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HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 20, 2015Byron SmithLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: We would like to welcome Byron Smith to the interview room here at the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation. A local here from Palm Springs making your first start in the Humana Challenge, kind of want to talk about your thoughts playing in your first Humana Challenge and maybe a little something about growing up in this area attending the event. BYRON SMITH: Sure, yeah. No, it's pretty unreal for me to play in thing finally. I grew up here in the desert and been coming here for a long time. So, to play in it is pretty special. But I realized yesterday it's been like a really long time since I played that Nicklaus Course, so I don't know about any kind of home field advantage here for me. And these guys have been playing in this event for a long time, but still it's a home game and yeah, I'm just super excited because it's a dream come true. It really is. So, yeah. I'm excited. MARK STEVENS: All right. Thank you. Questions. Q. I think at media day you mentioned that YOU WERE watching John Cook win here, over at Bermuda Dunes. Are there any other memories like that that you have? BYRON SMITH: It's funny because when I was a kid I wasn't as involved in the actual tournament itself. I remember that week family friends with the Cooks, we were obviously I was pretty invested in the outcome of the event, but I more remember the clinics like the Chi Chi Rodriguez clinics that he would put on and stuff like that. Because I always enjoyed golf, but I wasn't as into it as I'm sure a lot of my contemporaries were at that time in their lives. For instance, yesterday, there's two kids over at my club at the Palms there that I brought out that are both in high school and they remember where pins were from coming out and watching, I'm thinking, gosh, when I was 17 I couldn't tell you the next year where the pins were or where guys hit it or where you want to be. So, yeah, I remember just the overall atmosphere. I remember following Cookie and when he would play with good players like Freddie, I loved Freddie. I just watched him hit balls and really admiring how they got around the golf course and how they kind of mingled with the gallery and their amateur partners, but what really sticks out in my mind is that Chi Chi Rodriguez clinic when I was 10 years old and he was doing all kinds of cool stuff with a golf ball and I thought, that's pretty neat. Q. Was there a time when you remember thinking to yourself, you know, one of these days I am going to play here? Was that in high school or after? BYRON SMITH: No, it was after. I was probably a professional by then. I never really had aspirations until, even in college it wasn't very high on my priority list and hence I didn't, I quit the team and didn't really pursue it. Once I turned pro, obviously it was up there on the list. Everything I did was in order to get to this point. But, yeah, I didn't really dream of playing on TOUR when I was a kid. Q. Correct me if I'm wrong you said when you turned pro you still had the set of golf clubs that you used in high school? BYRON SMITH: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I used it obviously for the two years I was on the team at Pepperdine I used the same clubs I used in high school. When I turned pro was the first time I got fitted for a set of clubs. So, yeah, I did have the same Mizunos that I was using as a sophomore in high school when I turned pro. I knew I had a long way to go. It was nice when you said, I've been waiting 10 years for this, and I have, too, but it was one of those things where I knew it wasn't going to be a two or three year program it was probably going to take bit longer than that, given my lack of experience. But here we are now and it's pretty unreal. Q. So this week you're the guy out between the ropes and guys are going to be watching you. Those kids from high school or whatever. What's that feel like? When the situation has been flipped on its head. BYRON SMITH:  It's awesome. I try to think what did I admire when I was a kid and but it's just great to be in that position. It's really fortunate spot to be where kids look up to you, whether you like it or not, that's the situation I'm in. Just really try to make the best of it and if you could have any impact, I mean even yesterday, there was nobody out here, I didn't play, I kind of wanted to play a practice round with somebody who these kids that I brought out maybe looked up to. And I just played by myself and let them walk inside the ropes with me. And it was awesome for them. I was a little disappointed maybe if I could get a game with somebody and these guys can really make their day, but I didn't and they still had an unbelievable time. So, it's just pretty cool to be in that position and just try to do something with it. That's what I'm going to try to do. Q. I know your dad's a big fan of this event too. What do you think it's going to be like for him on Thursday when you are actually playing in the field for the first time? BYRON SMITH: Yeah, he's my biggest fan, no doubt. He's been right there with me every step of the way, so I think this one's pretty special for him. Everyone, I mean the first event I played at the Frys was my first start on TOUR, it was a big deal for him. Every week's a big deal for him. But this one especially I think he bought, I mean he bought crazy amount of tickets when they first came out. And I don't think he's having any problems giving them away. There's going to be a lot of folks out, people have come out of the woodwork already and it's pretty exciting. It's going to be a proud moment for him for sure, just to kind of, with the hometown crowd out there and he's going to see a lot of old faces and friends and he's got people, what was it, like yesterday, like his old high school tennis coach or something like that called and happens to be in town and wants tickets. So he's got people coming out of the woodwork as well. So it's definitely going to be a proud moment for him and I'm sure he's really excited. Q. Do you think it's going to be an issue for you golfing with such a big gallery perhaps the biggest one following you that you played with? BYRON SMITH: We'll see. I'm trying to anticipate it and kind of prepare for it mentally. But I'm just going to enjoy it and soak it in. It will be cool. It will be really cool. I'll see a lot of folks and I'll try my best to balance out being cordial and polite while still trying to maintain some level of focus. But this event is kind of unique and in the sense that we're playing with amateurs, playing different courses, so I think it already has more of a laid back environment to it. A lot of the players because the veterans are pretty accommodate continuing to rookies out here I've found, surprisingly. And they try to give you pointers here and there. And this one you're playing foursomes with two amateurs, it's a little bit more loose and there's more time for joking. And goofing around and just telling store rest and stuff. Because you always want to do that in between shots, because it's four and a half, five hours is a long time to really stay locked in. It's almost impossible. So you kind of want to click it on and off. But this one I think there's a lot more story telling and joking in between shots and a lot more waiting in between shots. So, it will be a loser environment inside the ropes and there will be a lot more people outside the ropes watching me I'm sure than I've had in my first six starts out here. So, I'm just going to try to enjoy it and make the best of it and hopefully play some good golf and give them something to get excited about. Q. Which brings up the question of what your game is like. You obviously got off to a really good start at the Frys and made a couple of cuts. Haven't made one in the last couple, missed by one last week, I think? BYRON SMITH: Yes. Last two. Q. Where is your game coming into this week? BYRON SMITH: It's good. The last three events in the fall I think I was leaking oil a little bit. It was along season for me. We didn't really have much of a break after the WEB finals and the fall season. So the first two, I mean, even the Frys I finished Top‑20 and I had two pretty mediocre rounds in there and in Vegas I had a bad Sunday, it could have been a better finish for me, but the last three I started getting a little fatigued and played well in Mexico, which was the last one of the fall and missed that by a shot. Then so I kind of, after the off season, I decided just to kind of scratch that, look at that as last year and start fresh here at the Sony. The Sony was a tricky golf course. I think that one requires maybe a little bit of experience and I played well. I really did. I just got nothing out of it. I ended up missing the cut by a shot. Which is always frustrating. But overall, I feel like tee to green everything's really good. I had a good off season. So, I should be firing on all cylinders, it's just a matter of ‑‑ I mean that's the beauty of golf you never know what you're going to get that day. Every day's kind of a surprise and a new challenge. But overall, yeah, everything's feeling pretty good. So hopefully I can put it together. MARK STEVENS: All right. Thank you for coming in. BYRON SMITH: Yeah. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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