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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2014Jason DufnerMIAMI, FLORIDA KELLY BARNES:  Please welcome Jason Dufner to the interview room. It was a long day in tough conditions but you stayed at the top of the leaderboard all day. What was working for you today on this course? JASON DUFNER: I think today, obviously conditions were very difficult. Started on the back nine, which some of the holes early played downwind, and that made it a little bit more scorable on those holes. I got off to a fast start. I was able to capitalize by hitting some good shots and holing some putts. Some of the holes you turn back in, especially at the end there on the back nine and then kind of that mid stretch, start getting kind of tough. So all in all, good day, and you're not going to go through this tournament on this golf course anymore with no bogeys. Everybody's going to be making some bogeys here and there. So pretty happy with where I'm at. Q. Just details on the clubs that you used on 11, 13 and 14? JASON DUFNER: 11, I hit a pitching wedge in from about 110 yards, about maybe 12 feet or so. 12, I actually hit over the back in two, chipped it to about two feet. 13, I hit a 5‑iron, I think it was maybe 205, something like that, to about 12 feet and made that. Then 14, I had about 236 and I hit a 3‑iron to about ten feet. Q. The fact that you grew up in south‑‑ grew up down here, do you think that this type of weather with the wind suits your type of game? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think so. I'm pretty comfortable down here. I play a lot of golf down here. I seem to do well on bermudagrass. Any time we've had events, some of my better finishes here and previously on the Web.com have been on bermudagrass, so I'm comfortable in the wind. I knew it was going to pick up. We kind of got lucky in practice rounds, it wasn't too bad. But this golf course really starts to become difficult when you get winds and a storm front pushing through like we had today. Made club selection tricky. Makes lines off of tees tricky, and the wind was a touch out of a different direction today, just kind of shifted a touch. So it was a difficult day to kind of be confident but I think everybody's kind of feeling their way out there right now. Q. Do you usually go over 12 in two? JASON DUFNER: I don't think I've ever hit that green in two. It was great downwind today. If I can get there, most of the field can get there. I think I actually hit a 3‑iron over the back. Q. And also, what's been your favorite change to the golf course; pick one hole. JASON DUFNER: That's a good question. I think you see a lot of things with 1 and 2, they are completely different and I think those are good changes. I think they make the holes extremely difficult compared to what they were. In general they have brought a lot of strategy into play on the golf course. This used to be a golf course where you grab your drier on every hole, swing for the fences and play from there. You can't get away with that here at Doral anymore. You're going to have to figure out sometimes, like I said on 14, that hole doesn't really fit my eye, especially with the wind pushing, so I kind of laid back and had 236, but I was in the fairway and able to score. A couple instances on the front, I probably made the wrong selection today. I should have played a little less aggressive with the driver and laid back, like on No. 7, almost impossible to hit that fairway for me. Q. What did you do off the tee on 7? JASON DUFNER: I hit a driver right where I thought would be ideal and into the fairway bunker, so that will be a different strategy if we get the same wind. That's another thing that's going to be tough is the wind is going to change every day. Q. What kind of line did you have in the bunker on 7? JASON DUFNER: Terrible. No chance. But I gave myself a good look. That's going to be a key I think this week is taking your medicine at times, getting back into play, trying to wedge it or pitch it to where you have realistic par putts and you're not making a mess of a hole. There could be some birdies out there on certain holes. 1 was playing fairly easy today for a lot of guys. I think 12, pretty easy hole. So there are some birdie holes depending on which way the wind comes from, it can change each day. But it's a tough, tough test. It's a much improved golf course. Like I said, it requires you to think out there. You can't just hit it wherever you want and play. It's kind of got a major championship feel as far as strategy goes. Q. Is there another course that comes to mind that makes you think like this one does? JASON DUFNER: To me, you know, it's a links course, but where we played The Open Championship last year, Muirfield, with the positioning of the bunkers. At Muirfield, they give you the opportunity to play underneath, but you're going to have to play some longer shots into those greens, some 5‑irons and 4‑irons. And if you want to be aggressive, you can at Muirfield. You can swing for the fences. I did it last Sunday. I hit driver on every hole there and was rewarded because I drove it in the fairway. But if you miss the fairway, it's extremely, extremely penal in those bunkers. There's a lot of water obviously on this golf course which adds to your second shots. So strategy‑wise, I feel like it's similar to maybe what we see at The Open Championship. Doesn't look like it but those bunkers are very, very difficult to play from, no matter where you are. They all have lips, fingers in them. You very rarely get an even lie, and more often than not, you're trying to deal with a pretty extreme hole location with possibly more hazards around it. Q. Other than that. JASON DUFNER: Other than that, it's easy. Q. Mr.Trump said yesterday he believes around 10‑under is going to be the winning score here. What do you think of that now? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, that's not bad, 8 to 12 I think is reasonable. I think we got more wind today, which obviously is going to push the scores up, maybe a shot and a half. Maybe it will lay down, tomorrow, I don't know; there's more storms in the forecast, so that usually means 20-, 25‑mile‑an‑hour winds around here. If it stays windy like this, people are going to have a hard time getting to double digits. You're going to be able to make some birdies but you're going to hit some good shots and make a bogey. 8 to 12; somebody is going to play good. Q. Is it difficult for you to come back out and play? Several guys said they did not expect to be playing ones you guys left the course. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, you know, I've been out here, this is my ninth year now, so you expect to play until they tell you otherwise. The storms obviously didn't look good, but mind‑set when that horn blows is to kind of get ready to have a restart whenever that might be, and if they tell you otherwise, then fantastic. So I was doing things I needed to do to be ready to go. Don't think it affected me too much. It was just tough out there. Q. What do you do? JASON DUFNER: I got a stretch from my trainer. I got a bit of a tissue massage. Had a little food. Talked to the wife a little bit. And then we were ready to go. KELLY BARNES:  Thanks for coming in, Jason. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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