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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALJuly 29, 2014Tim ClarkAKRON, OHIO JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tim Clark, thanks for joining us. Congratulations on your win last week at the RBC Canadian Open. You gain entry into this week's Bridgestone Invitational and moved into the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. Quite a change for your season. Maybe some comments about your win last week and coming back to the Bridgestone Invitational. TIM CLARK: Obviously, a big change in what my plans were. I went to Canada expecting to be traveling to Reno this week and playing. Obviously, I wasn't in the PGA Championship either. So nice to have to make some travel plans late Sunday night. I had been playing quite solid leading into the week and just been waiting for that moment where things sort of all came together. Obviously, Sunday was my day. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Can you talk about your back side there on Sunday afternoon with, I think, ten putts in the last nine holes, including eight straight one‑putts and really kind of put the heat on Jim there. TIM CLARK: Yeah, I mean, that's just the way this game goes. Looking at my‑‑ I looked at my stats a few weeks ago to see where my game was sort of wrong, and I was about 180th or something on putts from 9, I think, to 15 feet. And then all of a sudden on Sunday, I look back, and I make everything. Everyone assumes I make everything all the time probably, but it was nice to have it happen. I worked on that sort of area of the game, having seen that's where I was struggling. Suddenly, for it all to come together, particularly on the back nine of the tournament in the final day is really quite special. Q. A few months ago a writer for Sports Illustrated said those World Golf Championships are stuck in such uninspired venues. I'd move them to places that were more dynamic, speaking of Tucson and Akron. What's your reaction to that? TIM CLARK: Nice question to ask me. Did you ask Tiger that question? Q. I will. TIM CLARK: This is a great golf course. This is certainly not‑‑ I couldn't remember your exact words, but this is certainly a place that the players enjoy coming and want to come to. I mean, this is a course that stood the test of time. I would say whoever said that probably doesn't understand golf very much. Q. What you said about the putts from 9 to 15, do you look at those stats very regularly, or was that just kind of a once‑in‑a‑while thing? TIM CLARK: I look at those sorts of things, but like I said, I'd really been struggling on the greens. I kind of knew that I was struggling, but it was just interesting to suddenly see it in writing. You know that there was a glaring difference from my putting inside of 5 feet versus from that range. So it was something I started to work on a little bit. It had improved. I putted a lot better at the John Deere, and obviously I had a good result there, finishing fifth, but still wasn't putting great. Even last week, it was a little flat until that back nine. Again, it's just one of those things that can happen in golf. You can suddenly get hot, get a little bit of confidence, and next thing the hole seems huge. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen all the time, and it's not always there. But it was nice and hopefully something that I can build on now, build up that confidence, and we've got a huge stretch of golf coming up with the PGA Championships and FedExCup Championships. So it's a good time to start to play well. Q. Did you notice any improvement before the John Deere? TIM CLARK: Not really‑‑ a little bit, you know. I'd been really hitting the ball great since probably the Colonial. I was in position there. Again, with this game, you can play great, but if you're not scoring in the hole, you're just not going to keep up with the leaders. That had been the case for a few tournaments where I felt I'd certainly played well enough to be in the mix late on Sunday but just hadn't quite gotten over that threshold. Suddenly being in the final group, I think, in Canada was kind of a wake‑up call like I'm in the mix here. I need to sort of get down to business. Obviously, playing with Jim, I could see what he was doing the whole time. I could see he wasn't going to make any mistakes. So obviously I needed to go out and make birdies on that final nine. Q. Tim, after you won the PLAYERS Championship, you joked that we wouldn't have anything to write about you because now you're just another one‑time PGA Tour champion. What do we need to learn about you now that you're a two‑time champion? TIM CLARK: In many ways, this one probably felt even better than the PLAYERS Championship. Particularly the fact that I'd missed pretty much all of 2011 with injury, and you never know how far back are you going to be able to come from something like that. Unfortunately, when that 2010 season finished, I was really playing some great golf. Obviously, that was the best season of