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PGA Tour: 2018 Players Champion Webb Simpson Speaks to The Media Prior to Making 2020 Start

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Post date March 11, 2020
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MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - FEBRUARY 21: Webb Simpson of the United States plays a shot on the tenth hole during the second round of the World Golf Championships Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec on February 21, 2020 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

PGA Tour professional and 2018 Players Championship winner Webb Simpson addresses the media prior to making his start at the 2020 Players Championship.

PGA Tour: Webb Simpson talks what it will take to win again at The Players Championship

MICHAEL BALIKER: We’re with our 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson back here at TPC Sawgrass. Webb is making his 11th appearance here this week, finished tied for 15th in his defense here last year when the tournament was moved back to March in 2019. Entering the week 5th in the FedExCup standings, already having won in Phoenix. Talk about returning here to Sawgrass with some confidence having already a good start to your season.

WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, it’s always great to be here. You know, I told people before I won, I loved coming here. I loved the challenge of this golf course. I feel like this is one of the few golf courses we play throughout the year that, on any given day, somebody can shoot 7-under or 7-over. It’s just that type of golf course. If you drive it well, you get rewarded, and there’s birdie opportunities. That’s fun for us players to play golf courses where, if you do certain things well, you can shoot low scores.

That’s why I think you’ve seen scores all over the map here from 3-, 4-under winning to 20-underish, high teens. Always a fun course to come to and compete. Looks like we’re going to have good weather. Golf course is in great shape. I know, out of 144 players, there’s 110 TOUR winners in the field. THE PLAYERS Championship always gets talked about as kind of — it’s a standalone tournament in its own category, but the competition speaks for itself. It’s a great field and a great challenge ahead of us.

Q. The stretch you’ve had this year starting with last fall, what’s been working for you the most? What’s been clicking? And then in terms of your scheduling, you’re not exactly playing a Fred Funk-type schedule. You’re not on track for 35 starts. Has that changed or evolved as you’ve progressed in your career?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, you know, well, the first part of your question, what’s been working, I think looking back to last three or four months of golf, the thing that has stood out to me is the days where I tee it up and don’t have a great day I’m able to shoot better scores. I’ve told people often that what separates guys from Korn Ferry to the PGA TOUR I think is your bad days, because those Korn Ferry guys can shoot 8-, 9-, 10-under. But I remember a couple rounds specifically, the first round at Sony this year I shot 1-over, but it could have easily been 4- or 5-over, and that kind of let me hang in there. I was in 40th place, could have been in 80th place. And this year at Waste Management I shot even par the first round. Could have been worse. And again, I’m 10 back after that first round, so I had a lot of ground to gain. But I knew that that golf course had certain holes and certain stretches where you could make runs.

So I think the difference has been just hanging in there on those tough days and ultimately has proved to allow me to stay in a tournament and still have a chance to win on Sunday.

Q. The scheduling?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, the scheduling, I set out a couple years ago to try to play less. A couple reasons. One, I have five kids. If I’m able, where I stand with my TOUR card, if I’m able, I want to be home more. But also, I looked at the best players in the world, and it seemed like the thing for them was, on schedule was, they were playing a little less than other guys. I think one reason, they’re able to, but also there’s something to it. I think I’ve seen that I show up to golf tournaments, like this one, I’m more rested. I wasn’t in those grueling conditions the last two weeks. I’m excited to play golf, where I’ve felt in the past, if I’m on a long stretch, I’m not really excited to play golf. It feels more like work versus work and fun and competing. And so that’s been a big difference for me mentally.

Q. Nobody has successfully defended here. A, are you surprised by that? And B, do you consider this tournament maybe the toughest to defend on TOUR?
WEBB SIMPSON: I think so. And I think it is because of the golf course and kind of the finishing holes. It’s one of those courses where you feel so uncomfortable and unconfident with a one-shot lead or two-shot lead even with a few to go, compared to on other places you can put it on cruise control. So much can happen on 16, 17, 18 — really 13 on, now 12 on with being a drivable par-4. So the back nine presents itself to have fireworks.

Even in 2018 when I had a big lead, I really didn’t feel comfortable until I hit it on the green on 17. You’re not really thinking bad thoughts, but you’re thinking you’ve seen history, you’ve seen guys hit it in the water there on 17 and make a mess out of it. I think that’s why it’s hard to defend, because come Sunday, anyone can shoot 6-, 7-, 8-under. And I had a seven-shot lead, and I knew if I shot even par or 1-over and somebody shot a low number, I didn’t win. Whereas, if you had a seven-shot lead at a different style golf course where shooting low scores were harder to do, then you’d feel more comfortable. So that’s probably why, my guess is, people haven’t defended.

Q. You’re not surprised then?
WEBB SIMPSON: I’m not surprised, yeah.

Q. Just wondering, Tyrell Hatton was saying he was going to have such a big celebration he might not recover until Wednesday. I was wondering what you did when you won here, who you were with, whether it was low key, if you just wanted to be around the people that got you there, helped get you there, what exactly you did sort of that night.
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, so there was quite a few stops here, media and going to see the volunteers, so it was a decently long night but a fun night. You know, you’re literally — I’m out there in the dark driving down 18, going to 17, doing media there, and it’s all fun. My wife wasn’t there that week, but she flew down on Sunday morning, so it was just her and I, so when we left here, we got a flight, flew home, we stopped at Wendy’s on the way to the airport, a celebratory dinner, which I did after the U.S. Open, it was Wendy’s, and then we flew home, and Monday morning was school for my kids.

Pretty normal jump back into the dad role pretty quickly.

Q. What did you get at Wendy’s? Did you go crazy?
WEBB SIMPSON: From Wendy’s I go double cheeseburger usually. But my recovery was probably better on Monday morning than Tyrell Hatton’s was. But good for him. I’m happy for him. I’ve known him to be a really good player for a long time. Yeah, obviously played in Ryder Cup with him and respect his game a lot. Somebody Tweeted and I saw this and I agree with it, it looked look like he was going to win all week he was so in control, even after his double on 11. So good for him.

Q. Mark Brody mentioned you in his book years ago, but how much do you use ShotLink data and statistics for course management or do you consult with someone on course management using those numbers?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, I think Mark has changed the landscape for statistics forever. His stuff is as unbiased as you can get. I use it all the time, for confidence reasons, kind of two ways. One, if I think I’m hitting my approaches well and I look for the year, I’m 71st, then I realize I’m not. And vice versa, maybe I have a bad around the greens week, and I look and I finished 10th for the week. So there I realize I’m being too tough a critic. So I use his stuff weekly, I use it midweek, into the year, and it really helps.

And then in terms of more kind of zeroed into golf courses and what guys have done in the past to make — the most birdies have come from this position in the fairway versus 30 yards back. I look at that a little, but I also know that I play — I feel like I play the game slightly different than guys. Usually I’m a little more conservative than the field as a whole. So it does help, but I probably don’t use that stuff as much as other guys might.

Q. We’ve had five players under 23 win since July. They’ve grown up with TrackMan, they’ve grown up with the insights of the ShotLink data and stuff. How much do you think all of that stuff has helped lessen the learning curve and allowed those guys to win young?
WEBB SIMPSON: I think it’s helped a ton. What we used to have to figure out, and even more so, my caddie Paul, his kind of 15, 20 years before me, what you had to figure out on your own took so much longer and took just more information that you didn’t know feels perfectly accurate. Now we have so much at our fingertips on our phone or on TrackMan, that’s one of the main reasons guys are improving a lot faster and they come out here and they’re ready to win. They understand their games more than I did even out of college. If you would have asked me out of college what are the strengths of my game, I probably would have fumbled over that question, but now guys can tell you, based on statistics, what makes them great. So it’s certainly helped.

Even the fitting world, like you can now have a golf shaft that it feels great, it looks great, but your numbers on TrackMan are saying otherwise, so you really quickly eliminate that one and go to the next one. It’s helping guys all across the board.

Q. What’s your preparation like for THE PLAYERS compared to the majors, other big events?
WEBB SIMPSON: It’s very similar. I mean, my goal Monday through Wednesday is to kind of combine feeling like I know the golf course and how it’s playing, kind of refreshing myself on all the pins, where they’re going to be, because they don’t really change much, to getting in good practice kind of in all parts of my game but not being too tired. I think it’s a tendency for guys at majors and in big events like this to overdo it Monday through Wednesday, and rest doesn’t get enough attention. And so you kind of try to think, for me, through that lens of rest, practicing all parts of my game and knowing the golf course. And it’s hard because, like right now, the golf course is in perfect shape but it’s soft, and we’re not going to get any rain, so come Thursday it could be very different than it was — I played nine holes yesterday.

So you go into Thursday knowing that the golf course is probably going to get a little more firm, and you kind of have to adjust as you go.

Q. Is there another event that requires as many great shots as this one?
WEBB SIMPSON: I think Augusta has some similarities where you’re going to hit every shot in your bag here, every club in your bag, low, high, right to left, left to right, and Augusta has a lot of that. It reminds me a lot of that in that way.

Q. Rory won last year after you, the previous year. When his name is mentioned, what are the things that immediately come to your mind about him?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, certainly, not needing to say this, but he’s certainly the best player in the world right now, has floated in and out of the best player in the world for his whole career it seems like. His bad play and bad stretches is better than most every guy out here. And when he’s playing his best, he’s hard to beat.

You know, he’s already, I think, created the opinion that he’s going to go down as one of the great players ever in golf, which is great for him, great for us, great for our TOUR, and you know, he’s one of those guys that you expect to be in contention every week.

Q. And as a person?
WEBB SIMPSON: I think he’s great for our game. I think he’s very mature. I think he’s liked by all of his peers, all of us. Yeah, when someone respects you on and off the golf course, that’s a great thing, and I think that’s how we all feel about Rory.

