|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SONY OPEN IN HAWAIIJanuary 12, 2007Paul GoydosHONOLULU, HAWAII JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks for joining us, currently one of the leaders along with Luke Donald here at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Great round today, bogey-free 63. Maybe some comments about a good couple of days for you. PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, very pleased. It was very windy out there. I had probably one of my Top-5 rounds I played on TOUR. It was windy and tough and the key generally to playing well in these conditions is making putts and I didn't have a lot of problem today doing that. It tends to make up for the wind blowing the ball all over the place when you're doing that, making 20-footers. Very happy with the way I played both days. I think I shot 35 my first nine and since then I've gone 30-32-31. I'll take that every time. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: One bogey through 36 holes. PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, 13 doesn't even count. It's a 580-yard par 4. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've done well with your short game. PAUL GOYDOS: Hard to shoot a high score when you have 28 putts. And today I made -- they keep a stat on this TOUR about length, total length of putts made. I would like to know what it was. Might have had four digits on it today, a chip-in, too. Yeah, everything was real good. I kept the ball in play for the most part, a little trouble a couple of times, but it's windy and you're going to have those issues. I hit a reasonable number of greens in regulation and I've taken advantage of it obviously on the greens. But I've also missed the greens in places where you can play a little bit, too, which is nice. It hasn't been hitting it where you're dead. I've had a lot of short par putts that were pretty good chips, too. Just a good, solid way around. And then this golf course, you do have to keep the ball under the wind a little bit and maybe be a little less aggressive than you would normally. It's brutal out there. Q. 13 would be a mother-in-law hole then? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, who said that? That was the only bogey I had. That's the one place you couldn't hit it on that hole. I had a 50-yard bunker shot which is again not the place you want to be. This golf course is a little golf course. I've had some success obviously the first two days, but it is a difficult golf course and will bite you if you don't do the right things. Q. What have you done in the last couple of months? I keep thinking that without that, you know, great week at Tampa, you're not here this week. PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I've been trying to find a way to make it -- mentally make it Tampa, Hawaii; it didn't go Tampa, ten weeks Hawaii. It's like trying to hold on to this thing slipping out of my hands as I'm falling in a pit. Like I said yesterday, you evaluate your year when your year is over. I spend some time evaluating what I did right and what I did wrong. I tried to fix those things in the off-season. I have two girls and had some quality time off. Ten weeks off, that's one of the wonderful things of our job is I got ten weeks off over the holidays to spend time with my family. If that doesn't put you in a good mood, and then your first event is in Hawaii and you're struggling with your attitude, then that's a whole other set of issues. Q. Players come in here all the time and we ask them about goals and they talk about, you know, FedExCups and majors and Presidents Cups and so forth and so on. It's early in the season but I have to assume in your particular case one of your goals is just to keep your card? PAUL GOYDOS: I think where you finish on the Money List is just a function of how you play. I don't look to -- that's not necessarily a goal. My goal is to be a better player in December than I was in January; one of my goals really for the last 15 or 20 years. And if you play well, where you finish on the Money List will take care of itself. And the other thing I want to do is to have opportunities to be nervous. I want to be able to play on weekends and obviously tomorrow is going to be another opportunity to do that. When you have a chance to win, you have a chance to play late in the day and be nervous and see how you handled that. And hopefully, really the goal is to do it on Sunday. Those are my two goals, to put yourself where you have late tee times on Sunday and to be a better player; what do you need to do to get better. And if you do those things, the Money List should take care of itself, whether it's 125. Some years, the best you've got is 150, that's just the way life is. Some years, you can -- like today, today, you know, we walked off the 17th green, Craig Barlow, he says you can probably hit driver offer the next tee and make par. That's the kind of day I was having. You really can't control those things a lot of times. So far this year has gotten off to a good start with some good things happening, but to say