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THE RYDER CUPSeptember 25, 2014Jimmy WalkerAUCHTERARDER, SCOTLAND PAUL SYMES: Many thanks for joining us. We'll get started, first Ryder Cup appearance, but I guess at the age of 35, you don't feel like too much of a rookie. JIMMY WALKER: No, I don't. I've been playing golf a long time. I've been playing professional golf for a long time. I feel like I've done a lot. I've been on a couple of Tours, made some big putts at key times, keeping my card, that type of stuff. I feel like I've been around a long time. I know this is a new event for me, but I've done a lot, so I don't feel like a rookie, no. PAUL SYMES: Just coming from the course, a lot of guys are saying that the setup on the course might suit the Americans. Would you go along with that? JIMMY WALKER: You know, it's like playing golf at home, which most of the guys on The European Team play on our Tour, anyway. I think we like the golf course. We had heard some stuff. We had heard some things good about the golf course coming in, and I think everybody is really happy with the way things look and the golf course and the condition. It's great. Q. Fourball and foursomes are quite different. Do you have any sense about whether your game is suited to one or the other, or which you prefer to play? JIMMY WALKER: Either is fine. It's still golf. You have to go out and hit the golf shots. And there's strategy involved; there's strategy involved in both formats. In the end, it's about going out and executing golf shots. That's what you have to do. That's what you have to do to win, hit good golf shots and make putts. Doesn't matter what format you're playing, that's what it requires. There's some strategy required in both types, even in singles. It's match play. It's not stroke. Q. As you say, you've been playing for a while and come up against a lot of The European Tour guys and played against them. Do you have a slightly different mind-set that you are playing them as part of a European Team? Do you feel they are different players or you've gotten to know them so well and it's just another week? JIMMY WALKER: It's not just another week. It's a different week. It's The Ryder Cup and I think as players we all know what that is and what that means. It means you're playing for your country, it means you're playing for your home, it means you're playing for a large group. When we tee it up every week, pretty much you're playing for yourself and your family basically. Here, when you hang out with your team all week and have breakfast with them and play golf with them every day, it's a different feeling. I got a taste of that a couple weeks ago when we all had dinner together in Denver, and that really gave me a sense of what team golf is like. It's been a while. It's been a while since I played college golf, high school golf. I was never a part of any Walker Cup teams or anything like that. But it was nice to have that team feeling again. You've got guys you're pulling for and rooting for. Obviously we all have friends on Tour that we like to see do well, but this is different. This is big. Q. Any of the Europeans in particular you would like to putt yourself up against? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, there are, but it's a complete blind draw. It's whoever -- captain throws everybody in the lineup and you get who you get. It doesn't matter, whoever you play, you have to go out and beat them. Doesn't matter who it is. Q. You mentioned in your introduction briefly, you had a putt five years ago, didn't you, to save your TOUR card, I think it was. Could anything this week compare to the nerves you must have been feeling over that putt? JIMMY WALKER: I'm sure something along the lines this week is going to rival those feelings and what you feel and what I felt then. So yeah, I'm sure you'll have those types of emotions, and it might be different. I don't know. I haven't done it. But I do know that I believe in my preparation and what I've done to get here, and that's all that matters. Q. The fact that you got the putts suggests that you've got pretty good nerves. JIMMY WALKER: I think we all have good nerves. That's why we're here. Q. It looks like you and Rickie have played a lot of golf, so if you end up being paired together, I know you played together at THE TOUR Championship; can you go back and tell me when you may have started talking about that and why you think you would be a good partner with him? JIMMY WALKER: You know, once the team is finalised, we all as players started talking about it because we were all excited and everything like that. We all started asking each other, who do you want to play with, who do you want to play with. It was nice to hear that guys wanted to play with me and I'm sure it was nice for them to hear that I wanted to play with them. I played with Rickie and we played that little match against Jordan and Zach, and that was kind of a combination of the caddies getting that going. Just wanted to get out and have some fun. It's all about us getting together, hanging out and feeling the team. I do like Rickie, he is genuinely one of the nicest guys out here, especially for what has happened to him and his career and the stardom that he has. He's a really good person and I really enjoy hanging out with good people. Q. Speaking of Rickie, where were you when you first saw his haircut? What was your reaction, and what have you learned about him this week that you didn't know before? JIMMY WALKER: Rickie is a cool customer. That's what I know, and I like him. I saw his haircut, my wife showed it to me, I think -- I don't know if I saw it or she saw it first on his Instagram feed. I was like, "That's my boy right there. He's getting after it." Q. You didn't think of copying it? JIMMY WALKER: No, I did not. Yeah, I didn't. Q. You said earlier that some of the guys had heard some things about the course before you arrived here. Can you elaborate on that? What sort of stuff had you heard? JIMMY WALKER: I think a lot of the Europeans had played it and said it was going to be really cold, really wet, soggy, this, that and the other. I think when we got here, we all -- it seems like the golf course is in good shape. The ball is bouncing a little bit, and the greens aren't -- it's not wet at all. The weather has been pretty nice so far, I think. Q. Speaking of the weather conditions, do you think being over here in the summer for The Scottish Open and then for The Open the following week, has that helped you in any way prepare for this? JIMMY WALKER: We played at Aberdeen. It was a little cool. It was kind of like this, maybe even colder at times. You know, I liken this to playing -- you can see this on our West Coast Swing. You can see this in San Diego, Pebble Beach. You can see it a little bit at Riviera. This is like Pebble Beach weather. I enjoy putting the sweaters on and the layers and playing golf. Q. What's your opinion about Victor Dubuisson, the French rookie, on The European Team, about his golf game and personality? JIMMY WALKER: I played a little bit with Victor this year, and I like Victor. He's a nice guy. I remember