	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2011

Chris Stroud

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. Can you talk a little about the way you played? I know you were disappointed in the last two holes.
CHRIS STROUD: You know, I hung in there today. To be honest, I was struggling this weekend. I really hit the ball great Thursday, Friday. And I was definitely fighting my swing a little bit.
But I hung in there, I kept believing in myself, and I wish I would have finished a little better today. It was a great round. I hung in there and made some great par saves. I just wish I would have finished stronger than I did on 17 and 18, but overall it was a great week.

Q. Did you look at the leaderboards at all?
CHRIS STROUD: I did not. I did not look at the leaderboard until the last few holes. At 16 I looked one time. I had a chance. I think if I could have gone birdie, birdie par, par and finished at 11, that might have been a good number, because those last few holes are really hard.
I'm really happy for this week that I had a shot and had a chance to maybe even win this thing. But I love this course. I've played well here. Played well here last year, and I hope to keep coming back.

Q. You said you were fighting the swing all weekend?
CHRIS STROUD: Yeah, I always fight getting a little stuck on the way down. My hands -- I was a little deep on the way back, so I was trying to get my hands more out in front of my body, and it's tough to do that on a golf course like this. You want to have just no thoughts and just hit your targets. I did the best I could with what I had, and like I said, it was a good week. I'm just very happy and thankful to be here and play with the best players in the world.

Q. What is it you like about this course?
CHRIS STROUD: You know, this is exactly like The Woodlands courses that I grew up on in Houston. It's tree-lined, smaller greens, Bermuda. It's a shot-maker's course, which I love. I don't know. There is a good vibe here for me. It seems like it's that time of year, too, for me. I seem to play well when the weather starts warming up. It seems like my year always gets started in New Orleans.
So hopefully next year my plan is to come out a little hotter and play better on the West Coast.

Q. How long did you actually live in St. Thomas?
CHRIS STROUD: For two years. When I played on the Hooters Tour out of college. I graduated in '04 from Lamar University. I played on the Hooters Tour. I didn't get through Q-school my first year. And Crown Sports Management Group said come over and live there for a couple years and base out of there for the Hooters Tour. And I did that for a couple of years.
I got on Tour in '07 and I've been out here ever since, and we moved back to Houston where the family's from.

Q. You worked with the guys in the academy there?
CHRIS STROUD: Yes, exactly. With the instructors and the managers. Just to have the support of the great golf community there. It's an amazing place.
We were sad to leave, but we missed the family too much. We're not home very much, so it's nice to be home the few months that we are.

Q. How brutal was the wind today?
CHRIS STROUD: It's tough. It's tricky. You only have a few-second window. Matt Jones hit right in front of me, and the wind is down left to right, which is a perfect wedge. I was trying to hurry up and get up there and hit. I felt like I was rushing myself. I think if I would have waited just a couple more seconds and focused harder on my target I would have hit a better shot and probably would have made at least par. I'm upset about that.
Other than that, it was a great week. I committed to my target many, many times, and it was a good week to pull from.

Q. Was it swirling badly on 17?
CHRIS STROUD: It's just back and forth, down left to right and into to you left to right. Every 15 seconds it's switching. It's tricky, it's a perfect yardage because it's a good wedge if the wind's down, but if it's into you, you might have to chip the 9.
It's going to be a tough shot. If the guys catch the right wind, they'll hit some good shots. There will be some birdies there, I think. Maybe even a chance for a hole in one. You always have a chance of it rolling in. But I had a good time out there today.

Q. Who is the second best golfer to play for Lamar or come out of Lamar?
CHRIS STROUD: Wow, John Riegger, Kelly Gibson, Philip Jonas, to Dawie Van Der Walt, Casey Clendenon, John Riegger -- there is a lot of good players that played there back in the '80s. And a couple of guys behind me. Dawie Van Der Walt, Casey Clendenon. There's quite a few players.
Sean Stefani, who is in Baytown, Texas. A good friend of mine. I think he'll be here eventually. Big, giant kid hits about 350, so he's got a chance one day.

Q. Talk about that shooting 31 and a couple of key clubs you hit in during that stretch.
CHRIS STROUD: Let's see. The first hole was everything. I hit really the worst drive I've hit all week. I've driven it great. I really got quick on the transition. I snap-hooked it up in the trees. We thought we were just kind of in the rough, and we get out there and I wasn't quite to the fairway and the collar.
I was like 210 to the pin, downwind in the rough. And I'm like okay, we've got to land it 195. I drew a 5 in there as good as I could hit it and hit it like ten feet and made it. It was like, here we go. It just kept going from there.
Second hole, par-5, let's see, what did I do? I hit it in the fairway. I actually hit a terrible shot right. And I don't even know if Mickelson could have gotten this one up-and-down. I hit it, it was a 1 out of 200 shot. I hit a perfect shot out of this terrible lie. 20, 30 yards out of the pin. It landed in the collar and stuck and I rolled it like a foot. So it was a great break and a good way to get the round going.
Then I hit a good shot on 3, made a nice little 15-footer down the hill. 4 I hit a beautiful drive right down the middle. Hit a lob wedge in there. Almost made it and had an 8-footer up the hill, made that.
It was just a great way to start the round. It kind of calmed me down. Whatever we can find to calm us down out here is great. That seemed to settle me down for the day, and I've really had a good rhythm going.
I made a humongous par save on 11. I made a good drive off the tee, and I hit a really good 3-wood, I thought. I was in the second left bunker. We get up there and it must have landed on the down slope and kicked way behind the green on that back rough where you cannot be. And I had a couple options with the flop shot or a bump and run. I hit a bump and run, but it flew higher than I wanted it to and went in the bunker. I hit not a good bunker shot to 15 feet and I made it. So that was a big swing for the round for me.
Kind of kept me going. You know, I did my best to stay right there. I wasn't trying to get ahead of myself and thinking about winning and thinking about shooting 8 under today. It was there. Those thoughts were there. It was just great to have that opportunity today.

Q. What does the finish mean for you outside of obviously it improves your standing and that? Long-term what does this mean to you?
CHRIS STROUD: That my game stacks up against the best. When you play, this is a major for us. Everybody knows that. I mean, it's the fifth major, I guess you could call it. To me it's one of the strongest fields in golf. It's just nice to see that my game can stack up.
It's great for me down the road when I do go on those downtimes and I'm not playing that well, to always pull back from weeks like this. To always make sure you believe in yourself and never gave up. It's a great week of confidence for me.

Q. How long have you been doing the cross-handed belly?
CHRIS STROUD: I've been trying to do anything I can to take mechanics out of my thoughts. Today I put a line on my putter and it worked beautifully. I finally lined that putter up right. And to me I struggle with that for some reason.
I don't line the putter up. If it's a five-footer right lip, I'll get over it, and most of the time it's not really right lip. And that's where I lose confidence because I hit a good putt and it doesn't really come off right.
When I had that line today, I had it lined up and hit nice putts and it was beautiful. I just put a little pencil. I kind of redid this line, and it worked great. So whatever can help me lineup is great.

Q. Have you gone through some other variations of strokes?
CHRIS STROUD: I've tried a bunch of different things. Whatever can enhance my feel.

Q. Have you done claw?
CHRIS STROUD: I haven't done claw. That doesn't feel good to me. But I like left hand low, that's a good one. I'm trying the belly putter right now. Everybody knows great putters, doesn't matter what you putt with, what matters is what you make comfortable, and that's where I'm comfortable right now.
To me I think for me to start winning tournaments out here, it's all about the short game for me. It's just one more chip, one more putt, and I've just got to keep working and believing in my game and it will happen. .

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297