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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 5, 2015

Troy Merritt

AKRON, OHIO

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Troy Merritt to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Fresh off your win last week at the Quicken Loans National. Kind of talk about your win. Anything interesting that might have happened the last couple of days, people you've heard from, things like that, and then we'll have a few questions.

TROY MERRITT: I just haven't slept very well. It's been a long couple of days answering all the messages and hearing and seeing the outpouring of all the well wishes from friends, families, fans. I've answered a bunch of messages, as many as I can, and it's been a lot of fun just reliving it now and realizing that we're PGA Tour champions. We've won on the PGA Tour. Just looking forward to what's going to come next.

Q. Troy, can you just talk about coming to Akron, I believe, for the first time. What that means to you to play in this tournament.
TROY MERRITT: It's pretty cool. Winning last week has put us on the cusp of playing in the bigger events more often. You know this one being the first one, my first WGC event, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's part of a schedule that I'd like to have in the future, where you can play 22, 23 times and spend some more time at home versus always trying to chase cuts and trying to chase points just to keep a job. So it's definitely a spot I want to be in more often. Come here every year would be great and more WGCs as well.

Q. Just real quick, what challenges, if you've had a practice round, does the course face -- do you face?
TROY MERRITT: Everything. It's a big golf course, and I'm not a big player, and I've got to kind of strategically plod myself around it. I need to hit fairways. I hope they keep the run-ups to the greens firm because there's going to be a lot of times where I'm going to be in the rough from 225 yards out, and I've got to try to run it up on the green. Short game has to be spot on this week as well as the putter, and hopefully we can build off the momentum we made last week.

Q. Troy, is it difficult for you to transition from the emotional high of last week to going into not only a quick turnaround with this week but then next week with Whistling Straits?
TROY MERRITT: I've been on the road so long now this summertime that everything has melded together. It seems like each week is almost the same but different each time. Just kind of going through the motions and learning new golf courses. Obviously, this is the first time I've been here. It will be the first time I'll play Whistling Straits next week as well. I'll take that when it comes. But I'm still just riding the high, like you said, coming off the win and built a lot of confidence. The body physically isn't quite back to where I'd like it after the long week, but it will get there soon.

Q. Had you ever watched this on TV, seen some of Tiger's wins?
TROY MERRITT: Oh, absolutely. I always loved watching this on TV. When I got the chance to play it today, the greens on TV look so much bigger than they do out here. I mean, the 12th green is tiny. 18, it's hard to fit it in there. It's a big green, but when you're on the fairway, it doesn't look like there's anything there. Some of the undulations from fairway to green, like 17, are a lot more drastic in real life than what you see on TV. I actually think I remember maybe playing this course, maybe on Microsoft Golf 1999, on the computer sometime or something. No, it's definitely a lot different in person than watching it on TV.

Q. You come from a fairly athletic family, I think. Could you go through some of the other athletes in your family that preceded you?
TROY MERRITT: My dad played Division III college sports in Iowa. He was an All-American baseball player. He was a pitcher and basketball player. I think he's still about 11th on their all-time scoring list, playing in the early '80s. My middle brother played football at the same college for a couple of years, but it just wasn't for him. And then my youngest brother played basketball at the rival school of those in Iowa, and he played for four years and helped lead the team to the national tournament his junior year. I have uncles that played baseball in college, All-Americans, played some semipro ball. Football in college. My grandpa was drafted by the Rams out of college, but he decided to stay at home and have a family. And then my wife's side is very athletic. She has a cousin right now, he's a pitcher in the Triple A Rochester team for the Twins. He was actually up with the Twins last September. She had an uncle that played in the NFL for seven or eight years. So it's two sides. I mean, she was a gymnast all the way through college too. We've got it coming both ways.

MARK STEVENS: Just for the record, what was the school of your dad?

TROY MERRITT: My dad played at Wartburg College in Northern Iowa. My youngest brother was Luther College. Big rivals.

Q. What was your grandfather's position, do you know?
TROY MERRITT: I don't remember. I think he might have been a running back.

Q. You say you've had a lot of messages and stuff. Did anything particularly touch you or surprise you that you heard from or anything like that?
TROY MERRITT: I think the coolest one, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were down visiting my in-laws down in Florida, and they have a little seven-, eight-month-old little girl, my niece. They videotaped the final putt, and just watching them scream and yell was pretty cool, and then watching the baby get terrified that they were screaming and yelling. I thought that was pretty cool. That was the coolest one that I saw.

Q. The fact that you birdied the last hole, you won it with a flourish, does that mean you might be feeling pressure even at the end? What does that tell you about what you did?
TROY MERRITT: I think what I've learned, winning throughout my life on the golf course, is that you're always going to be nervous, and the best way to get through those nerves is to channel them in a positive energy. So I've learned how to do that throughout my life. It helps rein in the focus and the concentration a little bit more. It takes it to a new level. And I think that's just what it came down to. I knew that Rickie was going to pile on at least another birdie on 17 or 18. He made one on 18. So I knew I had to get at least one more to have some kind of cushion on the 18th tee box. We found it on 16 and watched Rickie birdie 18. But still knew that we had a two-shot lead instead of just a one-shot lead, and that was a huge difference. We just had to put good swings on it, just long enough to stay focused and get to the green and made the putt for birdie. It was kind of fun to finish that way.

Q. Rickie, what he did at the PLAYERS, if he's within striking distance, do you have to expect that?
TROY MERRITT: Absolutely, I was over my putt on 15, and he was on 16 green, 50 yards away and he makes birdie, and they start screaming. I didn't back off because I was too honed in on what I was doing. But walking to the 16th tee, I remember how he finished at the PLAYERS, remember how he finished at the Scottish Open and I knew he'd throw at least one more in that's why I knew it was important to get back to 17-under and try and get that extra shot coming down the stretch.

MARK STEVENS: Thanks for your time. Best of luck this week.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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