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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 25, 2011

K.J. Choi

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

DOUG MILNE: We would like to welcome K.J. Choi after a very successful second round 64 today, got to be feeling great as you head into the weekend. Obviously a tournament that you're fond of; just a few comments on the round, some of the high points, and how you're feeling as we head into the weekend.
K.J. CHOI: Good to see you all. Honestly today, starting out, I would have thought that 2-under, 3-under would have been a good score because yesterday was a tough round, not just for me but for everybody else. I guess the key thing today was I changed my putter back to my old Odyssey, and that helped a lot.
I've always wanted to play well on this course, but it just so happened to be that after I tried maybe just too hard, I couldn't really get the performance that I wanted. I would never have thought that I would score 8-under today on a course like this. I'm just happy that I've done that, and I just want to keep this rhythm going on for the last two days.
Especially on this course, the par 3s are really difficult, and I've always had trouble playing the par 3s. But today, this week, I've changed to the hybrids. I've put a lot of hybrids in there in my bag. The good thing about those hybrids is that it goes far and it goes high, and I'm able to stop the balls on the green.
So I think that strategy of going to the hybrids was a good thing.

Q. You mentioned switching back to the Odyssey putter; is that the same one with the thick grip that you used for many years?
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, you know, I've used that grip for a few years now since I've won the tournament in Washington.
But I feel so comfortable with that grip, and I've played the Odyssey putter for the last ten years. I've always thought because I've been missing a lot of putts, I felt like I missed a lot of putts, maybe it was my posture or it was because maybe I wasn't reading the lines correctly. I blamed it a lot on the putter. But after working with Pat O'Brien, I realized that it wasn't the putter. It was actually my posture.
So we worked on that, changing and adjusting my posture and that's helped a lot this week.

Q. I have two questions. Did you put the hybrids in for this week specific, or for the tournament in two weeks; first question.
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, I've had the Masters in mind. That's the reason I changed.

Q. Have you ever seen another bag with so many hybrids on this tour?
K.J. CHOI: I don't think so.

Q. Congratulations.
K.J. CHOI: (Smiling).

Q. Wondering why you decided to leave a trusted putter like the Odyssey; was it just you got frustrated with missing too many putts?
K.J. CHOI: I mean, like I said, the reason I switched was because I thought it was a problem with the putter, not realizing that I wasn't lining up -- my eyes weren't lining up correctly. My head wasn't in the right position.
So I blamed it on the putter. And you know, I thought about, I've used that putter for so long; I thought about the good things that I did with the putter. I've always felt comfortable stroking with that putter, and working with Pat, it made me realize that it wasn't the problem with the putter. It was the posture.
And now that I've gone back to the old faithful, it felt great. I had confidence that I didn't have with the other putters, and I think that's probably a lesson that I learned is that it's not a problem with the putter but more of a confidence.

Q. What's the longest iron in your bag today and what's the best shot you've hit with a hybrid?
K.J. CHOI: Longest iron is a 4-iron right now. The best shot is probably on 14 where I hit a No. 4 hybrid to seven feet for a birdie.

Q. How many total hybrids?
K.J. CHOI: Three hybrids.
DOUG MILNE: Thank you for your time, good luck on the weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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