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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 16, 2010

Bryce Molder

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome Bryce Molder to the interview room here at the Verizon Heritage.
Bryce, your first trip to Harbour Town, and no bogeys on the scorecard. I think people keep reminding you about that. Talk about your first couple of rounds.
BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah, first of all, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite spots on Tour. I thought that it would be. It's funny, I'm sitting here at 6-under and I have not played very well at all. I've putted extremely well. I certainly need to find a way to hit it a little straighter for the weekend. But that being said, I think my biggest asset is just being able to play the game and play my misses and figure out a way to score. So I'm happy to be in the position I'm in.
CHRIS REIMER: Talk about the four top-10 finishes. You've been in the mix on the weekends.
BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah, the last four, five, six, seven years, I guess since I turned pro. So I've struggled the start of the year. So to get some really strong finishes early gave me a lot of confidence that this could be a really, really good year.
And some of the times I'm not even playing my best golf. I'm not going to sit here like Tiger and rate my game. It's not like a C+ or whatever you want to call it. It's not like that. There's so much that goes into the game of golf. And there's going to be weeks when you hit really, really well. You putt well. You score well, and we're going to have three or four of those weeks in a year. And I'm wanting to do a little more with the other weeks.
It's been a good start. Four top-10 finishes so far. And I'd certainly like to win one of these, but it's fun being in it.

Q. This is your very first time here, correct?
BRYCE MOLDER: In junior golf I played Indigo Run. And I played nine holes over here. And so essentially I've not played it because that was late in the summer. It's a little different golf course. I have been here on Hilton Head and played a few times in college, but this is my first Heritage Classic.

Q. Did you turn to anybody for advice or got a scouting report before you got here?
BRYCE MOLDER: I watched it a bit on TV. And we all become pretty versed in figuring out golf courses when you see them. And I just make sure I played the practice round by myself on Tuesday, somewhat by design, just so I could spend as much time as I could figuring out where all these trees are that are hanging out all over the place.
And then the greens are small and they don't have a lot of break in them. But you can certainly miss some greens with a wedge or a 9-iron, 8-iron, and be in some bad spots. And then I played the Pro Am on Wednesday. I felt like I had a good idea, but you just never know, because the ball goes further and further. During the tournament you have more adrenaline. It plays a little different. But it's about like I expected.

Q. A little birdie told me that you once played a round, a round, with Bill Clinton?
BRYCE MOLDER: I did. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, or just outside Little Rock, and my club, Chenal Country Club, was where he was a member when he was president, and my teacher at the time was the head pro. So there was an opening in his foursome or fivesome, I guess it was, and he asked if I'd like to play. And it was a pretty fun day, that was pretty cool. It's one of the more nervous rounds I've had starting off, just because there's so much going on.

Q. You left out a couple of details. How old were you and what did you shoot?
BRYCE MOLDER: I was 21, I think. It was '99. So I was about 21, yeah, something like that, and I shot 60.

Q. 60?
BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah.

Q. The story says 59, which is it?
BRYCE MOLDER: It was 60. It was from the up tees, as well. But it was a 12-under, 60.

Q. What did he shoot?
BRYCE MOLDER: I remember I think he shot 84, I think, is what -- I got quoted in Newsweek saying that he shot around 90, the scorecard said 84. And it was somebody overhearing a conversation. That's not how I would have answered it at the time (laughter), if I had the choice.
But, no, he was fun to play with. And it would just be like playing with any fun foursome at your home course.

Q. Can you repeat the name of the golf club.
BRYCE MOLDER: Chenal, C-h-e-n-a-l, Country Club, and that's in Little Rock.

Q. And how many mulligans did he get and how many did you get?
BRYCE MOLDER: I did get one on the first tee. So all of a sudden, it's not -- there's no way I have the course record for the white tees taking a mulligan.
Yeah, he took a few. He did. But he stepped away and shut the phone off for four hours, and actually for about six hours. It was unbelievable how many autographs and how many pictures he took during the round. And anybody that wanted one that was there at the club got a picture.

Q. You say that for much of your pro career you've struggled to kind of get going at the start of the years, why do you think that is? Have you figured something out?
BRYCE MOLDER: It's all in my head. I used to kind of think that it was because I would work on stuff in the off-season and took getting into a rhythm. And a lot of years whether it was on the Nationwide Tour or the year starts off really slowly with weeks apart and then out here when I've had status, I didn't have good enough status to get in very much early on. Even last year, I think my best tournament was Byron Nelson or Memphis, which is still two months away. I kind of thought that was part of it. And it was kind of a little bit, the schedule part of it. But then, you know, I started kind of seeing, you know what, I just make golf a little harder than what I should. And I put pressure on myself until I actually perform well. And it just felt like golf was really hard. And everybody goes through those stages. And some people feel like this late in the year, some people early. Some people have a hard time after taking two weeks off. For whatever reason that was the case.
And I worked really hard with Gio Valente, my sports psychologist and friend, to just kind of change that train a little bit. And this year was a better start.

Q. So you don't put as much pressure on yourself or you have put pressure on yourself this early part?
BRYCE MOLDER: It's funny, you can stand next to an alligator and tell yourself not to be scared of it. So it's kind of just dealing with it. You know it's there, just kind of like I know if I'm in the final group on Sunday I'm going to be really nervous. And instead of finding a way not to be nervous, you just find a way to play well while you're nervous and it's not a big deal. The same thing, I knew that there were little things that I kind of did to try to take my focus away from the results or from the score, and just try to go play and just try to make some progress mentally, trying to make some progress, hitting some shots. And then from that all of a sudden some results came, it was kind of a snowball effect.
CHRIS REIMER: Any key shots today that kept you going?
BRYCE MOLDER: There were a lot of key shots that could have ended up worse than they did. I mean, the round looks pretty simple, but on the first hole, even, No. 10, I hit it right. I had mud on my ball, I thought it was going to go on to the right on the second shot. It didn't. It ended up further left, it ended up in the pine straw and I got it up and down. So that was kind of -- well, yeah.
The second hole I clipped a tree about 200 yards off the tee. And maybe even less. And I ended up having a good up-and-down. So the birdies look like exciting holes, but the story were the holes that I certainly could have made a bogey or worse, and that normally would have been a par.
The back nine I started hitting a little bit better and I actually missed a short birdie putt on 7 and a short birdie putt on 9. But I certainly made more than my fair share.
CHRIS REIMER: Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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