|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
FRYS.COM OPENOctober 7, 2014Patrick RodgersNAPA, CALIFORNIA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Patrick Rodgers into the interview room here at the Frys.com Open. Thanks for coming by and spending a few minutes with us, playing this week on a sponsor's exemption from Fry's. Talk about being here at Silverado this week. PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, I'm very excited to be here. Obviously any time you get a chance to play a PGA TOUR event, it's a really special week, and I've been fortunate to play quite a few here on sponsor's exemptions over the summer, but even more special to be back here in the Bay Area and to come back here where it feels like home. It's the first time I've been back to the Bay Area since I left school, and I'm really excited to be back. The golf course and everything seems really familiar, although I haven't played it. It's very familiar to what I played all through college, and I'm looking forward to a great week. JOHN BUSH: You made seven starts on TOUR last year, you made five cuts and then also you played three events at the Web.com TOUR. Talk about that and the status of your game coming into the week. PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, it's been a really good start to my professional career. Obviously you have kind of a plan made out for yourself, and obviously setting the highest expectations, but like I said, I was very fortunate to play seven times on sponsor exemptions over the summer, and I played okay in those events and made my way into the Web.com finals. Unfortunately I got hurt at kind of an unfortunate time, had to withdraw from the last sponsor's exemption at the Wyndham Championship and I wasn't able to play in the first event of the Web.com finals. I was kind of battling through some injury and my game wasn't quite where it needed to be, and unfortunately I didn't make it through. But for me to earn full status on the Web.com TOUR and to still have some great opportunities to come out here and play on the PGA TOUR, I'm really excited about things going forward and I'm excited to have a place to play for next year, and hopefully make the most of these really brilliant opportunities. Q. You talked about coming home and being in kind of your stomping grounds a little bit. What about it? What kind of reaction have you been getting from people contacting you, former teammates, that kind of stuff? PATRICK RODGERS: Well, it's really cool. I was just down in Fort Worth actually at the Nike facility, and they're actually hosting a college tournament down there, and Stanford happened to be playing, so it was my first time seeing Coach and the rest of the team and being at a college event right before I came here, and it was just really cool to see my teammates, and it felt a little bit different being at a college tournament and not being inside the ropes and having to tee it up with my teammates, but it was great to see them. I think a lot of guys are excited once they get back to maybe come up here and spend a day, or I'm hoping to get back down to campus. For a kid from Indiana to come here and spend three years out in the Bay Area, it's really, really amazing how much it feels like home to be here and how I feel comfortable not just on the golf courses out here but with the whole culture and the whole vibe. I'm very proud to have gone to school here, and I'm excited to be competing in this tournament. Q. How did you injure yourself, and was that kind of the first experience where you've had to deal with something like that? PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, kind of as a golfer you're always battling little tweaks here and there, and I definitely had my fair share through college, but it's never anything that's kept me away from competition, but this one was just kind of a freak injury. It was my oblique, I just strained and pulled it really bad at the Wyndham Championship, actually on my first tee shot. It's interesting, you're going through these experiences. I had played six tournaments on sponsor exemptions, kind of learning and improving every week, and I felt like I was really good spot and continuing to improve and playing really well, and all of a sudden after my first tee there at the Wyndham and the rest of the Web.com finals, it all became about managing that injury as opposed to trying to figure out how I could play my best golf. Definitely a new experience for me. Like I said, I had never had to withdraw from a tournament due to injury, but I feel like I've put a great team around me to get me get as healthy as I can, and I feel comfortable coming into this event. Q. Jimmy Walker has had a great career and is coming off great season and did well in the Ryder Cup. I asked him about being a young guy and when he was coming through the ranks just getting started and I asked him what it was like when he was your age, and he said that making the best use of his time was a vital thing. Have you been getting advice from some of the veteran players out there making your first steps and drawing from guys like Jimmy Walker? PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, I've definitely got some great advice, and it's been really cool to see a lot of the veteran players out here being so forthcoming with advice and trying to help young guys like me. It's been really cool to see. But I think a lot of things that you learn you kind of just have to experience it and go through it in order to really understand and comprehend what's important and figure out how you play your best golf, so for me just coming out here and experiencing the schedule and experiencing week after week out on the PGA TOUR, it's been a huge, huge experience for me, but there's been a lot of things that I've learned that I never really anticipated having to deal with, and the schedule is maybe a little bit more busier than I would have thought heading into it. But I feel much, much, much more comfortable starting here, this being my eighth TOUR event since I've turned pro, than I did let's say at the Travelers Championship, and at that time I probably thought I had it all figured out. Q. What's your schedule for the remainder of the year? PATRICK RODGERS: I'm going to try to play as many Fall Series events as I can, hopefully parlay some good play into some more events, but right now I have a sponsor's exemption next week into Las Vegas and into the Mayakoba in México. I'm really excited about those opportunities and hopefully make the most of them. I'm going to try to play as many tournaments on the PGA TOUR as I can prior to the Web.com season. I know how important that is and what a great opportunity that is, and I really want to give my best effort for that Web.com season. I'm going to try to