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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 23, 2011

Bo Van Pelt

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Bo Van Pelt to the interview room. Great round today and even better back nine. If you could, just talk us through your round today and your thoughts on your current position going into Sunday.
BO VAN PELT: Yeah, got off to a good start. The first hole was a tough hole. I hit a good drive, and that kind of set up the day I felt like. I was 1-under through three, and I had a good look on 4, and I missed it from about six feet.
I three-putted six from about 25 feet. I parred 7, and three-putted 8 from about 30 feet. Then I hit two good shots into 9. Just trying to make the turn at even, and get in there about 8 or 10 feet and missed it.
I was hitting the ball really well on the front and not scoring. I just felt like if I kept hitting it like that I could shoot a couple under maybe on the back nine and give myself a chance on Sunday.
Made a nice one on 10 from about ten feet. I played really solid on the back nine, and I didn't miss a fairway on the back nine, and I was just able to convert some putts.

Q. Nobody's done that on a nine hole stretch here. Everybody seems to find a little bit of trouble here. What do you hit into the fairways to keep it on?
BO VAN PELT: I hit driver every hole. Other than 16, I hit hybrid off the tee. But other than that, I would drive every hole.

Q. Earlier in the week there was a lot of talk about you had to be maybe more careful on this course. Taking a chance could land you in the rough and get you into trouble. You used the driver every hole. Has that changed? Did you take a more aggressive approach today?
BO VAN PELT: No, I mean on the front nine I might have hit -- I think I hit hybrid on 4, but other than that I hit driver on every hole on the front as well. And even on 9, I hit hybrid there too because it just kind of pitched in. It's probably the straightest club in my bag when I'm swinging well.
And there were a couple holes that we would hit 3-wood on early in the week that I got up to and I thought, "Why hit that? I'm hitting the driver straight. So I might as well go with it and just take advantage of the length." So that's why I did.

Q. Did you notice any difference with the rough today? I understand it was tough?
BO VAN PELT: No, I noticed the biggest difference between Wednesday and Thursday. I felt like Wednesday in the Pro-Am it felt like it was just a little twistier and maybe a hair longer. Then on Thursday, I mean, it was still extremely tough, but it seemed more uniform and that was the day that I saw the biggest difference.

Q. Did you think there was a 29 out there on this course when you first got here?
BO VAN PELT: Oh, you know, I probably didn't think about it. You know, I felt like the greens were really nice. They've been good all week. But felt like they picked up about a foot of speed so it was a little easier to get the ball to the hole.
You know, driving in the fairway is everything, so I was hitting my driver pretty long for me and straight on the back nine. So just, I mean, 10, I hit a wedge in. 12 was playing shorter. It was an 8-iron.
13, I had sand wedge and didn't make birdie. 14, I drove it into the green side bunker, had a short one. 15, I hit hybrid on the green in two. 16, I hit sand wedge in. 17 was an 8-iron, and 18 was a 9-iron.
It was a matter of setting the course up for how I was hitting it off the tee which allowed me to shoot the score I did.

Q. There's probably a pretty good chance tomorrow you'll play with Adam Hadwin, and there will probably be a huge gallery, and I'm sure that most of them won't be rooting for you. How do you prepare for something like that?
BO VAN PELT: You know, I guess it wouldn't be my first away game. You know, I remember the first time I played with Phil Mickelson after he won Augusta the first time at Colonial. Somebody asked me how I was, and I said now I know what it feels like to play an away football game.
Obviously the crowd was excited for him which they should be. So I was so nervous. Everybody wants a Canadian to win tomorrow, and good for him to come and play as well as he has the first two days, and I'm sure he's going to play well tomorrow.

Q. They had a little vandalism overnight on the 8th green. Did you notice it, and did it affect anything?
BO VAN PELT: You could see the stripes. I don't know if they poured gas on it or oil or what it was. You know, they said they had to water it pretty extensively. We're hitting a long iron in, so you couldn't tell that big a difference.
Maybe in the back of my mind I hit my first putt about four feet by. I was thinking maybe it was going to be slower, but all in all, it seemed a lot better than what I was expecting.
When you see just a blank statement like that vandalism, you don't know. But whatever they did to keep it as good as they did, the greens keeper did a nice job.

Q. Bo, when you finish with a back nine like that, how much of a confidence builder is it going into a final day? Does it make a difference to have that at the back of the round as opposed to in the front of it?
BO VAN PELT: I think the confidence just comes from -- yesterday, I got off to a bad start. I was 3-over through four. I played the last 14, 1-under and could have been a couple better than that. I hit the ball well.
So basically for 36 holes I've driven the ball well and hit some good iron shots, so I think that helped. Obviously making some putts, like you said, you're incoming nine, it gives you a good feeling going into tomorrow and it gives you something to base off of that hopefully you can go back to and use that for tomorrow.

Q. If you are playing with Adam Hadwin tomorrow, do you feel like the enthusiasm that's going to be in that group from that gallery, can you feed off that as well?
BO VAN PELT: You know, I just try to play my own game. I think that is the biggest thing. That's what I tried to do today. I felt like I was swinging it well before the day started. I wasn't too happy with myself at the turn, so I was really just trying to concentrate on playing as well as I could on the back nine.
You know, I got some things. My coach flew in on Monday to get me out of some British Open habits. It's hard. The weather we play in, your set-up gets crazy, and you're trying to keep the ball low. We worked really hard on Monday, even though I was pretty tired, to try to get out of some of that.
I was just trying to focus on some keys that we came away with on Monday, and that's what I'm going to try to do tomorrow.

Q. After a week like you had at St. Georges with the weather, is this a huge mental break to get hardly any breeze and sun, and relatively okay temperatures?
BO VAN PELT: Well, last Saturday I played in the second worst weather I've ever played in. It was horrific. I mean, it poured on me the whole time I played. I was playing out with Tom Watson.
So to have a day like today where it was absolutely phenomenal will definitely put a smile on your face. How bad can it be? You get a day like that where you can just go play golf. Just go play and see where you can shoot. The golf course is right there. It's in great shape. So definitely from a mental perspective, it helps you relax a little bit, even though you can't relax on this golf course.

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