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THE McGLADREY CLASSICOctober 22, 2014Ben MartinSEA ISLAND, GEORGIA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Ben Martin into the interview room here at the McGladrey Classic, making his third start at this event, and he's coming off of his first PGA TOUR victory last week at the Shriners. Ben, welcome back to the McGladrey. If we can just get some comments on your win last week and then your goals for the week. BEN MARTIN: Yeah, obviously last week was a big step in the right direction for my professional career, starting my fifth full season as a pro, third on the PGA TOUR, had three third‑place finishes last year, so I feel like I put myself in the mix on Sunday, and the second event of the year, put myself there again and was‑‑ didn't have a whole lot going on Sunday but proud of the way I finished, 4‑under in the lost four to win by two. It was a big confidence boost and a big‑‑ it's nice to have a PGA TOUR card for the next three seasons really, so early in this one. And this week, it's beenI feel like a lot going on for me since I won on Sunday. It seems like a long time ago. I'm looking forward to trying to put all that behind me and go out to compete this week. I'm playing with Davis and Chris Kirk, so a little bit of a new pairing for me on Thursday and Friday. But just looking forward to getting back on the golf course. Q. I remember talking to you last year, I don't know if it was at New Orleans or where, but you had kind of come off a streak of seven or eight missed cuts and you had talked about kind of refocusing some of your goals. You had been focusing too much on winning and kind of changed to I forget if it was moving up in the FedExCup or making the TOUR Championship. I was curious if you had continued that throughout the year and if that had contributed to the win. BEN MARTIN: Yeah, last year, I'll go back to my season on the Web.com, I had a goal to win twice and get my PGA TOUR card, and I won twice and did that. So I thought, hey, that was a good goal. I'll do that on the PGA TOUR. Well, I wasn't playing well and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself week to week and I was missing a lot of cuts, so I kind of refocused and I said instead of trying to win let's focus on trying to move up the FedExCup each week, and my goal was to be in the TOUR Championship, which obviously I didn't. I made it through two of the four events, so I didn't do what I wanted to. Even though I had a good season, I still came up short of what I wanted to do, so I was kind of having a bad taste in my mouth at the end of last year and certainly motivation going into this year. But yeah, I think wins just‑‑ at least for me, if I press a little bit too hard to win, it's probably not going to happen, so it's just a matter of getting in the mix and being consistent and giving myself those opportunities and eventually it's going to happen. Q. If you look at the way last season ended, you only played two playoff events, you had a bit of an off‑season. Can you talk about the importance of having that time off, getting ready and having that fresh mindset going into Vegas? BEN MARTIN: Yeah, when I qualified for the British Open last year, I played there and then I took two weeks off, I played the PGA, I took a week off, and then I started the Playoffs. So I really only played four events coming into this year since mid‑July, I guess. So I felt fresh, I felt ready to play. Probably week one I was probably maybe a little rusty, I don't know, just getting back in the tournament mindset, but last week I really tried to turn up my mental energy, my focus, and kind of get things rolling again. Yeah, I could have thought about my schedule kind of going forward this fall after getting off to a good start, I could take some more time off, but really I've had so much time off the last three months that I think I'm going to play Jackson, play México, while I'm‑‑ it's only two weeks into the season, so I don't really know if I'm playing well or not because I finished last the first week and won the second week, so we'll see what happens the third week. Obviously I'm trending in the right direction, so strike while the iron's hot. Q. Can you kind of give us what your itinerary has been since you won in Vegas? I think you played in the Monday pro‑am and just kind of when you stepped off the golf course in Vegas, kind of how you got from there to this point right now? BEN MARTIN: Yeah, I did all the media stuff after the tournament and got back to the hotel room, and my wife and I were so tired, we just ordered room service, and then we left Vegas Monday morning at 7:00, and traveling back from the West Coast was‑‑ it's usually an all‑day affair, so we didn't get to Sea Island until 7:30 Monday night. And then just tried to‑‑ I'm still working on getting back to all the texts and calls and stuff I have in my phone from friends, so I've been doing a lot of that. I went out and played nine holes yesterday afternoon, and then with the management group