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THE GREENBRIER CLASSIC

July 3, 2018

Webb Simpson

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Webb Simpson to A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier. He is making his eighth start at The Greenbrier, and he has four top 15 finishes here. Webb, talk a little bit about this golf course and how it suits your game so well?

WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, I love coming back here. They always do a great job taking care of not only the players, but the families. So this is one of those stops where my kids are starting to remember it and they get excited about it. And I always feel like I play better when the family's out anyways.

But this is a golf course where you've heard me talk a lot about length mattering on some courses and not on others. This one's not so much one of those bomber golf courses. So I love having options off the tee. You get to a hole, there is not necessarily a right club or a wrong club. So, you know, this is a golf course where I feel like there are birdies to be made, and scores can below. Stuart Appleby shooting 59 a few years ago shows that, but still a good test. So I'm excited to be back.

JOHN BUSH: What a season it's been for you. You've been battling hard to get that fifth PGA TOUR win, and what a place to do it, winning THE PLAYERS earlier this year. Just comment on that win and your season to date?

WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, that was a great week. I felt like it was a week that was a long time coming, having many chances the past few years, and to go almost four years without a win feels a lot longer than three and a half years.

So I didn't care where the win came. It could have come anywhere, any tournament. But to have it at THE PLAYERS means so much to me. It's been a bit of a rocky three-tournament stretch after a missed cut, 10th place at the U.S. Open, missed cut. But I'm not, you know, I'm not too worried.

I think coming to Colonial, a place I've had success in the past, I was still riding a high of the win, even though I had a week off. So U.S. Open, I got refocused.

Coming up with this tournament, the Open Championship, and then obviously WGC, PGA Championship, and Wyndham before the playoffs, I love this stretch of golf. I'll get into a good rhythm. I'm going to play a lot of golf tournaments between now and Atlanta, and hopefully continue the good play I had going into THE PLAYERS.

JOHN BUSH: Before questions, speaking of Atlanta, I mentioned you're tenth in the FedExCup. Talk a little bit about being positioned so well at this point and your goals?

WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, I mean, I feel like every year, by experience, the FedExCup becomes more important. It's always been important, but I think when you make it to Atlanta -- he made it to Atlanta, I think, three or four years in a row. Then I missed three years. Then I made it last year. I was way more thankful to be there because I realized how hard it is to get there. Because the global players, the guys who are playing European Tour and PGA TOUR, they're trying to make it to Atlanta as well.

If you make it to Atlanta, no matter how you play throughout the year, you've done something right. So getting there last year after a three-year drought of being in Atlanta was such a great feeling. So, you know, we have a lot of big tournaments. Every tournament is a big tournament. But I think there is an extra emphasis on the FedExCup playoffs.

You know, knowing that you have the ability to change your position any week by a lot, you know. I guess it's four times the points regular season, so we're always looking forward to those few weeks.

Q. Since you've been here so many times and I think you've had three top 10 finishes, do you come in here feeling like you can win this thing? That it's a matter of time before you just win it?
WEBB SIMPSON: I do. I feel very confident here. You know, Paul and I put together a list of about seven courses that no matter what, we shouldn't never miss those golf tournaments. And this is one of those. This is one of those courses where I feel like I don't have to do anything extraordinary to have a good, solid week and have a chance on Sunday. Where other golf courses I feel like I have to do something extraordinary given my game. So for a player to feel comfortable, that's an added bonus to the chances of him playing well.

So I've been in -- I don't know if I've ever been in the last group, but I've played late a few Sundays. So, yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where I do expect to play well this week.

Q. The par-3s here are pretty challenging. How do you get ready for them on a week like this?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, you have the third green with being 48 yards long or 50 yards long. That's presented challenges in the past. Then you have number eight where I've hit 3-iron, hybrid before, and, again, I made a mistake, I remember, last year on 15. That hole gets downwind, it's hard to hold the green.

Like you said, they're challenging. You have to think, I mean, 18 is the easier one. But they do tuck the pins there it seems like on the four corners, so you have to be careful there not to short side. But it's a golf course where you hit every club in the bag. We're going to have some wedges into par-4s, and then we'll hit long irons into par-3s.

So it's a great test. It's kind of like the golf course I grew up on. You hit every club in the bag throughout the round. Yeah, you make four pars on the par-3s each time and you're doing well.

Q. It seems like every single event brings some different type of flavor on the PGA TOUR. What do you think that the Greenbrier in West Virginia, what do you think their special niche is and what do you think the TOUR players and yourself think of it?
WEBB SIMPSON: I mentioned earlier the idea of family. I think in their minds this is a family resort, and they are trying to get guys to bring their kids and bring their wives and build kind of a tradition for each family. Now that it's over the 4th the last couple years, that's even better.

So whether you're single or have five kids like me, there's stuff to do. Whether it's concert, fishing, you know, falconry, there's like a list of 20 things to do. We're not quite at the stage to do all those activities, so we'll go to the pool, go see a movie. I think Ferdinand is playing tonight on the big screen. But not every week can you walk into a movie theater and grab your own popcorn and it's all free.

I think what they've done is created a feel here where families are comfortable. You don't have to leave the resort at all. Everything's right here, and that's nice. It's nice not to have to get into a car every night and go to dinner.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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