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PGA Tour Satellite Tours

PGA Tour: Officials Release Statement Relating To The Cancelation of All TOUR Events For The Coming Weeks

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: PGA TOUR Commissioner, Jay Monahan speaks to the media in a press conference addressing the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the first round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

PGA Tour officials released a statement yesterday regarding the cancelation of The Players Championship as well as tournaments across all Tours through the Valero Texas Open.

PGA Tour: Official statement on coronavirus and the cancelation of upcoming events:

“It is with regret that we are announcing the cancellation of THE PLAYERS Championship.

We have also decided to cancel all PGA TOUR events – across all of our Tours – in the coming weeks, through the Valero Texas Open. 

We have pledged from the start to be responsible, thoughtful and transparent with our decision process. We did everything possible to create a safe environment for our players in order to continue the event throughout the weekend, and we were endeavoring to give our fans a much-needed respite from the current climate.  But at this point – and as the situation continues to rapidly change – the right thing to do for our players and our fans is to pause.

We will be prepared to answer additional questions on Friday at 8 a.m.”

PGA Tour Communications

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 12, 2020

Categories
Team UK

PGA Tour: Last Week’s Winner Tyrell Hatton Speaks With The Media Prior to Making Fourth Start at The Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Tyrrell Hatton of England smiles during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Tour professional and last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational winner Tyrrell Hatton speaks with the media before the 2020 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

PGA Tour: Tyrell Hatton recaps maiden tour victory celebration and previews The Players Championship

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Tyrrell Hatton into the interview room. He is making his fourth career start at THE PLAYERS Championship, and he’s coming off his first PGA TOUR victory last week at Arnold Palmer Invitational. Tyrrell, first of all, if we can get some comments on being back here at PLAYERS.

TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, it’s obviously good to be back. Unfortunately it’s a tournament that I haven’t done too well at in the past, but I’m hoping that changes this week. Obviously nice week last week and a few days to recover before we get going tomorrow.

JOHN BUSH: Talk a little bit about getting the win last week, extremely tough conditions there at Bay Hill. Just talk about finally stepping into the winner’s circle on the TOUR.

TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, obviously extremely tough week. You know what they say about the rough, that’s where the four-leaf clovers are. So I was in there a lot and it was kind to me.

JOHN BUSH: Let’s go right into questions.

Q. You said that you weren’t sure you would be right until Wednesday with the celebrating that was planned. Was it all that you had hoped for, and what did you do exactly?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, I’m still feeling — I’m still quite tired, to be honest. But I was cuddling the toilet by 5:00 in the morning, so it was a good night.

Q. And then just real quickly, I don’t know how I can follow that, but so obviously that was extremely difficult golf. This place is known for being pretty difficult golf. What do you think a 12-handicapper would shoot in tournament conditions on this course?
TYRELL HATTON: 12-handicapper. I don’t think that they — they wouldn’t break 90. I think they would probably — I would like to think they might break 100, but if the crowds are out there, there’s a different type of pressure that they wouldn’t normally be used to, so it would be a long day.

Q. What was the celebration like on Sunday night? Who was there? Can you say how many glasses of red you had? But also probably more importantly, what’s been the reception since your victory? What’s the text messages and all that sort of stuff you received?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, I’ve had a lot of messages, which has been really nice. The guys obviously out on TOUR, everyone’s kind of stopped and said congratulations, which is nice. Sunday night celebration, there was a lot of red wine and then unfortunately I think the finisher was the drinking the vodka and tequila out of the bottle, which never kind of ends well. And, yeah, I fell victim of that, definitely.

Q. Can you describe your emotions coming down the stretch last week?
TYRELL HATTON: Just obviously a little bit nervous, like anyone would be, but I was just trying to do the best I could, try and — the only bit I can control is obviously myself and try to not kind of make any mistakes. Although I was trying my best down 16 to make a few of those. No, just trying to keep calm. Obviously I’ve won in Europe before, so obviously I know I can get over the line and thankfully it just kind of worked out for me last week and it was my time.

Q. Are there any text messages or congratulatory things that particularly meant something for you that you can share with us?
TYRELL HATTON: Honestly, I’ve still got around a hundred unopened WhatsApp messages. The reception has been incredible, so it’s just — I just really appreciate the amount of people that have kind of messaged me to say well done, and I know for like my family and stuff, it was quite nail-biting to watch, it was difficult to watch, but yeah, I don’t know.

Q. Has the Ryder Cup captain been in touch, and is it too early to know how your schedule will alter because of this victory?
TYRELL HATTON: Well, like I say, I’ve still got a hundred WhatsApp messages unopened, so I haven’t — I don’t know exactly like who has messaged in that sense. But my schedule at the moment isn’t, hasn’t changed, that’s something that me and my manager, Danny, we are yet to kind of sit down and talk about, but obviously I would like to be on the Ryder Cup team in September and I’ve had a good start to the points race again, which is nice, and hopefully I can kind of continue pushing on this year and make that team.

