PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
August 17, 2006
Robert Allenby
MEDINAH, ILLINOISQ. Did the swing changes from last week kick in?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I made a lot better swings than I had been making. Obviously the results are definitely better, so it kicked in all right.
Q. Were the conditions today about as easy as they're going to get this week?
ROBERT ALLENBY: There's not much wind at all, maybe five yards, tops. Obviously the scoring is the best chances you're going to get is in the mornings. The greens are going to get really spiked up, different to a lot of the majors we've played the last few years. You can just see with the heat and with the way the greens, the way they sort of sweat a little bit, they're leaving a lot of heel prints and a lot of spike marks on the greens.
The first nine holes it looks like there was no one on there, then the second nine obviously there was a little bit of traffic. You're sort of dodging a few spike marks, and that was only in the morning. So in the afternoon it's going to be a lot different.
Q. Would it be an exaggeration to say it's there for the taking?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, definitely, it's there for the taking. I mean, I know I should have had three shots back. I was putting great. I hit a great putt on 16. I hit it exactly where I wanted to, great speed, and it horseshoed out sort of thing.
And then 17 was probably the only bad putt I hit for today. It was there. It was definitely there. 6 or 7 under was definitely quite capable today.
Q. Do you think the toughness of the greens will start kicking in?
ROBERT ALLENBY: No, I think the golf course is going to change. I say that right now, but they are predicting some rain within the next 24 hours or 36 hours, so it could go back to where it is today.
Q. How do you think it'll change, in what way?
ROBERT ALLENBY: If it rains it's going to get really soft. There's no way that they can get them hard unless they put sand on them. If they stay as it is, it will definitely firm up. I mean, yesterday afternoon I played and they were really firm and releasing, and then today they're just hitting and releasing probably five, ten feet maybe, tops. It just depends on the weather. If it stays warm and may rain, it will get tough.
Q. Running through the highlights of your round, any long birdie bombs?
ROBERT ALLENBY: There was somewhere. The 1st hole was like a foot, foot and a half.
ROBERT ALLENBY: Pitching wedge.
Then actually left it in the jaws on 2 from ten feet. I could have blown it in. I thought it was going to drop in, but it didn't.
5 is the par 5, driver, 3 wood this morning. The tee is further back than the tee. That's the yardage from the back of the grass.