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Tommy Fleetwood: “I’m feeling more optimistic”

Tommy Fleetwood is feeling more optimistic (Photo: Getty)
Tommy Fleetwood is feeling more optimistic (Photo: Getty)

Q.Tommy, welcome to a freezing room. Talk about your recent form, great finish in Portugal but disappointing week at Winged Foot?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, to be honest, you know, I think since being back out playing again from late summer when I first came back out and after that COVID lockdown, I think I haven’t played great, and again, I think, the way it’s been, the year has been very different. Some guys have had lots of things there. It’s been great to get home to kind of start seeing — even sporadically just getting that kind of guidance, some positive practise sessions after Portugal. Portugal I played great and I chose to play because I knew I had gone home and I was having to work on things. Struggled with a few things. I didn’t putt very well but overall I hit it great on what was a very, very difficult golf course to hit fairways can get into position, which is disappointing. This year, three events — a bit of an asterisk on your career, if you like. That week, Bryson did great.

But again, been home and feel like my game is progressively — I’m feeling a lot more motivated is not the right word but I’m feeling more optimistic about every sort of practise session I’m having and going out there and hitting it this week, which is great. I’m not like, you know, particularly happy with my form, but I feel positive.

Q. Your first Scottish Open since 2016, Castle Stuart?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Maybe, yeah. I genuinely love coming to Scotland. I get a great vibe every time I come here, St Andrews, one of my most favorite praises in the world. Staying here, sat in the room last night — but the last few years, I’ve kind of taken the decision where I feel like having a week off before, the way the schedule has worked, I feel like having a week off before majors is giving myself the best chance to prepare. It’s just always fallen that week before The Open, and I remember the first time I missed it, I was — I said this is what I want to do. Kept it like that most of the year. So this year, it’s been nice to get a chance to come back, even if it is a bit later on in the year and a bit colder.

Q. Pictures of you out on the course. What are your impressions of it?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I didn’t watch much last year, I was in Ireland at the time, but I know the scoring was really low. I turn up here and I don’t see any low score out there the way conditions are out there. I think for the first few holes, we were talk, me and Tony Finau were saying, it’s great, every hole is a different challenge. I think especially with the wind is pumping the way it is, there were so many crosswind shots, you’re going back and forth a lot. Especially today, I think it’s been a really good test. You have to change what you do on each hole, and given all the different demands of the hole. I enjoyed being out there. Felt like stretching my game a little bit. And again, when you’re working on things, having those kind of conditions on a pretty tough golf course is nice because it challenges you.

Q. The last few years, following a different schedule, how weird is it with all the interruptions and stop pages, Scotland in October, Augusta in November? How difficult is it?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I just think there’s been changes that have been out of our control. I think just getting to play — I could easily get to take it for granted at the point where we are in the year, yeah, the schedule is funky and things have changed, but I think it’s easy when you’ve played for a while now to take it for granted that we are playing all the time. You look at when everything first happened, oh, we’re done and we’re going to be in lockdown for a year, everybody, you always think the worst.

There’s definitely things that I have missed. Again, playing the week before the U.S. Open, something I haven’t done before. I think for sure people have missed having — you don’t have your coach every week, you don’t want to do that, you’re professional golfers and you should be able to figure things out on your own but the truth is you can’t and everybody needs a bit of guidance now and again. Definitely missed that.

Yeah, it is different and it’s a strange year but at the same time, you know, turning up week-in, week-out with a chance to play golf tournaments, to win golf tournaments, to win majors, that’s the way you’ve got to look at it. You kind of nailed that straightaway that yeah, things are different and a bit weird, but it doesn’t actually stop you from having the ability and having the chance to have a great season still.

There’s still plenty of good events to play, and it’s been — I would say, as strange as it’s been, I had a long spell in America which I — again, I’m not going to use terms — say I enjoy it, rather be home rather than seven weeks away or whatever but I feel like I’ve learned a lot from things being taken away from you or things being slightly different and I think I’ll take them with me forever, FOR as long as I’m playing, really, maybe knowing what I missed at certain times or what I didn’t mind about it. It’s just been very, very different.

Q. You’ve got some great Scottish golfing memories. How confident are you that you can add to that collection this week?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I always — every week in golf is a blank canvas. Everybody has the opportunity, and I always feel like my good golf is clearly good enough to be there at the end of the week. I am excited about playing here again, and like you say, I do have some great memories in Scotland.

I was thinking of it while I was traveling over actually, was that one of the — just at Archerfield, a match-play event and I got beat by Graeme Storm in the first round. I actually look at that as the turning point when I started coming out of my slump that was for like a year that was well documented. I actually lost that match but I played and drove home and thought, I haven’t played like that for a year. I didn’t miss a shot.

So Archerfield was a turning point where I got things going on again, and that’s a nice little positive and nice memory coming here, which is one people probably wouldn’t think about a lot.

Q. You’re much-loved give Scottish fans. How much are you going to miss them this week?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: That’s always, I think I turned the golf on the first time they started playing in America when it was the first event back and I kind of watched — I was watching the players, and I said, well, yeah, there’s no fans, but everybody looks like when they are playing, what they are doing is just the same. They are going through — everything is the same. Same routines. Everybody looks really focused. When it comes to winning, it means the same.

When I started playing, again, it’s different, but there’s certain times when it feels more different than others. I think that the majors clearly have that feeling, and certain other points where you’re on the golf course where you might have a good moment or a bad moment, and you think, that could have been very different.

I think playing in front of Scottish fans, because they are such good fans, they know exactly what they are doing. They will be missed. Me personally, I’ll miss the odd dog roaming around on the golf course.

Q. I know when you won at Gleneagles — the dog — pretty special to you, wasn’t?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, it was. I actually got asked about it a couple of times. I think it was like two Nike calls to like ambassadors or friends, whatever you call it, and Robin, he asked me about that time, and I was like, I can’t believe it. Yeah, fond memories, Scotland, the country, the golf course, always looked fondly upon me for whatever reason that. Is I’ve always loved coming to Scotland and played. Had some great experiences. That was one of them. That was great.

Q. Apologies if you asked this already because I came in late for the interview. Talk of playing the CJ Championship and ZoZo ahead of Masters, are you committing to those two events ahead of the Masters and what might you want to be playing ahead of Augusta?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I haven’t committed to those yet. The guys were very kind. I got invites into those events this year which is great. Yeah, I want to keep playing, obviously. Like I said earlier, part of the reason why I’m playing quite a bit at the moment is because I feel like I’ve been working hard and I feel like I’m progressing in the right direction, and I want to get out on the golf course and I feel golf can change at any given week and hopefully my time will come again and it could be any week from now.

I want to play those events that are clearly great events until world golf and that will be it until the actual Masters which is November.

Q. From one Fleetwood to another, at Ryder Cup, your energy was phenomenal. How easy is it to replicate that energy at all the competitions?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Pretty much impossible, I think. The Ryder Cup seems — it’s been my one experience, and it was for sure — it’s definitely like it’s own individual event, and it brings with it emotions that you just don’t seem to be able to get every week. I mean, you don’t really see moments like — that you get at The Ryder Cup on a Friday morning and Friday afternoon, still two days left of the tournament, and you just don’t seem to get that. I think what makes The Ryder Cup, for us golfers, for starters, it’s the biggest sporting occasion in the world when it comes to The Ryder Cup, and we’re lucky enough that we get to play in it, and the fan interaction, seems impossible to replicate. You have 60,000 fans and there’s 16 people on the golf course, it’s not a lot.

For me, that was just — it was, it was an amazing experience. Again — you look at it and I think it’s more — it’s more of a massive motivational factor that you know what you experienced that week and you want to do it again. Everybody just wants to do it again and keep playing in those things and I think week-in, week-out, you’re not going to feel like that all the time but you look at that and it is definitely a motivation for you.

Q. Just for the record, I would like to see Tommy Fleetwood replicate that in a major?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Me, too.

Q. If there is one major where you would like to see Tommy Fleetwood on the trophy, which one, and which golf course?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It’s The Open by a long way. I’m not overly picky about the golf course to be honest but I think coming from where I’m from, very, very lucky that I have — I mean, Birkdale is my ultimate. I’m from that town. Hoylake is just down the road and Lytham is just down the road. Those are pretty much as close to home as people ever get to play in their careers, and they are all Open Championship for me, and it’s the Old Course, winning at St Andrews.

If I win all four of them, then great, but take one.

Q. Just to follow up on The Ryder Cup, apologies if this was asked earlier, late in the call, but we haven’t seen Molinari this year, I believe he’s just moved to California. Are you keeping in touch with him? Is he in good spirits, working hard? What is the latest from the Molinari camp?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, we speak. I mean, we speak quite regularly, anyway. He’s been a busy man moving home, moving the family and everything. That was something they really wanted to do and they have done that now. I’m sure he’s very happy with it.

I think he’ll be looking forward to coming back. I think they have done that move now, and he can start progressing to where he wants to play again and stuff. I think everybody will be happy to see him, but I think he’s just taking care of things that he knew he wanted to do and the family wanted to do, and then he’ll be back very soon, I’m guessing.

Q. Since Tiger won the Masters, do you think that maybe took him longer than expected to get over that, that mental hurdle that he had to get over?

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No. I think — I saw him the following week at Harbour Town, I played a practise round with him and he was absolutely fine. Golf, as in life, you go through great spells, and for sure, about, what, six, seven months, he was the best golfer on the planet pretty much, not far off. I think everyone had expectations, huge for somebody like that when he’s playing like that. He’s gone through a slight loss of form, and then this all happened, COVID and everything, and he’s moved house.

I’ve had my good times and poor times in my career so far. I’m sure my poor times will come again like everyone else, but he’s far too good to not win again and start playing well again.

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US Open 2020: Bryson DeChambeau in his first Champion Interview

Bryson DeChambea at the US Open 2020 (Foto: Getty)
Bryson DeChambea at the US Open 2020 (Foto: Getty)

MODERATOR: We’re pleased to welcome champion of the 120th U.S. Open, Bryson DeChambeau. How does that sound?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Surreal. It sounds amazing, but surreal. It’s been a lot of hard work, and I got to say thanks to my whole team again, all my sponsors as well — Brett, Tim, my caddie works his butt off every single day for me. Connor works his butt off for me every single day. Chris Como works really, really hard for me and helps me think through a lot of amazing things. Even Mike Schy, I still talk to Mike, and we still talk about how to get better. I would be remiss if I didn’t say his name either.