Q. I believe you saw Butch Harmon the week before for a little bit of a checkup. Curious what you took from that to work on at Phoenix, and it obviously paid dividends immediately, and are you still working on the same stuff that you talked about that week?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, so I worked with Butch Monday of Phoenix, and I think what makes him great is I saw him in October, the Monday of Vegas, and I worked on my path in my backswing. My path, the club was getting too far inside, and that’s all we worked on is my path. I come back in late January to see him, Monday of Phoenix, and we worked on my club face. My club face was getting too open in my backswing. And so I asked him was it open in October, and he said yes, and I said, why didn’t we work on it in October, and he said, well, the backswing was a big task, and I didn’t want to give you too much at once because you had to go play in a golf tournament, the Shriners. That just shows his experience, I think, just knowing how much to give a player and how much — because I think he knows that players will go think about everything. If he gives me three things I’m going to think about them all. So it was just slow and steady. So then Phoenix week it was just my club face, and the homework for me was 15 to 20 swings a day, and that’s it, and then he wanted me to go play golf.

So that’s why I love going to see him is he knows his stuff but he knows that we have to go play every week, and it’s hard to play golf swing on the golf course, so he’s great at that.

Q. You had two weeks off coming into this week, so when you’re home, you referenced your five kids, how do you manage your time? Do you go out there with a checklist at Quail Hollow, for example, and say, this is what I’m going to get done each day or do you just sort of wing it?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, so usually I dedicate two, three days to golf a week on an off week, so I’ll take a couple days off and start back either Wednesday or Thursday. And this time of year is hard with the weather so it’s a little bit unpredictable about when I can practice. But when I go out there there’s a checklist. I’m trying to hit my range time, my putting, my short game, kind of all similar time — I’m giving similar attention to all of them. And then I love to go on the golf course to implement what I just worked on. Even if it’s nine holes with a friend or nine holes by myself, I try to get out there and pretend like I’m in a tournament, going through the routine, taking my time, reading putts like it matters, because that’s the hardest part, I think, is kind of letting your technical work bleed into competition, because competition as you know is so different.

The Players Championship Tee Times and Leaderboard

So that’s a normal week. One of those days of golf is 18 holes of competition, so getting a game, playing, letting it count.

Q. Now that you’ve had a chance to experience this tournament in March, do you have a preference now, March or May?
WEBB SIMPSON: No, I think both have their strengths. I think March the golf course is overseeded. It’s in perfect shape. It looks pretty. It’s a little softer. Fairways are a bit wider. You can hit more club off the tee.

May is hotter, ball is going further. Ball is running more. Some of these dump-offs on the side of the green come into play more.

So I think both have their challenges. May plays shorter so you can hit shorter clubs in, but chipping is a lot easier this time of year. You don’t deal with that grainy Bermuda. We have that nice plush overseed to help us.

Q. I was just curious what your strategy and club selection were at 6 off the tee?
WEBB SIMPSON: So 6, I hit a club that, if I pull it, I don’t run out and into that bunker. So if I hit a hybrid and I pull it, I want it to be in the bunker where I have a clear shot to the green every time versus if I hit like a 3-wood and I pull it, it would run up against that lip, and most of the time if it runs up against that lip you can’t hit it on the green. The lip is too tall to hit it that far. So depending on the wind and time of day and the heat and all that, usually we’re looking at anywhere from a 230 to 260 club. But our main focus is what is that runout at that left lip playing.

Q. So you’ve —
WEBB SIMPSON: It’s a hybrid or a 5-wood. I’ve usually laid back. It’s rare we hit driver and get it up there.

Q. But you have tried driver?
WEBB SIMPSON: I have tried it before, yeah. I think in my early days I hit driver all the time, but I hit it up against that lip enough to have a sour taste in my mouth to want to stay away from it. We have a lot of holes like that here. 4 is another example where guys can hit driver if they want, they can get it up there and have a lob wedge in, but now you’re bringing on trouble, or you can lay back with a 3-iron or 4-iron and have a lot longer shot in. And I think that’s one of the main geniuses of this golf course. You look at 18, Rickie hitting driver the year he won in 2015, hitting a cut even. Rory hitting driver last year with, what did he have, a two-shot lead going into 18? I’m hitting 3-iron on that hole. So Rory is literally going to hit it almost 100 yards by me, but he’s playing it how he wants to play it and what he’s confident in, and I’m doing the same, and that’s what makes this course special.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 11, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags live-pga-tour, Professionals, Webb Simpson

Team USA

PGA Tour: Justin Thomas Speaks To The Media Prior To Making 6th Start at The Players Championship

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 11, 2020
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 10: Justin Thomas of the United States plays a shot during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 10, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Tour professional and FedEx Cup number two Justin Thomas addresses the media ahead of The Players Championship, speaking on the May to March change, building his schedule for the year and being paired with friends.

PGA Tour: Justin Thomas previews The Players Championship ahead of making his 6th start on Thursday

AMANDA HERRINGTON: We’d like to welcome Justin Thomas to the interview room here at THE PLAYERS Championship. Justin is making his sixth start at THE PLAYERS Championship, comes into the week No. 2 in the FedExCup standings on the strength of two wins this season. Justin, get your thoughts on coming into the week here.

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it’s a place I love. I love the golf course. I think it’s just a very well-designed course, tee to green, forces you to work it both ways off the tee and into the green, and obviously it’s an extremely deep field with all the top players here, so it’s a tournament that when I first came here, I felt like I could have some success at this place, and yeah, came out and practiced yesterday. It seems to be in pristine shape as usual, so I’m excited to get out there today on the course and see how it is.

Q. You’ve had some really good low rounds here and some not so good. When you play well out here, what are you doing right, and when you don’t play so well, what’s kind of been your stumbling blocks out here?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I think honestly, I think it’s a testament to a well-designed course. You look at, obviously Mexico is very different or Riviera, but every day you have those 64 to 67s and you have some 78s, and like that just doesn’t happen every week.

I think it’s because this place rewards good golf and penalizes bad golf. I would think that — I mean, obviously it depends on the weather and you can get some cold, windy and some firm weeks in March, but some of my high numbers have been in May mostly. When it gets firm like that, it puts even more of a premium on hitting the fairway, and those days where I had some high numbers, I was not playing well, and I didn’t really have any control of my ball versus when I was playing well. If you get the ball in the fairway you have a lot of wedges and 9-irons into these greens, and I feel like that’s a strength of my game. I just have been able to take advantage of that a couple times when I’ve been hitting it well.

It’s a place where you can get it going, you just kind of have to stay patient and wait for your spots.

The Players Championship Tee Times and Leaderboard

Q. We always get this mentality that’s kind of like win or nothing else, and I’m just curious if you ever finished like in a top 10 that wasn’t a win but that was a satisfying week for you. Can you get satisfaction out of a non-win top 10, for instance?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Absolutely. I mean, we all say that and we all think that, but it’s not reality. We’re not going to win every week. We’re not going to win — I don’t know the percentages of the top players’ wins in their career, but I can’t imagine that anybody except for one person is above 10 or 15 percent. You have to be realistic in senses like that.

I mean, a week like Phoenix this year for me was huge. I did not play very well. I was not driving it well. My irons were very average. I got it around the course very well and ended up — I had a good Sunday. We got it going a little bit, and ended up finishing third, and I think weeks like that are sometimes more confidence boosting than anything else because realistically I could have won that tournament if I just could have got something going remotely the first couple days, but I just could never — I was never hitting it well enough to make that five, six birdies in a nine-hole stretch or whatever it was. I’d make a couple and then I’d just make some more pars on some easy holes. I just could never get momentum going.

But for not playing very well and not hitting it very well, I think I made four bogeys over four days so managed my game well and got it around that course well. I’d take the win, but sometimes it’s just as confidence boosting.

Q. With the change back to March and the fairways being softer, do you think we’re going to see someone shoot a 62 here? The 63s have both been in March, I believe.
JUSTIN THOMAS: I think Colt Knost shot 63 here when it was in May. I think you can. The thing about it being in March, I’ve never experienced it, I mean, I’ve heard some horror stories from guys in the past of you get in Jacksonville this time of year you can get some cold, cold days, you can get a strong north wind where we’re hitting 6-, 7-, 8-iron on 17. I would imagine if that’s the case then you won’t be seeing any. But if you get weather like it looks like it could be this week, generally one or two of the days they’re going to have the pins set up a little bit easier, someone could get hot and do it. You can do it on any golf course, I think when you give us the soft conditions it’s definitely going to be more likely, but at the end of the day 10-under par, that’s a low score no matter where you’re playing. But I definitely think that it is doable.

Q. It seems like just a blink ago you were considered one of the young guns out here. I want your thoughts on this current crop of young players that come out here and they not only think they can win, they expect to win.
JUSTIN THOMAS: Am I officially out? Am I thrown out of the young —

Q. Yeah, you’re out.
JUSTIN THOMAS: Damn, that’s rough. (Laughter.)

No, it’s impressive, and I think it’s cool what the TOUR is doing this week is pairing Viktor, Matt and Collin together. The fact that those three guys have won already is unbelievable. I don’t think — they probably don’t even realize how impressive it is.

But they also understand how talented they are, and we do, too, and they’re going to be out here for a long time.

You can’t compare their group versus our group or another group or whatever it is. You just kind of have to respect what’s coming out, and they’re unbelievable players, they’re very, very mature for being thrown into the spotlight. I think that’s something that goes very under-mentioned and underrated is that it’s easy to forget that they’re 21, 22 years old, I think at least, and they’re handling all this very well because they’re very much in the spotlight just like any of us are. They’re still playing some pretty good golf and being comfortable out here.

I think they’re going to continue to do great things, and it’s great to have them out here.

