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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AMApril 16, 2011Jay Don BlakeLUTZ, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Jay Don Blake, 3-under, 68 today. Right now you're in the lead at 8-under 134. Couple thoughts about your round. Your round you got in, the afternoon round was a nice score at 66. Just talk about your round today. JAY DON BLAKE: You know, pretty calm early. Wasn't much wind. A lot of moisture on the grass out there. Started off, you know, played pretty well. Hit a lot of pretty good shots. After playing yesterday afternoon, the greens were so firm that we started playing conservative. I kind of come out knowing that the greens would be a little bit softer, could be more aggressive, and I started out birdieing -- right off right off the start got 3-under par really quick. Then the wind started picking up again and then the balls started rolling on the greens all over. The greens started to firm up pretty quick, the same way they were yesterday afternoon, so you had to be a little bit more conservative with the iron shots in the greens. Just to get it on the wrong side of some of these holes, then it's tough to putt. THE MODERATOR: Run through your birdies. You did bogey the 10th hole, and any good saves you may have had. JAY DON BLAKE: The first hole I guess I count as a green miss. I just was on the fringe just probably 30 feet away and two-putted for par. Then I guess the kind of kicker for the round was on the par-3, No. 2. The pin was way back left, pretty tough to kind of fire at. Kind of bailed out a little right and had about 40 feet up over a ridge and break about three feet and ended up making that for birdie. To get started with a birdie right off the start kind of gets some momentum going. THE MODERATOR: What did you hit in there? JAY DON BLAKE: 6-iron. I tried to kind of hook a 6-iron into the back left corner, and didn't quite turn over. Then No. 3, I can't remember that hole. I guess I made par on 3. Yeah, I made actually a good save, but I was on the green. I probably 30 feet away and knocked it about eight, nine feet by and had to make that for par. So I hated to throw that 40-foot birdie putt away, the three-putt bogey on the next hole. Turn around on 4 and ended up knocking it in there probably about eight feet and made that for birdie. Then turned right around on 5, a little short hole. Hit it about three feet and made it for birdie. Just hit a little sand wedge in there. I was playing downwind. Parred 6. Parred 7. Parred 8 and 9. Turned it at 3-under. 10 is where I made bogey. Thought I hit an okay drive, but I guess being in the trees off the tee didn't feel the wind blowing our ball to the left. It rolled up kind of up on the upslope of the bunker over there. Had kind of an awkward lie, kind of one foot halfway in bunker, halfway out. Pin's way back right; water all the way on the right. I was just trying to hit it 20 feet left of the pin and just kind of get a par and get out of there. Kind of a tough shot from there. Tried to hit 7-iron and kind of upshot it out to the right, and it took a dive. So I ended up dropping by the side of the green. Hit a good chip about six inches and ended up making a good bogey on the hole. Felt good after that getting away with bogey. Then I strung a lot pars together, hit some good shots. The par-5, 12, I was down there, had 4-iron into the green, but that's such a hard green to hit in two. It's kind of crowned, and that left opening between the bunker and the mound on the side, it's pretty tough to keep it right there. I rolled it just over the green off the back and putted it up from the fringe about eight feet and missed that. So kind of disappointed with par on the Par 5. Just kind of made some -- I actually made a good up and down on 13. I hit it on the fringe of the green and I spun way down below, probably eight feet above me. Could barely see the pin. Made a good chip up about two feet and made that for par, so made a pretty good par there. Then par-5 I hit three good shots. Kind of used the back slope to roll it down about - I wouldn't say I was even two feet away - thinking I was going to make another birdie. Missed it and lipped it out, so a little frustrated on the par-5s on that side. Didn't capitalize on any of 'em. Then what do we got? 15? Just on the right fringe on 15, and just kind of putted it up about six inches and made the par. 16 I hit it about 16 feet just pin high left, and finally made a birdie on the back nine. THE MODERATOR: What did you hit in there? JAY DON BLAKE: I hit wedge. 17, downwind, kind of going left, hit a 6-iron just on the left edge of the green and two-putted. 