It’s one of those things that doesn’t really hit you — it’s not going to hit me until tonight, but I will say that my parents have given so much up for me. I mean, there were times that I went to school without any lunch money, and we had to make bologna sandwiches and didn’t have anything to eat. We had some very, very difficult times, but every single day, they always wanted the best for me, and they always gave me the opportunity to go golf, go practice, and go get better.

This one’s for my parents. It’s for Mike Schy, it’s for Chris, it’s for my whole team. All the work, all the blood, sweat, and tears we put into it, it just means the world to me.

Q. It’s going to be hard to reflect on right now, but that moment when you putted in on 18 and you put your hands in the air, what was going through your mind?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I did it. I did it. As difficult as this golf course was presented, I played it beautifully. Even through the rough, I was still able to manage my game and hit it to correct sides of the greens, except on 14 today, and kept plugging away. My putting was immaculate today. My speed control, incredible. That’s why we worked so hard on my speed control. You see me out there on the greens with the device trying to control my speed.

It’s just something that allows me and gives me comfort to know that on this green, or these speeds of greens, you know, it’s going to be repeatable. It’s going to be this. It’s going to be that. It’s going to be comfort in knowing how far I can take it back and go through.

So many times I relied on science, and it worked every single time.

Q. Your fans and backers are very passionate in their support of you. What do you have to say to them right now?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I can’t say thank you enough for supporting me and staying with me through thick and thin. There’s always going to be people that say things. There’s always going to be people that do things. But no matter what, my focus and my message to everybody out there is each and every day that you’re living life try and make this day better than the previous day. Let today’s garbage be better than yesterday.

The fans that have always been there, the supporters that have always been there, I can’t thank you enough for everything that you have meant for me. You’ve kept me pushing the needle, moving the needle, and you’re going to keep inspiring me too. So I really thank you for everything. I couldn’t do it without you guys.

Q. Bryson, you said the T4 at the PGA felt like you were moving in the right direction, but with all of the chatter and all of the doubters, what is he doing, does this absolutely put you over the edge in terms of validating what you’ve done?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely. And I’m not going to stop. Next week I’m going to be trying a 48-inch driver. We’re going to be messing with some head designs and do some amazing with things with Cobra to make it feasible to hit these drives maybe 360, 370, maybe even farther. I don’t know.

Q. Given the way you’ve adopted this approach, do you feel like you’re potentially changing the game, or at least changing the way that people think about playing in the game?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game. Now, whether you can do it, that’s a whole different situation. There’s a lot of people that are going to be hitting it far. Matthew was hitting it plenty far today. A couple of putts just didn’t go in for him today and kept the momentum on my side. So he’s definitely got the firepower and the strength to do it. You’ve got to be looking out for him in the future.

There’s a lot of young guns that are unbelievable players, and I think the next generation that’s coming up into golf hopefully will see this and go, hey, I can do that too.

Q. Bryson, you very much do things your own way. What kind of mental strength do you take from that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s a lot of validation through science, just making sure that the numbers are what they are and the result is accurate. So if I had — just an example. If I hit a 40-footer and it says 10.1 miles per hour on the device, I know that I’ve executed it correctly; and if I see the ball go two feet past that 40 foot mark, I know it’s perfect. I know I’ve done everything I can in my brain to make my perception reality.

So it’s all about trying to make my perception of what I feel, what I think, what I — you know, whatever it is, turn into proper reality. It definitely is validating that I’m able to execute time and time again and have it be good enough to win an Open. I don’t know if that answered your question.

Q. There’s so much talk about the driving and the distance and whatnot, but you did shoot the best score today by three, I believe. Do you feel like you’re proving, with a victory in a Major like this, on a golf course like this, even more so that you’re not just a one-dimensional player?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No, I think I’ve got a lot of creativity. Phil said it to me earlier this week. He said, in 2006, I had the best short game week of my life, and that really stuck out to me for some reason because I just knew that, if I did hit it in the rough, I’m going to have to get it up and down quite a bit.

So I made sure that I needed to practice those shots coming into the week, and I did that beautifully, and I felt super comfortable out of the rough no matter the situation.

I mean, a perfect example was No. 14, uphill lie, just hit it off the top of the face, came out dead and rolled down there to ten feet, and I made it. That was huge. If I don’t make that and he makes his, you know, we’ve got a fight.

So, yeah, I think that answered your question. I don’t know. I’m just kind of rambling a little bit.

Q. It seems like the putting has really been on point.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yes. Yes, putting has been — sorry. I love it. The putting has gradually improved over the course of my career. I was dead last when I came out on TOUR, and the SIG guys, SIG golf, they helped me understand how a ball needs to roll in order to give me the best chance to hole a putt.

Over the course of these four years, every year I’ve gotten a little bit better. I’ve gotten in the top ten now. I don’t know how much better I can get, but I’m going to keep trying every single week.

Q. Bryson, you used your own approach to the game to get here. Do you think kids watching today are now going to follow in your footsteps and look at this approach and try to replicate that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: You know, I hope I can inspire some people. My goal in playing golf and playing this game is to try and figure it out. I’m just trying to figure out this very complex, multivariable game, and multidimensional game as well. It’s very, very difficult. It’s a fun journey for me.

I hope that inspires people to say, hey, look, maybe there is a different way to do it. Not everybody has to do it my way. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying in general that there are different ways to do things. If you can find your own way, find your passion — like Arnie said, swing your swing. That’s what I do. That’s what Matthew Wolff does. That’s what Tiger does. That’s what Phil does. That’s what everybody does, and we’re all trying to play the best golf we can.

Hopefully, my way inspires people. This is my seventh win PGA TOUR, first Major, couldn’t be more proud. I hope that it does inspire a few people.

Q. Just for the record, what is your current height and weight?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: 6’1″, 230 to 235, depending on if I’ve eaten steak or not.

Q. Do you want to be bigger when you get to Augusta?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah.

Q. What would you say is your like — what are you shooting for?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think I can get to 245. It’s going to be a lot of working out. I don’t think it’s possible — it may be, I don’t know. It’s just I’ve gained so much so quickly in a year. They always say, when you work out, you gain your 30 pounds or whatever it is, and then after that, each year, you half it. So you can go 15. If you keep working out every day, you keep halving it. And then eventually there comes a point where you can’t gain much more.

But I still feel like I can get up there if you work hard enough.

Q. What’s your answer to people who say it can’t be healthy for the body?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I am talking to a doctor. I got all my blood sample tests, everything back a couple weeks ago. Everything is fine so far. We’re going to keep monitoring it and making sure I’m as healthy as possible because I do want to live for a long time.

Q. Bryson, what drove you to the range in the cold and dark last night? What were you looking for, and what did you find?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: So my driver was not performing in the way I wanted it to. Thursday, Friday, I felt super comfortable with the driver. Saturday wasn’t comfortable. So I knew I needed to go to the range, figure something out, so I could play for tomorrow and be super comfortable because, if I’m comfortable with the driver, I knew I could play golf and shoot under par on this golf course.

I was able to find something out last night, and then on the 6th hole today, I figured out a little bit more, and that gave me the confidence to play for the rest of the day.

That was essentially — it’s all about the governors for me. I have a limit to kind of what I do with the swing so I don’t overrotate. You can see I missed a lot of shots left this week. My left arm wasn’t holding and being stable enough through impact. It was just rolling over. That’s why I was drawing it and hooking it a little bit.

So I worked on that yesterday, and on the 6th hole I figured out that, even though I was holding it off, my left arm was too bent. So I was still leading to where the face is way open to the target, and then I felt like I had to do that to close the face. So once I straightened that out, got the face back a little more square, I felt like I could hold it off the whole way, and gave me so much comfort for the rest of the round.

Q. I was going to ask you what’s for dinner right now?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Steak and potatoes. We’ve got to keep it going.

Q. Very simple, Bryson. What makes you the happiest right now?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I would say, first off, knowing that the team around me has worked just as hard as I have, if not harder, to get me to where I am today. And knowing that I was able to execute for 72 holes in a Major Championship under the toughest conditions and perform to the highest level.

Q. And that trophy?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, the trophy, obviously, is really nice that comes with it.

Q. This has got to be some form of validation in your head, you know?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: 100 percent, no doubt. For me, it’s about the journey of can I execute every shot more repeatably than everybody else? I was able to do that this week. That’s why I won by six, yeah.

Q. How do you explain how during a pandemic and what a lot of people are writing off as kind of a lost year, you’ve elevated your game this much?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I felt like it was an opportunity, not a lost year at all. I felt like it was an opportunity to do something great — change my lifestyle, make it healthier, make it better — and I hope it inspires everybody else to do the same. When you have time, when you have that little free moment, don’t squander it. Look at it as an opportunity to make yourself better.

That’s what I think I did this year, and I’m going to keep trying to do that.

Q. When you were a little kid starting out with this whole thing, was the U.S. Open one you wanted to win, or was it something else?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I would say any Major was the ones I — they were all ones that I wanted to win, but I knew that my game would fit best for a U.S. Open. The reason for that is I always felt growing up, in college, I was always a super straight driver of the golf ball, super great iron player. Putting was always iffy, but I knew I could get around it on fast, quick greens. I was always really good on quick greens.

I’ve become a great putter, and my ball striking has improved consistently, and now I’ve got an advantage with this length, and that’s all she wrote.

But, yes, growing up, the U.S. Open is the one I thought I could win the most.

Q. Bryson, I don’t mean to look past this accomplishment after a half hour, but have you thought about how you might game plan for Augusta National?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, length is going to be a big advantage there. I know that for a fact. It’s always an advantage pretty much anywhere, but given that fact, I’m going to try and prepare by testing a couple things with the driver. I mean, by that, it’s 48 inches, and I’ll also do something with the face to account for the new speed that I’m going at.

Then I’ve got to get better with my iron play a little bit. I felt like it was great today, but definitely the driver needs to go straighter. That’s really my main focus still.

