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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 28, 2013Rickie FowlerPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA Q. Is this as scorable as these conditions can be in this part of the country? RICKIE FOWLER: This afternoon was nice, not a whole lot of breeze, weather was pretty good. 11, I hit a nice little 7‑iron in there, tough little hole, nice to make a putt to get three out of it Q. Going to 14, another birdie attempt. RICKIE FOWLER: 14, long hole, nice to walk away with 3. That's a bonus for sure. Q. Middle of the Bear Trap, 16, that's a long one. RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, just trying to sneak that one close, just catches the front lip there, so pretty pumped to get that one. Q. And you get your 3 at 17 and you step up to the 18th, a reachable par 5. RICKIE FOWLER: I hit a few good bunker shots today, one on 17 and nice to get one in there, about four feet. Q. Straightforward putt? RICKIE FOWLER: Probably just inside right. It was nice to walk away hitting a good putt. Q. So how good is a 65, the first round of The Honda Classic at this golf course in these conditions? RICKIE FOWLER: It's definitely not bad. Thursday is all about getting off to a good start, putting myself in a great position going into tomorrow to try to capitalize on what we did today and put ourselves in position. Q. Six birdies and a bogey, that's a nice start out there today? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, the one bogey, not to focus on the bad first, but just a 3‑putt, had one sneak away on the hole from me and hit a good putt coming back. Tough to walk away with 5 but other than that, played solid golf and made some up‑and‑downs and birdies coming in. Pretty nice today, not a whole lot of breeze throughout the day, nothing more than maybe a club wind here or there. I know it's supposed to cool off this weekend, hopefully it stays warm enough where we are not freezing out here. Wind can pick up, usually fairly windy here. It's a ball‑striker's golf course, so hopefully I can keep swinging well and put myself in good position for Sunday. Q. If the wind picks up, maybe you've got the good side of the draw, which is always nice? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, definitely today, not having anything in the afternoon and tomorrow being in the morning, typically nothing picks up until possibly around noon. So definitely in good position. If we can continue to get some good weather, and like I said, hopefully the cold front stays away and stay a little warmer. Q. Just sum up your day? RICKIE FOWLER: It was pretty good. Missed the first two fairways but was able to draw some decent lies with the ball around the green or on the green. Got a couple pars and then birdied 3 and 4 to kind of get things going. 3‑putted for bogey and then just started hitting the ball a little better on the back nine, started hitting some fairways and greens, hitting the ball a little closer. It was a fairly‑‑ other than the two bunker shots on, what is it, 13 and 17, other than that, it was pretty stress‑free. Drove the ball well and was hitting a lot of greens and had a lot of birdie opportunities. Missed a couple, but definitely off to a solid start. Q. How is the back feeling since last year, how much is it a factor out there playing? RICKIE FOWLER: I actually felt pretty good today. Probably the better you play, the better it feels. But it's definitely still there and I'm still working on it. That's my main goal going into the rest of the season, especially looking at the Masters, five, six weeks away. It would be nice to be getting close to pain‑free by then starting the majors. I've been swinging really well, so it's kind of a bummer it's still bugging me. But doing the best with the team I have in place, my trainers and soft tissue guy, really trying to knock it out and make sure I'm back healthy and 100 percent. Q. What's the most drastic option you might have to take if it doesn't correct itself? RICKIE FOWLER: Kind of left a shot as last resort. I haven't done anything like that. Everything has just been anti‑inflammatories, messing around, staying on top of working in the gym and soft tissue work. Like I said, a shot would be last resort if we were to go that route. Q. Where does it affect you, what kind of a shot? RICKIE FOWLER: Well, it would be I guess some of the shots, if I‑‑ the harder I swing, the more it may hurt, so driver may be where it may hurt more. Like I said today, it actually wasn't too bad. I can obviously feel it but either the harder the swing, or if I want to try and hit one high. Q. But it's there every day? RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, so we are doing our best to get rid of it, but it's definitely better than what I was playing through last summer. Q. Cut into practice time and things like that? Have you had to alter some of your routines? RICKIE FOWLER: I would play pretty much all the time when I'm home and stuff like that. I was spending some time doing some cardio, mountain biking and stuff when I was in California, which was fun, fun to be able to do that. Back here, being in Florida now, I've got my trainer‑‑ one of my trainers lives down here, Joey‑D, which is seven minutes from my house, so I'll be over there trying to work out as much as I can on the corrective stuff to get headed in the right direction. Definitely looking to strengthening my core as much as possible, and then my soft tissue guy, Craig, just moved down here, too. So I've got those two guys full‑time here and also on the road. So definitely got things in the right place. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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