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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 6, 2014Ted BishopJohan KokLouis OosthuizenLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY JULIUS MASON: Hello, again, ladies and gentlemen of jury, as we gather today to talk about the PGA Championship Long Drive Competition, I'd like to go ahead and turn the microphone over to the 38th president of The PGA of America, Ted Bishop. TED BISHOP: Thanks, Julius. I have with me two of our winners from yesterday's Long Drive Competition. As I said just a few minutes ago, it was a fun day. I think we accomplished everything that we hoped to do with this competition. We tried to make it player friendly. We tried to make it comfortable and we tried to make it not an imposition on the players in any way, shape or form, and it was very interesting to follow the leaderboard as the day went on. What I want to do is I want to present Louis and Johan with their replica money clips. I want to tell you, this is really kind of a cool story and I think it would be interesting for both you guys to hear. I had a chance to play with Phil Mickelson in the Pro‑Am at The Scottish Open and we were on I think the 15th hole at Royal Aberdeen and Phil started telling this story about being with Jack Nicklaus. Jack had pulled his money clip out, and Phil said, "I noticed he had some old, gold money clip that was worn out." He said, "I couldn't tell whether it said WGA or PGA on it. I asked Jack, What is that money clip?" Jack said, "This is the money clip I won in in the 1963 PGA Championship in Dallas when I won the Long Drive Contest." Phil said, "You've got to be kidding." He said, "All the money clips you've been given as a player or you've earned in your career and that's still the money clip that you would carry." Jack said, "Well, I tell you what, George Bayer at the time was the longest hitter on the PGA TOUR," and he said, "he was the unqualified favorite and I upset him and I won the Long Drive Contest. To this day, I feel like it was one of the greatest victories of my career." I thought that was a neat story. We heard it before and it was great to hear Phil tell that story, and it really set the stage for what we did. So at this point, I would like to present Louis, who is the winner, with a 340‑yard drive, with his gold money clip that is almost identical to Jack Nicklaus's, congratulations. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Thank you very much. TED BISHOP: Jason Day finished in second place, I believe it was 338 yards, and this is special for me as the president of The PGA of America to give the third place money clip to Johan Kok, who is one of our 20 PGA club professionals that is in the field this week. Johan, I know this has been a great week and I know you and Louis are great friends. Were you guys playing together yesterday? JOHAN KOK: Yeah, we were playing together. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: He was chasing me, though. TED BISHOP: Here is yours and congratulations on a great job. JOHAN KOK: Appreciate it. JULIUS MASON: If you guys don't mind, we have a couple questions. Louis, first, how tall are you? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: 4'5"? (Laughter) 5'10". JULIUS MASON: How much do you weigh? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: 180. JULIUS MASON: Johan, give me your stats. JOHAN KOK: 6'2", about 210. JULIUS MASON: Johan, does it surprise you at all in any way that Louis won this competition? JOHAN KOK: Absolutely not. I've played a little bit of golf with Louis back in the day, and he has another gear, and last night he brought that gear late afternoon. JULIUS MASON: Have you ever won a Long Drive Competition in your life? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: At my home club, nine‑hole sand and oil greens where we normally play back in South Africa, there's always one hole, and yeah, that was about it. Yeah, that was so much fun to do this yesterday. JULIUS MASON: Good deal. And Johan, how about you? Ever compete in Long Drive Competitions? JOHAN KOK: Well, I usually miss the fairway in long drive competitions. Louis just bombed his and I was trying to hit it as far as I could and luckily it found the fairway. TED BISHOP: When we did this contest in 1963, Jack used a Persimmon driver and wound ball and he hit it 341 yards and seven inches. Given today's technology, how do you explain that? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: He's won 18 majors; I've only won one (Laughter). Thanks for bringing that up that he actually hit it past me. No, I can just imagine how good a shot that must have been. I've hit a Persimmon with a newer ball today, and not got it close to that. Q. What did you think of Bubba Watson's little protest yesterday by hitting 3‑iron off the 10th tee? TED BISHOP: Well, I think anybody that's a fan of the game was disappointed in the fact that he chose not to compete. But as I said, we tried to make this competition voluntary. We tried to make it a non‑imposition on the players. You know, it was unfortunate that he didn't partake, but it was great to hear Rory talk about how he was going to play the front nine and then go to the 10th tee and hit a shot there because he wanted to compete. It was great to see the interaction with Phil and Rickie and Keegan and then hear Phil talk about it last night at the Champions Dinner. So I'd rather concentrate I guess on the positive than the negative. Q. And how much fun really was it? Were you looking forward to it as you got to the 10th tee? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: When we got there and I saw everything, the names, and I knew I needed to hit it a long way. So I had to find that extra gear. Normally it doesn't go straight, but I think the wind was in my favor. I hit a high draw and he hit the high cut. It was just fun. You get all these things, you have the Par 3 at Augusta, you have the caddies hit the 17th hole at TPC and you have this, and it just takes a bit away from just standing there and just focusing the whole time and just giving a bit back to the people. I know everyone that was standing there was watching and trying to see us really hit one, and that's fun. You know, it doesn't affect the preparations at all. JOHAN KOK: Yeah, same thing. I mean, wasn't really thinking about it during the day, but once we stepped on the 10th tee, Louis and I looked at each other, let's hit it hard. It was fun and people cheered. It's a hard week for these guys; me, I'm kind of a guest for the week, but this is just a fun thing for everybody, for the fans and for the kids, as well. JULIUS MASON: Questions? Questions twice? Louis did tell us before he walked in here that next year when he comes to the Long Drive Competition, he's going to be wearing a Superman cape to the tee. Thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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