|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
DIAMOND RESORTS INVITATIONAL BENEFITING FLORIDA HOSPITAL FOR CHILDRENJanuary 14, 2016Mike ModanoPhil NevinWINDERMERE, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Phil, why don't you take us through your round a little bit. Looks like we had a nice four birdie run, 13 through 16, picking up some points. Fire away. Tell us about your round. PHIL NEVIN: First and foremost, this is just an awesome event that everybody's put together with Diamond Resorts and great people and great friends. It's an honor to be invited to it, for one. On the 1st tee‑‑ I've got to be honest with you, I've played in these things several years back when I first retired, and everybody's going to come in here and tell you the same thing, that we played in front of 45,000, 50,000 people at times, and I got a ball traveling 90, 95 mile an hour at me, but there's not any nerves like you feel when your name's announced out here and there's people following you. I made a birdie on‑‑ I don't know what it was, 14, I think. 14, par 3. Then there was like a gallery in there, and they brought people, and they're all clapping. It's kind of cool. You feel like the golf guys for a while. No, it's a great event. It's a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun out there. I just got on a little putting run. I'd missed some birdie putts early, two, in fact, within seven, eight feet. And then one where you're playing with your buddies that we're used to doing, I go in and tried to tap in with one hand and it lipped out. Cost me a par, ended up making bogey. Got on a nice run later and just hit some greens and made some long putts. My caddie is doing a great job. My caddie is actually a kid that's played for me the last few years that I've managed in Reno, and he lives here in Orlando. Probably would win this tournament. He's that good of a golfer. He's done a good job helping me with the greens. It's been a lot of fun. Q. How long did it takes for you to get comfortable in this sort of environment? First time out, as you said, it was so unusual. It's not country club golf, but now you've played in a number of these. Are you to the point yet where you feel‑‑ you're not a pro golfer, but where you have a different mentality in going out there and not being‑‑ not intimidated, but at least sort of wowed by what's going on. PHIL NEVIN: I'll tell you, I don't know if that ever goes away. You keep telling yourself it's like walking back to your cart and having a beer with your buddy, but the more people that get around, you see them. Like I said, we play in front of a heck of a lot of people in our sports, but getting in front of just a few thousand at one time‑‑ I did feel, once you make the first birdie‑‑ because I missed a couple earlier, but once you make the first birdie and then the next one, you just kind of feel good about yourself. I have friends that play on the Tour that said don't ever look at that leaderboard and don't think about what you should have done or what you could have been. It was hard to put those two short birdie putts out of my mind, to be honest with you. I scrambled. I made like a 16, 17‑foot putt to save a bogey and not cost me a minus 2. The key in this format is to not make those doubles. The reason a lot of us have those 2, 3, 4 handicaps is because we make those doubles all the time at home. No, it's a heck of a lot of fun. Q. Was your game pretty solid coming into this? PHIL NEVIN: No. Yesterday I sprayed it all over Isleworth. I didn't play in the Pro‑Am here, but I was terrible yesterday. That's why we are what we are. One day we can have a nice day like this, and I'll come out tomorrow and look like I'm playing from the wrong side of the ball. THE MODERATOR: Everybody's been talking about Mulder, Mulder, Mulder being the favorite, and he's been playing lights out. What were your thoughts coming into this thing and your chances? Both of you. PHIL NEVIN: Well, I played with Mark many times. He's really good. What he does‑‑ he'll go on a run here soon. He made 9 birdies in the Skins game in the first 11 holes. He'll have his run at some point during this. I'm sure you'll see him right at the top, absolutely. He always is, with Rick and the guys that have played in this before and stayed up there. THE MODERATOR: Mike Modano's joined the fray. Nice round today, 21 points. You and Phil are tied. I understand you had about five birdies out there today. MIKE MODANO: Yeah, I think it was three, maybe four birdies. I had that double on 14, just kind of a tricky little hole. I was half in the water. I said, heck with it, I'll go splash it out, and it actually came out better than I thought. Then bunker side and then missed a putt. It was just the one hole that really kind of derailed a decent day, but I'll take it. I made some good putts. I had some great looks at it, as far as birdie putts. They go in, they don't. It's just kind of the rub of the green sometimes. First day like that, I'll take it. Q. Have you played out here before? MIKE MODANO: I never have. Q. General impressions? MIKE MODANO: It's great. Like I said, I've done the Tahoe thing. It's a little tighter in Tahoe. Here you've got a little more of a good landing area out there off the tee. You can be aggressive with the driver more often. You don't have to really place it out there. But the par 5s are tough. You hit a good tee shot, you still have a tricky second shot into a par 5. Then again, the par 4s are fairly short. You can be aggressive with those if you're a good wedge player. But like I say, it's in great shape. Greens are really rolling true, which is a lot of fun. Q. Phil mentioned, when he first started doing these tournaments and these celebrity things, you have to get in a different frame of mind. It's a different kind of pressure that you never encountered before. It's unlike the sport you played or the guys you play with at the club. Are you at the point now where you're mentally‑‑ MIKE MODANO: No. Q. No? MIKE MODANO: I'll struggle with that until the day I die, I'm sure. Hockey couldn't be more opposite than golf. Everybody says, well, you guys swing the same way. There's nothing similar from hockey to golf, except the ball and the puck are on the floor, on the ice, on the ground, whatever. The only similarities between the two. Hockey is a lot of sliding and shifting left to right or right to left. Golf is all rotational. So it's really different. Plus our sport's pretty‑‑ a lot of moving around. No really time to think, which is probably good for a lot of us that play. We get into trouble when we have time to think, and you just kind of out‑‑ mentally, it's just trying to calm the nerves and calm your thought processes down, trying to narrow it down to something simple and stick with it and trust it. But it's easier said than done. Q. Baseball is not quite the movement of hockey, but it's still pretty much predetermined what you do, a lot of reaction, as opposed to just having that time to‑‑ you don't mull over a putt. PHIL NEVIN: The hardest part, I think‑‑ and he'll probably tell you the same thing, with us, we're real wristy with things, especially with them. It's our short game where it really affects us. You get wristy with your short game, especially short shifts and putts‑‑ I believe they call that the ugly "Y" word or whatever. It's hard to keep those calm when‑‑ especially when we are playing. We're both done, but if we're swinging a bat a lot, you go out and try to hit a golf ball, and you get real wristy with it, and you see balls being sprayed right and left because we kind of take our sport over into this one. THE MODERATOR: Last couple nights there's been a couple of pretty spectacular parties. Now that you guys are sharing the lead, does that change your outlook or philosophy on what's going to happen the next day? MIKE MODANO: I don't think there's anything until Saturday. So that's probably a good thing for most of us. Yeah, once you get in the play mode, you try to limit the off‑ice festivities or off‑course festivities. It's a fun time. You go out and have a great time, have some dinner, drinks, and just kind of hang with a lot of guys you don't see other than here and Tahoe. So it's a lot of catching up with some great guys, but it's a fun time. Not too much trouble you can get in out there at Mystic Dunes. You can't go too far off the beaten path there, but with this crowd, trouble can find us easily. THE MODERATOR: You must be talking about Tolliver. Thank you both very much. Nice rounds today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|