Q. Bryson, if the USGA had a debriefing meeting tomorrow morning to talk about how this U.S. Open was won at Winged Foot, what do you think they’d talk about?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: He’s hitting it forever. That’s why he won. I mean, it was a tremendous advantage this week. I kept telling everybody it’s an advantage to hit it farther. It’s an advantage. Mark Broadie was talking to Chris Como, and they were both talking about how they just made the fairways too small this week to have it be an advantage for guys hitting the fairway.

So what I mean by that — let’s take an example of you going like a yard wide. Nobody’s got the fairway. Okay, length’s going to win. You make the fairways too wide, length’s going to win. There’s like this balance between widths of fairways and where they want to play it and where they’re going to try to make you play it.

Q. If distance has been such a hot topic over the last two, three years and they’re looking into it now, do you think this will accelerate any desire to rein you guys in?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s tough to rein in athleticism. We’re always going to be trying to get fitter, stronger, more athletic, and Tiger inspired this whole generation to do this, and we’re going to keep going after it. I don’t think it’s going to stop. Will they rein it back? I’m sure. I’m sure something might happen. But I don’t know what it will be. I just know that length is always going to be an advantage.

Q. How much is athleticism and how much is science, technology —

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, the COR was locked in back in 2000 or something like that. You could only have it come off the face so much, right? So it’s been that way ever since. The rules haven’t changed. People have just gotten a little longer with their driver. The shafts have become better for sustaining higher swing speeds, and we’re constantly trying to just hit it as hard as we possibly can.

Kyle Berkshire, Justin James, a bunch of those guys, Josh, they all inspired me to try and go harder at it. They are the ones breaking the barriers. I can see what is possible.

So that inspires me to keep pushing the limits. I don’t think that science is that — is as big of a role in the market today. I would say it’s more of athleticism playing probably a bigger role for that for sure.

I was hitting it — on just a normal average TOUR player a year ago, and then I all of a sudden got a lot stronger, worked out every day, been working out every day, and all of a sudden — not because of clubs, but because of me, I was able to gain 20, 25 yards.

MODERATOR: Bryson, our 120th U.S. Open champion, congratulations again.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Thank you all.

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US Open 2020: Bryson DeChambeau with the best round of the day

US Open Golf 2020 Bryson DeChambeau (Source: Getty)
MAMARONECK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 18: Bryson DeChambeau of the United States lines up a putt on the 17th hole during the second round of the 120th U.S. Open Championship on September 18, 2020 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Q. 2-under 68. Hard to come by red numbers today. What was working well for you?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I felt like a lot of things were working well for me. I was driving it well. My iron play was impeccable. When I got into trouble, wasn’t able to get out of it as well today as yesterday, but when I was in the fairway I was able to attack and take advantage, and finished really well today. I hit a great drive on 6, great drive on 8, great shot on 7, and a great drive on 9 that just set me up to be able to attack that flag today, and that was a fun way to finish off at a U.S. Open so far. It’s great.

Q. You said yesterday the key was missing the drivers in the right spots. Can you give me an example today of missing one in the right spot, missing one in the wrong spot?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Missed one in the wrong spot on 2, so I hit it to the right and just — you’ve got nothing. I tried to get over the tree, was too far back. Kind of spun one up in the air and really didn’t have a chance. I tried to go for it, didn’t come out, got lucky, it bounced back in the first cut, got it out.

And then another one, let’s see, 16. Hitting driver all the way up into the right rough past that dogleg, I still had pitching wedge to the front edge and it was just a pretty easy shot, and I left it short of the green but I was still able to play up to the flag, and I fortunately made that putt for birdie. So that was kind of where I felt like I missed it in the right spot.

Q. You followed up three bogeys with birdies today; how important do you think that bounce-back stat is here?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s important. It keeps your momentum going, I’ll tell you that. I don’t really have too much more to say on that other than the fact that you need momentum to keep playing well in a U.S. Open, and that’s what I was able to do today.

Q. One of the volunteers on the range today said you shut the place down last night. What was working for you today?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: So my wedges yesterday weren’t that good. I was flying them too far and I wanted to know what the problem was and we figured out what the problem was. It just was going farther than I thought it was. We didn’t practice them as well as I should have leading up to this tournament, but we made that adjustment, and it worked out beautifully for me today.

Q. What was the adjustment?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, it was just saying on the devices that I was hitting it shorter than what it was actually going. So for example, like we calibrated — okay, this is — I’m trying to make it as easy as possible. So for me, my 47-degree flies normally 145. Well, last night I was hitting shots and it was flying 155. That’s what we were on the normalizing mode with that wind. And we just didn’t calibrate correctly. So I was flying everything 10 yards long consequently with my wedges. And we recalibrated all of them today, and I felt like they worked out really well today.

Q. What did you hit on 9 for your second?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Pitching wedge.

Q. Only two rounds under par so far today. How does that play into your confidence for this weekend?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I feel great. Confidence is at an all-time high right now, driving it well, iron play is fantastic, wedging is getting better each and every day, and I’m putting it like I know I can. So very happy.

Q. What part of your game do you get more confidence from, your driving, iron play or putting?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Iron play. If my iron play is great, I feel like I can play from anywhere. I know my driver is going to be going far; sometimes straight, sometimes a little crooked. But if I can hit my irons really well, then I feel like I’ll be good for the rest of the day.

Q. Bryson, you were the one guy before the tournament who said you were just going to hit it as far as you could at every opportunity —

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: And straight. I still want to hit it straight.

Q. But the fact that you have that in your arsenal, do you think your round today just shows you get more — you create more birdie opportunities —

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely.

Q. — than anybody else out here?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely.

Q. When you look at the conditions, what kind of an advantage does that give you?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I want it to play as hard as possible. I feel like there’s so many holes out here that I can take advantage of that some people can’t. Now, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to win or anything. You’ve still got to execute, you’ve still got to hit the driver straight. If I’m hitting the driver far but all over the place, you can’t make birdies from the rough. It’s very difficult to. So I still have to work on hitting it straight while hitting it far. And that’s a unique combo that I’m going to strive for for the rest of my life.

Q. As far as scrambling, that seems like the other crucial component to have around here, so do you take as much from those times when you save par as —

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Absolutely. Phil gave me some great advice. He said when he almost won back in 2006, he said he had the best short game week of his life, so that’s just a testament to showing that you have to have a great wedge game out here.

I feel like my irons are great, the wedges are better, and short game needs to be worked on just a little bit. But I would say it’s been good so far, and that’s what I’m going to hopefully do this weekend.

Q. Wondering how hard it is to stay focused when you’re making a series of birdies and bogeys as opposed to steady pars.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it’s definitely ebbs and flows, but I’ve been working hard on that recently and trying to keep myself level-headed no matter what, and I feel like I did a great job of that today. Even on 5, made a dumb bogey, just didn’t play the right distance and consequently hurt myself there. And then on 6 I just focused up and I was able to stay patient and execute a great drive and make two great putts there.

Q. You mentioned in that TV interview that you want to be more and more patient. That’s something you can’t calibrate, to use your word. What does that process look like? How do you teach yourself that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: For me it’s been a lot of breathing. Been working hard with Neuropeak on that for a long time. I know I’ve talked about it before, but just keep breathing and try and let the advantages play themselves out, what I have, and if they don’t, so be it.

But as of right now, they’ve been doing well so far, and just know that I’m going to have a lot of opportunities if I keep driving it well.

Q. Do you see a noticeable difference if you get something like what you might term an unlucky bounce or something like that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s going to happen out here. I say it sometimes, like man, that was unlucky, but that’s just golf. It’s not me being other than just honest. It happens sometimes. I realize that and I’m okay with it. Everybody is subject to a bad break, and sometimes I wear the emotions on the sleeve a little bit, but I focus it right back up.

Q. The test yesterday, the test today, which one do you enjoy more and why?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: When I play well in these conditions, it’s a lot more enjoyable. But it is comforting yesterday when you feel like I can go after it and wind isn’t affecting it that much, I’m hitting it well.

I would personally say if I had to truly look back on it, I would say that this today is a more enjoyable test after I’m done because it shows who executed the shots the best for sure.

Q. So many people love to see carnage at a U.S. Open; why do you think that is, and were you one of them?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s relatable. I think it’s relatable to a lot of players out there. They struggle with their game and they don’t hit the greatest shots, and they like seeing carnage.

I’m going to look this afternoon and do the same thing, be seeing, like wow, that’s really difficult, because I experienced it and I appreciate it.

Q. Will you laugh or sympathize?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Sympathize. No, I’m not laughing at them. I won’t go there.

Q. Given the force that you play with, is it possible to impose your will on a U.S. Open?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That’s a great question. That’s a question for the gods. That’s a question for God. I don’t know if you can — I mean, Tiger has been able to do something like that many times before, so I think there is something, but human scientific research does not say that there’s anything about that.

Q. Are there times you are trying to do that?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s just got to go here, it’s just got to go here, and I think it’s more of a positive mindset that allows your brain to be in a better state so you can problem solve in your brain to know what you need to do to hit a shot. I think that’s kind of willing it.

Q. You mentioned breathing, right?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah.

Q. I think a lot of people struggle with that, who don’t play golf even, but how does it work for you?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: A lot of deep, long breaths. So it’s sitting back, realizing the state you’re in and being able to take an eight-second breath in and then eight-second breath out. That’s just as simple as it gets for me.

Q. Count to eight?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It’s somewhere around there. I don’t do it perfectly on eight, but it’s definitely just to calm myself down.

Categories
Top Tours

US Open 2020 Tiger Woods: “I don’t see any reason why it won’t get harder and get more difficult.”

Tiger Woods at the US Open 2020 (Source: Getty)
Tiger Woods at the US Open 2020 (Source: Getty)

Tiger Woods talked to the media after his not so satisfying first round of 73 at the US Open 2020 at Winged Foot. He expects the course to become even tougher over the next few days.

Q. Tiger, talk about the round a bit.

TIGER WOODS: Well, it was a bit of ebb and flow to the round today. I did not finish off the round like I needed to. I made a bunch of putts in the middle part of the round. It seemed like most of my drives on the front nine landed in the fairway and ended up in bad spots, and I tried to stay as patient as possible, and unfortunately just did not finish off my round the way I needed to.

