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SONY OPEN IN HAWAIIJanuary 11, 2007Will MacKenzieHONOLULU, HAWAII TODD BUDNICK: We thank Will MacKenzie for stopping by after a 5-under 65 today. Bogey on No. 2 and then you ran off six birdies after that and you had a chance for another one on 18. Just talk about the day. WILL MacKENZIE: Overall I was expecting wind, just like we all knew it over here on the islands. It played similar to last week with wind but a total different style of golf course. Great golf course here. I liked it last year. You know, you've got to hit it in play off the tee. You don't have to overpower this golf course or anything. You've just got to hit it in play off the tee. And the greens are smaller. If you hit it on the greens, usually you're going to have a little look at it. You might be 25 feet but you're not 60 feet, 55 feet putting like ten-foot swingers. So you know, I had a pretty good feel for the day, I hit some great shots, and I got on that nice run, like 6 or 7 through 9 that really jump started my round. Just, you know, I was guessing right a lot out there today. Playing with Kenny Perry and Jason Bohn, it seemed like some of those back pins, that they were just hitting it a little long, and then the rough is real dicey around the greens. You can have it dead into the grain and just not really have a shot and be only like 15, 18 feet from the hole. So you have to sort of do a lot of guesswork. But my shots coming into the green were really nice. I don't know, all I remember right now is hitting 7-iron into 18 and 3-putting. (Laughing) I'm pretty bummed about that. I really wanted to get that one last birdie in. But overall, it's a great start. TODD BUDNICK: Two-year exemption for winning the Reno-Tahoe Open last year. It has to be nice to get off to the great start, even though you have the exemption, even with the T-4 last week and more solid play. WILL MacKENZIE: It's in the back of my mind, wow, I have a two-year exemption, I'm going to play in 2008 regardless. But I still want to play great golf out here. I want to try to win again. I just want to, you know, get as comfortable with being under par. It's all about the comfort zone, getting 4-, 5-, 6-under par and being comfortable there and feeling like instead of protecting it, you're wanting to go a little lower. And then playing with some sort of pressure on you on the weekends. Even though I'm taking it all in stride, I'm not going to commit sui or anything if I don't finish a tournament or something this year. I'm just going to try to take every little experience as a good learning experience and try to get into convention on Sunday. That's what it's all about. Q. You talked about one of your first couple of years out here, starting off well and then going to pieces trying too hard on the weekend. Given that was one of the strongest fields you've played in, Mercedes, what is your take from Sunday even though you didn't win to the fact that you didn't back off? WILL MacKENZIE: Well, you know, Sunday was -- every Sunday for me is a big day. Saturday and Sunday. You want to get on the accelerator on Saturday, moving day. Or Sunday. You want to get in there. So it was an okay weekend at Mercedes, but I didn't go too far. I didn't really go in the right direction. What did I shoot, 1-under on the weekend, or even. You know, it would have been really nice to shoot 4- or 5-under on the weekend or kept going. I'm not frustrated with it, but I would rather stay around par, than go backwards of course. But every time I can go forward and not go back, I'll look at it as a good weekend. I did this on the mini-tours. I used to get into contention on mini-tours, and I don't know what happened. I just sort of lost composure and sped up and started thinking. It's easy to know you can come back when you have 70 holes left or 54 holes left. But as it gets to 36 and then 18, you start pressing. So you've got to look at it as, you're going to get on your run when you can get on your run and just hang in there. Q. Not to speak in your language or anything, but are you riding any kind of wave from last week, just start of the year and playing well? WILL MacKENZIE: I guess I may be. I haven't felt awesome with my golf swing the first two weeks so far. It's manageable and it's working. I'm not dialed in like I was, but I'm learning how to miss it around here and still score. There's more to golf than having a great golf swing. You know, you've got to chip-and-putt very well to score great, and I guess I'm reading a little wave. I'm enjoying myself being in the island but it's still work. I'm still out there grinding trying to make putts and save shots. Yeah, I guess I am riding a little wave but hopefully this is more of the norm. I feel that I can play at a better level than I have in the past. Q. When you talk comfort zone, how different is it from where you are today than being here a year ago? WILL MacKENZIE: It's probably a lot different; I don't even know it yet. I'm just getting more comfortable out there. I'm getting more and more -- I don't know if I'll ever be -- I don't know if you're ever perfectly comfortable in certain situations in golf because there's going to be certain situations that are going to be difficult. You know, you see those guys that come down to the wire and they are hitting great golf shots. Obviously