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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 8, 2014Cameron WilsonSILVIS, ILLINOIS MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Cameron Wilson. Cameron, it's been a few weeks since you turned pro in Hartford. Do you want to talk about the changes and how you think things have been going, and then we'll have a few questions? CAMERON WILSON: Honestly not that much has changed so far. I'm still at home for the summer. My routine is pretty similar every day. I just go play golf. I'm still trying to work on a lot of the same things, not really changing the way that I practice or anything. So far nothing has changed a whole lot. Q. You're a lefty; advantages and disadvantages? CAMERON WILSON: Advantages: People are saying now it's a good way to play the Masters.  I don't know if that's true or not. I think Bubba is just different than most golfers. But who knows. As far as disadvantages, I'm not really sure. I don't think it matters a whole lot in the long run. I think it's pretty much a wash. Some people might say, oh, this is a good golf course for lefties or these holes are good for lefties, but there's just as many holes that are the other way, so I don't think that it's anything significant in the long‑term. Q. As a left‑hander, were you inspired by Phil at all or was Tiger your hero as a kid? CAMERON WILSON: I started playing golf before Tiger was big on TOUR, so I won't say that I started playing golf because of Tiger like a lot of kids maybe younger than me did. But I wasn't a huge Phil fan, either. I guess I have a soft spot for all the lefties, but it's hard for me to think that I was inspired by any of these guys. But of course now that I'm a Stanford alum, I've got a rooting interest for everybody else that went to Stanford. Q. Are you inspired by Jordan and do you look at what he's done? CAMERON WILSON: Yeah, it's a good roadmap. I think people like to talk about the obstacles or the‑‑ that's not the right word, but the barriers, I guess, to being a young guy coming up on TOUR, and Money List position and the FedExCup position and what it takes to earn status and all the new changes in Q‑school, but I think that's just a good example of how if you play well, none of that really matters. I think tournament golf is an ultimate meritocracy, so the cream will rise to the top no matter what type of system the TOUR has in place. Q. Is there anything that surprises you about being out here? CAMERON WILSON: Not really to be honest. I think college golf and amateur golf prepares us better than it ever has before, and I think Jordan is an example of that, but a bunch of other young guys have gotten on TOUR quickly and played well. I think Harris has won a couple times, Pat Reed has won a couple times, Russell Henley, Scott Langley got out on TOUR fast, Derek Ernst won a tournament, Morgan Hoffmann, Rickie. There's so many guys that got on TOUR within two or three years, sometimes sooner, within getting out of college. I think it just shows you how well college golf prepares everybody now. Q. Is it more than college golf? What about the‑‑ CAMERON WILSON: Amateur golf, too. The whole thing. There's tournaments to play in for nine or ten months out of the year, and once kids are in college, there's usually good access to good coaching, and tournaments are on hard courses, just as hard as the TOUR sees a lot of times, sometimes even harder. I think all that adds up to producing some good players. Q. Can you share with everybody the story about how you got the exemption to the John Deere and when it happened and how you reacted to it? CAMERON WILSON: Yeah, well, I sent out some letters hoping to get sponsor exemptions back in March or so when I knew I was going to be turning pro. I was still in college, and I heard back from some but not all the tournament directors. I heard back from Mr.Peterson, and he had said, well, I can't give you a spot right now, but we'll be in touch, something might change, but thanks very much for your letter. I appreciated his honesty and his candor because he was pretty straightforward that I probably wouldn't get a spot. But then I won NCAAs and then I got a spot. He got in touch with me shortly thereafter and he said would you like to come play the John Deere, and I said, "I'd love nothing more." Q. Have you been bugging Patrick about some inside tips on the golf course? CAMERON WILSON: Yeah, a little bit. I think he's played here well before. I have a good caddie on my bag this week, which isn't a long‑term thing because I don't have a long‑term schedule, but my caddie has caddied here eight or nine times, so he's got some good advice, too. Q. How anxious are you to play here? CAMERON WILSON: It's been my dream to play pro golf since I was a little kid, so I couldn't be more excited to start playing golf, and to make this an important stepping‑stone in my career is great, and from what I can tell, this tournament has given a lot of opportunities to great players like myself in the past. It's cool to be a part of that tradition and hopefully it'll be a meaningful part of my starting my pro golf career. Q. How much AJGA did you play? CAMERON WILSON: I played a decent amount. I probably played between three and five events for a couple summers. Q. So you've been seeing guys like Jordan‑‑ what does it mean to walk‑‑ CAMERON WILSON: Yeah, I've known Bobby since I was like 13 or 14, Patrick maybe a little older. It's cool. Like I said, there's a lot of young guys that are playing on TOUR already, so those are some of the guys that are in my position that are just getting their feet wet, and I've been fortunate to get starts. But even the guys that are older, I know a few of them, like the guys that I just mentioned were all in college pretty much when I got to school, so there was some overlap there. I played some amateur golf with some of them, so it's not anything foreign. Obviously I don't know all the guys that are in their 30s, but pretty much everybody that's 24 or 25 I've rubbed elbows with since I've been playing junior golf. Q. Is there a comfort level to seeing those familiar faces in the locker room that maybe offsets the intimidation factor? CAMERON WILSON: I wouldn't say so. I am glad to see everybody that I know, but I've played in a handful of‑‑ I've played in a handful of Opens now, so I've been around these guys enough. My approach most weeks is not to really pay attention to what everybody else is doing, just do my own thing. I don't really worry about who else is there, who's not there, or a lot of externalities. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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