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ISPS HANDA PERTH INTERNATIONALOctober 21, 2014Jason DufnerPERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the Perth International, Jason. Fantastic to have you here. How has your time in Perth been so far? JASON DUFNER: Good. I got in on Saturday. Got a little rest. Played a little golf on Sunday and Monday. Been a good experience so far. I love coming over here to Australia and playing some golf. The courses are good. The competition is good, and the people of Australia really enjoy their golf. So it's really good to be here. THE MODERATOR: Is the course as you remember it? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think it'll be pretty similar to a couple years ago. We had some weather I guess Saturday. I slept through all that mess. Had some weather on Saturday and a little on Sunday. With it being as cool as it is and the wind seems to be picking up a little bit, I think the course will get firm and fast and be quite challenging again. THE MODERATOR: Question? Q. How is your neck? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I'm feeling better. Every day is a little different. Some days I feel a little bit better than others. I've been able to kind of practice and play a little bit back home for about two and a half weeks now, so I feel pretty good right now. Q. What was the nature of the injury? JASON DUFNER: Couple different things: I had some issues in my shoulder, issues in my neck, some issues with muscle tightness which entrapped the nerves coming out of my neck, which gave me kind of a dead, numb arm. But I am feeling better, so I'm going in the right direction. Q. Are you confident you can hold up through the four days? JASON DUFNER: Not sure. Going to find out. That's what we're here to see. Haven't played competitive golf since I had to withdraw. But I feel a lot better. I feel like it was worth coming over here and giving it a go. We'll see. That'll be the thing, how the day after playing competitive rounds. I'm going to take the day off today and do a little bit of light practice, and then I got five days in a row, which I really haven't done, to be honest with you. So see though goes. Q. Can you give us any insight into your rehab and what you've done to get back to where you are now? JASON DUFNER: I was pretty much out of commission for about 6 to 8 weeks. I didn't do much of anything 6 weeks, just a lot of treatment. Little bit of strengthening for my shoulder, and then I slowly started to work on some other areas to get stronger, and then back into golf. So, yeah, it's just a lot of trying to get everything calmed down in my shoulder and neck. Obviously golf is pretty hard on both of those joints, so we'll see how it goes after playing some competitive rounds. Your health really isn't linear. Kind of go up and down. So I feel good right now. Q. (Question regarding watching Ryder Cup.) JASON DUFNER: Didn't watch any golf. Totally detached myself from golf during that point. Didn't watch one minute of the Ryder Cup. Followed it a little bit; had some friends on there. But I wasn't too interested in golf or what was going on in the golfing world during that time period. Q. What did you get up to? JASON DUFNER: Got into a lot of different things. I don't think you get to appreciate things too much as far as the simple things in life when we're always out here traveling and playing. So I really enjoyed being at home. Got spend some time with my wife, with fans‑‑ sorry, friends. Got to enjoy college football, which I like a lot. I got to experience some new things. I got into cooking. Been cooking a lot at home. Just doing different things you don't get to do on the road. It was disappointing that I was injured, but it wasn't miserable for me. I wasn't dying at home, so to speak. Q. Did you have to change your swing? I mean, I can empathize. JASON DUFNER: Haven't done anything like that. I think I just had a lot of wear and tear. I've had a shoulder issue for three or four years I've been dealing with. It got to the point where it got pretty bad. Q. Do you feel mentally refreshed now? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think so. We'll see how it goes when I get out in competition. I feel much better physically. I feel a little bit rested mentally. Excited to get back to playing some competitive golf over the next month or so. So I think the break was good, yeah. Q. Is this something you're just going to have to manage? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think so. It'll be something that I have to manage. I think at some point it'll get strong enough that maybe I can back off some of the strengthening, I but think I'll always be dealing with it. Like I said, I've been dealing with it for three or four years. Just got to the point where it wasn't really manageable end of last year, start of this year actually. Q. What will your schedule be? JASON DUFNER: Play next week in Malaysia and week after in China and week after in Thailand. So pretty ambitions. Q. (No microphone.) JASON DUFNER: No, no idea. I haven't gotten that far. I'm trying to see how this week goes and hopefully be able to play next week. Q. (Question regarding the football stadium. ) JASON DUFNER: Good. Yeah, it was fun. Never been out to one of those stadiums before. The field size is much bigger than what we see in the States for our football. We had a good time. Hitting of the target from 170 meters was a little ambitious I think for us, but good thing Brett got it on the halfway there or we could still be there firing because I wasn't going to hit it. Q. Do you know much about Australian football? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, a little bit. Used to play a co‑sanctioned event over here in Adelaide with what is now the web.com Tour. Used to play in February and March. I think that's the start of the season or maybe pre‑season. So we used to catch some games. Never went in person, but you can see them on television. It's pretty popular here. Probably comparable to NFL in the States. Yeah. Q. (No microphone.) JASON DUFNER: No, I don't know about that. I'm going to stick to the golf. Q. Just since you won the major how has your life changed? JASON DUFNER: Not too much really. A little bit more media type of stuff, obligations. But I think day‑to‑day it's been the same. For me at least. You know, you just have a little bit more responsibility. You have to manage your time a little bit better. I think outside pressure as far as expectations about how you're supposed to play maybe rise a little bit, but I didn't pay too much attention to it. I felt like I was going to keep continuing to do the things that I needed to do to play well. I was doing that for the most part up until the U.S. Open when I started to really feel poorly. Q. (Question regarding the majors.) JASON DUFNER: Oh, you know, those are tough. There are only four of them a year. Guys are trying to win them. It's a tough thing. You see a lot of great players that haven't won. You see some guys that you wouldn't expect to win them. Good thing is I'm exempt for the next four years to play in all of them, so it'll give me good chance. Hopefully get your game peaking at the right time. Need a little bit of luck, need a little bit of course fitting your game so to speak. I think Oak Hill was a great fit for my game, the style that I play. The majors we played this year were probably not a good fit for my game. You saw a lot of guys that could hit it far played extremely well this year in the majors. So, you know, course setup matters to me. We'll see how the future holds with the golf courses, how they stack up. Q. And on your chances this week? JASON DUFNER: That's a good question. I guess we'll find out. Haven't played competitive golf in 11 weeks. I don't have that many expectations. I'm going to go out there. Feel like I can play 18 holes with out any pain, that'll be a good thing. Get rolling in the right direction again. Q. (Question regarding the field.) JASON DUFNER: No, not really, but it is a strong field. Got a great event here. I think guys love coming to Perth, love coming to Australia playing. Great test of golf, too. It's a wonderful golf course. The conditions will be firm and fast. It will be very challenging too, for us. Q. How much confidence would to give you if things go well for you here? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think it would be a great starting point for me. I've had some experience here at this golf course. I've played pretty well last time I was here. If I come out and contend and have a chance to win on Sunday, I would feel pretty good about the direction I'm going with my health and obviously with my game. Q. With regard to your game, what area of your game is the biggest to get up to speed? JASON DUFNER: Well, right now or long‑term? Right now just be nice to be able to play 18 holes without any pain. Haven't done that in a while. So we'll see. Q. In rehab were you able to work on your short game? JASON DUFNER: A little bit. Been working on my putting. Some different stuff I've been doing. For me the biggest thing would be putting, if I could take my putting to the next level. That was one nice thing in that stretch I was table commit an hour and a half, two hours a day almost to one of my weaknesses, which was putting. I'm excited about the direction I've ben going with that. See how it goes in competition. Haven't had any repetitions under fire, so to speak, but it will be fun to be out there and try something new with my putting. Q. Jason, long trip down here. How many hours were you in transit? Any special measures to try avoid getting stiff? JASON DUFNER: No, it was good traveling. Felt pretty good getting on the plane, felt good getting off. About 35 hours from my front door to the hotel front door, so that's a day and a half just about. Missed Friday. Missed the whole day on Friday. But it's good. Slowly get is comfortable with the time change, sleeping a little bit more every night, and feeling pretty good. So I'm excited to be here and feeling good. Long trip is over now. Just have a couple short ones and then back over. Q. How many movies did you see? JASON DUFNER: I slept. I think we flew 13 hours from L.A. I slept 10 of them. Yeah, I can sleep pretty good on the plane. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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