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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 17, 2015Matt EveryORLANDO, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: We'll go ahead and get started. We'd like to welcome the defending champion of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, Matt Every. Thanks for join us for a few minutes. Making your 6th start in the event this week. And just some opening comments on being back here and defending your title this week. MATT EVERY: Yeah. I didn't know it was my 6th start. I thought it was like my 4th but -- you're probably right. Yeah, it's good to be back. It was cool seeing my picture coming in. Good feelings. I'm excited to play golf right now not just because I'm here but I'm just excited that I get to play golf for a living. It's good. DOUG MILNE: We'll jump in and take some questions. Q. Are you not excited? MATT EVERY: No, but, you know, things happen and you kind of realize how lucky your to be out here. It's not like anything life-changing. I'm excited to play golf. Q. Is it hard staying excited when you're kind of struggling a little bit? You've been kind of struggling a little bit. MATT EVERY: I have, yeah. Now, I haven't found it that hard. I kind of am enjoying the struggle. Q. How? MATT EVERY: It is a struggle but I know that I'm the kind of person that I always figure it out and find a way to kind of persevere. So, I'm looking forward to when that happens and when it does, I know that I'm going to be right back on top of the leaderboards and not, you know, finishing 30th. Putting some good work in. Q. You never strike us as being the most patient type of guy. What did you pick -- when did you pick up this particular characteristic? MATT EVERY: I kind of -- after I won last year I wanted to become a better driver of the ball and I knew that wasn't going to happen like with one lesson overnight. If it did, it was just a Band-Aid and, you know, changes don't happen. When you watch the Golf Channel and guys say if he doesn't hit it better immediately the coach isn't telling him the right thing. You can't change something you've been doing your whole life in a week. It's not going to work. So, I have been enjoying that process of making a little bit, you know -- making my swing a little more consistent and I know when it gets there to where I want it -- it's really good right now -- it's going to be -- I'm going to be way more consistent, consistently better player than I was before. Q. What has Foley done for you? MATT EVERY: It's a little bit of both ends. Lot of swing stuff but it's not like he's loaded me with information I didn't know already. Kind of has guided me in the right direction and I enjoy being around Sean and I know he enjoys my company, too, so we have a good work relationship and friendship. I like where we're going. A lot of things I told him that I want to get better at. It's not like he has a blueprint and this is how you're going to swing, you know. I'm never going to swing like Hunter Mahan. I don't have Hunter's -- he's hypermobile. I'm flexible, too, but I'm not going to swing like Justin Rose. They swing different. So, there are some things that I told him I wanted to get better at and we're working at them. Q. Matt, can you just talk about the impact of winning the tournament on your life last year and maybe the impact that Arnold Palmer has had on your game and growing up? MATT EVERY: Winning the tournament, the immediate impact was I got in all the Majors and that was a good experience. I kind of struggled with my game and all of them started at The Masters. I thought last year when I got to Augusta -- I took two weeks off after this and I swear to God I thought I had a good chance of winning and, you know, some weeks you can lie to yourself and -- you know, but I really was like all right -- but, yeah went in and it was awesome. Like this week my picture is on the tickets. That's never happened before. That's cool and then Arnie, yeah, just coming to his event as a kid and stuff. You know, he's like the biggest rock star our game has ever seen. A lot of the guys that he played with, you know, back when he was out here, it kind of seems like Arnie doesn't really care about being in the news but he is and I think that's pretty cool, you know, something to be said about that. He's not making an effort to be like, "Hey, look at me." That's pretty neat. Q. Matt, was the win the green light for you to institute this swing change? MATT EVERY: Yeah, maybe a little bit. Yeah. Q. And the fact that you have that safety net of the win and all of the privileges it bestows membership-wise, does that help make the struggle easier? MATT EVERY: Well, no. That's a good question. Lot of people will say -- I had a guy -- I've had a ton of people say, "You got two year exemption for winning?" I'm like yeah, but you don't think about the two years. I'm thinking about getting better and winning again, not will I have a job for two more years. I know that is the case but, I think -- I don't think any player like when Billy won the FedEx I had a mutual friend say to Billy, "Gets five years now on Tour, right?" I'm like are you kidding? That is not what