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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDEJune 3, 2017Daniel SummerhaysDublin, Ohio MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome Daniel Summerhays into the interview at the Memorial presented by Nationwide. Daniel, 3-shot lead at 13-under, after a third round 68. You mentioned outside that even though it's not the lowest score you shot this season, it might be the best round you had. DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, honestly, I was in position almost the entire day. Just a couple, maybe two or three swings that weren't spot on, but everything else was really pretty flush. And when I did get out of position, my short game, on 16 -- or 15, got a nice bunker shot. 16, a nice chip shot. So I feel like a lot of things are rounding into form. Q. What, if anything, can you compare this to? The importance of what you're trying to accomplish tomorrow, what it would mean to your career? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: You know, I honestly, last summer was a big deal for me, playing in the final two, three groups at the U.S. Open. That was probably the most nervous I've ever felt. That and trying to keep my job back in 2011 after my rookie year at Q-School. It's pretty, actually, similar pressure and feelings. And then coming down the stretch at the PGA Championship last year, having a chance to honestly win until kind of Jimmy and Jason pulled away right at the last minute. This will definitely -- there will probably be some new feelings tomorrow, but I honestly -- there may not be a lot of -- there will definitely be nerves. I'll probably hit a few putts with the hands shaking and everything like that. But it's nothing that I haven't experienced before. Yeah, it's been a slow year, for sure. I'm way down there on the FedExCup points list. I've been working a lot on improving my iron play. And I'm really, really pleased that the work and the struggle that I've had to go through the last seven, eight months to get where I'm at now. Some of these shots are really intimidating out here, and to be able to step up and hit some really crisp iron shots, I'm really pleased with the progress I've made and hopefully will continue to improve. Q. This is a place where if you're off a little it can hurt you a lot. Going into tomorrow, seeing what happened to Duf, seeing a five shot lead and it's gone, how do you keep that from your thinking? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: I mean, whatever happens is going to happen. Honestly, that's Muirfield Village. A train wreck can happen at any moment. And that's why it's such a great golf course because it does test everything. Legitimately from the first hole to the 18th hole, there's a double bogey somewhere in there. But honestly I've got so much to think about out there right now. A lot of times I feel you get out there and you get close to the lead or whatever, you kind of turn in, you're kind of trying to hold on to whatever you can get at the moment. And right now I'm like excited to go play golf. Even if it doesn't shake out how I want to tomorrow, I think I'll be like, Oh, where's the next hole I need to go play? Where's the next hole? Where's the next challenge? And that's how I felt so far this week. Every tee shot thought through and done a good job. This is an incredible golf course. I played really, really solid golf. And I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Q. You've had some really good golf in Columbus, Ohio, started at Scarlet. You've had a good round here. Are you thinking about buying a house in Columbus? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: It reminds me a lot of my home, even to the style of the houses. The stone that's on a lot of the houses here, really similar to the house I built in Salt Lake. The trees, the grass, it all is very familiar. But I don't know what it is, but I've played a lot of really good golf here. I started my career here as an amateur at the Scarlet course. Almost won the same tournament again two years later, I finished third at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational. Finished fourth here the year Tiger chipped in from behind on 16. I was the leader in the clubhouse for a little bit that year, but that changed real quick. I've just played incredible golf this week. Kind of in a lot of other people's minds from out of nowhere, given my finishes and everything, but seemed like for the last month and a half, two months, I've come in after my round and be like, I played so much better than a scored. And that's honestly how it is. And just is a lesson to continue to stay patient because the switch can flip at any moment. Q. Seems the last few years putting has been a nice strength. Has that always been the case with your game? What do you think makes you a high quality putter? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: You know, I think you ask any of the people I played junior golf with in Salt Lake and that's the one thing they'll always tell you. That kid makes everything. But, no, there were definitely some times when -- funny story, just a naive kind of sophomore in college at BYU, and I went off one day with the putter. I was making everything. And not just short, I was making 20, 25-footers. And I leaned over to Coach Brockbank and I said, Coach, the putter is making sweet love to me. And so they named my putter Sweet Love. And even I'll get texts from some of my college teammates, let Sweet Love loose today or something like that. It definitely has always been a strength. There has been times it hasn't been as strong. But the last four or five years it's been really solid. And I feel honestly green reading is a big strength. If you can get a read right, it seems like the speed falls into place. And gravity starts to work for you, pulling the ball down into the cup. Q. When you start the day with a five-shot deficit, did you have kind of a mini goal in mind? Would you have imagined being three ahead? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: I had no goal in mind today, honestly. I didn't even think about where I wanted to be or what Duf was going to do. I will say this, super classy Duf. He was nothing but class out there, always -- he was always cheering me on. Good shot. Great job. So that's definitely a good lesson for me to learn. It went about as bad as it could for him today and he was nothing but class. I didn't have any goals. I really don't have any goals tomorrow besides give every thought, every -- how am I trying to say it -- just give all my efforts into each shot. And I feel like I did that today. It was just the next shot, the next shot, the next shot. And I feel like I did a great job. And honestly that's my goal tomorrow. I have no idea what tomorrow is going to hold, but I feel pretty good about the process and the shots that I'm able to hit right now. Hopefully Muirfield Village has another good one for me tomorrow. Q. You talk about being with Dufner, with him being the leader coming in, did that add competitive fuel to the fire being paired with him? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: I don't think so. It's pretty neat, I think, on Tour now. It seems like everybody roots for everybody, honestly. I don't think there -- whatever rivalries we try to create, it's pretty amazing. The best example, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia at the Masters. Hey, give me your best, I'm going to give you my best. If you beat me, I'm happy for you. And I think the Tour is great that way. There's really no bad blood, it really seems like. I had a great time out there. We didn't talk a whole lot. There was so much to focus on. But there was nothing but support both ways. Q. You said your putter, you call it Sweet Love. Did you ever change it since? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: No, I haven't quite etched it on my putter. No, it was just kind of a joke in college. All my teammates were always scared when I had a 20-foot putt, because they had a pretty good feeling that it might go in when we'd be playing our little matches and everything. But it was just kind of a naive thing that I said it. I was fresh back from a church mission in Chile where I spent two years, and it was my first competitive tournament back and I shot 74 or 75 and then 65 in the last round. That's the round I made everything. So hopefully Sweet Love will still have some good mojo tomorrow. Q. I've talked to a few guys with big families this week about juggling kids on Tour. You have four. Can you run me through the highs and lows and how that is? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, you know, I'm no longer tied for first place in number of kids. Aaron Baddeley has surged ahead and I'm happy for him. I think the Simpsons are -- I think Webb is a little jealous right now. So there might be another little Simpson running around soon. But family first, honestly. It's a difficult -- can be a difficult family job, professional golf. It puts a lot of strain on my wife. It puts a lot of strain in my heart, sometimes, too, when I'm not able to be there and help teach them and be with them because I really -- I might get a little teary eyed, but they are my life. They'll come first, no matter what. I don't know how much longer I'll play professional golf. I honestly don't. Because if my family needs me to be there, I will. So it's something that was instilled in me when I was a young boy. I'm the youngest of seven kids and family is a big deal. My parents have given everything for me and I'll do anything for my kids, as well. Q. If you are able to win tomorrow, will it be more sweet knowing that juggle all through their early lives has been worth it? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: Yeah, it already has been worth it, honestly. I'm really satisfied with where I'm at. My wife and I were just talking this morning, it's been ten years now, come July, that I've been pro. And started driving around in a Honda Pilot all across the country, and then we got a motor home for four and a half years. We drove that around, put a good 125,000 miles on it. And then we've been doing hotels and flying for the last four years. We've already succeeded because our relationships are still strong. As long as that can maintain, I'll keep playing golf. But we've had to adapt every year. Every year is a new challenge. We have a nine-year-old now. He wants to play in golf tournaments. He wants to do these kind of things. And there may be a time when the family can't travel around with me as much and I don't know how I'll be able to handle that in my heart because I'm a dad first and foremost. Q. If I recall right, when Andy Miller went on a mission for a couple of years out of Brigham Young, he didn't touch a club. Was that the case for you? What age were you when you left? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: I left in June, 2003 to June, 2005 to Santiago, Chile. I was 19 and I did not touch a club for two years in that span. I remember the very first house that I lived in, the first seven months that I was there was just this -- it wasn't a wood hut, but it was a two bedroom house made completely of wood, a hundred percent wood. No carpet, no nothing, no air conditioning, no heat. So in the summer it was like a sauna. And in the winter there was no insulation. But I remember one spring morning I got a broom out and I took the head off of it and I duct taped a roll of duct tape, just to make a motion. And that's about the extent of what I swung for two years. I saw a few golf courses, saw a couple of guys with golf clubs getting on to the bus a couple of times, and of course I ran up and was talking to them about it. Oh, I love golf. All in Spanish, of course. I didn't touch a club for two years. It took me about six months, I think, to get back to where I was before I left in college. I didn't red shirt coming back. But after that six months, I was kind of that level and then I just continued to progress. I attribute a lot of that to the skills of hard work and patience that I learned in Chile. Q. Did the broom ever get a nickname? DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: I never nicknamed the broom. I could think of one, though. Q. Going back to family a little bit. Your brother Boyd is with you a little bit this week. DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: It's been incredible to be honest with you. There's nobody that I'd rather have be my coach, to give me insight, feedback. He knows me really, really well. He knows my history. He knows the golf swing. He knows putting. He knows chipping. I think I've tried everything and he has, too. And so it's really fun to bounce ideas off each other. Yeah, I grew up idolizing my little brother. And to have him right in my corner all the time is a very special thing. MARK WILLIAMS: We appreciate the time you've made for us, Daniel, and good luck tomorrow. DANIEL SUMMERHAYS: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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