	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

February 1, 2016

Brandt Snedeker

San Diego, California

ALEX URBAN: Talk about your emotions last night and heading into towards this morning as you were out there hitting balls.

BRANDT SNEDEKER: This has probably been the most nerve wracking four hours I've had on TOUR. Just because of the lack of control I had over everything that's going to happen today. I had no idea what to expect.

I went from thinking that I had no chance of winning to feeling pretty good about it to thinking that having no control probably me the worst armchair Monday morning quarterback, so it was a long night. A long morning.

But to be sitting here right now, it's obviously a lot of good fortune happened today. Just because of the way the weather blew in, the way the wind blew and made those last five holes play so tough on those guys. I feel bad for them. They got the raw end of the stick this morning. But just the way golf goes and luckily enough, I played good enough yesterday to get the job done. So it's a special feeling to say the least.

ALEX URBAN: Open it up for questions.

Q. When the day started out and it was relatively calm, were you concerned that that would enable them to make up some ground?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I was. 8 o'clock this morning, when we were supposed to tee off, I looked outside my hotel room and there was no wind and it looked pretty normal, a little cool, but it looked pretty out there and I was not liking my chances then. I was not liking it at all. I just thought it was going to be a top-5 finish at that point.

Then kept calling for that wind to come in here at some point this morning, and at 10 o'clock, and I think it almost hit on the nose and started blowing about 15 to 20 miles an hour and blew a complete different direction than yesterday and made those last five holes play absolutely brutal.

I saw guys hitting 3-wood into 15. As tough as we had it yesterday, I was still able to hit a wedge because it was playing downwind. So it was completely fortuitous to have the wind switch that hard and go that direction.

Q. You said yesterday you were not sure if 6 would be enough to be the number. Wishing you got that birdie on 18. As you start seeing the guys start to leak oil on the back nine, are you starting to think, well, maybe 6 is enough?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, it was pretty good. When I saw how tough 13 was playing, back into the wind, I knew they had that finishing stretch back into the wind. I knew 6 was going to have a chance, whether somebody played some great golf coming down the stretch. If Jimmy or K.J. or there was so many guys that had a chance. Freddie or Kevin or whoever was there put up four or five good shots in that kind of conditions, then they could get something done.

But would have felt a lot better at 7. Those last 30 minutes were kind of killing me. K.J. gave me about a heart attack those last couple holes. And it was obviously good enough to get the job done, but it was still nerve wracking up until the last couple minutes.

Q. Did you ever think that you would win a tournament without actually hitting a shot on the course?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I always wanted to. That's pretty fantastic to sit there and watch it happen. I have had some come from behind victories rather than wait around for a long time. But nothing like this. Nothing where I was -- I don't know what position I was tied for after the third round, I never jumped that many guys in a day. I had to have an absolute perfect forecast and that's what I got. I got a whole day yesterday, wind switched this morning on the guys and everything kind of worked out perfectly.

Q. You obviously weren't playing out there today. But not having fans out here, what was that environment like? Does it compare to anything that you've been in other situations?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I think we had a day in Washington, D.C. at Congressional, when they had no fans on the golf course for similar reasons. It's really an eery feeling. You don't feel like you're at a TOUR event. Because part of the TOUR event is you get crowds and the people are going crazy. And I even joked to my caddie when we were on the range this morning, let's go down to the putting green and hit some putts, and we'll here if me makes birdie on 18. And he says no, you won't, there's nobody there. And I didn't even think about that. It was a different kind of a feel for sure, but they had to with the course conditions the way stuff was out there, it just wasn't really safe for anyone to be there.

Q. If you were to be really honest with yourself and with us, was there any part of you that left last night or went to bed last night thinking, I got robbed?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No. This morning I was thinking that. Last night, I felt -- because I saw the forecast. I knew it was going to be blowing hard and out of a different direction. So, I'm, okay, I'm good. I'm not going to get robbed here. This is not going to end the way I thought it would.

Even saw your tweet at me saying, my, the only thing that's blowing right now is the Brandt's plane taking off, because he's not going to win or something like that this morning.

Q. The wind wasn't blowing.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Wind wasn't blowing. Exactly. So, yeah, I was thinking that, and I was going back to question whether the rule staff did the right stuff yesterday. Maybe we should have been playing a little longer or maybe we shouldn't have had that delay in the morning for an hour and a half when nothing really changed but everything worked out and it's just one of those fluke things, there's no way you can control the weather, no way you how you can predict how it's going to be. Sometimes you get the raw end and sometimes you get the better end and I obviously got the better end this week.

