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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2010

Lucas Glover

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome Lucas Glover to the interview room at THE PLAYERS Championship, 7-under 65 today to go with a first round 70 to be 9-under par. You must be pretty happy with this situation after not having much success at this venue before?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, absolutely. This is my first cut made, so I might retire. Yeah, I haven't had much success here, and I knew it going in, and just changed the game plan a little bit and decided to have a little fun with it, see what happens.
But good week last week ball-striking, and struggled with the putter, but I've been knocking in some putts this week so it's been good.
MARK WILLIAMS: Obviously the weather is a huge factor this week, but you talked about changing the game plan. Can you elaborate a little bit?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I've played this course overly aggressive, I think, hitting a lot of drivers and getting in some bad spots, and you can't do that here. You've got to put the ball in the fairway. I haven't been very aggressive off the tee, a lot of 3-woods. I think I said outside, I think I hit driver four times today, and that was the par-5s. It could be wrong, I don't know; sounds right.
But a lot of 3-woods, and just tried to get the ball in the fairway because I'm not very good out of that four-inch Bermuda with our new grooves.

Q. How did you come to that realization?
LUCAS GLOVER: Well, just kind of my style was a little more aggressive off the tee. I've always been a fairly straight driver of the ball, and it hasn't worked, so I had to change something. And I knew I was hitting my irons good after last week, and then I had a couple good days of practice here. And just said, all right, if we put the ball in the fairway a lot, we're going to have some birdie putts. And luckily that's been the case.

Q. Your friend Charles Warren said that since you won the Open you've almost bent over backwards essentially not to change. Do you see that? Do you agree with it? And why would that be?
LUCAS GLOVER: I don't agree or disagree. I don't know. I can't look at myself the way other people do. But there was no sense in changing. Didn't make any sense to. It's not like I was a different person because I've had some success last year. Just try to be me, like always.

Q. Did you try to maybe steer clear of over extending yourself with your schedule, with everything opening up, or have you had to manage just the opportunities that come your way as a result of that?
LUCAS GLOVER: Well, last year I didn't play much. I played the Grand Slam and then Tiger's event in December, and that was it for the off-season. You know, it was a pretty long year last year. I played my standard, I don't know, 27 or 28 events. You know, it was a long year.
And then after '08 taking three or four months off, that turned out to be a pretty good plan. I didn't want to tire myself out in the off-season because I wanted to start '10 fresh and try to do it all over again.

Q. Has it been harder to have fun this year, though? I mean, do you feel like you have to live up to expectations?
LUCAS GLOVER: You know, I've said it 100 times. Nobody has any higher expectations of me than me. So yeah. But it's a little different. I don't have to -- I want to play good every week, but I don't necessarily have to, you know? Pretty nice cushion to have.
But I'm not out there throwing clubs because I duck hooked it in the trees and I won the U.S. Open last year. It's not like that. But I just haven't been playing very well.
But same as last year at this time of year, I'm doing the right stuff, working on the right things and just waiting for it.

Q. Have you ever met Pete Dye or had an opportunity to talk to him about golf course design?
LUCAS GLOVER: I have met him, but I did not pick his brain at all.

Q. Did you change up anything in your bag this week to help you hit more fairways, strong 3-wood or --
LUCAS GLOVER: I've always carried -- not always, but I've been carrying a strong 3-wood for about a year and a half, 13 degrees, but I did put in a 64-degree wedge last week and continued on to this week.
I've always been a 5-wood guy, but when I put the 64 in and took the 3-iron out I had a pretty large gap between 5-wood and 4-iron. So I had Nike make up a hybrid this week so it's in the bag just for that 230 to 245 range.
But that was it. But the strong 3-wood has always been in the bag, or has been for a while anyway.

Q. The golf course seems a lot more playable this year as far as low scores. Is that because of the lack of rough, the soft greens? Any comment about that?
LUCAS GLOVER: I'd say there's plenty of rough. I'd say it's pretty comparable. But the greens are definitely softer than we're used to, and I'd even say a little slower. But I think that's because of the winter and then the rain we had in the middle of the week. But lack of wind, too. This is the least amount of windy remember here. You're going to see scores this afternoon here, as well. It's going to be a shootout.

Q. Who was Clemson playing when you led the team down the hill, and where does that rank for you in your highlight reel?
LUCAS GLOVER: Florida State, No. 1.

Q. No. 1 over winning --
LUCAS GLOVER: Oh, absolutely. I was much more nervous running down the hill.

Q. Why?
LUCAS GLOVER: I didn't want to make SportsCenter for falling. (Laughter.) That was the only goal.

Q. Can you just explain how that came about? Is that something that a Clemson person would always want --
LUCAS GLOVER: Oh, yeah. That was always a dream of mine. My grandfather played there and my uncle played there. I bet I'd seen it in person probably 100 times growing up and through my life. So yeah, absolutely.
But one of my close friends is close friends with our head coach. He told him this would be pretty cool, why don't you have him do it. So he just called me and said, hey, you want to do this? I said, "yeah, you think?" We've remained close friends and I played golf with him two weeks ago, and he said, well, we did pretty good against Florida State, are you available for the Miami game? I said, I can be. It was just a friend helping out, and it worked out great.

Q. Did the players know who you were and what you had done?
LUCAS GLOVER: No, no, I wouldn't think so. It was the circumstance. You get on the -- the way it all goes about, and I was the last one on the bus and the first one off with coach, so I never had any contact with the players. I know a few of them just from being over there, but no, I'd say 90 percent of them had no idea, which is fine.
MARK WILLIAMS: We'll just go through your card real quick before you go. Birdie on 11.
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, just up-and-down out of the right bunker on 11.
Hit a nice shot in on 13, made probably a 12-footer.
16 got the round going, I think. I hit a nice drive and actually hit 7-iron in and almost flew it in and made about a five-footer there for eagle.
4, lipped out a wedge shot to a couple inches and made -- tapped it in.
7, made a pretty simple 15-footer up the hill.
And then 9, got a little aggressive, wanted to finish strong, so I went at that green, which I don't usually do. But with a front pin, I thought it was the right play.
And then made a nice up-and-down, made about an eight-footer, so obviously very pleased.

Q. Talk about No. 2, the other par-5.
LUCAS GLOVER: Had a nice drive there and had a skinny lie on the right side of the fairway and hit a pretty poor long iron and a poor pitch and a poor putt, so I got what I deserved there.

Q. You said you added another wedge to your bag. Was that for the Bermudagrass?
LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, I did it last week, and I'd been tinkering with it or thinking of tinkering leading up to Augusta, but I really needed my 3-iron, 5-wood for Augusta, so I waited, and I didn't think I needed it that much at Hilton Head. So I waited until the week off before Charlotte. 70, 80 yards I was having some trouble spinning it enough, even out of the fairway. So I wanted that for that.
And then working at home with it around the greens, it's really an advantage because the ball gets up quick, and I think it's a -- yeah, it downs soft. It's enabled me to spin it a little more around the greens. It's fit. Now the hard part is finding that 235 club I like, 240, but we're working on it. I think I've got one.

Q. That's the compensation for the grooves?
LUCAS GLOVER: For me. For me. Some guys are going to treat it a little different. Lower their left because face angle of attack, different stuff.
MARK WILLIAMS: We appreciate you coming in, and keep the good play going on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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