What they said: Robert Allenby

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SONY OPEN AT HAWAII: Transcript archive

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Robert Allenby into the interview. Our runner up after a 3 under par 67.

Robert, nice playing all week, just a little bit short, if we could just get some comments.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, obviously I would have like had to have won. I think second, considering is a very good result. You know, I had a couple of chances out there that really, you know, it's so easy to look back and say I could have made that, I could have made that.

At the end of the day, realistically I needed to make a birdie at the last, knowing that he was right in front of the green there.

I thought I hit the right club out of the rough. I had the same yardage as yesterday, and I hit one club less and it went further. So I didn't try to hit it any harder, just obviously got a lot more of a jumper out of the rough.

And that's the beauty of the grooves today, it's changed the game of golf, which I think is for the better, I think it's great, because now we have to all of a sudden manufacturer our way around the golf course.

Whereas before it would have come out soft, and we know that, we would have landed it 5 or 10 yards short of the green and it would have probably just checked up close to the front edge.

Today, you don't know where it's going to go and that's the beauty of that. You know I hit a lot of good shots on the back 9. I gave myself a lot of chances. That was the most important thing, was just to hit quality shots and hit quality putts.

I had a fantastic putt on 17. I still didn't know how it didn't go in because the grain goes that way, everything goes that way. The hole is sitting that way.

But anyway, I gave myself a chance the last there. I had a nasty lie with the chip. It's just horrendous. I thought that was the only way I could play, hit it high back up into wind, try and get it to land soft, get it passed the hole so I had an uphill putt.

I didn't want to have to have at least if have you an uphill putt, you can actually give it a hit. You can have some force on it.

I hit it exactly where I aimed and I missed. I hit a solid putt.

I hit a foot and a bit past, but I was not expecting for it to turn as much as it did.

We read probably half the cup outside right. I know that's where I was lined up, and I know that's where I hit it because the stroke felt probably the best stroke of the week and it just went sideways. But that's golf. Sometimes they go in.

I have had my, you know, the last two tournaments prior to this event, I've had a lot that have gone in for me. You know, if that's the worse thing that's going to happen to me, I'm going to be pretty good.

Q. What did you hit, 6, 7?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I hit 5.

Q. Yesterday was a 4?

ROBERT ALLENBY: 4 yesterday.

Q. What was your yardage on 18?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I had 214 or something like that yards to the front.

Q. You thought it was a good when it came out?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, I thought it was good, and then I saw the first bounce and it just went eye (indicating). It was like one of those super balls, the bouncy balls the kids have. They hit the ground and they just go anywhere they want. It was one of those. It was uncontrollable.

Q. By that time of the day, the fairway there is pretty hard even in the fairway?

ROBERT ALLENBY: You know all week it's been very hard to keep it on the fairway off the tee shot. I've seen guys, you know, all week hit snap hooks and still be in the right rough.

It's a tough fairway to hit. Unless you probably lay it back with a fairway wood or something. I think even a 3 wood would go through today. And do you want to have a 5 wood off the tee and leave yourself maybe a 5 wood into the green? Not really.

Q. Were your irons last year square groove?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes.

Q. So you are playing with all new irons through?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, I used these irons for the last month of last year and won twice with them. So for me I think it's a great change.

Q. Do you feel pretty relaxed down the stretch Robert?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, I feel pretty good. I think it showed with the shots I hit, the quality shots. Yes, I'm happy with the way I played. You know, Ryan played great. He hit a lot of good shots and hit a lot of good putts. Some putts didn't go in that he hit really good qualities putts.

I think for me I'm happy with second. I think it's a great way to start the year and I think this is just a start of a really, really big year for me.

You know, I'm positive and looking forward. I was looking forward before even coming here on a real good solid year, and I think a good solid year for me is definitely a few wins. I know I'm capable of doing it. It didn't happen today, but it will happen close in the future.

Q. Even with the good scores in front of you, did you feel like it was a Match Play situation out there?

ROBERT ALLENBY: No, I saw Goose posted 12 under. And I saw Stricker, you know. I actually thought Stricker would have made a couple of birdies coming down the stretch. But he didn't.

You know, so I could see that Stricker was, you know, 13, and roundabouts. When I saw him at 13, he still had like probably five holes to go. That's why I was thinking there was probably between the three of us of who was actually going to win the tournament.

And when I saw he didn't make birdie at the last, then I knew obviously playing the last it was just between Ryan and myself.

Q. A lot of noise out there on 14 and 15. 15 obviously didn't bother your birdie. Did it bother you at all on 14 when you were lining up for that birdie putt?

ROBERT ALLENBY: No, no. I don't recall any noise. Sometimes you hear things that we don't hear. When you are focused on what your doing, you don't hear it. I heard all of the bottles smash just before I hit the putt on 17 on the short one.