Q. Do you take any positives that you made five birdies, made a bunch of putts?

TIGER WOODS: No, but I needed to finish off the round better, and I didn’t. As I said, I made a few putts the middle part of the round. Seemed like I wasn’t getting anything out of my round early on, and it flipped, and unfortunately I just didn’t finish off the way I needed to.

Q. What did you think of the conditions of the golf course, and was it how you expected or a little bit different in any way?

TIGER WOODS: I thought the golf course was set up fantastic. I thought that what they did with the hole locations were very fair today. It gave us an opportunity to make some birdies, and you look at most of the scores, and the guys took advantage of it.

Q. Do you expect it to keep getting firmer as the week goes on?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I don’t see any reason why it won’t get harder and get more difficult. I just think that the golf course is there to be had. They gave us a lot of opportunities with the hole locations. Obviously they could have made it a lot more difficult if they wanted to, but I thought it was very fair.

Q. Is there any solace knowing it’s going to be such a grind this week that shooting a sub-par first round isn’t anything near —

TIGER WOODS: Well, we have a long way to go. This is a long marathon of a tournament. There’s a lot of different things that can go on. I just wish I would have finished off my round better.

Q. Given how little you’ve played this year, when you strung those birdies together in the middle of the round to kind of reel it back in and preserve it, isn’t that a pretty positive sign for you going forward?

TIGER WOODS: Well, the middle part of my round, a lot of things went my way. Beginning part of the round it seemed like things weren’t going my way. Good tee shots were ended up in the rough in bad spots, and I had a nice little hot run there in the middle part of my round, hit a really good putt at 12, thought it was going to go in and then I lipped it out, and then made two bogeys after that. Didn’t finish off my round the way I needed to.

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PGA Tour

“DJs” winning interview after his FedExCup victory

Dustin Johnson after his FedExCup victory. (Photo: Getty)

MICHAEL BALIKER: Dustin, this was your 11th trip to East Lake this week. You’ve been chasing this trophy for a long time. How satisfying is it to finally get it done?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it’s definitely very satisfying to be the FedExCup champion. Obviously coming in here I was in first with a two-shot lead, and I needed all those strokes that I could get. It’s a tough golf course, but I feel like I played pretty solid all week.

Obviously yesterday was a great round, and then obviously today was — I played — got off to a great start and I played really well coming down the stretch.

Yeah, it was a tough day, tough golf course, and I’m definitely excited it’s over and that I can celebrate a little bit now instead of — it was a grind out there. But I’m very proud to be the FedExCup champion.

Q.  What was the level of concern with your game leaving here last year and how does it feel to go from finishing last here last year to now winning this year?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I don’t even remember what happened last year. That was a long time ago. I was playing a little better coming in this season.

“Being a FedExCup champion is something that I really wanted to do”

Q.  Were you nervous today?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I was nervous. I always get nervous because it means something. Yeah, I mean, I get nervous on the first hole, kind of settled down a little bit, and then obviously the back nine definitely could feel it, just because there were a lot of really good players around me and they were playing well.

So I knew I was going to have to shoot a good score on the back nine if I wanted to win.

Q.  Paul Azinger said a long time ago that only two things would really rattle a player, playing for cash or playing for prestige. Which one meant more to you today?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Probably the prestige for sure just because being a FedExCup champion is something that I really wanted to do. I wanted to hold that trophy at the end of the day. It was something that I wanted to accomplish during my career, and obviously I got one of them. Now I’m going to try to get me another.

Q.  There’s a lot of big names on the trophy. Were you kind of annoyed that yours wasn’t on it?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: A little bit, but like I said yesterday, I think a couple times there I didn’t really have control of what was going on just because of my play, but obviously today I was in control of winning the trophy or not.

If I played well, I was going to win; if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to. I like that situation a lot better.

Q.  Can you talk about how important that putt was on 13 and your emotions when you banged it off the back of the cup?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, obviously I hit my — obviously the drive went just in the left rough there and I hit a good shot right where I wanted to, just short right of the green.

But it was just one of those — my ball was sitting in the first cut. I thought I was going to catch it clean and didn’t and it came up short. Yeah, that putt was definitely kind of the turning point for me there on the back nine. You know, obviously it gave me the confidence and kind of kept the round going in the right direction.

Stepped up, hit a really nice drive on 14; hit some really quality shots really the rest of the way in. That was a big putt.

Q.  When you look at what you’ve done this post season, you’re exactly one shot away from being absolutely perfect, obviously, in the playoff which you didn’t really have much control over in that situation. Can you characterize this run compared to some of the other runs you’ve had in your career these last few weeks?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, feel like the game is in really good form, playing some solid golf, and obviously contending every week. I’m playing probably some of the best golf I’ve ever played.

Like I said, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

“It’s more about the trophy”

Q.  Obviously it’s a big amount of money and I’m sure it means a lot to you, but I’m just curious if you can think back to a time in your career when there was an amount of money that might have been a lot less that really changed your life, that really might’ve mattered in terms of whether it was your career or just whatever, paying back sponsors or anything that you might have — where that money would have really had a huge impact on you even if it might have been a lot less.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, absolutely. When I went through all three stages of Q-school and got my TOUR card I think they gave me like a $25,000 check. Yeah, I thought I was rich because I didn’t have but a couple hundred bucks in my bank account probably.

Then I went to the first tournament in Hawai’i, I think I finished 10th, and I don’t know, it was a hundred grand or something.

So yeah, that was big, and obviously that was a lot of money to me.

Now obviously I’m very thankful for FedEx and the amount of money they donate for us to be whoever is the FedExCup champion, but it’s not about the money for me. It’s more about the trophy.

Q.  Was there a time back say 10, 12 years ago where you had to get over the idea of thinking how much money a missed putt would cost? Is that an important part to being successful, to not think about the money even though it’s a lot?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, at this stage of my career I’m fortunate enough where I don’t need to think about that. It’s more — it’s all about winning and the trophies. The money is not — I don’t really care about that. I want to win tournaments, and I want to win trophies.

Q.  Sounds like you talked to Wayne over the weekend; can you maybe share the insights of that conversation that you guys had?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: He was playing golf and I asked him how he was playing. He said he was hitting it pretty good but Janet was yelling at him because he wasn’t playing good enough that was about the extent of the conversation.

Q.  You addressed this a little bit, but was this maybe more important in some ways to you given the five strokes — obviously wanting to win the FedExCup and so forth, did it take on any greater significance in that regard to you?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I didn’t really understand. Sorry.

Q.  Did you need this win in your eyes?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, yeah, I needed the win. Last week I had the lead going into the final round. Played a really good solid round, made a great putt to get into a playoff, but ended up losing in the playoff.

Having a five-shot lead today, it’s something, yeah, I needed to finish it off, especially give myself a lot of confidence going into the U.S. Open here in — what, it starts in 10 days or something, or less.

Obviously got a couple days to celebrate with Paulina and the kids, and then got to get back to grinding again.

Q.  These last four weeks you and A.J. seem to have been especially dialed in in your routine on the greens, and I think there might have been a couple adjustments made in how you guys are going about things. I wonder if you could kind of explain that and just what role he really played in this run that you’ve been on here recently.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, A.J. is a big part of the game. Obviously he’s my brother. We’re a good team. He reads the greens well, and a lot of times, too, I know we’re doing well when — you know, because I started using the line at the PGA on the putter when I was putting, and so he’s been doing the AimPoint for a while.

So I know when I line it up and we’ve got it in the same vicinity that we’re doing a good job. He’s done a great job over the last four weeks, four tournaments, and I’m glad to have my brother on the bag with me.

“He’s going to be on my bag for a long time”

Q.  You talked about needing this win and things like that, but from him being an unproven guy out here who had never caddied on the TOUR until now, how much do you think he’s kind of validated himself as being worthy of being out here and being one of the top caddies in the game?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I think from the first time he came out he was — he played golf growing up. He played basketball through high school and college, but he was always a decent player.

Yeah, I mean, it didn’t take him long to catch on. He’s a very good caddie and he would do well for anybody, but he’s going to be on my bag for a long time.

Q.  Have you played Winged Foot?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I have not played it.

Q.  What have you heard about it if you have heard about it, if you’ve asked questions about it?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: That it’s a very good golf course, difficult but fair.

Q.  How would you compare the way you’re playing now with the spring of ’17 when you were blowing through Riv and Match Play and Mexico and things like that?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: It’s similar. It’s getting there. I think I was playing really good then. Obviously I’m playing very well now. Like I said, I feel like I can play better, though.

You know, at times I’m firing on all cylinders, but there’s times where I’m not. I’m playing good enough, though, to where I can keep it where I still can give myself a chance to win.

Compared to spring of ’17, almost there.

Q.  Kind of along those lines, it’s kind of exhausting to get through this stretch and have to do all these virtual interviews and stuff like that —

DUSTIN JOHNSON: But thanks for all your questions. (Laughter.)

Q.  But the fact that the U.S. Open is coming up, the fact that we still have the Masters, are you kind of excited now the way that fits into this weird season?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I am. I am excited. Obviously I’m playing well. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the game, so I’m really looking forward to the next obviously couple months.

But then I’m also — after that I’m looking forward to some time off. It’s been a long stretch, but it’s made it a lot easier playing well, that’s for sure.

MICHAEL BALIKER: Thanks, Dustin. Congratulations.

(FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports)

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Top Tours

PGA Championship 2020: Co-Leader Jason Day interview after 1st round

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 06: Jason Day of Australia reacts to his tee shot on the fourth hole during the first round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on August 06, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 06: Jason Day of Australia reacts to his tee shot on the fourth hole during the first round of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park on August 06, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Co-leader Jason Day talked to the media after his first round at the PGA Championship 2020 at TPC Harding Park.

PGA Championship 2020: Interview with Jason Day

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 2020 PGA Championship. Pleased to be joined by 2015 PGA Champion Jason Day. It’s been five years, but today you opened with a terrific 65, 5-under, no bogeys. Tell us about the no bogeys and how you saw your round go today.

JASON DAY: Yeah, it was good. I got off to a great start. Got a little bit lucky between the bunkers on 10, but got to take the luck when it comes by.