down here, Lagardère, used to be Crown Sports, so I've been hanging out with those guys. We had a little get‑together last night, and now pro‑am today and tee it up tomorrow. I feel like it's been kind of nonstop, but all good problems to have. Q. Obviously you grew up kind of in the shadow of Augusta National, not so far away in Greenwood. What's been your experience there other than the time that you played as an amateur, and how much does it mean to you to get there as a professional now and how different do you think it'll be at this stage of your career as opposed to the first time? BEN MARTIN: Yeah, Greenwood is about probably 50, 60 miles from Augusta, so my grandfather got tickets, so I think the first year I went was in 1995, and pretty much every year from then on through high school, and just great memories of my dad and I going as a kid and seeing‑‑ getting autographs, pictures. And then runner‑up U.S.Amateur 2009, playing the 2010 Masters was‑‑ I mean, that's about as good as it gets for somebody that grew up that close to Augusta and going to the tournament, staying in the Crow's Nest, all the perks of being an amateur that you really don't get to experience as a pro. I'm excited to see the differences, but that was my‑‑ I played in the U.S. Open before that at Bethpage, but still, not really in a comfort zone, and I think there's very few Ams who could be. Some guys are, but certainly I have a little bit of experience at the course. I'll know the guys better that I'm competing against. But that's‑‑ any time you get to play at Augusta, you're looking forward to the next time you get to go. I'd love to win that one one day and get to go every year. Q. You talked about finishing almost last at Frys and then winning the next week. I'm curious what the biggest difference was. Maybe it wasn't as sharp the first week or what you found? BEN MARTIN: I don't exactly know the answer. I guess it's just golf. I think to a certain extent, I was playing at home and I had five weeks off, and I felt like, all right, I want to be relaxed. I want to be free, and that's kind of the mindset. I was playing at home with my buddies, and I think I took that same kind of energy level to the PGA TOUR, and it didn't really translate well for me. I was just kind of rehashing the week, like all right, I'm going to turn up the energy level and really focus on this week, focus on each round, focus on each shot, and that was the biggest difference. There wasn't anything in my swing or anything like that. Q. You took the lead on Saturday, or a share of the lead Saturday, right, and then‑‑ BEN MARTIN: Yeah, I want to say I had a three‑shot lead going into Saturday. Two, three. Q. What does it mean to be able to go out on a Sunday knowing that you're the guy that everybody is looking at and close because that seems to be one of the hardest sort of things to learn is being a closer. What did it mean to be able to do that really your first opportunity at it? BEN MARTIN: It was big, yeah. It was tough because even though I didn't mean to do it, but I was out there kind of playing conservative and didn't want to make mistakes, but at a course where you have to shoot 20‑under par to win, you're not really going to get away with hitting to the middle of the green and making pars. But I like to‑‑ I tell myself, I'm a finisher. You've got to be a finisher if you want to win golf tournaments, and that's what happened. I didn't really have a whole lot going on Sunday, but making an easy birdie, two‑putt birdie on 15, was big, and then got a little momentum going, and playing the last four holes 4‑under to win by two is‑‑ I finished the way that I always think that I can. Q. The eagle putt was at 16? BEN MARTIN: 16. Q. In that instance, had you gone through something like that in your mind? Clearly that gave you the momentum coming down the stretch. Kevin was closing on you. Have you kind of looked back and realize how big that was and how you handled the pressure? BEN MARTIN: A little bit. Yeah, I've watched a little bit of the coverage, and I didn't realize how close Kevin was to birdieing 18, which would have made me have to make the birdie putt at 18 to win. But yeah, I went from one down to one up on 16 and didn't really even know it at the time how big it was. I guess drawing from some past experiences, I eagled 16 in the first round, and I'd been playing 14, 15, 16 well all week, so even though I wasn't playing well, as well as I'd like to on Sunday, I knew that, hey, I've had some success here the whole week, so this is kind of where I'm going to get it done. Q. Did you watch the coverage on Sunday after you got done? BEN MARTIN: Yeah, I went back to the hotel, and while I was eating my pizza in the room, I watched like the last four holes. Q. Did you get more nervous watching the coverage afterwards? BEN MARTIN: I did. I got done, and my wife was like, man, your palms are sweating. (Laughter.) JOHN BUSH: Ben Martin, thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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