Q. What was the most exciting thing about winning and I'm wondering if the importance level, given how you started at Kapalua and the way Sony finished.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, for sure. Any time you don't win in a playoff, like I didn't at Sony, you want to get back on that horse as quick as possible and get a win. Because you don't want negative stuff to linger. You don't want thoughts and doubts in your mind to creep in and say I can't finish, I didn't finish the last one, or whatever it may be. So when you do have that kind of a lull you want to get back on the horse and get a W.

Now I didn't see this one coming, but I knew I was playing good and I knew stuff was going the right direction and I was excited about -- I was so excited, even though I made the cut barely on the number, I was still playing good and knew I had a chance and I got a great forecast and played a great round of golf.

Q. What did you make the cut one to spare?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, I was on the number. 1-under.

Q. Congratulations.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Thank you.

Q. They did flash on the screen a couple of those comebacks for you. It's been numerous times. What do you think it says about your attitude and your ability to close?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It says everything about my attitude. It says that I don't give up, I keep grinding until the last putt goes in and I take pride in that. And that's the only way I'm successful out here, because I never give up, I realize there's always a chance, every shot's a percentage shot, there's always a good percentage shot and a bad, a high percentage shot and a low percentage shot and I always try to play the high percentage shot and just keep giving myself chance and keep giving myself opportunities and staying patient and waiting for that good stretch to come. And a lot of guys kind of get down on themselves and say well, I'm not going to win this week or whatever, and you just never know what's going to happen. Today, yesterday was a perfect example. I mean, I was in 27th position and eight back or seven back or whatever I was going into the round and now I'm sitting here as champion. This couldn't, I mean I would have said you're crazy, there's no way that would happen, but you just never know.

Q. What are you most proud of about now about yesterday?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: The back nine the way I played that back nine. I drove the ball unbelievable on that back nine yesterday. I put this new Bridgestone driver in play in Maui and I'm not a guy that likes to change and so when I changed, it's because it's a way better driver, it's a way better golf ball than I've been playing. And I hit some drives yesterday I never hit in my career, long straight ones, right down the middle of the fairway on 15, 16, tough holes, 17, 18, times when I could have just eased off the gas a little bit or hit a bad shot I didn't. And I hit some quality shots coming down the stretch. So that's what I'm most proud of, the fact that I was able to stand out there and hit it the way I was looking.

Q. The celebration you're standing on the putting green, all by yourself, haven't hit a shot. You see K.J. miss that. What's that let yourself go do you do a little dance?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's tough because the whole time you're kind of -- I'm a percentage guy, I'm sitting thinking what are the odds, K.J. made par on 17, he's probably got a 50/50 chance of birdieing 18. Pin's in a bowl, it's softer today, he's got a chance to get it down there and make a putt.

So I'm trying not to let myself think about winning, I'm trying to think, get ready for a playoff, got to be ready to go. How are we going to play 18 when it's our turn.

And then even when he hit the green, I know he had a long putt, I was like okay, seen guys make these kind of putts before to get in playoffs, be ready for it, don't be shocked when it happens.

So you're always trying to talk yourself into being ready and then when it finally went, I mean the unbelievable relief, unbelievable stress relief, just all the stuff that I've been through in the last four or five months just kind went away in a second. Feel great about what I've been doing and the stuff I've been through and with my game and just blessed. Absolutely blessed.

Q. I know you don't you weren't rooting against the guys today, but were you rooting for the wind a little bit last night when you went to bed?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Oh, yeah, I'm not going to, I want the guys to play great and I want the guy to beat me to play great. And to do that in those windy conditions he was going to have to do that.

From the first seven holes I played yesterday, when it was, couldn't get to 4, couldn't get to 5 and stuff like that, and I knew that, to be fair, those guys need to have something like that, but golf's not necessarily fair. It might not be this time, it might be the next time, it might be whenever, it's just the way golf is.

So, but, I was in never rooting against those guys, I want the guys to beat me to play great, and for them to do that this morning they were going to have to play some great golf and I would have tipped my cap and said shouldn't have been eight back going into Sunday, I should have been six back or five back, you know.

Q. I wonder if you got a sense at all that there was a number of players who really wanted to see you win to get justly rewarded for one of the great rounds they have ever seen. Did you get that sense?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I did last night. It was funny, I got on Twitter a little bit last night and saw some really nice stuff. And when you're hitting, having a round like that, you don't think it's --you just think I played, I did what you could. I played good. But seeing the guys tweet out some really nice things and saying that, wish the guys were still playing, it's tough out there, it's brutal. It's really cool to see, as players will tell you, we love having the respect of our peers. We love having guys think that you do stuff the right way, you play great golf, or you win it the right way and it means something. You want to be in the locker room and have guys respect you and have guys thing think you do stuff the right way.

