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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2010

Brad Benjamin

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

Q. How was it?
BRAD BENJAMIN: It was fun. Bernhard was a great playing partner. It was really calm, not really fast, I kind of play similar to that. So I felt real comfortable throughout the round. But the first hole was probably the most nervous I've ever been. But it was a good time.

Q. How was your first drive?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Not too bad. It was just in the rough, but a good line, just went through went through the fairway.

Q. Where did you hit it?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Pretty much down the middle of the fairway, pretty much and it just ran through.

Q. When did the nerves start? You said it was as nervous as you had ever been. When did the nerves start?
BRAD BENJAMIN: I slept okay, to be honest. I woke up and I could tell like I was a little antsy. I was -- waking up, I was really calm. Going to the putting green probably about 20, 30 minutes before we teed off just getting a little nervous, but the first tee shot was a good boost.

Q. When the crowd was all around the green on number nine when you knew you had to hit it through the crowd.
BRAD BENJAMIN: It's tough. It's kind of like a par-3 contest. You look and you see people right beside the green and you're like, if I miss this shot, you know, there's nothing you could do.

Q. 14, you had a nice save there.
BRAD BENJAMIN: That was huge. 14. Yeah. Just couldn't get the ball off the tee and usually that's my strength. But helpfully just shake it off and do better tomorrow.

Q. How many feet was it?
BRAD BENJAMIN: 20, 25 feet. Up the hill.

Q. What happened at 9?
BRAD BENJAMIN: No, number nine I was in the pine straw left of the fairway. I was playing from the trees all day.

Q. What did you do with your second shot?
BRAD BENJAMIN: I tried to hook it, but I think the pine straw took the spin off and it strayed straight into the crowd left.

Q. Did you converse with anybody in the crowd?
BRAD BENJAMIN: I tried to, but it's not like Mickelson where I can get someone to just roll it out there for me. I just try to say sorry and move on.

Q. Talk about the nerves as you were starting this morning. It had to feel good to hit the approach to 2.
BRAD BENJAMIN: Absolutely.

Q. Did take a little bit of the edge off?
BRAD BENJAMIN: To be honest, man, the first tee was a hundred percent nerves, the second shot was probably about 50, and by 2 I was feeling okay. But, yeah, it's always nice to get off to a good start.
We had a chance to go for the green on No. 2, but I don't know, when you're under pressure I just found that playing a little more conservative and just keeping the ball in play and just seeing good shots versus putting yourself in an iffy spot right off the bat.

Q. You probably got a lot of advice from a lot of different people. Now that you got one round out of the way did you say oh, they were right? What's something that you didn't really think was going to be true that was actually the case?
BRAD BENJAMIN: It's hard to say. Because a lot of the advice is just where to position the ball, what the putts do. And Ernie gave me some good advice, he said stay away from the doubles and let the birdies come. That's kind what I tried to do today.
We got in trouble quite a bit and, who knows, 11, 14, just trying to get it back out into play. You make four, great. But I mean five was going to happen more times than not from where we were. We just got a little lucky.

Q. When did you see Ernie?
BRAD BENJAMIN: I had lunch with him.

Q. So talk much to the other two?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Not really because we were behind the whole day, so we were just trying to keep pace. And it was kind of, all right, get to the next shot and go.

Q. So at nine after you hit into the crowd what happened after that? What was your next shot?
BRAD BENJAMIN: It wasn't too bad, it was back into the wind. I hit a mediocre shot, but it stayed on the top shelf.

Q. Did you then 2-putt for bogey?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah, 2-putted for bogey.

Q. On 18 how much, how precise did that last chip have to be? It looked like there was almost no room.
BRAD BENJAMIN: I wish I could have seen it on TV because that shot, it was a little lucky, but that's exactly what I was trying to do with it, but I was erring on the long side of it. And it turned out okay.

Q. So it's a pretty respectable score. Are you happy?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah, I would take that waking up this morning for sure. Just wanted to keep myself in it and make it fun for tomorrow and hope to do the same tomorrow.

Q. You hit some shots, truly, that were great. 6?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah, that was a good shot.

Q. Bunker shot on the first par-3.
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah, I told my caddie that's a one time up-and-down. And that was a good shot. It was nice to see that one. I knew we had a good yardage and to make a three there just kind of kept me going.

Q. What did you hit?
BRAD BENJAMIN: That was a 5-iron.

Q. Have you played a better round here?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah, I shot 71 the first time around.

