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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 4, 2015

Jonathan Randolph

Jackson, Mississippi

MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome Jonathan Randolph. Jonathan, the tournament had really good news right before you got in here, Mr. Sanderson announced a ten-year extension to this event. We all know you're from Jackson and this area. You're a member here at the Country Club of Jackson. Just kind of talk a little bit about what that means for this area and to the tournament?

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Just as a kid when I grew up being a sign boy, the buzz that this tournament gave to me personally, I can't put it into words. It was a chance to get to see the best in the business play because I knew I wanted to be a professional golfer. It gave me a chance to learn a trade. So just between all the money that we raised for charity with this event and just the opportunity to get top-level professional golf here in Jackson, Mississippi, that's been an amazing thing.

MARK STEVENS: You're getting ready to make your sixth start here at the Sanderson Farms Championship, kind of hard to believe, I'm sure. But last year you were a full member. This year the tournament was kind enough to offer a sponsor's exemption. Talk a little bit about that?

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, this is an unbelievable opportunity for me. Last year was definitely a whirlwind. It was my first time to play here as a card-holding member, and just the whole year in general went by really fast. But anytime you get a chance to play on a course that you're really familiar with in front of hometown people, it's the best thing that could possibly happen. So I'm really excited for the opportunity.

Q. One more team up on the course. I'm sure everybody wants to know as you've been out there how the course looks.
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: The course is in great shape. Last year I showed up here and got caught off guard because of how good it was. I'd never seen it that fast or the rough that high. It really, really just talking to everybody throughout the year, they talked about how good it was and how fast it was, and this year it's impeccable.

The greens are perfect. I've never seen them that good. Between the way the fairways are set up in the greens, you can get over the mud. There is a little bit of sloppiness out there, but it is there for the taking, and it's as good as it's going to get.

Q. How are you feeling about your game entering this week? I know it's been kind of an up and down stretch for you lately?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, like I said, it's a whirlwind year. I did some stuff with my swing that had to be done, and it took way too long. But I'm finally able to hit golf shots and have fun and play golf. After the Web Finals I was really burned out and I went home and didn't pick up a club for a week. Then shot a 66 just after going to an Ole Miss football game one afternoon and said, man, this isn't that hard. You've just got to go out, step up and hit shots.

So I've been doing drills like taking it to the top with my back swing and somebody will yell what shape shot I'm supposed to hit and I can do it. And I know if I'm athletic enough to do that, and if you're standing there and you know what you're going to do from the start, it's not that hard. It's just I'm a little more creative right now and in a good place mentally.

Q. Along those same lines to go back and kind of rebuild your shot and go through that process?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, so I had a little bit of an injury last summer or two summers ago when I was on the Web.com Tour, I locked up my card and had to take -- I got married and took about two months off and came back and I was still having to overlap my grip and do some stuff I don't normally do.

I just looked at my coach and said, look, if we're going to be top 50 in the world, it's got to look better than this. I had to build some big, we call them macro things in my swing. So usually you see guys playing good, like Tiger when he was absolutely dominating and then he changes his swing. He knew what he was doing. He knew if he did what he wanted to do he was going to be better.

For me personally I'm a way better player now than I was when I started those things. So it was just kind of a big thing but had to be done.

Q. Outside of the swing change, you talked about how last year was kind of a grind. I know you played a lot of golf in your life, but did it surprise you how taxing that was that year stretch mentally and physically?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, I think I ended up playing 24 events on the PGA TOUR and seven on the Web Tour, so that's a lot of golf. No matter how much you love the game, eventually you start getting mad and you see clouds when it's blue sky. It's just weird how everything can be.

So it was a long year. I've never gotten behind the eight ball like that before. My junior year I finished in the top three of every college team I played in the spring. I was first team All-American. I never was playing bad and had to play really good. Same thing on the Web Tour. I came out and had a bunch of top 5 finishes early and locked up my card. Last year to get off and working on this stuff and not getting off on the right foot made it really difficult to keep working on the swing stuff I was doing.

But deep down inside I wanted to compete and play as well as I could, and you can get lost in the shuffle a little bit and into the grind week-in and week-out. But it was an unbelievable experience. Couldn't ask for anything more as a 26-year-old walking around bumping shoulders with Tiger and Rory and Jordan Spieth and those guys. So I'm really excited for the future.

Q. Touching on, you were in the Web.com Finals. You're seeing a lot of these young guys, a lot of them in the field this week. What is your impression of this new crop of talent on TOUR?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: I don't know if you've seen some of the juniors here at the Country Club of Jackson, but they've got game too. It's unbelievable how far junior golf has come in the state. I remember looking up Beck Troutman because he was SEC Freshman of the Year and saying I want to do that. And just the leaps and bounds that have come out of these young guys and how far they hit it and how good they putt it, there are no weaknesses.

Just for everything from the fact the U.S. Juniors on the TV and U.S. Am and everything, you get all this publicity, they're not fazed by the media and everything. It doesn't happen too fast for them. They just keep it in front of them and it's fun to watch.

Q. What does your schedule look like this year?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: So for the rest of the year I'm playing here and then I'm going to top 10 here and go to Mexico, and then I'm going to top 10 there and go to McGladrey. No, it's the best thing about the sport. If you play good, then you get to keep playing. If you don't play good, I'm going to Q-school to try to improve my status on the Webb because the way it's set up, I'm going to be getting in the South American tournaments, but I don't want to not play a tournament for three months and then show up in Panama ready to go with some of these guys who have been playing more.

So I'm going to go to Q-school and try to get fully exempt and make sure I'm into every event and stay competitive. Go have fun and play some golf. Going on down to West Palm or wherever down there in the Miami area is never a bad place to spend a week anyway.

Q. Back to your swing change, who do you work with as a coach? What kind of time period does this change cross through?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, VJ Trolio is my coach. He's a Top 100 coach I think this year in Golf Digest or Golf Magazine. He got the bump this year, I think, into that. But it was, I got married in July about a year and a half ago roughly. And that's about when I started doing this stuff, the changes I needed to do. I showed up at a tournament in Louisiana and I was like, watch this. You tell me the shot and I'm going to hit it, and I was knocking over pins. I should have won that tournament.

He pulls me aside when I said, hey, I want to change my swing I think I need to get it better. He said, look, when you said you were on, this is what it looked like. I was like, you've got to be kidding me because that's just sometimes how it works. I knew I needed to get a little more width in my swing and get some more stuff. I don't want to do this for two years or three years. I don't want to be a one-and-done and go out there and have a decent year, finish 130 on the FedExCup list and be done and then have to spend a year rebuilding it.

So it was not fun to rebuild it on the PGA TOUR. But really, it took about a year. We both learned a lot about it and stuck with it, and really I'm seeing the results already in the last three weeks just being home and being able to practice and play and have fun. I've built in enough good stuff where it's finally where I need it to be.

Q. At the Ole Miss game, who had the highest score, you or Ole Miss?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: It was the New Mexico State game, so I think I barely nipped them. I think barely. But, yeah, it's kind of fun to sit there and see scores like that getting posted by the football team. But, yeah, it's a fun atmosphere up there right now for sure. Golf team's hitting 50-yard field goals. Did you see that? Yeah, it's pretty cool.

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