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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSICJune 6, 2013Nathan GreenMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE KELLY BARNES: Okay. Please welcome Nathan Green to the interview room. Nathan, finished 4-under for the day. Can you tell us a little bit more about your round. NATHAN GREEN: Got off to a pretty safe start. From there, front 9, I played pretty steady. I think I birdied there. Birdied the 2nd and, gosh, I don't know. Might have been all pars, maybe. Turned well. Made a really good putt for birdie on 10 and just sort of no mistakes. It was nice. The poor shots I hit ended up in spots that were fairly easy to get up and down and then just made a good birdie on 16 and then last few holes, struggled a little bit. I was starting to get nervous seeing my name on the board and made two good up and downs to finish off the round which is nice. KELLY BARNES: Questions? Q. Nathan, can you describe those last two holes and kind of what went on there? NATHAN GREEN: 7, 8 is a tough driving hole. I hit into the rough there behind the trees, and I was just trying to cut the shot around and get into the left side traps, and I ended up in the front which is probably the best spot to be and hit a real good bunker shot to about a foot. The last hole, it's an awkward tee shot. The wind off to the left which is -- you've almost got to hang it out over the water a little bit to hit the fairway. Hit a good tee shot. Ran into the right rough and second shot just never really committed. Left it hanging out to the right again and hit another really good trap shot to about two, three feet and finished it off. It was a nice way to finish. Q. You mentioned getting a little nervous when you saw your name on the board. At what point did you see your name up there and when was the last time that you've been on the top of a leaderboard on the opening day, particularly? NATHAN GREEN: I have no idea. It's been a while. Last few years my game has gone a little bit south. The game is changing a little bit. I was always a really good chipper and putter, and I lost that part of my game almost totally. Am sort of rebuilding that. I've had some good results. Late last year started to play a little bit better. The start of this year was a little bit poor. Lately starting to pick up a little bit. I honestly couldn't put my finger on what the difference is, but it's just strange. It's been tough. You know you're sort of not going well when family and friends come up and congratulate you after one round these days. They used to wait until the end of the week to congratulate you. So it's certainly different. Just life in general sort of changed. We had a baby a couple years ago and, I don't know, my priorities have changed. I was always so totally devoted in golf. I wouldn't say that I don't have the dedication I used to, but it's just been -- I don't know, it hasn't been the be all, end all of my life anymore. I don't know. It's definitely good to come out and play good some weeks, but I don't think I take the bad rounds as badly as I used to, and I think probably a little more calmer on the golf course which is probably helping in some respects. Q. Can you just talk about the difficulty of your short game shots out there on the course especially with the tight lies on the fairways and things? NATHAN GREEN: Definitely. Probably the toughest thing around here. I was able to keep it on the ground a lot. I was never chipping out of the traps. That's sort of when you do have trouble. I'm not sure, it's maybe zoysia grass. It's very thin and kind of sandy, which is probably the toughest chipping one we have all year. Lot of times we're playing a lot thicker grass which is definitely a lot easier to chip out of. Sort of chipping and running a lot out there. It's one week a year we see a lot of guys have trouble. It's just hard to make really good contact on the ball, and you don't know what your ball is going to do when it lands. That's pretty much the course's defense. There's always a little bit of wind and plays hard and fast. Missing greens around here is definitely a lot bigger penalty. Q. Nathan, going back a little bit, can you talk about the balancing act you said between family and golf and are you motivated now on a day like this to make it work? NATHAN GREEN: I had a family at 36. Probably later than we wanted to. I'm not sure how -- I had fairly good success early on with my golf. I always wanted to have a family. When it finally happened it was -- it's definitely focus taken away from the golf a little bit and mentally probably -- just the toughness I suppose I used to have as a player what is got me through. I was never a great ball striker. Just something changed. I really don't know what it was. I still enjoy golf and I still enjoy the practicing. This year should be one of the best years. I lost my card next year. I knew I was going to be playing a very limited schedule between this Tour and the Web.com. I think I only played maybe ten events this year, which it's just been great. Spending a lot of time at home, and when I'm playing I'm probably playing knowing that it definitely may not be anything up next week. Lot of times in the last few years if it doesn't go well this week, I've got next week. At the moment that's not the case. I've got to take advantage of every opportunity. The last few events I played pretty well. The Byron Nelson I birdied the last four holes. I don't know. It's just good to see some decent results. Feel like I still need to work on my game, but it gets harder and harder to do that when you're not getting any results. It's been nice. KELLY BARNES: Thank you, Nathan. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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