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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 21, 2011

Kris Blanks

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Q. You had to hit fairways, and you did that along with hitting 15 of 18 greens.
KRIS BLANKS: Yeah, that was kind of the game plan coming in here. A little passive off the tee, just make sure you got it into the fairway. I didn't do that on one and paid the price there. Other than that, I accomplished it pretty good all day.

Q. Big eagle at 7. Tell me about the par-5?
KRIS BLANKS: It was actually that hole is playing downwind today, so hit a good drive and had a chance to go for it and got it out of the bunker. I was just happy to hole it out, so it was definitely a nice surprise.

Q. You have a Canadian connection. Your wife is actually from the area.
KRIS BLANKS: Yep, she's right here from White Rock. All of her family are in Surrey and also across the border in Blayne. So we've been hanging out with them the first part of the week. She came out early last week and was hanging out.
She's played here in some junior stuff. Obviously the course is a little different than it was 25 years ago that she played out here.

Q. Right now you're the clubhouse leader. Your thoughts?
KRIS BLANKS: Just it was that way the same way at John Deere. I was leading after the first day there. So just kind of draw back on some of the stuff that happened in the following rounds after that.
It's a little different this week. I don't necessarily feel like I've got to shoot 6- or 7-under tomorrow like I do at John Deere. So I'm just going to try to stick to my game plan, get a good night's sleep and get after it tomorrow.

Q. Talk about the course.
KRIS BLANKS: Obviously, the course is playing real difficult if you get off the fairway. We had perfect scoring conditions today. Got a little rain this morning that softened the greens up a little bit. So I saw fortunate to get the ball on the fairway a lot today and able to capitalize on the good shots.

Q. A lot has been made of the rough. Just your thoughts on how it played?
KRIS BLANKS: It's very penal. On the first hole hit it in the right rough there, and had to wedge out and hit a wedge on the green and didn't make par. So you definitely have to -- if that means laying back a little more off the tee than you might normally do, it's definitely a lot more advantageous to hit on the fairway than hacking out of the rough.

Q. Is it not a forgiving course at all? Some of the guys were talking about you have to be very careful where you land?
KRIS BLANKS: Yeah, you have to really be -- you just have to be careful out there and make sure that if you're in a situation to be aggressive, you know, go ahead. If you have a shorter club, there are some shorter holes out here. If you get it in play, you're able to attack.
But for the most part, just trying to keep everything in front of you. Hit a lot of greens and keep putting the ball.

Q. Did you meet your wife in White Rock?
KRIS BLANKS: Met her down in Florida playing the Mini Golf Tour down there. She was playing the women's side, obviously, and I was playing the men's. We met, you know, not too far from where we live right now. So we've come full circle.

Q. As the clubhouse leader at 3-under, did you expect to see a score around there going into today's round?
KRIS BLANKS: I saw once the weather cleared and the is sun came out, I knew there wasn't going to be much wind today. So obviously I'm pretty pleased. I felt like I made a lot of birdies in the Pro-Am yesterday kind of doing the same thing. I'm definitely playing good. It's just a matter of putting four rounds together.

Q. What happens with you with A.J.? She was on your bag, obviously.
KRIS BLANKS: Yeah, she was. A.J. and I are still friends. I root for her every week caring for Brittany. It just got to a situation where I just wasn't playing good, and A.J.'s a very -- very positive person, very fiery, and I'm a bit on the negative side.
When positive and negative meet -- we never had any fights or anything like that, but it was always just got to the point where we weren't enjoying our time together. I know she wasn't having fun, I wasn't having fun, and it was starting to affect our relationship as friends.
Obviously, she grew up around here and looked up to my wife in junior golf. I was just hoping someone else would give her a chance, because I know she's a great caddie. I was hoping that I'd be able to find somebody myself. It was definitely a gamble, but when you're out there struggling and you're not getting the best out of you, we started butting heads a little bit. It's just time to make a change.

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