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HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 22, 2015Michael PutnamLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: We'll get started. Michael Putnam. Got a 63 today in the opening round of the Humana Challenge. Right now it's you got a one‑shot lead. Talk about your round today and then we'll have a few questions. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, I played the Nicklaus. The course is in perfect shape. Greens are good. Started out slow. I was even par through six holes. 9‑under the last 12. So, I made a lot of birdies at the end. Hit a lot of close shots, a lot of five, 10 foot putts, but I made them all, so I got to be happy about that. MARK STEVENS: Questions. Q. Guys always talk about getting on hot streaks, particularly at this tournament. But it always is a little different for each guy. Some guys hit it into a foot every time or some guy just starts making every putt. Yours was iron play more today? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, it was wedge play, really. I had wedge, started making birdies on 8, wedge on 8, wedge on 9, wedge on 10.  Three birdies in a row right there. I'm probably wedged it a lot on the back, too. So, yeah, it was wedge play to four to six feet. Then, yeah, I even had a water ball today, a penalty. Q. Where? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Penalty on hole six. The par‑5. Is that 6? Q. Yes. MICHAEL PUTNAM: 6, the par‑5. I hit a 6‑iron in my hand for my second shot and hit it in the water. That's no good. Q. 63, obviously always a good score, but a shot ahead, you may be tied by the end of the day, do you worry about the top of the leaderboard at this tournament before let's say Saturday night? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Not really. Just because you're playing all three different golf courses. You got to kind of mentally throw this one away because you're not going to play the Nicklaus until next year now and focus for me on the Palmer tomorrow and then La Quinta on Saturday. Obviously there's 54 holes, there's a lot of birdies going to be made in 54 holes by a lot of guys. So I got to make a lot of birdie. Q. You're not going to play the Nicklaus next year. MICHAEL PUTNAM: I heard. Stadium maybe. Q. These two are not going to be played. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Perfect. Q. So, you come over and play a practice round or something? MICHAEL PUTNAM: So, yeah, I finished my Nicklaus tournament, so that's great. Q. We have all these books and blogs we have been reading about you and everybody, but I would like to hear more from you. Tell us yourself, your best Major finish, how you really got into the game all that stuff that is kind of hard to come by. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, my fourth year on TOUR. My first ever TOUR, I lost in the NCAA Championship in a playoff my senior year of college. Q. For who? MICHAEL PUTNAM: For Pepperdine. And then I got my first start on TOUR and still my best ever finish on TOUR, tied for fourth. Tied for best finish. I had a tie for fourth place last year as well. But I been on TOUR four years and WEB.COM four years, kind of bouncing back and forth. Had a few injuries in my career, broke my left wrist twice. Just had a solid year last year and looking to have a solid 10 years. Q. Broke your left wrist playing golf? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, hitting golf shots. On the range and in Raleigh, North Carolina, I can remember the day, so. And I was on TOUR that year and it kind of ‑‑ so I lost my card because of that. Q. When was that? MICHAEL PUTNAM: That was 2011. And then 2013 was Player of the Year on the WEB.COM. Q. And you broke your wrist again? MICHAEL PUTNAM: No. 2011, no, I think I broke it in 2007, but it's not medically documented. (Laughter.) Q. How does that happen, is it just like a consequence of the swing or? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, just repetitive movement, it was a stress fracture they call it. It happens to guys every year. Kevin Stadler right now ‑‑ I don't know if I should say that. Q. Did you have to have surgery on it? MICHAEL PUTNAM: No, just in a cast for four months. Q. You grew up in L.A.? MICHAEL PUTNAM: From Seattle. I grew up in Tacoma just south of Seattle. Huge Seahawk fan. MARK STEVENS: Looking for tickets. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Looking for tickets. Q. Seahawk fan looking for tickets? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah. There will be a lot of us. MARK STEVENS: Your brother kind of‑‑ his brother's a rookie on TOUR, he was playing well in the fall, did that motivate you in the off season to come back. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, it did. This ‑‑ because of how he played and just kind of his drive for the game, I had the best off season I've ever had as a professional golfer working the hardest I ever worked, working on my game, working on my physical body, working on nutrition. And he really pushed that, because he had, my brother had a really good start to the year, I think he had a 12th and a 30th place finish and made all the cuts this fall. It definitely is really pushing me, because I want to beat him pretty bad. Q. Older or younger? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Younger, so he's five years younger, yeah. Q. You got to beat him. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah. Q. Was there always some one‑upsmanship in the family between you guys? MICHAEL PUTNAM: He's five years younger, so not much. But he kind of followed in my foot steps a little bit, he went to Pepperdine as well and kind of saw a lot of record I set at Pepperdine and he broke a lot of those records. So we hadn't really played against each other that much because he's so much younger but now that he's turned pro and out here, we get to play against each other every week. Q. Have you been in the same foursome with him? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Just once on the WEB.COM two years ago. Q. How did that go? MICHAEL PUTNAM: I beat him pretty bad. Q. Do you still remind him of it? MICHAEL PUTNAM: I do. Except we played the first two rounds together and I think I had a six stroke lead on him and then he ended up clipping me by one at the end of the tournament, so. Q. Talk about this tournament and the way players are approaching it, the format's different, I mean you have got the conditions out here, it's very forgiving, about as forgiving as any place on TOUR, I would imagine. What's the approach going in? Knowing that you're going to be playing different courses, you're going to be playing with amateurs, it's a little different from the norm. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, I mean for me, being this is my I think third year playing in the Humana, this year I took it really relaxed. I only played two nine hole practice rounds. A lot of guys, especially rookies who haven't seen these play three rounds on all the courses, to try to figure it out. And I tried to take it really relaxed, knowing it's going to be along week, long rounds, you're in the sun for six hours a day, but it's a fun event. Conditions are perfect, like you said. If you're not playing well this week or shot shooting under par this week it's going to be hard to shoot under par next weak in Phoenix or Torrey or all the other courses that kind of beat you up. Q. Do you have to kind of adjust your approach to playing in a foursome with two pros and two amateurs? MICHAEL PUTNAM: For sure. It's a lot slower game because you're watching four‑balls being hit instead of three. And they paid a lot of money to play with us, so we try to treat them well and help them have a good time. Whereas, if it was just a normal group we just kind of think about ourselves. Q. Given the wrist injury and the WEB.COM time and everything, are you kind of where you felt like you would be at this point in your career or do you feel like you're a little behind where you wanted to be? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, that's such a tough question. Golf is so crazy. I think that's one of the things I learned. I thought I would be a lot farther in my career right now. I had a great college career, I was kind of top two or three guy coming out of college my senior year, so typically for me I thought I would just jump on the PGA TOUR and play the next 20 years. But that's not how it happened and it is what it is, so I'm out here now trying to make the best of it. Q. Can you describe the NCAA final. What happened when year was that did you lose in a playoff is that what you said? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yes, 2005, and we were at Caves Valley in Maryland. Q. Caves Valley? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Caves Valley. And I mean I was leader going into the final round, shot 69 which was a really good score out there and I got beat by a course record by a guy named James Lepp out of the University of Washington and he now sells golf shoes. Q. Funny the way that works. MARK STEVENS: Did you know him? MICHAEL PUTNAM: I knew him really well because he was from Vancouver, BC and I'm from Seattle, so he played a lot of junior golf in Washington and he was a great player. He won a couple Canadian TOUR events as an Amateur, but just lost his love for the game and now sells golf shoes. Q. What's his name? MICHAEL PUTNAM: James Lepp. L E P P. Q. So tomorrow you go to Palmer. MICHAEL PUTNAM: Palmer. Yes. Q. Do you notice the rotation or are the courses not similar, obviously, La Quinta is a lot different, but is it just like there's no really game plan just go out and go low? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Conditions are really similar on all three. The green speeds are pretty similar, the firmness is pretty similar, with the exception La Quinta's a little faster and a little firmer. But they keep these courses in such good shape, with the rough pretty low, that this game plan is go make birdies every where. There's a good score shot every year. Q. Dormant rough over here La Quinta is not dormant over there. Preference there? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Right. It's one inch long anyway so it doesn't matter. (Laughter.) Q. When you were at Pepperdine was the home course Riviera, was that where you guys played? MICHAEL PUTNAM: We played there once a semester we got to play there. So it was kind of our treat course to go play. Q. Do you always come and play the Northern Trust? MICHAEL PUTNAM: I do, yeah, I love that tournament, I love that place, yeah. Q. This year too? MICHAEL PUTNAM: Yeah, I'll be there this year. MARK STEVENS: Well, thank you, Michael. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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