Q. This question is from a Chinese fan, so obviously you’re one of their favorites. He wants to know before your round if you’re not mentally ready, what do you do to snap yourself out of it?
JUSTIN THOMAS: There’s plenty of times. You wake up some days and some mornings and you just don’t have it, you’re tired, you don’t feel well. I don’t have a good warmup or whatever it might be. I think those days I rely on my caddie Jimmy. He knows if I’m not feeling well. We know each other so well to where we can figure out just by being around each other for 20 minutes if the other one isn’t in it that day. I’ll just tell him walking to the tee, Hey, man, I need you today, I don’t quite feel well or I don’t have it and we need to stay extra patient today, and we might talk through things a little bit more. Yeah, I don’t know, he does a great job in situations like that, and we’ve actually had some pretty good rounds doing that.

Q. You referred to it a little bit ago about the top 5s and how that top 3 was a positive moment for you. When you look at Rory right now and the run he’s on with all these top 5s, which is pretty remarkable, how do you view that stretch because obviously he’s frustrated he hasn’t won yet, which I’m sure you would be, as well, but where do you weigh that on the positive side versus the negative side, not closing them out when he’s had chances?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I think you definitely have to look at it as a positive. The thing about it is you keep — when you’re as talented as Rory is, you keep putting yourself there, it’s going to happen eventually, and he has the capability to do what he’s done a couple times where he might win four events in six weeks or win a couple in a row. I know he knows that, I know we all know that, and he’s playing some unbelievable golf, but he’s just — it’s cool because I respect Rory as much as I like him. I just respect what he does because he works really hard. He takes it extremely seriously. I mean, I would say, along with myself, he is someone that I see practicing more than anybody else. We put a lot of work in.

I think he had some times there where he was expecting more of himself and he wasn’t sure what he had to do, and he just kind of had to dig it out of the dirt and kind of just get back to the basics and just, not start over, but be like, I need to be me, I need to be Rory McIlroy and get myself back to what made me great, and he’s obviously doing that, and the wins will come.

Q. The guy to chase in the FedExCup at the moment is Sungjae Im. What are your thoughts on him?
JUSTIN THOMAS: He’s unbelievable. I remember the first time I played with him at the CJ Cup, it was really windy, as is often is there, and the way he was hitting his drives, we’d have this huge crosswind and he would hit this little low bullet hold and when it would be the other way he would do the same thing, we’d have a downwind into the green he’d throw an iron straight up into the air. I’ve never seen somebody that young with so many shots. I know it took me a while to learn all those and feel comfortable doing them in a golf tournament, for one, but he obviously is very comfortable doing it, and he definitely plays enough to get comfortable with it in a tournament. It’s impressive. I think every person that I know that has played with him for the first time walks off and is like, wow, he’s good. He knows what he’s doing. He can make his way around a golf course, and yeah, I don’t think we’re — anybody who’s played with him, I don’t think we’re surprised that he’s won, and I’m sure he’s going to win a lot more times.

Q. Regarding the grouping with you and Jordan and Rickie, how hard or easy is it to turn off the friendship when you start off the first tee and get competitive like you need to be? What’s that dynamic like to play with two such close friends?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it can be tough, but I’ve had some really good rounds with some great friends. You definitely have to find the, I guess, the happy medium of we’re going to talk between shots, and it’s just a matter of, okay, when do I cut that off and I need to get back into my focus, because I have a lot of times that I hit it up there close and I’m kind of counting my putt, it’s like a four-footer and I’m kind of laughing and joking around with the guys on the green and next thing you know it’s my turn to putt, I’m not focused and I miss it. I’m walking off the green going, how many times do I have to do to this learn that I’ve got to stop doing it. But because of that I obviously have learned, and I know that I have to take it into consideration.

We’re going to have fun. I mean, not any more fun than we would with anybody else. We just happen to be some group of guys that are really good friends and hang out quite a bit and we’re out here competing trying to win a golf tournament.

We’re all going to be trying to play as well as we can and beat each other, but in between shots just kind of yuk it up and have some fun.

Q. How hard is it to build your entire schedule for the year, and is it subject to change ever? And also, what did you do the last couple weeks?
JUSTIN THOMAS: In terms of scheduling, it can be tough. I feel like it’s going to take a couple years to kind of figure out. The Florida Swing is very difficult for me at least living here. It’s like there’s so many tournaments I want to play, and there’s so many tournaments I feel like are good for me, but at the end of the day, I need to do what’s best for me, and I need to do what’s going to make sure that my body is in the best shape throughout the year, going to be fresh and ready for the majors, and most importantly fresh and ready for the FedExCup Playoffs, because I felt like last year was kind of strange because obviously I didn’t want to miss a month, month and a half with the wrist injury, but come the Playoffs time, everyone is tired and I’m ready to go. I took a month, month and a half off, and I’m like, all right, let’s do it, let’s keep playing.

I almost learned a little bit from that because it’s like, I don’t need to play. Yeah, sitting at home and watching the Honda and watching Bay Hill and being like, I know that I can do this and I’ve had success at Honda and Bay Hill is a tough course, ball striker’s course, I know that I can compete there. But I can sit at home every week and do that.

I probably did watch more golf than I have in a while because of just how — not entertaining but just how good the golf courses we’re playing. I thought it was enjoyable to watch. I guess that answers the question, I did watch a lot of golf.

It does take a little bit to figure out the scheduling. But no, I took it easy. I didn’t do very much at all. I wanted to get some rest for these next three events coming up in a row, and one of my best friends from high school got married this past weekend in Louisville, so I went home Thursday, got to see my friends and my family that I don’t get to see very often and spend a nice fun weekend with them and then came back Sunday morning and went out and played with dad Sunday afternoon and then came here yesterday.

Q. It’s been kind of an odd start to the year in terms of winning Kapalua, missing the cut at Sony, being there at Phoenix, missing the cut at LA, being there in Mexico. What’s going on?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I hope that trend doesn’t continue now that you say that.

No, Sony was weird. The conditions were so brutal. I don’t know if it just took a lot out of me winning in Kapalua or what it was, but I played poorly, but I didn’t — I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole at Sony. I had a hard time putting in that wind, and the golf course was so different than any year I’ve ever played it where, honestly, I feel like it almost hurt me playing there — not that five times is that many — but playing there as many times as I have, because I’m used to, when you hit it in the rough on No. 1, you’re trying to land it 15 yards short of that green on the right and run it up there. Whereas, you’re in the rough, straight downwind, you had to fly it in the middle of the green because it was so soft that the ball was just going to basically plug where it was. I think it took me about 20-something holes to figure that out, and by that point it was a little too late and didn’t matter.

But in LA I just drove it bad, and when you drive it bad out there, you’re pretty much behind the 8-ball, and I could never get the ball close enough to the hole to make any birdies.

I actually played all right on Friday. I played good enough to post a score well enough to make the cut, but I just played so poorly on Thursday that I didn’t really have much. Just kind of been a little bit of up and down.

Q. Secondly, have you or any of your people sat down or talked with the Premier Golf League, and when do you have to make a decision if there’s one to be made?
JUSTIN THOMAS: I don’t know, in terms of the decision. I’ve tried to keep it as far away from me as possible because I’m focused on playing out here and taking whatever week I have next, focusing on that as opposed to focusing on whatever it is. We haven’t really talked about it. I mean, it’s just something that kind of gets brought up quickly, and I kind of let them handle it. Like I said, that’s not my part. I’m out here to try to get ready to play on the PGA TOUR, and that’s my main focus right now, and once that opportunity ever presents itself to actually sit down and talk about it, then we can.

Q. Davis Riley is having a great start to the year on the Korn Ferry TOUR. Can you speak to your relationship with him and following his progress and what stands out to you and impresses you with his game?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, Davis is a stud, man. He’s one of the guys when I’d go back and visit the guys at school, I just hit it off with him so well. He kind of reminds me a lot of myself. He’s a good player, but he’s laid back, he’s easy going. He’s a great teammate. Got along with all the guys. I just really, really like him. I do. I kind of wanted to take him under my wing a little bit and try to help him as much as I could, whether he wanted the help or not, just present it to him that I’m here to help if he wants. He’s impressive. I mean, there’s a handful of guys or a group of guys I feel like in college and amateur golf, there’s obviously going to be a lot of kids that come out and are very successful, but he’s someone that you sit and watch hit balls, and it’s like, that’s a different sound than everybody makes, it’s a different ball flight than everybody makes and he just needs to stay focused and keep doing what he’s doing. Whatever he’s doing right now is working pretty well and hopefully he’ll have continued success and we’ll have a lot of years out here together.

Q. From this point on until through the TOUR Championship, the schedule seems a little unrelenting. You’re never more than a few weeks away from a really big event. How do you go about compartmentalizing to avoid burning out from THE PLAYERS through the TOUR Championship?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it’s a good question, but I think I just try to take everything I’ve learned over the past five years from it. It’s like, I don’t play more than three in a row. Nobody, including my caddie, wants me to ever play four in a row. It just doesn’t bode for a good Justin. Not fun to be around. Using the Mondays through Wednesdays how I need to use them and using the off weeks how I need to use them, and I feel like I’m definitely young enough and do the proper training to where I should not get burnt out. Certainly there’s going to be weeks where maybe you’re a little bit more excited when you get to the course or tee it up on Thursday than others, but that’s why I do what I do. I came out here and I wanted to play professional golf so I could be playing all these tournaments and playing from THE PLAYERS to the TOUR Championship. There’s definitely — it definitely beats the alternative of not having to worry about burning out, that’s for sure. That’s what I do all of my work on the off weeks and training for, so that doesn’t happen.

