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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 31, 2012Jeff OvertonNORTON, MASSACHUSETTS MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Jeff Overton. You got it to 7‑under, tied for the lead after the morning wave with Tiger Woods. If you want to talk about your round today and then we'll have a few questions. JEFF OVERTON: You know, I've been driving the ball better than ever. I think that's where‑‑ when you play on the TOUR, that's what you have to do first. I've been hitting this Cleveland Classic Driver straighter than I think I've ever hit any driver in my life. I'm loving it, and it makes the game easy whenever you putt well. Unfortunately the last three months I think it's probably been the worst I've ever putted in my life. I've seen three different putting instructors over the last five weeks, and I think at the PGA I three‑putted like five times or something, and it was just horrible. And then today for some reason all the hard work that I've been putting into it paid off, and started finally just‑‑ was able to clean the ball up around the hole. Q. Your thoughts entering this tournament and the situation you're in in the FedExCup points and the carrot that's dangling there to get back home to play at Crooked Stick, how much motivation was that for you? JEFF OVERTON: It's a big motivation. I've never played golf‑‑ the last time I think there was a tournament in Indiana, PGA event, was when Daly won it. Was that '91 or something? You know, I played Crooked Stick a bunch, and in college we played it, and every year I seem like I always pop up there a few times a year because it's an awesome place, spent a little time there the last couple months, and I'm constantly getting a lot of great text messages and people say, hey, we're really excited to see you at Crooked Stick, just the whole Hoosier nation. It's just going to be fun if I can get into the event. Starting last night, I was like, I'm going to do just a little mind work and think about my round and really focus on making sure I got off to a good start this week, because I know I need to have a good finish to get there. It would just mean a whole lot if I could get into that tournament. Q. You talked about the five different instructors working on your putting over the last few months. Which one offered the right advice or what was the right advice that got you going today? JEFF OVERTON: You know, I worked with Mike Shannon the week of the PGA right after I had all those three‑putts, and then I went out and putted good the next week, and then I didn't putt so hot the next week, and then I kind of work with James Sieckmann yesterday and just being more disciplined getting lined up. I think it's key if you can get lined up and find your mark, and I opened my stance up a little bit. Who knows, hopefully it's fixed and I can come back out tomorrow and do the same. It was finally good to see a few go in and just make the putts inside 10 feet really. Q. On the back side that decisive stretch where you had those five birdies, can you talk a little bit about that stretch, and were there any kind of testers in terms of the putts that you made? JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, the first one was on 12. I hit a drive right down the middle and hit‑‑ it was dead into the wind and I was in between clubs so I tried to hit a high fade 5‑iron and it was perfect, hit to like four feet. I just missed like a five‑footer‑‑ three or four‑footer on 7, and I was sitting there thinking, come on, do whatever you can just to get this in the hole. I pulled it a little bit, and I was like, oh, gosh, missed it again. Just the frustration was there, but somehow the ball leaked in the hole. I'm like, thank goodness. Next hole I hit it right down the middle and hit an easy 9‑iron in there to four feet, five feet, and I was able to drive it right in the hole. And then the next hole I kind of missed it a little bit again, and I hit a great drive right down the middle and hit a 5‑iron to like 15 feet, and that was probably one of the best putts, that was kind of where it felt great because it was such good rhythm, and I hit it‑‑ it was just dead in the center of the hole, and I was like, man, this feels good. Then I hit driver again right down the middle of the next hole and hit a gap wedge to like five feet, and I went ahead and stroked it and it was right in the center and it felt great. Hit a 9‑iron on the par‑3, was all over it, bounced a little past the hole, 15 to 20 feet, and I got a good read off the other guy in my group and poured it right in the center, and it felt good again. Next hole was a driver down the middle again, and it was kind of into the wind and I couldn't decide on the wind and I left it way short, hit a good shot but it kind of ballooned in the wind and left myself about a 10‑footer, 10‑foot slider, and I just kept my little routine and knocked another great little 10‑footer in for par. And then the last hole was probably one of the best chip shots I've ever hit in my life, hit it over the green, short sided left, and hit a flop chip shot that landed 12, 15 right of the hole right in the fringe, and then it kicked it over like a Yo‑Yo right towards the hole and almost made it, to like two inches. Q. How much did the golf course play into your round today? Is this one of those places that just fits your eye where it just‑‑ your game came together here? JEFF OVERTON: It does fit my eye. I think it's a very interesting course, though. Like you said, for instance, the three par‑5s, they're so risk‑rewardy, especially No.2 and No.18. You hit the fairway there, and I hit it‑‑ my hybrid down there like 12 feet, but if you don't hit a good second shot in there, you're‑‑ just an average shot, if you don't hit an average‑‑ even if you hit an average shot, you might be hitting another shot from the fairway, just because it's so severe. And same thing with 18. If you don't hit it just right on the button you have to hit some kind of incredible chip shot or you could even be hitting another wedge shot again. I think it so depends on the way you play the par‑5s and your approach shots and if you're able to get the ball in the fairway because it's obviously two birdies I made there today that if you play them 1‑over, which I've done in the past, your round is totally different. Q. Obviously that last birdie was pretty decisive, gets you tied for the lead here. At what point during that streak did you peak at the leaderboard to see where you stood in relation to the leader, and when you saw it was Tiger, what was your thoughts? JEFF OVERTON: You know, I really didn't‑‑ I looked at it briefly. I didn't even realize that I just made my third birdie in a row. I was just hoping‑‑ I was just really hoping, trying to pay attention to my putter and trying to make the putts I needed to make. Then all of a sudden I made one for my fourth birdie in a row, and I looked up, man, Tiger is running away with it, and I was sitting there kind of thinking, man, he's probably licking his chops right now. I'm like, well, maybe we can have a good finish and somehow I kind of used that as motivation, maybe we can somehow get a good finish and tie him somewhere, maybe make eagle. I think he bogeyed the last hole and we birdied it. It's just little small stuff. You're constantly trying to do stuff to take the nerves off and to give yourself more motivation. I was able to do that well, and hopefully I can keep doing that. Q. Two‑part question. When you said you were working on the mind, did some mind work yesterday night, can you be a little bit more specific? And secondly, is the mental game something that you've been working on recently, or has there been a change in anything? JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, that was one of the last things. That was the end of the routine that James told me. I hate to give his secrets out, but he basically said whenever you make the putt and you're picking it out of the hole, tell yourself how good you are, and that was great, just keep reminding yourself of that. The combination of that and last night I went back like what have I not been doing that maybe I did back in the day, back years ago, and I thought about it, I was like, I haven't really played out my round because I felt like last week I played really good but I felt like I almost got in my own way because I kind of programmed what a score was in my mind, because I know it's like a U.S. Open course and you know it's hard, and you're like, a couple over might‑‑ is probably going to be all right, but hopefully you don't shoot that. So I felt like I almost programmed my mind to shoot that. So I went down the line, and I was like, let's just get ourselves where we feel comfortable where we know we can shoot something under par. I went down the line of holes and played them out in my brain, which is something that you should always do and maybe something that I haven't done as much recently as I need to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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