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BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 7, 2009

John Rollins

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome our third-round leader John Rollins into the interview room here at the Buick Invitational. I know you're a little disappointed there with the finish, but you still have a three-stroke lead going into tomorrow's round. Just comment on the day.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I'm very pleased with the way I played. I hit the ball well, made some putts, had a couple three-putts were really my only bogeys. I had three of them. Disappointing to get a hard lip-out like that on 18 when you feel like you hit a good putt, but afternoon poa annua can tend to do that to you. All in all, very pleased, and looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Let's talk about the wedge into 18. It's kind of a dicey shot if you get too aggressive with it.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I was really just trying to skip something up to the top. As you said, the last thing you want to do is somewhat get aggressive and try to fly one just past the hole and know that it's going to spin, but then if the ball hops over the back edge, that's not the spot to leave it, either. I tried to hit not a really aggressive shot but one I was hoping would skip up and check, but it came back down the hill and we ended up with an unfortunate three-putt.

Q. Were you surprised at all on 10 tee to be five shots clear?
JOHN ROLLINS: A little. I knew I played well for the first nine holes at that point or whatever, and just one of those things. The South Course kind of did what it did. You hit a couple bad shots as Camilo did on 9 and make a double, and it comes up and bites you when you least expect it. I was surprised at a five-shot lead, but I just kept pressing on and was really trying to focus on what I was doing, hitting good golf shots.

Q. Could you go back to the first hole and what happened there? I saw you looking for the ball, helping him find the ball, and then how do you keep your focus in a situation like that? It took quite a long time for that thing to develop.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, we're going to help guys try to find their ball. It's an unfortunate incident what happened to Charley there off the first tee. Unfortunately he didn't find his ball, but you know, you just -- you're not really thinking about it when you're looking for the ball. You're trying to help him find his ball and everything else, and then when it comes back to my shot, then I crawl back into my focus there and worry about the shot that I'm trying to hit.
You know, really it was so early in the day that it wasn't like we were on like 12 or 13 and I had a lot of momentum going and then all of a sudden there's a big wait. So being that it was on the first fairway it was pretty easy to just help him and move on.

Q. Have you ever lost a ball that way?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I think we've all hit it up in a tree from time to time and had it hang up there. But I'm assuming that's what happened since we did not find it on the ground. There were enough people over there that surely would have seen it had it come out of the tree.

Q. What were the conditions like for you?
JOHN ROLLINS: I thought they were okay. You know, it was a little brutal at times with the rain that would come in. It would pick up pretty good there so you kind of had to just stand under the umbrella, almost like I would say almost most players had a little temporary delay themselves just to hope that the rain would pass before they had to hit a shot. But overall I thought the golf course was in pretty good shape considering the rain that I guess got here last night, and overall I thought the conditions were okay.

Q. I couldn't tell from looking in the media guide exactly about your previous two wins. In either one of those did you sleep on the lead, and how will that be tonight, especially with the decent lead that you have, not just thinking about trying to protect this lead?
JOHN ROLLINS: I did not have the lead. I think I came back pretty good in both of them. The Canadian Open I think I was down by seven starting the final round, and then the BC I think I was around four or five back to start the final round.
Yeah, this will be a little different for me, but if you want to get to this level and do these things, you know, you're going to have to learn to sleep on the lead after the third round. I'm just looking to relax, have a good dinner tonight, just try to get some rest and go back and play with my 14-month-old little girl, chase her around the hotel room. She'll keep me grounded for a while, I'm sure. And then come out tomorrow refreshed and ready to go.

Q. Is there any difference between a three-shot lead and the other times you've been there at like Boston or Buick when you were tied with three, four, five other guys?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, it helps to have that little bit of cushion to start the day. But at the same time, as I've said the last couple days, this course can grab you and bite you when you -- if you just don't pay attention to what you're doing or if you hit a careless shot. It's easy to make a double bogey out there really fast.
You know, my goal tomorrow is to come out and just stand on that first tee, hit a good tee shot, hopefully hit a good second shot into the green and just kind of get off and going and see how the round builds from there.