Q. Speaking to your pairing, the spring break reunion tour this week, can you just talk about that pairing, and can that be advantageous playing with buddies? Is that something that can be a help during a tournament, first two rounds of a tournament?
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, it’ll be a good time. We’ve had a lot of rounds of golf together, probably more fun rounds than competitive rounds. I don’t know. At the end of the day, we’re going to play well because of us, not because of the people we’re with. I mean, there’s obviously times where you’ll have everyone in the group is 4- or 5-under, you can kind of feed off each other. Sometimes the group is a little bit flat. But at the end of the day, if we all get off to a good start, then we might play well. It’s not like I’m going to play great today because I played with Jordan and Rick. I would like to hope that I have a little bit more confidence in myself, that I’m a good enough player to play without them. But that being said, it is nice knowing — I was going to say it’s not like I can really catch up with them. I pretty much know everything about them already, and vice versa, but it’s just — I like their caddies, I like their families. It’s easy for us. It’s something we’re very, very accustomed to.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 11, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Justin Thomas, live-pga-tour, Professionals, The Players Championship

Professionals

PGA Tour: Danny Lee Speaks to the Media About Open Championship Qualification Following Arnold Palmer Invitational

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 9, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: Danny Lee Speaks to the Media About Open Championship Qualification Following Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 08: Danny Lee of New Zealand plays a shot on the second hole during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 08, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Danny Lee speaks to the media following the closing round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in which he finished in fifth place, good enough to earn a spot in this year’s Open Championship

PGA Tour: Danny Lee speaks on earning spot in the 2020 Open Championship

Q. Are you going to play the golf course before The Open Championship?
DANNY LEE: Yeah, I’ll try to go there the week before in advance, I guess, yeah, and put in some rounds.

Q. You’ve played The Open Championship twice and what was it about that that’s different from different Majors?
DANNY LEE: First of all, the tee time. I’ll never get used to 3 o’clock or 4 o’clock in the afternoon tee times and finish at like 9 or 8. I’m never used to that. And just the conditions and firmness of the area. I’m a very aggressive player and it seems like whenever I play the links golf course very aggressive it just bites me back. So this year I’ll play a little bit more smart, I guess.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

Q. Talk about the challenging week here.
DANNY LEE: Oh, it was. Saturday, Sunday was brutal. The wind and the firmness of the greens seems like when you think it can’t get any faster it just got faster and faster. Whenever I had a downhill putt I just couldn’t hit it soft enough. And but I still tried really hard to put myself in the position to catch up to the leader. And I really thought if I beat Sungjae today I probably had an idea that I had a pretty good chance to winning this event or come really close to finishing top 3 or something. But it was still a good round.

My goal before I teed off today was try to not finish over par for the round. So I accomplished that goal and it was very challenging this week.

Q. Thoughts on qualifying for The Open Championship?
DANNY LEE: I’m really pretty pumped up and I get another swing at a major and I’m going to just go over there and enjoy it.

Orlando, Florida

March 9, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Arnold Palmer Invitational, Danny Lee, live-pga-tour, Professionals

Team USA

PGA Tour: Bryson DeChambeau Recaps T4 Finish at 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 9, 2020

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 08: Bryson DeChambeau of the United States checks his yardage book on the second green during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 08, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Bryson Dechambeau speaks with the media following the conclusion of the final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in which he finished in solo 4th place, 3 strokes behind the winner.

PGA Tour: Bryson DeChambeau talks Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship Prep

Q. Gutsy shot out of the rough there at 18. I said on the air this 13-footer’s not going to be short. It was dead in the heart, the big upper cut when it went in. How much fun was that finish for you?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, you know, I was trying to hit it in the fairway, obviously, and that was my goal. Unfortunately, I blocked it right. Just lost, in the last few holes today, there was a few holes where it just went right on me and I wasn’t really totally comfortable with the driver like I was the first three days. And I was lucky enough to get a really good lie in the right rough and I said, You know, what, I can go for it. And I was trying to go over the green into the rough and try and chip it or something like that. And I absolutely blocked the heck out of it. It came out a little dead, and I’m like, This is going in the water. And luckily it bounced a yard over and rolled up there perfectly and had a 13-footer and I took advantage of the good situation.

Q. A couple notes. There’s only been five birdies yesterday and today at 18. You got two of them. You’re the first player to post an under par round today. How difficult was it again today?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Oh, man, I mean, this definitely tested every aspect of your game and you had to be driving it well. I think I drove it pretty well this week, besides a couple holes out here today. And for me that’s a true testament of how hard I’ve been working on my driving to get it right, and then iron play is getting slowly better, and putting, I’m still not there with. I had two 3-putts today and that really was the deciding factor for the total round of shooting a deep one out there today. But at the same point in time, I’m going to take a lot of good positives away from this and go into the PLAYERS with some great momentum.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

Q. Your confidence level, state of your game as you go to the PLAYERS this coming week.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: We’re going to work on some wedging stuff. I didn’t wedge it my best this week. Had a couple oopsies on the first couple rounds. And the putter, doing something pretty unique with the putter next week. Hopefully it will come in and we’ll have it ready and that will get me up to another level.

Q. Excellent way to cap off a challenging week. If we can get some comments.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Challenging is an understatement. It was difficult. Everybody out here, I think struggled in some facet or another, and you just had to overcome some of those obstacles. And I was able to get a couple good breaks coming down the stretch and played some really good golf and rolled it really well. When the opportunities presented itself, I took advantage as much as possible and had a couple lucky putts go in. I’m happy about that.

Q. When you take a look at the leaderboard not a lot of Americans are on there, top of the leaderboard, but you’re there. What’s been, do you think there’s an issue right now with kind of the —
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I don’t know. I don’t think it’s an issue. I think it’s just a different style of play. And personally, for me, I’m all about having a fair test. If you look at a situation and you go, Okay, how do you test — let’s just take this for example. Who is the smartest person in the world? How do you make a test for that, right? Well, you certainly don’t give them a test that’s 2 plus 2. And you certainly don’t give them something that we don’t understand yet, like how — what is gravity? So we need to have a fair test out there and I think that’s what we’re kind of struggling with a little bit. I think a lot of players struggled with that out there today, that just, there was some holes you just couldn’t hold greens. Like on 15 I hit a wedge shot from the intermediate or the first cut, and it bounced in the first half of the green and rolled all the way over the back. There was no way of stopping it. So at some point the physics stop working and I don’t think it’s a true test of who is better. You have to get a little lucky out there and I was fortunate enough to get lucky out there on the back nine. I was pleased with the way I held my attitude and I was able to be positive out there and just keep executing good shots.

Q. Did you kind of, you guys, the Americans, kind of talk about how just how the game’s kind of evolved? I mean, it’s always been kind of a global game but lately you seem to have more Europeans, like Sungjae Im and these younger Koreans. Do you guys kind of talk about just kind of how the game’s kind of grown, how you kind of get like the Americans involved a little bit more?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I think we’re still involved. You look at the top-10 in the world, there’s still quite a bit of Americans in there. And the style of golf is sometimes difficult. If you got, if you have Europeans out there that have been playing links-style golf, this is more like links-style golf, so they’re going to be more comfortable out there. And for me I do like links-style golf, so I was able to play well out there today. But to get Americans back on the leaderboard I think is just a coincidental thing, I think we’re just as good.

Q. Do you go to Sawgrass next week looking for a bit of respite after these days or do you think it’s going to be much the same another sort of torture test?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I hope it’s not a torture test. We have had some grueling tests over the last couple weeks at least the guys from Honda they told me it was brutal. And for me I hope it’s a good test, I hope it’s a fair test.

Q. How big was that shot on 18?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Oh, I totally blocked it. I thought it wasn’t going to get over. Look, I was a yard over the first cut and you got a wind that’s doing this, you just, you don’t know. It was complete luck and I’m happy it got over and I’m happy I was able to take advantage of the situation.

Orlando, Florida

March 8, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Bryson DeChambeau, live-pga-tour

Team UK

PGA Tour: Matthew Fitzpatrick Recaps Top 10 Finish at The Arnold Palmer Invitational

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 9, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: Matthew Fitzpatrick Recaps Top 10 Finish at The Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 05: Matthew Fitzpatrick of England lines up a putt on the sixth green during the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 05, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick addresses the media following his top 10 finish at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational about his thoughts on his performance as well as 2020 Players Championship preparations

PGA Tour: Matthew Fitzpatrick finishes top 10 at 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational

Q. (No microphone.)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Glad to be in. But for today like the first seven holes I had it on a string and then all of a sudden I just seemed to lose every feeling I had in my irons. So it was then it was just a grind, as Billy tells me just to batten down the hatches. And just try and, literally, it felt like, just get it around, just advance the ball and then get it closer and then try and hole a putt.

Q. (No Microphone.)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: I don’t know. It was tougher, like it was also tougher, to be honest. Once we got to 8, well, once we got to 6 as well, it started picking up. And then 8 was sort of howling across and then down a little and into a little, it was in between. And, yeah, it was just tough around sort of the middle, really.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

Q. Did you think after 16, though, the birdie at 16 did you think about a number?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yeah, well, I mean, I thought if I could just, I knew I needed to par 17 and then obviously if I could sneak a putt on 18. But I mean, I felt if I’m 2-under might have a chance, obviously a distant chance, but, yeah, anyway.

Q. Can you compare this weekend to anything that you’ve been through outside of perhaps the Majors?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Oh, not outside the Majors, I was going to say Shinnecock. But it was — yeah, I can’t think of anywhere else that was sort of played like as hard as this, really. But I mean, like I was speaking to Derek all the time, I’m all for it like this. Like I would so much rather play it like this every week where it’s a battle and you got to go work hard and grind instead of wide open fairways, no wind and just, 65, you move down as well, you know.

Q. Do you need to do any work before the start of the PLAYERS?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: A lot, yeah (laughing.) No, no, my driving feels great, putting was miles better today, short game was solid. Just if I can start just giving myself a few more chances and, yeah, I think — but, I mean, from where I was after two rounds and three rounds, I’m delighted with where I am. So, yeah, overall looking at the result it’s a fantastic week, obviously the process of getting there wasn’t ideal, but, yeah, great week overall.

