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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

August 14, 2016

Ryan Moore

Silvis, Illinois

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the winner of the 2016 John Deere Classic, Ryan Moore.

Ryan, congratulations on your fifth career PGA TOUR win. With the win you move up to 23rd in the FedExCup standings. I was just looking at a couple of notes, probably not news to the people in here, but today was your 23rd consecutive sub-par round here at TPC John Deere, and I think in 32 rounds, you've only had two over-par scores. Obviously the layout suits you well.

With that said, just a few comments on the win today.

RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it does. It's a golf course I have enjoyed. Like I said earlier in the week, it's one I've grown to like more I would say over the last few years. I've come to appreciate how well it does fit me and suit my game. And I think that's where a lot of got play comes from, just being comfortable and confident. When I show up here, I feel like I can win.

I was in a fortunate position this week. I know there's a lot of guys in that field that are just trying to get to that first Playoff event and fortunate I was in a couple position around 60th or so on the FedExCup coming in here and my sole purpose of being here was to win a golf tournament. That's what I was here for, but that's every week and that doesn't always work out that way.

But for some reason, this week, this week did. You know, for me, it's just been -- every win is a little different. This one was -- I liked how steady it was. This is the kind of golf that I feel like I can play. Just really solid, really steady. No bogeys on the weekend.

I have to give a shout-out to my club company, PXG, Bob Parsons. The equipment is great, has been great. I've been wanting to win for them. I was the first guy to sign with them, and that's been huge for me. The equipment has been incredible over the last year and a half for me, and that's a big part of the win today. I didn't mention it down below, but I wanted to make sure and put that in there.

Q. I think it was your fourth hole, you had 340, did that get you going? You were talking about you had a lot of pars, but what does that do, that birdie putt?
RYAN MOORE: That was great. I birdied No. 2 and then I had that putt there -- I actually hit a good iron shot in there, a little breeze of what was there. Just kind of knocked the ball down and ended up a little short.

Honestly it was a pretty tricky putt coming up that hill. I got a good read on it and felt pretty good about it and was able to knock that in, which was huge. To get another birdie early, just to show the guys that were one or two shots behind me, like I'm not messing around today. I'm coming out making birdies, too.

The worst thing you can do on a day like today is just come out and make a bogey early, make a few pars in a row or be even or 1-over after five or six holes, and all of a sudden you've got ten guys thinking, "Oh, all right, I can go get this today."

It was very important to me to have a good front nine, make some birdies and show that I was here to play and post a good score.

Q. What kind of pre-round advice did you get from your son today?
RYAN MOORE: Well, he told me last night, and this is true -- so he really did. The first day, he told me to make eight birdies. And honestly, he's three years old, he has no idea what he's telling me. But he told me to make eight birdies. So that day, or first day was seven and then eight and then six.

Then he said, "Maybe seven or eight," is what he said last night about this one. It was a fun thing to think about. I actually missed -- I was really disappointed, I think it was the second round, I think I missed a 6-footer on the last hole to actually have eight birdies that day and he told me to have eight birdies.

So I was kicking myself walking off the green. I wasn't actually that mad about the round or the score. I just really wanted to make eight birdies so I could tell him afterwards I made eight birdies for him.

But yeah, that was kind of fun. It was something to keep my mind off it while I was out there. Like I said, he doesn't know what he's saying necessarily. He just knows birdies are good, so might as well have a lot of them.

Q. Have you talked to guys who have done well here and some the folks on this wall about how unique this venue is on the PGA TOUR? Guys put it on their schedule and board a charter usually to the British Open when it goes back to it's normal date in the schedule next year. Do you have a sense of how big an accomplishment this is?
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I know quite a few of the guys on the board there have that won the event. Yeah, I mean, this is a great event, it really is. I love being in it, in the area.

It's nice, there's a lot of weeks that are pretty hectic and busy, and this is just a great week to bring your family and hang out and relax a little bit. It has a lot of character, I would say, this tournament does, and that just makes it fun and unique and a tournament that finds its way into a lot of guys schedules.

Q. And what's your son's name?
RYAN MOORE: Tucker is his name.

Q. Is this the first time he's told you how many birdies?
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, this is the first time he's told me how many birdies to make. I'm going to tell him, like, higher, higher numbers, buddy, come on (laughter).

Q. A lot of guys that have won this tournament -- is that a testimony to your consistency, that you've stockpiled a cushion?
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I played so steady the whole week. But to say at any point today I was comfortable would not be true. I know I got a four- or five-shot lead or something at some point. I actually wasn't paying attention to that at all, but someone said that afterwards.

