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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 11, 2013Jay Don BlakeOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: We have Jay Don Blake with us right now. 67 today. Very good round. JAY DON BLAKE: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: 25 putts. Talk a little about the great putting out there today. JAY DON BLAKE: It helps to kind of get some putts going in there. You need to. The golf course is playing pretty tough out there. You can hit some good shots, the ball kind of rolling through the greens. Then you got some pretty gnarly little chips. You got to execute some good shots out there to get a good score. I did early, got under par kind of quick, made an eagle out there and a couple birdies on the front and three‑putted for a bogey on one on the back. Finished with some scrambling pars. So I felt good with the round. THE MODERATOR: You played the par 5s as well pretty well. I think you were 4 under on the three par 5s including an eagle? JAY DON BLAKE: I guess I was 4 under. I like the par 5s. I hope it continues. THE MODERATOR: Now, Peter Senior played with you as well. He had a very good round, 68 today. Are you able to feed off of that a little bit when you're both playing well out there? JAY DON BLAKE: I think we were feeding off each other. You got somebody that's playing well, hitting well, you're seeing good shots, that helps to visualize a good shot going in there, visualizing that good putt even. That kind of spurs you on. You kind of get with the flow and kind of go with the groove of the other players, and sometimes it works out where you both play well, and it worked out today. THE MODERATOR: If anyone has any questions. Q. Jay, tell us about maybe your best scrambling par down the stretch. JAY DON BLAKE: It was probably over on 17. I hit a hybrid off the tee. I thought I hit it pretty good, but then I misgauged the wind and blew it over to the right about a couple yards into the rough. Then I thought I hit a good wedge out of the rough, and the wind blew it over in the right bunker and short‑sighted me to a pretty tough bunker shot. I got maybe 10 feet of green, and then it all runs away from me. I hit a great bunker shot, thought it was going to stop 4 or 5 feet, caught a ridge, and rolled down to about 15, 16 feet. It helped, like we were saying earlier, with Peter Senior, he was on the same line as I was, and he was able to see what the putt did, and I ended up knocking that in for a par. So that was a good par right there at the very end. Q. How about your eagle on 6? JAY DON BLAKE: 6, I hit a good drive right down the middle and caught kind of a ridge, and it rolled an extra 20 yards and got down there and hit 6 iron into the par 5 and probably hit it about 12 feet and made that for eagle. Q. Talk about maybe your longest putt of the day. JAY DON BLAKE: Probably the longest putt was on 17, was probably the longest putt I made. Q. And is this the first heat, sustained heat you've played in this year on the Tour? JAY DON BLAKE: The what? Q. Is this the first week of sustained heat you've played in? JAY DON BLAKE: Yes. This is by far the hottest that we've even played so far. Q. How do you think that's going to impact the field this week? JAY DON BLAKE: I think it's going to‑‑ I think it's going to impact it quite a bit. I think you've got not only the heat, fatigue with that, but then you've got the fatigue trying to walk all these hills, and the humidity is going to be a draining part of it too. So I think the whole aspect of the heat, the humidity, and the walk on the course would be a pretty tough grind. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the 10th hole? Seems like the last stat I saw was 7.7 percent of the field is hitting that green in regulation. You made a par, obviously, on that hole. Was it a scrambling par to hit the green? JAY DON BLAKE: It was a scrambling par. I mean, I hit a great drive. I hit driver off the tee. I only had 129 yards, but it was uphill, and at the time we thought was a little bit of kind of wind going to the right. I didn't like the lie uphill. So I tried to hit an easy 9 iron and pulled it just a little bit just off the green and chipped it from about two feet away and made that. I don't know why the drive went so far, but I got it way down there.  Made the hole short. THE MODERATOR: Jay, you were the oldest competitor at Merion a few weeks ago in the field up there. JAY DON BLAKE: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: It's an accomplishment. You missed the cut up there, but they're saying the rough at Merion was some of the toughest you've had. We've had Kenny Perry, Colin Montgomerie here saying how tough the rough is out here. Just describe that experience and how it was able to help you out there today. JAY DON BLAKE: You know, it helped in a lot of aspects of visually seeing the tighter fairways, seeing all the rough out there, and that giving you a good visual. And also learned as being patient. I started hitting some shots in the rough out there, started being too aggressive on trying to get it out too far or take a big risk trying to knock it on the green and kind of got myself on the wrong side of making pars. I was making bogeys and doubles. So I needed to learn a little bit of patience and kind of pace myself out there. So out here today, all week long I've just tried to kind of manage myself around. I still hit a lot of drivers, but I'm kind of hitting one shot at a time, not getting too far ahead of myself, and just playing my game and executing the good shots, hoping the score produces a good score. Q. Jay, was there any difference in rough height or any changes you saw on the course? Green speed or from ‑‑ JAY DON BLAKE: This week? Q. From yesterday to today. JAY DON BLAKE: The rough speed is the same. The greens seem to be a little firmer. Peter and I were talking about some of the greens. You look at the greens, and there's some dead, dry spots. I'm not sure they're trying not to water them to get them firmed up. The speeds with them going dry, they're going to get a little quicker also. So they've had to speed it up a little bit. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Jay Don Blake? Round of 67 today. Off tomorrow afternoon. Best of luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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