Q. Really?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, it was good timing. (Indicating.) I followed through pretty good.

Q. Where do you go from here.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Go home for a week. Obviously I will have a lot of work done on my ankle, trying to get it stronger and stabilize it.

Q. San Diego?

ROBERT ALLENBY: San Diego and LA.

Q. If somebody told you you would have the ankle probably that you would shoot this and wind up second, what would you have said?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't know. I was playing really well coming into here, and I knew my swing was really good, and I could hit any shot I wanted to, even under pressure. That's why I persevered with it. That's why I wanted to play because I knew deep down under the ankle I was playing well. I definitely hit the ball a lot better on the weekend. Today I hit the ball, I hit a lot of good quality shots. So, you know, with the ankle it is what it is, and I made the most of it and, you know, if I can finish second with a half broken ankle that's pretty good.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I was trying to win. As I said, I'm very, very happy with finishing second.

JOHN BUSH: Let's go through the birdies and bogeys real quick. Robert, No. 1.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Driver, 9 iron to about three feet.

4, I hit a 3 iron in there. Actually hit a great shot to about 25, 30 feet. It looked quick, the first putt. I hit it four or five feet short. Then I missed the next one.

9, I hit a good drive there. I hit 3 iron, didn't quite I wasn't able to get through it properly, but hit it in the right trap up in the face and then just played a sand iron and it hit, not as hard as I could, but I hit it pretty hard up in the air and nearly holed it.

12, was 3 wood, 7 iron, 20 feet.

15, 3 wood off the tee and then an 8 iron to about three feet.

Q. What was the wind doing there?

ROBERT ALLENBY: On?

Q. 15.

ROBERT ALLENBY: In two. It was sorted of fluctuating slightly off the left. It was sort of up and down.

Q. Did your par putt on 5, I mean

Q. It's kind of inconsequential now, but keeping things together coming off a 3 putt, yada, yada.

ROBERT ALLENBY: The putt on 5 from off the green was a big putt. That was definitely a big putt. 3 putting the previous hole was bit of a silly mistake. But then to miss the green with a sand iron, which got a flier from the fairway, and then just got a terrible lie in the rough, it wasn't a great pitch, obviously, but to make that 10 footer coming back off the green was huge because that changed the momentum. I felt like I was losing momentum if I had missed that. I would have lost momentum there.

Q. I was just curious, as we look back on the week, I'm not sure how great a test this was on grooves given the Bermuda, you're hearing some stories of shots that might not have been able to be played last year with the square grooves, hit fliers, getting up over trees et cetera, I wonder if you could give any kind of an assessment of the direction we are going with this.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think with the wiry grass that we have around this golf course it was super tough to try and judge really how far it was going to go.

I think there is a lot of luck now involved. Obviously still skill, because the skill is to try to land it where you need to land it. But there is also a lot more luck involved now.

It's funny, I was telling Vijay, at the time start of the week, we played the first two days together, I just said maybe at U.S. Opens it actually might help it. Unless you are in that real deep stuff. But if you are in that next sort of the second cut that they have, which is normally quite deep, but to be able to, in the past, we have never been able take get it out of there and get it to the green. Whereas now with these new grooves, we might be able to get it to the green. Where we were trying to hit like a 5 iron or 4 iron out of the rough, we now might be able to hit a 6 iron or 7 iron and get it just as far, or even further because we will get a jumper.

So in that respect I think, I personally think it's going to help.

Q. For just a reader who might not know the nuances, which would include me too, but why wouldn't the square grooves allow you to hit it farther, it stays on the club longer?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Too much spin. You get a lot of spin even out of the rough. I never, all of us here, never got any balls that hardly jump out of the rough. It always came out soft, that's because of the grooves. Now it's going to come out just jumping. I can hit my 7 iron as far as I can hit my 5 iron out of the rough.

Q. You can hit your 7 iron now as

ROBERT ALLENBY: Out of the rough, as far as I could hit my 5 iron off the fairway. Especially cases around this golf course. It's a good club or two clubs when you are in that rough.

Q. Chipping?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, chipping, it just depends. My theory is probably every three or four weeks I'm going to changes my wedges, so I have always got fresh ones. Because I think that's the most important part of the game. If you can't chip around the greens, you can't win tournaments, and you can't compete.

And the grooves I have, they are one week old. I have probably nearly already wore them out in one week. I wore them out this week because I was always chipping.

Q. What did you use to change, every four months would you say?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yes, exactly. So now it will probably be every four weeks instead of every four months. Hopefully the Cleveland boys have got plenty of them. They better start making them.

Q. They will make more?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I'm sure they will.