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March 25, 2011
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
Q. You bogeyed the last two holes yesterday and today with bogeys; is it a problem getting off the golf course or a swing flaw at the end of the round?
RICKIE FOWLER: I missed a couple of putts yesterday, and today I made a couple good swings. Caught a 7-iron a little bit thin on the last hole that hopped back in the water. Nothing too bad. Just getting my bogeys out of the way early for the weekend.
Q. The drop on 18, a rare drop on a green, has that ever happened to you before?
RICKIE FOWLER: Actually happened a couple of weeks ago at Honda. I decided to chip one in the water, rolled off the green and got to drop back on the green. It's always nice to drop it on the green but there grows one shot.
Q. You're in good position going into the weekend and you've won on this golf course before, what would it mean to get your first-ever PGA TOUR victory at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge?
RICKIE FOWLER: To win here with Mr. Palmer watching would be pretty special. I've won here before in the AJGAs and played well here before, and we are in a good spot going into the weekend.
Q. I know it's a tough finish with the bogey on 17 and 18; at 18, the shots you've hit in there, you said you caught the 7-iron a little thin?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, a little bit. I thought I was going to catch the front edge. We were back into the breeze and got affected a little bit. If it covered the front edge, we would have had a pretty close look. Went in the water, thought we would have a good look at par there, gave it a good roll and went by.
Q. 4-under for the golf tournament, pretty good mark to be on after 36 holes.
RICKIE FOWLER: Today the score didn't really reflect how I played. I felt like I played better than that. Obviously the course is playing tough, 4-under going into the weekend, four back, still get after it tomorrow and game feels really good. So excited about getting to Saturday and Sunday.
Sam and I played some junior and amateur golf together and I had not seen him in a while. Just kind of hung out, cool to be able to play with him and see him still be able to hit some shots. He's still got some great hands. I saw him hit some bunker shots that were pretty impressive.
You know, nothing really that bad, just happened to have a couple things go wrong at the wrong time, like I said hopefully get those out.
Q. After making those three birdies in a row on the front nine, is it hard when you make a bunch of pars in a row?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yes and no. The game felt really good and I had some looks at birdies that just were not very close. And I hit a couple good putts and a couple bad putts and finally got one back at 16 and then rough finish, but looking forward to getting to the weekend. Game feels really good.
Q. Talk about your position obviously well within striking range on a pretty good leaderboard.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, four back going into the weekend. Obviously going into Saturday and Sunday you just want to be in contention and have a shot at it. Tomorrow the goal is to go out and stay right there in contention. Plan is to get ourselves into Sunday and really you want to be right there on the top coming into the last nine holes.
Q. As different as conditions were today and yesterday, how deep in the red can they go today as far as under par?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I mean, for us, we had a little bit of wind in the morning yesterday. It was blowing about, I don't know, ten miles an hour. This afternoon wasn't blowing very much. I know the guys had a little bit more wind yesterday afternoon. And then this afternoon we played on a little bit rougher greens from playing fresh greens in the morning.
So obviously I felt like the way I scored today, 71, you know, not really reflecting how I played. I felt like I played better than that. Obviously I had a few missed shots and a few bogeys at the end really hurts the score. But it's definitely out there if you're playing well. If you hit fairways and greens, you can get 5-, 6-, 7-under. Charles Howell shot 7 today, so it's out there.
Q. Did going to college in Oklahoma help you play in wind?
RICKIE FOWLER: Actually in southern California where I grew up, it did blow about 10 to 20 miles an hour in the afternoon. Obviously the wind can blow in Oklahoma, so got used to playing in winds over 20 miles an hour. And it definitely makes you learn on solid ball striking and flighting your ball well. So it's definitely helped me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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