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THE GREENBRIER CLASSICJuly 31, 2010D.A. PointsWHITE SULPHUR SRPINGS, WEST VIRGINIA JOHN BUSH: D.A. Points joins us here in the interview room at the Greenbrier Classic. Tremendous show out there today: 9-under par, 61. Take us through the round and your thoughts on a great day. D.A. POINTS: Thanks. Yeah, the course is beautiful. It's a really appealing golf course to the eye off the tee. I've been driving the ball well, and on 1 I drove it right down the middle had a perfect distance for a full lob wedge and hit it in there to three feet and got off to a really good start. And then 2, I hit another good drive and a pretty good wedge shot and didn't make the putt, but just put a nice roll on it and it came up a little short. 3, I hit a goof 5-iron on a tough par-3 just maybe 25 feet short right of the hole, which is kind of where you wanted to leave it, and just burned the edge. And then 4, hit another good one down the middle; hit a gap wedge to about four feet and made it. And then 5, I hit a really good hybrid, and I only had like 75 yards to the hole. I hit a little flip sand wedge in there to about 12 or 15 feet past the hole and made that one, downhill right to lefter. And then 6, I hit a really good drive on, again, kind of a tough driving hole with the fairway sloping hard to the left and the hole bending to the right. I hit it right on my line, and had about 150 yards. I flushed a 9-iron right at it. I thought it was gonna be right next to it, and it came up about 18 feet short. I got a good read on it and stroked it purely, and went right in the middle. Then went to 7 and hit a nice 3-wood and a nice little chip pitching wedge to about, I don't know, 15, 18 feet, just past the hole, and I had another kind of downhill right to lefter and fed that one in. It went right in the middle and kept things going. At that point, it was just nice to see some putts going in. I've been hitting it pretty good for the last month or so and just haven't really been getting a lot out of it. It was nice to get some putts to drop today. Then I went to No. 8 and flagged a 6-iron. I mean, I thought I hit a really good shot. It went about 25 feet past the hole. Had a real quick downhill righter. Hit a real nice putt that just was a little too high and just made par. And then 9, I hit a good tee shot down the left side, and hit another little gap wedge about 15 feet short of the hole. I had a nice uphill right to lefter. Put a good stroke on that, and it went in the middle. Then went to 10. It was funny, at the time I didn't look, but when I went to sign my scorecard, I was joking with Montana down in the scoring trailer. I said, It's nice to say on my front nine I had a 4, and the rest 3s. He kind of laughed. It's true. I had never done that before, so that was fun to do. And then 10, again, another good birdie opportunity. I hit a nice hybrid and had like 110 yards to the hole. I got a little fortunate there. Didn't quite hit it hard enough, but it sloped -- short of the hole sloped towards the hole, and so it landed a little short and it bounced right up to the hole and went to about, I don't know, four feet again, and I made that one. It was nice to keep hitting it in there close so that I could kind of keep the string going. When we have wedges in ours hand, we feel like if we don't make birdie we feel a little letdown. So it's nice to finally hit the wedges in there and convert. And then 11 is a good, hard hole. I hit a good drive and not a very good 8-iron, but made a good two-putt. 12, the par-5, I hit a good drive and a really good 3-wood right on the middle of the green. It was nice to get an easy two-putt birdie. I almost made eagle. I hit a really good putt that just missed high and only went about six inches high. So it was a good effort. Tap-in birdie there. So it was nice to get that one. A two-putt birdie kind of keeps things going. Easy birdies are obviously a lot more fun than really crazy, difficult birdies. And then 13 was a crazy difficult birdie. I pulled a tee shot and thought I might have hit it in the hazard. I was a little upset with myself for making a little bit of a choppy swing. I got down there and I got very fortunate that the rough held it up. I was short of the hazard, and I hit a nice 6-iron about 30, 35 feet right of the hole, and had a downhill, sidehill snake, and hit just a really good putt that kind of fed down there and dropped in at the last minute. So I went from thinking I might be making bogey to making birdie, which