18 I hit driver down there and had wedge into 18. Hit it about six, seven feet and missed it. So I was hoping to get another one there on the last couple holes, but didn't work out. All in all, I felt like I had a pretty good, solid round. Just tried to stay out of trouble as much as I could. THE MODERATOR: This is your first appearance here. Your initial thoughts on TPC Tampa Bay. JAY DON BLAKE: I think it's a good golf course. I mean, every time you look up, you've got water on the right or water on the left or bunkers. I mean, visually it can be pretty intimidating looking at all that stuff out there. You hate favoring one side because there's a big penalty, a worser penalty on the other side. So sometimes you kind of get yourself playing way too much away from the big trouble and kind of get in trouble sometimes. But I just tried to pinpoint some good spots, some trees out there, and tried to execute it off that instead of worrying about whether there is water left or water right. Just kind of try to keep away from thinking of the big mistake and execute some good solid shots. It's a good golf course. THE MODERATOR: Before we go to questions, can you recap your year last year? You were in contention a couple times. You took advantage of the tournaments you were in, because of course you didn't have much status out here last year. JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, I didn't/t. Didn't have any status really at all. Just going out and Monday qualifying. Played like 15 tournaments. I think I was top 10 like seven times. Just played a good, solid year last year and had a good chance at a couple majors. The PGA in Denver, the British Open, the Senior Open. I was third over there. You know, just had some good tournaments. Feel pretty solid with my game. So I just got to go in and kind of execute the same thing this year and see if I can better what happened last year. Hopefully I can get in some more tournaments this year. I finished 34th. I guess the key is to make sure you're in the top 30. You know, that's one goal, but then there's obviously better goals above that. That's one I need to accomplish for sure. But, you know, last year, I kind of -- you know, helps with the confidence knowing that you can go out there and play and compete and get in contention and see your name up on the leaderboard and know it should be there, and hopefully feel like it belongs there and keep plugging along and see if we can keep doing it. Q. Some real low scores yesterday. How would you compare the conditions today and maybe this afternoon to what you experienced yesterday? JAY DON BLAKE: You know, I think the wind's probably a little bit more today already than it was yesterday. We got it kind of later on, but it picked up pretty early today. They say it's supposed to be harder today in the afternoon than yesterday. If that happens, some of the pin placements that they had are going to be pretty tough to get to. They had a lot on the front that are downwind and you can't stop 'em. You got to take a risk of just barely carrying the bunker or just barely carrying the water or bouncing them up on the fringes. You got the Bermuda fringe. You don't know how they're going to bounce either. Some of pins are pretty tough. If the wind gets up, I mean, it's going to be pretty tough to shoot some scores out there today, I think. Q. How do you like the unique format they use in this tournament? JAY DON BLAKE: I think it's fun. I enjoy meeting the guys, and they enjoy playing with us. They get a little nervous, but we got to calm them down and let 'em know we're just as human as they are. They put their pants on the same way we do. I just try make them relax, have some fun. We only do it a couple times a year, so it's a good time to bring those guys out, bring them inside the ropes, let them play with us, and let them see what the nerves are all about. So I enjoy it. It's been a fun time. I had a good partner. I think we finished 16. I don't know if that's going to keep us in for the week, the cut for those guys or not. He was excited about it, so it's fun to play this kind of event. Q. With your status being what it is, how important is tomorrow? Obviously if you win you're on. Do you think about that? JAY DON BLAKE: Well, you're always thinking about it, but you try not to. I just feel like I got to go out and play my game, and what happens with my game hopefully makes the positions that I'm in able to play better. So I can't really dwell on my position as in what I finished last year. I'm in the tournament. Just got to do the best I can and hopefully make some good progress throughout the year and better myself through the whole year. Q. It was about 20 years ago that you had arguably your best year, in 1991, on the PGA Tour. Is it something coming around here full circle, maybe figuring that out again and really put something together here like in 2010? JAY DON BLAKE: You're giving away our age here. (Laughing.) I mean, look how young he is and he's talking about our age. You know, I've never really thought about -- I have thought about the years way back, but not as in 20 years when I had my best year on tour. I haven't really thought about that. You know, just being out here and having a chance 20 years later, having a career and then having a chance to make another career, I mean, how do you not say it's fun and enjoyable? I mean, it's just pretty special to be out here and doing this. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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