Orlando, Florida

March 9, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Arnold Palmer Invitational, live-pga-tour, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Professionals

Team UK

PGA Tour: 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Winner Tyrell Hatton Speaks to the Media

Post author By Michael Pazder
Post date March 9, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Winner Tyrell Hatton Speaks to the Media

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 08: Tyrrell Hatton of England celebrates with the trophy after winning during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 08, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Englishman Tyrell Hatton addresses the media following his first PGA Tour victory at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational after finishing with a one stroke lead over Marc Leishman

PGA Tour: Tyrell Hatton speaks on first PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome our 2020 winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, Tyrell Hatton.

Tyrell, challenging week overall. Congratulations on your first PGA TOUR victory. If we can get some comments, please.

TYRELL HATTON: Thank you. Well, firstly, it’s an incredible feeling to win on the PGA TOUR and to do it at such an iconic venue that, I’ve grown up watching this event as a kid on TV and to be sitting here next to the trophy now is an amazing feeling and very thankful I managed to hold on at the end.

JOHN BUSH: Before we open up to questions, you move up to number 14 in the FedExCup standings. Talk a little bit about how this sets you up for the rest of the season now.

TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, that’s a big jump for me. Coming into this week I didn’t have any exemptions, so when the season starts you are kind of just playing to keep your status for the following year. Obviously, I’m trying to juggle both tours, which is never easy and I’m normally playing around 16, 17 events, so that makes things certainly a little bit tougher to try and keep your status over here where most of the guys will probably be doing mid-20s. So to wrap that up and — how long is it?

JOHN BUSH: A three-year exemption.

TYRELL HATTON: A three year exemption? Wow. That’s amazing. So obviously I kind of know where I’m at now for awhile, which is great and hopefully I can push on and keep climbing the FedExCup.

John Bush: All right. Let’s go right into questions.

Q. For a guy who looks like he’s on edge a lot of the times, on a golf course that keeps you on edge for all the four hours you’re out there, how did you do it?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, the setup was extremely tough. And I said yesterday the hardest thing for me will be to manage myself. And over the course of this week I feel like I did a decent job of that.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

It was so tough and obviously everyone’s dropping shots quite easily. And after the double on 11, which was pretty tough to take, I’m happy with, I kind of — I feel like I could easily have blown up after that, and managed to kind of keep my head a little bit, although I did get a bit frustrated. That’s always going to happen with me. And as long as it’s not kind of keeping on over to the next shot, then I’ll be okay. And I’m just happy that I’ve managed myself well enough this week to be sitting here.

Q. A lot of us know Mick as a kind of colorful guy and a good time guy. But obviously he’s a very positive influence on you. Can you speak about how he’s done that and especially on a day like today when it’s really tough out there.
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, me and Mick have been working together since the British Masters in May of last year, and I’ve loved working with him. He’s a national treasure, I think (Laughing). He’s so funny. He’s, he keeps — he’s good at talking to me on the course and we have had some really good results and he’s played a huge part in my success recently — or our success, I should say.

Q. Some players say that the tougher the challenge, the better they like it. Are you one of those players or have you come to become one of those today?
TYRELL HATTON: I think players kind of would look back at this week and it’s nice to play something different. Most weeks it’s not target golf, but the scores are super low. And this ended up sort of feeling like a Major with the setup and how firm the greens were and it was just, it was hard to hit it close. I don’t think there was, there was only a handful, not even a handful of guys that were under par for the weekend.

Q. Can I get you to comment just on a few shots in particular today, please? The putt on 11 for double was pretty big. The one out of the rough on 13, that was, looked very difficult. And then the 17th hole.
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, so the, obviously, the putt for double on 11 isn’t, is never ideal to have a 6-footer with more than a cup right-to-left break. It was, I hit a terrible first putt. I kind of, I didn’t trust my line and I was worried about it coming out a bit soft and I end up rip pulling it and then you’re left with a really smelly putt. Thankfully that managed to go in.

The 8-iron on 13? Yeah, obviously, terrible tee shot to end up there. I kind of struggled with flighting the ball as low as I normally would like to and obviously I had just come out of it and with a spinny fade. But we didn’t, we actually had a decent lie in the rough over there. Although, I imagine I was the only person in the field to be over there this week. It came out perfectly. And the wind didn’t gust too much, although I think we only had 140 yards, we knew it was all carry.

And then the 5-iron into 17. It’s amazing the thoughts that you can have upon impact, because at impact I genuinely thought I had hit a spinny cut into the water. So to look up and see it having a little baby draw into the pin is, obviously, I was quite relieved at that.

Q. Well done, again. This time last week we were sitting here and there was a bit of controversy in relation to comments made of Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood. Now, you winning here on the PGA TOUR for the first time, can this be a reflection and a statement that European Tour players are good players and they can win on the PGA TOUR, without getting to controversial?
TYRELL HATTON: No, I don’t think it’s a statement. I think whatever TOUR you play on it’s extremely hard to win golf tournaments and we’re all trying to do that each week. And more often than not, I guess things maybe don’t go your way and you end up not winning. So like I say, it’s tough to win and I’m sure, obviously, everyone’s time comes and thankfully my time was this week.

Q. When you came off 11 you made a pretty animated gesture back at the hole as you were heading to 12. I just wonder what was going on in your mind at that moment and how long did it take to you kind of flush that as you got back to 12.
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, well, I was just annoyed because my third shot in was actually one of the best swings I made all day. We had, the run out on the TV tower, which was my line, we had 193 and I’ve hit a 5-iron at my target and the wind just completely dropped. So that kind of went against us on that hole and I was just having a little moan, like it’s the grass’s fault and the wind’s fault. It’s never my fault. But this is, like going back to a question about Mick, he was really good. Obviously, he just told me to kind of get focused again, it’s done, move on, and have a few practice swings and just kind of get some good feelings again. And I stood on the 12th tee and that was probably one of the best tee shots, certainly, that I hit today.

Q. You spoke of Mick’s influence, but why do you think you’re better equipped now to handle those potentially blow-up situations than you were maybe three or four years ago?
TYRELL HATTON: I guess it just comes with experience. This is my — well, third year on the PGA TOUR, my seventh season on the European Tour. You get yourself in, if you play well enough, often you get, you give yourself opportunities, and I guess you learn things, and I guess I was a little bit more comfortable out there today. And also, this is only my second event back from wrist surgery. So it might sound daft, but my expectations maybe aren’t as high as they would be in a middle of the season if I was, been playing quite a bit. But this is still kind of part of the comeback for me and maybe that helped.

Q. I remember a couple years ago at Honda you talked about living in this town probably at about age 20 or so, you had a few roommates, trying to play the Hooter’s Tour, scratch out a living. At the time did you have a lot of belief in yourself or did this seem a far, far ways away?
TYRELL HATTON: I think you have to believe in yourself, otherwise you’ve got no chance. So obviously the goal was to, at that time, to be playing the European Tour and hopefully eventually PGA TOUR as well. And I think this was 2012, I think that we were out here playing Hooter’s Winter Series. I’ve got good memories from that time and we’ve, me and Emily, my fiance’, we have rented a place here in Orlando now, so it kind of feels like home away from home, which is nice to have. And that’s one of the reasons we come back.

Q. When your wrist injury was taking longer than you hoped, your recovery, did the thoughts of events like this one help sustain you? And also, living in this area, has your appreciation of who Arnold Palmer and what he meant, has it grown?
TYRELL HATTON: Well, at the time, obviously, the surgery took longer to recover from, but as it became more apparent that the, that I was kind of getting back into golf, I knew that I was going to be starting my season in Mexico and I was going to have two weeks in Orlando before then. And we were actually really excited to come out, come back out here, and obviously, we feel very comfortable here and that’s why we have kind of made it our second home. And to, I guess to have your own, to sleep in your own bed on a tournament week is something that we don’t get to experience too often. And home comforts, I think maybe helped keep me a little bit more relaxed as well.

Q. No Englishman has won next week. Just with your form and Tommy, do you think it’s as good a chance as any to break that drought?
TYRELL HATTON: Time will tell. It’s hard to kind of think about next week at the moment with the sort of potential celebrations we have got later today. I don’t think I’ll be in any fit state but, at least until Wednesday. But yeah, I think we’ll savor this one quit a bit. But next week’s going to be, it will be interesting and hopefully an Englishman can finally win that trophy.

Q. Curious, how frustrating was it today to sort of be grinding the way you did? And given, if there was a level of frustration, how rewarding is it to battle through that?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, it was really tough out there and obviously I was getting frustrated at times, but nowhere near the blowups that I am capable of. And it’s just one of those days where you just got to stick in there, and patience is one of the hardest things with me. To think that I’ve shot, what was it? 3-over for the weekend and ended up winning the tournament. If you told me that on Friday night I wouldn’t have believed you. But it just shows how tough it was. And obviously, like I said earlier, I’m very thankful to sit next to this trophy.

Q. But does that in some way make it more rewarding, I guess, when you have to battle through that, not only the challenge of the golf shots, but battling yourself?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, I think this is, it was, it’s such a tough week and to come out on top is a great feeling and you certainly feel like you’ve played a lot more than 72 holes by the end of it.

Q. I got two for you. The first being, do you have, what do you think you’ll do with the red cardigan?
TYRELL HATTON: Well, I don’t want to ruin it and with the celebrations that will occur tonight I think it’s best to put on a coat hanger. But it’s very special to have this and it will take quite a place in the wardrobe.

Q. The other thing is, in the broadcast David Feherty made this comment, he said that you’re nice to everyone but yourself. Do you agree with that?
TYRELL HATTON: That’s probably a good thing to say, actually. Yeah, like I’m a shy person, but I feel like I’ll be, I’m nice but obviously to myself I give myself a hard time and that’s one thing that I should probably get better at.

