|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
RENO-TAHOE OPENAugust 3, 2012Alexandre RochaRENO, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Alexandre Rocha to the interview room here at the Reno‑Tahoe Open. 12 birdies and an eagle through your first two rounds; 24 points; currently in the lead. Maybe just talk a little bit about how you played the golf course the first two rounds, and then we'll go to questions. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: All right. I was fortunate today to get off the hottest start I think I've ever had in my professional career by birdieing the first three holes and following up with an eagle on my fourth hole. It always help to create momentum which is something I've been missing all year long. I think if you take a look at my stats, it doesn't have to be too much in depth and you realize I've struggled a lot this year. I haven't played as bad as my stats would indicate the whole time. I've missed all the momentum‑gathering points. In other words, I would miss a par‑saving putt that would save a round or a birdie putt that would make me the cut or whatever the case might have been. Today it was nice to get it the other way around. And from there, I mean, the par‑3s I felt played really, really tough. So I chose to try and go for it and went to try and make pars, playing the round pretty much as my regular play ball just adding up the points in the end. The eagle though is great because it's five points. That would be equivalent of making five birdies anywhere else to get to the same place. So that's pretty cool. But that's what I did so far. MODERATOR: We talked a little bit on the way up here that you got a little bit of a different mental approach this week. Nothing really to do with the different format, but maybe just talk about that a little bit. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Right. It's not so much a mental approach as it is a new way of playing golf for me. I'll explain that. All my life I've been seeing my ball flight straight. As a kid, I used to pull my shots about 5 or 10 yards all the time but they looked straight to my eyes because I was aiming right just didn't know it. Over the last few years I've really worked on my swing and got it pretty consistent. But I've also worked on hitting the ball straight all the time. As I said before, I've been struggling very much this year, so I decided to do something different this week. I had a consultation and Joseph Mayer, who they call the Maestro. He's an unbelievably intelligent guy that deals with trackman data. From our session I was able to learn the proper way, the most consistent and reliable way to hit curves either from right to left or from left to right. What that does for me, as opposed to trying to hit a straight shot which is really hard on the range let alone under pressure, by creating a curve, I create a pattern to the flight. I'm able to more or less predict a landing zone, and also eliminate the two‑way miss, which is something that I've really struggled with this year. I've been missing both left and right. When you're trying to hit a straight shot, that's one of the problems. So by creating curves I can eliminate one side, the side I'm curving away from, which really gives me a nice comfortable cushion. And because I've learned how to do it properly and reliably, I've been able to curve it both left to right and right to left at will, which I've done this week. It's very interesting to me, because I have never in my life played golf this way. I've always tried to hit a straight shot since the first day. This week is the first time I've ever tried to the that. I'm putting one or another type of curve on every shot out there. It's really given me a comfortable feeling in the sense that I have a much wider zone in which to land the ball, and eliminating the two‑way miss which has been plaguing me all year. So that's what I meant with that. MODERATOR: Great. Thank you. Questions. Q. What would have been maybe a previous best start for you? What was going through your head? Were you adding it up? What was it 5‑under through 4 you would have been? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Yes, I was 5‑under through 4. And, no, I wasn't adding up points. I've had a similar start before, just never on the PGA TOUR. Actually never as a professional. As junior and a collegiate golfer I've had one round I remember I went out and I made 12 threes in a row. So that would have been the best start, I guess you could say, I've ever had. But never as a professional either in Europe or on the PGA TOUR have I started with 5‑under through four holes. I wasn't thinking much of anything, to be honest. I wasn't adding up points. I was just trying to go on to the next hole and see what my next shaped shot was going to be and try and produce that one. Q. How have the pin placements been so far for the first two days? Anything that's been severely tucked that you don't think you could get to, or has everything been fair? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: No, I mean, there are quite a few that are severely tucked. Interesting. A lot of the pins that they give you are a short club to hit into the greens, a wedge, which is the case on the par‑3, 7. It's only a wedge today, but the pin is very much tucked behind the water and just in front of a slope with rough. So there is quite a few pins out there‑ there were I thought ‑ that were pretty severely tucked. That's what I meant with what I said earlier. Even if you do have a wedge in your hand, you still have to pick and choose when to go and try and take advantage of them. On a few occasions today even with a wedge or sand wedge in your hand, I just couldn't do it. Couldn't try it. Q. We've got Olympics coming to your home country in four years. Golf is coming to the Olympics that year. Talk a little bit about how much you're looking forward to that and how much you want to be able to play in that. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Absolutely. I think I've said this a couple times in a couple different interviews. It was 2009 when I learned that. It was also up until this year my worst year ever as a professional, 2009 had been. I had injuries and a couple other injuries. When I learned that, I really got a sense of motivation. I thought to myself, If you can't get up and get ready to go play the Olympics in your home country, then you might as well walk away from the game now. At that point, I basically‑ I wouldn't call it rededicated myself because I've always been dedicated‑ but again, very much like this week, I changed the way I did things. I started with a new instructor and different mental approach and different way to practice. It got me to the PGA TOUR. So I'm very much looking forward to playing in the Olympics in my own country. I am not ready for it yet. I am having a pretty poor year, but I feel this is the very solid start for me, something that‑‑ it can't be taken away from me anymore. And by that, what I mean is at the end of the second round, I'm sitting in the lead on the PGA TOUR. For some guys it's just routine. I've never done that before. As a matter of fact, nobody from my country has ever done that before. So having said that, this is one milestone I've achieved, and nobody is ever going to take that away from me. So despite what happens this weekend going forward, still nobody is going to take that away from me. I grow on little steps but constant ones, so this is going to mean a lot, you know, looking forward to the Olympics. So I'm very excited about where I am right this second, and very much looking forward to the Olympics in Rio. THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thanks so much for your time. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: My pleasure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|