	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 16, 2019

David Wright

Farmingdale, New York

DAVID WRIGHT: We haven't met, but we walked nine with him. Actually the back nine, we walked with him this morning. It was pretty cool. We got out here early, got on the range, and I saw him on the putting green. I've been around some pretty amazing athletes throughout my career, and it's -- it's just that you're in awe when somebody that's that dominant kind of walks by.

Q. How about just the crowds?
DAVID WRIGHT: Amazing. You know, amazing. They really came out in full force, and hearing -- kind of walking by, the "Let's Go Mets" chants, and a lot of we will-wishers, so pretty cool. But really neat to see how -- everybody wearing the Mets hats and the Yankees hats kind of come out and support a different sport, but are still pretty rowdy and loud.

Q. Anybody you're rooting for in particular?
DAVID WRIGHT: I've become friendly with Marc Leishman, so we're going to go see him on the range here in a minute. We met Brooks yesterday on the practice facility, and he was awesome. He wanted to talk baseball, I wanted to talk golf, so we were trying to ping-pong it back and forth off each other, and he was real gracious with his time, came over for 10 or 15 minutes in the middle of his practice session and just kind of talking shop a little bit.

Those are probably the two guys right now that I'm pulling for the hardest.

Q. You've been in obviously some big situations yourself. Would you have any advice for any of the golfers on Sunday from a mental perspective?
DAVID WRIGHT: I don't know, I got nervous just being on their driving range. The crowd was so big on the driving range this morning, these guys just are cool, calm and collected, so that's pretty impressive. But it seems like they just go about their business, like it's any other round, which is pretty impressive, and I guess that's the thing I learned throughout my career is although the hype or although the electricity or energy might be bigger in certain games, Subway Series, playoff games, I was fortunate to play in a World Series, still the same game, and once you get in between the white lines, you just kind of do those little small things that got you there.

And I think that's what these guys are so good at is just staying -- getting that tunnel vision. Especially some of the fans, they're loud, you hit a bad shot and they're yelling at you. I heard somebody yelling at Tiger, "You need to suck it up," and I was like, Wow. But these guys are good at just kind of brushing it off and just staying focused on the task.

Q. How weird was it playing at Yankee Stadium, everyone yelling and screaming, and here when a guy steps up to do something, quiet as can be.
DAVID WRIGHT: It's kind of quiet. It's not totally quiet, but yeah, it's different for sure.

Q. Can you imagine being up to bat and it's just dead silent?
DAVID WRIGHT: Yeah, that would be too weird, especially because I swung and missed a lot, so I'd hear the whoosh when I'm swinging and missing, which I don't want to hear. No, it's different, but you can kind of tell like that energy is the same. Anywhere we followed Tiger and Brooks and Molinari this morning and just -- I mean, even if we weren't following them, you could kind of tell on the course where they are just because of the roars and just the excitement.

Q. From one professional athlete to another, what do you see in Tiger that separates him from everyone else?
DAVID WRIGHT: Man. I mean, how long do you have? You can just tell like the focus, the determination, the will to win, the -- obviously the sacrifice. We share, I guess, back problems, and we have had our fair share. But to see what he's done coming back from that and the effort and the time, he mentioned something during Augusta that he was getting up at 3:45 to get ready for his morning tee time when they moved the tee times up, and I sympathize with that because that's what I did my last couple years playing baseball is having to go through that back routine and get ready and get warmed up and make sure that everything was working properly before I went out there and played baseball.

You know, some similarities there, so I certainly have a great deal of respect for what he does to prepare and to get through those back issues.

Q. Can you just talk about following in Ozzie's footsteps?
DAVID WRIGHT: Well, Ozzie has got some big footsteps, and I was honored to even be mentioned in the same breath as Ozzie. When they asked me to do this, I got a chance to meet Ozzie in Florida during Spring Training. The Cardinals were playing the Mets, and we got a chance to meet, and I asked him a bunch of questions, and he told me how much fun he had and how cool it was to be a part of those community outreach programs, especially for me, Monday, we worked with -- hung out with some veterans here at Bethpage. Tuesday we -- the REACH program with the kids. That was awesome to be a part of. And now today this is my first major in person getting a chance to follow Tiger and Brooks for nine holes was just an awesome experience.

