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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 26, 2017

Adam Hadwin

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

EMILY TILLO: Like to welcome Adam Hadwin. It's been quite the year for you: First Canadian to shoot 59, you notched your first PGA TOUR victory, got married, bought a house. Can you comment on what these past few months have been like leading up to this point?

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, it's been a great year so far obviously. Done a lot of things that I haven't in my career and finally was able to surpass my best finish back in 2011, which was nice to do.

Things have been not quite as easy the last few months as they have the first three or four months, but playing golf for a living, so life's pretty good.

EMILY TILLO: Right now you're 13th in the FedExCup standings and that puts you in an awesome position to make it to THE TOUR Championship for the first time in your career, and you're also 11th in The Presidents Cup standings.

What's your game plan heading into this last stretch before the Playoffs and the end of the season?

ADAM HADWIN: My focus is just to play some better golf. The FedExCup, like you said, I am in a good position. I've got a chance to do some good things. Obviously the top guys are playing extremely well and distancing themselves at this point, but we've got some big events coming up and then right into the Playoffs.

Just focusing on some of the little things. Trying to get in the ball in the hole faster and the other stuff will take care of itself.

EMILY TILLO: You're playing in your eighth RBC Canadian Open, two Top 10s here. What's this week mean to you?

ADAM HADWIN: It's obviously a very special week every time we come back. We only get to play up here once a year, and I say we get such great support every week on Tour from the Canadians. It seems like every stop there's a group of them out there cheering us on. It's kind of nice to have not just a group but an entire tournament I guess cheering us on this week.

We're all trying our best. Yes, we know that Pat Fletcher was the last one to win. We know that. So we're all trying our best to be moving forward. It's one of us and it's only been a couple years since a Canadian's won.

Q. You're a prime example of how hard work and patience has paid off. You're a former member of the Canadian National Team. Just wanted to get your thoughts, or what would your advice be to some of the young Canadians looking to break through like you have?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I always kind of go to just be yourself. Try and have some fun with it. Just keep working hard. You never know when kind of that breakthrough is going to happen. I know Mike Weir spent seven or eight years on the Canadian Tour before he broke through and got to the PGA TOUR, and went on to have a Top-20, Top-25 career out on the PGA TOUR.

You just never know when it's going to happen. You know, that self-belief and everything is difficult to teach. You can't teach it. I think the biggest thing is have fun. I think we forget that some days.

Q. Now that you've broken through, what are some of your goals moving ahead?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I think obviously near term, I'd love to make THE TOUR Championship. I'd love to play a Presidents Cup this year. I think that would be an incredible experience and sort of speak to the year I had, getting on to that team.

One of the biggest things is I'd like to be able to set up my schedule next year and know that I'm in all of the majors and know that I'm in the WGCs and those events, and I can plan a schedule around that.

For me, though, I know that I can't attain that without playing good golf. So my focus is just like I said earlier, just get the ball in the hole quicker, which I just haven't done lately.

Q. You're paired tomorrow with Nick Taylor. What's it going to be like playing with your fellow product of Abbotsford, B.C.?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, it might feel like just a casual round, a round around Ledgeview for us as a 15- and 16-year-old. Nick and I, I don't think have played on a Thursday, Friday together. Took me a few more years to get into that winner's category. He jumped right into it.

It will be fun. It's a great grouping. I've played with Grayson before and he's great guy, as well. Certainly I think it will take some of the pressure off playing with DJ and Furyk or something in the group behind us. So we'll just hopefully go out and have some fun. Maybe have a few side bets or two, but don't tell anybody that.

Q. Do you have any funny stories of when you grew up together at ledge view?
ADAM HADWIN: I don't have anything that I could share with you guys, any ways. (Laughter).

Q. It seems like the game of golf in this country is definitely trending the right direction. When you look at the win you had, and Mackenzie Hughes and all the contract endorsements you guys have, really being the faces of the game here, where would you say the state of the game is for Canadian players is in this game of golf?
ADAM HADWIN: I think it's great. I've been saying this for a few years. We might have been under-performing a little bit five or six years ago.

But I felt like when I was on the Web.com, we always get these questions, and I'm like, it's good, just give us some time. Give us some time to be out there and adjust and to learn and all that, and next thing you know, we have six Canadians out on TOUR this year with full cards, and you know, probably a few more guys coming through the Web.com getting in no problem, as well.

