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AT&T BYRON NELSON

May 17, 2016

Steven Bowditch

Irving, Texas

MARK WILLIAMS: I'd like to welcome defending champion, Steven Bowditch, into the Interview Room at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Steven, just talk about coming back here as the defending champion. You've had a fairly challenging year so far. What's the vibe for you coming back here to defend this tournament?

STEVEN BOWDITCH: Obviously it's great to be back home, back in front of friends and family. As you're alluding to I haven't been playing well. No big shock, I guess for me. I sort of overdid it late last year and sort of paying the price I guess a little bit now and it is what it is. It's golf. You know, I didn't have great form coming into it last year. I think I made maybe or I missed I think 10 out of the 12 cuts coming into this event. So, it's sort of the way my career has gone and hopefully I can turn it around this year. I got great vibes back here, again playing in front of friends and family, and it's nice to see your face and bring back some great memories and being back in this room again, it's pretty special place for myself and my family.

MARK WILLIAMS: Just before we go to questions, winning here last year was the catalyst for you to make that the Presidents Cup team as a pick, Captain Price. You talked about your schedule earlier. Did that change your schedule? You said you probably played a little much at the end of the year or part of that deal?

STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yes and no. Once -- it wasn't really on my radar and at the start of the year, you know, I was a long way out through world ranking points to get in the Presidents Cup team and the win here really I guess catapulted me up into that conversation and, you know, I normally do play a lot but I guess I put a lot more pressure on myself and worked even harder to try and get into that Presidents Cup team and, you know, I'm glad I did. It was an experience that I'll never, ever forget and hopefully the game might come around and next year we might be in a position to maybe have another shot at it.

MARK WILLIAMS: Okay. We'll take some questions.

Q. You had a three week gap and a four week gap at least between Tour starts this year. Was that you trying to sort of recoup from playing a lot earlier or did you have an injury or --
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, I had a few injuries but nothing to -- you know, everyone is out here playing on injuries. It's not a big deal. It's not an excuse for the way I've been playing. Just terrible form right now and lack of confidence. But I do feel like it's starting to come back around, you know. Made a few changes in my golf swing and, you know, hopefully, that starts showing up here this week. You know, again, it's just great memories and hopefully when I tee off on Thursday I can really get that confidence back just by -- the -- just the feeling and buzz I'll have on the first tee. You know, getting introduced and seeing Ms. Peggy there. It's always great to have a cookie or two to start the day.

Q. Steven, is there a specific round, scoring shot, one specific shot where you said it's just not working for me right now, I need to do something to change what's going on right now?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: No, there wasn't a specific moment. It was just -- you know, it's just bad golf. Everyone knows the confidence that surrounds the game with momentum and I think I got -- I really started working really hard on my golf swing, shouldn't have. Not changing, just trying to get a little better and then that took away from my short game which is really my strength. It has been the last couple of years and that's really deteriorated this year. You know, you can always hit bad shots and get away with it if you've got a good short game. It hasn't been there this year and once you don't get it up and down for par, all of a sudden the momentum swings. Yeah, no excuses, just bad form.

Q. Is there a secret formula to making that other than just working harder?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Not that I found yet. But yeah, we have a great team around me. They're the reason I'm here. We got to keep trusting in what we're doing and hopefully it will turn around.

Q. Steven, I read you had five root canals. How difficult is that to play through?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah. It's not the greatest. It's something that I needed to get done. My mouth was real bad at the end of last year and, yeah, it's just unfortunate the timing or whatever. The timing as actually pretty good because of my win and it allowed myself to have some time off and fix the problems that I had and yeah, it wasn't fun but, you know, again it is what it is.

Q. You don't feel like that impacted the way you were playing?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Absolutely. Let's blame a hundred percent on my teeth (laughter). No. I mean, you know, who knows. I probably under-- you know, to be honest, I played -- you know I had a wrist injury for the past like three, four years, too and it really, really started to -- you know, I got a lot of tendonitis and some cysts in my left wrist. Normally the start of the year I have an injection and at the end of the year. This year I sort of hung on to it a little bit too late after Riviera one of my main goals was to get into the Match Play. I real wanted to play the Match Play. I never played it before. Just a great goal of mine I felt I could reach. At that time, I was -- I think I was maybe five, six spots out depending, probably 78, something in the world, and I really shouldn't have played. I was not -- I was not ready to play physically with my wrist and then I was going through, you know, all my teeth stuff there. Again, no excuse and I did play. But, you know, probably underestimated it, what it did to me, you know, having all my teeth done and five root canals and three extractions and sitting in the chair for hours and hours and hours on end. I did underestimate that but, you know, it was my choice to play and right or wrong, it was still a goal of mine to play the Match Play and I wasn't able to have my injection because it takes a couple weeks for me to get my strength back and play through it. I played Doral and Tampa, the last two events that would have got me into the Match Play before the cutoff line. Obviously struggled there quite a lot and the form hasn't really been anywhere great since.

Q. Looking back, would you do anything differently or is that fine with you the way some things turned out?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: No. I mean -- you know, the teeth thing or the injection maybe in my wrist. No, nothing -- you know, I get more kisses off my wife now so that's good (laughter).

Q. What's the timeline for the all the teeth stuff?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: It took me about, realistically, from start to finish, probably about 7 weeks, 8 weeks.

Q. Starting when?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: It started -- I started at -- I took a week off -- Phoenix, Torrey -- straight after Phoenix it started, yeah.

Q. With such a tough field here this week, how big of a challenge is it for you to obviously defend your title from last year?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, definitely. You know, it is a great field again that we've had this year and yeah, it's going to be tough, you know. Obviously there's nothing in my current form that says I should do any good at all but there also wasn't any last year. So, hopefully I can bring back some of that and give the big boys, you know, the superstars maybe a little bit of contest if I can hopefully get in there on Sunday.

Q. You still live in Flower Mound?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yes, sir.

Q. Living so close, even though you travel a lot, have you gotten over here to play or have you seen the course lately?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah. In that time off there I was lucky enough to come over here and play. I spent a little bit of time out here.

Q. What are your impression he's of it?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: It's great. It's too dry for me this year (laughter). The course is in fantastic shape, best I've seen it. Obviously, traditionally, the last I'd say four, five years it's always been, you know -- Jason probably knows this the best, 4, 5-under, sort of normally wins it. Tough golf course traditionally and last year it was more of a birdie-fest. So, to be able to -- it's looking that way again this year. I guess Thursday is supposed to be really bad weather-wise. So, I guess you probably going to see a lot more of the scoring that you typically did last year.

MARK WILLIAMS: Steven, we appreciate you coming in and good luck on your defense this week.

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