CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

June 29, 2001

Jay Don Blake

JAY DON BLAKE: I hit it pretty good. I started off, hit it in the left rough and had to kind of get it up-and-down from the green. First hole, I had to get up-and-down again, same thing as kind of yesterday. Made about a 6-footer for par which kept going, and from then on, I made pretty good shots and played pretty consistent golf. I made birdies on No. 4. I hit -- wind was playing downwind and I hit it through the fairway and I had kind of a flyer lie and had was about 15 feet from the hole and made that for birdie. The par 3, just made par next par 5, was playing into the wind. The wind changed around today so it was a lot different. I hit a little wedge shot. I thought it hit pretty good, but spun back and probably had 35 feet. Just one of those putts you want to roll up and see if you can 2-putt, and I actually made the putt for a birdie. Those things keep the round going, get some motivation going. Next hole I thought I hit a pretty good shot, but the wind drifted it over in the bunker and I blasted out in the other bunker came up short about 12 feet and missed it. So made bogey on 7. 8, I thought I hit a decent 5-iron. Just didn't quite carry. A little false ring there. Didn't quite roll back. That was probably 35, 40 feet away and 3-putted there. So I made two bogeys back to back. You know, you can't give a couple of them away like that. Then I made par on 10 and 11 -- 9, 10, 11, 12. I hit a 6-iron? There about three feet and made birdie on 12. 13, the par 5, I hit about 70 yards to the hole and hit a sand wedge about a foot and a half away and made a couple birdies there to get it to eight. Then parred 14, 15 was kind of a day where it's kind of touch and go, whether to hit driver or not because it was playing downwind. Would have been pretty easy to get it there. Almost playing to where you could hit 3-wood because the fairways are so hard the balls could roll forever. Watching the guys in front of us, they are all the way over the green with drivers. You know, I've been driving it okay, but I've got -- the nerves or whatever, I didn't really feel comfortable so I hit a 5-iron to the fairway and had 80 yards to the hole. I thought I've hit some good sand wedges. I thought I could make birdie just by doing that and instead of getting in an awkward spot there by the green just couldn't get up-and-down. Hit a good sand wedge. It landed about a foot from the hole but the greens by the afternoon just were getting so baked out that it actually skipped on like concrete and went about 30 feet by. I ended up just making par. Then I hit it on 16, about 25 feet and 2-putted for par. 17, hit 8-iron about probably five feet away and I just -- watching the leaderboard all day, you can see all the 8s up there, I was thinking it would be nice to put a 9 above all of those. I hit kind of a putt that was downhill and kind of quick and breaks quite a bit. It was just too easy, fell off the face of the cup and missed it. Disappointed about making par after hitting a couple good shots. 18, I hit a good drive down there and just a 9-iron to the hole and been hitting some decent iron shots. So, you know, I guess trying to play a little bit aggressive, and I hit it just to the left, kind of caught the mound to the green and kicked hard left and I'm over there trying to work to get up-and-down just to stay on par with the 8s on the leaderboard, but got over a ridge or knob and went up and down. All day long, I had some good positions to make some birdie putts and make some birdie chances, and I felt like I left a couple of them out there but then I made a few putts to compensate some of the other shots. So, all in all, I feel like I hit the ball well. I played some pretty smart golf out there. The afternoon, it just seemed like it was, you know, a pretty tough golf course with the greens, getting as crusty as they were and the wind swirling around a little bit. Just felt like I played pretty well and feel good about the way I played.

JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, they have them everywhere. You can't miss them. They were watching them -- when I got here this morning there was already an 8-under par. I didn't really watch it a whole lot the front nine, but I kind of thought somebody would shoot a little bit lower than the 8. I kind of make the turn -- after I made two bogeys on 7 and 8, I look at the leaderboard and I think somebody had gotten to 9, I think, about that time. I was kind of disappointed after that and then seeing the 9 up there. Later on I made a couple birdies and looked up again and everybody was back to 8 again. I watch it. I've got a lot of friends out here. Kind of root for some of the other guys when I'm in the playing well, I root for them and kind of vice versa they root for me. I like kind of watching. Eddie Fryatt is up there -- seeing his name up there earlier, I might have a chance to play with him tomorrow so that was kind of -- something I was kind of looking forward, just to get to 9, because he was first in and possibly we would be paired together. It would have been kind of fun to play.

JAY DON BLAKE: I just kind of watch. I don't really have any major feelings of -- there's so much golf left. You see the board up there, see some of the guys, some of your friends play well, and both of us are there together.

JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, it's pretty odd to have that many players up there on top of the leaderboard. The course is not -- yesterday, I thought when we played it would be a golf course where you could put some pretty good scores up because it was so receptive. The fairways were a little softer. The ball would stay in the fairways or the greens were stopping. You could hit a 6-iron to the flag and it would stop right there. As it's getting warmer. Yesterday it got all baked out with the wind blowing and it has been even hot at night and I don't think they are watering a whole lot. The greens and fairways -- if you hit a ball in the centre of the fairway, hits a little knob, it will kick into the rough. The fairways are harder to hit, also. I can kind of see the golf course is not giving up a whole lot of really low scores just because of the severity of it. The fairways are all shaped dogleg holes to where you've got to maneuver the ball left-to-right to keep it in the fairways on a lot of them. If you don't hit the fairway, the rough is pretty brutal to where you really don't have much controll -- out of the rough you just hope to get it on the green somewhere. A lot of times you've just got to chip out. A couple guys in the group I played with today, they hit it in the rough and they could only hit it 100 yards. Just depends on where you get it.

JAY DON BLAKE: Yeah, the wind changed from yesterday to today.

JAY DON BLAKE: I was pretty frustrated. Obviously, you're going to get upset at yourself, and I've been out here enough, played enough to where I just -- you know, you've got to put it behind you. It's hard to do that, but you just go to the next hole and try to play -- play that hole and leave that stuff behind it that just happened. I went up to the next hole and hit a 3-wood to the middle of the fairway and had a nice little chip shot, wedge to the green. I was just hoping with another wedge, make another birdie. I just about made it. It just kind of caught the edge and I made par. You know, just throw the stuff away and just move on.

JAY DON BLAKE: Early in the round, I don't think you have to -- as in Saturday. You might change it a little bit. There might be a certain area, certain position in the round you might want to be a little bit more aggressive. It's hard to say here because you don't know what situation -- you don't want to -- take a big risk or just be conservative. The only place I can really think is 15 where you want to -- I know like today, I know 13 -- yeah, 13 I can't reach the par 5. Some of the guys can, I can't . Some guys might see somebody all of the sudden go 10-, 11-, 12-under par and they are starting the day and thinking, "Well, I've got to get something going here and try to go for the green in two." Some of the long-ball hitters I can see where they might have a chance to be a little bit more aggressive. My game has changed quite a bit. I don't hit it as far. I play a lot of position golf, just try to get in the fairway, on the greens and hope my putter and sand iron and wedge game is good.