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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 21, 2017Daniel BergerPalm Beach Gardens, Florida AMANDA HETHERINGTON: We'd like to welcome Daniel Berger back to the interview room here at The Honda Classic. Daniel, back for the third time this, time as a PGA TOUR winner, got that first win in Memphis last year. First of all, how is your game feeling going into this week? And talk a little bit about playing in front of the hometown crowd. DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I feel great. I got off to a great start at Phoenix, my last tournament that I played, and you know, obviously it's nice to sleep in your own bed and be able to eat dinner at your own house and just kind of be around family and friends. Just excited and ready to get going. I love this tournament and I'm always happy to be here. AMANDA HETHERINGTON: What feelings come back to you looking at that runner-up in 2015, and now back as a winner? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think last year that I came here, I was not like devastated but I was a bit hurt after not getting it done my rookie year. But I think this year, having a PGA TOUR win under my best already, it just feels a lot more calm, a lot more at ease. Just kind of the way I felt my first year that I came here and played so well. Q. How's your health? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I feel great. I think I was talking to Jerry Kelly, and I was asking him how often he felt good, and he said that in his 600 starts, he never felt good. So I think there's always going to be something that's bothering you and something that's kind of irritating you because we're so kind of aware of what's going on with our bodies. But you know, just kind of making sure that I'm good to go and feel good for the rest of the year. Q. You know Jerry's really old; right? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, but not that old. He's only 50. Q. He's on the Champions Tour. That's old. DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I was kind of shocked to see him out there. Q. What was bugging you, your shoulder? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I just have this thing that keeps, from last year, I think it was, after the U.S. Open, I just kind of -- I think it's going to be there for a long time. I don't think it's going to go away any time soon. But I think the couple of weeks that I played in the West Coast where it was cold and it was rainy and it was windy, I think that just kind of flared it up a little bit. I just wanted to make sure that obviously this being like one of my favorite tournaments and biggest tournaments of the year for me; that I was ready to go and healthy. Q. Did you have to do anything special to compensate for it or do any extra exercises? DANIEL BERGER: It was nice to have the extra week, well, two weeks, back at home to work with my trainer and really kind of just strengthen that area. And that's kind of been the hardest part for me is kind of realizing what I need to do on the road to make sure that I feel good when the tournament comes around. I think I lacked a little bit of that because it felt good for awhile and I stopped doing some of the stuff that I was doing. You know, then it kind of flares back up, so it's all a learning experience for me. So just trying to get better every week and figure out what works for me. Q. That amazing rookie run around here in 2015, weather was lousy, everybody was getting knocked all around. I think you started the final round nine shots behind. Is it hard to believe that now; that you were in contention after being that far back? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, a little bit. But every time I come back here, I play a practice round and I think: This course is hard, there's so many tough shots and you don't have to shoot like a million under par to win here. I think the year I finished second, 5- or 6-under had a chance to win. So it's kind of just about staying patient; even though not everyone is going to play four amazingly perfect rounds. You just kind of have to hang in there and that's what I did. And then I just went on fire on the last day and made a bunch of birdies and had a chance. So I think I've learned from that, and like I said also, having a win under my belt, kind of feeling a bit more experienced in those situations will really help me. Q. How much did you play the Champion growing up? DANIEL BERGER: I played it a lot in junior golf. I played it a lot in amateur golf. But like since I've turned pro, I think I've played it, other than the two years of The Honda Classic, one other time. So the memories are still there, obviously, from junior golf, the Polo Junior Classic and things like that. But other than that, they get a lot of rounds out here, so it's tough to get out here. Q. What was the one occasion you played? DANIEL BERGER: I played with my buddy, nine holes, like six months ago. And it was really good. So I was excited because I figured if it's good that far in advance, then it's going to be good when the tournament comes around. Q. Why did you come here, instead of somewhere else? DANIEL BERGER: Just because I haven't been here in a while. And it's one of those things, when I get the opportunity, I have a couple buddies that are members out here, and I'll come out here and swing and play a few holes. They have a lot of play out here. Everyone wants to play the Champ Course. It's not easy and I'm not one of those guys that can handle the slow play. If it's not three and a half, four hours, then I'm out. Q. So what's your practice schedule here this week? DANIEL BERGER: Very minimum. I was joking; I got in my car in shorts today and got halfway to the course, and I forgot that it was like The Honda Classic week. I mean, I remembered it was The Honda Classic week, but I was home for two weeks and I never wear pants. So I was just thinking it was like a regular day at the golf course just practicing. But no, nothing special. Just the same old, same old, and prepare the way I usually do, as if it was any other week. Q. How far did you get before you had to turn around? DANIEL BERGER: I got to Central Boulevard. Which is like five minutes away from my house, but it was a quick u-turn. Q. You got the win and had a lot of Top-10s since that Honda. What did that week show you or tell you about yourself that you needed to learn? DANIEL BERGER: I think it showed me that I just needed to be a little bit more patient. Like I don't know if I was ready to win The Honda Classic my rookie year. Don't get me wrong; it would have been awesome. But I think for my golf standpoint, to mature and become a better golfer, that experience was better off for me. But I kept telling myself, that's not going to be the only chance that I have, and you have some off weeks and you don't play that good and you're like, maybe that was the one time. But I just kind of stuck to my process and did everything that my coach, Jeff Leishman and I, have been working on and I kept getting better and better. I'm a hundred times better this year than I was two years ago when I came here. So that's exciting. Q. You'd only played ten or 12 events by that time; right? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, that was I think like my 13th PGA TOUR event of my career. I think I've played like 60 now. It's hard to believe I've played 60. It feels like a lot more than 60. But just excited to be back here. Q. Was that week after, you mentioned -- I don't know what word you used, devastated or whatever; that week after, how did you handle it? What did you do? Did you want to go back out and play? DANIEL BERGER: I bought a new car the week after, which made me feel a lot better. I was still really excited, because it was the biggest paycheck of my life. I had never come even close to making something like that, and I had moved way up in the World Rankings and I was 11th in the FedExCup. So at the same time, it was like, oh, this is great. But as time went on and other guys around me were winning, I was like, oh, man, I really wanted that win. I don't really care about this other stuff. Just to finally have one under my belt makes things a lot better and made me feel a lot better coming into this eagle. Q. What car did you buy? DANIEL BERGER: I bought an M4, which I no longer have. I was planning on buying a car, but it made it a lot easier. Q. Last year at the Masters, you told me it wasn't necessarily one of the tournaments you watched religiously growing up, so you couldn't really gauge how much you wanted to win it. Can you put into words how much winning this tournament would mean to you, just being from here going to school at Dwyer and all that stuff? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I think it would mean a lot. The hard part about playing a tournament like this where you care so much about is the expectations, obviously, are elevated and that makes it tough to perform. So I'm trying to -- I think I said this last year, obviously keep the expectations low and try not to care that much. But at the same time, it's hard to do that. So I want to do everything I can just to give myself a chance and put myself in position, and I've done everything I can the last two weeks to be ready for this. So the rest is just about going out and having fun. Q. Who is the best player in form that you've ever played with? DANIEL BERGER: The best player in form? Well, I would say the two weeks that I played with Justin Thomas, or that week at the Sony Open, that was pretty -- like, the guy, I've never seen a guy play like -- like, he didn't even know what he was doing. He would just hit the ball and it would be like ten feet and he would make the putt. Q. Got lucky that week. DANIEL BERGER: But the week before, I don't know if he got lucky there, too. I think when he is on point, I think he's really, really good. I think the difference is going to be how he performs in the majors, because the two courses he won on were different golf courses where you don't necessarily get as penalized at Tournament of Champions for missing fairways. And at Hawai'i, you can hit little 4-irons off the tee and when he won in Malaysia twice, it's the same kind of golf course. So nothing against that. Obviously he has four PGA TOUR wins. But in majors, I don't know if he's the most tough to beat but I think a guy like Jason Day, when he's on point, is pretty incredible. Q. That's kind of my second question. Who would be the hardest guy for you to beat, do you think? DANIEL BERGER: I think the hardest guy -- Q. When they are at the top of their game. DANIEL BERGER: The hardest guy for me to beat I think would be Dustin. And I know obviously he's now No. 1 in the world. But the times that I've played with him, like I played with him at Augusta last year and I played with him a few other times. You really have to not pay attention to him, because he hits the ball like so incredibly far. And I hit the ball far, too. But when you play with him, it's like another level of speed that he has. You almost end up like swinging out of your shoes trying to catch him, and the guy just doesn't even know. He just keeps going and going and going. Q. Given your age and where you are on TOUR, have you found yourself either playing DJ or the time you played with Jason, I think at BMW, a couple other times, do you find yourself trying harder than you needed to? DANIEL BERGER: I don't think I did, because at that point I wasn't kind of established as I am now. I was just kind of happy to be there, I guess I would say. I think now, I really feel like when I'm in that position, I can really follow through and win, or at least give it a chance. I think now, knowing that I'm a lot better than I am, I'm more lethal because I believe in myself a little bit more when it's coming down that stretch. But I'm not -- like none of those guy, I'm not scared to play against any of those guys. I've played guys like that since I was 15, 16 years old. So it's nothing new. It's just believing in yourself enough to get it done. Q. If you take the guys who are, let's say, the top six guys right now, and they are all playing absolute their best possible golf; if I were to ask you, who wins, would that be an easy question or a hard one? DANIEL BERGER: I think it would be a really hard one. Because when you look at all the guys that are in the top six, even in the top eight, you can't really like pinpoint a guy that's like, oh, this guy, when he's on, he's better. Because it seems like when any one of those guys are on, they are not impossible to beat, but they are hard to beat. Like when Jason is playing good; he won like six times a couple years ago. Or like when Dustin is playing good, he wins a major. Or when Hideki is playing good -- like I played with Hideki, the guy doesn't miss a golf shot. He misses a golf shot and it's like ten feet. I'm like, dude, why are you dropping the club. That's just kind of how he is. They are all so good. So it's tough to say. But I wouldn't say one -- I wouldn't pick one guy. Q. It would be a really hard question. DANIEL BERGER: It would be a really hard question. Q. Would it be an easy question back in Tiger's era? DANIEL BERGER: I think it would be an easy question, yeah. When I was growing up, it's like if Tiger's five shots back of the lead, he's going to win or he's going to have a chance to win. But it's hard to say that at this time. Q. Just being back here a few years now, do you find more friends asking you for tickets, more people coming out, more requests along the way? DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, thankfully the tournament director, Ken Kennerly, really helps me out with tickets this week. But definitely I have a lot of family coming out this week, a lot of friends. It's just really cool to get all these guys from high school and college and even people that I don't know that have just followed my career when I've been young or come out and watched. Q. How much of an advantage -- you say it's been a while since you've really played the course; do you still feel like that's a little bit of an advantage for yourself, though? DANIEL BERGER: I think it is. I think it's more important about your play coming into the week than if you've seen the course a lot. I think most guys would take current play over if they like the course or not. I think if you're playing good, you're going to play well on any course. Doesn't matter where you're at. For me, that's the case when I'm playing well, so that's all I'm concerned about. AMANDA HETHERINGTON: Thank you for joining us and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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