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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 24, 2009Justin LeonardGREG BALL: Good morning, everyone. We have Justin Leonard here on the call with us. Justin is currently 39th in the FedExCup points standings with 2593 points. He has five top 10s this year and has earned $1.5 million in earnings. He's a 12-time winner on the PGA TOUR, four-time member of the U.S. Presidents Cup team, three-time member of the Ryder Cup team and certainly is well-known for his Ryder Cup clinching putt on the 17th hole at The Country Club just 10 years ago. Justin, thanks for joining us. JUSTIN LEONARD: Thanks for having me. GREG BALL: If you would, take us through your year a little bit, tell us how you feel going into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. JUSTIN LEONARD: This year I've played well in spots, certainly not as well as I played last year. You know, had hoped for a little more this year. Played just well enough to make The Presidents Cup team, which I'm very excited about. I've seen a lot of good things in my game. I played well at the Open over at Turnberry. The last couple weeks, working on a couple things. This is a great time of year, to have the playoffs here finally, the regular season over. I played really well through the playoffs last year, so I'm hoping to really get my game going here in these last few weeks of the year and end it on a great note. GREG BALL: Could you speak a little bit about the change in format for the playoffs this year. I think it really sort of puts the focus or emphasis on guys playing well in all four events this year, whereas in years past guys could miss an event or two. JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, it's hard to really know a whole lot about it because every year the points have changed dramatically. The first year there was not enough movement. Last year there was too much. So I think they're trying to find the balance. It's hard really to comment on it until we get through the playoffs and see how it affects all the players. The fact that they're not resetting any points until the week of the TOUR Championship will make a big impact. I know that the points are certainly more valuable in the playoffs. So it kind of remains to be seen how things will shake out. But hopefully we're getting closer to a permanent system because it changed dramatically all three years. GREG BALL: Switching topics here a little bit. I imagine you must have some very fond memories of coming back to the Boston area. We're about a month shy of the 10-year anniversary of the putt you made on the 17th hole at Brookline to clinch the Ryder Cup. Can you speak a little bit about that. Do you still have fans mention it to you when you come back to Boston to play in the Deutsche Bank Championship? JUSTIN LEONARD: I do have fans there that mention it. It's always fun. I've always loved playing in and around Boston, in the Northeast. So many great golf courses. The fans are very energetic and really get into it. To be able to have made that putt in a city like Boston, then be able to come back year after year, although it's not the same golf course, but to the same area, yeah, I do throughout the week that I'm there hear a lot of people saying, I was on 17 green. As you were saying, you were on 17, but you were walking to 18 to get a better view and missed it. I hear a lot of stories that week about the Ryder Cup in '99. It's always fun to relive those memories. GREG BALL: We'll open it up for questions now. Q. Back to '99, everybody would remember the miracle at Brookline. But '99 was a bizarre year in more ways than just Brookline. There was the Van de Velde meltdown. You had a key role in that. There was the Payne Stewart tragedy. What kind of perspective 10 years has given you. These seem to be life-changing events. I'm curious as to how you view what happened. JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, the first thing with the playoff at Carnoustie, you know, I mean, there's so many momentum swings that day, and especially there in the last hour of the golf tournament with Jean leading by three shots. That 18th hole is a very dramatic hole. It seemed like it took an hour for him to play it. After hitting it right of the burn, then hitting it in the burn on his second shot, taking the drop and everything. Looking back on that, just how surreal. Finishing 18 and feeling like I had lost the golf tournament, then to be back in a playoff, Paul Lawrie to play the great round that he did, play so great in the playoff. That was a good experience. Would have loved to have been able to win. So fortunate just to be in a playoff and have another chance. Then obviously the Ryder Cup a couple months later is one of the highlights of my career, to be part of a winning team and make the comeback that we did, my own personal comeback throughout my match. Of course, a couple months later a tragedy to a great friend and a wonderful family in Payne Stewart's accident. So, if anything, that tragedy made me realize how really unimportant the golf part is, and that life is what is most important. A lot of us lost a great friend. But more importantly, a wife lost her husband and two great kids lost their father. It really put things into perspective. It certainly makes the Open playoff much easier to take and at the same time it puts that '99 at Brookline into perspective, how wonderful it was. I don't think any of us as players will let that define us, who we are. More importantly, it's more important to be a great husband and the best father I can be, the best Christian I can be. Q. Have you been back to The Country Club since then or do you have a desire to go back there? JUSTIN LEONARD: I have not been back to The Country Club. I'm sure one day I will. I'm not sure what the circumstance will be, but I just know that circumstance hasn't arisen yet. I don't want to just drive over there. It may be something that when my kids get a little older and can kind of understand it, then I may take them back there. I'm waiting for the right circumstance. Q. Can you get us a tee time out there and maybe I can go with you? JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, if you can get the tee time, I'll go play. Q. This is maybe the all-time apples and oranges type of question. If you had your choice, if you had to pick, would you rather win THE PLAYERS Championship or the FedExCup? JUSTIN LEONARD: The FedExCup. Q. Why or how do you see the differences there? JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, it's a season-long not event, but competition. It takes more than one week in order to win the FedExCup. You've got to play great in the regular season and then you've got to play great through the playoffs. I think it would be more of an accomplishment over that period of time rather than just one single event. Q. Are you happy with the rotation of things in terms of the course rotation start to finish? JUSTIN LEONARD: As far as just the playoff events? Q. Yes. JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. I think they need to be played in large markets. And I think New York, Boston, Chicago, other than going to the West Coast, are probably the three largest markets we have. Other than maybe D.C., and D.C. has a great tournament at the AT&T National. I like that the golf courses