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NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL INVITATIONALJuly 12, 2007Kelly GrunewaldCOLUMBUS, OHIO KELLY GRUNEWALD: (Interview started) wasn't able to capitalize on that either. But, I kind of felt my swing started coming around yesterday really, or actually some Tuesday and yesterday started feeling a lot better. So when I got here today I didn't have to hit too many balls to warm up. Everything felt pretty good, so I knew I was going to have a pretty good day. Then made the turn. The wind started picking up pretty good on the back. I kind of fanned it over on 10 right by 11 tee box, which actually wasn't bad. I had a clear shot over the trees. Hit a good shot up to the front. It spun off the front and then I chipped it up to about -- hit a poor chip to about 8 feet and made that for par. Hit a couple good shots from the next hole, No. 11, really tough hole. Driver 5-iron to about 15 feet and almost made that. The Par 5 I hit a good drive down there and hit a 6-iron down into the green and pulled it a little bit. It just hit over the bunker and kicked and rolled down in there. I was pretty disappointed at that point, because I hit a great drive and easy shot into the green. Should have had an eagle putt, but I hit it dune into the bunker and hit a really great bunker shot to probably an inch from the hole. Almost went in for eagle there. Tapped that in and then got up on the par 3 with a 6-iron and then, of course, you know, that one turned out pretty good. Hit a little fade in there. I think I had 214. Hit 6-iron, landed on the front, and rolled up and went in for one. It was, you know, after you do something like that during the round it's kind of hard -- it's exciting. It's such a high that you try to, you know, try to maintain your kind of a steady pace mentally out here. After something like that it's hard to kind of calm down, but I made a good par on the next hole which was also playing really hard. 15, I hit two good shots. Hit a good shot off the tee and hit a 9-iron in there which barely cleared the bunker and landed on the front and rolled probably 45 feet over the back right. I had just seen both of my playing partners from the fairway do the same thing. So I really don't know how the guys in the afternoon are going keep it on the green on 15. I really don't. There's no way to go to the flag there. The only way you could do it is to land a short roll. That's on the middle of the green. 16 I gave myself another chance from about 12 feet and missed it. And then 17 I hit it on the front and it spun back off and almost chipped it in. Rolled about two feet by and unfortunately I missed it. It wasn't an easy putt. It was downhill breaking a little bit, but I just -- it was probably two and a half foot at the most. It was not very long. You know, I have a tendency on those just to miss them sometimes. That's kind of always been one of my, I don't know, one of my setbacks or downfalls is that short putts I maybe spend a little too much time or am maybe a little too tentative over them instead of just getting up there and hitting it. But, I was trying to put a nice roll on it and roll it in the middle and it broke a little bit off the low side. It was a tough putt. If I would have hit it firm it could have gone six or eight feet by the hole easily. I had another good chance on 18. Had a pretty good look at it because Andrew had already putted on the same line. Hit a good putt and it just fell off short and missed by about three, four inches. Q. (No microphone.) KELLY GRUNEWALD: Yeah, I really do. I knew it was just a matter of time getting out here. I started the year conditional, so I was on the Monday qualifying tour the first three or four months of the year. Thankfully got in Chicago and made the cut there and got reshuffled up pretty good. Just, you know, I felt the swing coming around and I knew I just needed to play two or three weeks in a row to get some stuff rolling and get some momentum. You talk to any of the guys. It's not any fun to have to Monday qualify every week. You can't really turn it into anything. You miss and then you're off another week trying to practice here and there and going to the next spot. Peak 'n Peek, that week has really helped me out for the rest of the year, I think. I don't know what my actual number is now, but I think the rest of the year looks pretty good for me. As long as I keep playing like I did today and the last three or four events I think everything's going to be all right. Q. (No microphone.) KELLY GRUNEWALD: Well, I've gone through a few putters so far this year. I don't know how many, but I know that probably the under and over has got to be five since Chicago. Just I don't know, I don't mind changing. I mean, I'll change