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LG SKINS GAME MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 8, 2007Stephen AmesBRIAN ROBIN: Thank you. We appreciate your time. This call is with Stephen Ames the defending champion of the LG Skins Game. And we're hoping we can get Fred Couples back on the line. He currently is en route to Las Vegas and is somewhere in the California desert. So we're hoping we get him back momentarily. Just by way of introduction, the $1 million 2007 LG Skins Game will be produced by ESPN and broadcast on ABC in its customary Thanksgiving home where it has been for the last 24 years. It will be broadcast Saturday November 24th, and Sunday November 25th, nine holes each day. 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 eastern time on Sunday. This is the 17th year that ABC has served as the broadcast home to the LG Skins Game. Another point of order, it will be played on a new course this year. The beautiful new Celebrity Course at the Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California. It is the first year that Indian Wells Golf Resort is hosting the LG Skins Game. As far as our participants we have Stephen Ames who is our defending champion. A title he earned in hard-won fashion with a 3-foot birdie putt last year on the third playoff hole. That netted Stephen eight skins and $590,000, all of which he earned on Sunday. He took the title away from Fred Couples, John Daly, and the 2005 champion, Fred Funk. Stephen this year has had an outstanding year. He's recently coming off a victory, 17-under par with a final round 68 of the Children's Miracle Network Classic presented by Wal-Mart. That netted him $828,000. He earned this year more than $2.1 million in his 23 events, the 23 events he made 18 cuts. As far as Fred Couples, kind of a slow year for Fred because of his injuries. He did play in four events, most notably making the cut once again at The Masters. Where he finished tied for 30th with a final round 71. We all know about Fred and his history in the LG Skins Game. He is the undisputed king and champion of this event. He's playing in his unprecedented 14th Skins game. Last year he won 9 skins and $385,000 and finished second to Stephen Ames. He did win the 2004 event which was his fifth title and second consecutive championship. He holds the records for most career skins won with 86, most career skins money $3.9 million, most money won on a Sunday, $3.18 million, which is more than $2 million ahead of its closest competitor, and most birdies in one year, 9 in 1999. That goes along with 15 PGA TOUR titles - one of those being the 1992 Masters. So we'd like to welcome Stephen and Fred, if we have Fred on the call. And Stephen, let me open with you. I've got a couple questions before we turn it over to the media. You've watched this event growing up and had a little familiarity with this event because of its legacy and history. Talk about any moments that really stand out to you in watching this event? STEPHEN AMES: Over the years, I guess, it's got to be when Nicklaus, Player, Trevino and Watson played, probably one of the very first ones. Obviously, those are the guys that were at the time the four greatest players that played the game. Then as the years have gone on, of course, we've had Tiger has played once or twice. And a couple of the bigger names, Norman has played, Fowler has played. It's a fun format and enjoyable to watch. Especially the ones who have been serious all year and then come out there and start laughing. Something that you don't, obviously, get to see very often. BRIAN ROBIN: Talk about your experience last year coming in for the first time, and then seeing your name being mentioned in the same breath in Skins Game history with the players you just talked about. What is the impression you got playing in that event, and what has your experience been like? STEPHEN AMES: It's been a good experience. It's always a better experience and memory if you win, which for me it was my first time it was awesome. But like I said, it's a very unusual format. We rarely get to play that kind of format all year. And it is a bit more laid back, and I think that's probably why Freddy's the king of what we call the skins game, because he's very much that is his demeanor, very laid back and relaxed. That is when he performs the best. For me, I would say it's very much the same way. I tend to pick the game for what it is, and try to enjoy it as much as I can. So this format for me is excellent. BRIAN ROBIN: Questions for Stephen. Q. You kind of followed the pattern last year that Fred has followed all the years which was not have a very big first day and then have a very big second day. Do you see the Skins Game as more luck than skill, more skill than luck? A matter of timing, what is it? STEPHEN AMES: I think it's a matter of timing more than anything else. Because Fred last year definitely played the best out of all of us. And it came down to the last hole, and I ended up all four of us ended up being in a playoff. And then Sunday guys got eliminated. And that was just John and myself who actually birdied the first hole and went on. And that's when I ended up winning because John put his ball in the trap off the tee. So I ended up with a birdie and he had a bogey. So it is more timing than anything else. Obviously, all the skins are bigger as the week goes on. The second nine the skins become $50,000 and $75,000 per hole. And then $18 is $200,000, so very much timing without a doubt. Q. That being said, does that help you relax more knowing that, well, maybe it's just the way the timing goes? STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, I think it is. I think you kind of get a feel for the golf course a little bit better that way. And you get a feel for how the guys are playing, too. So then can you kind of step it up if you need to. Q. Wanted to know what does this do for you as a golfer, as far as are