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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 24, 2015Daniel BergerPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA AMANDA HERRINGTON: Thank you, Daniel Berger for joining us here at the Honda Classic, a local from the area. A lot of success so far this season. You're one of four rookies inside the Top‑50 FedExCup standings, coming off two Top‑10s this season. What's it like being out here this week? DANIEL BERGER: I think it's a great opportunity for me to play in front of my family and friends, just to play a great course like PGA National. It's going to be a good test. Q. You played here as a high schooler. What do you remember about that experience, who you played with, how it went? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I played the Polo Golf Classic here, which was one of the bigger junior tournaments that I played in around here. But they made some changes to the course, so this was kind of my first time seeing those changes. But the course is great. It's in great condition, so I'm excited to get going. Q. You've played well enough now that you don't have to worry about the reshuffle. Jeff was talking about maybe your mind‑set changes a little bit as a result of that. Can you talk about that? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think it takes a little pressure off myself; the fact that I kind of know I'm going to have some more events to play in. I just have to take to what I've been doing and hopefully keep playing well. Q. Florida State is getting to be along the lines of Georgia, putting an awful lot of guys into the TOUR and having good success. What do you think Trey is doing at Florida State that has given him the results that he's having the last few years in college and helping you guys prepare for this situation? DANIEL BERGER: Well, I think first off, Trey, he's a great recruiter. He recruits athletic kids that hit the ball long and I think he really instills a sense of practice that everyone has to go through. In order to make that team, you have to get better, and I feel like that kind of helped me to just transition to the next level. But I learned a lot there and I think a lot of my success is due to that. Q. And does Hank and a couple other guys on the team, do they kind of like look like they have what it takes to get out here? Are they on that progress? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think anyone that's playing golf at Florida State right now, they are obviously really good. They are ranked three in the country. I've played a lot of golf with both of those guys and they are really good. I don't see why they couldn't be out here for sure. Q. You've changed caddies this year and gone to a guy who has been out here for a long time. What has that done for you and what was your input? DANIEL BERGER: I think having an experienced caddie is key. He's been out on these courses for 20‑something, 15 to 20 years. He's seen it when it's firm and fast. He's seen it when it's slow and soft, and he just gives me that confidence that I need to kind of get to the next level. My coach, Jeff Leishman, was kind of the guy who set that up for me. He worked with Carl Pettersson for a while, and Jeff had a good relationship with him and it's really worked out well. Q. What was your reaction when you heard you were going to be with a guy in his late 40s? DANIEL BERGER: I think in order to have that experience, you've got to be a little bit older. The caddies that I've had before have been really good to me, too. I just think having a guy that's been out on the course 20 times before really plays to my advantage. Q. Has it gotten back to you how much Feherty was raving about you at Phoenix? DANIEL BERGER: It didn't, but actually while I was playing that Saturday round, I got to talk to David a little bit as we were walking, and he just told me to keep doing what I'm doing and stay patient and I'll be out here for a while. It was nice to hear from him. Q. What's the best advice your dad has given to you about transitioning to the professional life? DANIEL BERGER: He just always tells me to keep working hard. There's only 125 jobs out here or 150 jobs out here every year. So, you know, everyone's fighting for their spot, so you've just got to keep working hard and if all goes well, then you'll have a job at the end of the year. Q. It seems like there's very little intimidation factor if no intimidation factor with some of the young guys like yourself on TOUR just making it look so easy, the transition. Do you feel that internally? DANIEL BERGER: I think being that I've grown up in Jupiter and had a chance to play with PGA TOUR players since I was 13, 14, 15 years old, it kind of took a little bit of that pressure off because I've hung around and see what it takes. Kind of when you make that transition, it doesn't feel so abnormal. Q. Who are some of the key guys? DANIEL BERGER: Played a lot of golf with Steve Marino. He's one of the guys I can look to as a mentor. We are really good friends and always competed against each other. He's one of the guys that played with me when I was 13 years old and since then we played all the time, and played three times this week before the Honda getting ready for this week. He's a good buddy of mine. Q. How long did