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LIBERTY MUTUAL LEGENDS OF GOLFApril 24, 2010John BlandGraham MarshLUTZ, FLORIDA DAVE SENKO: Well, Graham and John, congratulations. Had to wait, I believe, 13 years since your win out in California in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, but congratulations, a two-shot victory in the Raphael division, and a strong 9-under par 63 today to finish it up. So John, if you can get us started, just maybe share your thoughts. JOHN BLAND: Well, you know, yesterday we dropped a couple of shots and it's not really nice when you're dropping shots in the better ball, but we managed to get through with a 68. And this morning we came out, Graham birdied the first hole. I think that really set us on fire. And I birdied the second hole, and we're off and running, you know. I fell asleep a little bit sort of in the middle of the round, but Graham played fantastic today. He made a couple of birdies in the middle of the round, a few birdies in the middle of the round. And that sort of kept us ticking over, and a bit of good putting at 16 and 17, and Graham made a wonderful par at 18. DAVE SENKO: Graham? GRAHAM MARSH: It's been 13 years. I was about to give him up. (Laughs). You wouldn't a better partner than John Bland. I mean the guy really is one of the greatest drivers of the golf ball. You want to figure out, have a look at the fairways hit over the years, John Bland is without a doubt, if he's not in the Top 5 players in the world, I would be very surprised. What our strategy has been over the years is get it down on the fairway and try and get as many putts out of it. Yesterday we had a couple of hiccups, as John said, and made a couple of silly bogeys, but we thought that we were really within range today and if we could get it going today, we really had a chance because four-ball being what it is, you just try and make as many birdies as you possibly can and try to avoid the disasters. But it's been a great ride. We've been playing together ever since then, and now our biggest challenge is to live long enough to win the third division. (Laughs). DAVE SENKO: John, I know you traveled quite a ways to get here. Any travel issues coming to Savannah? JOHN BLAND: No. We were very lucky, you know. With the volcano erupting in Iceland we didn't come that way. We came straight from Johannesburg into Atlanta, so we missed that. Again, Woosnam couldn't get out and Des Smyth couldn't get out. So they were in a bit of a mess over in Europe there. But as I said, coming from South Africa we were quite lucky. We didn't have any problems at all. DAVE SENKO: Can you just remember the birdies, back side, No. 12, par-4? Do you remember who made the birdie there? GRAHAM MARSH: I had a birdie there from about five feet. John made the birdie on 13, par-5 from about eight feet, and then he made birdies on the other two coming in on 17. 16 he hit it in there beautiful, beautiful golf shot about two foot from the hole and then drained one from about 25 feet at 17. Those were critical birdies at that stage of the round. DAVE SENKO: Okay. Questions? Q. Mr. Bland, for many years you've been one of the top players in the game of golf, and it's been said, though, that you're maybe not even the best player in your household. Has playing with your wife Sonja who's won so many times the Fancourt Club Championship. Has that helped your game at all? JOHN BLAND: You want to repeat that? (Laughs) No, you know, she's done well. She's won the club championships over there. But as you say, Graham and I have taken on Julie and Sonja quite often and we've never come out winning, so you know, it's a big challenge. We have our match once a year. But yeah, you know, Sonja and I, if I'm playing against her and I happen to be down and I hurt my wrist or my back's sore or I'm tired and I want to go in. So that's my excuse to get out of that one. (Laughs). Q. John, this one's for both of y'all. Talk about the competition level out there. I know overcoming some of the early rain that was going on out there on the course and there were a lot of guys nipping at your heels. Talk about this final round and what it means to weather the storm, so to speak, to win the championship. GRAHAM MARSH: I think one of the big things John alluded to early on, getting off to that fast start on this golf course. The weather was good. We didn't really get the rain till around about the sixth or seventh hole we started feeling it. The critical thing in four-ball is just get out of the gates quickly. If you can do that, you feel like you're on a bit of a roller coaster. And to be truthful, the rain on a couple of holes got a little bit heavy, but it was never anything annoying. And I said to John on the first tee, if we can get out there and shoot somewhere around 9 or 10-under par today, we really still have an excellent chance. And as it turned out, that was the case. Of course, I've said that a few times and been dead wrong. But I don't think the weather was a factor and shouldn't have been a factor. The one thing I will say, it'll take a lot of rain before these greens become soft. The greens are hard. They're firm, and there were a lot of pin placements today, sort of up on those fronts of the greens and very hard to get the ball close to the hole. And I think that's why you -- if the scoring wasn't as good today, I think at the end of the day that's what it'll be attributed to. JOHN BLAND: And I think the big thing in better ball, too, you're always trying to get both guys putting all the time for birdies. That helps a lot when you're both on the greens. Doesn't matter how far away. When you're both there, having two goes at it all the time that helps out a lot. GRAHAM MARSH: I'm sure you've heard it at Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups, sometimes playing as a team there's actually more pressure on you than there is if you're playing as an individual. If you make a mistake as an individual, you wear it yourself, but in a team match, if you're not there to support your partner on every hole, you feel like you're letting him down. You feel like you're putting more pressure on him all the time. So that's, as I said early on, has been our strategy over the years, to sort of be there for one another as many times as you possibly can. And you're not going to hole it out from the fairway all the time. So the more often you can get chances at birdies, both of you getting chances at birdies -- now neither of us are long hitters, but have always made quite a number of birdies at this event. It's a record show. But it's for that reason, both being there, both having a putt at it. DAVE SENKO: Okay? Guys all set? Thank you guys. End of FastScripts |
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