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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM

February 12, 2011

Bryce Molder

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: Bryce Molder, thank you for joining us today, round three of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, 4-under 68 today at Spyglass. Just a few comments on the round and we'll open it up and take a few questions.
BRYCE MOLDER: I got off to a running start. Hit a wedge close on the first hole which was No. 10. Started on the back nine, made about a 5- or 6-footer for birdie.
Next hole hit a hybrid to about four feet for eagle.
So pretty fast start and then unfortunately plugged it up under the lip on 13. Had to take a drop, still in the bunker and ended up making double.
Made a long putt on the next hole, the par 5, from about 20 feet.
No. 17, I hit it about a foot and a half two, feet for birdie.
Then the fun began. It was, gosh, that card, that's a busy scorecard. I hit it just over the green on No. 1, my 10th hole of the day and I hit a chip that was starting to get away and hit the flag and went in.
Made a mess of No. 3. Knocked it to just a few feet on No. 4, came back with a birdie. And made a putt from the back fringe from maybe 20 feet on 5 and then kind of made a mess of No. 8, not a very good approach shot in the bunker and made bogey there.
So it was not as solid of a round as the first two, but I guess it doesn't really matter. They are not always going to be solid.

Q. You had a chance last year; what's it like going through three days of this, and then just -- do you have to flip a different switch when you get to Sunday and it gets back to being a real tournament?
BRYCE MOLDER: Yes and no. Still with the range being kind of off-site, or a little bit off-site with shuttles and stuff, it still feels pretty similar. I'll be playing with Harry again, my partner. So it will still have the same feel that it has.
Obviously I wasn't in the celebrity wave, so there wasn't a lot of people out there but there will be more people out there tomorrow. It won't change a whole lot. When you're over the ball, it's still just a shot.

Q. What's Harry's handicap?
BRYCE MOLDER: He's a 16. He is getting better, but I can attest, he is a 16. He played really well the first day and he really struggled yesterday. I think the nerves got to him. Today he played well on the holes he needed to today.
I actually played with him the first three rounds that year. That's when I got to know him and kept in touch with him. So we have played a few times together.

Q. How do you look ahead to tomorrow, not a lot of experience and guys who are not used to winning at this level; does that make any difference and how does that effect the proceedings tomorrow?
BRYCE MOLDER: You know, I think it could affect a lot, but you know, me personally, it can't really change what I do. You know, unfortunately in golf, you can't play defense on any of the guys, but fortunately in golf, you don't have to. So I can just kind of do what -- clichÃ©, I'm going to do what I can do.
But you know, it can certainly change what the outcome is and maybe what the final -- what score is. But then again, maybe not. If somebody plays really well, then experience sometimes doesn't matter what you're playing really well.

Q. Given what happened last year when you got to Pebble this week and got to 14, any thoughts on that?
BRYCE MOLDER: I don't remember what you're talking about (laughter).
You know, all you can do is laugh. I remember on that hole last year, after I made a big number, the biggest thought going through my head is, it's not going to be very fun walking into the locker room at Whisper Rock, because they are not going to hold back.
And so if you can't laugh about it, then this it game is going to get the best of you. And you know, I got there this year and made a mess of it and had a good up-and-down for bogey; but a lot of people are, with how firm it is.
It's a little different now where the ball won't just trickle all the way down left. But the green is so small, and I've heard a lot of guys talking about strategy there, and so, you know, it is what it is. I learned from it.

Q. I guess I can't see it from where I'm standing, is it the left of the green --
BRYCE MOLDER: Last year for the U.S. Open, they shaved the whole left side to where actually if you dropped a ball two or three feet on left side of the green, it would roll all the way underneath the trees. And now, it's a light rough over there to where if the ball lands over there, it's going to kick underneath. But if it lands on the green, it's going to stay on the hill, which is a big difference.
But you know, with how firm the green is, landing it, you have to land it pretty much on that chair and stop it on the green, unless you have the perfect angle and the perfect number.

Q. They changed it before the Open?
BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah, they had it shaved down to about five or fix.

Q. You were not the only one last year -- you have to take a positive out of being there two years in a row.
BRYCE MOLDER: Certainly. This is my favorite place in the world to play. I don't -- well, it's obvious if you walk around, but it's just fun playing here. It presents shots that you don't have anywhere else in the world and it's beautiful, we have got a great week. And it's fun to play the golf course also when it's in these conditions where you've got to land the ball short and run it up or get the right angle and think about where you're going to leave it.
It's just fun to play golf like that and yeah, it's just the most beautiful place in the world to play golf.

Q. Any example of shots you don't hit anywhere else in the world?
BRYCE MOLDER: Like No. 6 at Pebble, I hit a 3-iron and all you're doing is just -- for my second shot, all you're doing is just picking a spot on the hill to start. Got a downhill lie with a 3-iron that you have to get up in the air, and essentially it's going to fly only about 175 yards and run rest of the way.
So shots like that; shots like No. 8, blind tee shot and all of a sudden the world opens up when you get right up on that hill. It's just fun. You can't recreate those kind of shots anywhere.

Q. Just made reference to it, but how different is tomorrow going to be from past Sundays?
BRYCE MOLDER: Yeah, it will be different. The weather is so good that I still think that you're going to have to make some birdies. It will be interesting to see how -- because I played it on Thursday, how it is now, another three or four days without rain.
But you know, it will be interesting to see if people are able to make a run and if you do, it's going to be early on, because you get around to 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, there's not going to be very much chances in that stretch.
But it's fun, because you have got to hit some shots and partly, we were joking because part of the time you're almost better off in the rough with a right angle than in the fairway with the wrong angle. So it's kind of fun to play golf that way.

Q. How many did you following you?
BRYCE MOLDER: Well, I've got my parents, I've got my wife and her parents, and it was hairy's wife and little boy, so there's about seven. We had a cameraman, so that may have been eight. We had probably maybe 15, something like that.
DOUG MILNE: Bryce, we appreciate your time. Best of luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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