Q. Can you please specify the surgery that you had and why you needed it, as well as why you think your body responded so well and so quickly to it?
TYRELL HATTON: Well it was keyhole surgery in my right wrist, and the initial injury was back in 2017 when I fell over at the Masters during the par-3 tournament. It was canceled due to a storm that came through. I just slipped on the pine straw, and over time the wrist just got progressively worse with a build-up of kind of scar tissue and my range of movement was nonexistent and I just had basically a lot of pain kind of coming in to try and make contact with the golf ball, especially with the wedges because you naturally come into the ground a little bit steeper so there was more sort of, it was anything in that kind of movement that was uncomfortable. I had had three steroid injections in 18 months. They all lasted sort of pain-free between four and five-and-a-half months. But obviously that’s not kind of sustainable to just keep having injections. So we decided that the time was to properly fix it would be to have surgery.

The surgery obviously went well but the recovery time was much longer than we had all hoped for. I mean, initially we thought it would be four weeks and I would be back kind of hitting balls again. I was hoping to start my season in mid January, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and I wasn’t even hitting chip shots by then. So obviously these kind of things you can’t rush, and Mexico was a great place for me to start my season because I was guaranteed a full tournament week. There’s no pressure, no cut, you just kind of play and see how the body feels and it was absolutely fine. I had no issues, which is nice, because the first event back you’re not quite sure how it could go.

Q. You mentioned Sunday at Bay Hill that you were pretty nervous over that final putt, that your putter was shaking little bit. And I’m wondering, I know it’s only been a few days, but what you have learned, what your takeaway has been, not only for your game but about yourself, given that tough test on the back nine Sunday that you’ll be bringing to THE PLAYERS this week?
TYRELL HATTON: Well I think throughout the whole week at Bay Hill I managed myself pretty well, which is always one of the hardest things for me. So that was obviously something that I would like to continue, and obviously I’m human so I’m going to make mistakes along the way, and yeah, there’s probably going to be weeks where I’ll have some blowups but hopefully that’s kind of few and far between. So, yeah, hopefully I can kind of stay cool, and I’ve got my dad out with me this week, so to have him there to kind of get back on point with my swing, because playing in those kind of conditions where you’re constantly trying to flight the ball and your weight’s in a different place than it normally would be, it can kind of knock your swing out. So it’s good to have my dad here, and hopefully we can have another good week here.

Q. This may be because I’m American, but I’ve never seen your name spelled the way it is in the first name with two R’s, and I was wondering if there’s a story behind that at all and my apologies if you’ve been asked this three thousand times before.
TYRELL HATTON: Well, it’s my granddad’s middle name is kind of where it comes from. My parents that play golf, they like the liked the film Caddyshack and obviously the guy was, I think was it Ty, I think, so that’s how they kind of got my name. But in terms of the spelling, over here it would be normally Ty-rell, wouldn’t it? But I ain’t no Ty-rell, so yeah.

Q. Why do you feel like you were able to learn from your past trips here to THE PLAYERS Championship that you feel like you can build on for this week?
TYRELL HATTON: Well, this week’s not normally been a good tournament for me. I actually had, I mean last year it was kind of typical me, where I was one shot away from like one shot outside the cut line with five holes to go and I had a blowup, snapped my 3-wood and basically started hitting shots on the run, and I think we missed the cut by five or something like that.

So it kind of just goes back to making sure can I kind of control myself, and that’s normally the first step to me having a decent week.

Q. Gambling is becoming much more normalized in sports, especially golf now. I’m wondering if you’re aware of your odds each week and if you’re aware of your odds this week.
TYRELL HATTON: To be honest, I have no idea with my odds in terms of golf tournaments. I don’t mind putting bets on the football back home, but obviously we are — we’re not allowed to do any betting or anything like that in golf, and yeah, so sort of I’ve got no interest in that kind of thing. It makes no difference to how I go about my week, but I can tell you that I’m not very good at betting the on the football. I’m quite good at losing money each Saturday.

The Players Championship Full Leaderboard

Q. You said you were playing Xbox and drinking red wine during your time off. Do you have a particular go-to Xbox game?
TYRELL HATTON: Yeah, Call of Duty. So I’m actually devastated that the new War Zone game’s come out. It was released yesterday, and I’m not going to get to play it for another few weeks. So that’s cut me deep.

JOHN BUSH: Tyrrell, we appreciate your time. Congratulations once again on getting the win last week. Best of luck this week.

TYRELL HATTON: Thank you.

Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

March 11, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Categories
Team USA

PGA Tour: Patrick Reed Speaks With Media Prior to Making Seventh Start at The Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Patrick Reed of the United States plays a shot from a bunker during a practice round prior to The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

PGA Tour professional and Masters champion Patrick Reed addresses the media prior to the start of The 2020 Players Championship about how his preparation differs for large scale tournaments.

PGA Tour: Patrick Reed talks to the media prior to making start at The Players Championship

NICK PARKER: We would like to welcome Patrick Reed to the interview room here at THE PLAYERS Championship. This is your seventh start coming in here at THE PLAYERS. Just talk about the challenge that awaits this week.

PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is kind of getting used to the firmness and softness of the grounds. The greens yesterday were relatively soft, but today you had some more skip and bounce in them, but with the fairways being soft, you can kind of adjust your line a little bit more off tees. You’re hitting a couple longer clubs off the tee because you’re not worried about the ball rolling or running through. That being said, the longer club you hit, the easier it is to hit it in the rough, and that rough out here, even though it’s not very long, it’s really thick. So it’s a golf course that is going to take a lot of thinking, a lot of really quality ball striking and if you get out of position some good short game.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. You’re rarely among like the few favorites gambling-wise. I’m wondering if you pay attention to your odds whenever you play and if you take it as a sign of disrespect that you’re 35 to 1 this week when you win just as much as anybody out here?
PATRICK REED: I honestly don’t pay any attention to the gambling or any kind of odds. Does anyone know what my odds were at Augusta? How about 40 to 1? How about WGC?

