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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2011

Rickie Fowler

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

CLAUDE NIELSEN: Good afternoon, it's great to welcome back Rickie Fowler after his second round of competition in his, of course, first Masters appearance.
He was the 2010 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, 2010 Ryder Cup Team member, and he finished his first round with a 70, and after his second round of competition, he's now 5-under par. Great round out there today. Maybe you can give us a few opening remarks and then we'll take questions.
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I started off with a disappointing bogey today but rebounded with some good birdies. I told myself I wanted to go out and play the front nine a little bit better, so 37 yesterday, 33 today is a good improvement. But I would have liked to have taken my back nine score yesterday and put it in today.
Had a lot of run out there with my group. Both Rory and Jason have been putting up some good rounds the last two days. Jason kind of snuck up on us today with 8-under, and it was fun to watch. But being around good golf definitely helps. Obviously I was just trying to keep up with those guys, and it helps being around the guys playing well. You know, sneaking up there at 5-under and really looking forward to getting into this weekend.

Q. When you initially saw the pairings, what were your initial thoughts?
RICKIE FOWLER: I thought we were going to have a great time. You know, being able to play with guys the same age as me, guys that I'm good buddies with, and guys that can play well; and you know, we went out and did that. We had fun out there, chatting it up a bit up the fairways and when we had some downtime. Other than that, we are trying to hit it inside and make more birdies than the other guy. So look forward to trying to sneak up on those guys this weekend and who knows, might be playing with one of them on Sunday.

Q. Hard one for you; is it a tough ask to try to get your first win at a place like this? Is it a bit much to get your head around or do you think you can pull it off?
RICKIE FOWLER: I'm in the field, I'm in position, I have a chance to win. That's my goal this weekend, put myself in position for Sunday. I think any place is a good place for a first win and I would love it to be here.
Obviously got the first part out of the way. We are in on the weekend in a good spot. I'm going to go out and try to keep playing well and worry about putting myself in a good spot come Sunday, and if we have a chance to do it, then we'll give it our all.

Q. Can you run through your six birdies today and tell us what clubs you hit?
RICKIE FOWLER: Let's see, No. 2, par 5, I had a 4-iron in. Just knocked it on in two and pretty easy 2-putt there.
Next birdie was at 5. I had 7-iron in there. Hung it out a little bit further right than I was playing, but there was a bit of a side slope, so fed down to about six feet. Hit a good putt.
No. 6, par 3, I actually hit a really good shot in there but can't really play to fly it all the way to the pin and ball ended upcoming back to the front of the green. Made a bomb so it was nice to see a long putt go in there.
7, hit a really good drive. I finally started feeling really comfortable with the driver in my hand. I hit a wedge in and I had about ten feet, pretty easy putt, and I hit it exactly where I wanted to.
We won't mention the bogeys at 10 and 11. (Laughter).
14, trying to think where I was -- this is round one. (Laughter).
12, sorry. I'm looking at the red numbers and there's a red number there. 12, I actually, you know, saw Jason, he hit 9-iron over the green and I saw Rory hit 8-iron in the front bunker. I kind of stuck to my game plan. I had 7-iron out before any of them hit, and basically just hit a little chip, flighted 7-iron that wasn't going to hit much wind, flew right over the stick and hit a good putt.
15, par 5, I had to kind of hook a hybrid in there around some trees. I hit it up the left side of the fairway. Hit a good pitch to about four feet and easy putt there. The rest, pars.

Q. Who plays faster, you or Rory, No. 1. And No. 2, when he gets to 10-under at the turn and he hasn't made a bogey yet, did it cross your mind that he might just run away and hide?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, obviously Rory is playing really well. I definitely see it out there. He's very confident with what he's doing. I didn't see him miss very many shots today and yesterday. It was fun to watch. I definitely thought that there was a chance of him, that he was going to keep on going. And he had some opportunities to do that.
He missed a few putts, both yesterday and today. And fast play, I guess it kind of depends on the shot. I'm pretty quick when I'm playing well, and comfortable with some yardages. But every once in awhile, we'll take our time if we are not sure about something. But I think we are both pretty quick so, we have fun doing that.

Q. It's fun when you play quick that way, isn't it?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, miss it quick. (Laughter).

Q. You guys get to 23-under as a group; was there, obviously probably not during the round, but did you have any light moments where y'all just looked at each other and went, "Whoa, this is the Masters, 23-under for the group"?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, actually my caddie mentioned it on 17 tee. He said, "You guys would have been all right in the combined score against any of the other groups out here. You guys could have won some bets."
Jason and I were on 18 green there at the end and I was joking with him about his putt and I said, "You know, this is a pretty cool place to be." We were just sitting there kind of enjoying it, and kind of out looking over the rest of the course. Exactly what I said; it's a pretty cool place to be.

Q. Just if I could take you back to Wednesday and you knew the pairings and you saw you were put with two contemporaries almost, what was your reaction then and what's been the realization like?
RICKIE FOWLER: I went over that a little bit earlier. But, you know, basically, once I saw that, I was pretty excited, obviously playing with two guys my same age. I knew that obviously they were good players and they had been playing well.
With Jason and I, it being our first Masters, Rory is basically a veteran, even though he's younger than both of us, I knew we were going to go out there and have a fun time. It was nice for Rory to kind of pave the way with a good round yesterday and kind of get Jason and I pumped up a bit. We were just trying to chase him down and it helped us play well being around everyone playing well at the same time.
CLAUDE NIELSEN: Thanks a lot, congratulations, and play well tomorrow.

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