|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY OWENS CORNING AND O-IJuly 15, 2014Mo MartinSYLVANIA, OHIO MO MARTIN: But, you know, like I said on Sunday, I am really grateful for the struggle and everything I learned along the way and I successes I've had, everybody who has come along at the right time to help me and played a part in making this happen. A lot of things need to come into fruition for something like this to happen, so I'm incredibly grateful. Q. You probably talked about this over there, but what was it like? What do you do and how stressful or exhilarating was all that? MO MARTIN: When I got done, I was hoping at best for a playoff. I had some great competitors coming down the stretch there, so I figured my best chance at winning was going to be a playoff. My mindset at that point was to get focused and get ready to go do that. I had a quick chat with my caddie, Kyle, and I said, I'm going to go into the locker room and eat a banana and a bar. There are no TVs in there. I knew there wouldn't be any players in there. I wanted about 15 minutes to myself, and that's what I did. When I came right back out, we went to the practice area. Hit a few putts and went to the range. I think there was some coverage of that. Definitely some cameras out there. But I was just going through my warmup again, getting ready to go back to 18, and then ‑‑ I haven't seen the coverage so I'm not sure what all was shown. But when I was actually told‑‑ I had no idea who I would be in a playoff with or how many people or even if I would get that chance. I definitely wasn't exacting to be the outright winner. That's when I kind of just realized. That all happened quickly. I was just prepared for what I had to do next if I had that chance, and that was going to be to go play 18 again. Q. Apologizes. I couldn't hear any of your introduction comments. If I repeat something, I'm sorry. I was curious, the congratulations, did you get any unexpected or unusual congratulatory messages? MO MARTIN: I did. There is still a couple unknown numbers, but I just got so many people reaching out from all over the world. That has been so ridiculously nice. But I think the one big surprise is I was eating breakfast this morning and I get a signed letter from Arnold Palmer saying, Way to go. Great one to pick for your first victory. So that was pretty special. I met him when I was 10 and he was playing I think in an exhibition match. I'm not positive about that, but in Brookside in Pasadena. I have a picture of him signing a magazine for me. I still have that picture. He was such a fine example of being an approachable athlete and somebody that I definitely looked up to. What a legend. So I have that letter from him. That was unexpected and pretty darn cool. Q. A follow up: Have you found yourself recognized in places you weren't before? You players look so different with your hats on. Are you finding you're not being recognized? MO MARTIN: Can you repeat that? Q. Have you found you're being recognized in places you wouldn't normally? And the other side of that is you players look so different with your hats on. I'm wondering if you're not recognized with your hat off. MO MARTIN: You know what? I haven't been yet. At least nobody that has come up and said anything. At the airport somebody was kind of staring at me. I don't know if that was because I had a ton of luggage and I looked pretty ridiculous or they knew I just won the British. I'm sure i look totally different, as we all do. Haven't had any public sightings yet. Went to the Kroger this morning and successfully got out of there without being harassed. Not yet. We'll see. Q. Lincoln was here all the way up to his 100s. Describe how much you thought about him since you won and what was his influence on your career? MO MARTIN: I mean, I think about him all the time. I actually when I was walking to the parking lot after I got dinner, just the necklace I have around my neck, it's got his initial on it. I just said, I wish you were here. I mean, I know he is, but I wish he was physically here, too. I really miss him and all the surprise that came along with him. He truly changed my life. I mean, he taught me ‑‑ I can't even separate what he taught me from I learned on my own anymore. His humility and his grace and his love definitely changed my life. Q. (Question regarding family get‑together clearing the mind.) MO MARTIN: Yeah, well, I had a blast. My family is incredibly important to me. For Christmas I gave each of them like a date night or a date day. I was going to spend a day with each of them and do something fun. Christmas came and went and I wasn't able to actually do that before I got started this year. The season started really early. So I thought, why don't I just fly them all over to Naples where I'm living now and we would have a couple days. It was such a blast. Took a couple days off and just spent it with them cooking, swimming, going to the beach, and enjoying their company, which is something I don't get to do very often. That definitely put me in a good mindset. That was great. Q. Working with Ian, anything you really want to get accomplished or just overall sharpening? MO MARTIN: No, a lot of fine tuning. Ian didn't change anything fundamental, but he's been moving my swing and my stroke and my mindset. He's been moving it in a certain direction. So I give him a ton of credit. It's been more of a leaning with him than a change. You know, I mean, each year that's has gotten better and better. I give him a ton of credit. I was able to talk to him and I said, Thanks for helping make this happen. I just really mean that. Q. Better players have won majors in the past and weren't expected to and struggled afterwards.  