home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 27, 2006

Brandt Jobe

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome the second round leader Brandt Jobe here at the 2006 Buick Invitational at 12 under par. Brandt, followed up your 65 yesterday with a 67 on a much more difficult South Course today. Talk about your round. You said you got off to a slow start but picked up from there.

BRANDT JOBE: Kind of got off to a slow start. I bogeyed 11 and 12, and fortunately birdied 13, made a nice putt there and that kind of steadied things off.

Then eagle on 18, I hit a 3 wood to 10 or 12 feet and that was nice, and made eagle there. After that I kind of settled down and got going again.

Like I said yesterday, two totally different golf courses. My games yesterday and today were not even comparable days. I actually hit the ball good today and I putted great yesterday. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. We'll see.

TODD BUDNICK: You had a great season last year, a career year for you. Is this just a continuation of that good play?

BRANDT JOBE: Well, I hope so. What I'm trying to start this year, I think you take the things that you did well and you leave them and even try and make them better, and I think you kind of look at the areas where you didn't do as well as you would have liked and try and improve them. It doesn't happen overnight, but you just try and work on it.

Q. (Inaudible). How much does that go through your head?

BRANDT JOBE: Well, this is kind of a unique tournament where you're playing two courses that are very different. You know, it's kind of like I said last night when I got here. It was a nice round, 7 under, but that's on the North Course.

Coming to the South Course, if I played like I did yesterday, I would have shot over I probably would have shot over par because I couldn't hit a fairway.

Today I kind of said, all right, you're going to have to tighten things up and you're going to have to drive your golf ball well to score out here.

Fortunately I did. I drove the ball real well. On a course like the South, I don't think you go out there saying I'm going to attack this or I'm going to do that. I think you play the golf course, and what it gives you, you take. When you get in trouble, you get out and minimize your errors. It's just kind of one of those courses.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: To be honest with you, I really wasn't worried about it. I think if I would have gone out and shot 7 under on the South Course, I would have felt better shooting 5 , 6 , 7 under on this North Course and kind of get going. That's a little different mindset maybe.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: You know, I did. When I left Japan and came over here, I said, all right, I'm going to change my game. I'm going to hit draws, fades, high, low, I'm going to do it all. I was primarily hitting a cut in Japan and I was winning tournaments and doing well. I spent three years honestly being kind of lost trying to hit draws and fades, and it didn't work for me. I used to hook the ball a long time ago, and I can control the fade but can't control a hook.

I lost a few years there definitely trying things, trying to get what I thought was getting better, and in the end I was not improving at all, kind of actually going backwards.

Then I think once I got hurt, you kind of realize, hey, what I was doing a while back was pretty good. Let's go back to in 2003 I just started going back to what had worked and made almost a million dollars and I think I finished somewhere around 60th on the Money List. That kind of showed me, all right, if you do what you were doing over there, you're going to be fine.

After having gotten hurt a couple years, the little bit of time I did I obviously had a lot of time to think, a little time to work, but trying to refine and get back to kind of what I was doing in a little different way, maybe keep the power in the game and not hit such big cuts but still play primarily a left to right game.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Well, I think all of us, everyone, Tiger included, Vijay, everybody is always trying to improve. We're always trying to get better. I think if we weren't we'd get bored and stop playing. There's the thing about golf, there's no such thing as a perfect game. That's what's unique.

I think we're always trying to improve. Instead of making them big giant things, I think what I'm doing is saying, all right, there's a few things we can work on, it's not going to happen overnight but let's be aware, try a few things but not do an overhaul again. That doesn't work.

Last year kind of proved to me that what I'm doing works and I think it is good enough to win if I do it well enough for four days.

Q. (Inaudible). Are you kind of curious to see how you handle all this?

BRANDT JOBE: I mean, a 36 hole lead, if we sat and looked at how many guys had the 36 hole lead and won the tournament last year, it probably wouldn't be a great number. It's a good position to be in.