Q. I don’t think you came over here until, U.S. membership until about 2017 or so. But even from your days in the Hooters Winter Series, have you ever had any occasion to either come over here or meet Arnold?
TYRELL HATTON: No, I never sort of had the opportunity to. Yeah, sorry. Yeah.

Q. A quick one. You were saying at the start of the week that this event is the first of seven over eight weeks. Do you think that may change now, the sort of schedule over this sort of part of the season that includes the Masters as well?
TYRELL HATTON: Potentially. That’s something that I’ll sit down and talk to my management company about and we’ll kind of go from there. Obviously, like I said, the immediate thought is to kind of get celebrating, so I’m sure the relevant conversations will be had, but obviously I want to be playing golf, give myself a good run into the Masters and so we’ll see what happens.

JOHN BUSH: All right, congratulations once again to our 2020 champion, Tyrell Hatton.

TYRELL HATTON: Thank you.

Orlando, Florida

March 8, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Arnold Palmer Invitational, live-pga-tour, Professionals, Tyrrell Hatton

Team Ireland

PGA Tour: Graeme McDowell Talks 13th Start at Arnold Palmer Invitational

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 5, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: Graeme McDowell Talks 13th Start at Arnold Palmer Invitational

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 04: Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland plays a shot during the pro-am round prior to the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 04, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Professional and champion Graeme McDowell speaks with the media ahead of making his 13th career start at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

PGA Tour: Graeme McDowell talks with the media prior to 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Graeme McDowell to the interview room here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. You’re making your 13th start here this week. Just some thoughts on being back here at Bay Hill.

GRAEME MCDOWELL: Yeah, one of my favorite weeks of the year. Home event. Get to stay at home with my family. Some great history here, a couple of second place finishes. Obviously, my relationship with Mastercard. Just a lot of reasons to be here. Course looks great. Prepared for another, hopefully another great tournament. Like I say, just game’s in good shape, excited to be here, looking forward to he hopefully competing.

THE MODERATOR: Four top-25s this year. Where would you say your game’s at.

GRAEME MCDOWELL: I think it’s trending in the right direction. The 4th in Sony was important. The win in Saudi was very important. I’ve kind of had a couple weeks now to reset and get ready and I’m kind of, I’ve got a busy few months coming up, so I’m ready to play golf. I’m focused and I’m motivated. And it’s so much great golf to play here, so it’s a good time of the year to be feeling good and looking forward to playing and competing and I’m excited about what the next six months could hold.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for some questions, please.

Q. Are you thinking about Ryder Cup already?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Am I thinking about Ryder Cup?

Q. Already.
GRAEME MCDOWELL: I think we’re always thinking about Ryder Cup to a certain extent. I think there’s no doubt it would be a massive goal to play on the team this year. I missed the last two. I certainly put myself back on the radar for this year, but I’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of great young players. It’s a lot of fun to see guys like myself and Lee Westwood and even Adam Scott, obviously, he’s not a Ryder Cup player, but guys winning in their 40s. It’s a nice flavor to start off 2020 and, you know, the Ryder Cup will get in the way if I play the way I know I can play and do the things I know I can do. So it’s, we’ll see what happens. A lot of golf to play. Four major championships ahead of us and lots and lots of great golf to play. So, listen, I would love to be in Whistling Straits, it goes without saying.

Q. The key this week, is it off the tee, just keeping it out of the rough, would you say?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Yeah, I think so. Looking at the forecast tomorrow, I think we’re going to have to get through a really tricky tough day tomorrow with 20 mile an hour gusts in the morning and 30 miles an hours in the afternoon. The rough is thick. Driving the ball is going to be a massive premium this week. I think in and around the greens it’s not as tough as I’ve seen it. There’s quite a nice bit of grass to chip off around the greens, and the bunkers are very nice. So I think big premium on driving the ball well, giving yourself a chance to attack the greens, and controlling the ball well in the wind tomorrow. I think tomorrow’s going to be a key day. I think tomorrow’s a day where you could play yourself way out of this thing right away. So thankfully played a lot of good wind golf this year, this season. Felt like Hawaii, a couple weeks in the wind, blew in Saudi, pretty happy the way my wind game looks, so very, very important to get off to a good start tomorrow.

Q. Do you use data at all in either course management or in like allocating your practice time? And if so, how have they affected what you do in those areas?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Yeah. Did you say data?

Q. Yeah, like ShotLink?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Yeah, like stats. Yeah, I mean, I think we have, I’ve always used some form of statistical analysis into my game. I think instinctively between myself and my caddie we always have a fairly good idea where we’re at, but it’s nice to look at some numbers to back up, because you can get a little, you can get a little blinded out there thinking I’m not putting well, when in actual fact you’re hitting a lot of irons, a lot of great iron shots and you’re giving yourself a lot of 15-, 20-feet looks that you’re not going to make a lot of, and therefore you think you’re putting badly. So that’s just an example of how you can get a little blinded by what you think’s going wrong. But, no, sort of areas that I’ve been looking at, proximity to the hole, just around the greens, for example. I have a tendency to be a very good scrambler, but I don’t chip the ball close enough to the hole very often. And that has a wearing affect on the putter when you have 5 and 6 and 7 feet all day. So trying to be a little tighter around the greens, giving myself easier up-and-down opportunities has been something I’ve been working on, just as an example of using some of the data and some of the numbers to try and find areas in my game where I can just tighten up a little bit.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

Q. What about for a course management?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: For course management? Not really. I mean, again, instinctively I think myself and my caddie are pretty good at taking a course apart and understanding where to miss and where not to miss. I think some of these little overhead maps where you see the little dot kind of maps where areas where guys are getting it up-and-down and areas where guys are not getting it up-and-down, I think those are very useful, especially on a golf course which I don’t maybe know very well. So, say, at a tournament where I haven’t played the course much, I may have a look at the computer on a Thursday morning and just try and see where guys are missing it and areas, what are they doing off tees, playing aggressively, and stuff. Those are very, very interesting, but I feel like it’s something I’ve always naturally done anyway. I feel like I’m pretty good at understanding where I should be missing the ball and trying not to overcomplicate it. It’s a hard enough game. You don’t really need too much stuff in the head at times.

Q. Speaking about hitting the ball toward the hole and whatnot, can you talk about how hard it is to actually hit the ball inside 10 feet on a regular basis. I mean, that’s really difficult.
GRAEME MCDOWELL: That really depends how far away from the hole you are to start with, obviously. Yeah, listen, I mean, proximity is important. They say 7 feet is that kind of threshold number where putting stats really start to skew and start to kind of fall off a cliff. So really from inside of a hundred yards those proximity numbers become highly important because those are your — that’s your conversion, your conversion area, where you’re getting the ball up-and-down on a regular basis. So from longer range, obviously, just managing it well and trying to be as tight as you possibly can. But from inside of a hundred yards it’s, that 10 feet number, that 7 feet number becomes very important.

Q. In this stretch of schedule where you’ve got two World Golf Championship events, THE PLAYERS, this, other strong Florida swing events, what makes this tournament stand out and how hard is it for players? I know you’re a main stay, but how hard is it for players to decide what to play and what not to play?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: For sure, I think you look at this stretch and you could argue that it’s maybe a little too strong. When you look at the stretch maybe between Augusta and PGA and PGA to U.S. Open, not trying to disrespect any of those events in that window, but there’s a lot of golf right now. You’ve got an unbelievably good Florida swing sandwiched between two WGC events. I live in Florida, so I love the Florida swing. I didn’t play the Honda last week for the first time in 10 years. I regretted not playing the Honda. I went to Mexico instead. Saudi got me into Mexico. I went down there. I didn’t play well. I was, like, totally wished I would have skipped that event. Like, skipping WGC events it’s just historically something you didn’t really ever think about, but I think the value of the WGC has been reduced because the strength of everything else around it has got so much stronger. So the long and short of it is, outside of the major championships, there’s so many great tournaments and scheduling becomes very difficult. So like I say, hindsight’s 20/20. I wish I hadn’t gone to Mexico. I wish I would have taken a week to reset and gone to the Honda. I think I would have loved it down there, just the way it played, seeing so many Europeans on the board. It’s so hard to pick and choose. I’m going to skip Tampa. It’s not an event I typically skip, because I want to be ready for the Match Play and I’ll play Valero as well. So there’s a lot of golf. And unfortunately big events are suffering. It looks like Tampa’s got a great field. Honda, maybe not so much last week. Obviously, next week’s a huge week. Really looking at that, trying to take that as a major championship approach going into the PLAYERS. So very, very hard to pick and choose right now because this is such a strong part of the year.

Q. Considering that, is 13 out of 25 choosing to play here, is that a pretty good number when you consider all the other moving parts?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: 13 out of 25 what? Sorry.

Q. 13 out of the top 25 in the World Rankings.
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Are here this week at Bay Hill?

Q. Yes.
GRAEME MCDOWELL: I mean, that’s great. I mean, obviously, being a Mastercard guy and being one of the tournament ambassadors in the beginning after Mr. Palmer passed away, the big thing was how do we keep this event as a premier event, how do we carry the legacy forward. Obviously, the golf course can be a little sort of divisive. Some guys love it, some guys don’t love it. It’s a strong field this week, but because of all of the other events around it, it’s maybe not as strong as it could be. But, listen, I love this event. I’m happy for Mastercard and Bay Hill that they have got the kind of event they have this week and hopefully it continues to be a strong event.