you live in Plantation or were you just born there? DANIEL BERGER: I was just born there but I lived in Miami for about ten years and then I've lived the rest of my life in Jupiter. Q. When you got the job at the Dye Preserve, was that all part of your plan to get to where you are now? DANIEL BERGER: I guess you could say it was part of my plan. My dad made a couple calls. He called up one of his old tennis buddies, Ivan Lendl, and Ivan Lendl was living in Vero Beach, and he had a connection with the now director of golf at the Dye Preserve, Matt Doyle, and Matt gave me an opportunity to work and practice there. That's where I had‑‑ I consider the guys at Dye my family and I've been out there since I was 13 years old and they treat me really well out there. Just been great for me. Q. I actually talked to you after the second stage of Web.com at plantation preserve‑‑ you said this was all part of your plan, you left school early, get on the Web.com, obviously everything went really well there. Is this something you had mapped out for a while, or are you surprised at where you are? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think things have come pretty quick to me but I definitely, you know, I've had this plan, and I didn't expect it to quite go so smoothly but it's nice that it did. It was a lot of hard work to get here so I'm excited to see what the future has. Q. Do you have any other specific goals in that plan? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, for me, my biggest goal would obviously be to make The Ryder Cup Team. I think that's any player's dream. You know, to play in THE TOUR Championship would be really cool. Q. Given the success of a lot of young guys, yourself, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Rory, has that also helped you, say, from just a confidence standpoint, like you don't have to wait till you're 28 to make a mark out here? DANIEL BERGER: I played a decent bit of golf with Jordan Spieth in college. When you see him make that transition so easily, it kind of, I thought, hey, why can't I do this. Obviously there's a lot of hours and preparation and time spent, but he definitely motivated me to get better for sure. Q. Speaking of that, Jordan is pretty okay in the short game stats, scrambling, sands saves, putting, and according to the stats, he doesn't hit very many fairways or very many greens. What enables him to score? What is he doing out there, and does it go back to what he does around the greens? DANIEL BERGER: I think Jordan has probably one of the best mental games out here. He just kind of has‑‑ he knows how to play golf. He may not hit it the furthest or chip it the best but he kind of just knows how to play golf. I think that's one of his biggest assets and that's something that even I can learn from. Q. Could he be longer if he wanted to? DANIEL BERGER: I mean, I'm sure he could. I don't know how his body would do in the long term but whatever he's doing, he should keep doing it. Q. Where do you generate your power from? What's your secret? DANIEL BERGER: I don't know, I think I've always hit it pretty long. I've done a lot of strength and conditioning stuff with David Donatucci, who is just down the street here. I think I've gotten stronger and as I've gotten older, I've gotten a little bigger, a little more powerful. I don't know much about my golf swing. I just know it goes far and it goes straight. That's all I can tell you about that. Q. Did you play tennis at any point? DANIEL BERGER: I still play a lot of tennis. Go out with my dad on the weekends and mess around. Yeah, I love it. Q. I think you had said that when your dad would take a break from tennis, he would play golf and you would go with him.  So how old were you when you really said, hey, golf is where it's at. DANIEL BERGER: I was about 11, there was a year where my sister was taking golf lessons and when she wasn't taking lessons, I would kind of fill in for her. I was like, wow, this is a lot of fun and then I spent one summer and did a golf camp down in Miami and this is what I want to do, and ever since then, this has been my whole plan. Q. Playing with Steve, did you ever ‑‑ DANIEL BERGER: I think I shot 1‑ or 2‑under and he was so pissed. It was just a lot of fun, 14 years old and I beat a PGA TOUR player, it was a cool experience for me, and that kind of motivated me to get better. Q. Can you go over some of the details of working at Bear's? DANIEL BERGER: I basically picked the range every single day. So I got out of class at 12:30. I did one online class in high school and my sister would drive me to the golf course, she'd drop me off and I'd jump straight in the picker and pick the range for about 45 minutes and put the balls on the range, and then I would just go back on the range and hit balls and do my short game thing. They gave me a cart, the first day I got there, I was 14 years old and I had never been able to drive a cart. I walked out to the range and the guys were like, "No, dude, you can take a cart." I was like, this is awesome. (Laughter). It's just I remember one time, I was picking the range and the back of the range had this little downhill slope. So I just parked the picker right up there and I got out of the picker and I started to hand pick the balls by the water and I forgot to put the brake