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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSICJune 6, 2014Ben CraneMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Ben Crane into the interview room. 12-under par through two rounds, including a 5-under par, 65 today. Ben, you didn't want to bogey on the last hole but still incredible play through two rounds. Get some comments. BEN CRANE: I certainly didn't expect to be here. When one of the guys asked me, "Did you see this coming?" I was like wow, someone would have told me couple days ago I'd be standing in front of a bunch of cameras, what did I do? I certainly didn't see this coming. But, you know, when you're putting well, I started to feel like I was a little more in control of my ball, just I felt like I was tightening my draws and fades a little bit. I had access to some holes I haven't this year and so, gosh, it's been an incredible two days. JOHN BUSH: We'll go right into questions. Q. Ben, can you just describe the start to your day and what kind of momentum that gave you? Just describe the shot on the birdie. BEN CRANE: I get to the first hole and trying to put a good swing on it. Get a nice driver down there and hit not that great a 7-iron to about 35, 40 feet and got a long putt across the green, big three, four foot breaker, whatever. Trying to get the right speed on it. It went in. As soon as I hit it I'm like, "Wow, that could actually go in." So, I was just as surprised as anybody and that's just a nice way to start and took the nerves, edge off a little bit. Q. Is there some lesson here to just keep at it? Obviously you didn't see this day coming. You've been through a lot recently. What do you take out of this in terms of that? BEN CRANE: Yeah. Just -- persevere. It's been a really, really hard year, racking my brain what's going on, what's going wrong and have I changed that much -- you know, you start wondering am I going to get it back. So, this is super encouraging. My wife said last night, "Looks like you still got it" (laughter). Because you wonder. But, anyway, it's been a fun start. Q. I was reading a piece earlier this morning about you, the importance of not taking life too seriously. When you're going through this even with your well-known sense of humor, how do you balance those two? What were the lowest moments when you look back? BEN CRANE: Well, you know, my identity can get wrapped up in golf sometimes. Certainly a lot of your friends know you as the golfer and that can be hard. So what is who has really kept me through this time is my faith. Without my faith in Christ, I just -- there's no way I could get out of this and so, He's just given me a peace going through this that no matter what happens it's okay. I know my identity is being a son of His and so really that's the only thing. Just reminding myself of that every day because it's been rough. I don't know what's going to happen this year and you start to kind play it out like wow, things keep going like this, you know, things are going to change. Q. I think you mentioned last night you had a shot that kind got you going. Was there anything in particular on the course that got you going or practice tee, gave you the confidence that maybe you could get this strung together? BEN CRANE: I mean really, three things have kind of -- besides my faith and the perseverance to get through these tough days, three things have really got me where I'm at today, playing really well again, which is I got a tip from a guy named Terry Rawls who helped me get rid of the side bend in my back to take the stress off my back. I went and worked with Greg Rose and he basically told me what was wrong with my swing the last six months and then Lanny "Banshom", my mental coach has helped me sort through some stuff I've really been struggling with in my mental game. It's given me some things to do while I'm out on the course to get focused on the process, not the result. Those are the three things. Q. Ben, how difficult was it to actually change that swing of yours for after so many years? BEN CRANE: Really, really tough, especially tough in the sense that when you're not playing well, you know, and you're talking with your wife and your caddy and you're going, well, maybe it's worth my back feeling really crappy and going back to a swing that I know. So, I mean six months of trying to kind of sort it out and then trying to strip away everything you don't need and keep what you do. It sounds simple but that's really just trying to make it as simple as possible with the change that I've made. Q. Was the primary issue from the start of all the trouble the back situation? BEN CRANE: Yeah, no question. I played the Hope this year and that was I think my only Top-10 of the year and then I was with my old swing and I was just in pain. I had my therapist on the course treating me in the middle of the rounds and I just didn't know if I'd even be able to finish the tournament, certainly not play a full schedule on Tour and that's when we decided hey, we really have to change this, otherwise we're not going to be able to play golf for a living. Q. So what's it like that first day when you go in and try the new swing? Monday, out there, what was that like? BEN CRANE: Well, I mean it's fairly simple on the range, you know. It feels pretty good. It's easy on my back. But the hardest thing is that as a professional golfer when there's trouble on one side of the golf course you know how to kind of protect against trouble left or right. You have certain things you do. But now throw all those away the last, you know, 15 years, the things I've been doing to protect against trouble on one side of the golf course, those don't exist anymore. They are actually the opposite. And so that was really throwing me for a loop. I tried to protect on the golf course and I would hit it in trouble with, you know, changing my swing. So, I've had to relearn, you know, safeties and how to create shots and stuff. That's been challenging. Is this boring? It's the truth. Q. Winning the McGladrey was the low final round that did it after a poor season. You kind of about very similar stuff. Are there any kind of similarities you draw or something that applies to this situation? BEN CRANE: There's no question that I feel very similar to -- this feels very similar with McGladrey, just going and having similar conversations and with God and my wife and my caddy going into the McGladrey and this week and knowing that I'm okay without golf and that this is fun and I love it but I don't want to love it too much. It's not who I am is big for me. But I love doing this. It's fun to be nervous. It's fun to be in the competition and compete. Q. You talked about the side bend that you kind had to get rid of. How was that developed? Did that go back to when you were a kid, a course you played growing up or you played with older kids, tried to put the draw out there? Where did it develop? BEN CRANE: Yeah. I think I had the club face too closed and so I would side bend to kind of protect that and so that was a reaction of trying to save the shot from going left and I didn't -- I hated the draw swing. I like straight shots. And so in order to hit it straight, I had to really do some things with my arms and hands and manipulate the club, side bend and all that to keep -- hold the club face off. Now that we've changed that, yeah, the things that used to protect me from trouble are now getting me in trouble. So I have -- anyway, the relearning is tough but I'm starting to understand it and my body feels great doing it. So, that's what I'm hopeful going forward. Q. Ben, we've been talking about the success of your golf swing. Talk about your success through two rounds putting. Seems like you've gotten everything inside of 15 feet, maybe. BEN CRANE: You know, I grew up on poana greens in Oregon but I don't like poana greens. I don't like bent grass greens. I like bermuda greens. I love the extra element of grain, how it accentuates most of the time the break. I love how smoother they are in the afternoon. Champions Bermuda I think is the best type of bermuda and so I'm just -- I've just been putting and trying to put my -- the best stroke on it I can, just trying to match the line and speed and I feel like I've been putting really well but this week for some reason they're going in and I feel very comfortable on these greens and it just seems like the ball will not leave the surface, it's so pure. I've had great touch this week and when you match the speed, the hole gets a little bigger and I've been able to do that through two rounds in an exceptional way. I think that's why I've had a lot of success making a lot of these 8, 10, 15-foot putts that are a cup and a half outside left or whatever it is. Q. You got a little bit of a break obviously being able to play the softer course. Is that just sort of the breaks -- it can be part of what helps turn you around. Is that part of it and, secondly, how do you keep this going now over the weekend? Those are the two questions. BEN CRANE: There's no question that I feel like I've been on the bad side of the draw five times this year and on the good side of the draw five times and I think it just evens out at the end of the day. And how do I keep this going? Yeah, as far as how many shots difference does this side, probably two shots difference. I don't know what the numbers say. But it was definitely an advantage, especially yesterday afternoon, I mean going out, you know, very little wind, wasn't hot. You know, it was like perfect Memphis weather. Then how do I keep this going? We'll certainly just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully the same game shows up and obviously continuing to putt well helps your score. I think that's the key. JOHN BUSH: Good stuff. Thank you very much, sir. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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