THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 11, 1999

Eric Brooker

ERIC BOOKER: Boy --

ERIC BOOKER: The toughest thing about these interviews, I don't pay attention to what I'm doing out there. I don't even know what holes I birdied and what happened. Let's see. We got -- let me think back. I started on 10, so -- all the circles --

ERIC BOOKER: Okay. On 10 -- what did I do on 10? I made birdie, but I don't remember how far I hit it or what I hit into it.

ERIC BOOKER: Do you guys need that? It doesn't matter; does it?

ERIC BOOKER: Well, see, I'm so focused out there that I don't pay attention to any of that stuff. Every hole is just another hole to me.

ERIC BOOKER: I guess eight.

ERIC BOOKER: Well, I had 63 last year on the Nike Tour, so that -- that was a little more fun.

ERIC BOOKER: In the Nike Tour last year.

ERIC BOOKER: This is my best round on this Tour. This is my rookie year. But basically, you know, as far as giving you a story of something to write about, birdies are birdies and, you know, the key to -- at least for me -- obviously I had a good round. It's the first round tournament. Doesn't really mean squat -- it's not to have a good round any time during a tournament, you know, but the key here is just to stay confident out there. I have -- that's all I can do. I have been working so hard on just working on taking each shot as it comes, you know, just really getting confident with it. There are a lot of tough shots out there, tough chips. You got a lot of distractions out there, it's tough. I think the best players in the world are the ones that are eliminating those and keeping their attention to the shot; the putt, the chip, the bunker shot at hand and not get too emotional when you have a hole-in-one or make six birdies in a row. And that's something that I did well today, and I'm going to try and do it tomorrow. Obviously I'm close to the lead and there's going to be a lot more tension out there on me and I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to ignore that stuff and play -- let my talent come to the top and play good golf.

ERIC BOOKER: It's been slow. It's been difficult for me. All these guys are my heroes and it's not like I'm a 22-year-old coming out here, but I have watched these guys. I got -- I'm a fan of Payne Stewart, Tom Watson, Hal Sutton, I mean, you watch these guys' careers growing up. It's a thrill, a privilege to be out here and to compete against them. It's -- I can only give me a pat on my back for staying with it, working hard and trying to get to this level of golf, so I'm really looking forward to it and I try to look forward to everyday out there playing. They have good weather, a lot of good things happened to me today, so -- then nothing exciting happens, so it's just like playing solid golf.

ERIC BOOKER: Yes, I played at Doral, finished 4-under.

ERIC BOOKER: I think that's natural. I mean, nobody really has heard of Eric Booker. If you followed the Golf Channel last year you probably recognize my name because I was on TV quite a bit last year. That's a good thing about the Golf Channel, it is bringing golf to the people and you get a little more name recognition. I'll tell you what, last year I finished 4th in the Buick Open and I got an exemption because I had a top 10, and it took me over to Vancouver, and I played well, decent there, you know, finished in the middle of the field, but they have guys like David Frost come up to you and Vijay Singh come up to you in Vancouver, I have never met the guys and them saying, hey, good playing last week, good going this year. You kind of sit there and say, wow, Vijay Singh knows me, you know. It's kinda neat. You know, even Tiger Woods, met him at the Buick Open and he said the same thing, it's like, wow, this is kind of neat. These guys know me. So we're all fans of the game, all the players, and we're all watching everybody, you know, we watch ourselves, we watch people that we know out there playing and friends.

ERIC BOOKER: Oh, probably on an average probably 30, probably had about 100 on 9 or 18th hole, I made birdie there. I don't think they were following me, they were just kind of sitting there. I won't say the gallery got bigger, they kind of stayed there.

ERIC BOOKER: Well, you know, I had a bike accident before I started the year, so my wrist, my left wrist was a little tender. I did some therapy on it. I was able to play, but, you know, you get these little twings here and there, it's tough to sort of let it go out there, but a lot of guys have told me they call it the wacky west coast, a lot of Pro-Am events, they're playing three courses, you know, per event, or two courses. So, I mean, you're out there trying to prepare yourself for the golf tournament and you're zipping around there seeing these course, I have never seen them before, so you're trying to do your legwork, you're getting worn out out there. And then you have -- then you go to Pebble Beach and you're having lunch with Bill Murray, talking to Jack Lemmon, William Devane, rubbing up with Craig Nelson from Coach, start talking to these guys saying, man, this is great. There are a lot of distractions out there. It takes a while to get comfortable with that. Then you're getting stretched next to Tom Watson. I'm like, hey, that's Tom Watson, I love his swing. Then you gotta go tee it up.

ERIC BOOKER: Yeah, I was on my Harley going about 120 and -- no, I was on my 10-speed riding about 10:00 at night and really shouldn't have -- I was on the sidewalk, I was just cruising along there and I saw one of those barriers, you know, the yellow flashing light, you know, but it was kind of off to the side, so I thought I had room on the right side of the path, you know, it wasn't like right in the middle -- until I got about, you know, 10 feet from it I go, oh, you know, all I see is blackness. It could be a three-foot hole as far as I know, so I just kind of prepared myself for a wipe out and that's exactly what I did. My bike went in there and hit the other side and I just flew right over the handlebars. But my left wrist actually jarred against -- because I had a hold of the steering wheel, so it kind of jarred, flipped over and landed in the ditch. But actually perfect landing, perfect 10. It was soft after the rain, I just kind of had my body impression in there about three inches into the mud and I was just laying there looking up at the sky going, beautiful, you know, what did I just break? I'm getting ready to go out and play my rookie year out here on Tour and I'm lying here. So I slowly got up and my wrist was sore, I put ice on it. It just kind of stayed sore, I didn't play any golf --

