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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

April 20, 2016

Bryson DeChambeau

San Antonio, Texas

NICK PARKER: I'd like to welcome Bryson DeChambeau into the Media Center here at the Valero Texas Open. Bryson is coming off a T-4 which got him into the field this week.

Bryson, run us through kind of what the last two weeks have been like. Low am at the Masters. Top-Ten last week to get in the field this week. Sports Center in morning.

What has it been like?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I can tell you it's definitely been a new page in my life, that's for sure. It's been different.

I've embraced it and love it and it's exciting to be out here playing. I'm really just honored to be a part of this field and trying to compete with the best players in the world.

NICK PARKER: Have you gotten to take a look at the course yet and how is the course handling the rain?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: It's great. We got rain this morning and on the practice range the grass was nice and I could hit off of it beautifully, no issues.

So, I'm sure the golf course -- I'm not playing in the Pro Am. I don't know how it's playing out there. I'm sure it's nice as well out there.

NICK PARKER: I'd like to open it up for questions.

Q. Bryson, there seems to be no end to the fascination with you right now. Is that a good thing, is it becoming any kind of overwhelming or is it just -- is it easy for you to take it in stride?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I think a lot of expectations become put on me when that happens, you know, when there's so much hype and stuff. Look, I'm just trying to play some golf. I'm trying to play my best golf and my body is getting a little tired but I'm doing my best with that and trying to be as prepared as I possibly can.

But I think the most important factor is that I'm just going to try and do my absolute best out there and whether that's missing a cut, whether that's winning, great. I'm going to learn from it and hopefully my body will be a little bit better going down the road as I get through these situations.

Q. With all this stuff that's been written and talked about with you, have you noticed any kind of misconceptions about you?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Oh, yeah.

Q. Like what?
A Huge misconception. My golf clubs, what they truly are. How I actually think or swing a golf club. It's funny, there's a lots of people that think my golf swing is a certain way and compared to what I truly intrinsically know it to be. That's great but, again, that's just media.

That's sometimes there's misconceptions out there. But, again, everybody is trying to do their best. There's no harm, no foul amongst that. It's funny. It really is funny.

Q. Is there -- in a way, does it give you maybe a bit of an advantage because people look at you with kind of this mystical approach now and, I don't know, maybe there's some type of advantage to that?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: It's definitely different. What I can say about me being different is that everybody is different out there in their own little way.

Most people don't realize that, that look, Zach Johnson is completely different from Justin Leonard. I was looking at them on the practice range and got two completely different ways of kind of playing even though they're somewhat similar in regards to their wedge play and how good they are.

Even got to see, Dustin Johnson who kills the ball. So many different things out there that people don't realize.

I guess there's a fascination because of the extremes that I've gone to and I've kind of become a little bit of an outlier I guess in the data that's produced but I'm not trying to be completely different out there. I'm not trying to change the game for the guys and the guys go, "Who is this kid that's coming on the scene?"

That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do my absolute best throughout and hopefully compete and play my best in these championships.

Q. Who do you kind of after last week, kind of flew home in style? Can you talk about that a little bit?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: The only way to get here quickly from Hilton Head was to go that way especially playing in a Pro Am Monday morning, it's very difficult. It would have been an all-nighter for me had I not flown that way and NetJets was nice enough to provide me a flight out here and get me here safe and sound so I could play on Monday morning.

Q. You came here. You didn't go home.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: No, I came straight here. Yeah. Straight from Hilton Head right out to here, which was nice. I was able to sleep and get 8 hours of rest which is something that I definitely needed.

Q. This being your second week as a professional, your experience -- you've obviously had a lot of success early.
Do you feel like you're doing anything differently now as a professional that you weren't doing an a amateur?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Resting a lot more. I've been on the road for, shoot, since Abu Dhabi in the Middle East tournaments. It's taken a toll on my body. I know when it starts to give out.

Next week is going to be a much needed rest. What I can say is that this week I'm resting more than I ever have before in a tournament. Usually I'd still out there practicing, chipping, doing everything, but I'm taking it easy and trying to save my body so I can perform at its highest potential.

I know the golf course is charted out. You got yardage books, the green books, you got all of these other things. You really don't need to know too much unless you don't really know the tendency of what the wind does to the ball for the rolls-outs. Those are the only things you got to figure out and get used to.

Other than that, it's a golf course and I've got some great information and I'm lucky enough to be able to rest and hopefully play my best with that information provided.

Q. You also mentioned different styles of all these guys on the PGA TOUR. Do you find that being out here now, how do you find your own style, find your own game, so to speak?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I guess I already intrinsically have my own style, if that makes sense. Everybody has their own style intrinsically and so there's not one way -- I'm not trying to find it.

If I'm trying to find it I'm lost. If you're trying to find it now, that's tough, that's really difficult.

That was one of the main goals when I was growing up, too, is that before I got to the PGA TOUR or had the opportunity of even playing college, I tried to figure out my golf swing and before I went to college I said I want to have everything figured out, I don't want to be working on my golf swing at that point in time because most kids are figuring stuff out, okay, what I do need to do to get better, how do I perform at a higher level?

