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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 26, 2019Gary WoodlandPalm Beach Gardens, Florida THE MODERATOR: Please help me welcome in Gary Woodland to the interview room at the Honda Classic. Gary is making his seventh start here this week at the Honda Classic, and he also has six top finishes entering this week. If we can just get some comments about how your game is feeling. GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, it's been a good start to the year. It was nice to start the year last year in Asia and get a couple top 5s there and then transition to start up there in Maui. Had a really good week in Maui, came close to knocking that door down to win again. But it's been good. It was nice to defend in Phoenix, kind of get those vibes going. Didn't have the Sunday I would have liked to, and then last week was nice to have some time off. Last week is a tough golf course for me. I don't spin it enough really for the altitude down there, so it was a tough week, but I played -- for me I thought I played pretty solid, so we'll take that confidence coming into this week and a golf course that I love. It's a ball striker's paradise out here. It's a tough golf course. The greens are extremely firm being new, so it should be a good test. THE MODERATOR: As mentioned before, you're making your seventh start here, so you're not new to this course and you talked a little bit about it. Could you talk a little bit more about your return here and what you're looking forward to? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I live down here now, so it's nice to have a home week. But the golf course is great. Obviously everybody talks about the finish with 15, 16, 17 there, the three hardest stretch of holes that we see all year, but it's based a lot on the wind, too, and the wind is supposed to be down this week. The greens are obviously new, so they're extremely firm, so that'll definitely pose a test. But all in all, I think the scores might be a little lower than typical with the wind down, so we'll see how that goes. Q. With how condensed this is and how cramped this is, how tough is it schedule wise to make this happen? GARY WOODLAND: It's unfortunate because obviously like I said, it's a great golf course, and usually in the past they're had some really big names, and there's a lot of guys that live down here. But with tournaments moving around, there's a lot of tournaments right now that are really good in a row. Like I skipped Riviera, which is one of my favorite golf courses of the year, but you just have to find a time -- I'm in a stretch of playing five out of six right now. I've played Bay Hill, I want to say seven years in a row, and since I moved down here two years ago, I switched them out, and now I'm playing here instead of Bay Hill, and that's tough since I Bay Hill, as well. It's a tough spot in the schedule. I love this golf course for me, so that's one reason why I'm playing here. But I think the field isn't as strong as it typically is just because of where it is right now in the schedule. It's a tough spot, and like I said, it's unfortunate for this golf course. Q. Just to follow up, because this is home, how much of a factor -- how much does that tip the scale for you one way or another when you're deciding whether to play five or four out of six? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, it's nice to be at home. It's nice to sleep in my own bed, but like I said, golf course for me is a bigger deal, and I really like this golf course. I love how hard it is. But with that being said, it's nice to stay at home and drive 30 minutes instead of staying in a hotel all week, so if I had to choose between this week and Bay Hill, being at home definitely takes that over. Q. I was just hoping to get your thoughts on starting the Florida Swing. Is there such a thing as like transitioning from the West Coast type of golf course and obviously with the different strains of grass to here? Obviously your first win of your career was in Florida. GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, you're dealing with -- the grass is a big deal. Obviously it's nice to get to twosomes usually when we get to Florida on the weekends. That helps with pace of play a little bit. But the grass is different. You're dealing with Bermuda versus poa annua on the West Coast. We're pretty much away from poa annua for a while, especially after last week. So the greens start to get typically a little bit better, as I feel. I grew up on bentgrass, so poa annua is the farthest thing away from what I grew up on, so I like getting to Florida, nice Bermuda. I'm close to home, too, which is good. But I like getting to that Florida Swing. With that being said, I've played extremely well on the West Coast for a couple years now. I've got off to great starts. So I need to kind of transition that maybe back to the Florida Swing. But it's nice to get here. This golf course is one of the better ones we play, one of the hardest ones. Tampa is as good a golf course as we play all year, and obviously THE PLAYERS moving to March now, that golf course with overseed I think is going to benefit me more. It'll be harder. So I'm excited for that, as well. Q. Following up on that, when the page turns to Florida, is there also a change in frame of mind or approach, and then the Masters gets closer? How mentally do things change? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I think in the past, guys started really gearing up -- once the Florida Swing started coming in, you started seeing more international guys come over, guys started getting up to Augusta, sneaking up, trying to play to get ready. Now with THE PLAYERS moving to March, I think you've got guys kind of changing that mind frame a little bit earlier on the West Coast. You have guys gearing up, taking tournaments off, big names taking off certain tournaments on the West Coast to prepare for THE PLAYERS coming up in March. With THE PLAYERS moving here in a couple weeks, that definitely starts getting that train rolling I think a little bit quicker than it has in the past. Guys have kind of slowly kind of got into Florida and then started gearing up for Augusta. Now with THE PLAYERS in March, I think guys are getting ready a little bit earlier. Q. Also following up on the scheduling question, did you spend a lot more time then trying to figure out your schedule, and how much of it feels like kind of an experiment this year? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I've definitely spent a lot of time, more time than I have in the past because the last couple years I've pretty much played the exact same tournaments, and if I would have played the same schedule this year as I did last year, I would have gone all year without a two-week break, and I just can't do that. I dropped Pebble, I'm not going to play New Orleans this year. There's certain tournaments that I've played in the past that I'm not going to play this year, and that's -- you kind of get out of your comfort zone a little bit. But maybe I'm dialing the schedule back a little bit, too, with everything being so cramped. I've got to find time to take off to be ready for the big tournaments. Q. Is there always an advantage to sleeping at home? GARY WOODLAND: It's not because home week -- there's a lot more people around. You have a lot more -- when you're in a hotel, you can kind of hide and you're by yourself. Now I'm home, I have family in town, all my neighbors, everybody knows I'm home. So you're kind of trying to hide but there's still too many -- there's a lot of people around. So it's definitely more difficult I think sometimes staying at your home. Some guys like it, some guys don't. Some guys like getting in a hotel and being away from everybody, where it's harder to do that when you have a bunch of people around. Q. Where are you exactly, Pine Tree, Boynton, Delray? GARY WOODLAND: Pine Tree. Q. Why did you choose there when all the guys are up here, and have you found guys to play with down there? