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SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 24, 2017

Jonathan Randolph

Jackson, Mississippi

THE MODERATOR: All right, we will go ahead and get started with something that is without question a PGA TOUR first. We'd like to welcome Jonathan Randolph and Yodi to the interview room here at then Sanderson Farms Championship. I definitely think this is the first time we've welcomed a pet to the interview table here.

Jonathan, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Obviously a tournament near and dear to you. You're making your eighth start in the Sanderson Farms Championship this week.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yep.

THE MODERATOR: You missed only two cuts; top 15 finish I think in 2013 if I got my note right.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: That sounds right.

THE MODERATOR: With that said, why don't you introduce your friend here, and then we can get into a little business of talking about how you're feeling coming into the week.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: So this is Yodi. I said on the Web Tour at Web finals, it makes it a traveling circus officially, because there is enough going on with traveling, with me and my wife, and we just threw a dog in the mix to keep it more interesting.

But, no, it's great. She makes traveling a lot more fun. Like last night we got to the hotel room and she ran circles around it and ran under the bed. There are a lot of weeks of hotels, so it's nice to kind of change it up and see how excited she gets every week when we get somewhere new.

THE MODERATOR: And just being back here this week, obviously as I mentioned, an event near and dear to your heart. Just talk about being back here this week.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, I was sitting last week thinking about this is eight consecutive for me, eight years I've played in this event. I've finally, I think, surpassed the amount of years I was a standard bearer.

It's good to be back, back among family and friends. Just the fact that this is one of the first events of the year and to get things started off here, it's such an advantage for me, especially playing good coming off Web finals.

I can't wait to get out there and get playing.

THE MODERATOR: That was going to be my final question before we take questions. You had the tied for second in Boise. Even though that was a while back, are you still kind of riding off that? What's going right with your game right now?

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, any time you can have a high finish, doesn't matter if it's just a Monday qualifier; sometimes that can launch guys into playing really good.

But to do it on that stage, I had been working on some stuff with my putting. I always rolled it really well but I just wasn't making enough putts. I changed something in my preparation for the week, not from a how-do-I-putt-it, how-do-I-roll-it, but from how-do-I-read-it and-how-do-I-see-it.

That's when I started making everything, and that hasn't changed. I think I missed the cut at Napa and I was -- I'm 12th in putting, strokes game putting on tour right now.

So still putting good, and just excited to take some of this ball striking that I have picked up over the last year and a half and actually put it with one of the hottest putters I've ever had in my life, especially on greens I know I've played so many times.

THE MODERATOR: Great. We'll take a few questions.

Q. It's your eighth year. A lot of players that play on courses in cities they're familiar with say there are a lot of distractions. Do you think you've figured out how to get by those distractions? Obviously there are when you play in your hometown.
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, sure. I'm actually staying in a hotel this week. We're kind of walling ourselves off. Last year I was playing pretty good and just I was so mentally shot by Saturday's round that I had nothing left. I got on I think it was hole 13, the par-5, or 14.

I tried hitting this shot out of the rough that went like six feet in front of me. I just looked at my caddie and I was like, I'm not using my brain. I know I shouldn't try to do that.

So, yeah, there is a lot going on. But we're just kind of laying low, just the family, the wife, the dog, and I. Just going to go treat it like it's another business week. Obviously nice to be around friends and family, to see them, but just kind of knowing that I know how I do well during a week and how things go when you stay at home sometimes can be hectic.

It's nice to know that I am ready to stick to my game plan. Business trip, I'm sure that's like a Bill Belichick thing or something. We're just doing our thing. Yeah, it's going to be a good week.

Q. Just judging from the weather forecast, looks like you might get all four seasons this weekend. Do you worry about that when you go into a tournament, or this is the day, this is the weather, I just go?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: You know, if I've never seen the course it always makes it tougher, but I've played out here -- I'm still a member here, and how many times I've played with the boys out here on Saturdays and Sundays, I've seen the wind come out of every direction. I've played when it was probably too cold to play; played when it was really hot.

And then this is I think the third year I've been in this event here -- like I've seen some fairways that I never thought could be that skinny, and they were firm so the ball would bounce out of it.

I kind of know more than anybody how it's going to play out here, so I hope we get all four. I hope it rains a little bit, I hope it's hot, I hope it's cold, I hope it's windy, I hope it blows every direction. I'm all for it.