you tired at the end of the year, want to take a break, or is it fun to come back here? STEPHEN AMES: You know what, I am on a three-week break right now. I will be completely rested when I get to play the Aussie Skins Game. So I'm looking forward to it. Even more living here in Calgary, at that time of the year it's going to be very cold, so I'll be quite happy to get to Palm Springs. Q. In the past you were talking about the legacy and all the big names that have played here. This year and recent, I guess, obviously, it is a quite talented field this year. But not quite the superstar studded event it's been in the past. Do you think it might be more difficult than last year? STEPHEN AMES: Hard to say. I think everybody's accustomed to seeing all the bigger named players and wider known players. We've got two of the four players have won majors. Freddy, obviously, won The Masters and Zach Johnson, I believe, it's Zach Johnson, that is the other one who has won The Masters as well. I don't think it's a lackluster field whatsoever. Q. During the course of the week at Disney and after your win, you spoke about your swing overall during the course of this year. I just wondered if there had been a single 'aha' moment for you or has it been a gradual slow progress? STEPHEN AMES: No, it was a gradual slow process. For me it's more the fact of how I used to do things before I was shaping it right to left and left to right. Now I have to learn how to do it a different way now, this way. So my feelings are different. My instincts don't go back to natural instincts like they used to. And I have to think about the technique a little too much when I'm playing golf, which everybody knows is not the right way to play golf. You don't want to think about your golf when you're playing. So it's been gradual for me. To some extent it's not quite there yet, but it's a lot closer than it was the beginning of the year and the middle of the year. Q. On the basis that you have a productive week at the Skins Game, how much more confident would you go into next season compared to your state of mind at the start of this year? STEPHEN AMES: I think my confidence right now is a lot higher than it was at the end of last year or the end of a year ago when I won the LG Skins Game, also the beginning of this year. I think the swings, the whole aspect of the game itself has improved a tremendous lot. I think the fact of just being in contention second to last group of the year, so the last group of the PGA Championship kind of sums that up in some sense. And like I said, going back to instincts to play, that's the part that is missing at this stage right now to make me even more a contender in majors. Which, as a player, this is what we try to achieve is to win one or two, if not in the case of Tiger, he's trying to make 18. So everybody has a different goal. Q. In perspective with your win last week and the swing reworking, I also saw you were in contention at the Open. Sort of on the previous gentleman's question, can you do any mid-season assessments as you're going through this? And two, in sports much is written about momentum - sometimes momentum's overrated. But can you take something like your win last week, take three weeks off and feel like you have momentum because of your swing walking into a last season event? STEPHEN AMES: Yes. Momentum, I think, is very mental. Because did I take some good momentum from actually the Fry's Electronics when I played. Had a week off and came back down to Florida to prepare for that event. The momentum that I've taken from there is the fact that my swing started seeming a little more natural. I was hitting it further and straighter. But the only thing that was actually holding me back was my putter. You'll notice the stats for me, I look at the stats a lot. The Sunday of the Fry's Electronics I actually had six putts less than any one of the three days I played the first three days. And that was playing with a 25-mile-an-hour wind that. Kind of triggered something there for me, I don't know why. And that was my momentum going into that. It continued also going into the Children's Miracle Network event, too. So obviously it helped me win the event to an extent. But, yes, as the year goes on, we do make analysis of how things are going. Sean, my coach will be there most of the year with me. And there are things that I look at, and those are things we'll both look at to see what direction we need to go in and what we need to work on. Q. A follow-up to that if I could, and that is since you've worked on your swing, could you be a little more specific in terms of what you felt you had to do to your swing to keep your back healthy? STEPHEN AMES: A lot of it was the fact that when I got to the top of my swing, the top of my back swing, I had a lot of my weight on my left side. So the weight of the club when going up to the top of my swing wasn't actually away from the ball, it was actually getting closer to the target. You actually need to be working it away from the target. The target being the flagstick and not the ball. When I got to the top of my back swing, my elbow swing, I was very much going toward the target. And, of course, on the way down, I had to do the opposite, which is go away from the target. So I was doing it the opposite way. Technically you want to be moving to the target when hitting it. In my case I was putting a lot of stress on my lower back, because I was working my back a little bit too much up-and-down, rather than what we call cylindrical as in round. That put a lot of strain in my back the mid many of the year to the end of the year. Q. Could you walk me through the most memorable or kind of the most complicated rules incident that you've been a part of? Maybe something that's happened to you or you've seen in your own group or pairing? STEPHEN AMES: Did you say rules? Q. Yeah, exactly like a complicated. STEPHEN AMES: As in a ruling? Q. Yeah, something that