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June 12, 2014
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
Q. What's going through your mind?
BUBBA WATSON: It's a tough golf course. What's going through my mind? It's a tough golf course. The golf course is better than me right now. Come out tomorrow and try to play better, that's it. If I don't, I'll get ready for next week.
Q. What about the golf course do you believe is the hardest?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, you've got to remember, I'm just talking about myself. And so for me the tee shots, there's a few blind tee shots. There's a few blind shots into the green. I don't have the visual that I'm looking for. Last year I didn't play very well at Merion, but I like that golf course. It was a tough golf course, but I liked it because I could visually see things. Around here it's hard to visualize some of the shots that I want to hit, and so for me it's difficult. Obviously today I didn't putt very well, I didn't chip well from around the greens. I left a few more putts. To shoot a couple over is not too bad, but to shoot 6 over is not where you want to be after one day.
Q. Was it your strategy or execution?
BUBBA WATSON: It's just I'm not very good. This week I'm just not very good. I hit some good shots, I thought were some good shots. A couple of times I hit it into the whatever that area you want to call -- the rough area. I got some iffy lies, and it could easily have went the other way. Make a couple of ten-footers, and it keeps the momentum going. So it's just execution wasn't very good today.
Q. Do you feel like you can be aggressive off the tee or do you find yourself constantly --
BUBBA WATSON: Well, obviously, I can't, I'm 6 over. I'm not very aggressive. I'm not very good laying up. I mean, yes, you could be aggressive if you're hitting the ball well. A couple of times I hit driver today, I hit it in the fairway a couple of times, I hit it in the, again, dirt, rough, whatever you want to call it. I hit it in there more than I hit it in the fairways. Today wasn't my day for ball-striking, so that's why I shot 6 over.
Q. Can you be aggressive tomorrow?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, I mean, I can, but again I was trying to be aggressive today, and some shots I laid back. Again, it's just making putts. Every golf tournament we go to, whoever putts the best is usually top 10 or so. Today I didn't make any putts. Come out tomorrow and try to shoot under par. A lot of guys shot under par. A lot of guys started off hot in the morning conditions. Hopefully I can do it that and keep it willing rolling.
Q. (Inaudible.)
BUBBA WATSON: I'm not going to change anything. Hopefully the putts go in. Same strokes and this time read them better. It's not science, it's just golf. Go out and try to hit fairways, try to hit greens and try to make the 10, 15-footers.
Q. (Inaudible.)
BUBBA WATSON: Well, the greens really aren't bad. There's people making putts. And it's just one of those things. Again, like we say, score doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter relative to par, it just matters the final score. If it's 400 or if it's 398, that's all you're trying to do. All I can say is I didn't make the putts I needed to make.
Q. (Inaudible.)
BUBBA WATSON: You know what, it was funny, after I said all that, and we look at the yardage book and see what we're going to do, I still hit driver about five or six times, depending on the wind. And there's holes that I hit iron that -- everybody hits iron off of 1. I laid back on it, because the bunker is at 310, roughly. So it really wasn't changing anything different than anybody else in the tournament. It's not that I'm trying to play safer or anything like that, that's how the golf course is designed is to play it that way. Today we had a good wind on one of the holes on my back 9 there, maybe like 13 -- no, 14, I hit driver today because the tee was up. And that's the thing, too, you never know what kind of tees they're going to play. So it always depends on how they set the golf course up and what the wind is doing. Today I added one more driver that I wasn't going to hit, but because of the tee situation and the wind situation I hit it.
Q. (Inaudible.)
BUBBA WATSON: All of them. Last hole -- I had one -- there was one on the edge of the bunker there on No. 4 where I couldn't get this the green. I had to chip out to the fairway. Then on 18, I was in a footprint, made it pretty tough. I got it by the green, but then I three-putted from off the green.
Q. If you had made some of the putts you were talking about, what would you have shot today?
BUBBA WATSON: It's all about momentum. If you make the putt on the first hole, or if you make the putt -- if you make the birdie putt or make a closer shot from off the green on 5, and make the birdie. If you make the putt on 6, which was about seven or eight feet, momentum changes everything. And so making the putt, not that it's a birdie putt or a par-putt or a bogey putt, it's just keeping that momentum going and making yourself happy. I don't know what I would shoot, but I would have a one percent chance of shooting better than 6 over maybe. Hopefully.
Q. Is this a course where it's hard to get the momentum going?
BUBBA WATSON: It's just hard for me. I think this is my 8th U.S. Open. There's about four of them that I really loved, I didn't play really well at. Four of them I really loved and four of them I don't. It's just this happens to be one that doesn't really fit my eye, so hopefully I can shoot 1-under par tomorrow and maybe that will get me through the weekend.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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