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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 14, 2008Paul GoydosDOUG MILNE: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Doug Milne, communications manager for the PGA TOUR. Today we're joined by Paul Goydos, who is here at the AT&T Classic in Duluth, Georgia. Paul, let me start it off taking a few general comments. Obviously after THE PLAYERS Championship Sunday, life has, to say the least, changed what for you. PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, people seem to be a lot more interested in what I have to say. It's been a fun 36 hours. I hope I can continue to play well, keep people at least excited about my play for longer than one week. DOUG MILNE: One of the comments you made earlier, to kind of use as an example of how popular your name has become in the past few days, is that you were the fifth most Googled name on Saturday. PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, fifth on Saturday and ninth on Sunday. I'm trying to figure out what this nation is thinking about (laughter). DOUG MILNE: At this time we'll turn it over to questions. Q. When you were playing 14 the other day, when you saw that shot, how close did you think you were going to be until when the ball bounced over the green? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I was standing in the fairway trying to ignore the fact that Sergio Garcia had made about a 50-footer there for birdie. I had a 5-iron from 188 yards. I'm thinking, The greens are pretty firm, fly it 180, get it somewhere, you'll be fine. That's a good solid 5-iron for me. If I watch it on tape, I hit the shot, I just kind of looked quickly, looked down. I couldn't have hit a more solid, better shot. I couldn't be more proud of the fact that I was able to do that, again, to answer his birdie with as good of a swing as I made all week. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out. I probably flew it three or four yards too far. The greens are firm. If you would have told me I was going to land it a foot short of the flag, I would have said that was a mistake. I didn't really think that could happen with the club I had in my mind. I just made as good a swing as I could and unfortunately it didn't work out. Q. When you do look back at what happened Sunday, is that one of the things you look back on? What would be a couple of the others? PAUL GOYDOS: Not necessarily from a negative standpoint. I look back, again, a guy makes a 50-footer right in front of you, how you respond to that is important, I think. And I responded with a good golf swing. Golf is a difficult game, and a cruel game at times. You know, I hit as good a drive as I could, as good of a second shot as I could. To be honest with you, my putt for par was as good a putt as I could hit it. When I hit it, I thought there was no question I made it. That's the way the game is. I could look back at that tournament, see how many times I kind of hit a mediocre drive, mediocre iron shot, made a putt, made a birdie. I don't consider that a bad break as much as that's just the way the game is. Q. Paul, can you sort of take us through what life was like in the immediate aftermath of your last press conference with us Sunday. Where did you go from there? What was the reaction of people to what you did? Have you come down yet? PAUL GOYDOS: I think that's kind of funny. I finished up with some reporters. Now everybody's gone. Not very often you're at the golf course and it's empty. It's dark, it's empty. I got out of the locker room. I had my courtesy car. I don't know what to do. My flight's the next morning. I actually drove out to the Jacksonville Airport area, found a hotel room. I was sitting there at 7:00 at night, you know, by myself in a hotel, waiting to catch a flight. At that point I'm online checking emails and talking to people, talking to my family, all the things I need to do. You know what, it actually was quite relaxing, get a chance to reflect on the day. It's been a very - I don't know even know the word to use - odd 36 hours, maybe it's 48 hours now, if I can work out the math. When you're playing the tournament and you get done and you're doing media stuff, your interaction with the fans, I don't know what's going on on television, I don't have any idea, to be honest with you. I'm just trying to find a way not to hit it in the water on those holes. So I didn't have a good feel of how big a deal it was. But I still don't, to be perfectly honest with you. In Jacksonville itself, the fans of course were just tremendous. I felt like Tiger Woods for a day, again, maybe not from a skill's standpoint, but from a crowd support standpoint. They couldn't have been pulling harder for me. The hardest thing to do, obviously the City of Long Beach, I live in a place called Coto de Caza, they have a golf course there, they've been supportive. Dove Canyon has been supportive. The thing I'm struggling with is how to thank these people. I don't know who they are. I don't know the multitudes of people out there saying nice things, were pulling for me or whatnot. I would like to find a way to thank them. I'll be honest with you, I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. That's really the one thing I thought about most the last 12 hours, last 24 hour. This is an incredible experience. I wish everybody could experience this in their lives, how can I thank them? Q. What was the reaction at the airport? Did people see you, say hello, were you mobbed? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I mean, 'mobbed' might be a bit... If you mob at the airport, I think they arrest you. But I'm in the security line. The security line, they said half an hour. Okay, I'm wearing my Dirtbags hat. It was pretty much a constant -- I think "mob" is a bad word. It's just people congratulating you. People saying, great playing, those types of things. Just very kind words. To be honest with you, about 10 minutes in the line, I switched the hat back to another hat. There's other people in line, people are coming up, they don't want to have to deal with all that. It was pretty consistent. And that was shocking. When I was sitting on the airplane, it was almost like the poor guy sitting next to me had to have 25 people reach their arm across like he wasn't even there, almost punching him in the face to shake my hand and say congratulations. That's when I started thinking, What's going on? I finished second. I understand if I was Sergio, you know. I would understand some of this. But I finished second. We generally don't remember who finishes second. That's generally the cliché in sports. It seems at this point in time, at least for the short time now, people are remembering who finished second, which is very kind of them. It's a great thing about golf. Golfers generally are good people. I don't like to say those type of things. But, you know, the second rule of the game is how you treat the people on the course, how you treat the golf course, how you treat the game itself. If you don't like that, you generally don't go to golf tournaments because you don't like golf, you go watch the NBA. So the outpouring of support from people who I've never met, don't know me from Adam other than that day, is incredibly touching. I don't have the vocabulary to really explain it because it's so new to me. Q. Have you seen the replay? PAUL GOYDOS: No. I've called around, trying to get some copies of Saturday and Sunday's play from NBC or something. I've seen just highlights, watching The Golf Channel. I have an ego. When I got back to my hotel and settled in, I turned on, you know, The Golf Channel, because I know they're going to do Live at THE PLAYERS Championship or whatnot. I watched it. People talking about me, that's not a bad thing. Q. Just tell me you weren't in a Motel 6? PAUL GOYDOS: I was in a Wingate. Wingate's are nice. I think it's owned by Wyndham. There's a Wingate we stay in up at Flint. They just treat us so well up there for the Buick Open, Michigan. When I saw Wingate, I said, That's where I'm staying. Q. Where did you hear that information about Google? Why do you think your performance sort of resonated with fans the way it did? Seems like it's maybe beyond the way you played. Wearing the Dirtbag hat, maybe the way you acted, deprecating nature, how much of that explains the reaction, do you think? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, Google, the hundreds of emails I've received, tried to respond to, someone mentioned in there, if you want to ask me who it was, I have to go back through my sent box and see. So then I didn't -- it makes sense they would keep track of that stuff. The way I realized it, when I really realized it was a big deal was actually on YouTube where if you typed in my name, people used my name as tags to try to get people to look at their videos. That's insanity. I looked down, they had my name on something, it was some song some guy was singing. What does that have to do with me? So the Google thing, you know, that's kind of what's going on there. I don't really know much about it. I'm not very tech savvy. Why I resonated with the public? I actually think the media might have a better answer to that question. I don't know. I mentioned earlier that if you put -- if every PGA TOUR player got the opportunity to go through what I went through, you know, to play basically the last 36 holes in the lead or near the lead, you'd be surprised how many of them would come across the same as me. Everybody has a different personality, everybody handles situations differently. Back to what I said before: The people who play the game understand that, you know, you treat the game with respect, you treat your fellow competitors with respect. I couldn't have been happier for Sergio Garcia when he hit that shot in the playoff. What can I do? As I mentioned, I can't kneecap the guy before he hits it. He went up there and executed his shot. A piece of me appreciates that because I know how hard it is. You know, you tip your hat and you buy him a beer and you say, Job well done. I think that's what this game is about. I think that's what the whole thing behind the Ryder Cup is about. It's about giving it everything you have, but respecting he's giving everything he has, too, and win or lose you