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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 15, 2008Jon MillsTHE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Jon Mills who is here at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic this week. He returned to the PGA TOUR after finishing fourth on the Nationwide Tour. I know he's excited to be back. Just talk about preparing for this year and being back on the road with the PGA TOUR? JON MILLS: You know, it's awesome to be back. I learned a lot two years ago, even though the play wasn't as great as I would have liked, but definitely learned a lot from it, and definitely approaching this year with the added confidence. Q. I'm wondering - your first tournament in Hawaii last week you found yourself in kind of an unusual situation where you made the cut but didn't have the opportunity to play on the weekend. Were you aware of that heading into the final round what the number was and there was a possibility of this scenario? JON MILLS: Actually, no. I wasn't aware of it. I actually found out on my last hole that day. I actually found out from my wife. But it was just one of those unfortunate things that I guess you've got to deal with being a player. Q. Is it a little bit frustrating? Your first event, you've been waiting a while to get back on Tour, and to find yourself in that situation? JON MILLS: Yeah, yeah. You know, I was definitely a little frustrated. Obviously, every player wants a chance to have a good weekend and move up the leaderboard. Just anything can happen in two days. But I guess you've got to respect the rules of the things they come up with. I, at least, learned some of that, if anything, it's a nice place to be if you get paid for not doing anything on the weekend and spend some time on the beach. Q. You touched on it in your opening remarks, but what do you think you've learned since the last go around on the PGA TOUR that is going to sort of help you this time around? JON MILLS: I think just a few things, I think just playing the golf courses and getting that added experience on the courses. Also just I really developed a good practice routine that I didn't have two years ago. Found myself too many times going to the range and not really knowing, and trying to guess at what I'm doing wrong and trying to work on things. That's just no way to play golf. So I did a lot of stuff with my coach and worked on practicing with a purpose. Q. I was wondering, following up on the learning thing, is there a different mental approach that you're taking? Especially in your rookie year on Tour and then last year, you had to pay a lot of attention to what the money list was and what your standing was to finish the season to get back on Tour. Do you want to look at it differently this year? Tell me how you're looking at it from week to week and what your results will be? JON MILLS: I think mentally I've just got to go out and try to do exactly what I did last year. Just kind of approach every week like another golf week. Kind of go through my regular routines just getting practice rounds in. But, ultimately, it just comes down to trusting your golf shots and believing in yourself and being on the golf course and having fun with it. I tend to play my best golf when I'm enjoying the surroundings and just kind of having fun on the golf course. I want to try to do a lot more of that this year. I got into a bit of a -- I wasn't really playing well two years ago, and I got out of that. You've got to work consciously on staying in that thought process. Q. Is it important to not live and die with a result week to week? JON MILLS: Yeah, definitely. This Tour, you know, you can make your year on one week. So if you keep letting stuff affect you from one week to the next, it could definitely effect the whole year. So you've just got to stay positive and keep working on things and trust you're working on the right things. Hopefully, it pays off. Q. Was there something, a particular aspect of your game that you felt needed addressing in the last couple of years to bring it back to this level? JON MILLS: I think if anything really stands out, I would say it would have been my practice. I kind of talked a little bit about that. Just since I was young, I was always kind of just get out there and beat balls. Now every time I go to the putting green or to the range I've got a line, whether it's a club line down or something down so I know I'm doing the right things. Apart from that, just making sure I see my coach every three to four weeks so I never get too far out of whack with my golf swing. Q. Who is your coach again? JON MILLS: My coach is Dave Woods. He teaches over at Angus Glen. Q. How long have you been with him? JON MILLS: Oh, I've been with him probably since I was 17, maybe. Q. So he's pretty well been with you since the git-go? JON MILLS: Pretty much. I kind of met him through the RCGA camps when I was younger. Q. Just wondering how you're doing with the travel this year? Is Megan going around with you? Is it the same plan? How is the traveling working this year? JON MILLS: It's the same kind of deal. She's