Q. You were same thing, like 25, 30.
PATRICK REED: Okay. I like my odds then. Those are good odds. So no, I mean, I don’t. I don’t really ever focus to that because at the end of the day when you come out here you have fields on the PGA TOUR now are so deep and you have to play your A-game in order to win golf tournaments out here, especially at an event like this at THE PLAYERS where you have all the top players here playing, and when that happens you have to go out and you have to play really good golf from top to bottom.

So at the end of the day to me it’s just like any kind of during the March Madness or anything like that; when you start playing, all those odds go out the window. It all determines how you go out there and what you do when your name’s called.

The Players Championship Full Leaderboard

Q. Do you have events like THE PLAYERS or the majors circled on the calendar and does that affect your prep for those weeks at all going into it or maybe a couple weeks out?
PATRICK REED: Well I mean everyone — I mean, for me I circle — there’s nine events that I circle, all WGC’s, majors and THE PLAYERS. And with having those nine circled, I try to treat all nine of those the same. My prep work will be the exact same, everything kind of leading up into the event will kind of be the same, and at that point I know that I’m not going to get too amped or too excited compared from one to the other because once you start over-prepping or trying to take such a big moment and turn it even larger and start thinking of it that way, now all of a sudden mentally you’re not going to have it and you’re going to put more pressure on you than you really need when you’re out there trying to play.

Q. When you’re out there, talking about the mental game, is that something that you consciously think about, okay, this is what I want my mental strategy to be this week, I want to bear down or whatever, or is that something that comes naturally to you?
PATRICK REED: Now it comes naturally. It’s something as you grow up and as I was a junior golfer growing up I would always write down a game plan in my yardage book and how I’m going to play each hole. But then I get to that hole and if I made bogey on the last hole, I come up to the next one, if I’m supposed to hit 3-wood off the tee I would hit driver because I was like, oh, I got to get that shot back and so I would kind of veer off the game plan, and nine times out of ten it never really worked.

So I’ve really gotten used to now just kind of always sticking to the game plan. I always have usually two game plans on each hole. I have an aggressive one if I feel like I’m playing really well and then I have a more conservative one if I don’t feel like I’m swinging the way I’m supposed to be swinging.

But with having that, it just kind of allows me to stay in my own mental space to really just focus on the then and now and not really what happened a hole ago or a shot ago or what’s coming up. Instead I’m able to really focus on what I’m trying to do right then and there.

Q. When you made the top-five-player-in-the-world comment a few years ago, obviously it generated a lot of noise and attention. You’re now very close to actually that position and you’ve won significant events. Do you feel even now better placed that that’s exactly where you should be and where you’re headed, and what would that mean to you if you get there?
PATRICK REED: It would mean everything. Every golfer and every competitor that’s out here playing, they’re all trying to get to one spot and that’s to be the best player in the world. And all of us are working very hard to win golf tournaments to get to those positions, and the only way you get to top five, top one, or the best player in the world is by winning golf tournaments and winning big events.

The biggest thing is to not only are you trying to win those golf tournaments but you’re trying to turn those off weeks into top-25s, top-15, top-10s, and I think that’s the biggest thing is as we have been getting closer to the top five number, for me really it’s just continue to try to grow on the golf and continue to try and play better and more consistent because all of us when we’re on we’re on, we can go shoot some really low numbers. And it’s those days that you’re not — you don’t quite have it there that you need to kind of be able to turn a 3- or 4-over-par round into even or 1-under, and the top players in the world, that’s what they’re able to do. So that’s more kind of where we’re striving.

Q. When you win a tournament like the WGC, clearly it makes it more likely that you could qualify automatically for the Ryder Cup. Is that something you’ll think about? Will it register for you as a great bonus of having done that, and are you somebody who would maybe look at the standings throughout the year to see who is kind of it in it?
PATRICK REED: I think we all look at the standings. Every player does because there’s nothing like going to represent your country and playing for red, white and blue. And the biggest thing is the easiest way to do that is by giving yourself chances to win the big events and really giving yourself chances to win every tournament and to be able to cap off a WGC and hopefully to have a chance this week and to hopefully have a couple chances in the majors and maybe cap off a couple of those, I mean, that is how you qualify for the Ryder Cup and for the Presidents Cup, and because of that you just have to continue to grind and continue to work and try to get to that point because, you know, the only way to get to all your goals and to succeed on all these things is by one thing; it’s working really hard and playing great golf. If you do that, then everything else takes care of itself.

I think that’s kind of where I’ve always felt like I’ve been good at is never really looked too far ahead. Just try to look right stay in the present and try to improve each and every day, and I feel like that’s the reason why I’ve been getting a little bit more consistent and something that I’ve been really working hard on.

Q. You’ve come into a bit of heat this year. I’m just wondering, does the heckling bother you at all?
PATRICK REED: No.

Q. No?
PATRICK REED: No, I mean, I think the PGA TOUR has done a great job on the security and the fans. I feel like, as a whole, the fans have been pretty good. You’re always going to get a couple people here and there that are going to say something. That’s normal, any sport you play. For me when I get behind the ropes and I get inside those ropes it’s I have a job to do and that’s go out and play good golf and to have a chance to win on Sundays and to provide for my family and to go out and represent myself the best way I can, and I feel like I’ve been doing that.

