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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 14, 2011

Peter Hanson

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. What's it like to sit on that shot for four and a half hours?
PETER HANSON: I mean, you kind of think about that shot on 17 a few times. I had the yardage 125, so it was trying to go through my head. But still when you get out there and it's your first shot of the day, you don't really know what's going to happen. I have to say the tee shot on 18 is pretty scary, as well, when you only hit drives on the range and you're not sure exactly where they're going. So two tough holes.
Very happy with the round, of course. Got off to a great start and had a great finish yesterday just to make the cut. So I'm happy to be back in the tournament.

Q. Can you talk about not having to come back tomorrow morning like some of these other guys that are going to be there at the top and having to sweat out a slew of holes?
PETER HANSON: Yeah, it might be a little bit of a disadvantage, especially if the guys on the top are going to play 30 holes tomorrow or something. It's always tough, and in this heat as well. So we'll see what happens.
I haven't really thought about it. I guess we're going to be off between 12:00 or 1:00 tomorrow, 1:30, so I'll try to be ready.

Q. Can you talk about your form coming in? You've missed a few cuts, and you were flirting with it obviously this week too.
PETER HANSON: Exactly. I've been struggling with my game, and ever since I had a decent finish in Tampa -- I finished 12th there. Apart from that, I've been struggling over here and trying to push hard and play a few more events over in the States. Yeah, struggling mainly on the greens. Most of the tournaments we play this time of year is this kind of grass, Bermudagrass, and I'm not really used to that being from Sweden. So it takes a while to learn how to chip and putt on this.

Q. Were you aware that there was probably going to be a weather delay and kind of hurrying to get that tee shot off in the wind?
PETER HANSON: No, when we walked from 16 to 17 we could see it got really dark, and the wind was starting to turn around. 17 is a tough hole the way it is, but when the wind is swirling, it's really tough. My caddie made a bit of a joke of it when they blew the horn. He said, God, we should have played that shot because I knew exactly where the wind was (laughing). So, I'm not quite sure we believe that.

Q. Did you walk a little slower from the 16 green there kind of hoping maybe?
PETER HANSON: Yeah, I mean, pretty much when I was there I made birdie at 16 to get to 7-under and really had the momentum going and playing well. So it might have been easier not to have to sit and wait. And 17 and 18 are probably -- it's a tough finish, but it's an even harder start, I have to say, when you don't really know where you're at. If you would have 17 and 18 as hole No. 1 and 2, I wouldn't play golf (laughing).

Q. How long were you standing on 17 tee thinking it over before the horn went off?
PETER HANSON: Not too long. I took a bit of time to walk out and walked up on to the green to see if I could walk up and see if it was really soft or could kind of get an idea.
But it's a hard shot. When it's that front pin, when it's really soft, any kind of spin on that front side and you're almost getting back in the water. I kind of put a lot of spin on the ball even if I want to or not. So it just got saved up there.

Q. What did you end up hitting?
PETER HANSON: I hit a wedge. I hit a small wedge, 125, so just a small wedge. Pitched pretty good.

Q. Woody was saying you pretty much knew yesterday playing those last couple holes what you needed to do. Could you just talk about delivering the goods, especially on No. 9 there? You had to birdie to get that thing up-and-down to have a chance.
PETER HANSON: Yeah, it's been a grind. Like you said, I haven't been playing awful, but I ended up missing a lot of cuts. I missed New Orleans by one shot. We were grinding to make the cut there as well. And here same thing. I thought I played okay, but put a ball in the water on 17, made bogey yesterday to go from 2-under to 1-over. All of a sudden you start to think about the cut line and trying to make the birdie.
It's just nice. It's almost like when you end up in contention on Sunday and manage to pull it off. It's the same thing making the cut. You get that bit of extra focus, and you know what you have to do. I have to say, to make birdie on 8 with the long par-3, 3-iron to hit it to 15 feet to make a birdie, and 9 sits up good for me yesterday. I can hit 3-wood off the tee 3-wood onto the green and managed to get a fairly easy up-and-down. That was kind of nice. Just nice to get your nose in there.
Yeah, we all want to be here for the weekend, especially when you shoot 66 around this place.

Q. What made you decide to play here instead of defending over there this week?
PETER HANSON: I've always dreamed about playing here. I've been fighting for so many years to be in the top 50 of the world. With that last year being a good year, couple of wins just moved me in there. And now I'm just on the rope again for the US Open. It's always -- I mean, coming here and playing Augusta, I wanted to try to play against the best players in the world, and this is just a great event.

Q. Have you been here before prior to this week at all?
PETER HANSON: I've been here and played. Yeah, I was here in 2007 with some friends, and then I went up and played with Henrik Stenson, who is a good friend of mine. We went up three weeks ago to play around the course. Of course, they treated him like a king when we got here, so it was good fun.

Q. So the 17th and 18th, are those shots in the back of your mind at any point during the round or you just can't think that way? Do they kind of weigh on your mind at all?
PETER HANSON: No, not when you're playing the golf course, but definitely gets your attention. That walk from 16 to 17 is kind of just enough time to make you think, you know what I mean? It's just long enough to see what happens there and trying to figure out the wind. It's just a great golf hole.

Q. Do you get mixed up with the other two Hansons still to this day?
PETER HANSON: I do quite a bit. Even this week we get mixed up with cars and lockers and everything. But I have to say they're Danish and I'm Swedish, so that's the thing.

Q. How long have you lived in Orlando?
PETER HANSON: I've lived there for two years now.

Q. Trying to set yourself up to play here?
PETER HANSON: Yeah, I really enjoy spending a lot of time here. I think as a family man, we have two small kids, it's so much easier to spend time with the family over here. I mean, the European Tour is so global and a lot more traveling, travel to go Asia and South Africa and the Middle East. If I want to keep on doing this on the level I want to play, I would try to push really hard to get my playing privilege here and spend a bit more time with family.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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