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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEXJuly 21, 2016Woody AustinNorth Berwick, Scotland TOM CARLISLE: Woody Austin, current leader at 4-under. Just talk us through your round. WOODY AUSTIN: Well, got off to a great start in that I made a huge putt on the first. I made a 35-footer from just off the green to the left, which obviously got me in a good frame of mind. And then birdied No. 5. Hit it about ten feet, 12 feet on 5 and was 2-under early, and then kind of was just prodding along. Was hitting some good shots but not hitting it real close to the hole. Unfortunately I 3-putted No. 9 and then I hit a really bad drive on 10 over left into really deep stuff and just had to chip out, and so back-to-back bogeys stalled me and put me at even par. But then I was able to get lucky on the next hole. I didn't hit a good one tee shot but I had a good lie in the rough and hit a good one shot. Had about a 10-footer. The par 5, I was just short of the green and chipped it up to about a foot and a half. And hit a good one shot on the par 3 and didn't make it. The next par 5 again, just short of the green and chipped up to about 12 inches. So I was back to 3-under and feeling pretty good, and then fortunately after that, my golf swing showed up and I hit some really good shots after that. The wind, it got real chilly, got windy at the end, and I played the last four holes the best I played all day. Good drive on 15, shot in the middle of the green. 16, I hit a great 3-iron it looked like to about eight feet, made birdie. 17, relatively solid. Second shot was off to the right a little bit but then I played a perfect 18th hole. Hit a really good drive and 6-iron to eight feet and unfortunately I missed that one. TOM CARLISLE: How important was that birdie at 16? WOODY AUSTIN: 16 was nice obviously. It's always good to feel like you can -- you always want to sneak ahead of everybody or at least get up there. It would have been nice to make the last one to get that little two-shot cushion or whatever. I know I was real happy with the one I made on the first hole, so I'm okay with that. Q. You've had a very good season, have you not? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, I won three times in four events, and then unfortunately, it seems I forgot how to play after that. It's been really bad since. Q. Sorry, when was that? WOODY AUSTIN: About three months ago. Yeah, it's been unfortunately a long stretch of really ugliness. Q. Have you done anything to regain what you had in April? WOODY AUSTIN: Not really. I said all along when I came out on the Champions Tour, this was going to be my retirement. I'm not into grinding. I'm not into beating a bunch of balls anymore. I did that for my 40 years. I'm done. So I go home, I play with my kids, I play with my family. I own a golf course. I help run the golf course. I try to do the things I need to do there. You'll find me sometimes weeding, jumping on a mower and mowing. I hit balls usually maybe Saturday and Sunday the week before I go back out. That's it. That's my preparation. The only time I work on is when I get to the golf course. Obviously this week I've had an extra couple days to work on it, which is nice, because usually, I don't get to the golf course until Wednesday and play the Pro-Am on Thursday. But I'm done with going home and grinding for a week off. I don't need that anymore. Q. But you did win four times on the PGA Tour -- WOODY AUSTIN: That is correct. Q. What do you regard as your best? WOODY AUSTIN: 2007 was definitely my best, what you would consider myself. I think I played better in my rookie year, but the money and all the accolades weren't as big then. But 2007 was definitely my best. I won the Memphis tournament. I almost ran Tiger down at the PGA and finished a shot back. Finished solo second at the PGA. And then I also -- Q. Where was the PGA then? WOODY AUSTIN: Tulsa, Oklahoma. I also made the U.S. Presidents Cup team and did a few abnormal things in that that were pretty funny for everybody else. It was a very good year. Q. Did you play The Open in '07? WOODY AUSTIN: No, I played Birkdale in 2008. That was windy. That was some golf there. I'll never forget that. That was six days of trying to hit it head-high. That was some good golf Pádraig played that week to shoot under par. Q. Would you elaborate on "abnormal"? WOODY AUSTIN: I'm the goofball that fell face-first in the water. That was me. So I'd call that abnormal. I hear about it all the time. People won't let me hear the end of that. I hear all the time: Where are my goggles; do I still have my goggles; stay away from the water; don't fall in. Especially if I'm anywhere near a lake, if I'm reading a putt, "Oh, don't fall in." Oh, yeah, I hear about it all the time. TOM CARLISLE: What is it about Americans and this tournament? You're doing really well at the top of the leaderboard, your compatriots. WOODY AUSTIN: I would have to say the weather. We really are fine with the weather is good. You guys are a lot more adapt at when the wind picks up and the weather changes. It seems like you guys are used to practising in it a lot more. You're used to playing in it a lot more. So you have a better understanding of how to deal with it; whereas we in the States, if it's ugly weather, we just say, nah, that's enough. Plus the fact that you can play a lot more over here in bad weather because the golf courses don't get too saturated. So you play in a lot more tougher conditions. When we get those tough conditions at home, it's almost like the course is unplayable, and so we don't have to deal with it as much. But I think when the weather is perfect, I just think it's a number's game. When the weather is perfect, I think we have more players. We have more players, so you give us perfect weather, more players, the odds are in our favour. Now, if you flip the switch like Birkdale in 2008, I think then you'll start to weed some of us out. Especially in this day and age. This day and age, everybody's pretty much one-dimensional as far as their game. Fortunately for us, there's a lot of us that are old enough to where we still maneuver the golf ball. But if you're stuck with one swing and the wind picks up and the weather changes, you can be in trouble. Q. There's obviously a long way to go, but if you're in contention for Sunday and you're walking up and you hear -- WOODY AUSTIN: Sure, like I said, I'm used to it. It's amazing how -- like I said, that was, what, that's almost ten years ago. And for people to think that I carry my goggles around with me in my golf bag is already pretty crazy. I'm used to all that stuff. Q. The wind changing around -- WOODY AUSTIN: It changed quite a bit, really. It didn't blow particularly hard at the beginning. I mean, it was a little bit of a breeze on the first hole, and the second hole, and what have you. 6 played into the wind but it didn't play so much to where, like I still was able to get close to the green in two, because I hit one of my best drives of the day. But when we turned on 13 and the wind picked up and it started to get chilly, that was a good little stretch. 14 has been a driver, 3-iron, no problem, getting to 14, and today it was a driver, 3-wood short, or just short. It was a pretty good little switch. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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