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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 10, 2014Zach JohnsonSILVIS, ILLINOIS DOUG MILNE: Well, it certainly is not a task for you to find your way to the interview room and this of all places here at the John Deere Classic. Here you are once again, Zach Johnson, great opening round, 8‑under 63 today, bogey‑free, and if I did my math and numbers correct, this is your 21st consecutive round in the 60s here, and in that span you were 92‑under par, and you hit all 14 fairways today. With all that, congratulations on a great round and just a few comments. ZACH JOHNSON: Yeah, thanks. I don't know. It was a great day. I guess having‑‑ I had a good Pro‑Am, didn't make many putts, but it's the Pro‑Am. I saw some positives there and just some things that kind of felt right. Nothing that I was tweaking, but just some minor adjustments Tuesday, Wednesday, and they've obviously led into today. I don't know if I really expected this this early. I felt like good things were coming especially with my putter, and the ball striking has always been decent. Today was everything. I mean, I hit my wedges really good. That was the bottom line. I hit my wedges really solid. I had a lot of opportunities, actually, I had some opportunities that I didn't capitalize on. So I didn't know what to expect. I've got a guy that is a great friend but never caddied for me before, so I don't know that we had any expectations at all, which was actually kind of nice. But getting off to a good start, making a couple three‑footers maybe in a 15, 20 footer in there, obviously that gets things going. It's nice. Q. (No audio)? ZACH JOHNSON: More ball striking. My putting, I don't want to get overly ‑‑ there are only two or three things that I'd probably revert back to if it gets off. I mean, I've obviously putt bad a lot, but I feel like I can correct that pretty easily. Ball striking has been okay as of late. I think if there is any adjustment in the last two weeks, it's probably been more in between shots, in between the ears. I had a couple talks with some of my team, specifically Dr.Mo, and kind of just looking at we'd like to have a halfway kind of breakpoint and kind of analyze what's going on and why and that kind of thing, so nothing substantial. It's just trying to make it a little more fresh and maybe even simplify it. So I'm learning as I go. But I've found myself a little impatient the weeks prior to this week, if you will. Impatient probably because, one, I felt like I needed another week off. I was anxious for another week off. Then, two, anxious for results. Lately it's been one of those things where I've been‑‑ there are times when you play a twosome out here that you feel like you're rushed because you're trying to keep up. Twosomes actually felt slow for a while, so I was playing pretty fast. There was minimal dialogue and minimal thought, and the ball left my club face, and I don't even remember thinking how it left the club face. So slight exaggeration, but I was going through the motions too much, not in a good way. Q. Zach who was on your bag today? ZACH JOHNSON: Lance Bennett. He's Matt Kuchar's caddie. Q. What do you have to do in that first round for a caddie who has never caddied for you before? ZACH JOHNSON: One thing would be yardages and club selection, but fortunately Matt and I are pretty much the same in most instances. I mean, he might be a pinch longer here and there, I might be a pinch longer with a certain shot, so that would be one thing. The other is obviously what the player wants to have said and not said. So whether it's a key thought, a key trigger, that kind of thing, and after that it's kind of‑‑ I mean, he knows where I stand and just the protocol. But with Lance, we don't really have to discuss that. He's been caddying for many so many odd years and caddied for some of the best that ever played the game, so that part is really natural. I would say the most part is club selection, where's your target, and then a couple trigger thoughts. For me, it's rhythm and tempo and just opportunities, that kind of thing. Q. How did you decide to get him on the bag? ZACH JOHNSON: It was one of those where I was conferring with another caddie friend of mine, and I talked to Damon about it, he's my caddie and he's a good buddy. It's not exactly easy. I mean, he qualified Tuesday, so essentially two weeks before this week‑‑ a week and a half before this week. So I wasn't rushed, but I wasn't‑‑ it wasn't exactly a lot of notice, right? So it's not like he received a sponsor exemption. He Tuesday qualified in Jacksonville. So I conferred with him a little bit. I've had two other caddies on the PGA TOUR, technically three, and one of them was not available. Chad Reynolds, he caddies for Nick Watney, so didn't want to interrupt that. It was one of those things I conferred with actually one of the guys I was playing with today, Adam Hayes, he's a really good friend of mine, and Adam and I have been friends for years. He's someone I can trust and who he thinks is available and that kind of thing. I had Lance in the back of my head, but I kind of know Matt's schedule a little bit. I didn't realize he was taking three weeks off. I thought he was going to play the Scottish or go over really, really early and so it just worked out. The last thing I'm going to do is interrupt anything they're going to do, whether it's taking a day off or going over to the Open early or whatever. The last thing I want to do is be some sort of wedge or even a minor headache. So Lance had two weeks off‑‑ actually, two weeks and two days off. So it's one of those things that it's like, yeah, I'll do it if it works out. And Matt and I talked about it, and Matt was on board at the very beginning. Plus we have similar games, so something I do could potentially help him or vice versa, I mean, why not keep it fresh? Q. When you return and you're so well known in this area, do you feel any sense of pressure to continue your conquer? ZACH JOHNSON: Conquer, that's a big word right there. I don't feel like I'm a czar or anything like that. Q. Well, you're on the board. ZACH JOHNSON: That's a good point. I'm not the chairman. DOUG MILNE: Yet. ZACH JOHNSON: Yet. Thank you, Dougie. I'm