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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

January 30, 2016

Jimmy Walker

San Diego, California

DOUG MILNE: We would like to welcome Jimmy Walker to the interview room here at the Farmers Insurance Open. 4-under 68 in round three today. Puts you in great position heading into the weekend. I was looking at a couple of stats off the tee, looks like it's been -- you certainly, your position wouldn't dictate it, but it looks like you struggled a little bit off the tee this week.

JIMMY WALKER: I have. It hasn't been real fun. But you got to deal with what you brought with you, so I'm doing the best I can. So, just a lot of up-and-downs today. A lot of putts. So all that feels good. So that's a good thing.

DOUG MILNE: Okay. Questions?

Q. Any progress, as they say overseas, from Thursday on driving?
JIMMY WALKER: You know, I mean today just wasn't all that good either. Obviously, three fairways is not very good.

I was ripping it out of the rough, just giving it everything I had and trying to hit the correct shots and I was hitting good shots out of the rough. With some tough lies. I got some good breaks too, I'm not going to lie. But, yeah, just keep going to the range and working on it.

Q. What were some of the breaks you got?
JIMMY WALKER: Well, just, you hit it in the rough and you're like, okay, well I can manage this, I can manage that one. There's a couple where you're like, oh, man, just hang on, here we go, kind of a deal. Couple of first cuts -- I hit it in a few first cuts today. So I kind of, I count those as fairways, but it was right there. I just really grinded hard. It was pretty brutal. Three fairways around Torrey South isn't much fun.

Q. I think it was Billy Ray must have been on Thursday, left rough on 7, you didn't think there was any way possible you could get it on to the green. And wondering how much either stronger you were or faster you were, if you remember that shot, can you speak to that at all about your ability to take a ball that's buried in the rough and advance it pretty far?
JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, so hitting out of the rough is basically all about creating a pretty steep angle. Guys that have a shallow swing plane struggle more out of the rough. I can pick the club pretty much straight up in the air. And that's what it takes. Firm grip, open the club face up, really kind of cut across it and a lot of times you can control it out of there. You can hit a nice high fade out of the rough.

But I get a lot of practice, if you look at my historical driving career. So I have to be good at it to play golf out here.

Q. How difficult were the conditions today? The course seems to be beating up everybody but you.
JIMMY WALKER: No, I didn't really watch. I didn't see the rest of the scores. But I know it was tough. I know what I did today and I know what I got out of my round. I got basically everything out of it I could. And that's hard to do. It's nice when you can say that after a round of golf. You're like, man, I didn't leave too much out there. And I didn't.

So, finishing the last two holes, last two birdies, I made some good par saves on 14, 15, 16. And to finish off with two birdies was nice. Especially having to lay up on 18 when it was basically, it should have been a good drive and an iron in today, with the way the wind was blowing and where they had the tee. So it was nice to have the pitch outlay up and then get that up-and-down.

Q. With the weather coming in tomorrow, do you expect it to be even tougher?
JIMMY WALKER: Oh, yeah, I mean it's going to be out of a completely different direction, and so. You just got to go out and deal with it, keep your head about you, keep your wits, and it's going to be tough.

Q. Are you looking forward to tomorrow? Let me rephrase that. You're 8-under, right now you're one off the lead and most likely going to be in the last group one way or the other, which is always usually a pretty good thing at a TOUR event. Are you optimistic about tomorrow?
JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, I'm optimistic. I mean, realistic, if it's as bad as everybody says it's going to be, it is going to be a grind. Is it going to be a ton of fun? Probably not. Just going to be out there just getting slammed and attendance is probably going to be down. There's not going to be a lot of people out there, because it sounds like the apocalypse is coming, so that's what everybody keeps saying. But maybe we'll -- maybe it will be a little late and we'll get a halfway decent day.

Q. It's an old story for you, but it's worth repeating anyway. There's your tendency to like these courses out on the West Coast. Is this another one that's always been a favorite?
JIMMY WALKER: I do like Torrey, I like both of them. The North anymore it's not a cakewalk. It used to be a lot shorter and guys used to go out there and if you didn't shoot about 4-, 5-under you felt like you were lapped.

JIMMY WALKER: Now you shoot 4-, 5-under out there and you're gaining serious ground and momentum on everybody. Seems like the fairways just keep getting tighter.

But I just think that both golf courses, there's just nothing real gimmicky about them. They're just right in front of you. Not a lot of water, it's real golf. I liken it to Riviera, where it's just right there in front of you and it's good bunkering and tough pins and sight lines are interesting and hard sometimes and it's just really good golf course, I think. Both of them.

Q. Why do you think you putt well on poa annua?
JIMMY WALKER: I don't know. I think you just -- it's all about just trusting what you're doing and there's nothing you can do. The only thing you can do is make your stroke. You can't -- you cannot worry about, is it going to bounce off line. Because, yeah, it's probably going to bounce. And you don't watch it. Keep your head down and make your stroke and don't watch. And it gets a lot of people, it really does. I just, always just try to make the best stroke possible. I don't know, maybe that's it. Maybe it's not. I don't know. It's just putting. Just putt. Just hope for the best. Because -- and they're going to bounce. No doubt about it. But they will bounce in.

Q. I don't know where you were on the course, but could you hear the double eagle Jason Gore roar from where you were?
JIMMY WALKER: I heard something. And it was loud. So I didn't know it was a double eagle. On?

Q. 18?
JIMMY WALKER: On 18? Did he really. That's where that was. How cool is that?

Q. 6-iron.
JIMMY WALKER: Well, he could have today. If you busted one down there, he could have hit a pretty short iron in.

Q. Have you had an albatross in your life?
JIMMY WALKER: I have three.

Q. Seems like a lot.
JIMMY WALKER: That's the facts. I only got four hole in ones, I got three double eagles.

Q. Where were they?
JIMMY WALKER: One was in a British Open qualifier and two of them were at my home track in Texas. At Northcliff.

One of them was a 7-iron from like 225, straight down wind, caught a mega south wind gust and another one was an 8-iron on a relatively short par-5. The 7th hole.

Q. Where was The Open qualifier?
JIMMY WALKER: It was in Ohio. It was funny because we played 36 and the first time around --

Q. A U.S. Open qualifier?
JIMMY WALKER: It was a British Open, it was a British Open qualifier. And I hit -- first time I played it, I hit a shot to about I think to a foot. And then the second time I flew it in the hole. I played the hole 5-under for two days for the two rounds. I missed by one.

Q. You missed it?
JIMMY WALKER: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of funny.

DOUG MILNE: Jimmy, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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