That's one thing I wanted to have taken care of, which I did, for the most part. There's still some things I needed to learn, whether it's performing a little bit better in my wedge play or consistently having better rolls on my putts. Little things have helped me play to a better potential or whether it's belief, right.

So those little things have accumulated up to where I am now. I'm not trying to change anything, will not change anything. All I'm going to try and do is make my body perform at the highest potential through resting and figuring out different little ways to make my body move efficiently.

That's kind of how I find my way out here, I guess. There's no other way to really explain that.

Q. I read something you were a physics major at SMU. My son is a physics major at Madison, Wisconsin.
Does that help you in your game at all in terms of angles or --

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I can tell you that's the one reason why I'm here today is because I had those underlying principles of knowledge from physics. If I didn't have that, I wouldn't be able to come up with the things in my bag, that chart, extrapolate numbers -- it's a number series, essentially.

Summation of the certain equation allows me to extrapolate numbers and create a chart that allows me to control how far I'm taking it back. I might not be making sense to you guys. It tells me how far to go back in order to go a certain distance.

Q. How far to go back on your swing?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yes, how far I go back per interval to make it land a certain distance out there on the golf course. Now, spin is completely different issue. That's based on the firmness of the turf, the friction of the turf and also the spin rate and wetness and other things, other factors.

Q. Well, is golf science or is it art?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Everybody asks me that question. I believe it's the same thing. Most people think that, oh, you're either technical or you're an artist, you're a feel player, whatever.

It's a long discussion. But kind of simplify it, it's more about combining the two for me to make me play my best golf. If I can have these technicalities and underlying principles that allow me to apply it better on the golf course, great.

Now, once I get on the golf course I've got to play some golf and that requires some intrinsic artistry that comes about from experience, I guess. I'm only 22. I don't have that much experience. But, at the same time, having the little amounts of knowledge, that experience helps me to play better golf.

So I would say it's a combination of both. If I can take both averages, the technicalities, the physics and the science behind it and take the artistry that's in me and combine the two of them I can grow my game to a new potential.

Q. What is your schedule, upcoming schedule?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: This week?

Q. The next few weeks.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I'm off next week, much needed rest. But playing the Wells Fargo after that. I'm not certain -- is that Colonial actually or -- what is it, Brett?

BRETT: Byron Nelson.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I'm sorry. I don't know the full schedule. Memorial.

Q. Playing two Texas events.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yes, definitely. After that Quicken Loans, few others as well.

Q. How important is it, obviously Texans have pride in their golf, you know, so to compete in a event like this kind of in front of the home State, how important is that to play well and certainly with Spieth growing up in Texas is being talked about a lot more it seems like now.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah. No, it's definitely important. The one thing about it though is that in the nicest way possible it is a golf tournament.

We're all trying to play our absolute best. In front of Texans, yeah, it's great, they'll be hooting and hollering and cheering you on at the same time. So it's nice to have that to add to the momentum I guess we have by playing here.

What I can say, too, on that is that we're all out here trying to win a tournament, whether it's up Northeast, the West in California, it's a golf tournament. We got to go play well.

Yes, it is very nice to have some great support by some Texans. I know a couple buddies have come down from Dallas to support me. It's nice to have that as well.

Q. I did want to ask you about are you friendly with Curtis Reed?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah. I knew him in college. He's a good player and I'm glad he got in the tournament.

Q. Did he give you a thank you note at all?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: He said thank you. It was kind of nice to see him on the range. I was practicing by him yesterday and today. So it was kind of funny how that worked out. But, he's a nice kid, great guy and I hope he does really well. I know he will.

Q. Bryson, are you conscious of trying to bring a little bit of style to your play not only in how you play but maybe are you conscious of what you wear and setting a style trend at all?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yes. I think that having a clean, classic modern yet kind of a throwback look is important to me. I know that's definitely what Cobra and Puma is trying to achieve on this side of their brand.

As I go out there and wearing these hats, again, it's in honor of Payne Stewart and Ben Hogan and the first guys in the game of golf. It's not -- it's not to be trend setter or anybody, just to say hey, thank you, thank you to Bobby Jones and Old Tom Morris what they've done for the game of golf.

I think we owe them that.

Q. Any chance we can see you in knickers ala Payne Stewart?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I think I have to make my card before I pull that one out. I don't think I'm ready for that. We've definitely thought about it, we almost did it at the Masters and we almost did it last week but it just wasn't the right time.

It would have looked arrogant to the other players out here. I have to be respectful of them because, again, I'm not trying to come out here and say, "Hey, look, I'm this new star."

That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to pay my respect to the guys that have made golf what it is today and I think there's a right time for it and you will see it but I just don't know about it being right now. We're definitely thinking about it and trying to make it happen, though.

NICK PARKER: All right. Anymore questions for Bryson? Perfect. Thanks for coming in. Best of luck this week.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Appreciate it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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