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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 13, 2007Jeff SlumanPHIL STAMBAUGH: This week the Champions Tour welcomes another illustrious member to the class of 2007, the man on my left, six-time winner on the PGA TOUR including the 1988 PGA Championship. And in two weeks, I believe you'll serve for the third time as Jack Nicklaus's Captain's Assistant on the United States Presidents Cup team. Jeff, welcome to the Champions Tour. JEFF SLUMAN: Great to be here. Excited to start tomorrow. And golf course is very nice. Had two great Pro-Am days and got a lot of practice in. So I'm as ready as I'm going to be. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Maybe start off by just telling us a little about the golf course. Is it sort of what you expect? JEFF SLUMAN: You know, I wasn't sure how the setups were, and you know, I see the scores that the guys are shooting, and I know that I have a lot to learn out here. You know, it's 54 holes. You've got to start quickly versus our tour sometimes, you're just trying to get your feet on the ground. So I'm in awe of what these guys do for 54 holes and how low they shoot and the way they have continued to play throughout their career. I've got quite a learning curve out here. Hopefully I'll pick it up quickly and blend in here. But you know, there's some unbelievable players out here, and I just kind of want to learn how to compete again and have some chances to win. So that's kind of where I'm at with that. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. Have you realized how competitive it is out here? Have you talked to anybody about what this tour is like? JEFF SLUMAN: Not too much. But all you have to do is look in the paper every week and see the scores that they are shooting to know that there has been very little drop-off coming from the regular tour over here. So anybody that thinks you're going to come out here and waltz through it and just dominate I think is in for a surprise, and in for a surprise very quickly. As I said, I'm coming out here, and I know how good these guys are. I see the scores they are shooting, and I just want to get competitive again with them. Q. The reason you chose this tournament to come out, is it because of this tournament, where it is on the schedule, is it in a pretty good spot? JEFF SLUMAN: That had nothing to do with it. If I had been born a little earlier, I would have been at Pebble a couple of weeks ago. It's due to my birthdate, that's all it was. I don't know the actual rule. What is the rule; if I was born tomorrow, I couldn't play, or today or how does that play? Q. I believe you have to be born on the day of the Pro-Am. PHIL STAMBAUGH: So you could have been born on Wednesday and still play. JEFF SLUMAN: Well, that's a good thing for me, because I'm glad I'm here. Yeah, I knew as soon as I was going to turn 50 that I was going to play them out. So I think I was probably -- except for Dana Quigley, probably the only guy to commit to the last five tournaments in January. (Chuckling) I'm sure Dana probably committed through 2012 right now. PHIL STAMBAUGH: On the other tour, did you notice stuff like Dana playing that many events in a row? JEFF SLUMAN: Well, it obviously got some play in the media, as it progressed I think into the 200s and stuff like that. We all on the TOUR would kind of say, how in the world is the guy doing that? And then you talk to Brett, his nephew, and Dana would take a redeye in L.A. and play 36 just for fun on Monday. It's like, we love the game, but not as much as him I guess. (Laughing). What he's done is very remarkable and my hat's off to him. I don't think I'm going to challenge his record of consecutive events, that's for sure. Q. Can you talk being Jack's Captain's Assistant for the third time this year, any lessons you have learned from him? JEFF SLUMAN: With Jack it's just been such a dream come true, really. I always kind of said that when I was growing up in Rochester, New York, my dream would have been to watch him play or catch his eye and say hello to him growing up. I mean, I had no idea I would ever meet him. I would start playing golf and say, you know, it would be great, I could watch him hit balls inside the ropes. It was like maybe I could play a practice round with him, and maybe you play with him. So it's progressed into a very nice friendship and you know, it's beyond my wildest imagination that a kid from Rochester, New York would be Jack's assistant for three times on the Presidents Cup. So it's truly been wonderful for me. You know, just being around Jack and he's such a quality person -- and there's a story that kind of comes to light at the previous Presidents Cup where one of the Internationals missed a putt, and our crowd kind of applauded a little bit. And Jack right away just took them to task, because he should. He said, "No, no, no, that's not what this is about. It's about sportsmanship." He said, "Clap louder for our guys, but you never clap if the Internationals miss a putt." He said, "If they hit a good shot, applaud for them, too." So he gets it; he understands it. And to hear that, you know, there's 400 or 500 people that are like -- (looking). Like I said, he's a quality person and he's into the history of the game and the sportsmanship. So it's truly been quite an honor to be around him in these instances. And it rubs off on the team. Q. Obviously you want to win, but what's your goal? You talk about a learning curve with the 54 holes versus a four-day event. JEFF SLUMAN: Well, I mean, everybody comes out here I think trying to win every week. Everybody but one goes away a little disappointed. So I'm not going to set my expectations very high. I know how good the players are out here. They have played the golf courses before. I'm going to be a rookie. You have to temper your expectations and I just want to, like I said, learn again how to compete and learn how to have a chance to win again. That's essentially what I'm going to try and do. After you go around maybe for a year and you learn the golf courses, hopefully you do a little better. But these guys are so good and there's so many -- I kind of laugh when I say, there's so many young players coming out here. There's a great group out here, and I know Joey is coming out next year, and I don't know who else is next year. But certainly year-in and year-out, the players are going to come out and they are going to be more ready physically and mentally. And the guys on our TOUR see the Champions Tour now as we're approaching the age of 50 kind of on a real upswing, because it's so competitive now with so many players out here playing well. I mean, you've got to come out ready. You can't take six months off and turn 50 and expect to come out here and play very well. So you see a lot of guys playing hard and playing a lot of events on the regular tour leading up to their 50th birthday. Q. Is there anything specifically you have done to get ready for the Champions Tour, playing more or working out more or something along