I think really tomorrow for me it's go out there, get comfortable, continue to do the same things I'm doing, whether I shoot it's insignificant unless I go out there and shoot 65, then all of a sudden I might really be able to do something. But just try and have a good continue to what I'm doing, have a good attitude. It's a tough golf course, and the greens are tough to putt. There's some areas it's very challenging right now in good and bad ways.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Not really. It's kind of like I said, with that golf course, with the South Course, you kind of plod along, try and hit fairways. You've got to hit drivers off the tee. On the par 5s there's a couple holes I can reach in two, so a big advantage is a good drive there. Really my focus there was trying to drive the ball. I drove it very poorly yesterday, so my focus was really trying to get the driver under control, and I did today. I think that's why I played well.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Well, I mean, I think I'm probably a little bit different than most of the guys out here because I spent a lot of time overseas playing. You know, it was different. I was always working towards getting back here. I was in Japan, Asia, and I wasn't playing the PGA TOUR year in and year out, so I didn't have the same kind of grind I think as some guys that have been out here I think it would probably be 16 years if you were my age.

I'm still a fresh 40 if that makes sense. This is my eighth or ninth year in a row. You know, I'm having fun. I'm still learning, and as long as it continues to stay fun, I want to keep practicing and keep trying to get better, then it's a good thing.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Well, number one, yes, you have to drive the ball in the fairway, and honestly, the longer you hit it, it makes the par 5s I mean, I had a 3 wood into 18, and 6 I hit 3 iron, and 12 I hit 13 I hit 2 iron. Then I hit it in the trees on 9, so I got to chip out.

But I think that's a big advantage on the par 5s, having the length. But absolutely I would say driving it in the fairway over length. I mean, length is a bonus, but to score out here, you have to hit it in the fairway.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Well, I mean, I have a new driver this week, which is kind of ironic. I got out on the range yesterday after I was in here and tried to figure out what's kind of going on. I thought I was hitting it pretty good last night, so it was a matter of bringing it from the range to the golf course. Fortunately I did that today.

I have confidence now in the club. I hit some good drives when I needed to on tough holes, so those are all things you go through in your mind so you can trust what you're doing.

Q. (Inaudible). How much do you think boredom can be the cause of guys (inaudible)?

BRANDT JOBE: Sometimes, Vijay, for example, he can tinker and he enjoys it. He loves to keep going. He loves to experiment, try things, do things. That's kind of his passion.

And then there's other guys that may be more set in their ways. There's a fine line there between some guys enjoy tinkering and doing things, and other guys if they do, it's going to hurt them.

You're right, we all have to continue to have that drive to want to improve, and the drive to want to start the first tournament hopping the airplane, going to the hotel away from your family. I mean, you've got to still say this is what I want to do. I mean, that's important.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: No, I think I was just trying to improve. I think that's what I thought I had I had to do. At the end of the day, I didn't improve, I got worse. I learned. It took two and a half years to figure it out, but I learned I couldn't do it.

Q. How much time did you spend on the range with the driver last night, and what did you figure out?

BRANDT JOBE: It was just kind of me. I think yesterday I got on that North Course and I was swinging at it so hard because you really can kind of overpower that one a little bit in terms of you can miss the fairway a little bit, get it within 150 yards and still hit the green. I was swinging for the fences a little bit and it threw my timing off. I went to the range and went through the basics, got my timing back a little bit.

Q. For about a half an hour or so?

BRANDT JOBE: Yeah, about 20 minutes.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Yeah, I think there was eight or ten guys out there, but I don't think it's really the games or anything that we play out there. But the golf course is in such good shape and the greens are so good that there's no transition going from playing at your home course to playing a Tour event. A lot of times our course is in better shape and the greens are better than the actual Tour events we're going to.

It's nice to be able to prepare. You're hitting a lot of golf balls on the range, you've got all the facilities and really a good golf course, and we have a lot of wind there, too, which kind of prepares you for courses like this. It's just an all around nice place to play and practice.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRANDT JOBE: Yeah, I think so. I've gotten to know Justin Leonard a lot better than in the past, and Todd Hamilton is a good friend of mine and we play a lot. But Greg Chalmers and Harrison Frazar and Brian Watts, and there's a lot of good players, a lot of good guys. It's nice.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your birdies and bogies.

BRANDT JOBE: 11, hit it in the right bunker, knocked it out about 12 feet and missed it.

12, I hit it just off the fairway left, couldn't get it to the front, hit it in the front left bunker, knocked that out about 12 feet and missed it.

13, I hit driver, 2 iron in the front bunker, knocked that out about six feet, made it.

18, I hit driver, 3 wood from about 265 to about 12 feet, made eagle.

1, I hit driver, 7 iron to about ten feet.

And 2, I hit 3 wood, wedge about three feet.

6, I hit driver, 3 iron just over the green and chipped up to about four feet.

9, I hit driver, 3 iron, sand wedge to about two feet.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Brandt. Good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297