You know, I know that's not safe on this golf course. The greens are rolling so good. There wasn't any wind. The greens are soft. It's just one of those where someone could go shoot 5- or 6-under on that back nine very, very possibly. You've still got to hit good golf shots but it's there. It's possible. You put it in the fairway, you can give yourself a lot of opportunities.

But yeah, it was solid play, and not making any bogeys gave me that cushion and made it so I could just make eight pars the last eight holes. I was trying to make birdies. I was trying to make a couple more. I mean, I didn't want to be playing that 18th hole with a two-shot lead.

There's plenty of bad stuff that can happen on that hole and I basically hit it in the right rough about 90 per cent of the time on that hole. So I was just aiming left saying, I don't even care if I'm in the bunker. I just don't want to be in those right trees.

Q. You had a mud ball, too.
RYAN MOORE: I did. I had the worst mud ball that I had -- well, we had lift, clean and place there for a couple days.

It was a really bad mud bull. But fortunately it was on the front and right on the center. It wasn't on either side. If it's on either side, that's when it can make it curve really funny.

To be honest, I didn't really know what it was going to do. That's why I was aiming right and why I hit it slow. I just wanted to get it on the ground as fast as I possibly could. You give it too much time in the air to spin and curve and do all that stuff, and it could end up in a bad place. I hit one club shorter, less than I would have hit if I had a clean lie there. I just went ahead and hit a 6-iron, which I only hit about 185. I just said, all right, let's hit it 35, 40 feet short, and let's 2-putt it and make a birdie.

Q. Can you talk about the second shot on 9? I know you played 9 really well.
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, that was a bonus, a bonus birdie, I would call that, hitting a 4-hybrid into there. I had about 215, 218, something like that. I actually love that PXG hybrid. I think they are the best hybrids. I've hit them -- I have that and a 3, and I hit more good shots in my rounds with those two clubs than maybe anything in my bag.

I was actually very comfortable. I'm very confident around that distance with that club, and a nice pin for me is a little bit to the right. Hit a nice little cut shot in there. I know it landed a little short in maybe the first cut of rough or something like that and just kind of tumbled right down the hill. Ended up perfect, ten feet or so right underneath the hole with that inside-right putt. Couldn't have ended up in a better spot.

I mean, that's not a hole you're ever thinking about birdieing. I just happened to hit two shots there very close to the hole in the four days. That's kind of what led to the two birdies I made.

But yeah, those are bonus birdies. It came at a very, very good time in the round, just to finish out that nine, keep some momentum going into the back nine, and I went ahead and birdied No. 10 right after that. That was a big part of the win right there.

Q. You had a very accomplished amateur career. Are you comfortable with your career trajectory or do you ever find yourself pressing to win more? Do you feel like you're on the right trajectory?
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I always want to win every single tournament I play. Of course I'm constantly disappointed.

But you know, I did have a really good amateur career, but amateur golf and professional golf are two completely different animals. I fought some injuries. I've fought a lot of different stuff over the years, especially the first few years of my career.

So honestly, even just to keep my card and stay out here for, I think this is my 12th season this year, without ever losing it, without ever having to go back down or go to Qualifying School or anything like that, I mean, honestly, that's a bit of an accomplishment these days, as tough as the competition is.

But yeah, if you would have asked me when I was a senior in college if I would have thought 12 years into my career, would I have more than five wins, I would have said yeah. But at that point in time, I had won every tournament I played and hit it perfect every single day (laughter) a few injuries changed that over the years.

But I'm slowly trying to get better. I'm constantly making adjustments, working on things. I just started working with a new trainer named Brian Chandler in Las Vegas. And honestly, I owe a lot of this victory to him and to what he's done.

I've had my left ankle hurting me for about five years. I've worked on it a lot and gone to a lot of different places to seen what I can do and get it feeling better, and nothing made it feel better. And I've only been working with him, like I said, for a month and a half. And I texted him on Monday this week, like this is the first week -- I actually went and hit balls on Monday, and I got done and I realized I had not thought about my ankle once. Like that's the first time probably in five years that I like didn't at least just notice it there. It wasn't a constant, like really painful, but it was there just nagging, kind of an annoying pain in my ankle.

That's a huge victory for me to just feel good. And honestly, it's felt good this entire week. It didn't bother me and that might be the first tournament in five years that that's been the case. So that's huge for me. So I'm making those adjustments. I'm trying to make those right decisions. I want to keep getting better. I think I can accomplish great things in this game and I keep trying to make the decisions to help me do that.