if I'm not liking what I look at when I look down at the ball, at the putter and I don't like the feel, I don't care if I'm making putts or not. If I don't like what it feels like or looks like I'm going to have to get something else. I'm just one of the guys that likes my clubs to look right to me just confidence-wise and everything. Actually, I've been going back and forth. Well, I played all year with a set of my old Taylor-Mades and got some new shafts put in about three weeks ago. Kind of been hesitant to go to them because I've been hitting my other ones well. Kind of brought them out this week and said, Hey, let's take them out to the range and see how they feel. Took them out Monday and played with them Tuesday. They felt good. Hit balls with them yesterday again and decided to go ahead and put them in the bag. They feel really good to me. They're a little bit heavier and stiffer, so I think it's enabling me to smooth out my swing a little bit more. Not having to swing quite as hard to get the results I want, and so it's worked out. It's kind of a new shaft. Black Gold is what it's called. So it's worked out pretty good so far. And then I switched to a new 3-wood about three weeks ago and it's been really good. A new graphite design shaft, Japanese version. So I think I'm really close to getting all 14 in there for the rest of the year. I'm not going to say anything yet. The putters, like I said, you can always go back to the closet and time out, but so far it's pretty good. Q. (No microphone.) KELLY GRUNEWALD: It's nice. It really is. It's nice to be out here in see everybody again. It's nice to walk around and have everybody say, Hey, it's good to see you back. You belong here or higher, you know, the PGA Tour here. I've had my struggles over the last five years status-wise after I lost any PGA card in 2001. It was pretty hard to stomach going from the PGA Tour back to the mini estate tour after one season. But, you know, that was probably the -- in the last ten years that was the worst year of golf I had playing-wise. Unfortunately, that had to be my rookie season on the PGA Tour. It cost me, I think I ended up missing partial status on this tour that year by like by $3,000. At the end I think was 203 or 205 on the Money List at the end of year. So basically one cut. If I would have made one more cut then I would have had some status out here the next year. So it was hard, but I think it's probably made me tougher and stronger mentally. You know, apparently it wasn't time for me then and I'm a little bit older and wiser now. I have my family doing really well now and they're on the road with me in an RV. So I'm happy the way everything is going. You know, I'm just looking forward to the rest of the year. Q. (No microphone.) KELLY GRUNEWALD: Well, I lost status in '01 and didn't get back to finals. So in 2002, '03, '04, '05, actually in 2002 I did qualified out here, Monday qualifying, like nine times, but was only successful in making the cut twice I think. After a Monday qualifying it was always a long week. Seven days, you know, every day. Finally towards the end of the year I made the last two cuts, but by then they were out of tournaments. Then back to Q School, and then that was the year I got to second stage and went to Kingwood where we had the flood. Unfortunately, they stopped play after 36 holes. How you have a PGA Tour qualifying for 36 holes and call it the final I have no idea. And there were a lot of unhappy people about that, including myself. But that's the way it goes. They felt like that they had done everything that they could to get it in and decided not to change sites. So, you know, it was 36 holes and I ended up missing it by I think two shots get to finals that year. Then played the Hooters Tour, Mexican Open a couple years, a few Canadian Tour events. Then last year I played a tour that's kind of a sore subject for a lot of guys this year. U.S. Pro Golf Tour that started and ended pretty much right after it began. Fortunately for me I was second on the Money List last year and money-wise it was very lucrative. You know, we had $300,000 event, $400,000 event, $1 million purse for the Tour Championship. So it was pretty good. I made almost $130,000 out there last year, so that really helped a lot financially and confidence-wise. We had a couple tournaments going into the finals of Q School, so I got to keep playing competitively right up to the finals. I think I ran out of juice there at the end and had a bad six -- well, four bad rounds. Couple good rounds of finals. But I missed my full status and had to start the year Monday qualifying, but I got it done and I'm ready for the rest of the year. THE MODERATOR: Okay. Thank, you, Kelly. End of FastScripts |
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