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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 4, 2016Jim HermanAugusta, Georgia THE MODERATOR: Pleasure to introduce you to Jim Herman. Yesterday Jim captured his first PGA victory at Houston. Before we take some questions, I'd like to say congratulations. I understand you haven't had a lot of sleep, so we'll respect that. Thank you for making the time. Would you want to maybe just describe the last 24 hours and maybe give some thought about how you felt last night? JIM HERMAN: Thank you. It's great to be here. Yeah, I mean, just 24 hours, really wasn't expecting to be here. I mean, 24 hours ago, I guess it was a possibility, but it was a long way to go, 18 holes on the PGA TOUR. You can play your best round and still get beat on a Sunday. I knew I had to do‑‑ stick to my game plan and make it as stress‑free as possible on a Sunday in the PGA TOUR in the final group. Very proud of myself. I was able to edge out some really good players, some world‑class players, and here we are. I'm ready for some questions. Q. You were very emotional when you won yesterday. Would you normally describe yourself as emotional and how are you feeling now? JIM HERMAN: No. I'm pretty calm on the golf course. I think it all just built up and that was I guess nine years of traveling, playing professional golf on the Web.com and PGA TOUR just all came out there at the end. A lot of emotion. I guess a showed a little emotion on 16. That was a lot for me. You don't usually get fist‑pumps, but been really working hard on my short game and to have that be the deciding shot for me winning or losing, it's pretty great to see a chip or a pitch go in. Q. What were you planning to do this week and can you just talk about the logistical mishmash that goes on after you win and all of a sudden you're here today? JIM HERMAN: Yeah, I was planning on watching, for one. I really enjoy watching the Masters. I've been a fan of golf my whole life, dreaming of playing here and now it's happened. I was planning on flying home last night, and I was going to get home at midnight, see my kids this morning, take my daughter to school and that's obviously changed. She's on her way up here with my wife and my son, and her mom and dad are driving up. I think my mother and my brother are flying down from Cincinnati. Yeah, it was just going to be a week of rest, get some practice in and get ready for Hilton Head. So that's changed. Q. You didn't have to mark your ball on the 16th green, but you do have some very unusual ball markers. Can you talk about that a little bit? JIM HERMAN: Sure, a good friend of mine growing up in Cincinnati, he moved to Florida. I stayed with him when I first moved to Florida, but Steve Whiter, he's a history teacher at Port St. Lucie, a real Presidential buff and really likes the Presidential dollar bills, coins. He just picks one out, he calls it the potus ball marker. He picks one out for each week and I just use it. I'm expecting we'll probably have President Eisenhower this week (laughter). Q. I was going to ask you, have you picked one out? JIM HERMAN: He lets me know who it is or he has a vote on Twitter. But I'm expecting it to be Ike. Q. Can you describe the journey here, kind of that whirlwind of 24 hours, has it sunk in and what was going through your mind as you were changing your plans pretty drastically? JIM HERMAN: Well, I was trying not to think about everything that could change during a round. I was trying to stay focused, one shot at a time and stay in the moment. I really didn't let that go until the last putt, even when I had about 20 feet, two putts to win. Stranger things have happened. Now that it's here and upon me, it's just‑‑ still trying to take it all in. I just flew in this morning and drove over from Atlanta. Just registering and getting the lay of the land. I've played in three U.S. Opens and the crowds there are great, but this is obviously going to be totally different experience. Q. Have you ever been here before as a spectator, and what was it like for you to drive down Magnolia Lane and walking to the clubhouse, and all of the things that you heard and seen? JIM HERMAN: It's a pretty an amazing place. I got my Web.com Tour card in 2008 and with that I got access to‑‑ I was able to come and be a spectator. I definitely took advantage of that. I came in 2008 on Saturday. It was a really rainy day, but I walked the whole golf course and just took it all in, thinking let's get here some day. I was fortunate enough to play here this past November with a great member, Mr.Robinson, and my agent, Michael, and Jay Haas' business partner, Mr.Robinson. We were here on November 30 and it was just a spectacular day. The weather was