I want to finish here, here and here, you don't have that much control over that, as opposed to I can control whether I'm going to be a better player next week than I am this week. Does that make sense? Q. Yeah. So what exactly did you do in the off-season to try to carry that whatever it is you were trying to carry over? PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's part of the evaluation process. I spent the first few weeks figuring out what went right and what went wrong. The biggest part of self-evaluation is being honest. You look at the mirror, and that's part of the process. You know, what did I do right? It really wasn't just Tampa. I made enough money in my last six events to where I wouldn't have made a dime prior to those events, I still would have kept my card. What did I do right in those six weeks; just try to work on those things and my mind-set and try to use your memory as a tool to get better. Q. Are you the type of guy that makes birdies in bunches? PAUL GOYDOS: No. I was thinking about that, five birdies in a row today -- I made five birdies in a row one other time on TOUR. They actually keep that stat. We have so many stats now. But generally, no, I'm not a person who does that. I can remember one round at Indian Wells which doesn't compare to Waialae, where I made nine out of ten. I bet you last year I didn't make more than three in a row all year. I'd almost guarantee that. Q. Does the evaluation process you just talked about, is that a self-evaluation process, are there others involved, or is it an annual thing? PAUL GOYDOS: Generally it's a weekly or tournamentally, maybe a monthly and then an annually type of thing. At some point in time, I'm a firm believer -- I might ask my caddie. He's really the other person who sees enough to make an evaluation. I'll take to him about some things. But generally, it's me. It's got to come from me because at some point in time, and hopefully that some point in time will be Sunday afternoon, I've got to be able to figure myself out, and all of the help in the world, my caddie or some teacher is not going to do me a whole lot of good. At that point in time, there's going to be that shot or that tournament that's going to mean something and it's going to be you standing there and you have to figure that out. So relying on other people for that isn't really the way I do things. Q. What's given you so much confidence on the greens this week? PAUL GOYDOS: No idea. I like bermuda, and for some reason, the California guy, you really wouldn't think so. But I've got to the point where I look last year, all of my best tournaments were all on bermudagrass. For some reason maybe I see things better. I think bermudagrass holds up better. This afternoon, the greens were really good considering we had 144 players going across the greens. I think bermuda holds up better. I'm just on a period right now in my career where I'm maybe more comfortable playing bermuda than other things. I couldn't tell you why. This is going to sound bad but sometimes to me you have those days where you put -- I played with Dicky Pride the first two days, and Dicky the first day hit so many putts that didn't go in were ridiculous. I could close my eyes and swing with one hand and they are going in. Sometimes it is a bit random and you've just got to keep grinding. You're going to have weeks where you can put as good as you put and hit the lips or your speed is off a little bit and you don't make anything. That's just part of it. You have to stay patient and be ready to capitalize when things are going well. Unless you're Tiger who makes everything every week. I'd like to have some of that. Q. Can you tell us about your nickname? PAUL GOYDOS: My nickname? Which one? Q. I don't know. Which one do you want to tell us about? PAUL GOYDOS: The one nickname that stands out is "Sunshine" which was given to me by a gentleman named Mark Mitchell. Jeff Sluman likes to take credit for that nickname, but actually Mark Mitchell came up with that one. Some people seem to think, and I don't know where this comes from, that I have a negative attitude. I guess they are being a tad facetious by calling me Sunshine. I look at me as being someone with lofty goals; so therefore, you know, never satisfied with what we have accomplished. But some people take that as negative and I really don't understand those people. Q. So Feinstein can't take credit for it? PAUL GOYDOS: Feinstein said I can find a cloud in every silver lining. I don't know where he came up with that idea either. These writers, you know how they are. That's probably where it comes from. I remember growing up my mom told me not to rest on my laurels, and I'm not sure what laurels are, but I'm not supposed to rest on them, I know that. And I took that as keep working. I'm happy with where I am right now, but being 11-under par after two rounds, they don't crown you champion and I'm not co-champion, I'm just co-leader and your goal is to be champion. So therefore, we have a lot of work to do the rest of the weekends. Q. In all seriousness, have you ever tried to change up your attitude on the course? PAUL GOYDOS: No, I don't think that necessarily -- I think that goes in phases, too. Today again, you could have established me with a pitchfork and I would have said hey, thanks. And other days -- you are a function of who you are, and I think changing is probably not -- I would make the argument that I've had what little success I've had and because of who I am and I don't know if I would want to necessarily change that per se. Maybe that's what drives me a little bit. Q. Does the FedExCup race mean anything to you? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I kind of like it. And one of the nice things about playing well at the end of the year last year is that I have a chance to play in the inaugural FedExCup. It's something different. For the first five, six, seven, eight years, one of the tournaments I looked forward to going to was The INTERNATIONAL, because it's different. I never could play a lick there. Milkshakes were good and the food was great and played two rounds and go home. I always bought my ticket to leave on Friday. Yeah, I think it's good, I think it's going to be good for our TOUR. It's going to get the media at least for the short term is going to be interested. You're asking the question; that's a good sign. That's what we need to do. We're trying to make golf a little more aware in the public's opinion. I think FedEx is a great company. Their whole deal is about being reliable. And I like the idea of being associated with reliability, their motto. I think it's going to be good for golf and good for the PGA TOUR and for me personally. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your seven birdies today. You started on the front side, the first birdie of the five in a row came on No. 7. PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, it's funny how this game works. 4,5 and 6, I struggled missed all three greens. 4, I hit it very mediocre. I hit it in the right bunker, I had a 30-yard bunker shot, made about a 10- or 12-footer for par. Good, surviving this little mini, not so good. Next hole I drove it not so good, missed the green left. Wasn't a hard shot from the fringe but had a wedge in my hand and missing the green wasn't all that exciting and I made. 6, I drove it in the right rough, had a horrible lie, chunked it up short left of the green and pitched up about three feet and made that for par. Then I birdied the next five holes. So I look at those three holes almost being more important because that put me, hey, things are going well, survive your bad swings, be patient and hopefully some good swings are coming. 7, 5-iron about six feet and made that for birdie. Twos are always good. They don't add up very quick. Next hole, a good drive and an 8-iron about probably 12 feet and made that for Weir die. 9, hit 7-iron to two, tree feet below the hole and made that for birdie. Funny thing is, I had 128 and had 7-iron. On No. 1, I had 188 and hit 7-iron, that's how much wind there was out there. 10, I hit probably the best drive all day. Had 70 yards and hit a sand wedge about eight, ten feet and made that for birdie. 11, had to have been the hardest hole on the golf course today. If it wasn't, then I'm playing the wrong game. I hit a 3-iron there. It was, you know, didn't hit it in the bunker which I thought was good. Missed the green right in the rough and caught, good, rounds, good things happen. Got a pretty good lie in the rough there and chipped it in from about 50 feet. Played solid, made a solid par on 12. 13, drove it in the rough caught a good lie. Dicky Pride drove it in the rough and had a terrible lie. That's what happens when you're playing well, your bad shots end up in places that you can play. 14, you're out there hitting in this wind, hitting low shots trying to bounce it and you're doing all this crazy stuff; not the normal, per se, just making swings. I'm driving the fairway and I have a perfect 7-iron. I haven't hit that shot since the driving range, and I proceeded to hit it in the bunker left and got another unbelievably good break as the ball hits in the bunker and stays on the upslope. If it rolls down to the bottom, that shot is an 8 on a scale of difficulty. Pitched up in the bunker to a couple of feet and made par, just another tremendously good break. 15, 3-wood and 7-iron. The wind started lying down, too, so playing later helped. Hit 7-iron to about 15 feet and if that putt would have been one inch longer, I would not have made it. It got to the hole, sat there, looked at me, said "see ya" and fell in, which is another good thing to have happen. 16 I made a mess of and made a 12-footer for par, 15-footer for par there. 18, I drove it in the rough and caught another good lie and if I catch a bad lie there, who knows what happens and able to get it over the green in two. Chipped it and that one caught a mediocre lie in the rough and chipped it down and made it. At that point it's just aim and hit. Hopefully find a way to carry that over this weekend. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Paul, thanks. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|