Q. Whether you’re aware of this or not, you were No. 255 in the world when you left Bay Hill last year. What happened?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: (Laughing.) Yeah, I mean, Bay Hill was a very pivotal week for me here last year because The Open Championship conversation began here last year. There was some open spots up for grabs here, and I got off to a pretty good start and I blew out on Sunday and I was very disappointed. So, yeah, I do remember the emotions I was going through this time last year, for sure. It was difficult. The game wasn’t really, felt like where it needed to be. I suppose I’d go and win in Dominican Republic in three weeks’ time, two weeks’ time. But I was sort of trending in the right direction, but emotionally I just was, you know, I was, somebody beat me up. I just couldn’t seem to, I couldn’t seem to kind of get out of that, get out that have 25th and 30th funk that was in. I was in run of 25ths and 30ths and 40ths. I was feeling like I was playing well, but then I would look at the check at the end of the week and go, you know, 30ths just don’t cut it. I would go and win in Dominican. I wouldn’t you really have a good summer, but it kind of led me to kind of having a little soul search, getting a new coach, started hitting the reset button a little bit, and I’ve been really happy with the progress I’ve made. It’s not really been over a 12-month period. It’s really been since last August, I suppose, so it’s been a five-, six-month period, which brings me to here, obviously, in a very different place, 200 places in the World Ranking better than I was last year and feeling like I can go out and really, really compete. And if I’m there on a Sunday afternoon, I might actually know what to do this year. So just have a lot more belief, a lot more confidence in what I’m doing, which is, obviously, those intangibles that you can’t really learn on the range. You just have to be out there. You got to test yourself.

Q. And winning Saudi, how much did that change your outlook on the entire year?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: It changed my schedule a lot, for sure. It takes the pressure off trying to get into events like The Open Championship. I should be, barring a monumental collapse between now and July, I mean, I should be in pretty good shape for The Open Championship. It should get me in the PGA. Obviously nice to add events like the Match Play and FedEx St. Jude as well. And let’s be honest, if I have aspirations of making the team at Whistling Straights, I’m not going to be able to do it if I’m not in though those events. So it really maps my schedule out. It gives me an opportunity to pick and choose where I want to play, get myself ready for the events I want to be ready for and peak for. Schedule’s everything. When you’ve got that top-50 schedule, which I’m right on the borderline of having that again, and it just really makes the year so much more planable and really allows you to be able to peak better and rest up where you need to and just know that you’re going to be playing against the best players in the world more often.

Q. And lastly, is your schedule for the next month set in stone or would you make or be willing to make any alteration if you needed it related to Augusta?
GRAEME MCDOWELL: Yeah, I mean, Augusta’s the only moving piece of the puzzle the next couple months. I have to be top-50 in the world the Monday after Match Play. You probably know that more than I do. It’s not going to be the be-all and end-all for me. I love Augusta. It is my favorite course in the world. It doesn’t love me very much, though. But if I’m not there, it’s not going to, it’s not going to dampen any spirits or anything that’s happened in the next three or four months. It will get in the way if I play the kind of golf I know I can play the next few weeks. And I would love to be there. I want to see my kids in boiler suits. That’s kind of the visual. I haven’t had a chance to do the par-3 with my kids yet because I haven’t played the last few years. So I want to have the kids up at Augusta this year. That would be fun. But like I say, it’s not going to change my life here in the short-term.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Graeme. Thanks for the time. Best of luck this week.

GRAEME MCDOWELL: Thank you. Thanks, guys.

Orlando, Florida

March 4, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Arnold Palmer Invitational, Graeme McDowell, live-pga-tour

Team Ireland

PGA Tour: Rory McIlroy Talks to Media About 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Preparations

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 5, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: Rory McIlroy Talks to Media About 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Preparations

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - MARCH 04: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot during the pro-am round prior to the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 04, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Current World number 1 Rory McIlroy speaks to the media ahead of his start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational about what it means to be number 1, the Olympic games, and Master’s Preparations.

PGA Tour: Rory McIlroy talks Arnold Palmer Invitational

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2020. Just some thoughts on being back here as the No. 1 player in the world.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, sort of feel like this was the start if sort of like a two-year journey to get back to this point. I came here two years ago off the back of a missed cut in Tampa and sort of a little lost with my game, especially a little lost with my putting and spent an afternoon with Brad Faxon at the Bear’s Club and then came up here and, obviously, something stuck with me from that afternoon and was able to win and that was my first win in 500-whatever days. So I feel like this place is a lot of special memories to me. It was definitely the catalyst to sort of do what I’ve done over the past two years and ascend back to the top of the World Rankings.

So good to be back. Course is in phenomenal shape. It’s as good as I’ve seen it. It’s nice to get back on Bermuda greens after the few weeks that I’ve started off on the poa annua. So, yeah, everything’s good and game feels in good shape and looking forward to getting going.

THE MODERATOR: Okay. We’ll take some questions.

Q. How much do you use ShotLink data for your course management, how they change what you do or affect anything about going about it?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I use them a lot. All of the, it’s one thing I keep harping on about to the TOUR is actually how ShotLink data on every round that we play, like North Course at Torrey Pines doesn’t have it, the other three courses at Pebble when we play there doesn’t have it. I think a lot of the guys are starting to use ShotLink data to, it’s course management, but it’s also how you practice. So I got a stats report last week after the three weeks that I’ve had at Torrey Pines, at Riviera, and Mexico, and that’s what I base my practice off going into the next few weeks. My bunker play wasn’t up to the same standards it needed to be. I needed to get better from 6 to 12 feet. It’s stuff that you sort of know anyway, but it’s nice when you have that objective data in front of you. So I use it for a lot of different things. It is very important.

2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational Leaderboard

Q. With specific reference to the Olympics, are you relaxed about it, how do you get enough information, something you’re going to keep an eye on —
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it’s something that we’re trying to stay on top of. I mean, it’s something that if the organizers and the Olympic Committee believe it’s safe enough that athletes can go and compete in the games, then you have to take their word for it and you have to, they’re obviously liaising with the people that are the best at doing this, whether it’s the CDC in this country, whether it’s the World Health Organization, whatever it is. If they’re speaking to those people and those people are the best in their field, then you have to trust that their judgment is the right one.

Q. Based on the conditions out there right now, what kind of tournament do you expect to see this weekend?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, conditions right now, the golf course is playing very nicely. The rough’s pretty thick. If you start missing it in the rough, you can make life a bit difficult for yourself. I think they’re expecting a lot of wind tomorrow afternoon, so the scoring might be tough, a little tougher tomorrow than we have seen in the past. But it looks like the conditions are going to be good over the weekend.

So it’s an exciting golf course. There’s four par-5s. I think people can get it going around here and shoot some low scores. So I don’t see any, I think Francesco shot 64 to win last year. I shot 64 the year before to win. So I would say you would see something similar. There’s going to be a lot of people in with a chance and someone’s going to go pretty low over the weekend.

Q. Just watching everybody out there, like, asking for autographs and pictures and things, I’m curious how much of a challenge it is to you how you sort of divide your time and energy to figure out how to deal with it all, when to say no, when to say yes.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, Wednesdays are pretty hard to concentrate at times because you’re trying to find that balance between treating it like a practice round as well and trying to get something out of the day instead of just being a host for your amateurs and sort of trying to get them around. So I always try to play a game with Harry, my caddie. He sets me a score to shoot that day and says, right, If you shoot 4-under or better I’ll buy you dinner and if you don’t get to that, you have to buy me dinner. And that’s, we do that every Wednesday and it just, it keeps me concentrating on every shot and over every putt and it’s something that I need to do because as you see out there it’s very easy to get distracted and talk to people and basically hit the ball everywhere. So it just keeps me sort of on the straight and narrow.

Q. How did you do today?
RORY MCILROY: I lost by one shot. The target was 4-under. I shot 3-under even with birdieing the last.

Q. When you talk about the two-year journey kind of started here, do you think you’ve grown more from a game perspective or from a mental perspective over those two years?
RORY MCILROY: Mental more than the game. I mean, I think I’m more, I have done things in the game previous to two years ago that were maybe higher than what I’ve done the past couple of years. But from a mental perspective the consistency and showing up every week even when I don’t have my best stuff I’m able to still get in the mix and have a shot at winning tournaments. So mentally over these last few years I’ve definitely gotten better and, yeah, more stability in my life, there’s a lot of different things that go into it, but, yeah, just a lot more comfortable with where everything is.

Q. When you talk about gearing up for the Masters, when does that start and what does it mean?
RORY MCILROY: Honestly, I don’t know when it starts. For some people it starts the Monday they arrive at Augusta. For some people it started in January. I think it’s different for everyone. For me what I realized is I can’t make things too big in my head. So if I started to gear up for Augusta in January, by the time Augusta got around in April my head would be absolutely fried. So I try to push it out as late as possible. I’ve got four tournaments to play between now and then and my biggest concern and my top priority are those four tournaments.

Q. What I’m talking about gearing up, does that mean working on certain shots you are going to need or does that mean getting your game in peak form?
RORY MCILROY: I don’t think anything trumps execution in this game, so it’s just getting your game in good form. Playing enough competitive rounds, getting the — yeah, just shooting good scores, seeing shots. I’m not particularly — like it’s not as if I’m out on the golf course on the, you know, whatever hole here thinking, okay, this is the 5th hole at Augusta, this is the tee shot I need. I mean, some guys might do that, I’m not sure, but for me if I’m playing good golf that’s the most important thing.

Q. You’ve been forthright in talking about the Premier League and also saying —
RORY MCILROY: Football or golf? (Laughing.)

Q. If nothing else maybe it leads to some changes structural and otherwise on the PGA TOUR. What would you have in mind?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, I don’t want to come across as all sort of elitist, but I think there is a some smaller fields, maybe a few more events with no cuts, maybe not necessarily — if you look at the international properties that the PGA TOUR have started to go towards, like Korea, Japan, 70-player fields, no cuts. That’s the sort of stuff where you’re giving the — and honestly, there’s so many — I mean I get playing opportunities — there’s so many tournaments and there might be an over saturation in golf in a way. You look at the NFL and they play 18 games a year, 20 games a year max and people want it all the time. I know football’s different than golf and all that, but I think being a golf fan these days can get quite exhausting following so many different tournaments, different tours, all that stuff. So maybe making it a little, sort of streamline it a bit might be a good way — a good place to start a conversation.