still traveling a lot. She's actually taking the next few weeks off. She's been helping her dad coach basketball back where we live. So it's kind of getting to the end of the year and the playoffs, so she wants to be there for that. She's doing that. I've got some friends that I'll be staying with for the next few weeks. So it will be good. Q. What school does she coach basketball at? JON MILLS: It's the area high school. Q. Girls or boys? JON MILLS: Girls. Q. I was curious; I would assume you and Ben Curtis are good friends? JON MILLS: Yes. Q. What kind of encouragement did he provide last year when you were trying to get back? Did he have any words of wisdom or anything? JON MILLS: Not really, but we talked every so often and kept in touch. If anything, it's just kind of watching what he's done and watching his career, trying to feed off that success knowing that I played with him for three years at Kent State. So I got to see a lot of golf. I felt like at his level it wasn't so far off. To see him have such success on this Tour really kind of motivates me. Q. Are you trying to help him put Kent on the map? JON MILLS: Yes, that would be great. I'd love to do that. Q. He already has, but you know what I mean. JON MILLS: Yes. Q. When you were out together, were you rivals? Or was there anything that you liked about his game that you wanted or anything like that? JON MILLS: Yeah, it was obviously a friendly competition. I think when I went to school there, that was one of the things about our golf team and the reason we were good at that time. We were all really close and had that friendly competition. Watching him, he was one of the best long iron players that I had seen at that level in college. I can remember my freshman year watching him hit some long irons. He was hitting his long irons as close as I was hitting my wedges. So that was something that really stood out. Q. I assume you still keep in touch with Herb? JON MILLS: Yeah, we went to their new practice facility, and use that in the off-season. I talk to him every so often as well. Q. Sounds like it's quite a state-of-the-art, I haven't been there yet. JON MILLS: It's awesome. The players there now have such a huge advantage over us. To be able to have that kind of place to practice in the off-season is great. Q. How long were you there practicing or whatever? JON MILLS: I was only there for two days. But I'm probably definitely in the off-season going to use it a little more when I'm home. Q. Is that far from you? JON MILLS: Yeah, it's like two and a half hours. Q. Could you clarify, did you know ahead of time about the new cut rule change? JON MILLS: No, I did not. Q. Did somebody tell your wife and then she told you on the course? JON MILLS: Yeah, she heard it through another wife I think before the round. She didn't say anything to me right away because she just wanted me to focus on the golf. I remembered going up to her coming off the 18 tee, because she usually checks her phone and likes to keep me updated on things. I wasn't sure if the cut was going to stay at even or go back to 1 under, so I was kind of wanting to know what I needed to do. She's like, You have to birdie. And I was like, What do you mean? No, you have to birdie. So it was definitely a surprise. But it's just the way it goes. Q. You came off the Nationwide Tour with a pretty good number, so I imagine you're going to get to play in a number of the west coast events. Can you give us an idea what your schedule looks like over the next few weeks? JON MILLS: As of right now I'm planning to play all the way to the Phoenix Open. This kind of west coast stretch are the only two tournaments you really have to worry about would be the Phoenix Open and the Nissan. So, obviously, they're two I want to play if I get in. So I'll play the Phoenix Open and then take off Pebble, and then play another stretch of, I think, three or four events in a row. Now if I don't end up getting into Phoenix, which I think right now I'm in by six, so it's looking like it will be close. I would take that as my week off and then play Pebble, then I would change my schedule accordingly. Q. One last question about last weekend, there are a number of guys in your situation. I forget exactly how many, but 8 or 10, or something wasn't there? JON MILLS: There might have been more. Q. Did you get together afterwards and commiserate over a beer? JON MILLS: Not really. There were a few guys I kind of ran into, and just kind of asked about whether they knew about it. It was kind of a lot of guys didn't hear about it, and there were a few that did. I think it was a little miscommunication, possibly. Q. Did you hang around for the weekend or did you head straight back to the main land? JON MILLS: We stayed, my wife and I stayed. We ended up changing our flight to Sunday morning, so we got back -- she went home, and I went to Palm Desert for the Bob Hope. Gave me an extra day to get ready for that. THE MODERATOR: We'd like to thank you for joining us and play well this week. JON MILLS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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