ERIC BOOKER: That had to be, what, December sometime, right after Christmas, right around that part. I was --

ERIC BOOKER: I was sober. But, you know, I'm not contributing that to my bad play. I was able to swing the golf club. Just something mentally in your mind, I just didn't play well. I have been struggling and this is my ninth tournament in a row, so I'm looking forward to the next two weeks, you know, that's a lot of golf. I don't normally play that much. I generally play four weeks, take two weeks off or one week. But, you know, I'm a rookie and there is a reshuffle going on, missed four cuts, you know, you gotta play some good golf here, you gotta kind of grind it out. I made a couple of cuts, that was nice, almost had a good chance in San Diego, they have a big tournament, so basically I have had two events actually. Doral, I was in good position, you know, a couple -- three more birdies and I'm right there having a good check, so I'm close to playing good, obviously I'm playing decent, you know, I shot 65 today.

ERIC BOOKER: Naples. I live over in Naples.

ERIC BOOKER: Yes, I was born in Michigan and spent 13 of -- my first 13 years there and then my dad retired and we moved to Naples, went to high school down there.

ERIC BOOKER: I used to work at Warwick Hills for three years, I was the teaching pro there.

ERIC BOOKER: Yeah, you know, everybody asks me that. But, you know, Tom Kites probably played more rounds out there than I have over the years, but basically I'm out there working. You think because you're an assistant pro at a certain club that you get to play golf all the time, but assistant pros won't tell you they get to play golf. You go into it thinking you are going to play golf, but you really don't. Actually, I could count on my hands how many times I have played, but I'm comfortable with the surrounding. I obviously grew up 30 minutes from there, you know, my first tournament was the Buick Open as a kid, so...

ERIC BOOKER: Well, I'm comfortable over in Naples, I guess. That's hard to say. We play so much golf, we play so many different places. I have to admit after being on the west coast for whatever, six, seven weeks, it's nice to be on the east coast. I guess the east coast is home for me, my family's been -- they take turns coming over, my sister was here today, I'm going to have my brother, I got 13 nieces and nephews, you know, they all take turns everyday to come over and watch, so that's nice to have that kind of support.

ERIC BOOKER: I think my strength is that I don't have any strengths, you know, I'm good in every part of my game. I'm not a great bunker player, I'm not a great putter, but I'm solid in all those areas, which is, I don't know, that might be unusual, you know, because a lot of guys are great at something. I'm just kind of a Jack of all trades out there.

ERIC BOOKER: Yes.

ERIC BOOKER: Yes, I'd like to finish top 30 on the money list, I'm looking forward to winning. I'd like to start this week.

ERIC BOOKER: I'm dead serious.

ERIC BOOKER: I have been playing golf a long time. They just haven't heard of me yet.

ERIC BOOKER: Right.

ERIC BOOKER: I'm getting fan mail. Believe that? Last year, end of the year I finished fourth on my list and I was getting fan mail from people wanting me to send them my old shoes, those people that watch your career, that surprised me, I was like, wow, I don't even know these people, but it is kind of neat to sit there and think I have been watching your career. Oh, really, you know.

ERIC BOOKER: No, he didn't send me a box or something, prepared deal. I would have if he did, but I'm not going to sit there and go find a box and go to Federal Express and pay $15 to send him a pair of shoes.

ERIC BOOKER: Yeah. Unless he does that -- he does that with basketball players, in sports, he is kind of into it, he had a bunch of shoes from all the different sports, athletes, that's his fetish, I guess.

ERIC BOOKER: No. No, maybe now after I mention that.

ERIC BOOKER: It was just a ditch, like in the neighborhood, you just have a sidewalk and you have those little ditches, those rain ditches off to the side, and they had that barricade there and I kind of went to the right. I was kind of going on to the grass and it extended out, it was a dark night, but -- don't do that, when you see those barricades, you know, don't think that you're just in the barricade area.

ERIC BOOKER: No, when I grew up they didn't have those helmets.

ERIC BOOKER: No. I mean it's fine right now, I don't have any problem. It's back to normal. I had full range of motion. I think I just bruised it. My hand was blue in this area. It was just a sprain. I had these guys here at the Health South trailer look at it, so that was good. That was good news when I found that out.

ERIC BOOKER: Probably the first three weeks out here it was tender and I was having therapy and eventually just, you know, it disappeared. I just took it easy. I didn't hit a lot of balls in practice a lot, you know.

ERIC BOOKER: I'm thinking I'm pretty stupid, you know, what are you thinking. I was going pretty fast on that 10 speed, too. Actually, I was kind of racing, I was kind of -- kind of in the back of your mind you're saying, I wonder if this is going to be okay. Good thing I was prepared for it because once I realized I was going to wipe out or die or something, I got kind of -- I almost jumped off the bike. It was kind of like -- kind of happening like that.

ERIC BOOKER: Yes, I had the people in a van driving by laughing like hell when I wiped out. They came back. Are you okay, you know, it was all that laughter. They were like, wow, that was a heck of a wipe out, you all right in there, you know. There were a few people in the back, probably five of them in there out enjoying themselves. Of course if it was me driving I'd probably start laughing, too. It's one of those -- it's funny to say, wow, look at that guy fly over those handlebars. First thing is you start laughing, then think, oh, I wonder if that guy is okay, broke his neck.

ERIC BOOKER: I would have made money on that one. If it was Bill Clinton, you know, that would have gotten on tape.