move a little bit in and around New York and Chicago. Of course, last year we were in St. Louis. But I like the way those events move around a little bit. Because of that, you know that the events each year, they're not going to favor a certain type of player. Some golf courses can lend themselves to certain players playing better and others finding it not suited to their game. When these courses move around a little bit, it takes that question out of the equation. At Deutsche Bank, got a great golf course at TPC at Boston that I feel, when the conditions are firm, doesn't favor a certain type of player, as proved by you've had -- Tiger has won there, Phil has won there, Vijay has won there, Olin Browne has won there. Olin Browne is a great hitter. He's not a long hitter. To me that just proves that golf course, when the conditions are right, when weather is not dictating how the golf course plays, any type of player can win. I think that's what you're looking for. GREG BALL: Justin, I thought maybe if you wouldn't mind giving some comments about the golf course here, some of the changes that have been made in the past. A lot of players have discussed how they've enjoyed the improvements that have been made over the last two or three years. Do you feel the same way? JUSTIN LEONARD: I do feel the same way. There are some risk/reward holes. The 2nd hole, for example, par 5. I love the drivable 4th hole. I think that's truly one of the best short par 4s that we play all year. Then the back nine has just got a lot of great holes on it. 18, they changed a bit with the fairway bunkers, kind of giving you a couple options left or right. Certainly then another great risk/reward second shot there. Just the golf course has got a great look to it. They've really kind of turned that golf course into looking something else you would find in that area with some native grasses and the bunkers are all very rough. I just think that golf course really fits nicely in the surroundings. It looks very natural. It plays, when it's firm, a little bit not lengthy, but you're able to bounce the ball into some areas and get the ball, using the terrain and greens to feed the ball into certain pin locations. It becomes truly a shot-makers golf course. GREG BALL: You've had a fair amount of success here at the Deutsche Bank. Is there something you like that makes you playing here or is it the time of year you get into the playoffs and you play better because there's a little bit more on the line or anything in particular you can point to that is a key to your success here? JUSTIN LEONARD: I think it's a combination of things you just mentioned. It's the time of year. This time of year, I've played three majors in the last couple months, so I've worked very hard on my game. Hopefully, if the work I've done is the right thing, then my game is usually in pretty good shape. The fact that it's the playoffs, you know, wanting to do well and try and move up in the FedExCup standings is very important. Thirdly, I like the golf course. I like the area. We have always have a great time. We stay down in Providence. There's a lot of great things for our kids to do. At night we usually spend with some friends. Been over to the Faxon's house a few times and had dinner. So it's a week I've always looked forward to and been fortunate enough to play well a number of times. Q. In light of Hazeltine, Tiger losing, you came within a shot, a couple of strokes, a round of three other majors in your career, when you look back at Carnoustie, Whistling Straits, do you look back taking pride you've put yourself in position maybe five times in all the majors? You throw Wingfoot, right? Is it a positive or negative? How do you look at that? JUSTIN LEONARD: It's both. The positive is that I've put myself in position a few times, played well enough to be there late on Sunday, but not being able to close that deal. I think had I not won at Troon in '97, those losses would be much, much more difficult. So it's both. Wanting to win a second major, and I've put myself in position a few times, although it's been a while. That's another thing that's a little disappointing, is that I haven't been in that position the last few years, something that I'm working on, getting back there. There's both. Great job, get myself in position, but I wasn't able to close the deal. So that part of it's a little disappointing. Q. Would you say on average how long it takes you to get over it? JUSTIN LEONARD: You know, earlier in my career, before I was married and had children, it took longer. Again, it's really been since -- when was it Whistling Straits? Q. '04. JUSTIN LEONARD: That was the last time I really had a good chance. I had a little more perspective at that point as far as my faith and my family. Q. You've had eight kids since then, haven't you? JUSTIN LEONARD: I guess I've lost five of them because I've got three. I think that perspective makes those disappointments professionally much easier to take. Q. If memory serves, you were one of the last guys to use Persimmon, is that correct? JUSTIN LEONARD: Yes. Davis Love and I were a couple of the last guys. I think Bob Estes may have thrown a Persimmon wood in the bag just a few years ago. Q. Why did you keep using Persimmon? What made you change to higher technology? JUSTIN LEONARD: Honestly, because at the time I didn't have a metal wood or did not hit a metal wood that gave me a huge advantage over my Persimmon wood. I've always shaped the ball well. That's how I learned to play the game, was hitting fairways by curving the ball. I hadn't found a metal wood up to that point that allowed me to do those things. Then it was there in the early part of '97 that I was able to find a driver that I hit further and was still able to move the ball like I wanted to. Q. Obviously you're not one of the biggest guys out on TOUR. Has high-tech made it easier to compete, keep up with these bombers? JUSTIN LEONARD: Certainly I think the guys that already hit the ball a long way can hit the ball much further now. I think the separation between the longer hitters and the medium hitters has grown. At the same time I think when the groove changes coming for next year, I'm very excited about that because it's going to make guys realize they've got to play from the fairway. In order to do that, they're going to have to -- eventually some guys are going to need to go to a softer golf ball to be able to spin it as much with the V grooves. I think it could go as far as changing up how our ergonomic staff and the golf courses we play set up their golf courses. They're going to set the golf courses up hopefully to -- we're not going to have five- or six-inch rough every week, it's going to be two to three inches because they know that's going to be more challenging for guys, trying to figure out how to play a ball out of the roughly. So I'm looking forward to the groove changes. I think it will be very interesting and it's going to take quite a while for guys to figure out and match up their equipment to where they're comfortable. GREG BALL: We'll let you go here, Justin. Thank you for your time. Good luck this week. Good luck next week here in the Deutsche Bank Championship and throughout the PGA TOUR playoffs. JUSTIN LEONARD: Thank you. See you in a couple weeks. End of FastScripts |
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