perfect. It was everything imagined. But obviously now, it's Tournament Week, it's going to be a total 180 from anything I was able to experience on the outside or even in that one round. It's just going to be awesome. I can't wait. Q. I believe you had a putter change at Shell. Why was that and are you using that putter for the Masters? JIM HERMAN: I just switched colors. Same model, No. 1 Bettinardi iNOVAi. I was practicing with it. I was just like, you know, let's just make a little color change. Went from a black model to a silver model and nothing else was different. But really, for whatever reason, maybe it just helped with sight lines or something, but nothing major there. But my speeds were really good last week and look forward to carrying that over here. Q. From the moment you won last night, can you take us through, obviously it's whirlwind and they are bringing you for an interview and whatnot. How quickly did you get a chance to call your wife? Was that an emotional moment? JIM HERMAN: I didn't get to her for about an hour and a half. I'm sure she was waiting for the phone call. But yeah, a lot of interviews. Signed a lot of autographs for all the volunteers over at Shell. It was just tremendous. There's so much that goes into running a golf tournament, and so many volunteers, and it's great to give back to them and spend a little time after the tournament and shake some hands of all the people that support the event. And then I finally was able to give my wife a call, and she was crying and you know, ecstatic. She wouldn't believe that she was going to be coming up today and join me here at Augusta National. She's been right there with me my whole ride on the PGA TOUR, and before that, she was with me before I was struggling on the mini‑tours and I was a club professional. The PGA TOUR seemed pretty far away at that time and she was right there by my side. Q. Can you take us through your history with Donald Trump, how he helped you with your career, and also, do you plan on paying him back now that you've won a winner's check on the PGA TOUR? JIM HERMAN: He's been a big supporter of mine. I took that job in 2006, a friend of mine, Mickey Gallagher was his new head professional. I got the call, Do you want to come up and interview for an assistant's job? It was a quick yes, so we flew up and ended up getting the job, taking the job. Got the call one day in April, Mr.Trump is coming out, you're going to play with him. I said great. Just was able to play really well. I don't know what it is; when I play with him, I usually play pretty well. But yeah, he's been a big supporter of mine. He helped me early on in my years financially and maybe just a little shot in the arm of confidence. I was able to play with him just this past week right before Easter and had another really good round with him. We were victorious in our match. He's doing great in what he's doing now and we'll see how far that goes. Q. Did you ever reach a point where you considered quitting touring golf and just staying in the pro shop? Was there ever kind of a low point or a point where you were just really reassessing? JIM HERMAN: It wasn't like I wanted to quit. I wasn't playing well enough to keep my job out here. I was struggling with my short game tremendously about two years ago. Not so much the putting. I really worked hard on my putting speed and things, but my short game, my pitching and chipping was really holding me back. For anyone that's struggled with that area, you'll really consider doing a lot of things. Maybe this isn't the job for you if you can't handle yourself around the greens and the pressure you're going to be under. I had to get help. I had to get technique help. I've been self‑made. I've really never had any formal instruction on any of my game, my long game or my short game. So I had to get help. I had to get help with my short game technique and I had to get help mentally because I wasn't there mentally to handle the pressure and what it takes to compete on the Tour. I was good enough to get here but I wasn't good enough to stay. This is my fifth year on the PGA TOUR, but I only kept my card once, and that was last year, since I've started seeing Bill Davis, by short game coach, and getting some help on the mental side, as well. Q. Did you ever think this day would come? And secondly, if so, how does the reality match the green, I guess? JIM HERMAN: Yeah, you want to dream, you want to believe that you're going to make it. But you just don't know until it's upon you. There were a lot of opportunities yesterday that in years past, I wouldn't have been able to get through and hold on and win the tournament, and I wouldn't be here obviously today. But I just think that shows how far I've