those lines? JEFF SLUMAN: I basically just kept my same routine intact. I played about the same amount. I took a little time off this summer; as my daughter's gotten older and my family is priority No. 1, we took a couple of vacations and stuff like that. But I was ready to play. Unfortunately I didn't qualify for any of the FedExCup events, so my last tournament was in Sweden the week after the PGA. But I came home and I practiced pretty hard and worked on some stuff I thought I needed to work on so I could hopefully come out here and be ready to go when the gun went off. You know, we'll find out tomorrow if what I practiced, I can apply and when it really counts. I played pretty good in the two Pro-Ams. As we all know, that's a lot different than when the bell actually sounds. But I didn't do anything much different. Because I thought, throughout my last 22 or 23 years on TOUR, whatever I was doing was working pretty well. Q. The Presidents Cup might be a short-term distraction, but do you think there's anything that you can learn from that experience that will actually help your game in the long run? JEFF SLUMAN: I think just watching how the guys focus and the importance of every shot. Regardless of whether you're here or the regular tour or whatever, you don't want to go out and hit sloppy shots and not be prepared to play and just going out and wing it. That's just not my personality. But I'm going to have obviously a lot of fun doing it, and it's a little more relaxed out here certainly. But you look at the guys on the Presidents Cup, and you know, you don't have to go much further than Tiger and Jimmy Furyk. Those guys show you how important every shot is and never give up; you know, try to find a way to get the ball up-and-down and stuff like that. So it's really interesting to watch them, how they manage their games and their games together. Because, you know, there's different formats with best-ball and then the alternate-shot. But I think all in all, that's the thing you can really take away is their mental focus. Q. You seem to be a guy that likes that to have a lot of fun -- JEFF SLUMAN: I'm not Lee Trevino or anything, (laughter) like laugh, laugh, laugh and hit a shot two seconds later. But I certainly do like to have fun and relax and it does relax. But when the time comes, I'm ready to hit a shot and focus on it. That's hopefully what you've got to be able to -- there's usually a time frame internally in your head where you have to just turn it off and walk and get ready to hit your shot. Everybody knows what works for them and what doesn't. Q. Happy birthday, by the way. And I understand you got a cake yesterday before your Pro-Am round. JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, they sliced it and I didn't even get any of it. All the volunteers grabbed it and gobbled it down. Q. It was a nice donation you made to the Champions Tour. But I understand you're sharing a house on the grounds with Craig Stadler, Tom Purtzer and Pat McGowan. Any rookies' duties you've been assigned or are you exempt because of your major status? JEFF SLUMAN: Stads and I figured since we both won a major, that Pat can do the vacuuming and Spurtz can do the dishes. So we're in good shape. Q. You spoke about the level of play out on the Champions Tour, your expectations for your game, but what expectations have you had leading up to the Champions Tour as far as the camaraderie and personalities you'll see? And anyone in particular you're looking forward to spending some time with? JEFF SLUMAN: It's kind of funny, I pulled in yesterday looking for my parking spot. My driver pulled me in there and I Levy and you see Lietzke and Simpson and Simpson. It's like, I know every one of these guys. This is fun. (Laughing). You know, it's kind of like you're back where you started again. So it's very, very rewarding in that aspect that you've been able to play golf long enough to actually get out here and that and see all your old friends. The PGA TOUR is the greatest place in the world to play golf, there's no question about that. Without the TOUR, I don't know where I'd certainly be, so I can only, you know, be thankful that I played for that long. But it's nice to get back to a lot of the guys that you came up with, you know. And the kids out there are so good now and there's so many of them that a lot of times you don't actually get a chance to cross paths with them because you're in a different category and there's so many guys you never get a chance to play with unless you're out there for two or three years before you really cross paths. You know, it's a little different out there. But it's a very high level of competition out there, too. Q. Is that probably one of the biggest changes you saw on the regular tour? JEFF SLUMAN: It's a world game now from when I first started. I don't know the exact number of foreign players, but I would guess it's in the mid 80s now, is that about right? PHIL STAMBAUGH: Yeah. JEFF SLUMAN: I think when I came out in '83, I don't think there was ten. I blame it all on Curtis Strange, actually. (Laughter). Q. How so? JEFF SLUMAN: How so? Well, when he made -- he was the first one to make a million dollars in official money. I think people from all over the world saw that -- really. What happens is people start then saying, geez, you can make a lot of money at golf. And instead of pushing their kids into this sport or this sport or this sport, they started doing it in golf. And this is 15, 20 years later, all of a sudden there's kids from all over the world 25 years, they have developed and there's better coaching and there's everything; you know, better equipment obviously now and all that. But the kids are getting bigger, they are getting stronger and they are coached better, they have got equipment, launch monitors. But I think it all started from the fact that people around the world saw you could make an unbelievable living playing golf. And any time you get -- anybody comes from a regional game, being the U.S. players, to a worldwide game, the game and the level of competition is going to go up significantly. And all of those other factors bringing in there, you know, it's just gotten -- the guys are so, so good. All you've got to do is look down at the Nationwide Tour and watch how those guys play, and they are not even on the TOUR yet. It's really incredible. PHIL STAMBAUGH: What do you think about the Cubs, their chances? JEFF SLUMAN: Did they win last night? They did, they held on to the lead! Yeah, baby. So now they are tied with Milwaukee. Who knows? Lou has done a heck of a job, I know that. He's been throwing that lineup up there and they have been producing for him. But you know, we shall see. Milwaukee has probably got a little better pitching, but as they said, anybody can have a bad century. (Laughter) so maybe the 2000s are going to be the Cubs' year, who knows. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Jeff, thanks for joining us. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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