VIC Open February 2020 interview with PGA

TRANSCRIPT | Travis Smyth, 2020 Vic Open, Round 3

Published - 4 days
By - Olivia Hill

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Q.  How difficult was that and how pleased are you that you’ve hung in there? TRAVIS SMYTH:  It was so difficult.  Like on the last hole I just hit a 2‑iron 320 metres and when it’s into the wind it’s lucky to even go 200.  So there was so much wind, putting was just brutal.  […]

Q.  How difficult was that and how pleased are you that you’ve hung in there?

TRAVIS SMYTH:  It was so difficult.  Like on the last hole I just hit a 2‑iron 320 metres and when it’s into the wind it’s lucky to even go 200.  So there was so much wind, putting was just brutal.  I found the hitting not so bad because this golf course can be wide in areas.  Getting the ball in play isn’t the most difficult thing, but the putting, when you have a cross breeze or any putt actually was just brutal.  And my putter’s kind of light as well so I think that helps, but you take it back and you know your backstroke’s kind of funny.  To still ‑‑

Q.  The ball oscillating a bit?

TRAVIS SMYTH:  The ball oscillating a lot, you know.  I mean, our group were just backing away from so many putts when gusts were coming and I found that the most frustrating as well because there’s a couple holes where I feel like I played the hole really well and walked away with a bogey.

Q.  What’s more difficult in the conditions, is it the mental or the physical, because it’s a grind for both I imagine, but there’s no let‑up? 

TRAVIS SMYTH:  Yeah, there’s no let‑up, there’s no easy holes.  Like it’s that windy that the downwind holes are still hard because you still don’t have any control of it.  Yeah, mentally, I had a bit of a roller coaster today.  Like I started good and I felt really good and then I had a poor three‑putt after hitting the eighth green in two today was very hard, I had bogey there.  Then I made another crap bogey on 10.  Then I just felt like I was on the back foot and followed by another one on 11.  To dig deep and finish the way I did, I’m very proud of myself.

Q.  If I said to you Wednesday afternoon two back, 18 to play, you’d be pretty happy with that position, I would imagine?

TRAVIS SMYTH:  Oh, for sure.  I’ve never made Sunday here, so I’m feeling good I’m just playing on Sunday let alone being in contention.

Q.  There’s no leaderboards out on the course.  Do you know what’s going on up ahead?

TRAVIS SMYTH:  Not really.  For most of the front nine you don’t really know and then you kind of make the turn and you can see, and then you make ‑‑ you sort of loop around the back nine you can see again.  But yeah, it was that brutal out there, I wasn’t even paying attention to the leaderboard at all.

Q.  What have you got to do to catch and over take Min? 

TRAVIS SMYTH:  I don’t know.  Putting, definitely.  I feel like I’m hitting the ball pretty well, I’ve been for a while now.  If I can just be really patient with the putter tomorrow, you know, don’t hit any putts when it’s gusty because I just want to hit the putt kind of thing, rush it.  I’m going to be very patient.  If it’s similar conditions to today, I’m going to just try and find that gap in the breeze because I hit a few today where I had already backed away twice and I’m thinking mentally I’ve got to hit this putt now and then I hit a terrible putt.  It was just so windy out there, that was just the hardest part by far.

Q.  The birdie on the last, talk us through that.  So you come up just short, chipped it up?

TRAVIS SMYTH:  Yeah.  So I hit 2‑iron off the tee not expecting that it would go 320 downwind.  I thought I would hit 2‑iron and then have like a 5‑iron in or whatever, but got down there, it was way down.  Then I had just a straight cross‑breeze, 156 I had, which for me is a normal 8‑iron, perfect number, but because I’ve got to aim so far left of the pin to allow for the wind, I’m almost into the wind for the first half of the shot, and I hit a really good shot.  That was the perfect shape to it to be close, but yeah, come up seven or eight short, then took that false front down the front there and I had a pretty simple chip, holed a good putt.