Today I drove it really nicely, and when I was out of position, I left myself on the right side of the fairways to be able to at least get somewhere around the greens, and if I did miss the greens I left it in the right spot.

Yeah, pretty sound the whole way around. I hit a lot of good-quality iron shots coming into the greens. Wasn’t overly aggressive. And there was a couple of shots on 9 and 17 where I hit it pretty tight, but overall it was very solid.

Q. Do you feel some momentum coming in, and then can you take us through the birdie at 9, what you hit in?

JASON DAY: Yeah, so there was definitely a lot of momentum coming in off the previous finishes that I’ve had, three top 10s, which has been nice. The game feels like it’s coming around. I’m pleased with it.

I’m not like excited — I shouldn’t say I’m not excited. I am excited to come out and play every day, but I know that I can improve, and mainly my putting can improve a little bit more.

I feel like I’ve been working very hard in the off-weeks and especially when I come to a tournament to be able to get my putting back to where it is because it’s always been a strength of mine, and I feel like the game is slowly coming around, the confidence is coming around because I’m starting to see the results, which has been good.

But getting back on 9, I hit a nice drive down the left-hand side, had 211 yards, and there’s a black triangle tower at the back of the green, I was trying to go at that, and I kind of just blocked it a little bit, but it was a 5-iron from 211, landed it pretty much on about 203 yards and then bounced up to the pin, and it was a very dead straight putt, so it was very hard to miss that one.

Q. I’m just curious your thoughts on the challenges of the rough. I know it’s patchy in certain areas. Could you talk about the challenges of playing from the rough here.

JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, fortunately I wasn’t in too much of it today, and then when I did hit into it, I got lucky. Like you said, it’s very patchy. Actually when I was doing the interviews, I was watching Xander hit up 9. You obviously can tell how hard it is, and he was just off the fairway.

Looking back on it, on today, I think — I would think that the shorter guys would have a little bit more trouble out there just because if they just miss the fairways then they’re laying up, whereas if you can just kind of get up there and bomb it as far as you can, you can gouge something up towards the green. But it is very thick and patchy in some parts of the golf course.

Q. We spent a lot of time talking early in the week about Tiger and his back and the cold weather and everything. You’re kind of in a similar situation. The first three days when it’s cold, and everything that’s going on, are you a little bit more cautious?

JASON DAY: Yeah.

Q. And then when you see the sun come out today do you kind of smile a little bit?

JASON DAY: No, it’s still pretty cool. I mean, obviously it was nice to be able to have the sun for a change. I mean, it’s been kind of overcast and gray here.

But it has been cool — you’ve got to be careful. It is a lot colder; 50 degrees pretty much to be precise from last week. So it was nice to play in the hot weather last week and then this week you’re always cautious of doing certain things, bending over.

But I pretty much lather up in Deep Heat and I go — I mean, I try and burn the skin off my back, to be honest. And I feel pretty good, so I’ve been fine.

Q. Sorry, lather up with what?

JASON DAY: Deep Heat.

Q. Any examples of how strange it felt in a major to not have fans? An introduction? When you made birdies? Was there any moment where you thought, where’s the noise?

JASON DAY: Yeah, I mean, it’s — I think we’re on 11 — sorry, hold on. We’re on 12 —

Q. 12 is by the road.

JASON DAY: Yeah, 12 tee, and they’ve cut the blue tarp or the actual screen that we have up, and they’re watching through the actual fence. It is unfortunate that we can’t have fans.

I actually miss playing in front of fans because you obviously work off that, especially in a major championship. You work off that energy. Usually it’s buzzing, and it happens from Monday all the way through to Sunday. It’s just a lot of people here. There’s a big buzz going around the golf course.

And today, we’re used to it by now, but it’s still not the same. I know that we are playing the PGA Championship. It’s a major championship. It’s the first one of the year. It’s still just not the same.

Q. Is it more awkward in a major and not just a regular event?

JASON DAY: You can definitely feel the difference in intensity. I know the intensity, it was a little bit more quieter on the range than it has been in previous starts that we’ve had on the Tour, and guys know that, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Q. You talked about your confidence and gaining that, but how happy are you to actually have your mental strength back, because clearly that’s out there now.

JASON DAY: Yeah —

Q. 9 is an example. You missed the putt on 8 —

JASON DAY: Missed the putt on 7, missed the putt on 8 —

Q. And then you came out and did that on 9.

JASON DAY: Once again, I finally had enough of feeling sorry for myself, and it’s easy to do that in this game because it is so mentally tough. You can start blaming everything else but yourself. Sometimes you’ve just got to pull your pants up and just move on, you know.

I feel like the momentum that I’ve had over the last three starts has kind of seeped into this week. I’m excited about — the funny thing is that every day I’m excited to go back to the golf course and play, whereas before I was struggling to get up and going, oh, do I want to kind of put myself through this again. To be honest, I’m excited to get out and play every week now.

Categories
PGA Tour

Memorial Tournament: Interview with Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods during a practice round at the Memorial Tournament. (Picture: Getty)

After the practice round during the Memorial Tournament 2020 Tiger Woods speaks about his actual game and his time at home.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll get started here with five-time winner Tiger Woods. We’d like to welcome him into the interview room at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Tiger is making his first start on the PGA TOUR since the season was suspended in March. If we could please just get an opening comment on the state of your game and how it feels to be back.

TIGER WOODS: It feels great to be back. I hadn’t played on a tournament venue in a while, and it’s been since February, so it’s been a long time for me. Then to get out there and to play with J.T. today was a bunch of fun. It’s certainly a different world, different environment that we’re in. To play practice rounds like this and to watch as the TOUR has evolved and started back and to see no fans, it’s just a very different world out here.

Q.  Tiger, what is your level of concern, now you’re going to start going out and traveling amidst COVID and the spiking cases. What is your level of concern dealing with COVID?

TIGER WOODS: That’s the risk that I’m taking. That’s the risk that all of us are now taking. I know the TOUR has done a fantastic job of setting up the safety and trying to ensure that all of us are protected and are safe, but it is a risk that we are now undertaking when we walk on the property and are around individuals that you don’t know where they’ve been or what they’ve been doing.

But the screening, the testing we’ve done, the protections that we’ve tried to implement on the TOUR have shown that we’ve had to make adjustments, but it’s a risk that I’m willing to take.

Q.  Last week Justin Thomas said he was giving you a hard time that you were scared to come out and play the guys. Did you get a bunch of other calls from other players during that time?

TIGER WOODS: I got a bunch of texts and a bunch of calls when he said that, and hence I’m out here. So I’m not afraid of J.T. anymore. I’ve gotten over that, and here we go.

Q.  You talked about how things are going to be different. I assume that you have talked to enough guys that give you a little bit of — have filled you in on what it is like to have no fans, everything from the rough not being trampled down to the loss of energy. What are your expectations and what have you picked up from them?

TIGER WOODS: Most of the venues that we’ve been playing at really haven’t had that much rough. The guys have — except for Hilton Head where you can possibly lose a ball in the trees, there really hasn’t been a whole lot of rough. Obviously the rough is up here, but the guys have said that it’s — more than anything it’s not really the trampled down lies or anything like that, it’s just the energy is different. There’s nothing to feed off of energy-wise. You make a big putt or make a big par or make a big chip or hit a hell of a shot, there’s no one there. That’s one of the more interesting things that it’ll be going forward. I think this is going to set up for not just in the short-term but for the foreseeable future for sure.

Q.  You’re a guy that’s had more cameras on you than anyone in the history of golf. How did you learn to deal with that, to adjust to that? Was it immediate? Did it take some time? That’s been a hot topic the last couple folks, how long they stay on you.

TIGER WOODS: Well, I’ve had cameras on me since I turned pro, so it’s been over 20-some-odd years that virtually almost every one of my shots that I’ve hit on the TOUR has been documented. That is something that I’ve been accustomed to. That’s something I’ve known for decades. But this is a different world and one we’re going to have to get used to.

Q.  I’m curious kind of building on that, when would you say is the last time you played a full tournament in the United States without a gallery?

TIGER WOODS: Not a full tournament. I don’t think that’s ever happened for me. But I’ve played a round in D.C. when I won, that Saturday we had a derecho come through there on that Friday night, and it was hazardous in the morning and we went out there with no spectators, no volunteers and just played. That was the quietest round I’ve ever been involved with in a tournament setting. That’s what the guys are saying now, that it’s a very different world out here, not to have the distractions, the noise, the excitement, the energy, the people that the fans bring. It’s just a silent and different world.

Q.  Would you have to go back to your college days to maybe find a round that it was just you and a competitor or two?

TIGER WOODS: Well, even in college I had a few people following. (Laughter.)

Q.  Given that it’s a compacted TOUR, how much urgency does that place to maximize every tournament or just approach it the way you would any other year?

TIGER WOODS: Well, for me, I’ve had to try and maximize every tournament start since I’ve had my last procedure, back procedure. I’ve had to manage that. My levels of play — I really haven’t played that much since then. I think that unfortunately over the last few years that I’ve been used to taking long breaks, long time off and having to build my game and build it to a level where it’s at a TOUR level at home and then come out and play and play a few tournaments here and there, so that’s something I have unfortunately been accustomed to. This was a forced break for all of us but also one that I’m excited to get back into playing again.

Q.  When you watch — if you watched the Workday, you saw all these young players. What’s your impression of guys like Collin and Viktor Hovland and those guys?

TIGER WOODS: Man, those two in particular have just such bright futures ahead of them. They both hit the ball great. Short game is only going to get better. Their putting is only going to get better over time. And don’t forget, when you’re a rook like those two were last year, it’s trying to get to know the golf courses. That takes a couple years here and there, and before that starts kicking in, generally you see guys start playing a little better in the second, third, fourth year after it’s gone around the rotation and they’ve seen these venues.

Q.  Given how you played at The Match you seemed to be in mid-season form, and I know it’s a very serious event, but clearly you were ready to come out. Did you consider playing before this week after the restart, and if not, why not?