Orlando, Florida

March 4, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags Arnold Palmer Invitational, live-pga-tour, Professionals, professionals-rory-mcilroy

Team UK

PGA Tour: Tommy Fleetwood Recaps Final Hole Collapse at 2020 Honda Classic

Post author By Golf Post
Post date March 2, 2020
No Comments on PGA Tour: Tommy Fleetwood Recaps Final Hole Collapse at 2020 Honda Classic

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA - MARCH 01: Tommy Fleetwood of England reacts to his birdie on the 17th green during the final round of the Honda Classic at PGA National Resort and Spa Champion course on March 01, 2020 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Tour and European Tour professional Tommy Fleetwood speaks to the media after finding the water on the 72nd hole at the 2020 Honda Classic and eventually losing the tournament.

PGA Tour: Tommy Fleetwood still searching for first career PGA Tour victory after coming up short at the Honda Classic

TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Then playing the last I still had a chance. It’s fine margins in this game.

Q. When you have a sense that it’s that kind of a day that you just described, what’s the main thing you focus in on to hang around and have that chance on 18.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It’s important not to misjudge the finish line. You never know what’s going to happen. Didn’t have much going, but I was always there or thereabouts. I was in the lead for most of the day. So you just stay in and then you never know what’s going to happen in the end. Just keep going, just keep playing. I had a lovely look at birdie on 12 that didn’t go in and then made a mess of 13, but stuck in there — and that’s just a case of being patient. That’s all you can do. I didn’t do that much wrong really. It comes down to fine margins, like I said. It’s disappointing, but it was close.

2020 Honda Classic Full Leaderboard

Q. You said a win is important but it’s not the end of the world, you’ll see your family tomorrow, but how do you process coming so close?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, the shot on 18, it wasn’t a good feeling for the next 10 minutes when I was messing around trying to hit my wedge shot. It’s just disappointing. I feel fine right now. I think it’s important to make sure that you’re positive about it. You have enough people that will critique what you’ve done so. I’m going to do the same. I’m going to go back and look at what I could’ve done better. There are certain shots that I hit. At the end of the day, I felt like I was really good mentally, hung in there until the end and gave myself a chance at the last. But when the margins are small, that’s OK. I just said that I don’t feel like I’m getting worse at golf. I’ve just got to keep pushing. Absolutely I want to be a regular winner, but there’s no point in moaning and groaning about it now. It didn’t happen. There’s a lot of amazing players on the TOUR trying to win, and it’s not given, so I’ve just got to keep going and if I keep getting this close, it’ll happen.

Q. First of all, talk about that shot on 18; what was going through your mind? Did you ever think about a different shot, laying up?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, it was a tough one really. I had to hit a 4-iron which was clocking away, it was always going to be left, or I take the 5-wood on, which was like a really big cut, and that’s what you do, isn’t it, you play the shot. That’s all you can do. I hit a bad shot. Could have been a great shot, but actually as bad as it was, it could have landed three yards left and been on the edge of the green and I’d have had a chance. It is what it is. I was really enjoying the moment coming down there with a chance to win. I still had a chance to actually eagle it or birdie it and get in a playoff, and it just didn’t happen. But one bad shot, and that’s it.

Q. What was the conversation with Ian as you guys were getting ready?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, you look at the number, it was an awkward number yesterday. It was a slightly different wind, and I cut a 5-wood that pitched like 238. I had 239 to the pin today, but the wind was off the right. I felt like it was playing shorter, wasn’t hurting today. But there was only one shot really. Honestly, maybe at the time, you think, I had the world left and could have got up-and-down, but playing for that, I could have easily bailed left, not got up-and-down and then said, why did I bail out left. So you pick your shot and you hit it, and that’s it.

I think we picked the right shot 100 percent, I just didn’t pull it off.

Q. How good did you feel after the birdie-birdie start? Looked like everything was trending.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Well, yeah, I was going well. My swing wasn’t there today, like all day it wasn’t like a comfortable day in terms of shots that I stood over and I felt really good over, these look great. Examples are like 16 is like an ideal shot for me normally, and things weren’t quite there, but I hung in there. I still hit enough good golf shots and I still had enough chances. Just that was it really.

But like I say, I started off great, had chances, and I felt like I did a good job all day even when I made a couple bogeys. I was always hanging around. I never really got overly frustrated, never thought, oh, I’ve made bogey there or I’ve made bogey there, just moved on and kept doing a good job, and even without my game feeling as comfortable as it was I got to the end with a chance.

Q. There’s obviously a language barrier for a lot of guys in this game. Do you know Sungjae at all?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, we always say hello and talk. Well, I say talk, we never had like massively long conversations, but I always say hi. He’s always a guy that I would acknowledge. Not that we’ve had many conversations about technicalities of the game, but he seems like a nice guy.

Q. How long will this take you get over?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: I’m disappointed now. Sungjae — somebody shot a better score than me. I tried my hardest, got close, getting closer, getting better, and — yeah, it’s disappointing and I’ll be thinking about it. Little things will come into your mind like what if or what if that, but it is what it is. We’ve got amazing events coming up, and my game is in good shape where I actually feel like I can hit it better, as well. I don’t feel like this week I’ve been absolutely — I’ve played some absolutely fantastic golf, but I still feel like my game could have felt better at times, and I think that’s something to look at and go away and work on. I feel like I can get sharper and keep playing better. It’s not to say I will, but I’m going to try.

Q. Along those lines, obviously very hard courses, very hard tournaments coming up this year. You have to feel like you’re in form for the bigger tests that are coming up?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, I’ll absolutely look forward to them and keep working. And that’s the thing, with the way golf is now, just because I’ve made bogey on the last here, you don’t have time to go away and sit and sulk about it. Players are coming up next week, they want to win that tournament and if you’re playing well, make the most of it and hopefully I can do that next week.

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

March 1, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags live-pga-tour, The Honda Classic, Tommy Fleetwood

Team USA

PGA Tour: Scottie Scheffler Reflects on Third Place Finish at The American Express

Post author By Golf Post
Post date January 20, 2020
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LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 19: Scottie Scheffler plays his shot from the 14th hole during the final round of The American Express tournament at the Stadium Course at PGA West on January 19, 2020 in La Quinta, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

PGA Tour professional Scottie Scheffler recaps just falling short of a victory at the 2020 American Express as well as his hot start to the 2020 season including four top 10 finishes to this point.

PGA Tour: Scottie Scheffler speaks with media after third place finish at The American Express

Q. Great finish. What’s going through your mind? How would you describe today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I’m a little disappointed. I didn’t have my best stuff today. Swing felt pretty loose again and got the best of me early and just put myself too far behind. I still had a chance there at the end and I hit a really good shot on 17 that I thought was going to go a lot closer and just didn’t.

Q. The shot at 16 was pretty close. That was pretty special to pull within one?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: That was good. It was about time. I felt like I started to play some good golf, just couldn’t really get anything going, hit a few lips, had some good looks and I thought the chip on 15 was going to go in too, that one looked good. I was close all day. I wasn’t too far off, so it definitely gives me some confidence going into next week.

Full Leaderboard: The American Express 2020

Q. You have four top-10s at the start of this ’19-‘ 20 season. That’s pretty impressive.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Thank you. I appreciate it. Top-10s are great. I feel like I’ve been playing pretty consistent. Hoping to get a win soon, though. But you got to stay patient with that It’s not easy to win out here and there’s a reason that the winning percentage isn’t very high, but I’m off to a good start.

Q. You come up a little short today. You fought hard, you had a great attitude out there, and then all of a sudden at the end you actually gave yourself a chance to win. How happy are you with your golf this week?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, I feel like I played solid most of the week. My swing felt a little loose, for the most part, but I played great up until today. When the swing feels loose like that it’s tough to play under the heat of competition. Timing has to be so good. Things speed up there towards the end and just wasn’t sharp enough today. And happy for Andrew, he played great and looking forward to next week.

Q. Swing didn’t look real loose on that 5-iron on 16 that went sky high in there close and ended up making an eagle. Talk us through that one.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Yeah, it was pretty good. I had a good number there. It was about 220 pin and just had to carry it onto the front edge. And shot looked good, it was about time, I needed to pull something off if I wanted to have a chance and that was a fun shot.

Q. You had great success on the Korn Ferry last year, you’re off it to a great start you’re rookie year out here, this has to be encouraging for you.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Very encouraging. I’ll take a lot of confidence from this week, just because I feel like I wasn’t swinging my best, but to get around here in 23-under is awesome. I was just coming in this week hoping to shake off some rust and was lucky to play some good golf. So I feel good going into the next few weeks and the rest of the year.

Q. How would you assess how the final round played out today?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: I struggled for the most part today, my swing felt pretty bad. But I was able to kind of right the ship and start hitting some good shots and still had a chance to win there towards the end. So overall I’m happy with how this week went, a little disappointed in today, but I’m encouraged going forward.

Q. As you’re watching Andrew make bogeys on 13, 14 and 15, at what point were you like, I’m still in this tournament?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Well I never really felt like I was that far out of it. On a course like this you can make a lot of birdies and there’s some tough holes coming in. So I was just really just waiting for a spark. And I really hit some good shots, nearly made a long putt on 14 I thought was going in, I thought I chipped in on 15, and then eagled 16, and the shot on 17 was actually I thought I stuffed it, I don’t know how it came up that far short but it happens.

Q. So what do you take away from this week? You’ve done so well on the Korn Ferry TOUR, you come out in the fall and you play well, third place finish this week. How much confidence is that building for you?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Definitely a confidence boost. I was just coming in this week hoping to shake off some rust and was fortunate to play so well and give myself a chance to win. It’s a lot of fun being in contention, so I look forward to hopefully doing it again next week.

January 19, 2020

La Quinta, California

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Tags live-pga-tour, Professionals, Scottie Scheffler, The American Express