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MISSISSIPPI GULF RESORT CLASSICMay 1, 2010Robin FreemanBILOXI, MISSISSIPPI PHIL STAMBAUGH: 68 today. I know it could have been a little better, but a good round in the wind. You get into the tournament through a playoff in the qualifier. You get in 74, 68 and -2 under. You're in good shape. Just talk about today's round and getting in this week. ROBIN FREEMAN: Well, in my position I have to basically qualify. I don't have enough obviously career money and I don't have any wins on the regular tour, so I'm just an lonely old guy out chasing this Champions Tour and seeing if I could get my game any better? It was good in spots today. I actually, on the front nine, got away with a few bad swings and managed to get it up-and-down. It kind of caught up to me on 17 and 18 there. But that's about it. I actually hit fairly well on the front nine. Actually on the back nine, too, except the last couple shots. I got to tell you, 17 and 18 are playing like a bear today. Don't know if it's blowing 25 in in your face or 25 left to right or 40 in your face. You know, it's just all over the place. I'm not too displeased with the day even though I finished poorly. 68 is a pretty good score after today. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Take us through the round. ROBIN FREEMAN: Sure. Actually hit a pitching wedge on the 1st hole on my third shot to about ten feet right of the hole and made that. Hit a 7-iron for my approach shot on No. 2 to about 12 feet behind the hole and made that. Par, par, par. 6 is playing pretty easy if you drive it in the fairway. I drove it pretty good. Knocked it on; knocked a 3-iron on. Had to go under that tree on the right. You guys know about that tree on the right? There's one tree on the right and one on the left, and you got to go under one of them. So I went over the tree on the right. Knocked a 3-iron on and 2-putted for birdie there. 7, hit a 4-iron off the tee; hit a pitching wedge to about ten feet on 7 and made that. 10, hit driver and 60-degree wedge in about six feet. On 12, I just hit what I thought was a pretty good tee shot and it ended up blowing about 30 yards left and into some trouble. Chipped it over the green and then failed to get up-and-down for par. 13, I hit a really good drive and a hybrid to about 20 feet behind the hole for eagle and 2-putted from there. 15, hit driver, 3-iron, pitching wedge to about 25 feet and made that. 16, hit driver, 60-degree -- gap wedge, sorry -- to about 30 feet and made that. Then 17 and 18, just blocked both tee shots. 17 I blocked the tee shot way to the time right, and I had... PHIL STAMBAUGH: What club? ROBIN FREEMAN: 5-iron. Hit a 5-iron trying to knock it down underneath the wind and got ahead of it and blocked it right; hit a poor chip and then three-putted for my double. 18, did the same thing. Tried to hit a driver under the wind and blocked it right. I guess with -- there's a Fallen Oak over there. That's what it's named after? Q. That's "the" fallen oak. ROBIN FREEMAN: That's "the" fallen oak. I got to know it very well. Had to chip out. Hit an 8-ron for about 30 feet and 2-putted for bogey. So a very disappointing way to finish the day, but I had a lot ever good stuff happen, too, so... Q. Talk about how you got in this tournament through the qualifying and the playoff round. ROBIN FREEMAN: Qualifying, yup, Monday at Bay St. Louis, the Bridges Golf Course. I actually hit the ball very, very well. It was kind of a day like that. Not quite this hard, but obviously the golf course is a little more forgiving than this one. I actually hit it really well. Three-putted four times in that round. Actually three-putted my last hole to get into the playoff. I didn't know it at the time, thank you. And then in the playoff there was two other guys, Terry Burke and Jay Don Blake and I all parred the first hole, and then I birdied the second hole. I hit a driver and sand wedge on 17 or something. Q. So a three-for-one spot? ROBIN FREEMAN: Three-for-one spot, yeah. PHIL STAMBAUGH: You made about a 15-footer? ROBIN FREEMAN: Yeah, about that; 10, 15-footer or something like that. I don't remember. I don't remember the length of my putts, I just remember that they go in. I remember the length of the ones I miss, though. Q. When you were on 17, were you aware of where you were standing? ROBIN FREEMAN: Yeah. Yeah. Q. The wind was... ROBIN FREEMAN: You know, it's a swing flaw of mine. When I try and hit the ball down I have a tendency to block it a lot. I slide in front of it and block it and I don't release the golf club. It happened again. I mean, it's just blowing so hard out there you just really can't hit anything up in the air. With the pin on the left-hand side, I obviously didn't want to miss it left, so I'm not gonna aim over there. I was aiming at the middle of the green and hope I blocked it straight. Then I didn't. I hit it right. It got up into the wind and I had a really hard pitch shot and didn't hit a very good one. But, yeah, I knew where I stood. There's gonna be some good scores out there. Always are. I'm guessing probably 8-, 9-under will be leading after the day. Q. What's it like to be in that position, to have to go through qualifying? ROBIN FREEMAN: It's a very uncomfortable position as far as getting any kind of consistency going. It's a tough way to go, but others have done it. I've played enough golf over the years that I feel like I can still play. In fact, I feel like I'm playing better now than I did when was on the tour for a long time, and the Nationwide Tour. So I still feel like I have the game and I still feel like I get up every morning wanting to play golf and wanting to improve. It is a hassle to have to go travel around the country and hopefully play really well one round. But, you know, there's obviously a lot of other guys doing it, so that's one way to get in. You know, just keep going, and hopefully something good will happen. Q. Talk about the wind a little bit. ROBIN FREEMAN: Oh, man, that's a hard wind. Doesn't seem like any -- there's not a lot of holes that are crosswind. A few of them are. Most are downwind or into the wind, so it's really hard to gauge how the ball is gonna fly. If you spin is too much, even downwind, it'll just get knocked straight down. If you spin it too much into the wind it's gonna go straight up. So the trajectory and the solidness of his is very critical on a day like this. If you could do that, then you can play the wind. Luckily I hit a lot of the solid shots, so I was playing the wind okay. But if you're not hitting it very solid it's tough, like the last two holes. Q. Do you prefer the crosswinds or do you prefer... ROBIN FREEMAN: Crosswinds are usually easier, yeah, because I can -- you don't have to go exactly perfect with your trajectory. You can use the wind or work against it, whereas downwind you basically have to get the ball up in the air so it won't go straight down; and then downwind -- I mean into the wind you're trying to hit it down so it won't go up. It's crazy. Q. I know you have to play it hole by hole, but you're out there on the course, 15th hole, 7-under for the day, in the lead. What kind of adrenaline surge is there? How do you handle that mentally? ROBIN FREEMAN: Well, it's not like I've never been there before. I have played a couple good tournaments here and there once in a while, so my adrenaline doesn't get up. I knew 17 and 18 were gonna play hard, so I was trying to make as many birdies as I could before then knowing that bogey is not a bad score. I mean it's just not, especially with the pin placement on 17. It's short left over there in a real hard spot. 18 is no bargain anywhere you put it on that green. So the adrenaline was not there. I made a long putt at 16 that kind of got me jumped up a little bit. But, again, if you're swinging and hitting the ball solid you shouldn't be too nervous or amped up. I was a little -- I don't know what the word is. Not nervous, but I knew I wasn't swinging great. I kind of know where my flaws are when I'm swinging badly. The wind just got it. I didn't control the spin on 17, and the wind just got it and pushed it way to the right. Q. (No microphone.) ROBIN FREEMAN: I did hit a good putt there, yeah, especially after three-putting the hole before. I practiced that putt a lot during the practice rounds, so I kind of knew the speed. That was okay. I just missed the speed on 17 a lot. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Robin, thank you. ROBIN FREEMAN: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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