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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 10, 2015Jimmy WalkerPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Jimmy Walker to the media center. Defending champion. Jimmy had four top‑10s in a row before his win here last year, three wins on the 2013‑2014 season and he's the current FedExCup leader in the standings. If you could some opening comments about returning to Pebble Beach. JIMMY WALKER: It's always nice to be back in this area. I think it's just a beautiful place. We love Carmel, we love coming here. I don't think there's any better place to play golf. Pebble Beach is, it's got beautiful sunny weather like it looks like we're going to have, it's a great place to be and we all like it. We have got a lot of friends here that we have met and it's just nice to come back. It's just a beautiful spot. THE MODERATOR: All right. Open it up for questions. Q. Now nice is it to win? JIMMY WALKER: Last year? It was really cool. Q. Let me rephrase that. What I mean is, winning's great, but is there anything different about winning on the 18th at Pebble compared to 18th anywhere else? JIMMY WALKER: I think so. Just the history this place has had, the Major championships it's held. You remember seeing the shots throughout the years, Nicklaus banging the pin down on 17 with a 1‑iron. Tiger winning by 15 shots in 2000. Watson chipping in. There's just a long list of history here and that's what is cool about this place, I think. So, when you have that and the history and the setting and the golf course and it just adds up to a really cool place. I can remember last year on Wednesday we were playing 18, Pebble Beach, on Wednesday, Andy and I were out there by ourselves, we were just talking and looking and it was so nice and we were like, how cool would it be to have a chance to win a golf tournament at Pebble Beach here, have a chance to win on the last day. To be able to do that last year was just a dream come true. It's cool. There's places you would like to win and this is definitely one of them. Q. What was first time you were here and what do you remember about that? JIMMY WALKER: First time I played here was the Callaway Invitational and that was about 2004. I think that was the first time I had ever been here. I had my girlfriend/wife at the time, she's now my wife, but girlfriend at the time, and brought her here and that might have helped solidify the deal bringing her here and hanging out. But we came and had a great time. We were just looking at some of the pictures over Christmas of when we were here and that was my first time. I remember the first time I played it it was not a cloud in the sky, no wind, I mean it was just a perfect day to go play golf at Pebble. And it's like, wow, this is about as good as it gets, I think, hanging out here. So that was my first time I was here. Q. What's as bad as it gets? JIMMY WALKER: I heard Saturday at Pebble was pretty bad. I was at MPCC and I was hitting 4 irons 170 yards, as hard as I could hit them. The shot that I was hitting was supposed to go about 220. So it was still pretty nasty at MPCC, but it's, you always hear stories of guys hitting 4‑iron into 7. I haven't experienced that yet. Hopefully I don't have to some day. Q. What's the longest club you hit in there? JIMMY WALKER: I always caught it ‑‑ I might have hit a pitching wedge, just chipping it down the hill. It seems like it's in and off the right when I've played it. But that's about it. Nothing too major heavy. Q. You won a couple times early this year, or two years ago or Pebble last year, what is it about the West Coast and your game early in the season that you play so well? JIMMY WALKER: I wish I knew. I feel like I'm pretty good out of the rough here. Especially in this native rye whatever you guys call it here all up‑and‑down the West Coast. I can usually get out of it pretty good. I don't mind putting on poa annua greens, I think it gets to a lots of guys. But I don't know why I seem to play well in California. I don't know. I enjoy the golf courses and when you enjoy the golf courses it sets you up mentally to be in a better frame of mind. If it was a golf course I didn't like and I was playing in California, I probably wouldn't play as good. But I do seem to like ‑‑ I do like all the courses we play here. Q. Now that you had so many wins in such a short period of time, you were just right on the lead Sunday, and didn't go your way. I'm curious what your mindset was Sunday now that you've had some success? JIMMY WALKER: What my mindset was last Sunday playing? I knew it was going to be hard. I thought that 3‑under, from where I was at, if I could get to 11 would probably win. I didn't know exactly how the weather was going to unfold. The wind picked up a little, a lot more than it had been all week. It played tough. I hit a couple iron shots that I thought were decent that didn't turn out very good. You short side yourself a little bit ‑‑ I just made too many bogeys on Sunday. I had plenty of fire power, I think four birdies and just missed a couple of putts that I could have made like the 10, 15 footers that I've been making, I just didn't make. It's hard to make putts out there, it really is. So I just didn't really make any on Sunday that I needed to make. I still had four birdies but they were all from quality iron shots and par‑5 chipping and stuff like that. So, just a few too many bogeys and we were right there. Q. I remember last year it was kind of your first time playing with really big lead here, curious what you learned from that. JIMMY WALKER: Well, then I wasn't sure, but at Sony this year, I didn't have a huge lead it was hard to tell what kind of a lead I had at Kapalua and I was just kind of trying to ‑‑ I thought that staying in front of Hideki was going to be the winner. I thought that was going to get it done. It would have, but Patrick holes out and he makes a couple of birdies and then all of a sudden he's right there. My plan on 14 was five pars coming in and we were thinking that was probably going to get it done to stay in front of Hideki and it turned out it would have been enough, I just bogeyed 14. So, last