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HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 10, 2015Jimmy WalkerKAPALUA, HAWAII JOHN BUSH: 5‑under par 68, currently 11‑under par through 36 holes. Jimmy, another solid round, if we can get some comments on your play. JIMMY WALKER: I played good all day.  Hit some really good shots, flighting the ball good, made some good putts. It was pretty solid all around all day. Would have liked to have birdied 18, but that's the way it goes. Q. How would you compare it to last year? JIMMY WALKER: It's still just a real big golf course, and feel like I get lost off the tee a little bit because it's so expansive and you have to really focus. I remember last year thinking, I have to really focus on picking lines off the tee and really picking a target. You kind of get roped into that at other golf courses where it's so tight and narrow. Here it's just big. So you've really got to focus in. I think you have to concentrate just as hard here teeing off on some of these holes. But feel comfortable, it's fun to play. Risk, reward, whatever you want to do on some shots. They have got the grainy bermudagreens which I kind of grew up on in south Texas. Feels good. Q. What did you do on 17, what yardage, club did you hit, and why did it land so short? JIMMY WALKER: I hit it a little thick. I had about‑‑ trying to flight about 170, adjusted and still we were kind of thinking the wind was helping and down. And it kind of switched. I thought the wind kind of switched on 16 on my second shot where it was pushing more down instead of in and I hit it a little deep. The tee ball on 17 still got down there pretty good, and I kept fighting that good, thinking, is it in my face, is it helping. I just made a real bad‑‑ I was uncommitted and just hit it short of the green. That was a bummer. I hit too good of a drive to make five there. Q. Curious how many‑‑ compared to last year, ball not releasing as much downgrain? JIMMY WALKER: It's just softer. I think it's softer this year than it was last year. And just talking to the agronomy guys, they got dumped on right before we got here and again the week prior. So it's had a lot of rain. But I think you're used to, you watch it on TV and you're used to seeing shots. We were hitting shots last year short of 17 and it would bounce up on to the green. Not saying that that fat 8‑iron was going to do that, but you see shots into 18 do that, too. So guys in the past driving 12, I just don't see it happening. That's just too soft. It's not running as much. It's soft. You can feel it when you walk out there. The greens are soft. The fairways are soft. Q. Way back in the day, there was always a couple 80s this time of year, guys had not played in a couple months. It almost seems like the last couple years, when you talk about no off‑season or a shorter off‑season, there's less rust across the board. Do you get that sense at all? JIMMY WALKER: I'm sure, if you took three months off, and had not done much, yeah, it takes a little while to get back into the swing of things. I had Tiger's‑‑ I had the Hero World and played the Shark Shootout. I've been playing‑‑ I'll be honest, when I went home after those, it wasn't a lot of grinding. I went and had one good day, day and a half with Butch, where I really grinded hard. Then we went to Utah and Park City for Christmas, and we were there for seven, eight, nine days, something like that. Then got home and banged some balls and worked on the putting and stuff. I feel like I was ready to go when I got here. And I got here early, Friday before, and started‑‑ it's nice, the golf course is all ours. You get in a golf course and run around in two hours, 18 holes in two hours. It was fun to hit golf shots, and the range here is very secluded and you don't get any wind in there. You do get some wind, so you get some funky ball movement on the range. So it's nice to get on the golf courses because that's what you're going to do out here. It's not so much about swing mechanics out here, it's about shaping shots and hit being shots and it's very rare you're going to have that no wind where you can just make your normal pass at it. I always feel like you're doing something different. Q. It looked like 17 affected some of the golfers today. Was there another hole that kind of stuck out to you today on 13? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, that's an interesting drive because you almost don't want to, it's hard to lay back far enough where you don't hit the slope and then you hit it‑‑ and you hit it too far down there and it always runs into the rough and then you're trying to control a flyer out of there. I really tried to hold and feel a drive up into the hill, and I quit on it and hit into the bunker and hit that crazy shot out of there. It's a good hole.  When you hit it down there in the rough, it's hard, hard judging the wind. It's hard judging the flyer. It's a good hole. They are all good. Q. Growing up where you did, is it safe to assume you've always been a pretty good wind player? JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, it blows in south Texas, it does. And then went to school at Baylor, in Waco, so if you've ever been to Waco, it blows hard, especially in the winter, those fronts come down, so we get a lot of wind. Yeah, I'm used to playing in it. Q. You have Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker both at 11‑under, a little bit different games. What does the course allow you guys to do for both of you to get you up there? What does the course give you? JIMMY WALKER: I think a lot of the long holes seem to, they are long for a reason. It's because they play downwind. I don't think it's crazy. It's not like you're playing a 525‑yard par 4 with no wind or into the wind. Zach is a great player and he's proven he can win anywhere on any golf course. He's got a great wedge game. He's a good putter and he's very consistent off the tee. So that's a recipe for when he's on, he's going to be tough. As far as myself, drive it far, good iron player, good putter. When they are all playing good, I think it doesn't matter where you're playing golf honestly. Q. Just curious, if you have subscribe to the theory, winning is hard; was there a time close to a year ago that winning felt easy, and post‑Pebble when you played good golf, did winning feel harder than it felt harder in the first place‑‑ if you got there. JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, that was interesting. I think when I won Fry's, on the last hole, I tapped in and I was like, did I win, did that really just happen, and it did. It took just a second for it to really kind of sink in. I wasn't quite sure what was going on because it had been so long. Sony, it didn't feel easy‑‑ I wouldn't say it felt easy. We were in a good position and all of a sudden, I caught fire and stayed patient and caught fire. When you're playing good, yes, golf feels easy. Not going to say the wind felt easy, because I kept having to hit good quality golf shots. Hit it in the fairway, hit good shots. There's nothing easy about it. And then Pebble Beach, I've got a six‑shot lead with the back nine to go and nothing easy about it. A couple of bad putts, a 3‑putt, a par 5 I didn't convert and hit it over the green and easy birdie. So there's nothing about it. You win a tournament‑‑ I was like, man, that was easy; I don't think it's like that. Every one you have has got to be different. Maybe guys‑‑ I don't know, it would be interesting to get a candid answer about that topic if you could. JOHN BUSH: Jimmy Walker, thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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