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RBC HERITAGEApril 17, 2014Scott LangleyHILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA JOE CHEMYCZ:  Scott Langley with a 5‑under par, 66 today, as well, with your playing partner, William McGirt. He was just talking about the front nine and getting swept up in it. Take us through that opening nine where you guys just seemed to be lighting it up, and then we'll open it up to questions. SCOTT LANGLEY: Yeah, Willy and I definitely fed off each other a little bit today. Got off to some great starts. I think he birdied a bunch of holes early. And I birdied 2. And then he got 4 through 7. But it was great. I was able to hit the ball pretty close, which you don't always expect on windy days like this. But we just seemed to keep hitting quality shots and having really close looks at it. That's always kind of a bonus around here. Yeah, just fortunate to get off to a really good start and kind of sustained that momentum throughout the day. JOE CHEMYCZ:  Talk about the back nine. SCOTT LANGLEY: Got progressively windier as the day went on, so it made it a little more challenging. I made a great birdie on that par‑3, No. 14, I want to say. I was really pleased with that, it was a tricky hole into the wind, I think it was 197 into wind with a very small green. I hit a great shot to about 20 feet and made a nice putt. But I hit a lot of quality shots the whole day. I just happened to hit it a little closer the front nine, and that's where I kind of made it happen. But the back was still pretty solid. A couple of mistakes, but on a tough day like this, that's kind of to be expected sometimes. I'm pretty pleased with 5‑under. JOE CHEMYCZ:  What about 18? SCOTT LANGLEY: Actually smoked a tee shot. I was in great position and just kind of fanned a 7‑iron that ended up hitting the bank and rolling into the hazard. I was fortunate actually to have a swing at it. And the ability to get it at least on the green. I hit an okay shot to about 15 feet and just underestimated the speed I needed to play. Hit it a little short, which was a little stinger, but I'm still very pleased with my round. Q. Were you expecting to play like this? Did you feel like coming in here this would be the kind of game you would have here? SCOTT LANGLEY: Expectations are funny. I was confident, you know, in my game. I worked very hard last week. Seeing Jordan do so well, almost win the Masters inspired me a little bit. But I was already very motivated to come here this week. I love this place. I know it suits my game pretty well. And I have a decent understanding of how to play it for only being my second year here. So I don't know if "expecting" is the right word but I was confident in my game. I knew I could play well. I think the best golf is played sometimes when you don't really have expectations, at least for me. So I just tried to go out there and stay in moment, hit one shot at a time. It's a cliché, but my caddie and I had a good talk about it. Just process shot after shot after shot, and play the conditions as they come. We did a good job of that today. Q. You mentioned the Masters and Jordan, he really said he didn't watch any of the Masters, how much of it did you watch? SCOTT LANGLEY: I watched the par‑3 contest. I watched everything. The competitor in me wanted to be there so bad. So I guess part of it was homework, hopefully, for the future. Watching how guys played certain holes. But I'm a fan of golf. I love the game. And I'm a friend of Jordan's, so to see him in the mix made me tune in a little bit more. It was super fun to watch. I hope to be there next year. But being at home, I got plenty of practice in in time to come home and watch the tournament. Q. Secondly, what did you take away from your rookie season that's helped you this year, maybe one or two things that's been the big difference between last year versus this year? SCOTT LANGLEY: Yeah, I think just having the right mindset is so important. Not beating yourself up too bad. I was guilty of that sometimes last year, because I wanted to play well so badly. And I felt like I had a great opportunity every week, and sometimes I didn't really take advantage of it and I found myself being a little upset about that too much. So just being kind of my own best friend on the golf course. Having the right attitude. Having the attitude that this is hopefully going to be a long year for me. Each shot if it's good or bad is a very small portion of my long‑term plan. So just to treat it like that a little bit more. Kind of stay in each moment.  