Read a transcript of the post-Round 2 interview with Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit.
Read a transcript of the post-Round 2 interview with Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit.
Q. All right. Here with the team of Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit, team (indiscernible) on Thursdays, right? I got it right?
JAKE KNAPP: Yeah.
Q. Another great day here. Tell me about how the chemistry worked out today, especially with the tricky format of alternate shot.
JAKE KNAPP: I’ll start because I put us into some bad places off the tee early on that front nine. It was nice having a partner that just kind of stuck behind me.
The first nine holes were just brutal with how much wind there was, rain, everything else. She did a great job of keeping me positive. I think we just did a good job of kind of following up bad shots with good shots and we were able to just grind it out.
Q. This seems like the format that really makes a difference this week. Does it feel that way for you guys and are you really happy with this result?
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: Yes, I’m super happy with the result obviously, but like going into today, honestly the past, for the whole week I just don’t know what to expect. Like different formats I haven’t played, like this format in a stroke play thing before. It’s always been like match play, you just kind of go at it more. So it is a different approach, don’t know what to expect. A little nervous because like I want to give my partner the best look as possible. I mean, it’s pretty it’s pretty nerve wracking, but pressure is privilege, so I owned it.
Q. What’s something fun you guys have learned about each other this week?
JAKE KNAPP: Oh, man.
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: We talked a lot about golf, just different stuff, swings.
JAKE KNAPP: I think just the fact overall she’s kind of a golf nerd and like she kind of said yesterday, it’s fun to be able to kind of nerd out on certain stuff. Especially since there’s some differences between like the men’s game and women’s game, but at the same time she bombs it compared to people on her tour.
It’s kind of fun that we both have similar strategies or similar issues on some courses and stuff like that. I feel like we just see eye to eye on a lot of different things.
Q. I know got out of position a couple times today. How did you all manage to recover from that so well? I think one of you hit one or two wayward drives and the other one was able to pick it up and keep it running.
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I feel like it’s just a mindset of like, you know what, we’ll just go play what’s in front of us. I kept telling Jake front nine, like just bomb it, hit it, send it, like I can hit it from anywhere. Because I’m the same way, my game is wild as well, so don’t worry if it’s out of position, I know how to make pars.
JAKE KNAPP: I’m the same way, I usually play from bad positions all the time so it’s nothing new to me.
Q. And both of you seemed to be just rolling it super well on these greens. What is it about the lines or even the green type that you’ve been able to really capitalize on this week?
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: We were able to pick a lot of good momentum yesterday and I feel like whatever we’re seeing, it’s always like 90 percent matching, 99 percent, 95, I don’t know.
Speed and line has been really good I feel like the past few days. So what we’re seeing is very similar and we’re able to feed off of each other’s really good putting. A lot of times when Jake was making par saves, I was just like, he’s going to make it.
JAKE KNAPP: She’s from Florida, too, so she helps me out with seeing certain grain if I don’t see it, so it’s been nice to have somebody with a little more local knowledge.
Q. What’s an example of a nerdy thing you’ve talked about that regular amateurs would get a kick out of in terms of golf?
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: What did we talk about?
JAKE KNAPP: Just overall a lot of golf swing stuff in terms of certain feels. She draws the ball. Like I draw it every once in a while, but I usually like to play kind of spinny fades.
We swing it very differently and it’s just kind of fun to pick each other’s brains about like certain feels.
Like after she hit that shot on 18, she was talking about like a certain feel she’s working on. It’s kind of fun, you never know when you’re going to kind of pick something up that might work for yourself. So I might go hit some after and after seeing how she hit it, maybe try a few of those things out.
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I think Jake mentioned a couple times like when it’s into the wind, let’s say it’s 160, for me personally it’s probably playing, depending on how hard the wind, it’s probably playing like I can hit it low but it will be like maybe a 70 shot low, but then they would have to play more because they spin the ball more. So we were talking about like he was dropping some numbers and I was like oh, I never thought of that, 8,000?
JAKE KNAPP: Yeah, exactly.
Q. Just wanted to ask about the concert. In a few minutes there’s a fivehour concert going on. Are either of you country music fans, Old Dominion, Goo Goo Dolls? Will you be putting that on your schedule tonight?
JAKE KNAPP: I personally won’t. No, I’ll probably go back and make some dinner. We’ve seen it all week, we’ve been hitting balls into the stage on the driving range all week. So it seems pretty packed, seems like people are going to have a good time.
PATTY TAVATANAKIT: I won’t be joining, but I do like some of Old Dominion’s songs. I’ll just be playing that at my AirBnB.
