|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 8, 2011Yong-Eun YangAUGUSTA, GEORGIA BILLY MORRIS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to have Y.E. Yang with us from Korea. And we are also delighted to have his translator with us, Ryan Park. Y.E. Yang, as you know, this is his fourth Masters appearance. His best finish was last year when he tied for eighth. As we all know, he won the 2009 PGA Championship, the first Asian-born player to claim a major title. He finished his first round here with a 67 and today he had an even par 72. Y.E., we are delighted to have you with us. Why don't you touch on the highlights of your round, or just general comments. Y.E. YANG: I started off with a bogey, and I quickly reversed that with a birdie. Then the front nine, I went all the way up to 8-under. I thought I was on a roll. I felt good. And then all of a sudden, I don't know why, but my putter started failing me. I had a couple of 3-putts, a total of three bogeys after hitting 8-under. So it's been kind of a rolling, up-and-down day for me. I'm a little bit disappointed compared to yesterday, but there's still a lot of golf left. Q. Y.E., after your first putt from the back of the 10th green came up so short, that's what you seemed to start to maybe lose your feel for the putter; was that the case? Y.E. YANG: Exactly. I think after that, I was a bit -- my confidence was a bit dwindling, and overall, I just couldn't gauge my distance and my putts started to shake a bit. I think overall, the 10th hole green cost me a lot today. Q. You said on Twitter you had Korean rice before the round; is that a normal breakfast for you? Y.E. YANG: When I usually come out on Tour, I usually start breakfast at the clubhouse, always continental must have finish which for a bagel, no eggs, no meat. Muffin. This week my whole family is here and a few friends. My wife was tacit enough to bring over a lot of Korean food and cook for me. We are a big family over here and I eat quite a lot so, we ran out of Korean food yesterday. So she improvised and got some curry with some rice, sort of an Eastern/Oriental-type breakfast, but definitely not your typical breakfast and definitely not what I usually have for breakfast. Yeah, it's good to have my family and my wife cooking. It feels like home, and especially with the kids running around. Q. I was wondering if you can explain or try to describe how important it is back home for Korean television viewers and fans of the Masters to see Koreans in the field, you and K.J. doing so well, and what that means to the people back home? Y.E. YANG: You know, even back when I was practicing for the first time golf when I was 19, the Masters always seemed to be like the pinnacle of golf tournaments in Korea. And I think a lot of Koreans share my admiration towards the tournament; the overall scenery, the scenic views on TV where all of the flowers come to bloom; the greenness of the course. And then the arena-like presence of the course setting, it gives a different type of awe towards Korean spectators and viewers and golf lovers. I think a lot of Koreans appreciate that Korean golfers developed and progressed as much, and it just adds to the whole awe and inspiration towards golf in Korea. Q. Can you briefly summarize your birdies today, what club you hit? Y.E. YANG: The putts were about five to ten feet, the ones that I made birdie off of. They were easy putts. So even with my putter being a bit shaky, still I think it worked out as the round progressed from the 10th, it showed my shakiness on the putting. But overall, I had short putts to make birdies. Especially on the par 3, hole No. 4, I used a 6-iron instead of a 7. It was a 7-iron sort of length but I had a front head wind, so I had one more club and it probably fell about half a feet away from the hole. On 8, the par 4, I had about 72 yards away for my second shot and I used a sand wedge. Other shots were just typical, but I came a bit lucky with my second shots. Q. Did your 3-putt on 16 from reasonably close to the hole affect your drive on 17, or were you able to put it out of your mind entirely, and just made a bad swing? Y.E. YANG: I don't think that bad putt actually affected me psychologically. I've already experienced a bad drive on 17 yesterday, and that was because my hands were a bit sweaty. I think my grip sort of came loose at the final impact. Maybe I was nervous. Today, I don't think there's any correlation between the bad putt and the drive on 17. But, at the same time, I've been having this kind of stiffness in my left shoulder that comes into effect at the end of a round if I get a bit tired. If there were any bad drives, it was more from the stiffness in my shoulder than any psychological issues. BILLY MORRIS: Thank you very much for coming for the interview and good luck the rest of the week. Ryan Park, thank you for translating. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|