they are comfortable. They might be, you know, jumping around inside but they know how to control their mind and their body. So I just think that a lot of patience, you just have to have a lot of patience out there, and I've learned that a little bit more and that's making me more comfortable, comfortable around the people. I'm more comfortable on the golf courses and I think it's just my steady progression I'm making. Q. Where are you staying this week (laughing)? WILL MacKENZIE: On the beach. Q. Good answer. WILL MacKENZIE: In a hammock. Hammock 29. (Laughter). Q. Between two palm trees or three? WILL MacKENZIE: Two. Q. One of yours? WILL MacKENZIE: No. I'm renting one. It's like three bucks a night. Q. What have you done since we saw you Sunday outside of golf? WILL MacKENZIE: Since Sunday, well, I've turned into sort of a hypochondriac. I've had a sinus infection or something all last week, and then my tooth started aching on Friday, or Saturday of last week. So then Sunday, you know, I play the tournament. Monday, I go to a dentist thinking I need a root canal because I mean, I didn't brush my teeth for about five years and paying for it. (Laughter). And then I went to one dentist and he said, "Click-click" knocked on the tooth and he said, oh, you need a root canal, but I can't do that tooth, 15-year-old molar, upper shelf, can't do that one. That was in Maui. So then he hooked me up with a specialist that I had to go to on Tuesday morning. So I stayed there, spent time with my mom, it was very nice. Didn't really do anything Monday, I don't think, except go to Lahaina and say I needed a root canal. Then Tuesday morning I went to Wailuku and went to this specialist, Dr. Yee, and he went and tapped my tooth and started doing these tests. He said I don't need a root canal; that it was a sinus infection that was dripping into that and giving me a toothache. And as soon as I started getting uncongested and stuff because I was on amoxycillin or zepac for this, and as soon as I get like a decongestant in me, my tooth will start feeling better. And lo and behold, my tooth feels great right now. (Laughter). So I was just being a baby. But I'm telling you, it was hurting me, and toothaches are no fun. I know y'all know that. Toothaches are no fun. I'm like, good gosh, I need to get over to the Mainland. I want to play golf; I have to go to the Sony and my tooth is going to be all messed up and I'm not going to be able to per for. So I came here on the 12:30 flight from -- I just went over to Kahului, went over to Honolulu and left me my mom and everyone back there. Went here and went surfing. I came to the golf course first on Tuesday afternoon and then I went and surfed Diamond Head on Tuesday afternoon. I practised for like 27 minutes. I was like, oh, I've played a lot of golf lately, so I went surfing for a little while. But I got real sore, so I was going to go surfing yesterday, but I played the Pro-Am yesterday and I was going to surf yesterday. So I was a little sore so I ended up getting a massage from this woman that works out here on TOUR. And shoot, I woke up feeling great. That's all I've done. (Laughter) went to Benihana's last night. Q. What's a better deal, shooting 65 or avoiding that root canal? WILL MacKENZIE: Avoiding the root canal, definitely. I was in that chair going, getting ready to be geared up for about two hours of gnarly work, and I was like, this is going to be great. I was just shaking my head in Wailuku going: "Get it over, Bro. Get it over so I can fly and rehab this for a day so I can play this week." Fortunately I was in the Wednesday Pro-Am, so I didn't have to worry about a practise round on Tuesday, and I know the course fairly well. I played it last year. So I guess I got invited for the Pro-Am. I don't know how I got in the Pro-Am. And I had a fantastic Pro-Am group. Things have just been working out pretty well. Q. I saw you on the range talking to Faldo the other day, do you talk more golf or other stuff or try to pick his brain? WILL MacKENZIE: Yeah, to me Faldo is golf. He's hard-core golfer. I've been wanting to talk to that guy for a while; as well as some other TOUR professionals. You know, shoot, I would love to sit down and hang out with Tiger for a while and shoot the breeze with him and talk some golf and talk some other things. But those guys, they are the best. Faldo, that guy was an unbelievable, fantastic golfer. You know, I did revere him in one sense because I had one of his books and I liked his swing and I liked way he went about it. He's a lot different person than me, but he's -- anyone that's having that great success, you know, you have to have a lot of respect for. Q. Would you like to sit down with Johnny Miller one day? WILL MacKENZIE: I actually called Johnny Miller back in the day because I wanted to talk to him and he was going to talk to me. But I'm like, okay, I'm not doing that swing style anymore, so I don't think I can talk to him. TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your card. WILL MacKENZIE: I'm going to have a tough time remembering these holes, man. I know I've played this golf course eight times now and I still can't remember them. But I went on the run, I made a quick bogey early, and it was sort of a silly bogey. But the sixth, I don't even remember what No. 6 is, but obviously I made birdie and that was a good birdie there. 