year I felt like I kept hitting it really good on the back nine, but a couple of putts didn't go in, I had some speed issues going up the hill on 13 and misjudged a chip on 14, the par‑5. So it was just a couple little things like that. I 3‑putted 17 with speed. It was all speed. So just concentrate on that a little more. That's usually not my weak suit is speed and putting and stuff like that, so that was different. I kept hitting it really good and it just, that's just kind of how it went. Q. Could you sort of characterize the TOUR today, it's always tough to win, but it just seems to me I'm seeing these bunched up lead words leaderboards to the point where four guys in a playoff and just this huge bunch up at the top almost every week. Could you kind of characterize what the TOUR is like today and do you see it just getting tougher and tougher out there? JIMMY WALKER: I think that it the quality of play, I'm not saying it's ‑‑ it's not like it was bad or anything, but I think you got more guys ready to go all the time. Where there's really no break in the season anymore, so it's like guys have to be ready to go at all times. So I think you have players that are ready to go today. They're ready to go Thursday through the week. But I think the golf course has a lot to do with leaderboards and how bunched up things get. There's certain courses that just and conditions that are going to stack guys in there together. Last week was one of them. It's a tough golf course, but it wasn't so difficult that you couldn't make some birdies. So I think that's why you saw the scores kind of bunch up last week. Then you got courses where you can see separation if they get really hard, guys that are hitting it really well, and managing their games, the field starts to separate. And then you got courses where the conditions are so easy somebody's really going to go low or three guys are really going to go low and they will separate, too. But last week was kind of a perfect storm of a golf course being just tough enough to get ‑‑ keep everybody together, because you could still manage up‑and‑downs around the greens and they were just soft enough to get up‑and‑down around. So that's kind of what I think about that. Q. Five tournaments into the year, and the winner with the worst ranking was Bill Haas. Does that surprise you? JIMMY WALKER: What was his ranking? Q. 41. Everyone else is, well it's been top players every week. It almost seems like that feeds into the idea that harder than ever out here. Just look at the leaderboards. Matsuyama has been there twice. JIMMY WALKER: You could look at it that way that it is getting harder. I think it's hard to win out here because like I was saying I think guys are ready to go and everybody's ready to go. It seems like Jason Day, he always seems like he's always right up there at the top. He was always right there. Martin played good and he played good the week before, you just see it kind of everybody starting to play pretty good. As far as top guys winning, more top guys winning, I think the game has kind of been pushed to a level where everybody's really elevating all their stuff, I think. I just think that's kind of the way it is. So it is tough to win, it's just try to get your self into position more and more and more and to have that chance. I was bummed I didn't play a little better last week on the weekend, but or I mean on Sunday, but like I said, it was a tough golf course that day. There were some guys that were going to play good. It's an interesting stat. Q. We talked about Jason a minute ago. I don't know what Jason has done, but he's had one finish out of the top‑10 his six or seven starts. You start the year 2‑1‑7. Which is pretty good. Well it's very good, actually. But do you look at something like that and it seems like there's four or five guys doing that. Rory has had nothing but anywhere from 1 to 5? JIMMY WALKER: Well I think that confidence is a big thing. It's being comfortable, feeling comfortable, managing your schedule where you feel like you're ready to go and when you show up and not just playing five in a row to play. I think that being fresh, feeling good, feeling confident, before I went to Hawaii, I went and worked with Butch for a couple days and felt like I really tuned up. Then again before last week, I went to Vegas and saw him again and felt like I got tuned up. I wanted one more little tune‑up in between those two weeks off to try to come in feeling as good as possible. It seems like ‑‑ it's funny, the better I play the more responsibility I feel to keep that up and personally for me it's fun, I love playing, I love playing good, and it's fun to be up around the top and having a chance. I think that you would ask anybody that that was there on the weekend last week it was like, yeah, it was so bunched up it was actually really fun, because there were so many guys that had a chance and it's the kind of golf course where you hit two good shots into 12, you make a birdie there somehow, then you birdie the par‑5 or make an eagle, I mean there was just all kinds of stuff that could happen. 18 they had it up so you could maybe have a chance to make eagle there. So there was always that feeling of being able to do something exciting and fun. It was cool with so many people packed in there. Because it was literally anybody's game. Q. Have you ever been motivated by anyone? JIMMY WALKER: Not in a ‑‑ I'm not going to say like in a while. When I was a kid my motivating factor was beating my dad. So that was really maybe the last guy that I was really motivated to really play against. There's always the top guys out here that are playing really well and it's fun to get in there and play with them and have a chance to beat those guys. Especially playing heads up when you get in a round with them, not like I'm out there trying to beat that guy, I'm out there trying to shoot a good score, but there's always little tests and things you can give your self, I think, to motivate you and push you and that. So that's what I'm trying to do is just keep pressing and motivating and trying to set goals and see what happens. It's just working hard. Q. I have to ask you just