Q. The 17th here, the island green is notorious, especially on the Friday afternoon. Are you worried at all that you’ll pass through there Friday and come under a bit of fire?
PATRICK REED: I mean, no, not really. For me the biggest thing on 17, it was today — Kessler, it’s the first time he’s actually hit the green. Normally he hits it in the water, so that means I cannot hit it in the water the next four days because if I do, if I hit in the water once, I won’t hear the end of it until next year. So I just got to go out there and I’ve always played that hole somewhat conservative, I’ve never really taken on too many of those flags. The front flag is obviously — you’re trying to fly it past and kind of bring it back down to it. And back flag you’re trying to hit to the middle of the green. That right flag being a drawer of the golf ball I don’t ever really go for, so for me it’s just kind of put the ball in the middle of the green and let my putter try to work.

I’ve heard horror stories, guys hitting 7-irons, 6-irons to that hole in the past. Besides for last year, every year’s been 100 degrees because of the time or the time the tournament was. So I’ve hit lob wedge there one year every day. So it’s just kind of one of those things that for me it’s just hit it in the middle of the green and take your medicine.

Q. Are you a Pete Dye fan and is there a particular hole out here that you find visually disturbing?
PATRICK REED: Oh, I am a Pete Dye fan. And a hole that is disturbing? I’ve never — well, when the golf course is firm and fast, 18 for some reason, that tee shot, just even being a drawer of the golf ball just never kind of suits my eye. If it’s a little softer this year, my driver or 3-wood down that right side doesn’t go through if it’s into the wind, so that one this year hopefully is going to be a little nicer to me.

But when it’s firm and fast I seem to never be able to get the ball far enough left and I’m always in those trees and having to give a fan something to either cheer about or kind of scratch their head about.

Q. Rory said yesterday his favorite was No. 12. Do you have a favorite?
PATRICK REED: Yeah, of course he likes 12; he can hit 3-iron on the green. I mean, yeah, I’ve always thought No. 2’s always been a great par-5. Off the tee you see guys hit everywhere from 5-wood to driver. The guys who fade the ball sometimes they don’t really feel comfortable with driver because they kind of turn it, but then after stepping up and hitting a draw or whatever shot there, then from the second shot you have to work it the opposite direction. So it’s kind of a double dogleg, and for the most part everyone can get home in two, but going for it you put yourself just in the wrong spot. Even if you’re only 10 feet off the green you’re struggling to make par. You’re hitting it to 30, 40 feet to some of the flags, so I feel like that’s a hole that is just an amazing design from tee to green that really just makes you think all around.

Q. Going back to what you were saying earlier about the noise, if you will, two things, one, have you had a chance or have you talked to Brooks since a few weeks ago?
PATRICK REED: I haven’t. I don’t — last week he played in the same event and I don’t think I saw him once last week.

Q. Secondly, do you think that noise ever goes away at any point or does winning maybe help eliminate that?
PATRICK REED: Well, winning always helps everything. But really at the end of the day the noise goes away once y’all decide it goes away at the end of the day. I mean, I feel like the players and all of us have moved on, but at the end of the day all we can do is go out and continue playing good golf and doing what we’re supposed to do.

Q. Is it going to be easy for you to come back to Augusta as not the defending champion?
PATRICK REED: Definitely.

Q. And why is that? Not many people successfully defend that tournament.
PATRICK REED: I think the biggest thing is so for me in particular being my first major, my first one I won, I didn’t know what to expect. And then kind of showing up and getting back on-site, just kind of the extra kind of a adrenaline and just kind of hype that was going on on the week, all the extra pressures you put on yourself to play well to try to defend and have a good defense, whether — just have a good finish.

And with having to be the host of the dinner, having all these extra little things that you don’t realize what to expect when you come in, you feel like your day starts at 6:00 a.m. and doesn’t stop until 7:00 p.m., and then on top of it you got to go out and play solid golf.

So it was kind of — it’s awesome, it’s amazing to defend, but the good thing is now that I have won my first major, I know what to expect when I have the opportunity to win another one, what to expect if I’m going to defend.

Q. When you’re playing the 17th on a Friday afternoon and you’re doing that walk, as a player now generally, I mean, do you have to prepare yourself mentally that somebody’s going to say something?
PATRICK REED: No, not really. When I’m out there and I get inside the ropes I’m full on focusing about golf and either talking to Kessler about what we’re about to do, whether it’s a putt, iron shot or chip like where the ball sits on the green, if it’s going to be fast, if it’s going to be slow. That’s all the preparation we do during the week is to figure out, okay, what greens are faster than others, what putts are faster than others and vice versa, and for us we get so in tuned in golf that everything that goes on around us it doesn’t matter, we’re out there to grind and to go out and play good golf.

Q. Noticed you stopped wearing red on Sunday; why is that?
PATRICK REED: You know, I mean just kind of one of those things that I’ve always I used to always wear red and black but whenever I’d signed with Nike and everything, we want to make sure that we wear the current product so we keep up with what the fans and what the people who see us on TV, what they can go to the store and what they can buy.

