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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 11, 2007

Paul Goydos

HONOLULU, HAWAII

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Paul Goydos for coming in after a 4-under 66 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Paul mainly brought you in here this week because of the good finish today but also a good finish at the end of last year, T-2, to get you in here this week and without that --
PAUL GOYDOS: Wouldn't be here.
TODD BUDNICK: Talk about that, or could you have went to Q-School.
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, last year, we were basically terrible for 23 weeks and had a good week, finished second at Tampa that vaulted me into the Top-125. I think vault is the right word, too.
I've been out here long enough, this is my 15th year playing, and I did do a pretty good job last year saying, you evaluate your year when your year is over. If you've got five tournaments left and you haven't played very well and you say you're having a terrible year, you're having a terrible start to the year or 75 percent of the year or whatever the number is.
But the reality is, you evaluate yourself daily, weekly, you evaluate your year when your year is over. For me that turned out to be a pretty good truism. Looking back I struggled and had some good weeks, and they happened to be at the end, as opposed to the beginning and that was a good thing.
I would love to think that that somehow bled into today, but I don't know that I can even keep ten weeks of momentum.
The funny thing is, I think this golf course and Tampa are not the same, but they are similar. It's a golf course where a variety of type of players are going to be successful and there are some holes where length is an advantage and a lot of holes are keeping it in play is really the answer, too.
So this golf course, again similar to the course in Tampa, lends itself to all types of players, not just bombers or short hitters or straight hitters. Anybody can play well here and I think that makes it a really good golf course. And again, similar to Tampa, so it's kind of in a sense coming to a similar place.
TODD BUDNICK: The good finish had to give you a good attitude heading into the year, and did you do anything over the off-season?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, like to play golf so, I played a lot of golf when I was home. Maybe didn't practise that much.
Yeah, I would like to think that at least nothing else attitude-wise, when you're struggling and you see guys play well and you think, gosh, it seems impossible to finish well and you do have maybe a little better attitude about things. I shot 4-under on the back nine and had the ability to stay patient and let things happen. Especially here, you get some wind and this golf course is hard.
They basically made it a par 70 from a 72 without really changing anything. Anything under par here is a really good score so you kind of stay patient and a couple good things happened there on my last nine holes. It went from being a pretty good round to being a real good round pretty quick.

Q. If you had another T-2 and had not kept your card, would you have gone to Q-School?
PAUL GOYDOS: Absolutely. If I would have finished in the Top-10 and not kept my card, I would have gotten in this week because I was Top-10, carries over, but I definitely would have gone to TOUR School. I can't really do anything else.
I mentioned in Tampa that last year, in my 14th year and the length your career, your career is going to be this long, that bad stretch of play say was that much of it, if you're going to dwell on this part of your career as being a defining moment, I'm a professional golfer, and if I look at the end, if I finish 152nd, I go to TOUR School. I don't have any other skills; what else am I going to do? 42 years old, that's what you do. You go and keep grinding and working and trying to get better.
Just because I think I was 160th on the Money List going into Tampa didn't mean I wasn't trying, I wasn't grinding, I wasn't trying to get better. Just things were not working out. Normal TOUR player is going to have those stretches when they reek in mediocrity, but hopefully now I'm on one of these upswings and see what happens.
TODD BUDNICK: Just go through your card.
PAUL GOYDOS: It was funny I started last year in Hawaii on the 10th hole in the afternoon, hit it in the back right and drove it really good. Last year I hit a 9-iron and about 20 feet below the hole and made it nice start to the year.
This morning, I hit the exact same drive, but hit sand wedge 20 feet below the hole. I said, that's the same putt I had last year. I didn't have to read it and I made it. I think it's kind of odd if nothing else.
I bogeyed 13, just a hard hole. I didn't think I hit that bad of a drive and kind of skipped into the rough. I didn't think I hit that bad a second shot, and it got into the right bunker and now I've got a 40-yard bunker shot. That's like spending a week with your mother-in-law, I didn't want that. (Laughter).
So I got it on the green, 2-putted for bogey, fine. Five is not a bad score there, when you have that bunker shot, you can make 6 or 10. Five is not what we were hoping for but five is not a bad scar.
18, lucky to make par there, just didn't hit a good bunker shot. Plugged it in the lip and got it up-and-down from there, which was nice to at least keep some things going.
And then the front nine which is my back, I played very good. 1, I hit a good drive. It is a tough hole, happy to make par there.
Two good shots on 3 and skipped it over the back edge and hit a good putt and didn't go in.
4 is a tough hole, 15 feet for birdie.
5 is a reasonably difficult golf hole and made a par there.
6 is another long crosswinds par 4 and made a good solid par there.
7 was a tough par 3 with the wind blowing and made a good solid par there.
And 8 I hit as good a drive as I could, hit 8-iron six feet and made birdie. 9 I thought I hit a reasonably good drive and thought it kicked in the right rough and thought the lie was okay where I could take a 5-wood and chop it up in the front left. If I tried to hit a long iron, I don't know if I would have hit it. The rough, I don't know, it was something funny, and the 5-wood luckily got through it and chopped it down about 100 yards and left myself 130 yards to the hole there. Probably the longest third shot anybody had all week and hit 8-iron about six feet and made that.
I hit the ball solid, which is what you've got to do in the wind, and controlled the flight pretty good. Just a good, solid day.
TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Paul.

End of FastScripts

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