SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 1, 2020

Jimmy Walker

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. All in all, just a heck of a day, wasn't it?

JIMMY WALKER: Yeah, I did a lot of stuff really well, a lot of good bunker shots. When I missed, I was in a good position. I didn't short-side myself and putted extremely well for the day, so it was pretty good.

Q. Do you like this golf course? Tell us about it because you don't play here a lot, do you?

JIMMY WALKER: I don't. I played it last year and I remember I enjoyed playing it, and I was going to play a bunch in the fall. I grew up playing Bermudagrass greens and Bermuda fairways, so it kind of feels like home, and I enjoy country club style golf courses. They've got it in really good shape. It's fun to play.

Q. Just watching you for a few holes today, it appears physically you're in great shape. You're swinging really well. You have to have a confidence level that's pretty high right now.

JIMMY WALKER: Well, honestly, I haven't. I haven't been playing very well, but I feel good, and it just hasn't really clicked yet. I had a really good nine holes last week at home, and I was like, this is starting to feel pretty good, and seeing some putts go in. I had one good round at the U.S. Open. My Thursday round was pretty solid. But last week at home was good. I've had some tendonitis in my elbow, shoulder has been hurting, so it's been tough. I didn't do much last week at home. I just rested quite a bit and I was with my buddies, but it actually felt pretty good day. My physio and here, and I've been doing a lot of work on it this week.

Q. Lastly, the putting. These greens are super fast and they're going to get faster. Do you like that?

JIMMY WALKER: I do. I think that they can handle the speed. I think the way they're designed, there's not crazy amounts of slope, it's just a nice smooth rolling slope, and I think you can speed these up about as quick as you can get them. They've got to be careful where they put some pins on some bumps. They had a couple today that were pretty tough like right over crests, especially on some par-5s. But yeah, you can get these really fast.

Q. Do you feel like you needed a round to get off to a good start at a tournament like this today?

JIMMY WALKER: I don't know, just coming -- like I said, I did not feel good coming into the week. Like my elbow was really hurting. I've never had anything like that ever before, and it was pretty painful. So you know, I didn't know really what to expect. I showed up on Tuesday and hit some balls and hit some balls yesterday and was just trying to take it easy. I felt like the stuff I did last week at home was good and had some really good stretches of nine holes. Yeah, I'm thrilled, ecstatic, excited. It was fun. I had a good time.

Q. Are you all clear with the lyme disease?

JIMMY WALKER: For the most part, yeah, I think. If I keep my allergies in check, I do pretty good. But when I get hit with allergies pretty bad, it really flares up the symptoms that I had.

Q. Does having had that in your past, does that make you potentially more susceptible to COVID or have you been more careful or anything --

JIMMY WALKER: I've talked to a few doctors and they said there's zero reason why you should be any more worried than anybody else. You don't fit in any of the demographics. There's no research to say that anybody with lyme can really get sick from it, and this was coming from an HIV specialist, AIDS specialist, and he's like, there's no rhyme or reason on if somebody that's immunocompromised like them is any more susceptible to getting sick off COVID. I felt pretty comfortable coming back out.

Q. What have you been doing coaching-wise these days?

JIMMY WALKER: I work with Matt Killen. I've been working with him for about a year now. I started right after the British Open.

Q. Of the eight birdies, was there a highlight? Did you knock one stiff or make a bomb --

JIMMY WALKER: You know, you just kind of wanted to keep it going, and I hit -- on 8 I hit a 4-iron down the fairway and had a little bit of mud on the ball and it was on the right side, it was a tough right pin. I was like, okay, I'm going to sling it out to the right and see what happens. We'll see if the wind -- and the wind was off the right, too, so I was like, we'll see if I can judge it just right and I ended up hitting it like this, so that was kind of -- finishing that off was pretty nice.

Q. You made putts of just under 100 feet. What was key for you on the greens?

JIMMY WALKER: Well, it didn't start off good. I hit it to like five feet on my first hole with a 5-iron and missed that. Then I missed another five-footer on the next hole for birdie, and I was like, something was a little off, and I scooted the ball up in my stance and all of a sudden it was back to rolling end over end again. I was a little nervous starting out, I'm not going to lie. But after that I felt super confident in the reads. Some of these greens are kind of tough to read. They're super subtle. It's always nice when you can really get in there and be like, oh, this is definitely a one-cup per instead of, oh, this could go either way. I had a couple of those, two.

Q. How difficult is it given how fast they're rolling, about 13 and a half right now?

JIMMY WALKER: They're fast. You know, you really want to kind of be in the fairway as much as you can because this rough is pretty -- it's just flier perfect. You can just catch some pretty nice little jumpers out of it, especially this afternoon. This morning it was a little wet so it didn't quite jump as much. But you want to stay underneath the hole and you definitely don't want to short-side yourself here.

Q. I heard you talking about dealing with some injuries out there. What have you done to get ready for the week?

JIMMY WALKER: I've always had stuff with my left shoulder, but I just picked up some tendonitis at the U.S. Open a week and a half, two weeks ago, and it was really hard to grab a club out of the bag with my right hand. I just had no strength. But I rested a lot last week, played a few nine-hole rounds with some buddies and came in this week, and my physio, we've been banging away on it, and it's feeling better.