had you to call an official over and it was kind of a big deal and a memorable incident? STEPHEN AMES: Oh, wow. No, I can't think of anything right now. Q. No? STEPHEN AMES: No, I can't. I tend not to want to call the officials too often (laughing). Q. I was wondering if you could address the importance for you of getting a win in any given season, or would you rather just have a real solid, steady year and not forego the win, but have a steady year without a win? STEPHEN AMES: That's a good question. You'd like to have both, actually. A steady year with a couple of wins in there. I think today, especially on the PGA TOUR, I think I would say it's not just PGA TOUR, it's all around the world. But that's where the players are so big today, especially over here. There's a given anybody could win on tour, to some extent. Winning, obviously, takes a little extra pressure off of you. But I think that's because of the depth of the field that we play every week, it's harder to win. I think that's probably why we have such a lackluster of superstars probably coming out. Besides Tiger and Phil, there are not too many other players at all that you would characterize as superstars. Especially in the days of Watson and Nicklaus and Trevino and Gary Player, there are five or six players and that is the quality of the players playing the game today. Q. Given that, how much did it mean to you to get this win at Disney and have it come at the end of the season? STEPHEN AMES: It was a great one, and I enjoyed it. It wasn't quite as easy as the Players Championship. IT would be nice to have come in in six rather than in one. But a win is a win. For me, it's similar to the fact of the things that I've been working on with my golf swing, trying to change. And also it told me what things on the negative tone, what things broke down and what didn't break down. Though the good things and these are the times that as a player, you want to be subject to the pressure and how you react to it which is good. So I was quite happy with the result. Q. I just want to ask you about Calgary in the winter. I've been up there in January. Do you have a facility in your home? How do you work on your game while you are spending time up there? STEPHEN AMES: I don't have a facility in my home. There is one facility that I can go indoors and hit. It's a dome. It's actually about ten minutes from the airport. I occasionally do go up there to get my muscles ready for when we start beating a lot of golf balls. But in the past I haven't used it too much. This year I might be using it a lot more, but in the past I've always used the West coast swing as my pre-year warm-up kind of thing preparing myself for the year. Q. Regarding the swing changes, was it almost imperative for you to do this because of your back? Was there any trepidation or did you just feel like, hey, if I don't make these moves, I'm going to be in pain all the time and not able to compete anyway? STEPHEN AMES: It was more the fact that I wasn't going to be able to compete anymore. After I tried my last one was -- the last event I tried to play was in England one of the World Golf Championship events. I played one day, and I was lucky to play the first day. After nine holes it was starting to act up again. And I thought it was worse than I really thought it was. As soon as I got home, I actually went straight in for an MRI to find out that it wasn't bone structure, it was actually muscular, which is great. So then I had to recoup and get that fixed, the muscles part. To top that off my other coach didn't want to come out as often with me to work on it, so that made it even more difficult into getting into terrible habits. That is the reason I needed to go to another coach. Of course, Sean Foley, had the opportunity of working with him before and with some kids from Trinidad, and also my brother went to school with him. So there was a mutual relationship somewhat. We hooked up together actually three days before last year's LG Skins Game, and that's where we actually started doing the changes. But it was more for the fact that I wanted to play golf for as long as I could in some sense, because of how much I enjoyed playing the game. Q. Is there any surprise that it's come together so quickly? Or in your mind has it not come together that quickly, have you been a little bit impatient at times? STEPHEN AMES: No, I haven't been impatient. Actually, we sat down and both said it's probably going to take close to two years. I actually said it was going to be done by the end of this year. So I think I'm right on track, he's maybe a little off (laughing). BRIAN ROBIN: Stephen, have you played any rounds with Brett or with Fred and with Zach? Or can you talk about your experiences playing with the people you're going to play with in the LG Skins Game? STEPHEN AMES: Obviously, we all know about Fred, great, great player. Very natural, very driven. Enjoys the company of his caddie and his players that he's playing with. Obviously, a very outstanding player for what he's achieved over his career. Brett's more of a guy who has the great finesse of a golf swing, but he muscles it out there. He does a very good job doing it, too. He gets the ball and he does a fantastic job of it every year. Of course, Zach's a great player. He he's won The Masters this year, he also won the AT&T Classic. I think it was AT&T in Atlanta as well. And Zach's just coming into his own of being a regular winner on Tour. I think this is his second or third year on Tour now. And he's won three times already. So it's a matter of time before Zach's knocking on the door in another major. All three guys are great guys to play with. And I'm looking forward to their company Thanksgiving weekend. BRIAN ROBIN: We'd like to thank Stephen for his time and getting in touch with us from his home in Calgary. Thank you all for joining us on the call. End of FastScripts |
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