May 21, 2010
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More Quotes From Friday’s Round:
Logan Blondell, Georgia Southern: player (near top of the leaderboard and team in contention):
“I wasn’t hitting the ball too great, but I just hung in there. I told myself before the round that it was going to be a long day, but we actually got pretty lucky with the weather. I was kind of prepared for stop-and-start, so I was just trying to be patient.”
Randy Lein, Arizona State coach (team in contention for one of final spots):
“Surprisingly, we thought (the course) would be playing a lot longer with the rain, but I think the hole locations might have been a little bit softer than yesterday, and the guys are more familiar with the course after two rounds under their belt. But it’s a heck of a golf course.”
“We came in seeded two, and they know that The Honors Course–we won the national title there in ’96–has special meaning. And it would be a shame not to go back. It’s a talented team.”
Chesson Hadley, Georgia Tech player (low scorer for the team):
“You know, we’ve just got to keep fighting. I don’t think anyone’s really worried about missing (the team cut) or anything like that. We’ve prepared pretty hard for this tournament, and I think we’re 5-over or 6-over on the day. Everyone will really focus hard tomorrow and get the job done, for sure.”
Bruce Heppler, Georgia Tech coach:
“They’ve done a good job. It’s hard. It’s challenging. It’s what a championship is supposed to be. The idea is to identify the five best teams this week, and I think it’ll do that.”
John-Tyler Griffin, Georgia Tech:
“The greens were a little bit different today. I felt they were a lot slower. My lag putts were just terrible today. I had a few three-putts that I shouldn’t of. But other than that, I felt that the course was very fair and in good shape. “
“We just need to keep playing. I feel like that we’re all really close, and I don’t really know what the high score we had to count today was, but we know the course, and we’ve just got to come out here and do what we can do, just kind of maybe try not to worry about qualifying and just trying to shoot the best score we can.”
Crawford Reeves, Clemson:
“(The weather) made the course a whole lot easier because yesterday the balls were just bouncing like crazy on the greens and it was hard to get the ball close. It actually worked out well for some guys on our team and myself who hit it a little bit longer than the rest of the field. It let us have shorter shots and it was easier to hold the greens.”
On Clemson’s standing and their approach tonight heading into tomorrow: “We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve had a good time this week laughing and cutting up and I don’t think that is going to change much with the group of guys we have. It’s going to be pretty laid back and if we just go out and play we’re going to be just fine.”
Jamie Marshall- Arkansas:
On his chances individually: “I hit a lot better today than I did yesterday. I feel good and just want to take that confidence into tomorrow. I’m just going to go do the same thing I did today and not try to think too much and do what I know how to do.”
Mike McGraw- Oklahoma State Coach
“I just hope they control their emotions. That’s all you need to do in any golf tournament. Control the way you think. Control the way you react to things happening to you because something is going to happen. If they can take care of that, they’ll probably be fine.”
“I think the course plays to the advantage of the longer team. Clemson is certainly a team that can hit it a long way and they’ve played well here. Ultimately, if you can control the way you think you should be fine.”
On facing Clemson: “We never did see them at regionals before, but ultimately it’s about who is sitting across that table from you, you try to beat that team. They’ve had a wonderful run of about 25 years and they are almost always up near the top. They are someone you expect to see if you play well enough to get there. You hope you get to see them.”
Larry Penley- Clemson coach
“We need to go and try and win the golf tournament. We feel very fortunate to have played with Oklahoma State today and we played well. If you can get in the last group with them, you are usually doing really, really good. So we are going to see if we can win us one tomorrow.”
