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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP

May 6, 2011

Jonathan Byrd

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Jonathan Byrd. You got to 10-under. If you want to talk about your round today.
JONATHAN BYRD: Well, I played much the same as yesterday. I drove the ball pretty well, put myself in a lot of good positions, and I putted pretty well. And I started off pretty hot, made some beautiful birdies on 11 and 12, almost birdied 13, and then just had a nasty double on 14.
But fortunately made about an eight-, ten-footer for double, biggest putt I made all day, and then came back with a birdie and played pretty sharp after that. So it was a good day.

Q. What happened on the double on 14?
JONATHAN BYRD: I hit a bad tee shot right in the fairway bunker and had just an uncomfortable 60-, 70-yard shot with water long, and I'm not very good at that shot. I don't know who is. And I left it short in the bunker, and it plugged. And then there's a slope in the middle of the green that goes left towards the water, and I played the plugged lie to come out to the right like they usually do, and it came out left, caught the slope, went down in the hazard, and then I chipped up to eight feet and made the putt.

Q. Did you have to calm yourself down after that?
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, I just kind of had good self-talk pretty much. I wasn't that mad because I really -- I hit a bad tee shot, but other than that it wasn't terrible. It was just a bad double. You know, that hole can kind of get you sometimes. It can either be an easy 3 or an easy bogey. But it's a great hole.
But I just -- I was like, man, I'm playing great. This is just kind of a test, just kind of see what you're made of, and I just striped it off the next tee, made a great birdie and played great from then on.

Q. A lot of Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina State guys on the board. Do you think that's a coincidence, or do you guys have a little bit of extra knowledge on this golf course?
JONATHAN BYRD: I don't know if it's extra knowledge. Maybe. Those guys, we've played every year. I know Lucas has and I have, Charles Warren has. We love playing here. It's close to home, just a phenomenal golf course. Maybe just playing every year is the experience. But I think we all want to play well here, you know, close to our schools, and we're friends with a lot of the tournament staff and Mr. Harris who helped start the event. So there's a lot of reasons why we want to play well here.

Q. You missed your last two cuts, and you said before the tournament, this is not a course that has treated you very well in the past. What's going on? Can you get a handle on why you're playing so well?
JONATHAN BYRD: Well, I kind of had some good, I guess, prep time last week. I didn't practice much last week, and I came here on Monday and practiced and just pured it. Every part of my game felt good, even though I hadn't really practiced all week because we had my dad's tournament last week and my wife's sister got married, so we had a lot going on. I just realized, just like the start of the year, my game is great, don't mess with it, and just keep it simple and let's just go play. I haven't done a lot of extra preparation this week. You know, I've just kind of done as little as possible and just tried to kind of trust that everything is good, and that's worked out.
I haven't played well here, but I did have one good year here; I finished fifth. So I'm just kind of working off that.

Q. Being from the area, growing up in this area, how familiar were you with Tommy Gainey as a folk hero, mini-Tours and betting games? Were you familiar with him before he got out here?
JONATHAN BYRD: He hasn't changed since middle school when I first started playing with him. It's funny, I saw Kyle Thompson last night, and my mom and I were kind of laughing with Kyle because we look at each other like we're still in junior golf. You know, I look at Kyle because we used to battle it out in junior golf, and I played a lot with Tommy Gainey. He played with two gloves back then, too. He talked the same, and he had some buddies, and we laughed with him just as much as we do now.
It's much of the same as South Carolina junior golf and amateur golf growing up. And then all the other stories. You know, I wasn't around in the mini-Tours, but I see Tommy and I just see him like he was when we were growing up. Very happy that he's done well and played well. I'm not surprised, though. He's a great golfer.

Q. Late bloomer a little bit?
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, late bloomer. I think everybody just has a different timeline to when they get comfortable and get confident and realize that this isn't much different than playing at home. Where is he from? Bishopville? Playing the home course at Bishopville, just go tee it up and play.

Q. Bill Haas, too, another guy -- this is turning into like the South Carolina Junior Open like ten years later, isn't it?
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, we just hope the TOUR turns into that every week. That would be good for the South Carolina Junior Golf Association. I mean, all those guys, they hit the ball far, they drive the ball well, they're good ball strikers. There's more to it than just because they're around here. Their games fit this golf course. Certainly a longer hitter on this golf course who drives it well, that really sets you up to play well here.

Q. You've talked before about competitiveness in the Junior Golf Association with you and Lucas and Charles and all these guys. Now it seems like we're seeing some of that.
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, I mean, we've seen it for quite a while now, you know, seeing how many times Bill has won and Lucas winning a major and Charles having the success he's had, really underachieved what I think Charles can do out here. I think there's more coming.
MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Jonathan. Good luck this weekend.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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