	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

WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2011

Jonathan Byrd

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Jonathan Byrd into the interview room here at the Wells Fargo Championship. 5-under par 67, including seven birdies in a nine-hole stretch. Just great playing today.
JONATHAN BYRD: Thank you. They said the seven out of nine birdies, nine-hole stretch, in the interview, and my response was, "Wow, I did that?" I didn't really realize it was going that good there for a while. I was pretty shaky starting off, didn't feel real comfortable out there. I've played with Phil before; he's a great player. The environment is pretty distracting. Man, people were excited we were out there playing today. Charlotte was pretty rocking and rolling out there, and I just had a hard time settling down.
And then made some good swings kind of middle late of the front nine, and that kind of settled me down, and I kind of just relaxed and started enjoying it a little more. And then just was real calm on the back nine, just kind of taking each hole in stride and just trying to react and be athletic out there.

Q. 14 yesterday you bogeyed and then you birdied today.
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, I didn't hit it in that right bunker off the tee, although I hit it right at it. Today the tee was a little up. It was a perfect 3-wood for me, turn it over, with the slope I could get it to the green. It was 290 front, and if I hit a good 3-wood it was perfect and I kind of hung it out and stayed short of that right bunker on the upslope, so I had about 50 yards to the hole and I hit a good wedge shot in there about six, seven feet and made it.

Q. Can you talk about your journey from the almost miraculous shot in Vegas to where you are?
JONATHAN BYRD: Well, before Vegas I was in a different position than I am now. I was fighting to keep my card and was not playing well, and to win that event and win the first event of the year and have a couple good weeks since that and to find myself in contention again, it's just kind of like I was searching to get my game going then before that win in Vegas, and now I'm just trying to just go play, knowing that everything is pretty good. I'm not resting on what I've done already, but it has made things easier just to go play golf and not work on things as much.

Q. Is it just confidence since Vegas and going into this season, or is it that you're healthy?
JONATHAN BYRD: It's just confidence. It's confidence, and then I feel really good inside ten feet with my putter. You know, that makes -- when you're putting good inside ten feet, it makes your short game easier and makes your ball-striking easier, makes everything easier. And I'm doing that a lot better this year. I would assume my stats would show that. And then, yeah, confidence. I mean, you're just -- this game is tough to play when you don't have any confidence.

Q. When you talked about settling in, it took some time to settle in today, was that more about just the buzz and the energy that was out there, or more about just getting used to all the extra movement and noise that comes with playing in a Mickelson gallery?
JONATHAN BYRD: I want to go back to the question before about confidence. When I say confidence, what I mean by that is just confident knowing that even if I don't feel good out there, my game is good enough still to go out there and shoot 67, you know? I didn't feel good starting the first few holes. When you don't have much confidence, you try to search for something and you try to find something, when it's just there. Maybe some of that is maturity, but it's confidence just to say, all right, it's okay, I didn't play the first few holes the way I wanted to, just start playing a little more aggressive and it'll be fine; you're good enough to just make it work. So you just trust yourself.
The environment out there, can you say your question again?

Q. You said it took some time to get settled in. Was that more about just the buzz and the energy around being on top of the leaderboard and being paired with Mickelson or more about getting used to all the extra movement and noise that comes with playing in a pairing like that?
JONATHAN BYRD: It wasn't so much noise because the crowds were great when you got over the ball. It was just the buzz of playing with Mickelson, and you walk off the green, and it's like going through this tunnel, and everybody is wanting you to high five. I've never high fived so many people in my life, and I don't like high fiving because somebody might have just put sunscreen on, and I don't play with a glove, so my hands are pretty important, and I'm high fiving people all day. My wife, if she could have, would have been following me around with some germ stuff to wash my hands. (Laughter.)
But I don't know, I was just uncomfortable, that many people just kind of crammed on you. You know, I don't know what to do. Phil is used to that. He just kind of just flashes that smile, and I kind of just want to put my head down and just keep walking. I guess I need to get used to that a little more.

Q. You were close to getting paired with Lucas. How cool would that have been?
JONATHAN BYRD: That would have been pretty fun. You know, Lucas walking by me on the range this morning or the afternoon going to the tee, he said, "Let's get us a tee time about 2:00 tomorrow together," and I looked at him and gave him five and said, "Let's do it."
You know, it's amazing how hard you pull for your friends out here, and especially your teammates in college. We're competing hard against each other, but we're really playing the golf course. I'm not playing against Phil, I'm not playing against Lucas. That's no fun to write stories about, but I'm playing the golf course. And I want him to do as good as he can, you know, because that makes me play better. That would have been a lot of fun tomorrow. Who am I playing with?

Q. Perez.
JONATHAN BYRD: Cool.

Q. With all the birdies you made, I wonder if you could talk about the par putt on 12 which looked to be difficult.
JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, man. Phil's chip on that hole was unbelievable, how good that was. But I hit -- I got up on the tee when I probably could have just hit 3-iron off the tee or a hybrid just to get in play, and I'm like, no, I want to stay aggressive, I hit a great tee shot down there and had pitching wedge in, and that green is so hard but I was in perfect shape to hit a good shot there, and hit a poor shot and hit not a great lag putt, and that was the hardest putt I made on the whole back nine. That ball was breaking about ten inches, and it was only about, I don't know, seven feet away, six feet away. Watching Phil's chip kind of helped me to see how much it was breaking, and I just hit it center cut. It was a great putt.

Q. A lot of golf to play. With a win tomorrow you would move into that real exclusive three-win club within the last 12 months. Would you like to comment?
JONATHAN BYRD: That would be great (smiling). I don't know, that would be hard to -- I'd say obviously 12 months ago I would never have thought that could have happened. But now the way my game is, you know, why couldn't it happen? I'm playing well. I feel like I have all the tools to play well, and you know, I don't know if I'm going to win tomorrow. I'm playing good enough to win, but I'm just going to go out there and play the golf course again and see what happens.
And then just -- all week I've been just trying to stay calm throughout the whole golf course and just say, when I get done I'll be able to enjoy it because I've been just kind of trying to stay calm and not get ahead of myself, and that's kind of the attitude I'm going to go into tomorrow with. I'm just going to try to go play, and then when it's all over, I'll enjoy whatever I've done.
JOHN BUSH: Thanks for coming by. Play well tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297