|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 7, 2014Graeme McDowellMIAMI, FLORIDA Q. Yours thoughts on the course and conditions, and did it feel unfair? GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, you can't really‑‑ you can't really call it unfair when everyone gets a chance to play it. It wasn't like distance was going to make a difference. It wasn't like anything was really going to make a difference in regards to fair or unfair. The ball was incredibly stable on the greens, on the putting surface, which come down my eighth or ninth hole of my second round, probably around 1:30, 2:00 I was thinking to myself, is this getting close to unplayable regarding wind strength. Wind really got up around one, two o'clock I thought in my head they may call it, and I was feeling disappointed because I just played nine holes in it and I want the rest of the field to have to play the golf course that I've just played. But like I say, it really‑‑ as firm and as fast as these greens are, for this course to have remained playable today in this wind strength‑‑ I say playable; there weren't balls rolling off greens. There weren't putts oscillating. It wasn't really anything silly going on. It was just brutally difficult. It was‑‑ I don't think I've played in conditions this difficult in the U.S. It's an Open Championship day. It's a real Friday afternoon at St. Andrews in 2010, you know, before they called it. It was hard out there, really, really hard, and part of me feels ecstatic to be off the golf course right now. Obviously I'm really happy with my 71 and I'm excited to go and watch the golf here and just see how everyone else is handling these really hard conditions. Q. Did you hit a ball in the water today and if not are you disappointed? GRAEME McDOWELL: Did I hit a ball in the water today; no, I didn't. I think I kept it dry today. Yes, I did. I kept it dry. I made one bogey in the second round and I probably should have got that ball up‑and‑down, as well. You know, one bogey in those conditions, on this tough a golf course‑‑ and let's be honest, you can't criticize the golf course, because you play these types of conditions last year on this golf course and it's going to be brutal. So you can't stand here and criticize the golf course in any shape or form. The greens were fantastic and like I say, the ball was very stable. A couple of iffy tee box selections maybe around 13 and 14, but you know, it is what it is and like I say, I'm very, very happy to be off the golf course. Q. Jim Furyk said the greens got slower as the day went on. Did you find that? GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, they certainly were not cut between rounds, let's put it that way. You could see them darken up in color a little bit. I hit a wedge to the fifth hole, which actually made a fairly significant ball mark, so you could see they had put a little water in places. But I mean, the greens are incredibly firm, as most new surfaces are when you lay them, and you know, for it to remain playable today was amazing, really, for it to be gusting to 35, 40, whatever it was today. Some of the iron shots were very, very difficult out there today. I mean, 14 was my two Sunday bests to get onto that green, and the pin wasn't exactly easy, let's put it that way. Q. And 7? GRAEME McDOWELL: 7 wasn't much fun for me. I can't fly the left side so I had to blow it in that right bunker which is 270 off the tee and I managed to hit it in that right bunker, which wasn't very good. I then had 170 yards to that front pin, with nowhere to hit it, you know. I attempted to hit a 4‑iron to the back of the green and try and 2‑putt. I duffed my bunker shot short of the green and pitched and putted. So in the end, short was actually probably a better leave than long, but I know 7‑‑ 7 was particularly, particularly tough today. It seemed like there was a lot of bad stuff happening on 7. I think Webb Simpson hit it in the water from the left trap. I saw Justin miss the trap left and hit it in the water. Yeah,7, I don't like 7 flat calm, never mind‑‑ let's be honest. You're going to put 18 holes together you're not going to get them all perfect. 7 is a little bit of a bomber's paradise, unfortunately. If you can fly it 300 yards, you can fly over everything and for the 285 guy, he's in big trouble. Q. Even without the wind‑‑ GRAEME McDOWELL: Bubba hit himself a little ding cut down the middle of the fairway, perfect. Q. Laying up in the fairway‑‑ GRAEME McDOWELL: I could see that. I was in the right bunker laying up. Ended up laying up by accident but it was the right move. 7 was probably the only hole which I thought was maybe unfair perhaps, because there was really nowhere to hit the golf ball to. The pin was too severe to be going in there‑‑ playing as a true three‑shotter and leave yourself 40 yards, that was the only way to play 7 today was to go plod, plod, plod and try to get it up‑and‑down. Q. On 10, is it the bunkers on the other side of the fairway or the carry‑‑ GRAEME McDOWELL: I don't know. 10 is a tough tee shot for me. It gets‑‑ the carry becomes long very fast. You know, my shot there is to blow it at the right bunker and try and keep it short of it. There's a couple of tee shots‑‑ 10 is a 3‑wood for me really if it gets a little downwind and the long guys can obviously blow it left and get up in two. There's a couple of tee shots, there's no doubt, you go to every golf course, you're going to have half a dozen tee shots that favor the 300 guys. There's half a dozen out here, but that's not unusual. Just tough. 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
|