Q. So now you’ve won in black, will that be a new look on Sunday?
PATRICK REED: It could be. That shirt that I’ve worn the past couple Sundays is one of the current products, so it works, it’s current and most likely it will be in it.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 12, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

Categories
Team Ireland

PGA Tour: Defending Champion Rory McIlroy Previews Title Defense Ahead The 2020 Players Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 10: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks on 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 Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

2019 Players Championship winner Rory McIlroy addresses the media prior to beginning his title defense at the 2020 edition at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

PGA Tour: Rory McIlroy talks Players Championship title defense prior to 11th start at the event

MICHAEL BALIKER: It’s a pleasure to welcome defending PLAYERS champion Rory McIlroy back to the interview room here at TPC Sawgrass. This is Rory’s 11th PLAYERS appearance here this week, six starts so far this season, finished top 5 in all six, and enters the week third in the FedExCup standings. Rory, just to start out, no one has ever successfully defended THE PLAYERS. You have an opportunity to make history this week. Talk about the challenge ahead here at Sawgrass.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I guess there’s — if there’s been no one to defend, it would be a nice time to start and have someone do that. But yeah, glad to be back.

Obviously this week last year was huge for me in terms of sort of getting the monkey off my back a little bit, and I had a few close calls, and I wasn’t able to sort of walk through the door and claim a win, and then I was able to do it here and went on to have a great year and won a few more times. You know, it’s nice to be back. I said this on Sunday at Bay Hill, a lot of similarities between this year and last year in terms of how I’ve played the first few events of the year, given myself some chances, haven’t quite been able to capitalize, and yeah, obviously would be wonderful to replicate what happened last year.

MICHAEL BALIKER: And then just very briefly on last year coming down the stretch, being able to close out that tournament on the last few holes, starting with the putt there on 15. Kind of take us through that briefly.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, yeah, obviously it was sort of — holed a big putt on 12 for birdie and then another big putt on 15 after a great 6-iron. Yeah, I like big putts and I cannot lie (laughter), and I was happy to hole those two, and went on to win from there.

Q. You’ve talked a lot in the last year or so about concentrating on the process rather than the results, and I just wonder, you’ve been on such a great run this year with all these top 5s, at what point do you try to shift into more of a result mode, and how do you stave off being frustrated by fact that you’re crossing the line probably as much as you think you ought to?
RORY MCILROY: I don’t think you can ever go into result mode. I don’t think that works. I don’t think that helps anything. I think you just have to keep going about your business, doing your thing. I think the only way to not win is to concentrate on the results. So if I can just concentrate on what I’m doing and what I’m doing well, what I maybe need to improve on a little bit, just break the game down into different sections but really just try to make it as simple as possible, if I can do a few different things in my golf game just a little bit better, those thirds and fifths will hopefully turn into wins.

You know, I’ve had some really good success following this path that I’m on, and I’m just really trying to focus on doing the little things right, practicing good habits day in, day out, and if I keep doing those, then the byproduct is winning. Yeah, I definitely don’t feel like I’m too far away.

The Players Championship Tee Times and Leaderboard

Q. Just on the no one has defended here, what’s your best guess as to why that might be, and do you look at it as, I guess, an opportunity?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it is. It is an opportunity for sure. I don’t think you ever need an extra motivation when you come to this golf tournament, but to be the first one to defend here would be very cool.

And I think this golf course can play so differently day-to-day, depending on wind direction, conditions. You know, it is such a clich� here, but it really doesn’t suit any one style of play or any one type of player. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m sure there’s been people in the past that have had opportunities to maybe defend and have had their chances and finished well up there, but I don’t know, I’d love to give myself a chance. If I can keep playing the way I’ve been playing and get myself into contention on Sunday, it would be something extra to play for, which would be pretty cool.

Q. You just mentioned, obviously, that it can be different. You were the first winner going back to bringing this back to March. What were the big takeaways, the difference from May to March?
RORY MCILROY: So for me two big things were, off the tee, the course plays a lot longer in March than it does in May, so I was able to hit driver a lot more. The fairways are a little softer, so the course plays a touch wider. And then I think the other thing is having the rough overseeded around the greens, that was a big thing for me because I’ve always been more comfortable chipping out of that sort of overseeded rough rather than a pure Bermuda. Pure Bermuda, especially in May time here, it was sort of a hit and hope. It was a little bit of a guessing game around the greens, where at least nowadays, if you do miss a green — I said this last year and I said it about Jason Day, I played with Jason the final round last year, Jason has got a wonderful short game, and he can actually show what a wonderful short game he has in March here rather than in May, when if you miss greens, basically it’s a leveler of everyone, where in March the guys with the best short games and the best techniques can sort of rise to the top a little bit.

Q. You’ve mentioned that Pete Dye courses were a little bit of an acquired taste for you. I wonder was there a turning point where you started to feel a little bit more comfortable, could have been Kiawah in 2014 or could have been — you had three top 10s here in a row early on. When did you start turning the corner on that, and is there a hole out there that still kind of drives you nuts?
RORY MCILROY: So 2010 Whistling Straits was when I turned a corner. I turned up there, it was the PGA Championship, and I hated it. Like I really did not like it. I had to tell myself, look, you just need to like it for one week. Just get your head around liking this place for one week and embracing the fact that it’s different and the fact that it’s visually a little funky and whatever. I ended up finishing third that week and one shot out of a playoff, and I think that was when I sort of had turned a corner in terms of not necessarily loving Pete Dye golf courses because of — I think he’s a wonderful golf course designer, but I never liked how he made you feel on the golf course in terms of hiding things and angles, and it makes you a little bit uncomfortable, which is obviously his plan. Like he’s a wonderful designer of golf courses, but that was the week where I had to embrace what Pete tried to put into his golf courses.