Q. Jonathan, you mentioned it's a traveling circus on the tour, and you been to some places you probably never imagined you'd go to. What is one thing that stands out that you guys do away from the golf course at one of those tournaments? The second part of the question is what is something that you would recommend a visitor to Jackson, Mississippi do this week that's non-golf related.
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Man, that's a deep question. Yeah, well, never thought that I would be -- I mean, there are so many different things. Just the Web Tour was such an experience, just getting to go to South America and stuff.

But, I mean, the one thing I would say to do is like we went to Utah two years ago with the Web Tour and I got to go fly fishing. Any time we're anywhere near mountains we usually just take an afternoon off and drive around and do stuff like that.

There are guys that have to go to the zoo and have to do something. I prefer something a little more stationary. Save my legs. Around here, fishing is the first thing that pops into my mind. I lived on the reservoir for a couple years. I mean, there are so many different things.

It's so funny though, because I think about all these things when it's not tournament week, because the way I do things is I kind of close things down. Monday, Tuesday I might do something, but once Wednesday comes I start getting really boring. That's the key to success.

Yeah, there are so many good places to eat. Definitely eat on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then when the tournament starts go to the healthy food. There is a lot of, really, really good food that you want to sleep a long time after you eat it here, so...

Q. You touched on how well you've been putting. Are you changing your approach? What tweaks have you done on that side?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: Yeah, so there is a SAM PuttLab, and my coach and I use it. We look at my stroke and make sure the face is opening the right amount and the tempos are right and all this crazy technical stuff. It's always pretty good.

Believe it or not, if you do the same thing every day for years and years, you can get kind of mundane and just go through the motions. The most old-school thing I think you can do, like everybody has probably seen those little plastic ball markers that you can get. I set it on the ground. I read the putt in a practice round -- because we're playing new greens every week so it so always breaks different. I read a putt, one every other hole, and make myself put a ball marker down and roll it over that. Then I see if I'm actually trusting myself and putting it over that or if I'm consistently missing them high or low.

I've been shocked at how bad I was at reading greens and starting them. Once I started doing that and started trusting myself, I've been reading them so, so good and still rolling it good. It's just starting to go in the hole like it's supposed to.

It's a fickle game, so sometimes all it takes is that one little tweak and you resharpen your skills and you're ready to go.

Q. Your mom still traveling with you on the tour as far as going to every hole with you?
JONATHAN RANDOLPH: That was -- college golf she was the peanut butter and jelly lady. Now my wife travels. She doesn't miss a hole. But, no, I've graduated to the Uncrustables. We don't make our own ever day. We just get 'em in the freezer aisle.

No, she'll be out here this week. I know she's really excited to see some golf.

THE MODERATOR: She go with you as well?

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: On the course?

THE MODERATOR: Yeah.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: She might should. Every time she's showed up -- it was really funny. The first time she came out I went birdie, eagle, birdie, par, birdie finish at the BMW, at the Web event. I was like, Well that was pretty good. Maybe she should come out more.

Then she came out and watched me birdie on the last hole at AT&T out at Pebble. Then I want to say at Boise she came out and I probably played 7-under on the last three holes over four days -- or three days when the dog came out. I played really, really sold.

No, I'm not going to say she's a good luck charm, but good things happen when she's around. If I get in contention, Lacy might have to slip away and go pick up the pooch for the closing stretch.

THE MODERATOR: How long have ya'll had her, and where did the name come from?

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: We've had her for almost two years, about a year and a half. We wanted a dog we could travel with, but typically Chihuahuas are nervous and not so great at flying and stuff, but we found a really good one. Ironically, we were looking at dogs and a lot of Chihuahua's eyes were really spread apart.

We had just seen a Star Wars, and I kept thinking it looked a lot like Yoda, because it just looked odd. Then it was stuck in my head and we were thinking of names and I just thought of Yodi and went with it.

Yeah, that's where the name came from.

THE MODERATOR: She's been remarkably well-behaved.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: That is our daughter, so this is the only thing I can judge my parenting skills on.

THE MODERATOR: There you go. Anything else? Jonathan, as always, we appreciate your time. Thank you for bringing her in. That was a treat.

JONATHAN RANDOLPH: No problem. My pleasure. Glad she got to meet everybody.

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