8, I hit a great little shot in there, a little like chippy 9-iron in there right past the hole. I was like complaining that it wasn't closer and Jason Bohn sort of started giving it to me. Like he was in the rough all day and really struggling. He's like, "Well, gosh darn, Willie-Mac, what do you want, to hit it two feet every hole?" I'm like, "But Bud, I flushed that one and I thought it was going to be three feet and it turned out to be five." I got up-and-down on 9, easy little bunker shot. The 13th hole was the big birdie. I hit 4-iron from 218 in there about ten feet and made it and that was fantastic. The 16th hole, I flipped the sand wedge out of the rough. I just saw my swing on video, it looked awful, but it worked. Q. What line do you take off the tee on 16, if you remember 16? WILL MacKENZIE: 16 I do remember for some reason. I hit 5-wood off that hole because it's sort of downwind and I still was going to hit 5-wood in the bunker today. I don't want to hit it over that bushy -- I don't know what that native tree is called, it's a wonderful tree. But I played conservative. I'm pretty conservative off the tee. I'm not really a bomber. I used to think I was borderline bomber, but I've progressively gone shorter in my driving distance. I think it's with the new technique I've incorporated. But I can't hit it really high downwind. So 18 I tried to hit a bomb over everything and almost did. But I just hit it out of that left bunker, what is it, 280, and then it's 267 to this other little bunker. I just hit 5-wood because 3-wood you hit it right in it and you don't to be too aggressive and try to squeak it around that corner. If you pull it a little bit, it's under that tree and you're dead. You have no shot. I would rather hit it out of those bunkers on the right because there's no lip and it's a 140- to a 150-yard shot. It's like a little chip 9-iron out of the bunker and the bunkers are fabulous this week. I made birdie there after seeing Jason make a birdie. I thought I hit a fantastic shot into 18 and then I started thinking about it or something. I overthought the whole process. I just over thought the whole thing and 3-putted and it left a terrible taste in my mouth. Q. Your teachers are like the hot new thing in golf instruction. What have they done for you? WILL MacKENZIE: I mean, I think they have made me a better player. I worked over at Leadbetter's school and I love David Leadbetter and I love Kevin Smeltz, my instructor, great guy, still fantastic friends with him. But I started buying into this little bit of a technique that these guys are teaching. You know, I believe it's -- I believe that it really has helped me. I think there's a lot of different things. I played with Kenny Perry today, and he's my idol. He's my idol now. That guy rules. I mean, his golf swing, he was hitting these high bomb draws. If you look up "high," "draw," "315 yards off the tee": Kenny Perry. He's just phenomenal. But they have helped me out a lot. They are mainly swing coaches, don't do a lot of short game work with them. But I think they have got me more consistent. I think they have got me sowing the golf club better because I play with a weak grip like this. I supinate my hand and that's why I'll take an 8-iron and turn it into about a 6-iron, regularly. So I can hit home runs a lot, and your distance control, you know, talk about Tiger having distance control problems, that's a huge deal out here. When you have a pin tucked over a bunker, you have to hit it 157 yards, but you can't hit it more than 160 and you can't hit it less than 153. You know, you need to know how far you hit it. And I think that's made me more consistent. I've gotten better and more connected in my golf swing and what I do like is what they are teaching is more of the people that they are teaching after, they are sort of -- their profile guys are Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson. You know, weight very centered, not a lot of modern movement off the ball, very centered, and I love it. And I love Sam Snead's golf swing and I love those guys. Not that mine looks like it, but, you know, it's helped. Q. Who in the stable, you, Elkington? WILL MacKENZIE: Yeah, Elk, Mike Weir just started and guys like Charlie Wi, Dean Wilson, Aaron Baddeley, Eric Axley, Tommy Armour III. There's probably a couple other guys. Q. All kind of one-plane swingers; right? WILL MacKENZIE: They don't call it one plane. But you know the one plane that Jim Hardy teaches, it's similar, but we don't bring our arm back like this, like you crank it up a little more. I can still just get it flexed. You know, they just want you centered. They want the right knee going down and the left shoulder going down and to stack your spine straight over the golf ball. If you can get your spine stacked right over the golf ball and not move it so you didn't come up underneath it a lot. Although I'm coming up underneath it a lot right now. (Laughter). I get less instruction than the other guys, because I'm more of a feel player. I mean, I like to sort of learn on my own a little bit. I don't want to be the perfect model that they are trying to teach. I want to have some feel and my little flare, I think. TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Will. End of FastScripts |
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