Yeah, going on from there, winning at Kiawah, winning at Crooked Stick, winning here, I’ve started to quite like them. But as you said, an acquired taste. They’re like beer when you’re younger. You sort of don’t like it but then you think it’s cool to drink it and then you sort of acquire a taste for it.

Q. Is there a hole that still gives you the most trouble or maybe makes you think the most?
RORY MCILROY: The first hole. The first hole to me is — the fairway is over here, the tee box is over here, but the tee box is sort of parallel to the fairway, but you’re having to hit across — just angles and sort of — you’ve really just got to pick targets and be very specific with what you’re aiming at out here.

Q. You’ve had a lot of success here recently, but you actually missed your first three cuts here. What do you remember about your first impressions of this tournament, and I’m wondering what caused that change, whether it was more conservative or more aggressive strategy or just becoming a better player?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think strategy was part of it. I was probably more stubborn back then than I am now and trying to overpower this golf course with a driver, when in May you couldn’t do that. The first time I played here, the weekend before I was in Vegas for a fight and then probably didn’t prepare the best way possible and missed the cut and ended up getting kicked out of bars in Jax Beach for having a fake ID. So I’ve come a long way. (Laughter.)

But yeah, I think just learning to play the golf course a little bit better, tempering my — whatever that is, willingness to hit driver all the time. At least now in March I can hit driver a little bit more, but I had to learn to play the golf course the right way when it was back in May.

Q. Going back to what you were saying about process and so forth, I’m curious, do you view — is there such a thing as a good top 5 or a bad top 5 in your view, and maybe if there’s an example one way or the other you can think of?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, I’d say last week was a bad top 5. I took advantage of a good draw. I got out early on Thursday morning and shot 66 and then sort of hung on for the rest of the week. And then there’s other weeks where you just don’t have it at all, and you hang in there and hang in there and you sort of just — you struggle all week and you scrape it around in 70 or 69 or whatever it is for four days, and you end up finishing T5. I finished fifth at Torrey Pines last year, and I swear it was one of the best top 5s I’ve ever had. I walked away from that week just thinking I couldn’t have squeezed anything more out of my golf game for the week. So yeah, there are such things as good and bad top 5s, and last week was probably on the bad end of the spectrum.

Q. Jon Rahm was in here earlier talking about his maturation process from age 22 to where he is now at age 25. Three years ago when I asked you about his meltdown here at THE PLAYERS, you had said he’s going to be a generational talent, and when he can harness that passion that he has in a positive way, you’re going to start to see some really good results. Do you see that happening, starting to happen now for Jon?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, I don’t — even before the last couple of years. I mean, as soon as Jon came out, he was contending to win big events and playing great and obviously won at Torrey Pines, won in Europe. I mean, I think we all have to go through that process. Some of us it takes longer than others. But Jon, I think everyone could see as soon as Jon turned — even before Jon turned pro when he was in college that he was — the TaylorMade guys tell a story that they basically thought they signed a top-10 player in the world coming out of college. I mean, just shows you how highly they thought of him then.

But yeah, he’s a wonderful player, and I think I said to you then, he can use his fieriness to his advantage, he just can’t let it get him down and get on top of him. But he seems to be harnessing it pretty well at the minute, and he’s not turned into a great player, because he always was a great player, but he’s a hell of a player.

Q. As a follow-up to that, you’ve done it, Brooks has done it, Jordan Spieth has done it. You win that first major and it seems to catapult a little bit into the second major, third major, fourth major. Could you see that happening with Jon once he gets over the hurdle of winning that first one?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think it just gives you belief. It gives you belief that you can do it on the biggest stage, and I think, you know, you’re obviously playing well, and the majors are pretty — they come pretty soon after one another, so if you get that first one and you’re playing well, you get into that second one with a little more belief, and all of a sudden, boom, you’re right back in there and you believe you can do it.

Yeah, I think not just with Jon but with anyone. Once you get over that hurdle, it should make the second one a bit easier, and then on from there.

Q. Can you give us some details on the bet today and how nervous were you?
RORY MCILROY: My bet? Which one? There was two.

Q. Okay, both.
RORY MCILROY: There was one with — where’s George? There you go. He bet me 50 bucks that I couldn’t hit the green on 17, which was easy. That was an easy one. And then again, I have a bet with Harry every practice round about shooting a score, and yeah, Harry will be buying me dinner at some point this week. But yeah, my tee shot on 18 was a little too close to the water. But yeah, so I’ll be enjoying a nice steak on him at some point.

Q. A little bit off the beaten path here, there are some really impressive Peloton metrics floating around online, and the rumor is they belong to you. I believe the one I saw was a 955 output in a 45-minute ride. First, can you confirm that that was you, and please do or my story is completely ruined. And second, has cycling become a big part of your fitness and workout regimen?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so that was me. But I think the bike was a little juiced. (Laughter).

