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NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHAMPIONSHIP

September 25, 2016

Ryan Blaum

Columbus, Ohio

Q. We are here at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State with Ryan Blaum who just polished off a 3-under 68 to secure his first PGA TOUR card after along and winding road, age of 32, has played the Challenge Tour, has played PGA TOUR Latin America, has played the Hooter's Tour, three years on the WEB.COM TOUR and now with T-5 last week and a solid finish here, secured a spot in the final 25. Congratulations, sir.
RYAN BLAUM: Thank you.

Q. What is your first -- probably it hasn't sunk in yet -- but what's your first reaction knowing you're going to the PGA TOUR?
RYAN BLAUM: Well, it's come about nine years later than I thought it would, but it's well worth it. It's well worth the experience that I have and I feel like I've learned a lot in the first nine years here and hopefully I have double that out there.

Q. Thinking back at the road, is there any time when you doubted that you would ever make it there or when you were close to giving up on the dream of this?
RYAN BLAUM: There was some doubt, there was a time period for about two and a half years that I got pretty sick with mono and was sleeping 18 hours a day for three months straight and that's when I was trying to play in Europe, too and just things weren't going well, body wasn't responding and that was kind of a dark side of the professional golf, kind of trying to deal with that and trying to -- I had just got married and it was a crazy time. But I have an amazing wife who deserves a lot of the credit and has helped me get to this point. It's special having her with me and it makes it even sweeter.

Q. I know you birdied your last four holes last week in Boise to finish in a three way tie for 5th and you could have been secured, but you probably didn't feel, want to think that way, right?
RYAN BLAUM: No, I didn't have that mentality, even though I got a lot of congratulatory texts and phone calls and that, but I wanted to make sure to come out here and job one was to make the cut here. Because I felt like that would kind of solidify at least a spot in the 25. Then I've been swinging great, I've been really swinging great at the ball and today I hit my driver well, which I haven't been hitting well all week, and so I gave myself a ton of opportunities today. Today was a fun round of golf.

Q. Did that double bogey by Stallings on 18 were you watching that in Boise and I mean obviously that helped you feel like were you a little more secure heading into this week, right?
RYAN BLAUM: I was watching that. Funny story is Scott Stallings actually introduced me to my wife. Scott and his wife Jen. So, my wife went to Tennessee Tech with Scott as well. So I actually sent him a texted later on that night saying, congratulations on the good playing, first of all. Sorry about the finish. But it was the second best gift he's ever given me. So, that was a nice gift for him and he said he was glad he could help out somebody. So it was good.

Q. How did you meet Scott and how did the whole thing come about with meeting your wife?
RYAN BLAUM: I played the Hooter's Tour together. So we were playing a mini-tour event and another buddy kind of got on the Stallings, telling them they should set me up with one of their friends and it just kind of worked out.

Q. What years were you sick when you were sleeping 18 hours a day?
RYAN BLAUM: Yeah, so I went to the European Tour Q-School fall of 2009. And that's where I got sick. I had a lot of blood in my urine and I was playing the final stage there, not knowing what was going on, by myself in Spain. It was pretty crazy. And I came back and had a really acute version of it. For the next two months I slept, basically, and got kind of the approval to go play and first tournament I totally relapsed on it and it just got worse and worse. So it just was a battle.

Q. And then what year did you meet your wife?
RYAN BLAUM: I met her fall of 2009. So I met her two months prior to Q-School.

Q. Those two things are not correlated?
RYAN BLAUM: No, just to be clear. No.

(Laughter.)

Q. What's it going to feel like to overcome all of that and then know that you're heading to the PGA TOUR. Obviously you didn't have it going into last week and then a great finish last week and then solidified it this week?
RYAN BLAUM: I think perseverance develops character. When you can face trials, whether they're small, long, short, and I feel like the character that I built up in my game and how I try to play the game has enabled me to be calm out there and to play my game and to focus on what I'm out there to do.

Q. These four events almost kind of act as a Q-School of sorts. How much do you think that will help you going to the PGA TOUR knowing you've responded this way in this moment?
RYAN BLAUM: I hope a ton. And I think my game is better suited for the golf courses out on that TOUR, honestly. I think as soon as I got out there I think I'm going to be ready to compete to win. I feel confident.

Q. Is it because you've contended a bunch on this TOUR over the past three years but didn't get over the top and get the win, is there any, I guess, moment from these three years that you feel like you've proved to yourself that you have had the game that you might not have had before or would you say once you got out here you knew you had the game?
RYAN BLAUM: I think that before I got here I knew I had the game. The year before in 2013 when I played I had a great year playing the Latin American TOUR and I won a Hooter's Tour event, and I almost got to these playoffs that year through playing just three PGA TOUR events that I Monday qualified for. So, that year I knew I was able to compete out on the big stage and I had been in the hunt in a final round of a PGA TOUR event before at Puerto Rico Open way back in the day it feels like now, but I feel like my game's a lot better now.

Q. You mentioned your wife but is there anyone else you would like to thank for kind of supporting you?
RYAN BLAUM: There are a million people I would like to thank. My parents and my immediate family and my in-laws, I mean they have been so supportive from day one. My parents have been from birth, essentially, so, but I'm sure they're happy and they're going to be some of the first people I call. My swing coach, David Leadbetter who's been just a rock behind me of encouragement. There's a lot of people. TA, Two Claps. A guy that's helped me with my training pose shoulder surgery a couple years ago. He was huge. Doctor Brennan's a chiropractor back home has helped me physically just be ready to go. Those are not even half.

Q. Then next week off week you get to focus on some fantasy football.
RYAN BLAUM: I do. Hopefully Jamal Charles comes back because I drafted him like third round and he hasn't teed it up yet, so I need him to come to play.

Q. When do you think it will be like to return home to Jacksonville and play the final event there, knowing you don't have to worry?
RYAN BLAUM: Well, first of all, it's going to be nice to have two weeks at home instead of just one like a lot of people. It's been a long grind, I've played every event this year out here, so I'm looking forward to this first week off of rest. I'm going to take three or four days completely off and enjoy the food in Jacksonville enjoy some TacoLu and some margaritas.

Q. What's your thoughts on Atlantic Beach Country Club?
RYAN BLAUM: It's awesome. I'm looking forward to playing that golf course. I haven't played it since spring, but I love the track, I love the people there, the members there, they're fantastic, and they have been really well coming to local pros, so it's going to be a fun week.

Q. Safe to say that physically you're pretty much the same player you were nine years ago but mentally it's the big difference where you're at now?
RYAN BLAUM: I would say it's safe to say. I think mentally just from the experience, the fortitude I've been able to build up, I think that's been the difference.

Q. You need those growing pains to get to where you're going?
RYAN BLAUM: Sometimes you do. I wish I didn't have to, but, yeah, sometimes you do.

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