Q. You play well on the West Coast. I guess like a quarter of your career Top 5s or something have come out here. What is it about it? Do you like the courses? Do you like the time of year?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I like the courses out here. Phoenix last week is a course that I've had some success on, as well. Obviously the greens are much different than they are here, but you know, I don't know. I think I just like the way the courses are out here. I like the style of golf obviously. Here and Riviera are two courses where you're not going to shoot really, really low scores, and as I said yesterday, that's the kind of solid golf that I like to play. I don't know, maybe it's just that little bit of hunger to get the season off to a good start. You come out and you're ready to play.

Q. Last year in the last round you had a really bad score. What happened that day? What was the story behind how bad that round went?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, I don't even know that I remembered that round. I'm sure it was probably one of those things where it just got going backwards the wrong way. I'm sure I was on the wrong tee -- if we had a split tee start I'm sure I was on the wrong tee, was way out of the golf tournament. Obviously the interest level was probably not there.
This year will be I'm sure a much different intensity level when I hit the first tee tomorrow versus last year. That would be the only thing I could think of.

Q. What are you most happy with about the first three rounds as far as what you've done, what you've accomplished so far?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, I'm the most pleased with just the way that I've controlled my emotions, the way I've handled myself through the course of the rounds. You know, I've never really gotten ahead of myself. I've had a lot of opportunities and haven't been able to capitalize on all of them, but I have capitalized on quite a few of them. But you know, I've really just not beat myself up about not making a six-foot birdie putt that may bounce off line or something like that. I've gone shot after shot and just tried to hit everything I can, taken what the golf course has given me and dealt with it the best I could.

Q. You joked yesterday about missing out on the course record in Tiger's absence. How do you feel about winning this thing tomorrow in the absence of Tiger?
JOHN ROLLINS: I feel good about it. You know, that's what we're all here for. You know, we're all here to win. 156 guys teed it up with the goal to win the tournament, and I'm just one of the guys that has a chance. I'm very pleased with where I'm sitting, and just the opportunity to come out tomorrow and compete for a chance to win the tournament.

Q. Can you talk about the fourth hole a little bit? You were in the bunker off the tee, right?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I hit it in the right bunker.

Q. What did you hit into the green?
JOHN ROLLINS: I hit a 6-iron. We had about 200 yards and it was playing downwind. I really wasn't even trying to get it all the way back to the flag because that's obviously in a small area of the green. But I knew if I hit it solid I could probably get it pretty close in the center or maybe just over the ridge, and I happened to hit a great shot there, probably one of the best shots I hit of the day, and converted that birdie putt. I would say at that time of the day it was a big momentum shift for me to make a birdie there, and I think that's when I had grabbed the lead for the first time. To do that was big at that point.

Q. And then the short putt on 18, what did you see the ball do there?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, I didn't really see the ball do anything. I thought I hit a good putt. I had a few spots of like old spike marks or heel marks from guys walking around the hole as the day was going on. I really wasn't that concerned. The greens had been rolling pretty decent, so I really wasn't anticipating any problem at all, just kind of a right center putt, no worries. I hit a pretty solid putt, and then I guess it just kind of caught a little patch of something and knocked it just enough to catch an edge and power lift it right back at me. Unfortunately these types of greens, that kind of stuff happens.

Q. What club was that on 4?
JOHN ROLLINS: I hit a 6-iron from the bunker there. I think we had 200 yards to the flag.

Q. You're playing with the cover of Vogue magazine and the local kid Charley. Did you get any love out there today?
JOHN ROLLINS: I mean, obviously everybody wants to see "Spiderman" do his thing. You know, yes, the cover of all the magazines, all that kind of stuff. I was just going out there doing my job, and I had fun with it. I think as the round got going and I did have the lead and everything else, I think there were some fans that started to sort of cheer me on and try to keep me going. But yes, it was definitely a two-man fight in the gallery's eyes.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through your birdies real quick. No. 2?
JOHN ROLLINS: 2, I hit like a little choked-down 8-iron in there and had maybe 12 feet, made that.
Then No. 4, the 6-iron there to probably ten feet, made that.
No. 6, knocked it on in two and two-putted from 40 feet or so.
13, hit it short right into kind of the face of a bunker in the rough, hit it up to probably six feet, made that for birdie.
And then 17, I would say probably I hit it just short of the flag there, probably 20, 22 feet maybe, and made that one.
JOHN BUSH: Thanks a lot, John. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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