TIGER WOODS: I did. I did consider playing, trying to figure out if I should play or not. But I just felt it was better to stay at home and be safe. I’m used to playing with lots of people around me or having lots of people have a direct line to me, and that puts not only myself in danger but my friends and family, and just been at home practicing and social distancing and being away from a lot of people. Coming back and playing the TOUR, in my case over the 20-some-odd years I’ve been out here, that’s really hard to say, that I’m used to having so many people around me or even touch me, going from green to tee. That’s something that I looked at and said, well, I’m really not quite comfortable with that, that whole idea. Let’s see how it plays out first and let’s see how the TOUR has played out, how they’ve started, and I feel that I’m comfortable enough to come back out here and play again, and I’m excited to do it.

Q.  Assuming you were watching golf on TV for the last five weeks or so, did you find yourself watching golf like you would, or were you observing other things in terms of the Schoop of the tournament, and kind of as a sidekick to that, if you’ve had any conversations with any of your friends on TOUR, what kind of questions were you asking them about what it was like?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think that watching like I normally would, no, I have not. It was more of watching golf to see how it is now, see what our near future, our reality is and our foreseeable future is going to be. Some of the guys when they first played the first couple weeks, it was very different. To have no one yelling, no one screaming, no energy, the social distancing, no handshakes. Some guys are used to taking the cap off after every round and doing handshakes. That’s just part of the traditions of the game. That changed. Contacts, how close can I be to my caddie. Those are all different questions that the players are trying to figure out on the fly as we’re trying to get back into our season and participate in our sport at a high level again. These are — some of the guys feel weird about it, other guys acclimated to it very quickly. Not having family around out here, when you’re at the golf course, what kind of contact are you going to have. Some of the players — where are you going to go work out, are you going to be able to go work out at a gym? No, you can’t go to the gyms. What are you going to do here? Face masks? We’re trying to figure out all the guidelines and the guys are trying to figure it out on the fly and also compete. So it was very complicated trying to get a routine, well, for most of the players.

Q.  You’ve been in this situation before, too, but I’m sure you saw on Sunday J.T. holes a 50-footer. If there’s a crowd around like Memorial usually gets and they react to it, how much harder is it for Collin to make his putt?

TIGER WOODS: A lot more difficult. I just think that the energy — even it felt weird as I was watching on my computer at home, like 14, when Collin hit the ball on the green there, and granted, they’ve never had the tees up there during the Memorial event, but if they were and had that same situation during a Memorial event, to have someone drive the ball on the green that close to the hole, I mean, that whole hillside would have been going nuts.

So to see J.T. make that putt, he’s screaming, but no one else is screaming. And then when Collin makes it, normally — he didn’t have that much of a reaction, but the whole hillside on 18 would have been just erupted. I’ve been there when they’re throwing drinks towards the greens and people screaming, high fiving, people running around, running through bunkers. That’s all gone. That’s our new reality that we’re facing. Those guys, J.T. and Collin, both how they played down the stretch and separating themselves and the shots they hit, they got into the world of playing against each other and got into that world.

But it’s so different not having the energy of the crowd, and for me watching at home as a spectator and one that has played this golf course and have heard the energy that the fans bring to these holes and these situations, not to have that is very different, very stark really.

Q.  ZOZO proved that after a long break you can win out of the gate; should we take that as a way people should be expecting your chances being good this week or should they be more tempered?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I would like to say that I’m going to win the event. That’s my intent. That’s my intent coming in here. That’s my intent going into every event. That’s certainly the intentions. Whether that plays out over the next four — well, come Sunday, hopefully that will be the case. It was that one particular week — well, three tournaments ago at ZOZO. There’s no reason why I can’t do it again this week. I’ve just got to go out there and do my work and make that happen.

Q.  Do you have a plan to counteract what you’ve been talking about with this no fans and no energy, because you’ve fed off that your entire career clearly. Do you have a plan to sort of counter it?

TIGER WOODS: I think for me in particular, I’m going to have to just put my head down and play. But it’s going to be different, there’s no doubt about it. For most of my career, pretty much almost every competitive playing round that I’ve been involved in, I’ve had people around me, spectators yelling, a lot of movement inside the gallery with camera crews and media. Watching the players play over the last few weeks, that hasn’t been the case, and that’s very different, and for the players that are a little bit older and that have played out here for a long time and have experienced it, it is very different. For some of the younger guys it’s probably not particularly different. They’re not too far removed from college or they’ve only been out here for a year or two, but for some of the older guys it’s very eye-opening really.

Tiger about his last round

Q.  When you played your last competitive round in mid-February, how would you describe where you were physically and where you are now after these five months? And then just on the back end of that, just what it felt to be back out there today.

TIGER WOODS: Well, physically I was very stiff at LA. I was not moving that well. Back was just not quite loose. It was cold. I wasn’t hitting the ball very far, wasn’t playing very well, and consequently I finished dead last. Fast forward five months later, I’ve been able to train a lot. I’ve been able to do a lot of things that I hadn’t done in a very long time, which is spend a lot of time with my kids and be around with them. It’s been very different not to have sports, but we’ve been lucky enough to have had Medalist open at home for most of this quarantine period. So it’s been nice to get out on the golf course and be able to play and keep active that way.

But as far as physically, I feel so much better than I did then. I’ve been able to train and concentrate on getting back up to speed and back up to tournament speed, so how I was moving at The Match and being able to progress since then, being out here today and being able to play with J.T. today, it was a lot of fun for both of us. We play like this at home a lot, so it’s different being on the road, but we’ve played so many practice rounds together and have played so many rounds together in the last few years that it’s been — it was quite normal.

Q.  I’m trying to start a movement with this question. The bunker rake is a relatively new thing in golf. It’s only been around for 60 years or so. In the pandemic a lot of courses have gotten rid of bunker rakes. I’m wondering how you feel about that; could that be part of the game’s future playing without bunker rakes?

TIGER WOODS: I don’t know. That certainly has been at my home course up at Medalist, if the guys happen to be in a footprint or previous hole explosion that one of the groups ahead of them had been in, we just kick it over and move it out of there and move on and play. Whether that works at the elite level, I don’t know what that’s going to be like for golf course maintenance, what it’s going to be like habitually, we as players like you who play the game, we’re used to raking the bunkers. It’s very different.

Q.  Do you view golf as a fundamentally fair game or unfair game?

TIGER WOODS: I don’t think any sport is fair.

Q.  Tiger, so much has changed in society in general since we last saw you. Can I please ask what you made of the development of the Black Lives Matter movement and the reaction to the George Floyd incident, and maybe more importantly, what positive difference you hope that all makes going forward?

TIGER WOODS: I think change is fantastic. As long as we make changes without hurting the innocent, and unfortunately that has happened, hopefully it doesn’t happen in the future, but a movement and change is fantastic. That’s how society develops. That’s how we grow. That’s how we move forward. That’s how we have fairness. Unfortunately we’ve lost innocent lives along the way, and hopefully we don’t lose any more in the future as we move to a much better place socially.

Q.  I was wondering, people have been spending all kinds of different time at home during quarantine and lockdown. I was wondering if there’s anything that you’ve been able to do, one or two things that you ordinarily wouldn’t be able to just because you’ve been stuck at home during this time?

TIGER WOODS: Well, there’s a lot of things that I hadn’t done in a long time, and one was sport-wise and physically is that we were playing quite a bit of tennis. That was very different and something I hadn’t done in a very long period of time because I hadn’t been able to do it physically. The kids enjoyed it. We were able to do that in the backyard.

Again, at the time to have the social distancing and be away from one another, from each other, soccer has been gone, as I’ve said, for us we’ve been lucky enough to have Medalist open and been able to play and practice social distancing and still enjoy being active and being outside. But as far as a lot of things inside the house, well, watched a lot of TV, read a lot of books and just tried and passed the time at times.

Q.  What’s the best book you’ve read?

TIGER WOODS: One of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz, California guy, horror novels. So I read a few of those.

Ryder Cup is postponed

Q.  Tiger, I wanted to get your thoughts on the postponement of the Ryder Cup. Two-part question: One, do you agree with it, and two, with everything now skipping forward a year, Italy will be a few months before your 48th birthday. Is that the one you’re targeting to be captain at?

TIGER WOODS: As far as captaining, we haven’t looked that far. The world has changed so fast. The fact that we were going to play the Ryder Cup, we were in position — what we were going to do as far as the vice captains, the team, how we were going to play practice rounds going forward and gelling as a team this year, all of a sudden the TOUR is suspended, we’re not playing, and we still haven’t come up with a plan going forward how we’re going to figure out the points for not this year but next year, how many picks Strick is going to get. Is that going to change or is it still going to be the same, where is the points cutoff going to be, are we going to be accumulating points at all through this. None of that’s been figured out yet.

Quite frankly, a Ryder Cup without fans is not the Ryder Cup. As it is now, okay. When the Ryder Cup first started there weren’t that many people involved in the game or whether it was GB&I versus the U.S., but the world has expanded, the event has expanded, and as far as I can remember, I’ve always seen people involved in a Ryder Cup and the chanting and screaming and the participation, the bipartisanship that has been part of the sport and part of the event. I think what they did with suspending it for the year and moving it to next year was the right thing.

We couldn’t have an environment in which we could protect all the fans that were going to be involved and have that type of insurance. Obviously if that’s the case, you can’t have the fans. Well, if you can’t have the fans, then it’s not the Ryder Cup.

We did the right thing of holding off for the year, and now from the U.S. side, we’re going to have to figure out how we’re going to accumulate points, how many players Strick is going to be able to pick and figure that out, and build our team from there.

Q.  You must have given some thought to whether you’d like to captain on U.S. soil or on European soil?

TIGER WOODS: I did my captaincy last year, and it was a lot of work, and I’m sure that I’ll look into that in the future.

Q.  Tiger, you’ve touched on this a little bit already: Just curious as you’ve watched on TV what have been your observations from a golf standpoint in terms of low scoring, in terms of course setup and that sort of thing?

TIGER WOODS: Well, the courses have been set up a little on the easier side, lack of rough, the guys have noticed that the pins have been slightly easier. The greens have been more watered. Trying to force pace of play to kind of move around better. But the guys have just absolutely played unbelievably well, considering the fact that we’ve been suspended for a while. And to see the guys come out in that good a shape, you’ve seen players — well, initially you saw one of two things, either guys that have come out rusty and not played well at all and have not played well, or you’ve seen guys that have taken off and run away with it and have gone low.