is a huge opportunity to take advantage of. And then on 14, I hit two kind of average shots and made a good up-and-down. Then 15, I hit a 7-iron right in the middle of the green to a really tough pin. 16, I hit a really nice tee shot and had again virtually the same yards I had on No. 1. It was like 100 yards, and it was just a perfect full lob wedge. I landed it just past the hole and spun it back 12 or 15 feet, and made that one in the side door, which was nice to get it to 10-under. I knew that I was 10-under at that point, unfortunately. I wish I wouldn't have known what I was. But I knew I was 10-under and had theoretically the easiest par-5 on the golf course. My caddie and I had talked about hitting 3-wood earlier in the week if it was downwind. I thought, Shoot, I've been driving it well. If I'm gonna shoot 58 or 9 or whatever I could shoot today, I sure as heck better do it trying to hit driver and trying to make eagle, and not by laying up and trying to do all sorts of nonsense like that. So I hit driver and snuck it in the right side almost in the fairway, just in the rough, and hit kind of a below average hybrid into the front bunker. I had just a real kind of a brutal stance. I had my left foot out of the bunker and my right foot in the bunker. The green slopes away from you, and over the green there's a shelf. I was like, Okay, 59 is awesome, but I also want to maintain my position and try to still have a chance to win the golf tournament. I dumped the wedge out a little bit short. Really, if it would have carried another yard, it would have gotten more than halfway from where it did. It just landed a little in the upslope. And then with the rain coming down, the greens were a little slower. I wasn't trying to compute that at the time. At the time I was just trying to make a good stroke. The ball was just really sticky on the green, and it came up about four feet short. I thought it was a straight-in four-footer, and it broke a full ball and a half and lipped out. You know, that happens. It's gonna happen to me again, and it's okay. It was nice to be in the hunt at least for shooting 59. Then 18, par. JOHN BUSH: Questions. Q. D.A., a lot of people, a lot of us here in the state remember you as winning the inaugural Pete Dye Classic. Here you are now at the Greenbrier. What is about this area that brings out the best? D.A. POINTS: Well, I wish I knew, but I'm certainly glad there's a tournament here now. I obviously like West Virginia. You know, it's a pretty place. The people are friendly. The golf courses are beautiful. They're well-conditioned. You know, for whatever reason, it's very comfortable for me. I was very fortunate to have played in the Pete Dye, and that golf course was great to me. Hopefully tomorrow -- you know, I think at the Pete Dye I shot 10-under one round. I shot 9 today. Hopefully tomorrow I've got a 7, 8, or 9 in me again. Q. After 16 and birdie, you were thinking 59, maybe better? D.A. POINTS: Well, I was thinking that I want to give myself the best chance for birdie on the last two holes. I knew that my best chance for birdie would be to rip a driver down there, and hit some kind of hybrid or iron onto the green, maybe make eagle or hopefully get a two-putt birdie and escape with like an easy one. Obviously it's not easy when you're trying to shoot 59. But that was my thinking. And I did part of it right. I just didn't quite execute on the last few shots coming down the stretch. And even still, I was thinking, All right, if I could get away with the par, 18 is certainly a good birdie opportunity. Unfortunately today it was a rough yardage for me. With the wind in off the right and the rain, I couldn't get 9-iron really all the way to the hole without hitting something really, really too hard, and the 8-iron was too much club. So I just had to unfortunately kind of bail out towards the middle of the green. Q. Do you remember much at all about the Pete Dye course? D.A. POINTS: Without question, I remember every hole. Q. Good. Because I wanted to ask you if there are any similarities between this one and that one, and the reason why you played well today and you had a 10-under round there. D.A. POINTS: There's almost no similarities to either one of the golf courses. (Laughing.) This golf course -- you know, the thing I will say that it's similar, I enjoy the tee shots. The tee shots all, to me, look very appealing. Some elevated tee shots, like the 1st tee here I think is just a beautiful tee shot: up high, the way the trees and the fairway slopes and