to follow that, how old were you when you finally beat your dad, assuming you have? JIMMY WALKER: I did. I was 15 when I finally beat him. I think I shot 68 to do it. So I had to play pretty good. I think I clipped him by a shot that day. Q. I was going to ask you about Jordan Spieth. Obviously, his name comes up a lot being such a young talented, a mature player. Ryder Cup, his accomplishments are growing, but he has that sort of steadiness that you like to see as well. What are your thoughts on him when you look at him kind of his makeup as a player. JIMMY WALKER: Well, Jordan off the golf course is a quality guy. Every time I've hung out with him he's been very nice, he seems mature beyond his years. So, I like Jordan personally. I think that's ‑‑ and he's a really good kid. He's got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and I think he takes it really well. But as far as on the golf course, the guy, when the guy's putting well, I mean he's really tough to beat. You saw what he did at the Hero this year. When he starts putting good, he had that stretch where he won two in a row? Yeah. By big shot margins. So, when he gets rolling, he can really distance himself and separate himself. So he's a great player, he hits it good, putts better, I think. So, yeah, he's really good. Q. Obviously I don't know if you want to call it a burden because he handles it well, but the expectations put on him which you touched on, if you were 21 years old and had those expectations on you, if you look back on your past, it might have been a little, how would you have dealt with something like that? JIMMY WALKER: I have no idea. I wasn't as good as Jordan was at that age that he is. And with the stuff that's happening with me, I'm glad I'm as old as I am, just to ‑‑ it's nothing pressing or anything, but there's more demands on your time and saying yes and saying no and I'm sure he's got a really good team of people around him that guide and tell him that are giving him good advice. I think you can see that from how well he's doing. So, it's tough. It's tough when you're that young. I mean when I was 21, 22 years old, I was still in college and I had a college golf coach booking flights and doing all this stuff for you and me, so, you know, what he's got to deal with, I don't even know what he has to deal with today. It's probably a lot more than ‑‑ it's a lot more than what I have to deal with. I try to keep it nice and calm and simple and I'm sure his schedule is a lot more hectic than mine is. Q. What do you attribute as a key factor to your success in the last two years specifically? JIMMY WALKER: At Pebble Beach or? Q. In general. JIMMY WALKER: Just like the place. I like the golf courses, I really enjoyed playing. Q. In general. Not just Pebble Beach. JIMMY WALKER: Oh, just the area. My wife and I really like coming here. We love Carmel, we love all the restaurants and the food and just the scenery. Love doing the drive around 17 Mile Drive, it's just such a pretty place. I don't know how you can't enjoy it here. Q. There are a lot of players that don't like the format here and the pace and all of that and all the big crowds. What is it about here specifically that you do like that enables you to play so well here? JIMMY WALKER: I don't mind the format. The format's great. I've enjoyed all my partners I've ever had here. I think everybody that's here is a good person. I've had some good players. We have done well in the past team‑wise, too. So, you know the rounds are going to be a little longer. But there's no better place to hang out if you to hang out on a golf course for five and a half, six hours ‑‑ if the weather's good it's really nice. If it's bad it's a little dicey, but I think it's a cool format. I enjoy playing golf with friends at home and I've made some pretty good friends out here doing the pro‑am stuff. One of my old pro‑am partners we're going to do dinner with him this week. So, just I've enjoyed the company of the guys I've played with and even the amateur partners that weren't my partners that I was playing with, just makes for a nice week. It's fun. You just got to get over the fact that it's going to take awhile. A lot of guys don't like it. Q. Talk about those quick tune ups with Butch that you were able to do from time to time. What are you guys working on specifically do you have a tendency that tends to get out of whack and then a follow‑up on that quick would be what have maybe you don't with him in the past couple years that maybe you weren't doing five, six, seven years ago? JIMMY WALKER: Well, we do some just quick tune‑up stuff as I have tendencies, we all have tendencies and it's just a matter of keeping those in check. It's hard for me to see sometimes, it's hard for my caddie to see. But that's why he's good at what he does is you can literally hit five golf balls and he can see kind of what's happening. I went in to him a couple weeks ago, before last week, and I didn't really do anything the first week and I get in there and I was just a little inside and he didn't like that, so he got me a little wider on the take away. Lower, wider. Because I was getting a little shut quick inside. So it's just little things like that, just constantly the attention to detail, trying to find the attention to detail and then his, he's real big on, work on it, then you go out and play golf, just hit your shot, hit the golf shot. Don't think about why you're doing it or how you're doing it, just go react to the shot that you need to hit. But I always still ‑‑ and he's like, you can have one swing thought, it's tough to have six. So, it's hard to keep track of that. So, just trying to keep it as simple as possible. Five years ago, I still did the same stuff, but just was working with him, I feel like we're on the right track of just doing a few small things. He'll be the first to tell you that there's nothing major done, it's just a couple of small things that lead to the overall picture. Big picture. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jimmy. And good luck this week. JIMMY WALKER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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