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THE NORTHERN TRUSTAugust 26, 2018Bryson DeChambeauParamus, New Jersey EMILY TILLO: Bryson, just incredible playing. You started the day with a four-shot lead, ended the day with a four-shot lead. What's going through your mind right now. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I don't know. I know that I got the job done, that's for sure. It's been a lot of hard work this past month. It's not been seamless, and you know, not making the top eight in The Ryder Cup, it was disappointing for sure. But I've been grinding and working really, really hard on my golf swing, and this golf course set up perfect for me and I was able to go out there and execute shots to the level that I know I can, and then at times when I didn't, I was still able to recover really, really well, and I caught a couple breaks. Like today, the chip shot on 12, really defined the tournament for me, being able to hit a great shot on 12, finally, right at the green, and had it land just on the bunker and not get on the green, which is crazy to me, to think with that descending ball speed, it wouldn't bounce up there. Then hitting that little chip shot up there to four feet, three feet, that was the most difficult chip shot I had all week, and to be able to execute that under the gun, with the situation at hand where I was kind of leaking back, showed a lot in regards to my own confidence level, and what I can do under the pressure at hand. So all in all, it was fantastic, but a different way of winning. You know, I've won different ways each time. I'm learning more and more each time I do it. EMILY TILLO: Like you said, you responded so well to the pressure. The pressure's just going to keep building, so what's your mentality and mind-set heading into the next few FedExCup events. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Pedal to the metal to me. I don't try and back off when I win or whatever. Won the John Deere, went over to the British Open and missed the cut by seven. Come on, who wins and goes over and misses the cut. Shows me my game wasn't in the right place, clearly. Shows me my game wasn't where I wanted it to be consistently contending, so I made that change in the off-season last year, and it's just showed how consistent I can be through the course of the year. Even though I have hiccups every once in a while, those are great experiences I can learn from. Overall, in regards to the pressure, you've got to take it week-by-week, day by day, shot by shot. Q. Of the three, which was your favorite? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, the four-shot lead is really nice. It's not fun going to a two-man playoff or three-man playoff with two holes, and coming from six behind is always kind of difficult. Can't really do it all the time. But to have a four-shot lead and stick it out and really grind it -- you know what's funny, it actually brought back memories of the U.S. Amateur in 2015 when I had tremendous leads. I really fed off that and what to feel and kind of just keep pushing, keep pushing and be aggressive when you can, and control things that you can control. That really served me well, being able to win in huge margins at the U.S. Amateur has allowed me to be more confident in the lead here. If I had not won the U.S. Amateur, I would be in a completely different spot, but I wouldn't have that experience to feed off, and I was able to this week. Q. You just mentioned, kind of going through up-and-downs over the course of the season. It looked like you were struggling with your swing at The Open. Everyone kind of saw it. How do you get from there to winning by four this week? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That struggle. Absolutely. That struggle is what led me to this point. You know, that's the thing that people sometimes miss is the fact that those moments when you're at your -- relatively speaking, lowest, are the times when you can learn the most. You know, even though it was a tough time, I was able to push through it and made the cut there and played well at the Porsche. Didn't finish the way I wanted to. All that is a learning experience and got me to where I am today. I finally had a little something this week, the beginning of the week, which is nice. I haven't had that in a while, so I was able to get work done and feel comfortable on the golf course, too. So all those things accumulated to win this week. Q. Well done. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Thank you. Q. Does the manner of this victory, does it express your determination of how much you want to be in Paris and does it send a message that you want to be that team? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Like I said yesterday, I'm a man on a mission right now -- with two missions, actually: One being The Ryder Cup and one being the FedExCup. I'm doing pretty well right now and just got to keep moving forward in the right direction. Q. The first multi-win season of your young career. Did you prove anything to yourself, holding that four-stroke lead, knowing you were able to finish and get the job done? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, absolutely. Look, I've done it before. I did it at the 2015 U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields, and I just had to see if I could do it out here. It's match play, obviously, and the U.S. Amateur is a little different, but being able to have a four-shot lead and hit the shots at the right time and then miss it in the right places, like on 18, and be able to have a shot to the green is always nice. Being able to miss in the right spots, execute shots when I needed, under the pressure of having a four-shot lead was great. Q. What do you enjoy most about what you do? Is it the work that goes into it, at analysis that you put into your game, or is it the competition of being out here on a Sunday with a lead? Is it winning? What is it that you enjoy? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's being able to step up to a shot like I did on 17 today, knowing it's a difficult tee shot, and executing it exactly the way I wanted to. That's what brings me joy and that's why I work so hard, and all this other stuff is fantastic and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But the No. 1 thing that makes me happy is seeing a golf ball go exactly the way I felt it should go. Q. You're basically virtually a lock to be in the top 5 in East Lake now. Do you love the fact that you have destiny in your own hands to win the big prize? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, that's the goal of everybody that's playing out here right now is we all want to be in the top 5, so if you win, you're locked. I've seen it happen before, and I'm grateful that I have put myself in that position. Q. When you went to The Ryder Cup two years ago, did you pay for your own flights to get out there and put yourself up in a hotel? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Q. Did any part of that feel unusual, that you were a professional golfer, kind of acting as a fan for the week? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, it was different, but I definitely wanted to have an experience of what it would be like. And I was fortunate enough that Notah Begay was able to take me under the ropes a couple times and give me a little bit better experience. That was really fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I hope I get the opportunity to do that here in the next few weeks. Q. Several times, you mentioned right away here, the word "learning." You said this is a learning experience. What is it about you and learning, and were you always an A student? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I had to work hard to be an A student, actually. I wasn't great at reading and writing. But I certainly worked my butt off to be an A student, and I'll never forget, the first time I got a B in high school, I was mortified because I had worked so hard, and I just wasn't good enough in writing. So I feel like I've always had to work twice as hard to be just as good as others. I was always a guy that would study for three hours and barely get an A on the test and you would have another guy next to me who would study for maybe 30 minutes and ace it. That's been me my whole life. I've had to grind and work it out and figure it out on my own. Q. You said reading and writing, and you left out arithmetic. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, that's given, I think. (Laughter) I do like numbers. I'm more of a theoretical guy than a data/analytics guy, per se. I've got a great visual mind that I'm allowed, for whatever reason, God has blessed me to see things in just a unique and different way in regards to spatial awareness, if you want to say that. It's nice. Q. When you talk about the way that you work and describe some of the things that bring you joy, makes me wonder, do you consider yourself a perfectionist and is it dangerous in this game? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Really? Me? (Speaking in an incredulous tone) A perfectionist? Me? I definitely am, and it's something that I'll continue to try to perfect. I'll never perfect it. I have tolerances and I allow for error because that's just -- you innately have, there's human error. You can't control everything all the time. No matter what, if I perfect my biomechanics, let's say I do perfect my biomechanics, which is not going to happen, but let's say I get really, really, really close to where my error is within five or six feet every time. The one thing, nobody out here will ever be able to control, is the conditions of the course, whatever it is, and the wind. The wind is always going to be the final -- you know, the Holy Grail. We'll never be able to figure that out. Q. But tolerances would have to be key in this equation? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, the tolerance is the range. If you can control the range -- it's not standard deviation because that one shot you hit out of the standard deviation affects your score, so it's the range. If I'm able to get that range closer and closer and closer to being smaller and smaller, that's what I'm looking for. That's what I do. That's why I work so hard out there. Q. You told us when you won Memorial, you are trying to do something. It was perception. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah. Q. And you said, spatial awareness right now. Do you mean that? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah. Q. Could you explain to us? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That's a long conversation, and it's a secret, you know, that I have, that I've built in my own golf swing. But what I can say is that it's biomechanics; understanding where -- how your body is moving and how it's affecting the club dynamically. You know, not statically, because things change when you start applying force to it. Again, I'm not going to answer all of it because I don't want to give my secrets away, but it is spatial awareness in regards to how I'm functioning my biomechanics. Q. Is it consciousness? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's a conscious thought you're hopefully translating into a subconscious thought, but it doesn't work out all the time. Q. What were you working on last night on the range? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: The same thing that I've been working on for the past two, three months. I had something pretty special at the Waste Management this year, and was hitting it incredible and just felt stability that I've never felt before in my golf swing. I felt like I had an "S" on my chest for a while, and it just started to fall away a little bit and I've been trying to get it back ever since. Again, it goes back to biomechanics and trying to feel stability, a higher level of stability in the golf swing, so I have better perception of where that face is. Q. Some guys wouldn't go to the range for that long after shooting 63, though. Is there something different about you that makes you approach that session that way? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, it's not 64 -- it's not birdieing every hole, so there's always room for improvement. Even if you shoot 59, there's been guys this year, Brandt, I mean, he bogeyed a hole. Albeit 59 is fantastic, we're always looking to improve no matter what. So even though it was a 63 and a fantastic round, I knew had to come out one more day and play well. Q. Going back to the Memorial, you talked about what you do trying to control the variables in pressure situations. Was there a moment today when it paid off? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Oh, No. 12, the little wedge shot. I've been working on a little stab and jab, something that kind of bounces out and rolls out. I knew if I got around the green and I had a long ways to go, that would be quite useful. That definitely paid off this week, just a little shot right there. I mean, it mattered, tremendously. I was out practicing it all day, even though that was the only shot I hit, that type of shot that I hit this week, it mattered the most. Q. Did you know it was good as soon as you hit it? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No. It was rolling a little fast for my liking, but fortunately, the slope up there, it actually brought it left and not to the right, and didn't allow it to go down the slope. So it was a little 4-footer and made it. Q. Can I just ask you, what does a guy who is just a few weeks short of his 25th birthday, now purchase with his second $1 million-plus check this year? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I just invest it. I mean, I don't know -- I don't look at it -- I don't play golf for money. I play golf to execute that shot, the beautiful shot that everybody adores. That's why I think we all play golf. Q. Nothing special? You won't buy yourself something? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I was fortunate enough to buy a house last week. I'm moving in in September. It's great to have a home finally. I've been a nomad for the past three years, going from apartment to apartment and all that stuff, so it's nice to have a home now, per se. But money is not really what drives me. What drives me is executing that shot. Q. A bunker shot today, the ball almost went in the cup. You've talked about tonight how you're a perfectionist and you're trying to control the things that you can control. How much have you sort of had to work at accepting that things are not always going to happen -- BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I've had to learn it over the course of my professional career as an amateur. Nobody really cared too much. But definitely, you know, controlling those emotions and making sure that you're able to focus for the next shot when something doesn't happen the way you think it should, is definitely key. Being able to come back and make birdie after that is huge. I've been able to get better and better each and every week. Q. Could you please talk a little bit about your team? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, yeah, you've got Brett Falkoff over here, my agent/manager. He's on his phone. He's done a great job for me and made me a lot more money than I ever would have thought and that's fantastic and I really appreciate that. Then you have Tim, my caddie, wherever he is, sitting down, just chilling back there. No big deal. He's really the reason why I've had so much success. There's not another person that would put up with my crap (laughter) so I appreciate it. And you've got the SIK boys Greg and Steve, groupie Steve and old Greg, they are the best. They are the best. They have taught me a lot in putting and have allowed me to gain a better sense of confidence with the flat stick. So that's been tremendous. I can't thank them enough, and my team, for what they have done for me. Q. Sorry to go back to this but when I was asking about tolerances, I was probably thinking more from an emotional level than a mathematical level? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I'm sorry. Q. No, yours was interesting, too, if I understand it. As you strive to reach what you can achieve, you have to allow yourself, I would think, anyway, understanding that you're not going to get there, or else you would drive yourself crazy. That's what it seemed like to me. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, absolutely, and crazy is a relative term, you know. Everybody is unique in their own way and some people work harder for longer hours than others. You can say what I do is crazy, but at the end of the day, I'm the one with the trophy this week. EMILY TILLO: With that, Bryson, congratulations, our new FedExCup standings leader. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Do you have one more? Q. This is probably not a question for you, because others are going to judge this, but when you talk about some of the elite young players of Jordan, Justin and Rahm and others, do you look at yourself in that group, as well, and what do you have to win, do you think, for others to look at you that way? Might be a hard one. BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I don't -- I view myself as kind of a one-off in a sense where I'm kind of doing my own thing, you know. The group that's out here, the young guns, it's awesome I love being able to talk to them and mess around with them and joke with them every once in a while. But Tim and I just stick to kind of what we do, and it's our work, and I'm just going to work. It's another day in the office, is kind of what we always joke about. We do our own thing and we enjoy it, up to a certain point sometimes (chuckles). Q. You go to No. 12 in the world? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I didn't think about that. That's sick. Q. Sick or S-I-K? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: SIK. Q. Do you think you're at that level now where the public, the fans, will start looking at you as part of that group because of what you've achieved? BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I hope so. I mean, I've worked really hard to be a great golfer, and albeit I'm not great every week, I've got three wins under my belt, and I'm really proud of that and I appreciate all the support that's been around me. To be classified in a certain young gun group, I think so, but I guess the weird part is for me, like I've learned so much, and I'm going to keep learning so much; that I really don't know what age I'm at in relation to everybody else out here. I've played with a bunch of guys out here that are veterans that know way more than me, and so I kind of just feel like I get lost a little bit in that, and I don't really focus too much on it. EMILY TILLO: Thank you. 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