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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK HOSPITALS CLASSIC

October 20, 2011

Kris Blanks

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

Q. 5-under in the afternoon playing the Mag is a good start. Talk about the round.
KRIS BLANKS: Yeah, I mean, knew it was going to be playing difficult. Obviously the wind was up. I've don't know what it was doing this morning. I got out here probably 9:30 this morning and saw it was blowing a little bit. I'm not sure if it was any better for the guys this morning.
Obviously the Magnolia plays a little more difficult. Got off to a great start. Birdied four of my first five. Had some chances coming in, just wasn't able to make anything. So pretty happy the way the day went for sure.

Q. Any highlights in the four of the first five? Any long putts?
KRIS BLANKS: You know, obviously we started on a par-5 and was able to get one. Didn't hit a great second shot and had to hit something out of the rough. Hit it real close on 11. Just any kind of routine birdies on -- you know, that hole's real short. You got a wedge in there. Hit about six or eight feet below the hole.
Then par-5 was playing downwind. I was able to get it over the pond and chipped it up a couple feet.
You know, I had a really nice save on the next hole, on 15, the par-3, from underneath that tree over there.
Then kind of sailed on from there and hit some quality shots. All in all, it was a good day.

Q. We're at the last PGA Tour event of the year. Anything to summarize your year to this point?
KRIS BLANKS: My year was very poor to start. I was going through some -- I didn't have a great off season. I was doing what I thought I needed to do to get ready, and I switched to a new ball that Titleist was making. It flew much different than the one was playing before.
So I switched back to the old ball after probably once we got to the Florida swing. I was using some new shafts to counteract the new ball. Went back to my old shafts. Took couple weeks to kind of settle everything down.
Then started working with my instructor, V.J. Trolio, after New Orleans, and from then everything started to settle out a little bit and I started to play a little better.
Picked up a new caddie in Philadelphia, a friend of mine who is actually at Q-School right now this week over at Grasslands, Travis Perkins. He's been pretty much the final piece of the puzzle. Together we've -- I had a gout attack in Boston between the first and second rounds, and that's the only cut I've missed since Philadelphia.
So it's been a very solidifying aspect to my game.

Q. Without getting too technical, anything that your instructor there in New Orleans?
KRIS BLANKS: No, it was more of just kind of getting me back to -- you know, I had gotten off track with some stuff this off-season. Then as far as I was trying to do some things with my swing to counteract the ball and the equipment changes.
So he just -- we had worked together in the past. He just sent me a text message and saw I was struggling. He said, you know, Bro, I could help you. Let's get back together. He came to New Orleans and we kind of got going the right direction.
So between that, the caddie -- and just I play much better in the summertime anyway once it heats up. Then obviously you get some confidence going. I've had a 10th and 11th the last two starts.
Last year once I had my card locked up, I pretty much took the Fall Series off. I didn't really -- yeah, I just moved to Florida, I just had a new house, and was really just enjoying my accomplishment, keeping my card.
And this year, I'm trying to run through the finish line instead of coast. So it's been good. I've enjoyed -- I'm still one of the last guys to leave the putting green, and I'm seeing results on the golf course. So it's a lot of fun.

Q. Okay. Well, continue. Good luck.
KRIS BLANKS: Thanks.

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