The development has been great the last few years. More and more guys are moving up to the next level, and it's not only that but the guys now on the PGA TOUR are not only competing for victories, they are sort of easily maintaining their cards every year instead of battling it out.

We've had four guys, five guys up here now for a number of years, and I think it's just going to continue to get better.

Q. And where do you credit that from compared to ten years ago?
ADAM HADWIN: It's hard to say. I think Golf Canada has done a great job with some of the younger guys, creating the Young Pro Program, trying to move them along from the amateur ranks up in the professionals and giving them that help that they need.

I think, too, it's sort of a bit of a snowball effect. Once you see one guy do it, you're like, okay, I've played with him; I can do, it too. Kind of gives him that confidence.

You know, Nick and I, when we got our card, we came out with Roger Sloan, and he won his third tournament of the year or whatever it was. For us to see that, it was like, I play with him on a regular basis and if he can do it, I should be able to do it. Kind of that snowball effect running down the chain.

Q. Have you talked to Mike Weir at all about The Presidents Cup and your perspective on, a, trying to make that team? I guess if you get through the FedEx, then that will sort of take care of itself, but is that a goal for you, and if so, maybe what the conversations you've had with Mike have been?
ADAM HADWIN: I haven't had any conversations with Mike yet. We're both busy guys and we haven't shared any text convos about it or anything like that.

Before the win and all that, it wasn't on the radar. I mean, I was so far back. It's amazing what a good month will do and it's kind of put it in the forefront.

I would like nothing more than to represent Canada on The Presidents Cup team. It would be an incredible experience, and we don't often get to play team golf and I think that would be really fun.

I know that, again, golf, I have to take care of the things on the golf course first before that can happen. So I think we've got -- I've got three events I think before the cutoff date. I don't want to have to leave a captain's pick to Mr. Price. I want to earn my way on the team.

Q. How do you prepare yourself, both mentally and physically for this tournament, after traveling back from England?
ADAM HADWIN: You get a lot of rest. You try and sleep as much as possible. It's such a fun week. You're sort of running on adrenaline all week. Playing the first Open was great. It was a new experience. I didn't play as well as I wanted to.

But coming here, the fans kind of lift you up, and it's an easy week to kind of smile your way around the golf course and have some fun. You have lots of fans and the energy is great. You just want to play well. You want to play well in front of them, and you just have to manage the energy a little bit, though, and maybe take a couple extra naps instead of hitting a few more balls.

Q. Those of us in Canada have seen the Shaw spots with you and Graham and the stick and the golf ball. With a little slice of Canadiana on the 7th, your thoughts when you pulled in and your thoughts having that out here as an addition to Glen Abbey?
ADAM HADWIN: I think it's fun. Anything to kind of get the fans more excited and into it a little bit more. I hope they sort of fill the bleachers, per se, around the boards and we can have some fun with it this week. It's pretty cool.

I don't play a lot of hockey. Played a little street hockey growing up. So to get a few shots at the net once in a while -- I hope they leave it during the tournament so we can keep -- you hit one in the water and you can kind of relax and take up slap-shots or something or cross-check the caddie into the boards or something (laughter).

It's just fun. You just enjoy it and hope the fans do, too.

Q. Curious to know, do you take any learning experiences from what happened down the stretch when you saw Kuch and Jordan going at it toe-to-toe down the stretch? Do you watch that as a learning experience and do you take any lessons from what happened there, either from how Jordan played or Kuch played?
ADAM HADWIN: You can. It's tough to really know exactly kind of what was going through their head. To watch what Jordan did, kind of turn it around, I think the most impressive part was probably the drop and all that that he took to get away with a bogey on 13.

Obviously going 5-under the next four is pretty darned good, but to kind of have -- in that situation, to kind of have the know with all to kind of extort the rules, basically, is what he did. And to get himself into a position where he even had a third shot was impressive.

The guy has an incredible mind. He just has a knack for being able to get it done. Now that's difficult to learn from. That's difficult to teach. You're sort of, I hate to say it, but you're kind of either born with it or you're not a little bit. But you can just see the -- I think more than anything, it was just fun to watch. Fun to watch two guys kind of go at it and play good golf, and Jordan won it.

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