come in the last two years or so, really committing to a game plan with my coaches and here we are. You still don't always‑‑ I feel like maybe I'm going to wake up and I'm going to be still on maybe Saturday night going into the final round again and I haven't done it yet. But I don't think that's happening. I think we're here (laughter). Can't wait to get started. Q. You're clearly still in the middle of this whirlwind, but when everything calms down and you reflect on Houston, whatever is going to happen this week, how do you think this is going to change you? JIM HERMAN: I think I'm going to be the same guy that I was. I'm just going to be called a PGA TOUR winner now. I don't think I'll change very much. I'm a pretty humble guy. Just look forward to having a little job security for a couple years. It's a pretty good feeling knowing that I'm going to be on the PGA TOUR for at least two more years. Seven years of being on the PGA TOUR, that's pretty‑‑ I don't know if I would have ever thought that was possible growing up and in college golf and mini‑tours. It's pretty awesome. Q. As a follow‑up to Donald Trump, have you had a chance to talk to him since you won? JIM HERMAN: I have, and he Tweeted to me last night congratulations, and there was article in USA Today, but I haven't spoken to him. I spoke to Mickey Gallacher, the professional at Trump National. Q. Are you known as Donald Trump's friend? Do you get that from people? JIM HERMAN: I've carried his logo on my shirt and on his bag. People know that. There's a bunch of us that play out of his clubs. He's really good for golf. He loves golf and he's really good for the game. Q. What are your expectations and the challenges? JIM HERMAN: I'm very confident coming in. I feel like I'm playing very well. I feel like my short game is going to be the factor; I think you've got to be able to read these greens very well. I have a good guy on my bag, Matt, he's been around here before. He's really good with me. We're going to put a game plan together and get out there tomorrow. We're not going to get on the course today, but get out there tomorrow and enjoy the moment tomorrow. Just get out there, see the course and then probably Wednesday, put some ideas together how we're going to handle some tee shots. Just start a good game plan and stick to it, and hey, you never know what happens. Q. What were your nerves like yesterday, and were they different than you might have anticipated them being? JIM HERMAN: I'm very proud of the way I handled myself. Sometimes like I said, I would have struggled, fifth hole was really the challenging hole at the golf club in Houston. It's just a hard tee shot, like many tee shots out there. I struggled with it more than any other hole. I hit it in the hazard and was able to regroup and make a nice bogey. That was the only bogey of the day, but I rebounded and hit some nice pars and I was able to stick with it, where before I would have probably fallen apart and had a mid‑15 finish or a 15th to 20th place finish. I feel I handled the ups and the downs better. I think that's the best thing to say, with nerves. The highs are great; you can ride that momentum, but you've got to handle the lows, and I do that a lot better now. Q. It's been a long journey. Can you tell us why it's such a mighty task just to win on the PGA TOUR? JIM HERMAN: Well, there's 156 guys or 144, depending on the field, and any one can win. I proved that. Just look at who wins every week, there's a lot of new guys that win, and then you've got Rory and Jordan and Bubba, they are world‑class. They are at the top of their games and you've got to beat them. I was able to play in the final group and hold off Henrik Stenson. He's as good as they get, and Jordan and Phil. It's amazing. The talent level is very high out here and you've got to be on your game, and I think that's the biggest thing for me is I was able to get some help with my game and where it needed to be improved. Now I feel like I can compete with any of them. Q. When you play with Trump, is he always your partner or does he let you partner with somebody else? JIM HERMAN: It's up to him. He's usually the game maker. He would play with Dana Quigley from the Champions Tour just the day before. They had played and they were partners. It's always funny, when we get to the tee, he's, "Well, I think‑‑ okay, I'll take Jim." (Laughter). So the games are usually won or lost on the first tee, but Dana didn't handle that very well. He's like, "Donald, we just won, we won very convincingly yesterday and you dump me." A couple holes later, he said, "Well, I see why you dumped me Mr.Trump." THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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