So when guys say that, it means a lot. So I was, I was, um, I was very grateful for them saying that, but at the end of the day, if Jimmy Walker would have won today, it wouldn't have mattered. It was -- nobody's going to remember in five years what happened. They're just going to remember who won the golf tournament. So it's just one of those things.

Q. You told us a couple times how much you enjoy Torrey Pines. To see all the trees falling down like they were today, what went through your mind?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's never going to be the same. That tree on 15 is an integral part of the golf course. That tree that fell over is one of the reasons why that hole plays so tough. It guards the front left side of that green. They lost some other trees that are integral to the golf course. It will be interesting to see what they do, if they could recreate it somehow or do something else with it. But it's tough. You realize golf takes a very back stage to what happened here last night and today. There's some really significant wind damage. We saw it on the road last night. I'm sure people had some serious damage to their homes or whatever it may be. So that's serious.

And I know there's a golf tournament going on, it's what's important to us, but thoughts are with them and hopefully it's not as bad as it looked. It looked awful to me. We're in the hotel last night you could hear stuff cracking and breaking all night long, just from the constant barrage of 50 mile an hour winds. So just hope that they can recover and get back to what the Torrey Pines that we know and love.

Q. How would you keep up with what was going on today on the course and was this the best you ever practiced?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Probably the most nervous I've ever been practicing for sure. I had guys texting me all the time keeping me up to date what was going on. Then when Dottie got on the range, I she kept me abreast of what was going on. I tried to kind of distance my mind from it and realize nothing I can do, can't control it, just get in your routine. Probably the reason why my wife told me to go out and start practicing because she's like, you're driving me crazy, get out of here and go watch it. So, it did help. It helped me get through it a little bit. I didn't this think about it as much as I was warming up.

So, but just so much had to happen, there was so many guys that had a chance, it was crazy how it all fell perfectly for me.

Q. Were you watching in the room before you left for the range?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: We were watching in the -- there's a library over here at the hotel, we watched the first hour of coverage on so me and my caddie and wife were in there watching. I probably paced a hole in the carpet in there. I did not sit still. There was a pool table in there, my caddie tried to get me to play a game of pool, I said, no chance, I'm stuck. I got to watch this. So that's when she finally said go, get out of here. You're driving me crazy. Go warm-up.

Q. You've had some success at this tournament. Talk about what it means for you to win here again at the Farmers Insurance Open and also you've had some success in California before as well.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, this is to be on a list with multiple champions here, I know there's some guys that have done it, Tiger, obviously, being first and foremost to my mind. It's great to be a two-time champion here. This is an unbelievable golf course, it identifies who is playing best that week and it's an unbelievable list of guys who have won here. You look at the list of guys who have won here and there's a lot of Major champions that have done that.

So, hopefully this leads to bigger things for me and can build off of this for the rest of this year. California's been great to me. I wish we had four Majors in California or three Majors in California and one in Georgia. And I don't know what it is about this place out here, but I love being in San Diego, I love the golf course, and obviously Pebble's been great to me to. So I love poa annua greens. Any time we get on this I'm in a good frame of mind.

Q. What do you like about poa annua and have you ever been approached by Kevin Kisner for the secret?
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I love, what I love most about poa annua is you have to be aggressive and you have got to hit a putt almost perfect. You got to give it a chance to go in, you got to get it rolling hard on the green. And I think that's what my stroke does best, because I hit them aggressive, get the ball rolling really fast. When you do that, the ball holds its line. If you miss a putt a little bit, or hit a weak putt, it's going to bump off.

And I love it because it eliminates half the guys, like Kevin Kisner. Because they don't like it and they don't want to be on it. So, it makes my putting even better. Because they don't want to be a part of it and if they get a bad bounce they think the greens are awful, I'm never coming back here, whatever, which helps me.

So, that's what I, that's why I love it. I think it kind of identifies, A, who is rolling it great and, B, who is mentally strong enough to handle a couple putts that don't go in.

Q. Secondly, when you played so well at Pebble on the and ended up winning last year, what happened to the rest of the year? Good little stretch in Texas, but sure you didn't continue it.
BRANDT SNEDEKER: I got a swing fault. Butch and I, we kind of -- I got the club really across the line and caused some problems and wasn't able to hit the ball nearly as good as I was early in the year.

We spent the second half of the year trying to fix it. I got it to where it's under control a little bit. Then we adjusted my setup problems this off season. And you go through ruts like that where you get in a swing fault and you're just trying to get through it, I don't want to make a change in the middle of the year, I just want to keep playing and I should have just taken an extra week off, really practiced hard, worked on it and came back on the right path. But I kept trying to play through it and not change it.

ALEX URBAN: Congratulations, Brandt.

BRANDT SNEDEKER: Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297