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HUMANA CHALLENGE MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 3, 2013Bob MarraBrandt SnedekerQ. Obviously a lot of your success kind of started since about this time last year. BRANDT SNEDEKER: It did, yeah. Q. Going into last year, coming off the hip surgery, what were your feelings and did you ever in your mildest dreams imagine would you come out with the finish? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, it's hard to see that when you're on cruxes pretty much through the holidays and start playing golf, Palm Springs was my first tournament last year. I literally just started playing golf about ten days before that. So kind of hard to imagine that the year would turn out the way it did, but I knew I was healthy and I knew that everything was going good and I felt like I was playing pretty great. Played pretty good golf. Things just blossomed from there. Obviously a great start at San Diego and then just to have the way I finished the year, making The Ryder Cup Team, winning the FedExCup finale, TOUR Championship, it's pretty special. I didn't really see it coming but it's been a great thing to deal with. Q. You did jump right in, I think you had five starts on the West Coast. BRANDT SNEDEKER: I did, yeah. Q. Didn't really baby it. BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, I didn't. I knew Palm Springs would be a great test, go out and walk for four straight days and not have any pain. I played great in Palm Springs, played great every day until Sunday. I had a poor Sunday. I was playing great and I knew I had a great chance of playing well on the West Coast once I got to Palm Springs. Gave me a lot of confidence to know my first rounds of the year, I was playing good, and knew I could keep that going for a long period of time. Q. And you only had to walk four days last year instead of five. BRANDT SNEDEKER: Correct. That was nice. Q. You got off to such a fast start, and then obviously the win came pretty quick after that. How did that change the way you looked at the year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just gave me a lot of confidence to know, going through the winter, obviously kind of laid up and come out and not play much golf through the winter, but to come out and play the way I did early in the year gave me a ton of confidence. Playing San Diego, knowing the way that I can play, my good is good enough and my best is really good enough and I don't have to play perfect to win. Just got to hang around, stay patient and good things are going to happen. Take that through the rest of the year. Had an issue with the driver, and that hurt me for a little while, but I knew I was still playing great and just kind of kept plugging along and plugging along and good things kind of kept happening. Q. You've always had the game to win, everybody's known that and you've won a couple times before last year. The question with you has always been your health; can you stay healthy. You're like an NFL running back, can you stay healthy through 16 games. Even last year you had problems with the rib. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you actually had 12 healthy months to go? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I look back on last year, breaking my rib right in the middle of the U.S. Open, kind of crazy to think about. So my main goal this year, went through a bunch of tests in the off‑season to make sure that I was healthy and wasn't missing anything that was causing all of these random injuries I was having. Everything came back clear. This year, my main goal for this year is to stay healthy and give myself a chance to win golf tournaments. I'm playing the best of my career, I'm right in my prime and I feel confident in what I'm doing. Q. Is the Brandt Snedeker who won the FedExCup any different from the Brandt Snedeker from two years ago? BRANDT SNEDEKER: As a different player, yes. Personality, person‑wise, no. Golfer, yes, just because of the confidence that I have; the knowledge of what I do on my golf swing and what we are working on and how simple we have gotten it down to, to where I don't feel like I have those up‑and‑downs in my ball‑striking like I used to; and the way my short game has been pretty solid the last couple years. Putting exactly where I want it to be. I feel like I've got confidence in every facet of the game for the first time in my career, excited about showing that for a full season and hopefully will be healthy. Q. At this point obviously your game, we don't know because it's a brand new year and everything starts at zero, but that confidence you're talking about, how do you think that might translate early in the year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Have a really strong west coast. I love being out here. I love playing this event. I love playing Palm Springs, San Diego, Phoenix, Pebble. So I'm looking forward to trying to get a win out here. I feel like my game is exactly where I want it to be, had a cup the great weeks' preparation before Hawai'i here. I feel I'm hitting the ball the way I want to; I'm putting the ball really well and excited what the first part of the year holds. I feel I can be really consistent this year and give myself a lot of chances and try to put myself in that situation a lot more often than I have in the past. I fully believe it's going to be the best year of my career, and that's saying a lot after the year I had last year. But I feel like this year can be even better so excited to see what the year holds. Q. What are you playing? BRANDT SNEDEKER: San Diego, Phoenix, yeah, I'm playing a lot. Q. Just wanted to know, are you playing at the Humana this year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I am. I'll be there‑‑ actually going to Palm Springs next week to hang out with the family and get some practicing in, so I'll be there for two weeks. I'm going to practice a little bit everywhere, probably move around a little bit but just try to get out there in that nice weather y'all got and get the game sharpened up for the West Coast. Q. And also, I was just wondering, too, what do you feel about your chances this year? How do you feel, how is your health, your mind‑set? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yes, everything feels great. I fully believe this can be the best year of my PGA TOUR career. I feel like my game is exactly where I want it to be, hitting the ball the way I want to, putting the way I want to and everything is going good. I'm excited what this year can hold. My main goal is to try to stay healthy. If I stay healthy for my full schedule, I'm excited about what that could lead to. Q. How many events will you play? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I'm playing somewhere between 22 and 26 events, depends how the year pans out. That's kind of what I'm looking at. Q. And it sounds like you're ready to have fun. I mean, have you changed anything about your swing? Is there anything that's going to frustrate you? BRANDT SNEDEKER:  You know, when it's not broken, you don't fix it. I see too many guys in that situation where they have a great year and they feel that they have some time now to do something they want to do. I just had the best year of my career and feel like I'm doing everything the right way, so why would I want to change anything. So nothing new, nothing different. Not changing equipment. Didn't change anything. I'm excited to hit the ground running and see what this year can bring. Q. One of the things I really liked is seeing guys that aren't expected to win or the underdog, per se, just come to the forefront. It makes the game much more interesting. BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I completely agree. I love the fact that the game right now, there's a lot of games that maybe the mainstream people don't know about but golf fans know about that have a chance of winning every week and I feel like it's made the game of golf stronger to have tomorrow guys that can win every time we tee it up. Q. Who do you see coming out this year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: There's a couple young guys that are going to have great years, Luke List, who I know very well, he's a Vanderbilt guy like myself, who is going to hit the ball a long ways. He's got a beautiful golf swing and does everything really well. If he can kind of just get off to a good start. There's a young kid named Morgan Hoffmann out of Oklahoma State, another guy that bombs it, hits it a long way, has a lot of talent. That's the great thing about the TOUR, we seem to every year bring new, young guys into the fold that push everybody else to get better and that rejuvenates our membership and makes sure guys realize that we have to keep pushing otherwise we're going to lose our jobs. Q. Last time we talked was right after Tom Watson got appointed. How much did that‑‑ I don't want to say inspire you, but how much does that really sort of change your focus or turn your focus towards The Ryder Cup two years from now? I know it's obviously a long ways away. BRANDT SNEDEKER: It will definitely be a highlight of what I will try to set my goals at, something I definitely want to make, just because of the friendship that I have with Tom and the way I admire him. That's something I'm definitely circling on the calendar and certainly want to look at. Obviously this year we have The Presidents Cup and that's first and foremost in my mind, but in the back of your mind, you realize Ryder Cup points do start this year so you want to get a good start and try to get your name up in the Top‑10 as quick as you can and make the team out right so I don't have to rely on a pick like last year, so that's my main goal. Q. Some guys change after a couple of years, equipment change, that sort of thing, Pádraig Harrington comes to mind; do other guys's struggles or inability to kind of continue to have success when they did make the change, did that scare you off of that from doing that a little bit? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, you try to look at what other guys have done that has not worked out and you try to learn from that. Not everybody is the same, I realize that. But any time you make a change, there's going to be an adjustment period, and is it really worth it; is it really worth making a change just to make a change or do you do it to get better in the long run. I realize that my golf game is what it is, not try to reinvent the wheel; it is good enough. I love what I'm playing. I love the relationships that I have with the club companies and my corporate sponsors. I have my swing coach, my trainer, my caddie and I feel like everything's strong and now is not a time to change. I feel like if you keep building on what you have and keep getting better slowly and doing the same stuff over and over again, it works; so don't try to do anything crazy. Q. All that said, what do you feel like you need to improve on the most coming into this year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I think the biggest thing that let me down last year, after looking at the end of the year and going through everything was kind of my proximity to the hole with my short irons, my 7‑, 8‑, 9‑irons. I've really worked on hard to try to get a little more consistent distance control flighting the ball the right way and I think it's paying off. I think my golf swing is as good as it's ever been, and if I can get the ball just a little closer to the hole with the way I putted, it's going to be a pretty good year. Q. You were on the other end, you were the beneficiary of Kyle Stanley's final round down there last year, why do you think it's so hard to hold a lead on Sunday? Do you think that's more the norm now, and if so, why? BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's just tough, because you know, inevitably when you realize you're in the lead, you start playing just a little bit differently than you do throughout the course of the week. It's hard not to because you've got to that point, putting pretty aggressively and hitting that pin pretty close and all of a sudden you realize short‑siding yourself you make a bogey, so while you have the lead, let somebody else make those mistakes. So you start playing differently and start making pars instead of birdies and all of a sudden you make one mistake, make a bogey and your lead is diminishing. It's just tough. It's just tough to deal with that pressure, deal with that mentality. It's completely different coming from behind, because you know that you have to go after every pin and when you're in the lead, you know you don't have to, so you have to deal with that, you go or not go. Q. After a possible 59 at Torrey Pines, there were a few little kids in the gallery screaming "Sneddy, Sneddy." Obviously winning there last year, Torrey Pines has to be one of your favorite places. BRANDT SNEDEKER: It is. It's a huge part of my career. I give a lot of credit to the first time, I had my best finish on TOUR my rookie year was there, gave me a lot of confidence, finished third there, my third event of the year and I finished second a couple years later and had a couple Top 10s there other years and to get the win last year, it's been really special. I love that place and it's been great to me and I love the golf course and I think it just sets up so well for me. So it's a place I definitely show up every year, I can't wait to get there and it's a lot of fun to be there in San Diego that week. Q. You mentioned that you love playing on the West Coast; how does a kid from Nashville, Tennessee find love on the West Coast? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I have no earthly idea. That's a great question. I think there's something crazy, maybe I don't know what it is, maybe it's the laid‑back lifestyle in California I like so much or just the people are great. The golf courses all seem to set up well for me. I love the greens out here, the poa annua and the overseeded greens seem to roll really true and great, so I love getting on those and making a lot of putts. Just a lot of fun to be out here this time of year, back home at Nashville it's cold and nasty, so nice to be in the warm weather and playing some great golf. BOB MARRA: I look forward to meeting you out here and hope that you have a great time out in the desert with us. Q. Can you talk about what President Clinton has done for the Humana Challenge? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, he's done a great job of coming in there, really boosting the morale of that tournament, getting players back interested again and getting the fans back interested again and really rejuvenating that great tournament. I remember so many years ago with Bob Hope being the primary guy that made that tournament so special. Him being there and bringing a lot of awareness about health issues is great. And having him play, it really generates a lot of buzz for PGA TOUR players because it gets a lot of people watching golf that might not watch it. Also, it's a great event, he brings a lot of his friends there and a lot of people come in just to watch him play golf. So it's exciting to get to be around him for a week and realize what a special person he is and it's really great to have an ex‑President that really wants to be involved in the game of golf, so we are very fortunate to have him. MARK STEVENS: Bob, if you would like to make some opening remarks on maybe the field and your thoughts coming into the Humana Challenge this year. BOB MARRA: Thanks very much for the opportunity. Wanted to say that we have a great field shaping up here, the early commitments have been very strong. We have got some highlights, we have got four of The Ryder Cup Team, the USA team already committed for the field. We have got seven of the Top‑30, nine of the Top‑50 players, and the last two FedExCup winners, one of which we just talked to of course. There are a couple Masters champions in the field. So the strength of field is looking up and expect to get a lot more significant confirmations in the next several days here as we move forward. So that's great. Courses are in awesome shape, our build out is coming together strongly. I've been out on the course at PGA West and been out on La Quinta Country Club, as I'm a member out there, playing the course, and things are in darned good shape right now. So I think we are in great position for the likes of Brandt Snedeker and his colleagues to make a lot of putts as usual out here because of the conditions. So that's just an overview. I've learned a lot here in the first couple months on this job after being on the board for a number of years, and I think the tournament is in great shape with the President coming back, with the support that we have from Humana, which is very significant. We have some new things going on this year that we'll look to build on as new traditions, one of which is what we are calling the Club at 17, a new hospitality venue at the 17th hole on the Palmer private course, PGA West, which this year will hold probably 750 people in total and can build out much more significantly over future years, kind of our version of the 16th hole at Scottsdale at the Waste Management Open. We want to build a new tradition out there and bring some younger people out to the tournament, maybe if they are not golfers, it's an incredible venue just to hang out and be a part of the scene at the Humana Challenge this year. The Bob Hope Square amenity that we have as part of the tournament, which is very unique on TOUR, it's very exciting this year. It's fully stocked with all kind of activities. I think that we are building upon the great basis that was created last year in terms of Humana's and President Clinton's focus on health and well being. There are plenty of new amenities out there that will be available to people to participate in to get screenings, to get pedometers and go out and walk and learn a lot more about wellness. We'll see it not just on the grounds but in the telecast with some new amenities there, as well. So looking forward to and coming up fast. Just to recap, in addition to the things that I mentioned, we look forward to a new tradition this year with four theme days that we'll have going. One on Thursday, the 17th of January, is Seniors Day; Friday, Women's Day; Saturday, Humana Challenge Military Day; and then Kids' Day on Sunday, all of which are sponsored by organizations that are backing them and we have got a wide range of special offers. As an example, we are taking 30percent off ticket prices for seniors. On the military side, current military recertify have Is and retired military are all invited to join us at no cost. Just need to go to our web site www.HumanaChallenge.com to register and they can get a ticket and come into the tournament for free, and just starting a wide range of traditions on these theme days this year, which we are very excited about and think will be well received by our community. MARK STEVENS:  Appreciate your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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