So I did that the Monday after Riviera in the hotel I was saying at in Santa Monica. So, like my bike at home, I can sort of get on the Peloton, and I can sit in the saddle at like a 50 resistance at like 90 — like a 90 cadence and just sort of buying that out for 45 minutes or an hour, but 50 resistance on this bike felt really easy, so I sort of cranked it up. So I’d say that was a little juiced. But most of the ones are, on my Peloton user name or whatever, are pretty accurate. But yeah, I try to get them in sort of two or three times a week. I did one last night — and I’ve never really enjoyed doing cardio, like really never liked it, but since sort of learning about Peloton and doing it and sort of being a part of that whole community and stuff, I’ve started to enjoy it, and I enjoy the leaderboard aspect and the fact that it is competitive in some ways and you’re always trying to beat your last score. And it keeps me — it makes me earn my dinners and sort of keeps me sort of in decent shape. I’ve been enjoying it.

Q. I’ve been talking to a lot of players about you, and aside from their envy of your ability to drive the ball a long way and your iron play and all that, the one dominant theme that they have is that they like the way that you seem to be leading and being comfortable with leading. Do you understand what they mean? And are you indeed as comfortable as they think you are with leading?
RORY MCILROY: Well, if they looked at the leaderboard the last few weeks they’d say that’s not true.

Leading in terms of like —

Q. The game. Not on —
RORY MCILROY: I mean, I think at this point I think I have somewhat of a responsibility. Not just for myself but for the other players. I’ve been around the top of the game for a long time now, over a decade, and I think being at the age I am and being at the stage of life where — I am very — I’m a lot more comfortable in my own skin and in my own beliefs and values and convictions. So yeah, I have been outspoken about a number of issues in golf over the past couple years, and I’m happy about that, yeah. I’m not trying to lead so that people can — I’m not trying to set some sort of example, but I guess I want to be a voice out there that can at least put forth some good commentary and a decent opinion on things, and that’s what I try to do.

Q. Why are you so comfortable in your own skin now?
RORY MCILROY: I don’t know. I think just because I’ve learnt over the last few years that you’re not going to please everyone and you’re not going to — not everyone is going to like you. I think as you grow up, you sort of — I certainly had an ambition or you try to do things for people and you try to — I just basically learned no matter what you do, there’s some people that are going to like you and appreciate what you do, and there’s some people that you just won’t be able to please. I think I came to terms with that a few years ago and am definitely a lot more comfortable in my own skin because of it.

Q. I’ve been sitting here looking at this photo, very nice photo of you taking a peek over at 17. Take me through what you were thinking at that point and what was that moment like?
RORY MCILROY: It was nice because I just hit a 9-iron into the 16th and had a 12-foot eagle putt, so I was feeling pretty good about myself. I always take a peek at sort of the group in front and seeing what they’re doing or where they hit it into. Everyone knows where the hole location is on 17 here on Sunday, so it was just more having — there’s the two big boards there, as well, the two video boards, so looking at players’ reactions and sort of the shots that they’re hitting in.

Yeah, I wasn’t thinking much. At that point I think I was tied for the lead, or no, maybe I was one ahead and Furyk had maybe just birdied the last. But knew that if I could birdie 16 and par the last couple that I’d be able to win. Yeah, that was really it.

Q. The question about Rahm made me think what a help it must have been, you were 22, I think, when you won at Congressional. For you and for people like Justin and Jordan to have kind of knocked it out at an early age, was it helpful, do you think, looking back, as you contemplate questions about Rahm, when he’s going to win a major, Xander is going to fall into that, Rickie has been there for a few years. How much of a relief do you think it was?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, it certainly is a relief whenever you can get one on the board early. It’s helpful. But I mean, you think of Phil didn’t win his first one until 33, 34, and it didn’t hinder him. I mean, he ended up winning five, and people could say should have, could have won more, but he’s still got a pretty impressive tally.

I don’t think the likes of a Jon or a Xander or whoever else is in that category of great young players that haven’t won one yet, my recommendation is not to let it affect you or listen to it. I mean, everyone is going to have chances, and it’s not as if you — we’re all just trying to beat each other out here at the end of the day, and at one point or another, all of us have beaten one or another out here. So it’s not — if you can sort of try to take the importance of the occasion out of it and the trophy and the history and all that stuff, they’ve done it before.

Q. There was also 10 years of Phil getting asked when, four times a year.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah.

Q. Wouldn’t that add to the difficulty do you think, or no?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, you’d have to ask them or you’d have to ask him. I mean, I get it every April, and it certainly doesn’t help things. But at least I only get it once a year, not four times a year.

But yeah, I mean, if you’ve had close calls — all those guys are good enough to win major championships. I would think it’s just a matter of time.

Q. We’ve got a question from a fan in China. Which hole is your favorite here at TPC Sawgrass and also on the 17th, how comfortable are you to avoid the water this week?
RORY MCILROY: My favorite hole, I’m a big fan of the new 12th hole here. I think they’ve done a good job with the redesign of that hole, risk-reward, you can go for the green, but if you miss it in the wrong spot, it can become very tricky. So I do like the 12th hole.

And yeah, I mean, look, I think the 17th is — if you surrounded that green with bunker or grass or whatever, it would be one of the easiest par-3s that we play all year, but because of the water, there’s just an extra element of difficulty to it. I think most guys are just trying to put it into the middle of the green. If you hit it close, that’s a bonus, but you walk away with four 3s there for the week, you’ve done pretty well.