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I chose down there just because I see all these guys every week. I don't want to see them when I'm home. That was really one of the bigger reasons. But I train down in Miami, so Delray Beach is a 45-minute drive so I can still train and get down there, but I'm up north where the golf is a little bit better. Pine Tree, my college coach lived across the street at Quail Ridge, and I told him we were looking to move down south, and he's like, you've got to come check this place out, and I did almost three years ago and fell in love with the place. I absolutely love it. David Hearn is the only other pro there, but there's a bunch of retired hockey guys, there's a bunch of guys playing every morning, so it's nice to get out and play and fly around on a really good, hard golf course. I think right now the greens are new like this place. It's so firm. It's nice sometimes to go out on TOUR because the courses are a lot easier than playing that course every day. Q. We always hear about players needing to take a week off, can't play here. What are the top three benefits that you've gained by taking a week off? GARY WOODLAND: I think it's more of a mental deal than anything. I think if you didn't have to do obligations every week, I think guys would play almost every week. But it wears on you, obviously, the travel is a big part of it, but obligations you have, whether it's sponsors, whether it's pro-ams, whatever it is, it adds up over time, and then you put yourself in contention multiple weeks in a row, all of a sudden it's a mental drain, and that's a big deal. I think two-week breaks are amazing from the standpoint if you take one week off, if you go home, if you're traveling home, you get home, you take Monday off. By Tuesday you feel like you have to start getting ready for next week. You feel like you're going to lose something if you take too much time off. Two weeks off, you can take three or four days and rest your body, mentally recharge and then get back and feel like you're not losing anything. One week sometimes is not enough, but I think it's more of a mental deal. For the most part guys are out here, they're in really good shape. Everybody is training, everybody is working to stay healthy, but the mental side of it when you're playing week in and week out definitely drains you. Q. With Justin Thomas defending this week, what have you observed about him and his game as he's climbed the ranks and the World Rankings? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, he's really good. And I love J.T. J.T. is one of my better friends out here. But he just doesn't have a weakness. I think the one thing that he's done, and he's probably underrated, is his emotions. You watch him in the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup, he's got that fire, and he wants to step on your throat, and he wants to beat you. I think he's always had it probably and it's probably grown a little bit since he hangs around Tiger a lot now. I think he gets a lot of that from him, and that's something that's hard to teach. I think once he gets in that final, you saw what he did Sunday, he shoots 9-under, which is annoying to watch him fly by you, especially when we were traveling home and I've got to hear about it the whole time. But he just finds a way to -- even when his bad golf is still good golf. And he's obviously young, he's going to be doing it for a long time, but I think his emotion is as good as everything that he has because he wants to beat you and he wants to beat you bad. Q. (No microphone.) GARY WOODLAND: No, no, I couldn't, to be honest with you, and especially with what's happening, I was in the moment of what was going on, and it was just so cool and special to be there. I've learned so much from her on a positive and how to live my life from an emotional standpoint. She didn't care about outside factors. She didn't care about -- she wasn't nervous. I was nervous for her. But how positive she can be, and self-talk, looking back at the video, I couldn't hear all that self-talk at the time, but watching the video, the positive energy she gives herself was contagious because I was as excited as I've ever been on a golf course. But I've had grown men come up to me crying and talking about it. I've never had that with anything in my life. It was really special. I've been able to reach out to her since then. She's a special person, and the world needs more of Amy in it. Q. You've made some changes with your putting and it paid really quick dividends, but where are you? Are you stuck with it, and where is your comfort level with what you're doing? GARY WOODLAND: It's as good as it's ever been, and that's been really an achilles heel since I've been out on TOUR. I've always been a pretty good ball striker. I've always relied on that or relied on my length. But as a whole, I'm really coming together, and that's why I've been able -- I've had a lot of top-10 finishes when I haven't had great weeks because I don't have to rely on my ball-striking. My putter can save me, my short game can save me. It's been a lot of work. I started Phil Kenyon at the British last year, and I mean, I've putted more since then than I've ever putted in my life, and obviously that has something to do with it, but I'm in better positions. So even when I have tough weeks -- I mean, I remember I talked to him Saturday night after Korea. Saturday night, like I had 33 putts, I didn't feel right, but I felt like I could make anything, and I come out and shoot 9-under the next day. It was one of those deals where in the past if I had a bad putting round like that, I would have had no confidence going into the next day. But I know I'm in good spots now, I know I can make putts, and that's just a huge confidence boost that takes the pressure off everything else. Q. I was joking around with Sergio out there, he had some really fashionable looking shorts going for his round. What's that phenomenon like, having that more casual practice round? GARY WOODLAND: It's been nice. You know, I think the TOUR is adapting with times a little bit. It's something -- obviously I have no problem wearing pants in competition, but sometimes we're out here in the summer and it's so hot. Half the time on Tuesdays they don't even allow fans in anyway. It's a nice change. I'm glad they let us do it. But you know, Puma this week, I got a whole boxed pair of shorts, colors I've never even seen in my life. It'll be interesting to see if I can pull some of those out, but it's definitely a nice change for us. Q. New fashion decisions need to be made here? GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, quickly. I'm going to have to have some help. They're going to have to help me out a little bit with that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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