RBC Heritage
Friday, April 14, 2017
Ian Poulter
Quick Quotes
Q. Another solid day, you must be very pleased. Two days in a row I thought you hit it really, really well.
IAN POULTER: I hit it better today than I did yesterday. Put it in more fairways. 45 percent fairways yesterday. It was a lot more today. So I feel that was good.
Overall, steady day. The score's probably about right. I could have, should have, maybe taken a couple more opportunities on the course, but it's okay.
Q. You made a concerted effort to hit more fairways. SIX of 14 yesterday, 11 of 14 today. And put yourself in good spots out there?
IAN POULTER: I did. It would have been nice to close with three. I was trying to break the back of the hole get it down as far as I possibly can, leave a pitch up the green. I thought it looked stiff from where I was standing. I wish I would have walked five paces left of that, it was about eight foot short. His ball on the eye looked good. I hit it right by his ball.
Yeah, I put it in play a lot. I hit consistently more fairways. And when I do that my iron play yesterday was good, and obviously I knew I would be in good shape yesterday.
Q. You're one of the better putters out here. And you didn't hit many today but you've got to believe that's coming. It's got to bring some confidence this weekend?
IAN POULTER: Yeah, I think it's coming. I've made a concerted effort on my stroke this week, this past week, back home at Nona. And it's definitely coming. It's definitely paying off. I've just got to keep doing the right things, stay patient and they will drop.
Q. You played well, getting yourself in contention. You have a couple events left to keep your playing privileges?
IAN POULTER: You keep reminding me of it. I'm playing golf like I really don't care, to be honest. I've had to work a lot on clearing everything out of my mind to go and play golf. And that's obviously what I needed to do to play some good golf. And I'm not thinking about it. I'm trying not to think about it. Obviously you keep asking the questions, so it's right there.
If I play well, commit to the shot that I need to hit then I'm going to have a chance come Sunday.
Q. Another solid day, just get some comments on your round?
IAN POULTER: Yeah, good, solid day. 11 of 14 fairways. And with the iron play that I had yesterday I think it was solid golf. I hit a lot of greens in regulations, as well. And when I didn't, for the most part my short game was on. One of the two bogeys was a three-putt from kind of 18 feet, which was a little frustrating, and the other one was a missed green at 18. So understandable. Always possibly going to drop a shot when you miss the 18th green. But I had an opportunity to make par and I didn't.
But the golf was good. I played real solid. Happy with my game. Happy with everything I'm doing. I'm just going to hit a few shots now and have a nice lunch and chill.
Q. You've been very solid here through the years, but I guess -- have you had any just real low round here?
IAN POULTER: I can't remember. I've been playing golf here for a long time. I have to say this is probably the lowest I've been after two days. I'll say that much. My golf is getting very, very consistent from a ball-striking perspective over the last couple of days and it's definitely put me in position.
Q. I overheard you say that you try to play like you don't care. How easy is that to do?
IAN POULTER: I don't care. Life's good. What have I got to moan about? Go and play golf like you want to go and enjoy the game of golf and good things will happen.
Q. A lot of good rounds yesterday. Nobody got away from the crowd today. What's going into that?
IAN POULTER: Well, I mean I had a quick look at scores yesterday. When you evaluate that, I think you had -- I think you had 70 guys within seven shots of the lead, if I'm right, which is quite tight. I have to say that. So the scoring is actually pretty good, from strength and depth.
And I would say it's down to the condition of the golf course. We're all surprised how good the course is. It's probably the best I've ever seen it, with obviously the storms they had back in October it's in super condition.
Q. Are you surprised there were so many good late scores yesterday?
IAN POULTER: It wasn't very windy. So I think with the greens as pure as they are it lends itself to guys holing putts. Everyone out here is good players and they obviously putt pretty good. So I wasn't necessarily surprised to see a couple of low rounds.
Q. You said yesterday you bought yourself a putting mat. How much time have you spent on that mat?
IAN POULTER: The mat is one that I bring on the green, I probably used it four times. But it's an emphasis on not physically trying to hole putts, it's just physically working on my actual stroke, itself. I'm just trying to get my arc.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #178 at 2017-04-14 16:29:00 GMT
