What they said: Steve Stricker

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SONY OPEN AT HAWAII: Transcript archive

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Steve Stricker into the interview room, a 3 under par 67. Steve, just three birdies, no bogeys, nice solid play today.

STEVE STRICKER: It was a good solid day today. I gave myself a lot of opportunities from the fairway. I think I only missed 4 fairways around here. And when you can do that, and keep the ball in play in the fairway, is always a good thing around here.

I hit a lot of greens and just played pretty smart and conservative at times when I had to. You know, no bogeys is always a good thing.

JOHN BUSH: The birdie on No. 6, take us through that.

STEVE STRICKER: Birdie on No. 6, yes, I chipped in there. I drove it into the fairway, missed the green just to the right, pin high to the right and chipped in from maybe about 30 feet which was obviously an added bonus. It was good. Like I say, it was an added bonus.

Birdie No. 12. I hit a driver in the fairway and a 9 iron to about 12 feet.

Birdied 18, driver in the fairway and 4 iron flew the green, chipped down to about 8 feet and made that.

Q. Robert was just talking that he was playing really conservative but mostly because he has a bad ankle. Conservative is obviously the way to do it here I think?

STEVE STRICKER: You know you can't be very aggressive here. It's a course where you have to play position golf. You have to try and get it in the fairway off the tee. I think that's a premium this week because if you start missing the fairways and trying to hit out of the rough, it becomes very difficult to get the ball close to the pin. Sometimes not even on the greens. But, you know, your first objective is to get it into the fairway. Conservative around here is, I think, a good thing. Pars are a good score around here at times. I think you just have to play smart. It can jump up and grab you if you're not smart.

Q. Everyone always says pars are a good score, and you look at the fairways, and you disagree but every year somebody wins at 15 or 18 under, why is that?

STEVE STRICKER: You know, I don't know, good question. 15 under it hasn't been that, has it?

Q. Last year.

STEVE STRICKER: Was it?

Q. There has been a 10 here.

STEVE STRICKER: I don't know, there is still enough holes. Obviously, both par 5s are reachable. You know, there is still enough short holes if you drive it in play, and get it in the fairway, there is still some birdie opportunities.

But, again, those easy holes can sometimes jump up and grab you. I think that's the hole conservative approach that you need to take, is that any hole can become difficult if you don't drive it in the fairway. It's just a tricky course.

Coming here, you know, the first tournament of the year, the wind adds a lot of trickery to the course, but I think that's why guys that are playing well and up near the top, they play pretty conservative, make their birdies when they get their opportunities, but make their pars when they know it's a par hole.

Q. What was the wind like today?

STEVE STRICKER: You know it was about the same as yesterday for us. Gusty at times. Pretty much the same direction out of the Northeast. So, you know, a lot of crosswind shots. It makes it difficult off the tees and even iron shots are difficult, too. But it's pretty much the same as yesterday.

Q. When you have a day like this, Steve, is there a tendency to say everything is pretty good, I'm going to go enjoy the rest of the day.

STEVE STRICKER: I'll practice a little bit this afternoon, yes. There is still a couple of things that I felt like I didn't do very well today. I will get out there and hit some balls and work on a couple of things. Mainly timing issues for me this early in the season. So I will work on my timing a little bit, hit a couple of putts. But enjoy the rest of the day, get some rest. I didn't sleep too good because of that 3 year old back there last night. She was coughing and up in the middle of night. Yes, you, you didn't sleep good. It will be nice to get some rest this afternoon.