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SBS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 5, 2017Jim HermanKapalua, Maui, Hawaii ALEX URBAN: Like to welcome here at the SBS Tournament of Champions, 67 the first round, tell us a little about your day. JIM HERMAN: Sure. What a golf course. Very pleased to be playing here and played really well today. Got off to a pretty good start, birdie on 2. Made a really nice putt. Just kind of kept the momentum going. A few other birdies on the front. Struggled a little with the speed on downhill putts. But other than that, I felt like the putt on 9, I was really tricked. I thought it was a really quick putt and 3-putted after a really good shot in there, so a little disappointing. I think I was 4-under at the turn, but walking off 9 with a par was a little crazy. It was a good, solid back nine, and you know, 6-under. Good start. Great start. Very happy. Q. Did you say something on TV about you spent your honeymoon here? JIM HERMAN: Yes, in 2005, my wife, Carolyn and I, we were married in September. We took a cruise of the Hawaiian islands, and obviously there's stops at every port. No way I wasn't coming to play the golf course. We got off, rented a car and came over. We were first off in the morning and we had a great time. Used rental clubs and just playing with three other gentlemen and my wife rode along with us. We just had a great time. So good memories. I see the pictures on our computer all the time. We had a great day. Q. Were you playing -- JIM HERMAN: No, I was an assistant pro at the PGA golf club in PGA Village in Port St. Lucie. I was just an assistant pro like a lot of others. We were getting married and we chose Hawai'i as our destination. Q. How much was the rate as a PGA pro? JIM HERMAN: I don't remember what we paid or what I paid, I really don't. But I think there was a very -- we called ahead, the head professional called ahead for me. I think I may have gotten comped or just a cart fee. That was very nice of them. I know the rates here are pretty high. That would have cut into some expenses for the honeymoon. Q. Do you remember what you shot? JIM HERMAN: I think I was right around par. I remember eagling the 12th hole. That was about it. I holed out for an eagle there and hit a really good shot on 18. But I wasn't playing the tips, so it's probably only -- I think I was able to reach the green in two with a 3-wood but not from the tips. I'd say right around par. I don't remember the exact score. Q. How long had you been here prior to the tournament? JIM HERMAN: Sure. We got here Thursday, Thursday evening. My wife, two children and in-laws. We got here and we had a great time sitting in our hotel for four days in the rain. It was very unfortunate. We got great weather now, but the first few days were a little miserable. Q. I would think you would have a wedge in your hand five of the last six holes; frustrating at all? JIM HERMAN: Yeah, two par 5s and a couple short ones. I made a good birdie on 13 to get it to 6 and that was it. You know, a couple good look, but just, you know, it's hard to get home on 18 for me. I'd have to hit a pretty good draw to get in there with a 3-wood to run it down, and in the softer conditions, it just hung out there -- Q. (Inaudible.) JIM HERMAN: Maybe got to move to the honeymoon tee. I don't know if anyone will let me do that. Q. What are the conditions like -- right now, it's kind of wet and soft, compared to 2005 that you remember? JIM HERMAN: Oh, my goodness, I don't recall the conditions. I know it was a sunny day. I'm sure it wasn't as soft as it was earlier. It's getting firm now. We're getting to see the ball rolling in the fairways more than we have the first three days this week. I mean, Monday, it was soaked. It's running out. We're getting to see the ball roll out on 18 and 17 and a few of the other holes. Q. When you were here in 2005, was it just like a pipedream that you would be back here playing in this tournament? Was it a goal? How would you express what your thoughts were for any kind of future participation? JIM HERMAN: I mean, I've talked about my journey a lot and I was playing mini-tours and Q-School for four years, and I kind of stopped with the mini-tours in 2004 and got in the golf business. I was not going to give up on the dream of getting here but I wasn't going to do mini-tours and the Monday qualifiers. I was going to get a job. And getting married, who knows about a family at that time, and pay the bills. I was just going to go to Q-School in the fall, and that happened after our honeymoon. We got home and I went to Q-School and I missed again. So back to the work at St. Lucie. I was okay with that. Did I ever think I would be here at that time, 2005? This is a long way from there, 12 years. I'd like to say that I always believed it but it's a pretty long way from being assistant pro to a tournament winner on the PGA TOUR. Obviously it's attainable and I hope everyone that's out there