get yourself back in position from a long ways away. I did not have any, I guess, major trauma. Definitely it feels like trauma. On the 1st hole when I drove it down the right side and I was kind of on the edge of the lip of the bunker there and was kind of scrambling for par, I was able to just kind of remain patient and make a bogey and then just kind of move on. But yeah, there's certainly -- you cannot predict what's going to happen in this game, especially on this golf course.

Q. You're going to be in the final group tomorrow. Does that make any difference to the way you approach tomorrow?
BEN CRANE: I probably will tell my caddie that he doesn't have to rake the bunkers because there's no one behind us. Certainly you hope not, you know what I mean? You hope to just stay in the moment and just do your best, and certainly you know that everyone is in front of you, and obviously that's a good position to be in.

Q. Is being in that last group maybe a little bigger advantage when the leaderboard is so packed like it is and you've got a lot of guys that are going to be obviously trying to scramble to catch you guys? Does it give you more flexibility to see what you need to do with regard to your game as you're playing tomorrow?
BEN CRANE: I mean, I'm working so hard to get away from results so much that it really -- if I'm doing what it is that I want to do, it shouldn't really affect me at all. Certainly there's a slight situation, you come to the last hole and people are finished in front of you, and it might make a difference in some sort of decision. I can't even imagine what. I'm not long enough to go for it in two anyway. I can't imagine any situation where it would change much.
MARK WILLIAMS: Want to run through your birdies on the back nine real quick?
BEN CRANE: Birdie on 11, obviously a long hole there, hit rescue in there 220 some yards and hit a great shot on the middle of the green, made a 20-footer across the green there, which was kind of a confidence builder.
And then 13, the par-5, laid up in two and took two extra wedges, so two extra clubs there so the ball wouldn't spin, and was able to land it pretty close to the hole there, three or four feet away, and it just stayed, which was a fun shot.
And then 15, one of the hardest holes on the golf course, drove it in play, hit a 5-iron that pretty much went through the tree. I was trying to go under it, pretty much went through the tree, ended up on the left side of the green, made maybe a 30-footer across the green there, so that was a nice bonus. And then 18, laid up, hit a nice wedge in there and had like, I don't know, maybe a 10-, 12-footer, and it happened to go in.
MARK WILLIAMS: We appreciate you coming in, Ben.

End of FastScripts

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