The low scores have been low and cumulative. To see the cuts at 3-, 4-under par each and every week on the venues that I know are traditionally very hard, to see the scores last week here, Muirfield, I mean, I’ve never seen anything like that, to see that many guys that low on a golf course that I know has always been very hard and very difficult.

I think that what the players have started to figure out as they’ve come back and started to get into the rhythm of playing again, understanding the new environment that we’re now in, it’s been fun to watch and will be even better to be a part of this week.

Q.  What do you make of what Bryson has been doing, more from the standpoint of what do you think the future of the sport looks like in terms of distance?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, he’s figured out a way to increase distance and maximize his efficiency with not only his driver but all of his clubs, but in particular the driver. If I just look back at when I first started playing the TOUR or right before I started playing the TOUR, we didn’t have TrackMans, we didn’t have launch monitors. Guys were learning how to bend clubs on their knee to try and take loft off of it. That’s now changed. Now you go into — you have all these different launch monitor technologies and you can send up a whole bunch of balls, figure out the shafts, the conditions that you want to optimize carry. What Bryson has done is no easy task. He’s got to put in the time and has put in the reps, and he’s figured it out. He’s gotten stronger, faster, bigger, and has created more speed. But more importantly, he’s hitting it further, but let’s look at the fact that he’s hitting it as straight as he is. That’s part of the most difficult thing to do. The further you hit it, the more the tangent goes more crooked, more along this line. So the fact that he’s figured that out and has been able to rein in the foul balls to me has been equally as impressive as his gains off the tee distance-wise.

THE MODERATOR: We appreciate the time. Best of luck this week.

(Transcript by ASAP Sports)

Categories
PGA Tour

The Memorial Tournament Press Conference: Q & A with Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus congratulates Justin Rose at the Memorial Tournament 2010 (Photo: Getty)

JACK NICKLAUS: I’ve been hosting for 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve hosted half a group, just players. Players and press. Anyway, it’s a little different, obviously. We prepared the same way. The golf course is good. Most of the guys probably played here last week. The golf course will be a little different this week. Greens will be a couple feet faster. Rough will be a week older and deeper. Be pretty dead, as they say. And greens should be firmer unless we get too much rain.

But you know, outside of that, it’s — I know that the TOUR did a pretty darned good job from what I could see going around yesterday. They tried to spread the divots as much as they could and tried to use some different tees so they didn’t have the same landing area all the time as the things we’ll have at the Memorial Tournament. We’re looking forward to it. We’re delighted to be just playing the golf tournament.

We didn’t have live sports there for a long time. Now we’ve got live golf, and we’ve had it, what, five, six straight weeks.

THE MODERATOR: Yes, sir. It certainly is a little bit different, and it’s going to be different for you this year without the spectators at the event. Can you address how difficult of a decision that was for your team.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, we didn’t make it. You made it. The TOUR made the decision. We didn’t have anything to do with it. We were approved by the state; Governor DeWine actually liked our proposal. He thought that we had really set out every safety issue that we could, and we were going to give it a shot.

You know, I think it’s not so much — I don’t want to put it on the TOUR’s back, but really, I think you really have to look back to the players, and the players I think had objections — if they happened to contract COVID-19, they’ve got two to three weeks mandatory that they have to leave. They’re trying to make a living, and that makes it very difficult for them.

In this particular time and what’s going on, I don’t blame them for wanting to make sure that they can stay safe and stay in a bit of a bubble and make sure that the whole world gets to watch good-quality championship golf.

THE MODERATOR: It was certainly a valiant effort on your team’s part to bring at that back to the TOUR with spectators, and we understand why that didn’t happen. We’ll take some questions.

Q.How much energy did you gain from having galleries? Did they help you? Just curious your thoughts on that.

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, I enjoyed playing in front of people. I think that I had played in front of people since I was probably 11, 12 years old. 11, the galleries weren’t very big; 12 got a little bit bigger; 13 we actually had followings, and that just continued, so I got used to it. I played high school golf where we didn’t have anybody following. Played some college golf where we didn’t have anybody following. We played — once we started playing significant amateur tournaments, we always had people. So I grew up with it. But I did play some without it. It really didn’t make a whole lot of difference to me.

I think as evidenced at Oakmont when I played against Arnold in ’62, I didn’t know anything that was going on. I always had my mind so focused on what I was trying to do that I didn’t really hear a gallery. I was really more interested in what I was doing, my game, concentration, playing the golf course and shooting a score. That’s what I was out there for.

Did I enjoy having people out there and applauding and admiring what you’re doing and congratulating you? Absolutely, everybody has got an ego towards that. But did it make any difference to my game? Not really.

Q.Can you imagine the ’86 Masters, though, without having those fans there on the back nine for you?

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, the fans were great, but I don’t even know how much — I got a nice ovation, nice applause and everything else, but I was really into trying to play golf. The people were fantastic, there’s no question about that, as they were in ’80 at Baltusrol, they were fantastic, ’78 at St. Andrews. I mean, you’d had a few times in your life where the galleries just are unbelievable, and they were unbelievable at all those three tournaments particularly. And quite a few others.

But it’s still a game to the player, and maybe some players handle it differently. A lot of times I would walk up at about the — when I get a little bit nervous coming down the stretch, 15th, 16th hole I just stop and look around and look at the excitement that was there. There I did play to a gallery because there I could stand around and say, gosh, look at this, this is what I’m here for, this is what I play for, this is what I got myself into this position to do. I’d look around and sort of feed off of that and say, okay, now, this is why I’m here, this is what I’m trying to do, have fun, go enjoy it, go win this thing. That would sort of get me pumped up, and actually it was looking and feeding off a gallery at that particular time.

I suppose I used them at times for that kind of a situation. I just looked at a picture just before I came over here, I think it was last year on the 18th hole, and the sea of people. I mean, just every inch of the 18th hole covered with people, and I’m sitting there saying, wow. You just don’t realize it when you don’t see it how many people really actually came out and watched.

Q.  And for this tournament, did you get the sense that you were going to have fans and then no fans and that some players maybe would have been hesitant to play the Memorial if fans had been here? Were you hearing that just because of the safety or not?

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I think it was the players’ choice and the TOUR’s choice at this point to say, we would prefer not to have fans, and because of the issue that they had, if one of them got sick, then not only were they exposed to the caddie, then exposed to players they had played with, they’d have to go sit for two or three weeks, and the TOUR is shortened already, so it makes it harder for them to make a living. I understand that, and I think that the TOUR probably made the right decision as it relates to The Memorial tournament. Maybe we are a little too early for the galleries. We didn’t have a problem with it. We would have loved to have — my goal putting on the golf tournament is to bring major championship type golf back to Columbus, Ohio, where I grew up. That’s why this whole event is being played. It’s not being played for the players, it’s being played for central Ohio.

But I understand it, and I actually think it was the right decision. When you’re not really — even the governor liked our plan and went along with it and was going to allow us to start to have a gallery and open it up to spectator sports. I applaud the governor and thank him very much for his great efforts to try to help us and the work put in by Dan Sullivan and his team here and all the things they put together to set up a plan that would work and was passed by the state of Ohio.

But in the end, the players — you know, you can’t have a dance without the dancing girls, and so you just — and I can understand where some might be very hesitant. I think we’re probably doing the right thing right now, and we’re going to have a good tournament either way.

Q.  Two questions, unrelated: One is we spoke to Tiger a little bit earlier today and he pronounced himself more healthy than he’s been in months during the period of time he’s been off. He hasn’t played in five months. Just kind of curious with your experience how difficult that is to come off that layoff and maybe what you might expect after five months of no competitive play from him this week.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I don’t know. I’ve seen Tiger play very well after long layoffs. I used to lay off early in my career, I’d stop playing in September, and I didn’t start playing again until January. And I played nothing in between, and quite often I’d start out and then a lot of times the Crosby was my first tournament, and I won that several times. I won three times, I think.

So I won immediately coming out of a winter of not playing golf. So you never know what to expect. I don’t think Tiger will be as sharp or as ready as he normally is, but Tiger is Tiger. He’s a pretty darned good player, and my guess is he played quite a bit of golf at home, and he doesn’t want to come here and not play well and not do his best. So he’s going to give it his best.

Q.  Unrelated, I’m curious, Bryson DeChambeau obviously has been kind of all the rage the past month and change; what’s your impression as to what he has done to his body with the working out, the distance he’s taken? I know you’ve talked about the ball a lot over the years, but is there a concern? Maybe concern is not the right word, but what’s your impression? Do you have a fascination about where he’s taken this so far?

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, I personally have not seen him in person. I’ve seen him on television, and he’s a much bigger man. But he was tall to start with, but if he’s carrying 250 pounds, that’s a lot of weight for Bryson. But Bryson, he doesn’t look heavy, he just looks big. The places that he has been hitting the golf ball — and he’s not — Bryson’s golf swing is not a fluid golf swing that really whips the club into the ball. Bryson’s golf swing is pretty much pretty firm going back and firm coming through with a lot of body rotation. It’s a little different than a lot of guys. And can you believe the power he’s getting from that? I mean, it’s unbelievable.

You know, I for one, I want to watch a little bit, watch him play a little bit. I’d like to see what he does and how he’s actually doing that because he’s obviously doing something right. The ball is going a long way. And he’s playing well with it.

Q.  This is really the first big ballpark he’s going to have faced, so to speak, comparatively. Obviously Colonial and Hilton Head are pretty tight, Travelers similar at River Highlands. This is the first place maybe he takes advantage a little more of that if he’s still hitting it straight.

JACK NICKLAUS: Well, this golf course you can only go so far off the tee before you start getting in trouble. I give you a fairly generous area to hit it into if you’re going to hit it 260, 270, but if you’re beyond that point I try to make you hit the ball pretty straight. It’s going to be a combination. There’s going to be some holes. I mean, 13 goes over the break of a hill, and the bunker is a little over 300 yards, but it’s downhill, downwind, so he probably won’t have any problem carrying that. Most of the guys carried it last year when they were here.

Q.14 and 17 would probably be similar to that?

