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WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPENFebruary 3, 2016Brandt SnedekerScottsdale, Arizona An interview with: BRANDT SNEDEKER THE MODERATOR: We welcome last week's Farmers Insurance Open champion, Brandt Snedeker, into the Waste Management Phoenix Open media center. It's got to be a good feeling here coming off a win. How do you carry that momentum coming into this week here? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just trying to build on it. I have had a good three-week run here with Hyundai and then Sony Open and obviously last week at Farmers. My main goal is make sure that I keep that momentum going. I'm obviously playing some good golf. And fatigue is something I worry about after a week like last week. So yesterday I took almost completely off. I feel better today, feel more well rested, played good in the ProAm, so excited about teeing it up tomorrow. It's going to be a tough test. The golf course is obviously longer with the new redesign but the greens are firm and fast. It's going to be a difficult test. It's not going to be like in years past. I think it's going to play a little harder. I've got to make sure I'm ready and thinking properly tomorrow and hopefully get something going. THE MODERATOR: Obviously a heck of a round on Sunday in those awful conditions. And even though you didn't play on Monday, it still was a nervous day to wait it out. How do you get back into the competition mode heading into tomorrow? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Today was a great day to get my mind right. Yesterday I was still kind of on a high from a win, and yesterday kind of reset and realized this is a new week. What happened last week was great but doesn't really matter, doesn't really affect anything that's going to happen this week. Trying to get my game plan ready, trying to get my golf game ready. It feels good, so hopefully I can use that tomorrow and make sure I'm thinking properly. And I'm going to keep saying that a lot this week. It's easy to get complacent off of a win and not think for every shot the way you're supposed to. Making sure I keep my foot on the pedal and try to get another win while I'm out here. THE MODERATOR: You've had so much success on the West Coast swing, including this golf course. What do you think it is about these golf courses and this time of the year that might be working so well for you? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I haven't been able to put my finger on it. Obviously the golf courses, makes a big difference, you show up at a venue and you enjoy playing, you look forward to playing every year. Puts you in a good frame of mind. A lot of the green complexes out here, I don't know why, Poa annua and overseed seem to kind of bring out my best short game and best putting week. Those two things. I'm pretty well rested coming in off of December where I didn't play a lot. And I did play at Shark Shootout, got some confidence going there. So I'm ready to go. Hopefully I can kind of build on this, take it to Florida with me the next few weeks and keep it going. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. What was it like playing with Coach Arians today? BRANDT SNEDEKER: It was great. First time I really spent any time with him, and I'm a huge football fan. I have a ton of respect for what he's been able to do in Arizona the last couple of years and what he did at Indianapolis. I'm a Tennessee Titans fan, so I saw it up close and personal for a couple of years when he was there. It was fun to get to know him a bit. He's a great guy. Fun to be around. I kinda bent his ear about Super Bowl and his season and what they are looking to do. Probably pestering him a little too much but we had some fun out there. Great guy. He made a fan for life for me out there today. Q. What did you do Monday? And how much golf did you play? When did you get here? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, Monday I did a great warmup session and luckily didn't have to hit a shot. Got here Monday afternoon and kind of just relaxed Monday night. Got settled in and didn't really do a whole lot. Went over to some friends' house and kind of celebrated a little bit but nothing crazy. Yesterday tried to spend time with the kids in the morning, be normal and get back to my normal routine. Yesterday I came out here and hit a couple of golf balls. Putted for a little while, and that was about it. I was kind of tired. Wanted to get home and get some rest. Still feel a little tired today but hopefully late tee time tomorrow helps me get a good night's sleep tonight and be ready to go tomorrow. Q. You mentioned the run that you're on here kind of start of the year, and last season wasn't really the year that you wanted. I'm just curious, do you feel like -- you have had runs like this in the past a few years ago. How close do you feel like you are to that level of golf, or are you there yet or beyond that? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, you know, I'm trying -- there is lots of comparisons between here and 2012. 2012 I got hurt right after Pebble. It was kind of a lull in the year, middle of the year. I'm excited and curious, like everybody else, to see how this year will pan out. I feel like I'm playing as good or better than I was at that point. I hopefully won't have an injury derail me, so I can see how long this will go and see how I can string this out and keep playing. I'm excited about it. I really am. I think all the stuff I have been through the last three our four years I have learned a lot. I have learned having Butch here helps a lot. He's a great motivator, great guy to push you and tell you what you need to hear. I will lean on him and lean on everybody in my team a lot and make sure I make this, get as much out of this run as I possibly can. You get on runs, and they don't last for anybody. You have to keep going until you don't. Q. What's different or maybe better about your game now compared to then? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I'm hitting it longer now than I was then, which helps. Length does matter out here. Hitting it a little longer than I was then. I'm definitely thinking way better than I was then. I cleaned up a lot of the stuff I used to do. I think I'm more consistent with my short game of putting now. Used to have weeks on, weeks off with my putter back then. Now I feel it's more consistent where every week it's there, it will be there for at least one or two days pretty good. Hopefully I can keep doing that. And I've got a great routine down now. I know exactly how to get prepared for Thursdays. Back then I wasn't as clear in my mission and as clear in my routine as I am now. Q. The length, it's an interesting thing you bring up. Is that something you felt like you had to do, given the scope of today's game? BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's something I have given up on and then changed the driver and ball beginning of this year, and it's added eight to ten yards I didn't think I was going to be able to get. I tried to do it in the gym and tried to do other things to do it. I get worried about doing the gym, because I'm so injury prone I don't want to injure myself doing something. But I don't know what it is. It's just I have got a driver that fits me perfectly, got a ball that fits me perfectly. Maximizing it right now. I'm getting everything I possibly can out of my golf game, which is what you're trying to do when you're hitting the driver. Q. How did you manage Sunday night? What was that like for you? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Awful. It was absolutely awful. It was worse -- I have had the lead on Sunday going into the Masters and I slept better than I did that night. I don't know why. It was completely out of my control. Literally the elements were everything. If I had elements on Monday, I had a chance to win. If I didn't, I didn't have a chance to win. It was just a completely helpless feeling. I know how my family feels all the time when they watch me now. I know how everyone's family feels now when they watch it now and how brutal it is to watch and have no control. It was a long 24 hours, you know. It was -- when I got done at 6:00 on, or whatever time it was, wasn't even 6:00, 3:30 on Sunday, I mean, it was just a completely helpless feeling. A good feeling, you had all this positive stuff happening, trying not to think about winning because you're trying to get ready, you know, there might be a playoff, you might not win, don't get your hopes up. But at the same time you're kind of like a kid on Christmas, you can't wait, like hopefully it's going to happen. That's why Monday was so tough. I was just waiting around for am I going to lose, am I going to win, am I going to be in a playoff? What's going to happen? I just didn't know. Just a crazy feeling. Never had anything like that. I've had to sit and wait for a while but nothing like that. Q. What was the difficulty of the night? Thinking you had a chance to win, you were going to win, or... BRANDT SNEDEKER: If I could show you the text chain between me and my brother you would see what was going through my mind. It was just about every possible scenario of I have no chance tomorrow, I can't believe they called play, to it might be a great thing, the forecast is this to pulling up 20 different forecasts trying to see which one was going to hit. Everything you could possibly think of. I was just helpless. Absolutely helpless feeling. Q. You talked a lot about your thinking better and your preparation is better. Without going or giving up too much, what do you mean by that? What's your preparation when you are approaching a course? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Just my game plan has completely changed. I used to go to a golf course without a game plan, trying to play as good as I possibly can. Now I have a game plan for what I'm trying to accomplish every day, what I'm trying to accomplish throughout the week, a set of goals to hit every day. Little stuff like that. Doesn't sound like much, but when you have that, you break up the tournament to I'm not just trying to win, I'm trying to do this on day one, trying to do this on day two. I've got certain things -- every day is different. Every day conditions are different, pin positions are different. You can't just go in with a mindset I'm going to go birdie every hole today. You have to have a clear mission of what you're trying to do that day. Some days 69 or 70 might be the best you can possibly shoot. Some days 64 might be. You just don't know. You have to get out there and see what the course leaves you. I didn't really have any idea about that before. I'd just kind of go out there and winging it and seeing what happened. Now I have a pretty clear picture what I need to do. That way if I don't have my best game, if I can check off certain things for that day I can kind of manage that day and hopefully figure it out before the next one. Q. Did you say earlier that you feel like you get the most out of your game? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I try to -- last year, the way I hit the golf ball, I feel like I got about as much as I possibly could out of last year. My short game was phenomenal. I just didn't hit it very good the second half of the year. This year I feel like I'm hitting the ball good, I'm going to try to get everything I possibly can, try to maximize what little talent and ability I have, because that's the only way I can compete out here and win. Q. What is it about your pop stroke that seems so conducive to overseeded or Poa annua greens? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I just think the aggressiveness, the way the ball comes off rolling fast. I never try to die putt it. I'm always putting some pace on it. When I do that, I can see a ball roll and it rolls tight on the green. I don't know how to explain it. I can see it. When it's rolling like that it doesn't really pop offline very much. Poa annua has a tendency to do that. When I hit the putt the way I want to, it doesn't really matter. They will roll tight and roll on the lines that I choose. I feel like on these kind of greens, if you mishit a putt or hit a putt that's weak, they have a really good chance of getting knocked offline, a real good chance of not staying online. I'm one of the few guys -- I'm the only guy that putts that way out here, I guess, one of the few guys who still putts aggressive on Poa annua. I'm never trying to die a putt in. I'm always trying to put some pace on it to get it in the hole. Q. The lesson with Butch after the Australian PGA, was that mainly ball position? BRANDT SNEDEKER: It was a lot of different things, not just ball position. We addressed three or four different issues that was going on and stuff that I didn't want to change, I didn't think I needed to change. And, you know, 84 makes you start you questioning what you need to do. We have a tendency to be stubborn out here, and I needed a round like that to say, okay, what I'm doing is not working. I need to listen to Butch and what he's telling me to do and do it. I don't feel how uncomfortable or awful it feels. Just do it. I did it for a couple of weeks at home and it felt awful. Went to Maui and it started clicking a little bit. Sony I had probably the best ball-striking week I've had in my career out here and kind of built on it last week. Probably played the best nine holes of golf I've played since I have been out here last week on Sunday. Hopefully I can keep doing that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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