grinding and trying knows that they can do it; if I did it, anybody can. Q. I heard that you played golf with President-elect Trump before you came here? JIM HERMAN: Yes. Q. Just wonder if you're going to the inauguration? JIM HERMAN: Yes, I was invited. We got the invite from him, and again from Mickey Gallagher. He was able to just get the actual formal tickets and things like that. Butt yeah, we're going to be in Washington the 20th of January for the inauguration. We're really looking forward to it, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I've spent a lot of time with President-elect before he was President, and I've played a lot of golf with him, and I was able to play with him right before Christmas. He's the same guy to me but now I get to call him Mr. President. Q. What day was the round, and how did it come about? I know you were wanting to play with him. JIM HERMAN: Sure. Missed him at Thanksgiving. He was down at Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving. We went to visit my family in Cincinnati. Just bad timing there. I knew he was going to be back down at Christmastime and just spoke to Mickey Gallagher, he's usually my contact with Mr. Trump. And we just arranged a day before Christmas, and then we were supposed to play the day before I left to come here Wednesday, the 27th. That did not happen. He was pulled away from the golf course for more important things. He had a briefing of some kind, security briefing. So pretty amazing things, stuff like that, going into it the day thinking I'm going to play with the President again, and it's cancelled. But just a couple days before Christmas was the actual round. We had a great day. We were partners. We took on three members of the club and we were victorious. We had a pretty good win. I think he's wanting to go four-on-one one of these days and ditch me but he wants to have three other people with him. So we'll see what happens. But it's a fun time. He's a competitor and he loves to play the game of golf. Q. Tiger said he was -- JIM HERMAN: He can drive it very well and he can putt it. I mean, I can't believe the putts that he makes when we're playing our game. Q. Do you know his handicap -- JIM HERMAN: Oh, man, if he plays the right tees, he can play the game. He's 70 years old; you know, he hits the greens. He's in great shape because he can put really well. Good driver of the ball and good putter, that's a good combination. Q. We were talking earlier this week, he always pays attention to what you're doing. Were you expecting a Tweet from him or -- JIM HERMAN: Very possible Tweet, but definitely going to hear from Mickey for sure. You never know; whenever I play well and there's an article, I usually get the article a couple weeks later in the mail and he signs it. He's really good about those things. Possibly a Tweet, but definitely something from Mickey. Q. Get a Tweet, huh -- JIM HERMAN: We'll see. That will help my Twitter following (laughter). He's got a few more than I do. Q. (No mic). JIM HERMAN: I told you that was coming. We have the new clothing line and we just had to get the appropriate logo on there. Very proud to wear it and happy to have him as a friend and now as President. Q. In the nine or ten months that you've been able to tee it up as a PGA TOUR winner, is there a tangible difference from a guy who has won once out here, as opposed to a guy who is chasing that first win? JIM HERMAN: There is with the win, just a confidence. It's amazing to be able to say that you're a PGA TOUR winner. There's no -- I can't explain it. I'm sure everyone would kind of say the same thing, but you know, it's just that little added boost of confidence. And everyone in the golf world who follows golf knows the winners and you get looked at a little bit differently. You know, people at home start to, "Oh, there's Jim." Where before, you don't see that as much from the non-golfers and just at restaurants and things like that. But it's just the confidence. Just knowing you've been able to get into that arena of the final group and be able to perform and beat everyone else, there's nothing like it. Q. We seem to look at you from like Bedminster on, I'd be curious about the years before. What were some of the most aggravating moments and secondly, when you look back on that mini-tour grind, do you look back on it differently now as a member than you did before you were? JIM HERMAN: Yes. I look back at it as the time that you're really getting that experience in tournament golf. I moved to Florida in 2001, in early, early 2001, going to play the Golden Bear Tour in June of 2001 and go to Q-School later that fall. I had no real tournament golf experience against guys, professional tournament experience, against other guys that are better than me or the same talent as me. It was always amateur golf in Cincinnati and I the best amateur in Cincinnati, and then college was a good warmup, but it's different on the professional stage. So that was good. That