on. And the picker rolled into the water. And I was like, oh my God, I have to go to my boss and be like, "Yo, I just drove the picker in the lake." I went up to him and he just started laughing at me. That's kind of the relationship we had out there is they really liked that I was there and I really appreciated them having me. Q. Did he have to get a tow truck? DANIEL BERGER: He pulled one of the tractors and just pulled it out, you can imagine how I felt. Felt pretty stupid. Q. Did it run? DANIEL BERGER: I ran but I felt pretty dumb. Q. Did you get paid? DANIEL BERGER: It was on and off. There wasn't really like‑‑ it was sometimes I got paid and sometimes I didn't. Mostly I would‑‑ sometimes I caddied a little bit here and there, once or twice a week, and I mean, I enjoy doing that but it was more like I'd rather spend the day out on the range and hit balls and stuff like that. So I didn't really get paid too much. Q. So did you try to pick the ranges as fast as you can to hit balls? DANIEL BERGER: I got really good at picking the range. I was the best range picker you've ever seen. I figured out a way you can make this big loop and you keep going in circles and circles and circles and eventually you do it pretty quickly. I think I was pretty good at picking range balls. Q. And how long did you do this? DANIEL BERGER: I did this for about four years and then when I went to college, still they were so nice to me, when I came back and for winter break or Thanksgiving, it was an open invite, they let me come out there and practice as much as I wanted. It was kind of cool, though, because I went from working out there to I ended up joining the Dye Preserve, when I got my Web.com Tour card. I've come a long way from picking the range. Q. Are you nice to the range picker now? DANIEL BERGER: I am. There's another funny time, Camilo won't remember this, but I was like 14 years old and he was on the range hitting balls. Camilo was hitting these low like flighted 3‑irons and the range picker we had was really old. I was driving like 30 yards from where they were hitting, and he hit a low bullet and had hit the side of the cart. And rust flew into my face, and I was like, "Are you kidding me? Come on." And I don't think he‑‑ he didn't know who he was. I've never told him that story, but it was just like, I remember that. Q. So you don't aim at the range pickers? DANIEL BERGER: No, I don't aim at the range picker. Q. What do you remember about Chambers Bay? DANIEL BERGER: Chambers Bay was probably my first really big tournament. It was the U.S. Am. That was my first U.S. a.m. that I ever played and I played in two. I played the second course first, and I shot like 68 or something and I was like, wow, this is really cool and I went out to Chambers Bay and my fondest memory of that was the first hole, there was a huge slope where if you miss it two yards left‑‑ you have an 80‑yard chip shot. I went from having 140 yards in and missed it left and had another hundred yards in. I ended up shooting 82 and missing the cut. It was really cool. Q. How do you feel about being back on the Champions Course, I know you played yesterday, so you got to see what it looks like. Are you glad to be playing in Florida back on bermudagrass? DANIEL BERGER: I think it's nice to sleep in my own bed and hang out at my house and eat food with my family. I was gone for five weeks on the West Coast, so to have this week home, it doesn't feel like a week off obviously but it feels nice to be comfortable and doing things that I would normally do when I'm back home. Q. Just about playing golf in Florida on a Florida course‑‑ DANIEL BERGER: I'm used to the greens. I'm used to the rough. So I'm used to it being windy. Hopefully it blows out here. That will play to my advantage. I'm just going to have some fun. Q. Did Brooks winning motivate you? DANIEL BERGER: It did for sure. Whenever your college teammate who you spend a lot of‑‑ I spend a lot of time with him and to see him do so well just makes me want to play better. Q. So do you still live at home? DANIEL BERGER: No, I actually live about a mile from my parents but I live in the same development as them. Q. How long does it take you to get here? DANIEL BERGER: Like eight minutes. Not long at all. Q. And you drive fast. DANIEL BERGER: From Abacoa, it's like six miles. Q. The second round at Chambers, is that as tough as you've seen? DANIEL BERGER: I don't think I was all that great when I played. I definitely was not that good of a golfer, but I was so used to hitting 60‑degree wedges from everywhere, and it was so firm that you had to have the putter or the 8‑iron or the 6‑iron and kind of bump‑and‑run it. I'm interested to see how far‑‑ if they really wanted to, they could make the place pretty much impossible. So I'm interested to see how difficult they do make it. Q. Going from Web.com to the PGA TOUR, what's been your biggest adjustment? DANIEL BERGER: I think playing with bigger names and playing with like a Jason Day or a Webb Simpson, the bigger crowds that follow you, and getting used to the cameras behind you, I think that's been the biggest adjustment. But you know, you do it enough and you end up getting used to it. AMANDA HERRINGTON: Thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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