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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 9, 2007Jim RutledgeJOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much. Aloha. Welcome. Thanks for joining us on this week's PGA conference call. With us today is Jim Rutledge, the Canadian native at the age of 47 is debuting as a member of the PGA TOUR this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Jim is a graduate from the Nationwide TOUR last year and has been on the Canadian TOUR for a long time. I'm sure you're enjoying the view here from the Sony Open media center. Maybe som opening comments about a big week for you, and I'm sure a very exciting week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. JIM RUTLEDGE: Yeah. It's very exciting actually. I'm looking forward to getting going. Christmas and holidays went by very quickly, and I'm anxious to get on the golf course and play some golf. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you. We can now take some questions from the people joining us on the teleconference. Q. High Jim. I was wondering if you have thought about what's it's going to feel like standing on the first tee on Thursday. You expect there will be much nerves? JIM RUTLEDGE: I would expect so. I've played a lot of golf and I have a lot of experience, but I think you always gain experience every day. This is definitely going to be a new one. Q. Congratulations on finally getting out there. JIM RUTLEDGE: Thank you. Q. I'm just wondering how you feel so far about being under the spotlight. I realize you've been under the spotlight to some extent here and there in your career, but perhaps never to this extent. What's your comfort level being under a more intense spotlight? JIM RUTLEDGE: It's a little unnerving in the beginning. But just learning quite a bit about and how to go about the media and putting time aside, you know, and I always try to get to everybody if I can that has a request. But it's different. The Canadian Open was definitely different for me. I've never been put under the spotlight quite like that. But it's been good. I think this week everybody gets a little bit something for one reason or another, or just because the year's starting. Q. Have you had to adopt any sort of strategies to deal with the attention, the time, that's being asked? JIM RUTLEDGE: No. Just to use my own time. I'm here for a reason: To play my golf. When I'm finished with my golf I'll take care of duties on the side. Q. Jim, just curious if at any point during the process you had ever given up on this dream? And if so, what got you back on track to pursue it? JIM RUTLEDGE: I may have sort of thought that it may never come around, but my family's always been behind me, especially my wife and son. They've always been the ones to keep me out there and keep me pushing, you know what I mean? Because deep down I think they knew that I had the game. I think I knew that, too, but time might have been running out. Q. Was it just a matter of some bad luck? I mean, obviously you had the game, and maybe it just didn't come together at the right time that you needed it to to get through. JIM RUTLEDGE: I don't think -- my list of priories were different a few years back. I was enjoying my time playing a lot of golf in Asia and was having success there. The PGA TOUR was not at the top of my list. It became that six or seven years ago really, because I to get closer to home. I wanted to play the Nationwide TOUR and be closer to home. And then, my goals definitely changed. I wanted to get my card. Age wasn't really a factor, I didn't think, you know. I just thought that, you know, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. If not, that is fine, too. But now is the time to really knuckle down and try to get it. Q. Thank you. JIM RUTLEDGE: Welcome. Q. Obviously it's taken you a while to get where you are this week as a full-time member of the PGA TOUR. Have you found yourself reflecting at all this week on the long journey you have taken? Because obviously you have played around the world. Having any of those thoughts, or are you just so focused on the present that that really hasn't entered into the equation? JIM RUTLEDGE: I think I'm just focused on the first five or six weeks right now. They're very, very busy. Playing a lot of golf courses in the first few weeks. Three or four in some weeks just to finish the week off, like Pebble and the Bob Hope. So I'm just concentrating on the first few weeks just trying to get through these and put together some good golf early on before they shuffle so I can hopefully jump up the list. Bu one week at a time is my focus right now. This one is right head of us. Q. How much time have you had to spend this week receiving congratulations from your peers, and what's the most exciting thing that's happened for you while you've been there? JIM RUTLEDGE: Well, I think mostly