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THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 2, 2019

Rickie Fowler

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Q. Today put you right back into things.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it was a great round. Exactly what we needed. I felt like we still left a few out there. I struggled with getting putts to the hole today. I felt like they were about a foot slower or so, but a nice bonus on 6, making 3 there. A few good up-and-downs, good par saves, so happy with, like I said, with what we were able to accomplish today and move up the board.

Q. You hit good tee shots at 15 and 17 and they took big hops off the back of the green. I thought you got bad breaks there?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, those were tough. I hit the exact shot I wanted to on 15. 17 was obviously a little right of where I wanted, but it was hit solid. It was a tight flight. New greens, it's tough to flight the ball through the wind and get it to stop at the same time.

Q. You hit about 110 feet of putts today, so the putter is starting to -- you're starting to get a feel for that, aren't you?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I actually have an artificial green at the house that Southwest did, and I kind of got a little bit of work on that last night. I have like 1, 2, 3 and 4 percent slopes and just got a little bit of work on there on the mirror, so I felt good. My lines have been really good. Hit a lot of good putts this week and especially today. Like I said, it was just like I just struggled just with that little extra pace at the end.

Q. Chance to win now for the second time in about five weeks, so that would be pretty special tomorrow?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, I'm happy with where we're at. Game is in a good spot. It would have been nice to have a better week last week down in Mexico City, but I had quite a few days off leading up, my sister having twins and got to go spend some time with the family and see them, so that wasn't -- golf at that point wasn't exactly the highest on the priority list. So nice to be here at home this week in Jupiter in a good spot playing well. We'll see if we can make the most of it.

Q. How did you take advantage of the scoring conditions today in this morning wave?
RICKIE FOWLER: I drove it a lot better than yesterday. I mean, being in the fairway is the biggest deal out here. I was able to kind of finally take advantage of it from there and kind of piece my way around the golf course. I had to play defensive at times when I didn't necessarily hit it in the right part of the fairway or being in the rough. Just I think we did a really good job of managing our way around the golf course. Yeah, just a solid Saturday. It was good.

Q. How do you feel about the position you're in going into Sunday?
RICKIE FOWLER: I feel good about what we accomplished today. I mean, the guys still have a few more holes out there today, and we'll see where we ultimately end up 18 holes to go, depending on how many we're back. But kind of did all week what I did today. Wish we could have got a few more putts to go. Just struggled a little bit with the pace of the greens and getting putts actually to the hole. But no, I'm happy about it. Whether we're two, three, four, five shots back, a lot can happen around this golf course, and I know I can play well around here, so I'm looking forward to it. I know the wind is supposed to be up a little bit more tomorrow, which I feel like plays into my favor if I can go out and play especially how I did today.

Q. How are Sundays different here, and how does that affect the way you have to approach this Sunday at PGA National?
RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, no lead is safe here, really. I should know; two years ago I was four shots clear, and there's a lot of water around this place. There's a lot of things that can happen. I made double on 6 that year, and I think the lead was down to one at that point, and I made 7 on 6 on Thursday. It's not just that hole. Like I said, there's a lot of water out here, and you can still get some mud at times in the fairways, and when you're trying to be pretty precise on lines and distances and you have to deal with mud and wind, there's a lot of factors.

Big thing for me tomorrow is keeping it as clean as possible. I'm going to have to come from behind, and with that, you can't really make mistakes. When you do have that three, four-shot lead, it gives you a little bit of a cushion.

But like I said, there's not a big enough cushion out here.

Q. What's the mental shift change going from where you know you have to come from behind to maybe playing safe when you do have that four-shot lead?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, unfortunately there's no safe play out here. This golf course doesn't really give you many places where you can just play safe. You can't really play defensive around here. So no, it's -- you stick with the same game plan. It's more just about execution, and then especially tomorrow with a little bit more wind, how this golf course is supposed to really play, I think this is the least amount of wind we've had for three days in a while. I'm looking forward to it. I love playing in the wind. It'll be a good test, and I just have to go play a good round of golf.

Q. For a 56-year-old guy like Vijay to be right there, obviously work ethic is the story that everybody knows about, but what's it say that he can still find a way to be right there in the mix?
RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, he's obviously been one of the game's best. He's a ball striker. This golf course, I would say he's probably -- he's not as long as he used to be, but this golf course you don't necessarily have to be long. It's about getting the ball in the fairway and hitting your lines and hitting your numbers, and so you don't have to necessarily do anything special. You can't go out and overpower this golf course. By the looks of it, he probably drove it well and put himself in play today and happened to make a few putts, and yeah, it sounds simple around this place. It's hard to do. But it's not surprising to me. He's someone that is a grinder and has always been known as a ball striker. So we'll see, hopefully I can go out and outlast him tomorrow.

Q. You have your caddie staying with you this week. What's that dynamic been like, him saying at the boss's house?
RICKIE FOWLER: You know, there's not a whole lot to talk about on the golf course because we play and he's out there with me, and then we go home and do dinner together. It's me and Allison and Joe, and we've got Duf and his girlfriend Jess there. We have plenty of fun at the house. But yeah, it leaves us with a little bit less to talk about on the golf course.

Q. What's the most important dynamic between the two of you being together for basically your whole career?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, Joe and I, we've worked together for I think going on -- I guess it's roughly 10 years. He's eight years older than I am. I've known him since I was about three. His parents ran a junior golf association I grew up playing, so I've known him for a long time. He's someone I'm very comfortable around. He knows my game. So he's someone that I can trust. It's also nice having a friend on the bag. Yeah, we work well together.

Q. Vijay said something interesting just in general: Young guys don't work hard enough. Do you think that's a generational thing, guys who are that age probably see that for everybody guys your age, and also, is that a guy who nobody really works as hard as him?
RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, I would say Vijay is probably one of the hardest workers if not the hardest worker this game has seen. I think it's very personal, you know, dealing with time and what not and how you want to manage it. I'm someone that may practice less than a lot of people. I spend a lot more time playing. You can't tell people, hey, you need to go practice and be on the range for six hours. That might work for some people, but it's all personal. You have to find out what works best for you.

Vijay has always been someone that beats balls and puts a lot of time in on the range, and that's something that makes him feel the best about his game and get the most out of it. For me, I feel like it would wear me out being on the range that much. It's all personal. It works for him. It's what he does. He's found it to be his thing. I don't think it would work as well for me. But it's pretty amazing the amount of time he's able to stay out there and get after it. I definitely enjoy more of the playing part of it, and I think that's something that benefits me more than going out and spending that much time on the range.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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