appreciate that fact. Q. On Tuesday they mentioned briefly the story behind the Dirtbag hat, buying it in Charlotte. What normally do you wear? I can't recall the last time I didn't see a player wearing a corporate logo hat. What prompted that? How much do you think that helped people identify with you a little bit? PAUL GOYDOS: Obviously the hat itself is a bigger celebrity now than I am, it sounds like. No, Long Beach State is a big part of my life. My father worked there. I went to school there. It's bigger than that. I've been around Long Beach State for 35 years. I went to basketball games that Jerry Tarkanian coached there. It's a bigger deal than that. Last year I was with Pep Boys. I actually wore Pep Boys most of this year, too. The chairman of the board is a good friend of mine. He was kind enough last year. You can get a club contract. You can do all these different things. I'm kind of happy with the clubs that I'm playing. It's a mixed bag of things. That's what I'm playing. To me, you know, we're playing for $275 million. Somebody offers me $100,000 to switch my equipment, I'm going to look at them like they're insane. I play golf for a living, I don't sell golf clubs for a living. That's kind of where that comes from. Pep Boys offered me -- was kind enough to offer me -- we were negotiating in Hawaii when I won. I was in the process of negotiating that when I won. I carried their bag and hat last year. Actually wore their hat just out of courtesy to him till I got something this year. I kind of ran out of hats. Kind of just wore a hat from a club in Palm Springs called the Madison for the Wachovia tournament. I was sitting in the airport. Want me to tell you how many hats I bought in my life? None. First hat I ever bought in my life. Hats are given to you, whatnot. I don't buy hats. I can't remember the last time, if I've ever done that. Just sitting there, saw the Long Beach State hat sitting there on the shelf, the right price. If it was 30 bucks, I wouldn't have bought it. It was 14.99, so I bought it. I didn't think it would turn into this snowball that became such a big deal. It's just the way it works out. We'll see what happens. Dirtbags won two out of three from the hated Gauchos last week. So all in all a good weekend for Long Beach State. Q. What did your dad do at Long Beach State? PAUL GOYDOS: My dad worked in the administrative office. I think they called him the director of support services. To be honest with you, I'm not a hundred percent sure. Most of it I was pretty young. He was a guy who just worked in the administrative office. He wasn't a professor. Q. Have you heard from Mike Weathers or anybody affiliated with the baseball program? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, Mike, they were -- when it became such a big deal, they were actually in the process of playing the second game of their three-game series with Santa Barbara. I got two or three emails from people saying, Mike is in the middle of the game, he really thanks you. Then I did get an email from Mike Saturday night just thanking for the support, all of the goodwill. That wasn't my intention. It was not necessarily to give the baseball team a bunch of publicity. It just kind of happened that way. I'm happy for them. I think Mr. Weathers has done a good job with Long Beach State. He had to follow in the footsteps of Dave Snow, which is no bargain. Done a good job, has a good team. Just need a few breaks to go their way in the playoffs to get to the World Series and whatnot. One of the funny things, I remember about five years ago I was sitting flying home, and I was sitting next to Bobby Crosby, rookie for the Oakland A's, maybe three years ago, whatever it was. Sat down next to me in my flight. I got to talk to him a little bit. He is a nice man. They've done a good job there at Long Beach State. Considering how much money Long Beach State has to spend on athletics, compared to USC, I would say Long Beach State, dollar per win, in all their sports, does about as well as any school in the country. Q. Since you mentioned Bobby Crosby, he plays up here in the Bay Area. Have you known him at all before that? What did you talk about? PAUL GOYDOS: He seemed like -- to be honest with you, he seemed like a reasonably shy guy. He didn't know me from Adam. He was on his way to being Rookie-of-the-Year. I'm just some schlepping a golf bag trying to make the top 125 that nobody's ever heard of. I looked at him. He looks familiar. Then I kind of figured it out. Yeah, just chatted about Long Beach State a little bit. To be honest, I'm an Angels fan, so there you go. I was a little uncomfortable sitting next to an Oakland A. Q. He was already in the majors at that point? PAUL GOYDOS: It was his rookie year. What happened is the tournament in Milwaukee, which I was coming home from, was the All-Star break. So he was flying home. I think he still lives in Orange County. Nice guy. Never met him before. I probably haven't seen him since. But a good guy. Long Beach State baseball team's alumni in the Major Leagues are having a pretty good run right now, Weaver, pitched a shutout last night. Tulowitzki could have