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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSICJune 4, 2014Harris EnglishMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE KELLY BARNES: We'd like to welcome the defending champion, Harris English. Harris, what's it like to be back at the first place you've ever won a PGA Tour title after you've accomplished so much in the last year? HARRIS ENGLISH: It's awesome. This is one of my favorite towns. It's really cool being back. I came back for Media Day a couple months ago and was overwhelmed by how much support I got from everybody, all the volunteers and everybody with Fed Ex and S. Jude. So, this is my first ever title defense. I won on the Web.com Tour and made it out on the PGA TOUR. I'm very excited to be back here and looking forward to the week. KELLY BARNES: Questions? Q. What's the difference between you now and a year ago? HARRIS ENGLISH: I think definitely the experience, playing in a lot bigger tournaments, playing in some more Majors, I guess doing some more of this stuff. I wasn't used to doing a lot of media stuff, doing interviews, doing pre-round stuff, post-round stuff. I've had to get used to a lot of that stuff and it's definitely different but I've learned more and more every day and every tournament and kind of learning how to do this because I mean, yeah, people see it on TV as you're playing golf in between the ropes but don't understand what you do before the round, after the round, and it can get overwhelming at times. I've had to learn how to kind of do what I had to do and get it done. Q. Harris, can you speak to the depth of this year's field, maybe compare it to last year? HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah. I mean it's amazing how many really good players are playing this week. I don't know if they really like the golf course here, good warmup for the U.S. Open or maybe a combination of things. It's awesome to see because I want to play in a tournament where the best people are playing and that's obviously what we have this week and it's going to be a good warmup for what we're going to see at Pinehurst. This golf course, you have to be very accurate off the tee, very accurate coming into the greens and we're going to see that next week and I guess lot of people that are playing this week are really trying to get ready for the U.S. Open but everybody knows that this tournament is worth 500 FedExCup points and can really set you up for the end of the year. Q. You've been the Pinehurst, right? What did you see there? HARRIS ENGLISH: I went up Friday and played with Zach Johnson up there, had a good time. That was my first time at Pinehurst. It's going to be my first U.S. Open. I'm looking forward to it. It's kind of got a British Open feel to it. They added all that waste area, which is very interesting. The pine trees don't really come into play out there. I know they call it Pinehurst but they're a good 30, 40 yards off the edges of the fairway. It's going to be a good tester. You see year after year there even par is a really good score. Center of the greens are where you need to hit the ball. It's going to be very interesting. I'm looking forward to it. Q. What was the variety of lies like off the fairways? HARRIS ENGLISH: It's good lies or like a fairway bunker you can get some lies in the grass and got to chip out. I hit in there a couple times. It's going to be interesting. You can hit, lay back and hit 3-iron off the tee but it's just as tight as if you hit driver. I think my game plan is going to be to hit driver a lot and see if I can push it up there and be a little more aggressive with clubs in my hand. Q. What did you see about the course conditions out there? I talked to the superintendent earlier and like a lot of places, tough winter, rainy spring but they feel good about what's happened over the last three, four weeks, I guess. HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah. I think the greens are the best I've seen them in a long time, the best we've played on the PGA TOUR this year. Perfect. That Champions Bermuda, I think they've done a really good job with that. I know they've had some rain and thunderstorms here lately and the fairways are a little soft. I think it will firm up over the next couple days and get to where this course is playing like it normally is. I feel like last year, it was playing really firm. Didn't hit a lot of drivers because the ball was rolling out so far. I think that's what makes it so tough, it's hard to keep it in the fairways out here and then if you're in the rough it's really hard to keep on these firm, fast greens. Q. You get to do anything in Memphis, do you get to experience the culture, go to Beale Street, anything like that? HARRIS ENGLISH: I've got a lot of high school friends that live here. I came in on Saturday and hung out with them a couple days, played golf with them on Sunday, actually. But Memphis has a lot of cool stuff. Came here for Media Day and got to go to Rendezvous Barbecue. Such a cool atmosphere downtown. Like I said Beale Street area, hadn't been down there a whole lot but it's a cool town. They really love their music, their food and their golf here in Memphis. Q. What's the state of your game this week and going into next week at Pinehurst? HARRIS ENGLISH: I feel good. Took last week off. Memorial is an awesome tournament but I feel like for me to get ready for this next stretch I need to take it off and really work hard and I feel good. I have a lot of good vibes from this place and hadn't played as well as I wanted to the past couple weeks. Missed a couple cuts but that's how this game goes. It has your ups and downs. I feel like I've played well this year, got off to a good start and feel like it's really close to getting right back close to the winner's circle and getting into contention and that's kind of what I strive for every week is coming down to the last holes, getting within two, three shots of the lead and getting my juices flowing again. Q. Any one thing in particular? HARRIS ENGLISH: I'm really working on the short game. I've been too focused on trying to hit the ball too perfect. As we all know, it's impossible to do so. Just really working on chipping and putting because I think that's where I can improve the most and shoot lower. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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