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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 10, 2012Brian HarmanPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA Q.  When did you find out you were in? BRIAN HARMAN: They took me to the trailer and told me probably at 11:05, 11:15, something like that. Q. Did you ever sense that you might get in, or were you shocked? BRIAN HARMAN: I wasn't shocked. I mean, I thought it was the fair thing to do. I was on‑site, I was ready to go, and had they have gotten the information a little bit quicker, I would have been playing without a hitch. So I think the right thing happened. Like I said, I was here, I was ready to go. My job is to play golf, and their job is to get me out there, and it was a great example of them‑‑ I really thought they did the right thing. They handled it great, and it turned out well. Q. Where were you exactly on the range? BRIAN HARMAN: I was on the range‑‑ are you talking about when D.A. withdrew? I was actually in playing ping‑pong. Almost all of the morning wave had already gone, and I went in there‑‑ I called the TOUR and told them where I was. They knew where I was. It had nothing to do with location. I could have been standing on the putting green, and it still wouldn't have mattered. The relay of information just wasn't fast enough. Q. Alternates usually have a sense of candidates out there who might withdraw. BRIAN HARMAN: I knew a few of them, but D.A. wasn't one of them. I saw him on the range this morning. He looked fine. I can understand this week, it's a big purse, it's a big tournament, and it's an awesome golf tournament obviously and the guys are going to try until the very last second to see if they can play. I'm just glad that if he knew he want going to go, he actually went and didn't play‑‑ hit a shot and then go in. Q. Were you offered the chance to take a marker with you? BRIAN HARMAN: I was. I was. I just decided it would be just me and my caddie today. Q. What was it like to‑‑ your first PLAYERS Championship round and you've got to play by yourself, but it wasn't early in the morning like sometimes you get that odd number making the cut. What was it like going around with all the people already there and everything? BRIAN HARMAN: It was odd at first. I was like, this is kind of eerie, I feel like I'm playing a practice round or something. I had some great support out there. Obviously I'm from pretty close to here, so there were some people that knew me out there. I had a bunch of support, and I had some guys saying they would come out there and walk with me if they could, so it was nice. Q. Did you ask Harris if you could play through? BRIAN HARMAN: I mean, I wanted to join up with them and just play four. Q. Good thing you were left‑handed on that second shot on 18. BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, I hit a good drive there. The wind took it a little bit, but it turned out all right. Right‑handed would have been no good there. Q. And that putt lipped in, huh? BRIAN HARMAN: It looked good. Looked real good. Q. Did they ask you if you wanted to play alone tomorrow? BRIAN HARMAN: Well, they still gave me the option if I wanted to go out first in the morning, but I thought I'd be catching the maintenance guys in the morning. So much goes into getting this golf course ready, I'd hate to be right on top of those guys. I don't want any of the players to think I'm out there with an unfair advantage playing first off, so I happily moved back and played with everyone else. Q. Did you ever think this morning that you might not get in after all this happened and you were on the range hitting balls? BRIAN HARMAN: Honestly, I had no idea what was going to happen. I've got some great guys back home that helped me out, Crown Sports Management, I talked to all those guys on the phone this morning after everything had happened, and they really took care of it and handled it like champs today, and I tried to put it out of my mind saying if they give me a chance, great, if not, my dad was getting the boat ready to go fishing tomorrow. Either way I was going to have a good night, regardless. Q. They put you in place of Paul Casey tomorrow? BRIAN HARMAN: Yes, sir. Q. Do you know Bud or Ryan? BRIAN HARMAN: I know Bud very well. I think he's a year younger than I am, played at Alabama, so I saw him a bunch in college. Good friend of mine. Q. So after all the chaos of the morning and then teeing it up, did it take a few holes to settle in, or were you just ready to go as ever? BRIAN HARMAN: Well, actually it was really peaceful out there by yourself, just kind of out there in your own world. It was awesome. I kind of wish we'd do that more often out here. It's pretty fun. Q. But you had enough time to process the chaotic‑‑ chaos and everything? BRIAN HARMAN: Yeah, I'm glad I had my caddie or I would have been in big trouble. Q. Once you got over that eerie feeling, 73, 74, I mean, obviously you're still in it if you have a good day tomorrow and everything. Given everything that happened this morning, did you play about as well as you thought? BRIAN HARMAN: I mean, all things considered, I think I'd be lying if I wasn't a little shook up by what had happened this morning. I was definitely just kind of taken aback. It was more like trying to take myself away from the situation, like this is going to be interesting however this turns out. This is a good story, like however this ends up going. So I just tried to embrace it, and I remember last year this time, I was playing on the U Golf Tour and I was out there today playing in THE PLAYERS Championship. It's come a long way, so it's hard to be upset or complain about anything. Q. How do you think you could prevent a situation like this from happening again? What do you think could have been done? BRIAN HARMAN: I don't know, maybe put like a time limit on when you have to withdraw. I don't know. I don't know if there is an answer. So many things happened right in a row for it to happen like it did, and I haven't got a chance to talk to D.A., but apparently he was on the tee, and he said basically, well, I am not going to go, I'm going to give whoever is an alternate a chance. So it was nice of him to at least do that. Q. How much time did you have between getting the word that you were in and your tee time? BRIAN HARMAN: Hour and 20 minutes, plenty of time. Q. Did you finish the game? BRIAN HARMAN: No, we're about to go clean it up right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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