working on that. Are you my campaign manager? I'm very comfortable. There was a time I came here and it felt like a lot of friendly faces outside the ropes, lot of handling, and individuals I know, you kind of get into that. But now I'm so comfortable being here. I mean, obviously, it's irrelevant ‑‑ what I did the previous day, the previous week, the previous year here is completely irrelevant. I just love the golf course. It's one of those I feel like I get here, and I've had some success here, so maybe I should shoot 66 every day, that kind of thing. But I've learned that's just not going to happen. So I respect it and I still plot my way around it the way I did. It's almost like each year just kind of bleeds into the next. Q. How do you stay patient and look at the bigger picture? ZACH JOHNSON: Well, the thought actually is going to enter into your mind. I'm 8‑under through 11 or 12, yeah, 11 holes. It entered my mind, but it entered my mind very briefly. It got to the point where like if you're going to do it, you still have to hit solid. I hit a lot of solid shots the last 7 holes. Lot of them. Hit a great shot on 3, two good ones on 4, two good ones on 5, maybe I mis‑clubbed on 6, could have birdied 8. That kind of thing. Really only one bad shot, and that was the second shot on 9. I was still playing for opportunities and playing to put myself in position to make a putt, and for that I'm certainly proud of that. I don't want to say I should have shot 61 or 58 or 60 or 59, but I had a chance. It's one of those things where if I shoot 59 or 58, okay, congrats. You've still got three days, you know? I know it's a cool thing, but you still have three days. I don't come here to shoot 59. I come here to win a golf tournament, and that's not going to help me win a golf tournament on Thursday. Q. How important is that number? ZACH JOHNSON: Whatever you guys make it out to be. It's not important to me. Q. Do you see it as a missed opportunity? ZACH JOHNSON: Certainly if you get it, you get it. You can say you did it because it is a pretty unique fraternity, but it ain't that big of a deal to me. I'd rather have 59 wins than shoot 59. I'm not suggesting that's going to happen. Q. What do you think of his prospects and potential (Indiscernible)? ZACH JOHNSON: Unfortunately, his potential and prospects are really good (laughing). That's obviously a joke. He's very equipped. He's one of those rare guys that was playing professional golf before he was playing professional golf. He had all the right things in place specifically between the ears mentally. I mean, he had a statistician. I don't know his swing coach, but he had a swing coach, he works out. He had all aspects outside the ropes already in place before he played professional golf, which is totally something not what I had in 1998. He's just a great kid. I mean, you can tell he comes from‑‑ I've met some of his family, a great family. A guy that's smart. Played at Stanford, and I want to say he had darn near a 4.0. Q. 3.25. ZACH JOHNSON: That's almost like Drake, but not quite. Bottom line is he's a kid that once he gets comfortable out here and gets a little more experience, more starts, which he's going to have plenty of opportunity to, it's just a matter of time. I think it's just a matter of playing. Q. I know it's been a year, but any thoughts? ZACH JOHNSON: Simple, very, very simple. Plays within himself, you know. There are certain‑‑ I get caught up in it when you get to a golf course that, man, I feel like I've got to do more of this and less of that. Kind of reconstruct your approach, your game, your shot making, just what he has, he brings to the golf course, as he should. He hits it pretty hard. They all do it seems like at that age, but great putter. All the young kids hit it pretty hard and pretty straight. The ones that separate themselves are obviously in the short game, and he's got that. His record speaks for itself, obviously. Q. I'm sure you came in today and figured you'd be under par after the round, but what about the conditions for the afternoon guys? ZACH JOHNSON: I think it's still out there. There is not a whole lot of wind. The greens are receptive, course is in good shape, as good of shape as I've ever seen it. The rough is actually up. Fortunately, the only time I had to entertain it was my second to last shot. So, yeah, it's out there. If you're off, it will bite you. Any PGA TOUR course will, specifically this one. It will bite you. It's there. But there's not a whole lot of wind. If there is wind here, obviously, the respect goes up, and conservative approach shots. But you can be aggressive given the right yardages and everything. Q. Do you feel like you could go lower? ZACH JOHNSON: No expectations. Yeah, sure, but I also kind of thought it could be the complete opposite too. I had good vibes Tuesday and Wednesday, specifically Wednesday. Yesterday I hit a lot of solid shots in the Pro‑Am. I hit solid shots where I felt like my control was there. Q. You talked about the wind and the conditions. How did you want to take advantage of that? ZACH JOHNSON: I don't want to say it doesn't matter, but it kind of doesn't matter. Yeah, I think if you're playing in the wind you typically get more benign conditions and you feel like you've got to maybe take advantage of it. But, heck, I've played terrible in great conditions and played phenomenal in bad conditions, so borderline irrelevant. Q. You said something to the effect of you were anxious for results or looking for results. You did very well today, but can that be counter‑productive sometimes if you look too far ahead? ZACH JOHNSON: It was. I'm saying, in Hartford I missed the cut by 35 shots it felt like. In the U.S. Open, I made the cut, but after that it was pretty boring, bad golf. I was a little spent. I had played three weeks in a row, and I had a pretty big stretch prior to that. So I played too much, and like you said, I was anxious for results. As a result, I got ahead of myself. You get out here on the PGA TOUR in any tournament and you start forcing it and trying to shoot low scores, and it's not going to happen. The guys are too good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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