JACK NICKLAUS: 17 is a little longer — well, it’s not that much longer. 17 is probably 320, 325, 322, something like that, to carry the bunkers. Yeah, he could probably take them over those if he’s carrying the ball that far, but both are downhill, downwind under normal conditions. Wind turns the other way, I don’t even think Bryson is going to be hitting it over those.

Q.  Did you have a chance to watch any of the action last week? I’m curious what your thoughts are on how they played 14 specifically on Sunday with it shorter, and would you ever consider doing that for the Memorial?

JACK NICKLAUS: I did not see virtually — I didn’t see much of the golf tournament. Never saw them play 14. I know they played it up three of the four days. They’ve asked me if we could play it up one day this week, and I said, sure, I have no problem having that being a drivable par-4 if that’s part of what you want to do in the round. It’s okay with me.

The hole is probably my favorite hole on the golf course because of how you really have to play it. I’ve actually made three 2s on the hole, so I’ve had a little bit of success. But I made one 2 from the fairway, two from driving the ball up off the side of the green. Not in a tournament, but I have done that.

I don’t know, I think 14, it’s a little different. And the distance these guys hit it, they’ve been hitting it at the green from the back tee, so I don’t know.

You had a two-part question, I think. Oh, how much have I seen of the guys that played last week? I had a little bit of an “oops” last week myself. We were getting up here, we scheduled our flight to get up here because I wanted to see — congratulate the winner in the locker room at 6:00, and of course then they moved up the tee times, and that didn’t work out. So we were getting on an airplane at 2:00 which is when we were coming up here, and just as we were getting ready to take off, the first hole of the playoff, Justin Thomas holes that big long putt. Well, I saw the putt. We didn’t see Morikawa’s putt.

Barbara and I both texted Justin and said to him, wow, what a fantastic putt, unbelievable fantastic super putt, can’t believe that you made that putt. Now you’ve got the chance to win two in a row. And then we got up in the air, and we picked up wi-fi after 10,000 feet, and we found out Morikawa won the tournament, and so I had to send him another text and say, Oops, a little premature.

He was good about it. He texted back and he said, All’s good, it’s okay. He was good about it, and Morikawa, what a pretty golf swing he’s got. You know, obviously to hole that putt behind Thomas was something pretty special. But I didn’t see a lot of it.

Q.Just to follow up on that, what would your advice be to J.T. to get over something like that?

JACK NICKLAUS: He won’t have any problem getting over it. He’s got his head screwed on properly and his feet on the ground. He knows that you get beat sometimes even when you play well and do the right things or even when you make a mistake. He knew he had a chance on the second playoff hole, what did he have, about an eight-footer, something like that? So he understands that. And sometimes you give your best effort and you just get beat, and that’s about what looked like happened. I think J.T. will be right there again this week.

Q.Just following up on the fans question, do you think not having fans at majors this year will or would affect the competition in terms of the pressure and who can win?

JACK NICKLAUS: I don’t know. Have all the majors declared no fans? I don’t know.

Q.Not yet.

JACK NICKLAUS: Oh, okay, because I hadn’t heard that. Will it make a difference? I think it always makes a little bit of difference. It depends on the individual. Some people do feed off of people. Some golfers do. And I said earlier, I said, it was part of me, I was so used to it. I never really fed that much off of it, but sometimes you get a gallery that sort of pushes you on like at Masters in ’86 or Baltusrol in ’80 or St. Andrews in ’78. The gallery was part of that for me.

But still, I was working so hard on trying to do what I had to do and concentrating on my golf game that that’s where my focus was. It was not on the people.

But I think fans do make a difference, but yeah, we played a lot of college golf and amateur golf where we had some exciting matches and exciting tournaments without anybody watching.

Q.Jack, a lot of the players have told me one of their favorite memories was shaking your hand after they won the tournament, but in this day and age have you thought about what you might do instead of the handshake?

JACK NICKLAUS: I’m going to shake their hand. I going to walk right out there and shake your hand. If they don’t want to shake my hand, that’s fine, I’ll give them a fist bump or an elbow bump, but I’m not going to give them COVID-19, so that’s — I wouldn’t put anybody in that position. I wouldn’t do that, and if I was in any danger of doing that, I wouldn’t shake their hands.

And incidentally, I like shaking their hand, too. I think that’s a great tradition, but it was as much fun for me as I hope it is for them.

THE MODERATOR: That’s all we have for now, so I appreciate your time coming in, and thanks for hosting us at the 45th edition of the Memorial. Look forward to a great tournament.

(Transcript by ASAP Sports)

Categories
European Tour

Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos completes three-event Iberian Swing

Open de Portugal: Another tournament for the "Iberian Swing".(Photo: Getty)

The Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos will return to the European Tour schedule as a dual ranking event on September 17-20, completing a three-event “Iberian Swing” with the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters and the Portugal Masters.

The tournament at Royal Óbidos Spa & Golf Resort in Óbidos was already confirmed as part of the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca for the third consecutive year and will now return to the European Tour for the first time since 2017. 

Strategy of regional clusters


Following the strategy of playing events on the reshaped 2020 Race to Dubai in regional clusters, the Open de Portugal at Royal Obidos follows the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters at Real Club Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain, on September 3-6 and the Portugal Masters at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, Vilamoura, on September 10-13.

The 58th edition of the historic event will be promoted by the Portuguese Golf Federation and moves to Royal Óbidos Spa & Golf Resort – a Seve Ballesteros design – for the first time. 

First played in 1973, the tournament boasts an impressive list of winners including Sam Torrance in 1982 and 1983, Colin Montgomerie in 1989, Miguel Angel Jiménez in 2004 and Thomas Bjørn in 2010. 

Matt Wallace claimed the first of his four European Tour wins the last time the Open de Portugal was part of the Race to Dubai in 2017, while Dimitrios Papadatos and Adrian Meronk claimed their first Challenge Tour victories at the event in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Ben Cowen, the European Tour’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer, said: “In planning the reshaped 2020 Race to Dubai, part of our measured approach has been to play, where possible, in clusters in one region or territory. 

“Adding the Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos as a dual ranking event creates a three tournament “Iberian Swing” for players on the European Tour, and delivers further good news for Challenge Tour members as the event remains on the Road to Mallorca for a third consecutive season, with an increased prize fund of €500,000. 

One of the most interesting golf destinations in Portugal

“We are grateful to our partners at the Portuguese Golf Federation and Royal Óbidos Spa & Golf Resort for working with us to feature this event on both the Challenge Tour and European Tour.”

Miguel Franco de Sousa, President of the Portuguese Golf Federation, said: “We are very happy to secure another dual ranking Open de Portugal which moves to Royal Óbidos for the next three years. This region offers a variety of courses making it a very interesting golf destination in Portugal. We believe that Royal Óbidos, a Seve Ballesteros design, will be a good test of golf for both European and Challenge Tour players.

“This event shows our strong commitment to work closely with the European Tour in order to promote Portugal as one of the best golf destinations in the world, on one end and, on the other, to provide playing opportunities to our playing professionals, especially in this difficult season with very few tournaments being played.”

The European Tour returned this week with the Austrian Open, the first of two dual-ranking events in Austria, followed by the Euram Bank Open. The new six event UK Swing is next before the action moves to Spain and Portugal.

All tournaments in the reshaped 2020 season will be governed by the Tour’s comprehensive Health Strategy, which has been developed by Chief Medical Officer Dr Andrew Murray in consultation with health care specialists Cignpost and advisors in many of the 30 countries in which the European Tour plays.

They will also be underpinned by the European Tour’s new ‘Golf for Good’ initiative which aims to support communities where the European Tour plays, reward true heroes, such as frontline workers, and promote the many health benefits that golf offers.

(Press Release European Tour)

Categories
Top Tours

U.S. Open exemptions available during European Tour’s UK Swing

At the restart tournaments of the European Tour, places will be awarded for the US Open in Winged Foot. (Photo: Getty)
At the restart tournaments of the European Tour, places will be awarded for the US Open in Winged Foot. (Photo: Getty)

Participants in the European Tour’s new UK Swing will have even more to play for following confirmation that ten spots in the 2020 U.S. Open Championship will be available for the highest placed finishers in the mini order of merit after the first five events.

The UK Swing begins at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Lee Westwood at Close House, near Newcastle, from Wednesday July 22 to Saturday July 25, and will launch the European Tour’s Golf for Good initiative, which underpins all events for the remainder of the 2020 season. As part of the initiative, a mini order of merit will run for all six events in the UK Swing, with the top ten sharing an additional £250,000 to donate to charities of their choice.

Coronavirus upsets qualification system

The USGA has confirmed that the top 10 aggregate points earners in the mini order of merit that are otherwise not exempt at the conclusion of the fifth event – the Wales Open at Celtic Manor – will be exempt for the rescheduled U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club on September 17-20.

The traditional U.S. Open sectional qualifying events, including the European qualifier at Walton Heath in June, were cancelled this season following the upheaval in the global golf calendar due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, with the field now comprised entirely of exempt players.

After the European Tour resumes with two events in Austria – the Austrian Open on July 9-12 and the Euram Bank Open on July 15-18 – the action switches to the UK and the Betfred British Masters.

That is followed by the English Open at the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club and the English Championship at Hanbury Manor Marriott Hotel & Country Club, before The Celtic Manor Resort in Newport hosts back-to-back European Tour tournaments – the Celtic Classic and the Wales Open. The UK Swing then concludes with the UK Championship at The Belfry.

Opportunity for European Tour players

Keith Waters, European Tour Chief Operating Officer, said: “Throughout our discussions with the USGA, it was clear that they shared our desire to offer European Tour players an opportunity to earn places in this year’s U.S. Open. We thank them for working with us to create this new exemption category encompassing the first five events in the UK Swing.

“The UK Swing mini order of merit already offers an additional incentive through the Golf for Good initiative, and we are pleased that players now have more to play for, with places available in the second Major Championship of the season.”

“We are grateful to the European Tour”

John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships, said: “The U.S. Open qualifier in England has historically featured a very strong field, and we felt it was important to provide an opportunity for players throughout Europe to earn a place in this year’s championship.

“We are grateful to the European Tour for the wonderful collaboration that allowed us to create this exemption category for the 2020 U.S. Open.”

Press release by European Tour