What they said: Russ Cochran

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MODERATOR: Russ, 2-under 70 today, and at 134, 10 under. You're with a large group at that number, a couple behind Bernhard. Just a couple thoughts on your overall round.

RUSS COCHRAN: Sorry about the cracker, I'm starved. Excuse me.

You know what, I've been just a shade off with that driver and was a shade off today. You know, the par 5s were out there for everyone to take advantage of and I'm hitting this little-bitty pull with my driver and it hurt me on 3. I didn't want to pull it on 7, I flared it on 7, so I was lucky to make birdie there. 12, all of them were little pulls and stuff, so that was kind of the theme of the day for me.

It was not a very good performance, I didn't think, and irons weren't great either. But, you know, a couple under par is kind of what I have to live with and, you know, in a way I'm thankful Bernhard didn't shoot another, you know, 63 or 4 and just go crazy. 70 wasn't very good.

Obviously everybody in the field got pretty healthy today and I'm hoping I can get off to a good start tomorrow and kind of get it rolling again. That seems to be the thing with me, when I get things flowing pretty good, I've been shooting some pretty good rounds. When I don't get it flowing off the first few holes and I struggle a little bit, and I don't think it was too different today.

MODERATOR: Okay. We'll just go straight to questions.

Q. What do you think it's going to take to get Bernhard tomorrow? He's got a pretty good record when he has the lead going into the final round.

RUSS COCHRAN: You know, I think this is the kind of course that he'll have to -- you know, he'll have to post something -- a number pretty good. You've got a lot of aggressive guys behind him. But Bernhard with a four-shot lead, you know, he plays so many quality shots and he rolled it well early. So I think if he continues to roll it pretty well and play the par 5s well, then he'll be in good shape.

As far as I'm concerned and probably everybody else, we've got to come out and try to do something great. If we go back to last year, Tommy shot 61 the last day. I'm sure there are guys out there who have those scores in mind, maybe not a specific score, but just to get off to a good start to see if they can get it rolling, because the greens, when you start making a few birdies, those greens really seem to -- if you get it in the right spots, you can make putts on the greens.

Q. Can you just run through your three birdies and a bogey?

RUSS COCHRAN: Yeah. On 7 I hit a mediocre drive out to the left. I hit a hybrid. The ball was sitting down and I tried to hit it kind of easy and I hit it in the front bunker, about a 30-yard bunker shot. I hit it up there about maybe 10 feet, maybe that, so that was a good birdie. Then 11 I hit it -- hit a driver and a 9-iron, I think, or 3-wood, 9-iron, I'm sorry, to about maybe 14 feet. Made that. 14 was a par 5, pulled that drive again just in the right-hand bunker, laid up and hit a sand wedge into about two and a half feet.

So not too exciting. I'm sure -- you look at some of these scorecards today, I'm sure the birdies were just flying. I kind of felt like I was running in place out there.

Q. What did you do at 3?

RUSS COCHRAN: 3-wood, I pulled my drive right. Decided to lay up. The wind was kind of kicking up at that time probably strongest all day. I laid up a little too far back, hit a pitching wedge that kind of flared up and spun on me a little bit, and I three-putted for bogey. Thanks for bringing that up, Phil.

Q. Sorry. I don't like to do that either.

Q. Nothing about your particular round today, but every time I watch you play, your waggle is so distinctive. You watch the PGA Tour now and some guys don't even waggle once. Can you talk a little bit about that? It's just part of your deal, I know, but it's sort of old school, isn't it?

RUSS COCHRAN: Yeah, it is, and I think that's kind of the cool thing about this Tour, you see a lot more self-made swings. Obviously the guys today, they're walking a fine line between -- let me start off, the guys back then, we tried to hit shots. We'd just step up, you kind of look at it, waggle, and you try to get the ball to do what you want it to do and people kind of create their own swings. The privileged few who had great instruction and stuff obviously were ahead of the game, but there were also many, many guys that did it their way. If you look at some of the swings on this Tour, that did it their way. There are some good players and great ball strikers and that type thing.

The kids now, they have to watch out going too much the other way. They're too structured on their wedges, they can't hit a little knock-down wedge. But all in all, their setups are good, they're right on the money. When they get off a little bit, they go back to a swing analysis.

When -- let's say if I'm cutting the ball too much, I just square up, put it back in my stance and start hitting draws for a while and then go back to my shot and it comes out straighter. So interpretation, I think, is a big thing, but there's so much information out there and the teachers have done such an unbelievable job.

Kids -- I think the most important things with the young guys, they have to figure out what kind of a person they are. You look at a Dustin Johnson, you know, he still hits shots -- I know Rickie Fowler, he doesn't think a lot about his. Those guys are still great. Jeff Overton, J.B. Holmes.

But there are an awful lot of players that are very structured. If you told them to do something like I do or just to hit this shot or that shot, they would look at you like you were crazy. So I think that's a great thing about this game is you can interpret it so many different ways, and when push comes to shove, you have to be able to rely on something that you know is there for you.

Q. Could you even imagine starting your swing from a static position without those waggles?

RUSS COCHRAN: Yeah, you know, I can't, but yesterday -- it's funny you said that because yesterday I must have waggled six or seven times on one and I hit it, hit a pretty good shot, and I told my son, I didn't think I was going to stop waggling. And he started laughing and he said, Yeah, you had a little Sergio going there.

So, yeah, I'm aware of it, but there is a -- there is -- there's not much athleticism in my swing right now at all, but there always has been an athleticism and when I pump like that, it sets the rhythm for me and it helps tie in my legs.

Right now, you know, that's kind of the thing that's hurting. I think that's one reason I pulled it, my legs aren't very good right now.

But you know, what drives us crazy -- I'll say one other thing. To see a guy, a young kid at 14 years old step up and approach a 90-yard sand wedge, you know, standing up just exactly like a driver setup. You know, we don't get that. I grew up watching Trevino, I'm a little more along those lines.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Russ. Good luck tomorrow.