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: I watched a lot of like the DVDs the last ten years or so and I found that, really, 75 isn't that bad around here. You're not going to win anything with it, but if you can keep it under 75 you'll be fine. That's what I told myself when I was 2-over through nine. I said there was some birdies on the back, so.

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: Everybody jokes in the field.

Q. What did the crowd say?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Just like you must be 16, or you look like you're 16 or something. I heard a guy on the green he said he must not weigh 150 and I turned him around, and told him, 160.
(Laughter.)

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: I wouldn't want to do that again. It was stressful. If I hit the ball the way I did today, if I hit the ball tomorrow the way I did today, I hope I can do it again, but that's just the most stressful 73 you're ever going to shoot. You want to get the ball on the green, take your chances at birdie and not put so much pressure on your short game.

Q. Did watching Bernhard make you want to switch to a long putter?
BRAD BENJAMIN: He was putting good, he was playing real solid, he made a lot of birdies. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Q. Talk about the club into 15.
BRAD BENJAMIN: 15, I had 200 to the front edge and I've never been that close and the caddie thought the wind was in the opposite direction and I'd just never been in that spot before and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to be short, so. I said, I can't lay up, it's too short.

Q. What did you end up choosing?
BRAD BENJAMIN: A 4-iron.

Q. You almost called a penalty on yourself, is that right?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Number 8. Yeah. Same thing happened on No. 1, but 1 it happened after I marked it. And I always aim the line on my ball so I can see if it moves one way or the other.
And at 1 it wiggled a little bit and I got over it and realized it wasn't in the same spot. And then same thing happened on 8. And I don't know how, because we were one of the early groups, so you would expect the greens to be, I mean they're always flawless here, but nobody had walked on them, so we didn't expect a spike mark to wiggle it one way or the other. And it's not windy, I mean it was a little windy, but it wasn't enough to make the ball oscillate. So I don't know how that happened, but luckily I didn't sole my putter either.

Q. You call someone over when no one else sees anything and you think you might have seen a penalty, but you didn't do anything.
BRAD BENJAMIN: Well, maybe that's why some good breaks came the rest of the round.

Q. You played in stuff like this before in the Chicago area, I mean obviously you played Memphis, but growing up, was there weather like this?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Oh, I feel comfortable in the wind. Last year I was hitting the ball really high, this year it's a little bit on the lower side. But I don't mind playing in the wind, it's not fun because you can't make a ton of birdies, but that's not really been my game, so.

Q. Which courses did you play in Rockford a lot?
BRAD BENJAMIN: I grew up playing all the public courses.

Q. What are you going to do now?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Go in and grab some lunch and just hang out, relax. I would like to hit some balls, but with the weather coming in, I don't know.

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: Yeah. That's the one thing coming into this week that I really wanted to find out is how far do they hit it and how much better their short games are than mine. So it's just a learning experience.

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: 67 or 66.

Q. How do you get your driver straight by tomorrow?
BRAD BENJAMIN: It's just that club where normally you don't even think over the tee shot and I think that's what I was doing. I don't think it was so much my swing or anything as much as starting to try too hard and I started to get off line. I think I got to be a little bit more relaxed and just swing.

Q. (No microphone.)
BRAD BENJAMIN: No, that was a hybrid. I kind of told myself at the start of the week that I got to lay up on the par-5s and obviously I didn't do it on 15, but that was kind of a green light special. But I don't know, I just tried to take the bunker out of play, lay up and hit a wedge in there and try to make it.

Q. What was your best today? You had a couple on the par-3s, you had so many. Your best hole or shot today?
BRAD BENJAMIN: The one on 6 was, I mean that's got to be in one of the top-10 up-and-downs of my life. Everybody will tell you that's a place on the hole where you don't want to be. That was special.

Q. Are you aware of the history of the recent history of amateurs in this tournament and is there anybody who you said, hey, if they did it, maybe I can do it?
BRAD BENJAMIN: Right. I know the last few years haven't been the greatest on the amateurs, I think we got a good group this year. And I'm not too sure what the scores will be today, but by the looks of it, I think the amateurs have a tough time shooting real low and that's what sets them apart is they shoot higher rounds when they play bad and they don't go as low when they play well. So I think a tournament where par's a good score might suit us better.

Q. Have you ever had to scramble this much?
BRAD BENJAMIN: No, I don't like leaning on it, as I said, but I obviously have confidence in my short game.

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