everything, it's a great hole. I would say maybe like now the first hole, which when I won was the 10th hole at the Pete Dye, is kind of that similar. You tee it up high, hole bends to the right, really pretty hole. All in all, they're a little bit different design. Q. Just getting back to the chance at a 59, maybe if this comes once in a lifetime, do you come away disappointed or was it fun while it lasted? D.A. POINTS: A little disappointed at first, and fun while it lasted. I had one other opportunity that was marginally legitimate when I was on the Nationwide Tour playing in the Dayton -- there was a Dayton Nationwide event. I shot 10-under with two bogeys on a par 72. I was 11 going into 17, and I needed to birdie 17 and 18. I parred 17. And then 18 I was trying to fit a wedge into the back and I hit it over the green and made bogey. But, you know, it's one of those things that I think we all have opportunity for stuff like this. Like J.B., you know, had an opportunity. There's been a couple guys, and there's gonna be somebody tomorrow that will probably have an opportunity. I hope it's me again, but it's gonna happen. That's what makes golf so much fun and what makes this exciting. Q. Looking ahead to next year's tournament, should the Greenbrier make any changes in the Old White to make it more difficult, or should they keep it the way it is? D.A. POINTS: You know, this is fun for me. It's fun for us. It's fun to see us all shoot low numbers. So that makes sense. In hindsight, I would like to see a little more rough. I generally drive the ball pretty straight, so it would make it better for me theoretically if maybe the fairways were either pinched in a little bit or they grew some rough. Because right now, I mean, like J.B. he can bomb away and hit it 400 yards and not have a whole a lot to worry about other than getting it close to the green. If he had some high rough, he might go, Well, maybe I'm not gonna rip driver this time. I'll just hit my hybrid out there and make sure I get it in the fairway. But, you know, it's still held up nicely. The course, I think, has still held up nicely. Q. Do you think there's any chance the PGA could make recommendations for changes? D.A. POINTS: Oh, absolutely, and I'm sure they will. Like I said, this course was built a long time ago. You know, we're not, I don't think, in the business of coming in and redesigning golf courses. I think they just want to make sure it's a good, fair, reasonably difficult test of golf. The cut was only 2-under this week. It wasn't like it was 6-under or 4-under or 5-under. It was 2-under, so it still held up nicely. Q. Just 59, you're standing on that tee. Is it sort of like going into the Twilight Zone or something? It's rattling around in your mind. D.A. POINTS: A little bit. I mean, it was more just excitement. You know, it's not -- you know, you want to hit good shots. Like I said, I wanted to give myself the two best birdie opportunities I could on 17 and 18. You say different things to yourself. I try talk to my wife, I try to talk to Stuart. You try to do everything you can except think about what I'm shooting. You do that whether you're shooting 10-under of 3-under. As soon as you start grinding on it, no matter what score you're at, it's gonna be bad news. So that's what you do. Q. Did you hear anybody in the crowd? Did you hear, "59"? D.A. POINTS: Not once. Q. Just blocking everything out? D.A. POINTS: No, I just didn't hear it. I heard everybody else screaming other stuff, I just didn't hear that. Q. Are you pretty much conscious of your score? D.A. POINTS: Yeah, it's almost impossible not to be. I've been playing professional golf for almost 11 years; playing golf since I was 18 months old. You pretty much always know what your score is. That's part of your job. You got to know what your score is. So like I said, a couple times -- every once in a while when you're shooting real low, and you're making -- I didn't make any eagles today -- but sometimes when you're making eagles and you're doing stuff, sometimes that can throw you off. You're like, Wait a minute, am I 2-Under? 4-under? Sometimes you can lose track. That's when you are really happy. Today I knew I was making a lot birdies and I knew where I stood. But at the same time, I did feel real comfortable and calm all the way through 16 holes, and 17 is where I just got a little excited. JOHN BUSH: D.A., great show today. Look forward to tomorrow. D.A. POINTS: Thanks, John. Thanks, guys. End of FastScripts |
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