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VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 11, 2015Ollie SchniederjansPALM HARBOR, FLORIDA PHIL STAMBAUGH: We welcome Ollie Schniederjans into the Media Room. Ollie, the top ranked amateur in the world. Making your PGA TOUR debut this week in Tampa. Just maybe start us off with a few thoughts about starting your career here. I guess you had a little fun out there today in your practice round. OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah. I got to play with some buddies from Junior Golf, Jordan Spieth and Daniel Berger and Justin Thomas and they obviously been doing some big things out here so it was cool to get to go play with them and see how their games have evolved over the years and catch up with them and see how -- you know, see if I can could pick up a couple things from what they've learned in the last few years, and we had a good time. Q. Sort of maybe tell us about what you've doing here lately, how your game is. OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Well, it was a long winter in Atlanta and, you know, got school still so I've been kind of trying to hopefully get things going again this week. Went to Puerto Rico a couple weeks ago with the team to start the spring for the college and other than that, I've played just a few rounds in the last few months competitively but I've been trying to get practice in when I can and work on my game but hopefully can get in the groove this week. Q. Have you been to Innisbrooks before? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah. I played the Southern Am four, five years ago when it was out here so I've seen the course. It's so much -- you can tell it was done, it's very, very pure this year, it's very green and it's cool to see. Almost feels like a different course it's so nice. Q. Just expectations s this week. You haven't been able to play much. OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah. I don't have any expectations this week. I can't -- I mean I have high hopes to do some good things and I believe I can play -- if I get my game feeling good by Thursday, get in the groove out there I know I can put up some good scores and hopefully be right in there competing but no expectations, just going to see what happens and hope for the best. Q. This question is wrong on so many levels, what are you doing in school still? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I graduate in May. I'm almost done. I just -- I felt like I wanted to start -- finish what I started and I've got lot of other reasons as well and it's been nice to have another year with my brothers back home. My brother pitches on the baseball team so to be around him and give back to the team and hopefully be a good leader for a young team this year at Georgia Tech. I committed to graduating from the start and that was no matter what happened was going -- I was going to probably stay and finish and my career in college didn't go as well as Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth did their first freshman year and sophomore year. It took me a little bit longer to adjust. I kind of came around late my sophomore year a little bit and junior year was great but if I had had a freshman year like those guys it might have been different but the way that things have progressed I kind of, you know, didn't want to jump the gun just after a great junior year and leave when I put so much into Georgia Tech as a student and athlete and wanted to finish that. Q. You are graduating, right? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yes. Q. When you graduate, what are your plans professionally timing-wise? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah. From winning the McCormick Medal I get into both the Opens in the summer. I think that experience playing in two Majors is invaluable for me starting out. I want to take those and hopefully get things organized, play those two events and then try and get starts right off the Open and maybe get in the Web.com Playoffs or if I do something great I could even get in the FedExCup Playoffs. Q. After the Open then come in July -- OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Four events. Q. Are you looking strictly to the Web.com? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I'll try to play hopefully the PGA TOUR events after the Open before The Playoffs. Q. Walker Cup is out of the question? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I haven't put it out of the question yet. I don't want to do that, I don't want to give it away completely yet but I probably need to start making those decisions. Will come up soon. Q. Couple of European Tour events you have participated in. What did you learn from it and what did you take away from those? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: A lot. The experience was similar, similar field to this except being in Europe. You know, when I'm here I know -- I feel like I know so many of the players and so many of the people and it's where I want to be out here but the European Tour events were great. They were high class. You know, the people were great. But, obviously, lot of European players. I was one of maybe just a few Americans in Abu Dhabi, but great experience from competing at the high level that it was, and being just around everybody and walking in the locker room and seeing, you know, all those great players that you watch on TV, it gives your comfort, you feel like, okay, you know you started getting more comfortable around the whole atmosphere that is, you know, world class tournaments. Q. You said the practice round would be among your friends from Junior Golf, the class of 2011. You were born in 1993. I guess -- what was it you recall some of the AJGA events you went head to head with those guys? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Yeah. It's crazy just how successful so many of our class has been. I'm just hoping to keep it going -- Jordan and Justin and Daniel are already doing big things out here and "Amiliran" from our class and he's out here. Patrick probably could have played, maybe could have played this week and we could have had 7 21-year olds out here. It's crazy. Very exciting to see -- hopefully that's the future of the PGA TOUR and we play a lot against each other on Sundays. Q. Who is the longest of the three? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Probably all the same. We've played together against each other in tournaments ever since we were probably 15. For me I know those -- Justin and Jordan knew each other future back. I didn't start playing golf until I was 12. I didn't get out there until I was about 15. I played in the U.S. Junior, I think that's when I met all those guys and then we ended up -- I worked my way up when I was 15 and we have played so many tournaments against each other ever since and it ends up that we're actually -- we were all good friends. The group kind of kept going. We were a peer group and we always hung out together. We definitely fed off each other and tried to compete to win tournaments. Q. Supposedly a picture of you plus Patrick. Have you seen the picture I'm talking about? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I'm not sure I saw that. Q. The other thing I want to ask you, why don't you pitch and why doesn't your brother play golf? How did that happen? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Well, we grew up wanting to be MLB players. We played baseball. That was life growing up, you know, like real young and I found golf, you know, I played travel baseball until I was 12 and also played basketball but -- all of us played travel baseball, you know, 10, 11, 12 year olds. Was pretty competitive. I kind of got -- I got out on the course with some friends who played that also played baseball and I kind of was getting bored of baseball a little bit, kind of the whole team and I wasn't feeling it for whatever reason. I was feeling golf. I got the golf bug quick and I think Ben, he just, you know, he just -- he kind of -- he never really got into golf at all but he likes to play now for fun but he just was such a great baseball player. He kind of took some time off of baseball, too, and came back and he was a great hitter. He was a great player overall. And then it's crazy, he just became pitcher only like junior year out of nowhere, junior year of high school and was throwing heat and now he's playing at Georgia Tech pitching so it's pretty cool. He was always really talented. Q. For those of us who struggle with this game, you just played baseball and one day pick up a golf club and you're in the Junior in three years? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I was terrible at first. I was no better than any other 12 year old that first picks up a club. Like I said I got obsessed with the game. I got the bug and I was practicing every second of daylight that I had outside of school and I literally got obsessed with the game and getting good and it took -- yeah, it only took me a couple years. I made U.S. Open, I went through U.S. Open locals as a 14 year old two years later and just kind of -- I got obsessed with the game and I just got after it. Q. Where did you play, who was your teacher? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Mark Anderson at Bentwater Golf Club. He actually moved and became the pro at Bentwater right when I started so I kind of went to him and he basically taught me the fundamentals. He taught me how to get started with the game, the fundamentals. I had him and he definitely led me in a good direction fundamentally and was always working with him. He had a building on the range. If the weather was bad I could use the building. So he was a great influence for me and my game starting out. Q. You had plans to play with some friends today. They have experience on the PGA TOUR. Have they offered you any advice on how to handle the pressure with your first event on the PGA TOUR and, if so, what was that? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: They didn't give me specific advice. We were just being normal kids how we play and practice and it just gives you a feeling that, you know, this isn't -- a whole lot different than practice rounds in college golf with your buddies and you just kind of -- we played a little game and I think, you know, they just look -- they're just telling me good luck. Not a whole lot of advice verbally but just kind of -- they're showing me how they go about things and I'm paying attention and it just gives you a good feeling of being comfortable because we're not doing a whole lot differently than, you know -- we've always done practice rounds even as junior golfers. It's kind of, you know, it's golf so -- Q.It seems to me like a common question we ask of young people coming out, their first shot at anything in the pros, how are you going to get the stars out of your eyes, how are you going to concentrate on what you're doing and not concentrate on oh, look this is the big time? Doesn't sound to me that's going to be as much of a problem for you. You seem to have a pretty level head about all those things. How do you account for that? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I have got to play some events already so I was around McIlroy and Henrik Stenson and all those guys in Europe in events and Phil Mickelson. I'm definitely not the type to get star struck like you're saying but you still absolutely -- I've watched Phil Mickelson my whole life as a golfer on TV. When you see him and meet him you definitely get that, you get that out of the way and you get more comfortable being around them and realizing -- I never think of anybody as anything more than just the person that they are. So, of course, they're incredible golfers but they're still just people like I am and as far as, you know, playing well here for me will just be about my golf game and how I play the course and that's how it's always -- also been for me and I think I'm no more, no less comfortable than I have been before. I think, you know, it's going to be more about how my game is after the break that I've had in the winter in Atlanta and just kind of trying to get ready to -- and get sharp and play courses like this and get the tournament vibes going and hopefully get in a groove out there. I don't feel that I'll be having any issues mentally. Q. You've known you're going to be playing here for almost a year now. How was that? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Right. I became exempt the from there for winning the Valspar Collegiate and I'll be playing that next week at the Floridian. I'll get to go defend. One of the best fields in college golf, probably top two, three of the whole year last year: After the second round they announced, I think Hollis said he was going to give an exemption to the winner. Before the final round threw that out there for the all the players in contention. I didn't really -- you know, I've always just been -- it is going to be what it's going to be. I'm just going to do me and then see if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I wasn't too -- I knew that I was going to play a PGA TOUR event some day so whether this was my first one or not, I wasn't going to be overly concerned but I played a great final round and won by -- I birdied the last hole to win by 2 and last hole out there is pretty stuff. That was exciting just to win a golf tournament. I was just trying to win a golf tournament. I've known I get to play this for about a year now. I knew this was going to be my first start on the PGA TOUR and it's a great course to play your first tournament. I mean it's challenging as it gets on the PGA TOUR from just look at the top courses and you play it and you know it's so hard to make birdies and it's easy to make bogies out here so it's a good test. Q. How has student life changed for you at Georgia Tech since becoming this player? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I think being a student and academics hasn't changed but I've had a lot more obligations outside of school so it seems school has become more -- even though it's the same workload, it's felt like more because I've had so much more obligations and I've just kind of grown into myself so I have so many things going on that -- or things I want to do that don't involve the Georgia Tech golf system. So the freshmen come in and they -- they have to buy into the whole system, team workouts, team practice, go to qualifying. You know, it's all -- you got to buy into the system. At this point I've learned from that and I've got my own system and set of rules for myself so it's kind of -- you kind of battle that and then the other obligations and things you have going on that a freshman doesn't have going on, they just have to worry about golf and school, literally, and that's what coach says, just golf and school until off-season. For me, it's not just golf and school, I've got a whole life I've set-up. That's the big thing. Q. On a scale of 1 to 10, what's the difference between your obsession level as a 13 year old and a 21 year old? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: 10 as a 13 year old and about a 7 now. Q. Of Dustin, Jordan and you if you were asked to describe the different personalities traits of each one, what would you say? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Oh, man, I don't want to talk for anyone else. Q. Speak for you then. OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: Myself, pretty collected and -- I'm kind of a controlling person. I got everything lined up how I want it. I want to be in control of so many things and my game, especially, so -- and how I do things so that's kind of, you know -- I'm pretty relaxed. I have good perspective, but I don't like to talk about myself too much. Q. Chambers Bay and St. Andrews are the respective Opens. How do you feel your game is for that? OLLIE SCHNIEDERJANS: I played links at the Scottish Open last year for the first time. I played Royal Melbourne in Australia which I felt was pretty "linksy". It definitely suits me well because I hit it hard and low and I've always -- not always but definitely in the last few years I've been -- become good at flighting the ball and you got to be super creative in links golf because you got to judge the bounce and your flight, how it's going to bounce and it's so, so fun. It's such a different style. The big thing is that it's not always fair with links golf. You can't just hit your shot, your tee shot and pick up your tee and know it's good, whereas out here if you flush it down the middle you're, "All right, I don't even need to watch that." You go play links golf and hit it down the middle and you're like that (indicating) until it stops. It's just kind of you got to be able to go with the flow and have -- if some shot comes up you got to be able to pull it off or do the best you can and stay patient, of course, anytime you play golf. My game suits links golf. I'm excited to play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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