They feel like they have to live up to that particular week or expectations have grown. Seeing that happen, how do you plan to deal with that? MO MARTIN: It's definitely going to be another challenge, and I'm sure there will be a learning curve like there is with everything. This is clearly a first for me in my life, so, I mean, I'll just focus on what I know has worked in the past and keep going with it. So it's going to be a learning curve as in everything. I think something beautiful with this game is that you've got to prove yourself every day. That's not going to change no matter what I did or didn't do. Q. And two, we've seen a lot of players that have had a couple good rounds in a major and have a rough Saturday and can't get it back together for Sunday. You were able to do that. What was that process like Saturday night? MO MARTIN: Saturday night, yeah, I was a little bit annoyed that I‑‑ it wasn't my best round. It was just a little bit harder to focus. But I just had a little chat with myself and just really wanted to learn what I could from that round. I knew I was playing well. On Saturday actually I thought I played a lot better than my score. So I just kind of said, Hey, you know what? A lot of positives going on here. I'm playing well. So let's learn from maybe a bit of lack of focus. I went through it, so that was the learning curve. I clearly did learn a few things. I'm sure there is more to come. It's all a process. Q. You hit one of the great shots in major championship history. Take us through the shot, anything you saw, anything you were trying to do, anything your caddie said to you. MO MARTIN: I like the sound of that. You know, I got up when I‑‑ in links golf you have a lot of undulations in the fairways. Even in the fairway you're not sure if it's going to be downhill, sidehill, uphill lie. It happened to be a little bit of a downhill lie. There was a little bit of left to right in it and the wind was hard downwind and left to right, so it complemented the lie. So I knew I needed to play a little bit of a draw to hold it up to get it running up the green where I needed it to. So I just strolled around, took a look where I knew it needed to feed up to the green, to the hole, and picked a good target. Hit a little draw to hold it up against that. The rest was history. I was thrilled it hit the stick and ended up as close as it did. I hit it the best I could. Really fortunate I did that at that point. Q. That little dance, what do you call that? MO MARTIN: I'm a little bit embarrassed about that jig. My mindset, what was going through my head, I thought the cameras would not be on me anymore. I just looked at my caddie, Kyle, and that was just my moment. It was just a jig that came out. I have no idea why I did that or where it came from. I love to dance, so that was not anything unusual. And I am sure I do stuff like that with him all the time. It's just not usually on national TV at a major. Q. Your 3‑wood is now a part of history, too. Can you tell us, what is that club exactly? Is it in your bag now? Are you going to put it away? MO MARTIN: No, it's in my bag. It's going to stay there. It's Callaway. It's got slightly different shaft than the rest of them. I don't know, it's definitely going to go down in history, but it's not coming out of my bag any time soon. I actually went in and got a head cover from Brookdale just for the 3‑wood. I thought that would be a fun reminder. Q. What kind of Callaway is it? MO MARTIN: I need to look at it again. My other fairway woods are RAZR Blacks. I believe that one is an X Hot. Pretty positive about that. It's a red (indiscernible) other ones are blue. But it's an X Hot. Q. Same question with the ball. What kind of ball, and are you keeping that, too? Has that already been given a way? MO MARTIN: No, I have that. It's a Titleist 8. I play 8s on Sunday and it's a Pro V one. Q. Also wondering what endorsement deals do you have? Have you been approached already by anyone? MO MARTIN: Well, at the beginning of the year the CME Group became my sponsor and they've been fantastic. They also are sponsoring our points race and titleholders, so they have been huge in the LPGA. It's been great that they're supporting me as well. They sponsor Brittany Lincicome in addition to myself. Couple months into the season I got hooked up with Trader Joe's. We're actually doing a fight to stop hunger in Florida. So for every birdie I make ‑ and there are five of us I believe out on tour right now with this same sponsorship agreement ‑ $75 goes to a food bank in Florida with every birdie we make. So that's a really fun thing. Q. The CME Group, is that hat? Is it on your hat? Shirt? MO MARTIN: Oh, yeah, yeah. It's on my hat, golf bag, and it's on my left sleeve. I've got Trader Joe's on my right sleeve. Q. Okay. And another question, too. Who is your manager? Who are they with? MO MARTIN: Yee & Dubin. They're based in L.A. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|