have some great opportunities before that, but once that season starts, that will be my primary focus. Q. Are you doing Q‑school to try to improve status? PATRICK RODGERS: No, I'm fully exempt on the Web.com TOUR, which is really nice. It's nice for me to have secured a full‑time schedule. I think for a young professional that's one of the biggest challenges is getting to that point where you have a full list of events to play. Kind of most guys starting out, they're focused on where they're going to play the next week or maybe the next couple weeks, but for me to have a whole season to be able to plan and to be able to schedule is going to be really, really beneficial. Q. If you had to grade your first two months as a pro, what grade would you give yourself? PATRICK RODGERS: I really have high expectations for myself. I've always set the bar very, very high, and I've set some goals that have been difficult to achieve, so I'm always not super satisfied with how I've played, good or bad, but I don't think it's right for me to give myself a grade. I know that I have a lot to improve on. I know there's a lot of things that I've done really well, so I kind of just have to keep building on the things that I'm doing well and improving on the things that I've struggled with. Q. Have you had a chance to spend any time this week with Cameron Wilson, your former teammate at Stanford? PATRICK RODGERS: I just saw him for the first time actually. I know he's been out here Bay Area for a little bit, and I've been a little bit busy with schedule. I'm trying to move into a new place. But no, it's going to be great to have him here this week. Like I said, it was a little bit different heading to here from Fort Worth and being around a college event with my old college teammates, so it's going to feel very familiar Cameron here at the same tournament, and to be playing back in the Bay Area, and I think it's going to be really cool experience for both of us. I know we're very proud to be from Stanford and we're excited to be here kind of representing the University. Q. You've had experience playing for Conrad Ray at Stanford University and playing at such a high level, how did that prepare you and benefit you coming on to the TOUR? PATRICK RODGERS: Well, obviously Stanford is an unbelievable academic opportunity and an unbelievable academic opportunity, but to be honest I really chose to go to Stanford because I felt like it was the best place for me to develop as a golfer. I knew that I wanted to be a professional golfer when I was heading into school, and for me it was really about where do I feel like I can improve the most and what's the best golf opportunity for me. To be able to spend three years at Stanford, and my decision to turn pro was really a reflection of how accelerated my progress was compared to how I anticipated it being. It was an incredible experience. I felt like I learned so much. I felt like there was no better place for me to learn how to be a pro and to be prepared to play out here, and hopefully my success down the road will reflect how great of an experience it was to be at Stanford. Q. The keys to scoring on this golf course, in your opinion, what are the challenges that this golf course presents that you have to be aware of? PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, I just played it for the first time yesterday, so I'm still kind of sorting through some course strategy stuff. I'm going to go out and play it actually this afternoon. But it's really interesting. With the bunkering and the way the hole is shaped, I think it gives you a lot of options off the tee. I'm kind of sorting through playing the golf course really aggressively or kind of laying back and putting a really big importance or being in the fairway. I think the rough is up, and it's very thick, and it'll continue to get more thick, so that'll put a premium on being on the fairway, but definitely the length of the golf course is such that if you hit a lot of drivers you can have a lot of short clubs and a lot of scoring opportunities out here if you put the ball in play. Q. Are you going to base yourself out of Southern California then? PATRICK RODGERS: No, I just moved down with a couple buddies down to Jupiter, Florida. I'm very proud to be from Indiana, but the weather for a professional golfer there is not very conducive for success, so I'm going to base myself for the winters down in Jupiter, Florida. Q. Were you just talking about going to the Stanford game or were you thinking about that? PATRICK RODGERS: I'm hoping to. I'm trying to figure out my schedule, tee‑time‑wise and throughout the week. I'm definitely going to put 100 percent focus on this event, but it would be cool to be able to get back down to campus. I know there's a lot of friends that I've missed seeing and hope to connect with throughout the week, and maybe some of them will come up here, but if not I'm really looking forward to connecting with those guys back down on campus. It'll be really good to be back. Q. Is that Nerd Nation? Are you part of that? PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, most athletes do have to study at Stanford. I don't know if I can say the same about most schools. Q. How much time did you spend with Andrew Luck, and any great advice that's translated onto the golf course? PATRICK RODGERS: Yeah, it was really cool. My sophomore year I was kind of weighing the pros and cons of turning professional and trying to make my way and trying to figure out what was the best route for me to take from becoming a top college to becoming a professional, and it was really, really cool. He took the time and he was out on campus and he sat down and had some breakfast with me and just talked about his experience in football, and obviously it's much different from golf, but he did his best to kind of relate the two, and it was really, really great for me to hear from a guy that just left Stanford, the same University I was attending, and kind of immersed himself in the professional world. Hearing about his experiences and what values he placed on different aspects of the situation, it was huge for me to go back and spend my junior year at Stanford and realize how important that year would be for me. I think he was‑‑ he played a huge part in not only that year that I spent at Stanford, my junior year, but the success I had there and hopefully the success that I'm going to have in professional golf. It's been really cool to continue that relationship forward. Obviously he's kind of transplanted to Indianapolis, and that's home for me, so it's been cool to continue that relationship, and obviously I'm a huge Colts fan, and it's really, really fun to watch him play. JOHN BUSH: Patrick Rodgers, best of luck this week. 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
|