Media Center Interviews

April 19, 2018

First Round Interview with Jon Curran

Q. Jon, great round, 69. Not easy to shoot in these conditions, is it?

JON CURRAN: No. Obviously very windy out. It's kind of the norm here, but the greens seem to be -- for me they seem to be pretty receptive. Obviously I played well so I hit some good shots, but very penalizing if you don't hit the green and if you don't hit the fairway. So a lot of trouble out there, but I played really well.

Q. Let's talk about the finishing holes for you. On 17, looked like you decided to play it short of the green instead of going for that surface, a lot of trouble near the green if you don't --

JON CURRAN: Yeah, I mean, I couldn't carry that right bunker which would have got me onto the green with a driver, so I was looking a ways back and getting maybe 80, 90 yards and a 3-wood just went -- which should have left me 85, 90 yards, but it went too far and I had like 75 yards to the hole. So I had to hit some weird little punch shot up there. I didn't quite execute it, but it was a good thought. Good thought process, just didn't quite pan out.

Q. Is that part of the fun and I guess challenge of this golf course, holes like 17 and 18, there are different ways you can play it?

JON CURRAN: Well, 18 right now is just driver, 3-iron or 3-wood and tough wedge shot. A lot of greens are pinched in and you might have a front pin and the hole might play shorter, but it's such a narrow gap on either side. We had a pin there on 12 that was that way, pin on 15 was front, pin on 18 was front. So these front pins are very, very tight around the pin, so might have a shorter shot in but it's definitely more penalizing.

Q. Jon, great playing, 11 out of 14 fairways. How much does that help hitting the driver so well on a golf course that's this difficult in windy conditions?

JON CURRAN: Yeah, obviously it's very windy. This course is known for being penalizing off the fairway. Fairway bunkers are difficult to hit out of it, and then if you're not in that, you're off into the rough. There's a lot of trees and a lot of stuff that you want to avoid, so definitely beneficial to be in the fairway into some of these very challenging pins and green complexes.

Q. I know it's been a little bit of a struggle for you so far this season, but how much does it help coming to a place where you have some good experience, tied for 9th in 2016?

JON CURRAN: Yeah, I may look like I'm not playing well but I'm doing all right, having a lot of good rounds and I'm mentally very, very strong and so I'm doing well. But it's definitely nice to come back to this place and then going on a plane next week for Zurich.