By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Most of the big boys are spending their money from the majors and select Fed Ex Cup events and staying away from the John Deere Classic. Still, they have a field and a few players talk this week.
Aldrich Potgeiter: From The Rocket Classic in Detroit to this week
Talk about this whole week in general, coming off Detroit and the win last week. What has this week
been like for you? Has it been difficult handling being a PGA TOUR champ?
ALDRICH POTGIETER: I mean, I can’t stop smiling when people talk about it, so that’s a good thing. The big thing is coming off the win, I’ve never played a tournament after I won such a big event, so I really didn’t know how today was going go. Quite happy how I did and how I handled it. I didn’t know if
I was going to be tired coming into the this last little stretch. With the heat we had today, probably made a mistake wearing black and dark red. Won’t be doing that tomorrow. I’m happy how it went today coming off the win. The first two days, Monday and Tuesday, were quite tough. Took it
easy, traveled, and came and walked around a little bit.
Rickie Fowler
How much does your standing in FedExCup standings have to do with your decision to play here,
and how you can maybe take advantage of an opportunity?
RICKIE FOWLER: I was basically going to play here or Scottish, and one of the reasons I haven’t played here in quite a while was being before the British and then it being before the Scottish. I have always played the Scottish before the British. That was just always my schedule. This year I felt to free up the potential of the back end the British and playing potentially 3M and/or Greensboro, I figured having Scottish off before the British and playing these three weeks in a row, Travelers, Rocket, and here at
the Deere, felt like was a better flow. Like I said, freeing up the after playoffs options for me.
So that was more of it. It wasn’t really anything other than that. Just what I felt was the best flow schedule for me.
Max Homa on his play this week
Can you talk about the characteristics of this TPC Deere Run? You show up at any tournament looking
play like you did today. What about this place is working for you this time of year? You read all the
stories about how people shoot low and you probably came in expecting to do so.
MAX HOMA: Yeah, well, the greens are always pretty soft and they’re in amazing shape so you can make a lot of putts. I think in general, you have three reachable par-5s — well 10 is not really, but you have two very reachable par-5s. A lot of holes if you hit a great drive, you’re going to have a wedge in your hand. I’m quite a good wedge player typically the last handful of years. So when you’re putting the ball in the fairway it just feels like you have a lot of 10-footers. You know if you’re patient you’re going to get some 10-footers. You just need to eventually get one in a good spot.
Roy J. Akers covers golf for the www.skyviewsports.net