we were at Bridgestone together this year, and I kept seeing him at the movie theatre. I didn't have any family that week and he didn't either. We were both missing family and kept seeing each other at the movie theatre that week and kept talking. He's a good guy. He hits it far. He's a good player. Looks like you guys got to see a wicked short game display at the Match Play. I like Victor. He's nice. He's a good dude. Q. So you spent some good time with him? JIMMY WALKER: Say that again. Q. So you spent some good time with him? JIMMY WALKER: I spent a little bit of time, nothing long or anything. But just in passing, he's always nice. He says hi, shakes hands. I like that in people that are engaging. Q. And his golf game? JIMMY WALKER: Golf game is solid. That's why he's here. Q. Down the years, you've probably heard that caricature of the American Team not gelling as well as The European Team. Have you found it quite insulting, this idea that Americans are not team players to the same extent that European Team players are? JIMMY WALKER: Do I find it insulting that everybody says we don't gel together? Q. That you haven't had the team ethos quite as much as the Europeans? JIMMY WALKER: I'm not going to say I'm insulted, but I don't understand that. We were all hanging out together before the gala last night, and it seemed like we were having a really good time. We were loud, we were cracking jokes. We were having fun last night. I don't see any of that going on at all. Q. Almost as a sort of follow-up to that, you've always come across as a very calm, unflappable character and nothing very much gets to you. But when you see Keegan at Medinah, diving around and fist-pumping and Rickie's haircut, are we going to see a new Jimmy Walker this week? Are you going to cut loose? JIMMY WALKER: I don't know. I don't know if you know what this is going to do to you, what emotions are going to come out. It's different. Like I said, it's a different type of event. I do get more fired up in team events, playing at home with guys. So we'll see. I may look calm, but I'm pretty fired up inside. I try to stay pretty even keeled, but there's some fire, don't worry. Q. Could you see yourself doing the Poulter stuff? JIMMY WALKER: If the moment arises. You know, I think that's what's cool about this. It's an emotional week. I mean, I can already tell. I'm sleeping really good, and it's only Thursday. It's just big. You can feel it. You can feel it in the crowds. You can feel it during the day and last night walking on stage. It's cool and it takes a lot out of you. So getting good rest and sleeping good, it's been nice. I think we are all acclimated now and ready to roll. Q. When is the last time you played alternate-shot in competition? Has anyone given any good advice on kind of handling just the uniqueness of that format? JIMMY WALKER: I've never -- well, the only time I've ever played alternate-shot in competition was at the Cordillera Cup at my home course. Played nine holes and I played it with our junior club champ and it was pretty fun. We had a good time. We played good, too. But that's it. Q. When was that? JIMMY WALKER: It was probably seven, eight months ago. Q. Have you guys done a fair amount in practise to get ready for it? JIMMY WALKER: Me and my buddies last week, we played alternate-shot one day. I took one of the better players in the group and he and I played alternate-shot, and we played two other guys -- or four other guys in the group and we played their modified alternate-shot best-ball, and it was fun. It's different, but it's good golf. Q. Where is your home club you were playing? JIMMY WALKER: I play Cordillera Ranch in Boerne, Texas. Q. And on the movie that you saw or movies with Victor Dubuisson, do you remember which movies they were, by any chance? JIMMY WALKER: What did we watch that week? We saw that Scarlett Johansson movie. Q. "Her"? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, we saw that, and we saw "Guardians of the Galaxy," which was awesome. I can't remember anymore. I think that was about it. Q. My real question, have the captains or assistant captains told you anything this week by way of advice or encouragement that you remember or has had a theme to it? JIMMY WALKER: Strick told me today that when I step up on the first tee tomorrow and they announce The European Team, you will not be able to talk to your caddie. It's going to be so loud. You just have to be ready for that hit that's going to happen. So that was one little thing that kind of happened today that I was thinking about. But I think just by judging by the fans, we've got a lot of people out there and I think a lot more people are going to be showing up. It's going to be awesome. Q. That was kind of my question. Of the times you've watched The Ryder Cup on TV, have you ever wondered what it must feel like to be on that first tee for the first time, and what to expect? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, I teed off 1 yesterday, or a couple days ago, and there are already a lot of people out there and you can see the grandstands, it's going to be intense. There's going to be a ton of people. Depending on the wind, you kind of fire one over the crowd a little bit on the left side. It's going to be awesome. One of the shots I remember and just the raw emotion of The Ryder Cup is watching Leonard make that putt. It was like, wow, that would be really fun to be a part of. You just don't see that much emotion in golf, really, at all. And watching those guys run out there, that would be something fun to be a part of. Q. Just one other, have you ever played one of Phil's money games? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, I've played in a couple. Q. Are we going to get the results, or no? JIMMY WALKER: What, like this week or weeks past, or what do you want, Doug? We've had some good matches. Rickie and I have been on the losing end, which is all right, because you've got to keep Phil pumped up. It's all about -- you have to keep Phil pumped up (laughter). Q. You'll be spending a lot of time looking down at putts this week and putt lines. Have you looked up, because your stargazing is pretty well known? JIMMY WALKER: I don't know, it's pretty cloudy here. It's cloudy at home, too. The monsoons are still hitting New Mexico and Arizona, so nothing yet. It should start breaking here pretty soon and I'll be able to get back to shooting some stuff. But it's been pretty dry lately -- not dry, but it's been wet and rainy and cloudy where I shot from, so I haven't got to do anything. Q. You're aware the skies here are pretty famous, Northern Lights and all that kind of stuff? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, if the crowds break enough for you to see them. I know we had a big CME, like last week, should have been pretty spectacular here, if you guys had clear guys. I know we got to see them in the States. They came down pretty far. That was a pretty big hit. That's definitely something I would like to see and shoot. PAUL SYMES: Thank you FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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