Q. What's your take on the story -- UNLV --
RYAN MOORE: I was never very good at those classes (laughter).

Q. Given the better health and the luxury you coming here with the victory, what can you do in the next month? Is this the best you've been positioned going into the Playoffs?
RYAN MOORE: I would say so. I won Wyndham in 2009, and that would have been the week before right going into the Playoffs. So kind of a similar time of year.

But yeah, I like that my body is feeling good this time of year, instead of the other way around. I mean, I've been in the top 30 going into the Playoffs or in the 30s the last few years, and I haven't made it to THE TOUR Championship. I've kind of plateaued a couple weeks before and haven't played great going into them.

I had a baby -- I didn't, but my wife did, nine weeks ago at this point, Sullivan is his name. So we had that going on, and so I decided to kind of take more time off in the middle of my season, kind of more June, July. And then I just loved all three of these events. I love Travelers, I love John Deere and I love Wyndham, so it made more sense to me to take a break before and after he was born, go ahead and be home for all that.

I'm playing seven weeks in a row right now, which is a lot. That's the most I think I probably will have ever played in a row. But I was in a good mind-set to do it. I had taken a lot of time off. I think this is only my 16th or 17th event of the year, and that's including the fall tournaments. So I had not played a lot of tournaments this year.

I played pretty well early to give me that luxury to take the time.

Q. What's the best thing about winning out here? You've done it before and you have perspective. What gives you the most satisfaction about winning a tournament?
RYAN MOORE: For me, it's competing against myself. In a lot of ways, I think that's what I love about golf. It's about showing up and just seeing what I can do every single day and to know that what I was able to do this week ended up on top. That's the sense of accomplishment I kind of get from it is that, you know, I did everything well enough, drove it well enough, hit my irons well enough and made enough putts.

It's probably honestly the best I've felt with my putting -- I didn't make a lot of putts today but I made some good par savers, some good 3-, 4-, 5-footers that were really important. But probably the best I've felt over the putter in quite a while. I mean, maybe years. So that's really, really encouraging for me.

But yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure -- I'm not exactly sure how to answer that. But for me, it's just the fact that what I did this week was enough to beat everybody else. And in the end, what I'm proudest of, this is the one thing my dad always told me after rounds and everything was: Hey, can you look in the mirror at the end of the day and know that you did everything as good as you can and tried as hard as you can and gave 100 percent, then you can't be disappointed one way or another with what happens."

Today, I went out there this week and gave it my best and actually ended up on top. It's a great feeling.

Q. I know you took a break from here in 2012 -- and all of a sudden you had a Top-25 here. Did anything change for you in that window?
RYAN MOORE: How do I say this -- I got smarter maybe. Honestly a big change was caddie, having J.J. on the bag. We just kind of -- together, we're able to just kind of process what tournaments really give me the best chance. It was great to have another perspective. He's a great golfer himself and has a really good understanding of tournament golf. He was a great tournament golfer in college and amateur golf.

We really set out at the end of the season and kind of look at tournaments that fit the way I play. I mean, there's a reason I win and have won certain golf tournaments, or have consistently played well, like at a tournament like this.

In that two-year break is when I hired him right after that, a couple years I had not played, and he kind of said to me like, man, I think that's a really good tournament for you, in his experience of being here. I kind of thought about it, you know what, you're probably right. So we put it back in the schedule.

I don't know, I just had a little different perspective, a little different attitude about it. I'm honestly not a hundred percent sure why, but it is, it's a great golf course for me and it surprises me that I haven't played well before that stretch. I love the shots. I love the greens. I love the area. I mean, everything about it, it's a great week for me.

Q. You continue the run of top-ranked players in the field who in here. Is it something about this golf course?
RYAN MOORE: I don't know, that's something that you guys have to figure out why. I have no idea. I don't know, I don't really think about it that way.

I basically think of every golfer out here as equal, and everybody basically has as good a chance as anybody to win every single week. The competition is getting so tough.

But like I said earlier, I came in with a little less burden on me this week. I'm not trying to scrap and fight my way into just getting into the Playoffs and keeping my card for the year. I was in a comfortable position. I had played pretty well last week, and you know, like I said, I was here to win a golf tournament. That's what I came here for.

Q. How do you celebrate a PGA TOUR victory?
RYAN MOORE: That is a good question. I think I'm about to go get on an airplane and fly to the next tournament. So we'll see what kind of celebrating happens there or maybe on the plane, I'm not sure. Let's just say there might be a couple beverages consumed tonight. But I'll be so tired, it will probably just be two and I'll just go to sleep (laughter).

DOUG MILNE: Ryan, congratulations.

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