won the Rookie-of-the-Year last year. (Indiscernible) has a chance to win the Rookie-of-the-Year this year. If nothing else you can say about Dirtbag baseball, they produce quality professionals. Q. A lot of people will say when you play this well and you have this kind of success at an event, it does something for their psyche, for their confidence, for their games. Do you see a carryover effect from this? How will this affect you, do you think? PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I hope. Golf is a screwy game and it's a hard game. If one part of it breaks down, you know, it's pretty hard to compete. Having said that, I feel good about what I'm doing. In my opinion, that's about all you can ask for. I definitely think that I'm a better player today, I mentioned this earlier, than I've ever been. Unfortunately, so is everybody else out here. The PGA TOUR is kind of like a growth stock. If you grow, if you get better by 5 or 10%, you're just kind of holding your own. If you get by 2 or 3%, you're losing ground. If you get better by 20%, maybe you can move up a little bit. The only time the talent on the PGA TOUR has been better than today is gonna be tomorrow. It's difficult out here, without question. Having said that, I'm happy with the way I'm playing. If I don't continue to play well, I'm going to be disappointed. I don't think last week was just a freak of nature. I think it was something that was building. I was getting a little better. Now, if I would have finished 17th based on how I was getting better, that would have been a little more -- would have seemed a little more in pattern. But as it turned out, I played well. I think if I would have been -- 10 years ago, I probably would have finished 17th. The fact now I've been on TOUR for 16 years, have a little more experience, can handle situations maybe a little better, handle being nervous as all get out a little better, maybe when I get in contention, I'm a little more competitive than I might have been years ago. What looks like to be struggling finishing second and having a chance to win the biggest tournament, I was getting better and I think I'm getting better at handling that situation than I've ever been. Q. You were talking about being nervous as all get out. When you look back, being able to handle being that nervous in that situation for two days on that stage, how did that make you feel just looking back at the fact you were able to come through feeling that way? PAUL GOYDOS: I think that's the biggest thing I'm going to take from this, is the fact that, again, I don't think -- obviously bogeying the last hole, bogeying three of the last five, it's a hard golf course. That's not the way you want to finish. Having said that, I didn't do that because I was hitting crazily bad shots. How many guys drove it in the right rough on 18 on Sunday? I hit two good shots on 14 and made a bogey. 15 I did hit a questionable drive. I hit a good shot out of the rough, hit a good pitch. I'll be honest with you, I kind of yipped that putt a little bit. Again, I yip a putt, that's not death. Everybody's doing it. Sergio was nervous. Kenny Perry was nervous. Quinney was nervous. We're all nervous. That's one of the things I kind of took it. Sergio is just as nervous as I am. He may not show it. His game may not show it, but he's just as nervous as I am. I'm not abnormal for being nervous. I think that's the best thing you can do, is to understand that that's what you should be. To be honest with you, if I walk on the first tee on Thursday here in Atlanta and I'm not nervous, that's what's gonna worry me. I'll say, What's going on? I should be nervous. So I'm nervous when I tee it up at Rec Park with my buddies. It's just the nature of the beast. That's because I want to do well. Q. It's also a course where you don't have to hit the ball 315 yards to win. When you showed up there Monday or Tuesday, whenever it was, saw it, saw how you were playing, did you have a feeling you might be in the mix this week? PAUL GOYDOS: I played well the week before. This is the second year of playing the golf course on Bermuda grass, later in the year. I never had success the year before in this tournament. In fact, Thursday was the first time I ever broke 70 on the golf course. I guess you could say the only time I've ever broken 70 on the golf course. But I do like Bermuda grass. I won in Hawaii. I won at Bay Hill, which has Bermuda. I played well at Tampa a few years ago, which is Bermuda grass. I'm very comfortable on that surface. Yeah, it's a golf course that I don't think favors anybody. I think the guy who -- Sergio is one of the greatest drivers of the ball you'll ever see. He drives it a long way. He seemed to do well. In a sense, it's a golf course that allows, if you're playing well, whether you're Bubba Watson or Paul Goydos, it's a golf course you can be competitive on, and that's why I think it's a great golf course. DOUG MILNE: On behalf of everyone here at the AT&T Classic and the PGA TOUR, we'd like to thank you for your time. PAUL GOYDOS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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