You know, it's kind of cool to be a part of the community outreach and the charitable endeavors but also become a fan for the weekend, which is exactly what I'm doing.

Q. Have you always been a fan, or are you just learning?
DAVID WRIGHT: I've always enjoyed watching golf. I haven't really played until I stopped playing baseball. I needed something competitively to get the juices flowing. Baseball is such a grinding sport, where you feel like you're always grinding to get better. You're grinding, you play almost every day.

And once that kind of stopped, I was like, all right, now what. I need to find something I'm passionate about. And golf certainly filled that void. I have some physical -- you know, my back gives me some issues, and I can't play as much as I'd like, but even when my back is bothering me, I can go putt or chip or pitch or do something to improve on the game.

So I'm always watching golf, trying to learn it, study it, practice it. It's become an obsession, and I'm pretty sure my wife isn't as thrilled about golf as I am. But she's been a good sport and knows it's kind of a nice outlet for me.

Q. Have you played here at all?
DAVID WRIGHT: No, so I didn't play golf -- it was probably old-school thinking, but it was always like, it's going to mess up your swing. So I never played golf much. We'd play a couple rounds in Spring Training, but other than that, nothing. So once kind of the baseball was done, it's really been, like I said, a nice outlet for me.

Q. You touched on the crowds. You said there were Mets fans and Yankee fans, but when you get up there and hear the roars, does it bring you back, like I remember this feeling?
DAVID WRIGHT: Yeah, it's easy to compare a major to a playoff atmosphere or World Series atmosphere. But you're talking about -- we were out here this morning at 6:30 and we got on the range probably at, I don't know, 7:00, 7:30, and just the excitement at 7:30 in the morning was like a shot of adrenaline, with just -- when those guys started coming to the range, just the excitement.

It's certainly a great atmosphere, and it's really cool to see how such a big environment and big atmosphere these guys keep it so calm and so steady.

It's been really neat trying to compare this to a playoff baseball game or World Series game.

Q. But at least you know the New York fans are definitely the most passionate.
DAVID WRIGHT: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it's -- yeah, they're passionate. They're brutally honest. You know, and these players, they know firsthand, you can tell by the crowd after they hit a good shot or a bad shot. They don't even need to watch to see where it goes. Pretty cool to see.

Q. Tell us a little bit about the Mets so far this season. How do you think Callaway is doing, Alonso? Pretty exciting.
DAVID WRIGHT: Yeah, we've had some ups and downs. We're obviously playing a little better now. But earlier on in the season, it seemed like we -- the bats were hot, but we weren't pitching up to our capability. Then all of a sudden we started pitching the way we should, and the bats got a little cold. So we just need to put it together.

But you mentioned Alonso and some of these younger players, I mean, that's what you want, especially as a fan. And me, I guess selfishly, because of the relationship and the longevity that JosÃ© Reyes and I had, you'd like to see that with a Pete Alonso and a Jeff McNeil, those types of players. There's more, but to have those younger, home-grown guys that really bleed blue and orange, that came up through our system and really appreciate and respect the uniform and want to go out there and do everything they can to win for the team, the organization, the city, and it's nice to build around those types of pieces.

Q. Callaway, how do you think he's been doing?
DAVID WRIGHT: You know, it's up to players to -- it's easy to blame somebody. You know, but Mickey has done a really nice job of shouldering a lot of the blame. That's probably not exactly fair. Players go out there -- Mickey hasn't struck out this year. Mickey hasn't given up any homers. You know, a lot of the times, it's on the players to go out there and do what they're capable of doing, and obviously Mickey tries to put them in situations to be successful. But it's easy to blame the manager, and a lot of times he shoulders that. I guess that's part of the job description.

But a lot of times it's unfair, and if we play the way we're capable of playing, there should be a lot of wins.

Q. Bryce Harper --
DAVID WRIGHT: I mean, I like Bryce Harper, but he's a Philly, so I don't want to root for him to struggle, but I don't want to root for him to do well, either. Maybe there's a midline where he does well, they don't win a lot. That would be nice.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297