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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIP

August 6, 2010

Chris Tidland

VERONA, NEW YORK

MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome Chris Tidland. Chris had a couple of holes this morning to finish off on your first round, and then you're one shot back at 9-under after the morning wave of the second round. If you could kind of talk a little bit about your day so far, it was a little longer than what you probably expected, and then your position going into the weekend; make a few comments about that.
CHRIS TIDLAND: Well, yeah, it's been a long day. It was a late night last night. Didn't eat dinner until 9:30, and had to get up early this morning. But obviously felt good about my game. Played really nice yesterday. Hit a lot of close iron shots. Made some good putts.
And today, you know, it was kind of a different challenge. Yesterday afternoon, it was perfect. No wind, and we had a nice afternoon, nice draw.
And then today, it was tough. Fortunately, I hit my irons good again today. Drove it in play, and, you know, made some key par putts.

Q. What happened there on 13, did the ball roll closer to the hole without anything happening after you hit the chip shot there?
CHRIS TIDLAND: The wind was howling there, and all three of us hit it in the water, second shot. I was playing really good. That was kind of my first missed shot, and, you know, dropped and then hit my wedge 20 feet above the hole. Tried to mark it, kept wobbling, moved about a foot, and then Steve Wheatcroft had to hit so I was kind of waiting and another gust hit it and it rolled to five feet. You know, that was a huge break for me, because that putt, I don't think I could have gotten within six feet probably.
So you know, for that to happen, it was a great break, and I made the putt for bogey; bogey there, after all of the stuff that I had done, felt like a birdie. So I was very fortunate.

Q. The back is playing a little bit tougher, but I'm assuming that that's where all of the wind is coming to play, like 13, 12, 11, those holes, is that where the wind is the most ferocious?
CHRIS TIDLAND: Yeah, you're definitely exposed out there. The front nine, you're kind of hitting through some trees, and the wind -- the wind picked up as the day went. It felt like -- I don't know if it was blowing that hard in that section of the course all day, but it sure didn't feel like it, and when we got there, it was like, whoa, my ball kept hitting a wall and falling to the right. I was happy when we made the turn and came back home.

Q. Can you talk about now going into the weekend, you have yourself set up very nicely, just a shot off the lead, and perhaps the wind will die down a little bit tomorrow and conditions are expected to be better tomorrow. Your thoughts going into Saturday?
CHRIS TIDLAND: I feel good about my game. You know, I've hit it very nice this week. I changed to some new irons, the new S56 irons, and those seem to be working very well.
The course is in perfect shape. I was excited to get here. I've been playing lousy but came in early, and this is my favorite practice facility of the year, and so I enjoyed it on Sunday by myself, Monday pretty much by myself, and you know, I'm kind of bummed that I have to share it with everyone else now. But I'll do it.

Q. You mentioned you've been playing poorly -- you've missed some cuts in the last few weeks, apart from the new irons, have you changed anything physically about your swing?
CHRIS TIDLAND: You're always kind of fiddling and working. I work with Jim Hardy, he's my teacher, and so we've been e-mailing and texting and sending videos and just trying to get something to -- I haven't been hitting it very solid.
So we've been kind of fiddling, talking every night, and you know, trying to fine-tune it and just try to hit solid shots. Especially today, that came in handy with the wind howling. You know, if you hit an unsolid shot, it just gets chewed up. I hit a lot of nice shots in some pretty tough crosswinds, and I felt very good about it.

Q. Yesterday seemed like the mind-set of everyone was to be aggressive with how the conditions were; today how much did you have to rein that in with the wind or did you still try to be aggressive?
CHRIS TIDLAND: There were times that you could be aggressive, but yeah, you definitely had to pick your spots. And with the wind blowing this hard, it's more if you leave your -- where you leave your second shot or third shot on a par 5, you don't want to be downwind, downhill and so there was a little more thinking about that. But we are pretty used to playing in elements that you kind of, you know, say, okay, I'm just going to try to keep it left of the hole because I know right is going be to be real tough.
You know, so there's definitely more of that.

Q. You mentioned all of the great things about this course, the practice facilities, the course itself; in your opinion, what do you think the potential for this event and this venue is on TOUR?
CHRIS TIDLAND: Well, everyone I talk to loves it, especially even better when it's not snowing. So when you actually play it in good weather, you know, it's unbelievable. I mean, everyone I talked to on Monday and Tuesday after practice rounds, looks like no one's been on the course for a year. There were no divots, no ball marks. It was pristine. That was exciting.
And then the course is great. The practice facility, the hotel, casino, everyone is staying there, it's pretty unique. You see everyone every night at dinner, and, you know, it's a unique atmosphere here.

Q. Even in the worst of the winds, you did make three straight birdies, 10 through 12, just go through those holes and what went on there?
CHRIS TIDLAND: 10, I hit a drive in the fairway and then hit a pitching wedge to about five feet behind the hole and made that.
11 is a tough par 3. I just hit -- I didn't really have the right club. I don't carry a 4-iron. It was a perfect 4-iron, I just hit 5 in the middle of the green and had a 45 footer probably and I made that. I kind of stole one there.
And then 12, fortunately, they had the tees up for us, so you could kind of get close. I hit driver, driver to about 20 yards short of the green and hit a nice chip up there to four feet and made that.
MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Chris, good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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