it's just standing on the first tee to play this golf course for the first time. Along with that, seeing a lot of fellows out here that I've know for a many years on the TOUR. Whether it be Striker or Parnevik and plenty of the guys, Kenny Perry. But I think the most exciting thing was just teeing it up to play this golf course. You see it on TV all these years, but you never really know what it's like. It's a thrill just to play here for the first time. Q. Bob touched on this a little bit earlier when you talked about coming back and staying out here. Had you established a date or a time where it was going to get to the point where you said, "No, that's enough. I'm not going to chase it any longer." JIM RUTLEDGE: I think maybe this year was it. You know, some friends of mine said, "You know, I wouldn't have blamed you if you had hung them up." Not hung them up so to speak, but stopped trying to qualify. After I won a tournament earlier in the year, I just knew that I'm already two-thirds of the way with the bubble being about 200,000. So just keep your foot on the gas now and see if you can get the job done. Q. Here's kind of maybe a bit of a curious question. I don't imagine with the time difference that the tee times are out yet. But I believe you're in the same category as Michelle Wie. You think you're under the spotlight now, how much of a spotlight do you think you'll be under than? JIM RUTLEDGE: Well, I will be a bit, I think, but naturally she's going get all the attention here. I was just hitting balls beside her out on the range twenty minutes ago. I don't know if I'm breaking myself in for that time to come. We'll see what happens. Draw won't be out probably until 2:00 today. I'll be looking forward to that. Why not? Q. Not going to go out and ask her for a practice round today? JIM RUTLEDGE: I think she's pretty busy. She's got a conference call -- or not a conference call, but a big interview coming up here in the next few minutes. Q. All right thanks. JIM RUTLEDGE: Yeah. Q. I think it was about 25 years or so ago, believe it or not, but you were playing in the Canadian International out at Kitchener, and I believe were paired with Arnold Palmer for a couple rounds. I'm wondering what that experience might have meant to you at the time, and if you took anything from it and if The King gave sort of gave you any advice at the time? JIM RUTLEDGE: It was a thrill. I don't think I really deep down realized -- I knew who he was, obviously, and I knew what he had done. I don't think it really sunk in. I was amazed for the first while, and then I got caught up so much in him I figured, you know, I gotta play some golf here. He was great. He's was a great guy, and I enjoyed the two days that I got play golf with him. Q. We've discussed before how with the battle that you and Jo (phonetic)waged a few years ago with her cancer. Did that kind of keep the game in perspective? Did it keep you grounded? JIM RUTLEDGE: Yes, definitely. I came out with, I think, a better light after that. I was going along playing some golf and we were doing all right, but after that, I think she especially just, you know, really got me fired up to play. Golf really wasn't that important at the time and I had thoughts of just packing it in then, but she was the one that kept me out there and focused on what I was doing: Playing golf. So I can thank her for being where we're at here today. Q. For all of us over here cheering for you, good luck on Thursday. JIM RUTLEDGE: Thanks. Q. There must be a lot have BC and Canadians over in Hawaii right now. Have you had a lot of people come up and tell you they're cheering for you? JIM RUTLEDGE: Not as yet. We've got some good friends, Elmer and Kathy Monager (ph) who used to live in Victoria. They're here and I've got all my family here. I think a few of them will pop up tomorrow or Thursday. As of yet, I haven't really bumped into too many people. Q. Well, good luck, buddy. JIM RUTLEDGE: Thanks. Q. One more, Jim. Mike Weir at the Canadian Open this year or last year said that when he first encountered you and golfed beside you said, "How can I ever play against him? He hits so pure." I'm just wondering if you, in all of these years, were aware of what some of the players that did make it to the PGA TOUR and did well thought of you, if that made you reflect as to really why you weren't out there. If anything was lacking in you that made them get there and you hit the ball better and they did and you didn't get there. JIM RUTLEDGE: I think just a deep down devotion to be here on the TOUR. Like I said, I was having success where I was playing, in Asia and all that. I knew, even Purdy, who I've known for a few years said, "Come on, Rut, you've got to get out here." So that really helps. And even Mike and his caddie Brendan. They're saying, "You got to get out here." That has helped a lot. You know, it kept me going among other