he's -- like, yeah. So, I think maybe the public might -- that two year thing might be a bigger deal to you guys, you know what I'm saying, than players. I really don't think players are thinking I got a two year gap. That's nice. Q. Do you think some players are thinking that? MATT EVERY: Maybe, yeah, but not -- not guys that think like me. Q. Kind of following up on what Karen said, when Majors or actually win anything that they need to be a player to live up to being a winner. Did that go into any part of you wanting to change, the fact that you won, you had the swing that lived up to it, if you know what I mean? MATT EVERY: Yeah, I do know what you mean. I think when you see some of the elite players out here -- if you guys go on the range and watch guys hit balls there are guys that have won out here multiple times that you'll watch them hit balls and you'll be like, "Wow, I don't see it, you know." Then you watch a guy like Adam Scott hit balls and his normal shots are big golf shots. I know a lot of that is genetics and the way you're built and stuff but I want to get more towards that to where my game is big, you know, like I want my good shots to be really good shots, you know, and my bad shots to be what my good shots used to be. Q. Are you saying you want to be Adam Scott? MATT EVERY: No. I do. No. Q. Matt, as a guy who came out here with a good bit of edge and ability and self-belief, I was just curious what you think of Patrick Reed and some of the things that have been said and written and some of the hot water he's been in and whether is it good for the game? Does the game need good guys, bad guys, all types? MATT EVERY: Yeah. We're talking about it, right? I mean he's kind of grown on me a little bit, to tell you the truth (laughter). I've never talked to him before, you know. He does his own thing. There's nothing big about him. Whether he tells the truth or not, whatever, it seems like he doesn't care and if that's -- if he genuinely doesn't care, then more power to him. Q. Seems almost feeds off of it. He can take negative mojo and turn it around and use it as fuel for the fire. MATT EVERY: Yeah. There's something special about him for sure. I used to not -- just so many mean people now, you know. It's unbelievable, man. You know, everyone has feelings. I mean I don't care that much, but, you know. Q. You're saying you care about what people on Twitter? MATT EVERY: I do not care about that but I'm just saying in general, I care like what my family thinks about me and my wife and, you know, my friends, I mean, but -- you know, you guys a little bit, too. I care about how you perceive me because I feel at times I've probably been, you know, maybe not looked at the way like I should be looked at but -- yeah. Q. Matt, the whole thing through Florida, every golf course seems to have this -- these pieces of holes everybody wants to talk about, whether it's PGA National. You ran into it last year here. How about the final three here, are these good golf holes? MATT EVERY: They're great, yeah. You got a are reachable par 5 and the par 3 is difficult and 18 is difficult and when you throw elements in there, wind and it's firm, they're hard. I was 2-over on them last year and won. They're not the easiest holes. Q. Back to Twitter for a second. Were you ever on it? MATT EVERY: Yeah. Q. How much mean stuff do you get on Twitter? MATT EVERY: The problem with Twitter, you can't say what you want or you're just going to get killed. It's easy to talk back, too, because it's no face-to-face -- social media, there's nothing social about it, correct (laughter)? Q. It's anonymous. MATT EVERY: I like talking face-to-face. Q. But I think people would agree probably one of the most refreshingly -- as refreshingly honest as anybody, have you ever just said something that was dead honest that people take the wrong way because they want to? MATT EVERY: Probably, yeah. Q. Did you get off Twitter? MATT EVERY: Yeah. Q. Was it because of what or why? MATT EVERY: It was a waste of time. I just don't -- like when people re-Tweet, I know in the past people thought that I was kind of cocky and arrogant and how about the people who re-Tweeted nice things about themselves? What is that (laughter)? I'm serious. It's like look what this guy said about me how nice I am. It's not just the haters, that it's, too. Everything about it kind of rubs me the wrong way so I just -- I don't see the need for it. Q. Would you look at yourself as being old school? MATT EVERY: Yeah. Yeah. Q. Do you find that's a compliment? I'm not sure I mean it that way yet. MATT EVERY: Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. Q. What would be your definition of it? MATT EVERY: Of what? Q. Old school. MATT EVERY: Oh, man. I don't know. Whatever you think. Yeah, like I'm not -- I don't know. Q. Are you high maintenance? MATT EVERY: No, not at all. Q. Self-sufficient? MATT EVERY: Yeah. Are we good? DOUG MILNE: Anybody else? Q. We like listening to you. You got anything else to say? MATT EVERY: I don't. Q. Make something up? MATT EVERY: That's Billy. DOUG MILNE: Matt, thanks for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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