my career. I came out my first event in Hawaii at 11 and came in 2nd. I really thought this was going to be the start. To be halted by a year was tough. So in many ways, this year meant a whole lot more. Maybe this is my second chance, you know, my second start. Certainly, something I can build from now, knowing that I can do it again. In a way, I hope it's taken me back to 2010, the way I felt after winning the PLAYERS. That's what I need to go with now and maybe‑‑ I'm going to play hard the rest of this year. I'm going to play a lot of events. I think I'm still going to go to Greensboro and play. If I get all the way through to the championship, I'm looking at seven or eight tournaments in a row. If you feel like you're playing well, you need to go with it. Q. How long did it take you to get through all those injuries that you had? TIM CLARK: I injured‑‑ the right elbow was, literally I felt it the Monday after the Hawaii tournament. I finished 2nd in Hawaii. Everything was great. Got home, woke up the next morning, and I couldn't move my arm. Whether it was something that happened traveling with bags or something that I might have done during the round on that Sunday, I'm not sure, but unfortunately for three or four months I tried to rehab it to get it better. Surgery's normally the last thing you want to do. After four months of not getting better, I eventually had surgery. That took another four months of recovery, four or five months. Then I came out and played in 2012, but it takes a while to get your game back. Not only physically, but the mental side of it. So I think my first time I really had a decent result, that was, I think, Greensboro where I came 2nd to Sergio. That's the first time I started to feel that my game was kind of normal. Q. When you said you feel like you did after you won the PLAYERS, do you mean mentally or confidence? TIM CLARK: Yes. I think that confidence and knowing that you can do it. It's a lot. In this game, it's everything really, to be honest. I'm not one who works with a swing coach or thinks about my swing that much. I'm more out there and feel and confidence. So for something like this to happen can really free you up. Q. I hate to harp on this 9‑ to 15‑foot thing, but I have a story already written for tomorrow about it kind of. Are you much of a stat guy? Or was that just kind of like a‑‑ TIM CLARK: I wouldn't say I'm much of a stat guy, but like I said, I knew at one point I was 140th in putting for the year. So I know on the PGATour.com, they show you you're putting like this from two feet, three feet, four feet. I just sort of had a glance, and all of a sudden there was that number from that range, and I'm like whoa. I knew I wasn't making it‑‑ don't get me wrong. I didn't think I was making them. I knew I was missing everything. But it just changed a little bit the way I practiced.  I started to practice that range a little bit more. Also, maybe the way I approached the putts. I think I was probably trying to make putts too much versus just going out‑‑ when you're a feel player, you need to try to feel things a little bit more. So I actually started to look at the putts a little bit differently to what I had been doing. I'd been trying to pick spots, like right edge, or pick a specific spot to start out with. The last few weeks, I've more just tried to see a line. Putting is all about pace and line anyway. One without the other is just not going to work. Q. We had a chance a few years ago to visit Arnold Palmer and came back to Detroit to celebrate, call it the turning point when he got the U.S. Amateur. He knew he could make it. At that time it was what I call a turning point. What was the turning point in your life as a kid where you said, you know, I think I can do this? Was there a time, a moment where you said, yeah, I think I can? TIM CLARK: That's interesting, yeah. Obviously, I started golf very young, 3 years old. I had my first hole in one when I was 8. Represented South Africa at the World Amateur as a teenager. And then came to college and played college golf and was a First Team All‑American, but through that whole time, at no time did I know it was something I could do professionally. You're always trying to get better for the next stage of your golfing career, from junior to amateur, amateur to college. At no point did I ever really think that I might be good enough, although I had great results in all the phases I played. It was certainly for me the turning point would have been playing in the Masters as an amateur in '98, I believe. I remember walking up the 18th hole. I had my brother caddying for me. I was in the midst of shooting, I think, 81 or 82. And I just kind of took everything in, and I said, Well, this is certainly not the last time I want to be here. I want to be here again. I think that gave me what I needed to really give it my all and pursue it. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tim Clark, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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