things. But to have the respect of those guys is great, and I truly enjoyed playing the week with Mike Weir because we really got catch up for the last fifteen years that we've been on different tracks. Q. There's been so much focus on you making the PGA TOUR, I wonder if there has been a little bit of a lost focus on the job you have ahead. Have you established some goals for yourself this year? JIM RUTLEDGE: Yes, I have. And, you know, that does get lost in the shuffle, because it's one thing to get it -- and it's hard to get it -- but it is another thing to keep it. This year is going to be a different process, as everybody knows, with the Fed Ex Cup. So a lot of the fellow's season ends shortly, the second week of September. It takes away that time for some of the guys at that rallied to keep their cards. So you really have to put your nose to the grindstone and play as much as possible, but play some good, solid golf. Q. Jim, do you feel you're a better player than you were twenty years ago? I mean, is that possible, you know, given your age? Can that happen? JIM RUTLEDGE: Well, I think equipment has helped, too. I have played a lot of golf. Every year I've played a lot of golf. I think you learn more about yourself and your golf swing every day. I like to think, yeah, I'm a better player than I was a few years ago. Maybe more experience and calmed down quite a bit with age, too. Never a wild man by any means, but calmed down on the golf course and just learned a lot more about myself. Q. Just wondering how much comfort are you taking in watching a guy like Vijay Singh do as well as he did on the weekend. A guy in his 40s who has won 18 times since he turned 40. Guys like Jay Haas and Fred Funk and those types of players. How much comfort to you take in that with you going out there at age 47? JIM RUTLEDGE: I'm just enjoying it, period. I have my expectations, I have them and I want to meet them definitely. But my age coming out here it's a whole new ball game for me. They've been on the TOUR for quite a few years and they're accustomed to everything that goes with it. I'm just out here wanting to play some good golf naturally, and to keep my playing privileges for next year would be fantastic. It is good to see the older guys winning; it can happen. Q. You just touched base a few minutes ago on all your old buddies, especially the ones that played up here in the Canadian TOUR. Looking back, is that something that for as long as you played here or in Asia, is that something that really kept you going for lack of a better term? JIM RUTLEDGE: Yes, I think deep down, once you see those guys, you know, once a year or a couple times a year you bump into them and they say, "Get your butt out here. You've paid your dues and you've played around the world. Get yourself where you need to be, and that's on the TOUR." So that does help. I'll take it all in stride. They're good people and they have good thoughts behind them. Q. You had said that you have some -- you said you have some goals, and obviously keeping your card is one of them. I was just wondering if you had any specific objectives for yourself, or any specific tournaments that your really looking at or any parts of your game you really want to improve on? JIM RUTLEDGE: A bit of everything. Probably short game and putting would one of the highlights there to sharpen that up definitely. Other than that, it's a hard year, you know, having to play all these new golf courses, so having to practice a lot more. I know what I have to be prepared for, and that's one of the things: Really focusing on taking these golf courses and breaking them down as quickly as humanly possible because of the short time I have to do that. I'm looking forward to it. Q. Looking to the future when you're 57, where do you see yourself then? JIM RUTLEDGE: I don't know. Just one day at a time. Just soaking all this in and trying to play some good golf. Q. Last year on the Nationwide you had the best scoring average on Sunday. Can you transfer that to Fridays so you make cuts and cash checks? JIM RUTLEDGE: I would hope so. A lot of that comes from, you know, like I said before, really getting to know a golf course by the end of week. And the fact of playing those golf courses over the few years that I played the Nationwide TOUR. You know, just about ever year we played the same course. I would like to, you know, switch that around and keep the Sunday record there also. Getting out of the gate quick here is a definite key. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I appreciate all the call-ins today, and we look forward to visiting Canada for the President's Cup in the fall. Jim, very much thanks to you for your help this morning. Have a great week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. JIM RUTLEDGE: All right. Thanks. End of FastScripts… |
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