Stay even keel a little bit more. I played with a lot of veteran players last year, it was great experience, I was able to learn from them and was able to observe how they are. They just stay so level for the most part. And I think that's so important to maintaining a consistent level of play over the course of a career. So that was a big lesson that I learned last year, and one that actually helped me keep my card when it came down to it. Q. Where are you at when you're not level as a player? Is it anger or just frustration? SCOTT LANGLEY: I wouldn't call it anger. I'm not really an angry guy. But I'm really competitive. Sometimes it manifests itself in different ways. I'm learning how to make it kind of positively intense. Common frustrations of the game. I think everybody goes through it at times. When things aren't going your way, the competitor in you wants it to go well. So I find myself every once in a while I'll still get upset. And it sits with me for a little bit. But I'm learning how to take those moments and move on real quickly and kind of turn a bad situation into a good situation. Q. Another thing you were talking about, you heard Jordan say at the Masters, too, part of the maturity process is fighting the aggressive attitude. Sometimes you want to go right at the pin and it's better not to. Sometimes you do have to be aggressive. How do you know when it's the time to go for it or the time to ignore that impulse? SCOTT LANGLEY: It comes with time. I consider myself a pretty smart player, but I can pretty much bet that in about ten years I'm going to be smarter than I am today. It just comes with time, experience, growing an instinct to determine the situations better. And playing the golf courses more. So I think that's part of it. I'm fortunate that I went to a school, University of Illinois, where my coach, Mike Small taught me to play the game to that extent, where to go aggressive, where to be smart, where to play away from a pin, where you want to be coming into the green. He taught me so many basics like that that I think some players take for granted. But those things help me play better golf when, say, I'm not a hundred percent on my game. It's course management stuff. Q. What is the best shot you hit today? SCOTT LANGLEY: Probably the 5‑iron I hit on No. 14. It's a tricky shot. It's straight into the wind. Narrow green, narrow shoot off the tee. Trees in the way. Not really in the way, but you have to kind of navigate those. But it's a tough hole. It's a very narrow green. I'm hitting a 5‑iron. Some guys hit 4‑iron. I flushed it. I hit it right where I wanted to. Landed maybe 30 feet short of the hole, 40 feet short, and just kind of bounced to exactly where my caddie and I wanted to be. It was about 20 feet short of the hole. And top it off with a good putt helped. But everything else aside that was probably the best shot I hit today. JOE CHEMYCZ:  Take us through the birdies on the front nine starting with 2. SCOTT LANGLEY: No. 2 I hit a great tee shot and hit a 5‑iron to about 12 feet below the hole and just left it short right in the jar for a tap‑in birdie. No. 4, I hit a great‑‑ that might be the second best shot I hit today. Nice 7‑iron to about four feet and made a good putt. The next hole I hit two great shots and had a pretty easy up‑and‑down to the front part of the green for birdie on the par‑5. The next hole I drove it into the right fairway bunker and hit a nice like chip 8‑iron out of the bunker it from about 150 to about four feet and made that. Next hole I hit a nice 8‑iron on the par‑3 to about three feet, made that. So I had a nice stretch of really short opportunities. Yeah, that allowed me to put a few together. That was nice. JOE CHEMYCZ:  Bogey at 8. SCOTT LANGLEY: Yeah, I hit a so‑so tee shot. But again I missed it in the right place. I missed it right of the fairway. So it opened up everything for me. I had probably 235 to the hole. So out of the pine needles, I hit a 7‑wood up short of the green, and hit actually a really good pitch shot and just missed a four‑ or five‑footer there, just hit a bad putt. But bounced right back on 9. Hit a nice kind of draw wedge shot around the tree for my approach, and hit it to about three feet and made that. So kind of nice to immediately reconcile that bogey on 8. Q. How important was it to get off to a good start today just not knowing what it's going to be with the weather and the conditions the next several days? SCOTT LANGLEY: It's always nice on Thursday. That's always the goal is to get off to a good start. But especially this week, seeing the conditions for the whole tournament. I mean I'll take birdies whenever I can get them, because it will be tricky the rest of the way. Just like it was tricky today. If you go out there right now on the 17th hole, that pin is pretty much bending over sideways because it's really blowing. I'm sure that'll keep going the next few days. But it's nice to build momentum early. I didn't play last week, so coming into the tournament, you don't really know what to expect. So to make birdies early is nice. JOE CHEMYCZ:  Scott, thank you. Play well the rest of the week. SCOTT LANGLEY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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