was a good training, the couple months of Golden Bear Tour and then right into Q-School. And right there, my first go at it, I was so close to second stage, and I wasn't mentally ready for it, I'm guessing. You know, didn't perform down the stretch like I needed the last three or four holes and gave it away and then it's, all right, what am I doing again the next year. Then it was practicing and where are you going to play golf. I was stationed out of the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie and had a lot of good friends there and I was able to practice and work there. Still had range privileges and a golf course to play on. Did that for four years. So four straight -- Q. (Off-mic). JIM HERMAN: Sure. Yeah, one day I was going to the ATM and I was like, there's a negative balance there. That was like in early 2001, late 2001, early 2002. I'm just working at the PGA Village to get some money to pay a few bills. I had a lot of members at the PGA Village that helped me with Q-School in '01, '02, '03 and '04; an extra five grand, and then four grand to help you travel, it's a lot. Q. (Off-mic). JIM HERMAN: Hard to play? The game's hard -- you're playing in front of people, as well. Hopefully everyone that's helped me, they were always looking out for me and wanting me to succeed. Nobody was really looking to monetize anything on me. They were always out to see me reach my goal, and it takes awhile. I know there's a lot of guys out there that have failed; they ran out of money. That's the biggest thing is money to survive, if it doesn't happen your first couple years. You see a lot of guys come out, they are All-Americans and if they don't get out right away, then two years go by, and you're like, well, where did he go. You've got to get through and you've got to have some people helping you out to keep you above water. Q. Trevino used to talk about playing $20 games with five bucks in his pocket. It's got to be tough, also. JIM HERMAN: Sure. Yeah, you learn how to survive and learn how to play. That's a different kind of pressure. Obviously what we are doing, we're very lucky to play for the purses that we are, but yeah, I'm sure there's days when he was out playing the game of golf to eat -- pretty interesting. Q. You didn't give up on your dream but you didn't take a detour, grown-up job. When did the dream come alive? JIM HERMAN: Well, when I moved to New Jersey, I was pretty solid on being a golf professional. I needed to look at my golf professional career and that was a step in the right direction, getting my membership, going through the business schools and all that. That was my main objective, as well as going to New Jersey, behind the Met Section (ph), it's the best playing section in the country. And I thought that was going to help a little bit that I was able to play and make some money, more than actually thinking, I knew I had Q-School at the end of summer and at the end of fall. I was still consumed by that. I still wanted to go. But I knew I had to think of -- married, you know, she's working. My wife, Carolyn, is working, teaching, and I move her up to New Jersey because I took a job up there. We were just trying to get by and still had the TOUR and everything in the back of our minds. But you know, it's not there until Q-School. That was the only way to get through. It was there in October and until then, I had to provide and just think about my future, other than PGA TOUR future. Q. When you were at Bedminster -- JIM HERMAN: Two years. I met him -- I worked there in 2006 and I was really close to getting through in 2006 to Q-School, and then, that was another heartbreak. I can't explain the agony at second stage for most people. I know it's changed a little bit. Now it's just the Web.com finals. But yeah, it's pretty agonizing when you don't get through. You know it's another year of, all right, I'm not going to be a TOUR player; I'm not going to be on the Web.com. Back to, all right, what am I going to do for 12 months, and that's just right back to working at the club. And then I played really well again in that summer in the Section events and I was able to finally get through in Houston of all places at second stage. I really love the town of Houston. Q. (Off-mic). JIM HERMAN: Sure. I mentioned before in 2006, our first round together, I played really well, and he's looking at me like: "What are you doing here? Why are you working? You should be on TOUR." I told him, I said, "I tried and I can't get through." He's like, "Well, you've got to keep going. Let's go." I took a lot of confidence from him, and I thought I was going to get through that first year I was working at Bedminster, but it wasn't to be. Finally got through the next year. So it's been 11 years I guess of Web.com and PGA TOUR and I'm very, very lucky, but I'm very proud of what I've been able to accomplish. ALEX URBAN: Thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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