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PUERTO RICO OPEN PRESENTED BY BANCO POPULARMarch 15, 2010Derek LamelyRIO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO MARK STEVENS: We welcome the 2010 Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular champion Derek Lamely. Derek, congratulations. You earned 250 FedExCup points and great start to the season. Get us started on what this means to you, what's going through your mind right now and just some thoughts on the week. DEREK LAMELY: Gosh, with the FedExCup points, this being my first year out here, sounds good. I don't really know what it means just yet. I'll worry about that later on in the year. I guess for the rest of the year just kind of the same process of what I've been through so far. You know, seeing new golf courses, trying to learn what I'm doing, trying to play with the better players, and just trying to learn every week. I'm still a rookie out here, even though I just won. There's tons I can learn still. So this is probably my biggest thing is to see how much I can learn and see how much better I can get, which helps playing really good golf courses every week like this one and playing with some of the best players. So I guess for this week, a slow start to a fast finish. So all week I played well. Nothing really happened for me the first two rounds. Actually kind of struggled my third nine, shot a couple over, but after that I played nice the whole week. I think I only made one bogey the last 45 holes. And I finally made some putts and I finally got some stuff going the right direction, which was the first time this year, which was a lot of fun again. Q. (Indiscernible). Does that play any effect into your mindset out there today? DEREK LAMELY: You know, normally the way I look at it I was so far ahead in holes, I was nine holes ahead of everybody, so it could have helped me in some respects, because the whole time I knew I was behind. Even if I was leading I still felt like I was behind because they had so many more holes than I did. So that was the way I went into it, but I just kept on trying to make birdies, I kept on trying to be aggressive. I figured maybe if I could maybe get ahead with them having nine holes to go and maybe put pressure on them, I might could get out, and I got lucky enough and it worked. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: You know, I left myself in the right spot. First couple rounds I kind of miscued here and there, and I kind of paid for it. You know, it doesn't take much out here, you know, just kind of a drive in a bunker and you can't really be very aggressive into the green and then you got a really hard two-putt. I three-putted twice the first couple rounds and those were two of my bogeys I made. But really, you know, when I missed it, I kind of had more control of my golf ball, ball striking wise to where I left myself easier putts, and when I did miss the green, I left myself an easy chip to save par. That was really the biggest key probably. It could have been just knowing the golf course a little better this week and starting to play better as well. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Tampa, couple days. Innisbrook, yep. Thursday. Transitions. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: I looked a little bit. Once I made it to the front nine, though, or my Back 9, you know, I didn't see any leaderboards. I didn't have a clue. So I knew -- I hit it close to one. Probably the worst shot I hit all week, I left a 5-footer for birdie. I missed it. From there I still knew I had to be aggressive, no matter -- even if I made it, I was still going to be aggressive. In my mind, I made the turn at 15, I think. My goal -- I figured if I got to 20, I thought 20 would be the number. I thought that would be free and clear, but that was my goal was to try and get to 20, so I kind of had it in my mind, and people started showing up more and more my last four holes to go. So I kind of knew things were -- I assumed that the guys that were leading hadn't played as well. So at that point it was a little bit different, like three to go. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: No. (Laughs). Four is a really hard hole, yeah. So it was nice, it was actually a little bit downwind today, so you could kind of lay back and your approach shot in wasn't quite as difficult. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Frustrated? Oh, not at all. Well, you know, I sat in bed for a few days. I didn't do anything. I forgot I was at a golf tournament, which was kind of unfortunate. It wasn't frustrating. It was very awkward. That was the longest delay I've had for a start of a golf tournament. So it was unique. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: No. Big difference. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: It'll bring me a little flexibility, but not really a whole lot this year just because of the sheer fact that I've never seen any of these golf courses. I've played this one and I've played Tampa. I really haven't seen any of them. So it gives me a little flexibility in how many weeks in a row I'll play. Like this is my fifth one in a row right now. So I'm supposed to play the next three as well, so we're going to see. I don't think I'm going to play all three, but yeah, it'll help, a little bit, but still, I still have to do the prep work of everything I like to do for practice rounds. It's going to be a long year, and this just makes it easier, because that way I don't have to press quite as hard when I'm playing, trying to play well, trying to make the cut, trying to move up the Money List, trying to finish Top 125. This does, it gives me a lot more freedom. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Oh, when did I realize it? Q. Yes. DEREK LAMELY: My third round. I knew if I kept playing well and I kept trying to make birdies, I knew I would get within striking distance. I got closer than I thought, so I knew I had a chance, and then I knew I had to play well again today. But I knew more -- once I made the turn -- unfortunately I didn't birdie 18 today either. 18 was kind of a kicker for me. I thought that kind of put me behind just because of how many more holes they had than I did. So that one was kind of -- I thought the tournament could be kind of up in the air right there. And then I seemed to hit a lot of good shots, and I made good birdies on 2, 3, 5 and I pulled it out. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Excellent. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Really, it all started last year. I Monday qualified to get in. You know, even when I played the practice round last year, I really liked the golf course. For whatever reason I said all week, even last year, for whatever reason I read the greens really well. The golf course really picked my eye, except for maybe a shot here and there, which is like every other player. But you know, it's a really good golf course. It's fun to play. I think it's kind of helping my attitude a little bit, because you kind of get down, it's easier to not play as well. But the golf course is fun to me. I like playing in the wind. It makes it to be a little more creative, hitting shots into the hole. So I really like it. Especially last year. This year was a little different. It was soft and wet, but it's the same thing. It's just a fun golf course, you can be very creative and you can play well and the golf course can get you, too, real quick. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Yeah. Definitely. I love it here. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Be kind of hard not to. Q. (Indiscernible). DEREK LAMELY: Maybe. End of FastScripts |
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