Q. I heard last week called the ultimate in survival golf. As a fan of the game, how often do you like to see that, and what are your expectations for scoring this week?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so obviously the last two tournaments have been very difficult, and obviously I live very close to PGA National and people say to me, why don’t you play this week, and I say, well, I don’t get to spend that many weeks at home, and when I do, I’d like to enjoy it.

I think the last couple tournaments have been tough. It’s been windy. The courses have got firm and fast, especially last week at Bay Hill.

And yeah, it’s a different style of golf, right. It’s more of a defensive mentality rather than an assertive, aggressive mentality of trying to go out and make birdies. You’re having to play a little bit of chess and you’re trying to put the ball in the right spot and hit it to 30 feet, two-putt, move to the next. It’s a little more methodical, sort of takes a little bit of the flair away from it, I guess.

But I think every so often, that’s a good thing. I think if every week was the same, it would be pretty boring, so I think to throw in weeks like last week, it keeps it interesting.

Q. What do you think this week?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, this week is not going to be like the last couple weeks. It’s still pretty soft out there. The greens have the potential to get firm if the weather forecast stays the way it is, but I can’t see the fairways getting overly bouncy and firm. It’ll be a little more sort of target golf, I guess, but it has the potential to get a little firm over the weekend and the greens to get a bit of speed. But I certainly don’t think you’re going to see single digits under par winning this week.

Q. How proud are you of 100 total weeks at No. 1? Can you fathom 683? And how will you treat this stint differently to the last one?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I’m very proud to think that I’ve spent two years of my career at the top of the World Rankings is a pretty nice feeling. 683 or whatever it is, I can’t fathom. I mean, it’s just — it’s unbelievable. I just don’t think anyone can speak highly enough of what Tiger did over that stretch of golf. It was just insane.

And I’m — this stretch now that I — the way I got to No. 1 this time was sort of anticlimactic — there wasn’t much of a fanfare. I got there through a mathematical algorithm more than anything else, but I still made sure to celebrate it and celebrate the milestone. I hadn’t been in this position for over four years, so on the Sunday night of Riviera, I went out and made sure to have a couple of drinks with Harry and a couple of my friends and sort of toast the fact that — especially for Harry, too, Harry took over that caddie position in the middle of 2017 and basically we’ve been on that journey together from sort of injuries and not playing my best all the way back to the top of the world. So it was important for me to sit down and have a few drinks with him and be like, you know, we’ve done this, this was our journey and we did it, two guys that grew up in Holywood, Northern Ireland, playing golf together, and that we’ve done this is something that was really cool.

Q. You said at the weekend that you wish you could have converted one of the recent top 5 finishes you’ve had coming into this week. Is there one thing that you can pinpoint that has held you back from crossing the finish line so far this year?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, just big numbers when I find myself in those positions. I made the triple bogey at Riviera early on Sunday, and I made the two double bogeys on the front nine last week. Just real untimely, poor shots. Not even poor shots but just — like Riviera was very firm, as well, and if you missed it in the wrong spots, it got tricky, and I feel like that’s what happened there and that’s what happened at Bay Hill, as well. Especially on the par-5 sixth hole on Sunday, I hit a decent drive but didn’t hold the fairway and tried to get the ball up as close as possible to the green so I had an easier third shot with the chip, and it went into the bunker and then I had a tricky shot. It was just — maybe playing the percentages a little more if I had have made sure to stay short of that minute on 5 at Riviera, I wouldn’t have brought 7 into play and then maybe staying short of that bunker on the 6th hole at Bay Hill last week, I wouldn’t have brought the water into play with my next. So just those little things.

When the courses are playing that firm and that fast, those are the tiny little margins that make the difference. Yeah, so maybe just sort of dialing it back that five percent instead of trying to play the perfect shot to hit my next from, being okay with the 80-yard shot into the par-5 or the 40-foot putt below the hole. They’re the things that make the difference, I guess.

Q. Did Fallon put you up to the whole “I like big putts” line, and second question, this is an Olympic year, and some of the courses that — you’re the reigning champion here, Augusta is Augusta, and then you’ve also won at Harding Park. How did you physically prepare yourself for this year and describe your process for getting ready for six straight months of marquee tournaments?
RORY MCILROY: No, Jimmy didn’t, no. I don’t think Jimmy even could have came up with that line. Yeah, I mean, preparing physically, I don’t think that’s the challenge for me. It’s more mentally preparing yourself for going back to defend here. I think the nice thing is going back to places that you’ve had success on before, coming back here, going back to Harding Park. You know, I think at this point in my career, I said earlier, I’ve spent over a decade in this position, so there’s not much that’s new to me anymore in the game of golf, but this year the Olympics will be. I’ve never got to experience anything like that, and that’s a really cool thing. 12 or 13 years into a professional career and you get to do something for the first time again, that’s pretty exciting.

MICHAEL BALIKER: And your relationship with Optum and having won this tournament last year, what did that mean from that perspective?

RORY MCILROY: It was certainly a nice way to kick the partnership off, that’s for sure. But yeah, it was — yeah, obviously Optum are a huge partner of the PGA TOUR and myself, and yeah, it was great to win in front of them and obviously kick off the relationship in style, and they threw me a nice little party at the end. Hopefully we can get together on Sunday night again and do the same thing.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 11, 2020

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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Team USA

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

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

Categories
Team USA

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

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

Categories
Professionals

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

Categories
Team USA

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

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

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Team UK

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

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Team UK

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