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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 5, 2011Loren RobertsSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Loren, thanks for joining us. 6-under 65 today, 5-under for the tournament. Maybe just talk about your day. LOREN ROBERTS: Well, obviously had a very good day today. But today for me, I was probably in the best rhythm I've been playing in several months. I've got to give a couple people a little bit of credit. A guy that I worked with off and on with for years, Jim Suttie. He made a couple observations on the range early in the week. I've been working with them. I played a practice round with Mark Wiebe. Mark made a little suggestion about my turn and I've been working on that. I think for a few months, I finally feel like I'm going the right direction. Obviously, that doesn't guarantee you're going to play well. But today for me to play well, I made some putts. That's my game, is the putter. But I hit a lot of greens today. You got to do that on this golf course because it's very hard to make pars if you're missing greens on this course. THE MODERATOR: Let's go over your scorecard. First hole. LOREN ROBERTS: I was about six inches off the green, pin-high, rolled in a good 20-footer right there. That was a great start to the day right there. 4, I hit a wedge in about four feet for birdie, made that. Then I hit another one, a really good 8-iron second shot there, probably about 12 feet, on 5. Made that. THE MODERATOR: Bogey. LOREN ROBERTS: Funny you should bring that up. I actually hit a drive that did not get to the fairway and it didn't hit a tree. I actually hit a drive that went about 120 yards with a full swing and it didn't hit a tree. I hit it about eight inches behind it. But I came right back, hit it in about two feet next hole for birdie. I ended up knocking it on the green on 9 and 3-putted for par. You always remember, there's always one hole that kind of makes the round for you. It was nice to turn 3-under. But I made a good 10-footer for par at 12. Obviously, that's really a hard hole for me. I'm not a right-to-left player. That's a tough tee shot for me. I hit it in the right rough, really couldn't do anything with it. I hit a decent little pitch from down there to get it 10 feet, made that for par. That was a huge momentum. The rest of the way, I hit nothing but really good iron shots and drives the rest of the way in. Made a good 25-footer for birdie at 13 after that. Made about a 20-footer for birdie just right up the hill at 14. Made one from about eight feet behind the hole at 16 for birdie. That was the round. I really hit a good shot at 18. I was posing. Just hit it about two yards too far, just went in the back fringe there. But it was an easy par. So it was a really good round for me ball striking. I always go back to those par savers are the ones that really help you. That was the 12th hole for me today. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Loren, your reputation, 'the boss of the moss' goes back years and years. Were you a great putter from the time you were 12, 13, 14 years old, high school, then in college? Is it something you can develop? Secondly, what's interesting, you hear so many tales of guys getting older, getting the yips, losing their putting touch. Apparently it has not affected you at all. Are you as good a putter as you were 25 years ago now? LOREN ROBERTS: Really to answer the first one, no, I wasn't that good of a putter even my first few years on the tour. About 1987, my old coach made a practice putter for me to practice with. It was 36-and-a-half inches. I previously putted with a 34-inch putter. It was an old Iron Master. I would always seem to putt good for three rounds, but the fourth round I wouldn't make anything. Wouldn't putt bad, but I wouldn't make anything, and that would always kill me. He made this practice putter. It was totally different. Had a round grip on it. It was an old mallet headed type of a thing, TP18 with an old heavy shaft in it to practice with. After I practiced with it for about two weeks, I put it in the bag. That really went a long way to helping me putt a lot better because it was heavy and it was longer, made me stand up better because I've got short arms for a tall person. That really helped me. The other part of your question, yeah, I had a great putting day today, but I don't feel I'm as good as I used to be. To me I always look at it's a bit of a mechanics issue. I think my feel for speed is still there. But, you know, I still think I can really roll it. I'm always going to be positive about my outlook even though I think my putting stats have definitely been off this year. Q. Where is that practice putter now? LOREN ROBERTS: I still have it. Q. Do you still use it? LOREN ROBERTS: I practice with it every now and then. I think I'm going to get it out in the off-season and putt with it. It's just heavy. The shaft's got a lot of weight to it. That's what I feel very strongly about. It's a very heavy overall swing-weighted putter. It helps me swing it properly. Q. You mentioned Wiebe's tip at the turn. What were Suttie's observations? LOREN ROBERTS: Just to take some hands out of my golf swing. I have been really trying to get the club face open. I've just had too much hand in my golf swing. I get it here, can't recover it at the ball. Mark just told me, You're not getting the full turn. Obviously that's age. I'm not as flexible as I used to be. I have to force myself to make more of a turn. I just tried to make more of a turn with my shoulders. It seems to be working. Q. Outside of those traveling here, did you feel like you had a good tournament in you? LOREN ROBERTS: No. To be quite honest with you, I'm looking to finish the year and to get ready and start for next year. Right now I'm fired up for next year. I'm looking forward to next year. I really want to come out and see. I'm 56 now. I really want to see if I can make one more run. I just haven't really done very much this year at all. Q. How many times do you think you've found and lost a secret over the years with your golf swing? LOREN ROBERTS: Well, players always tend to think they lose it a lot more than the other players do. It's one of those things, sometimes a little tip or something can work for three months. Other times it can work for three minutes. As far as I'm concerned, for myself as a player, I probably tend to be a little bit too analytical about things. I know probably I've over the years tried different things, tried to do different things, not really been who I am where what I can do physically. My commitment now is to just try to be me, work on my basic thing. I'm an experimenter. I experiment at trying to get better all the time. Q. On putting, you stay conventional grip over the years. What do you make of the belly putter rage at the top level of golf these days? LOREN ROBERTS: I don't know. Did you guys see Arnold Palmer's interview at the tournament when we had him in the booth when he said we need to outlaw it (laughter). I'm kind of on Arnold's side. Here or here, just doesn't seem like that's part of golf, part of swinging golf to me. But this is something that's going to be debated for a long time. I bet you're going to see half the guys on TOUR have that putter. Guys are winning major championships with it finally. To me guys have the attitude that it's not something you do to fix the yips anymore, it's something you do to putt even better. That's the attitude I think guys have with it. Q. A lot of people have had trouble putting out here the last two days. The low score was 68. If you can turn this around and do something tomorrow, what would it mean to win this tournament? LOREN ROBERTS: It would be huge. I'm trying to finish the year out strong. I've been working on my attitude for next year. I'm fired up about next year. This would be a great way to go into the off-season for me. Hey, one shot at a time. Things have to go right for me on this golf course because I don't have the length of a Calcavecchia, Fred Couples. I don't have that length. I've got to be precision. If I can hit a lot of greens tomorrow, who knows. Q. Back to the long putter thing. It was news when Faxon picked one up. LOREN ROBERTS: C'mon, Brad Faxon didn't pick one up, did he? God (laughter). Q. I mean, have you even touched one? You don't want any part of it? LOREN ROBERTS: This has been a few years ago. I was out in my hometown of St. Louis. One of the members there had one. I messed around with it a little bit. If I was outside 20 feet, I couldn't get it near the hole. And I'm a speed putter. I don't think it would work for me. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. LOREN ROBERTS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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