Past Player Quotes – TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm

Justin Thomas: It’s hard. You could 100 percent host a U.S. Open here starting tomorrow. It’s not very often we play greens this firm on tour other than majors. You’ll occasionally get a weekend where they’re firm, but I mean, on Tuesday and Wednesday you don’t get them where 8-irons are rolling five to eight yards or bouncing five to eight yards out. It’s longish, so you get those really tough tee shots on 450- to 480-yard holes. You kind of have to hit a 3-wood or so because if you hit a 2-iron or whatever it is, you’re trying to hold these greens with 6-irons and 5-irons. Fairways are already a premium coming into these greens. But I think on 8 today I hit it in the rough, especially in the morning when it’s a little wet and has some dew on it. I mean, it is thick and there’s times where you’re just going to have to chip out. Like I said, it’s very major-like. It’s very U.S. Open-like.

Patrick Reed: The golf course is challenging. It’s one of those that if you hit in the fairways and you have control with your irons, you can attack the golf course. But at the same time, the greens are really firm and there are some slopes in the greens where even if you hit a drive down the fairway, you have to pay attention because you can hit iron shots that you think are going to be pretty good end up on the wrong side of the slope. Next thing you know you have 30, 35 feet to the hole and you might have only missed your spot by a yard. It’s a good test.

Russell Henley: Do the best I can to just get it in the fairway. I think on a course like this it’s easy to try to want to hit it farther or try to hit it as far as you can, but really I’m trying to do everything I can to get the ball in the fairway because it’s really tough to play from the rough.

Marc Leishman: Yeah, it’s really tough. You’ve got trouble left on pretty much every hole on the back nine, and right’s no good, either, especially 10 and 11. If you miss any of those fairways, you’re looking at a bogey. The greens are very firm, fairways are fast so they’re hard to hit, and the rough’s brutal. So there’s a lot of hazards out there. Generally, you try and stay clear of the hazards, but if you miss the fairway on the other side, it’s a tough task from there as well. So you’ve really just got to just pick a good target and commit to it. If you hit a bad shot, you’re going to get punished

Kyle Stanley: One of the more difficult courses I think we have played. You have to keep the ball in front of you, it’s pretty demanding off the tee. If you get a little bit out of position it just creates problems for yourself, so being in the fairway off the tee was something I knew was going to be big this week.

David Lingmerth: Hitting fairways. That’s one of the big keys out here, it’s a course where the rough is very penalizing, really gnarly. As fast and firm as these greens are you really have to stay in the fairway to have a chance of making birdies. It’s a course that is visually kind of straightforward. It’s easy to pick targets. It’s just a great golf course. You don’t necessarily have to be too aggressive here.

Michael Putnam: If you get aggressive on this golf course it’s real easy to make bogeys. There are penalties everywhere. I was aiming towards the middle of the greens having 20-footers for birdie.

Hudson Swafford: You’ve got to be patient out here, you can get on a bogey train very quickly. You can’t try to overpower it. Making par on some holes is good. It’s like a U.S. Open venue. I made a couple of bad swings and made some bad numbers. You miss it in the wrong spot and you’ve got to get it back in play fast. The greens are getting firmer and faster and the rough’s not getting any shorter.

Francesco Molinari: It’s a great course. It’s a tough test, but it challenges every part of your game. You really need to be on the ball to play well here. I think it suits my game now that I’m playing well, I’m hitting fairways, hitting greens. I think one of the keys this week has been not making too many bogeys and be patient and just wait for the opportunities.

Rickie Fowler: You use every club in your bag. You’ve got to hit all different types of shots. You’ve got to shape it around here. It’s tree-lined. It’s kind of style of golf course I grew up playing. It’s a great golf course tree to green. If you drive the ball out of position, then you’re just trying to fight to get back into position and save par. You miss greens, you’ve got tough up-and-downs. It rewards someone who’s driving the ball well and tee to green playing fairly clean or flawless. You can’t really fake it around this golf course, in my opinion.

Johnson Wagner: Stay out of the rough. The rough is gnarly. When you get in the rough, you’re better off, unless you have a wedge in your hand, you’re better off laying up in the fairway and trying to get up and down for par than you are doing something silly like trying to go for the green with a long iron because there’s just nothing good that can happen trying to hit a long iron out of this rough.

Featured Image Credit: Phil Sokol