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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AMFebruary 14, 2007Hale IrwinLUTZ, FLORIDA Q. What do you think of the course, how is it playing? HALE IRWIN: I have not played it. I anticipate it's going to be in the condition that it's always in, and that's good. I always look forward to playing here, I think it's one of our better venues. It tests all your skills. You know, all of it; the driver has to be working well, you have to hit good irons and you have to putt well. I've always felt like this course tests us as much or more than just about any other course we play on a regular basis. Q. (Is it a surprise to you that players who have had success here have also had success elsewhere)? HALE IRWIN: I don't think it is, no. I don't think it very much -- probably more, as you say, the rule, the fact other than the exception. I don't think it's a surprise by any means to see the players that have played well here, have most likely done something reasonably significant elsewhere. Q. Is it simply the degree of difficulty? HALE IRWIN: I think so. Because again, this course, you have not every hole, but there's a lot of water on this golf course, and that's sort of terminal illness and there's a lot of it coming down the stretch. To avoid that is not always easy. Particularly, again, going back to -- this week we're going to see this wind direction coming at us left-to-right, which is probably one of the more difficult winds, and that usually tests a guy's mettle more so than another course. And players that have proven themselves under those conditions are more likely to come out near the top than others who may not have been tested like that. Q. After not winning last year, was there any more determination on your part than usual for you coming out this year, or did that not have anything to do with the way you prepared? HALE IRWIN: No, I think it had a lot to do with the way I prepared. Last year was not a -- it was not a bad year. I don't want to suggest that it was. It was a disappointing year, but particularly the 2005 season where I had won four times and I played well. And then with no wins, just kind of out of the clear blue. Even during the course of the year, I was sort of examining what I was doing well or what I was doing poorly, but it really didn't kind of come to rest until the year was over and you can kind of look back. And I'm not into the statistics part that much. I don't look at my driving and say -- well, I know I didn't drive the ball as well and I know I didn't hit my irons quite as well. I was just less efficient and less proficient in all categories, particularly the short game and putting. I knew I had to do some work there. But also I looked at it from the standpoint of what things are going on perhaps around my golf game that are not helping my golf game and maybe pull it back. And I figured part of it was the condition, my physical condition. My back had been a problem but I thought, you know, it was the same in 2006 as it was in 2005, so I can't say that was any different. I played TaylorMade's new ball last year. I played it all year so that shouldn't have been any big deal. Just little things. The thing I started noticing is that I quit my workout regimen, and perhaps because of that I was not quite as strong, was not seeing through from 1st tee to 18th green maybe as strong as I had in the past. And I think maybe my back towards the end of the day was fatiguing and holding me back from kind of getting through the round the way I should have. So I really -- well, the one big difference is that I had discontinued my workout regimen, not because I got lazy. It's just because my back was bothering me. I thought, I've got to rest because the golf motion is what caused it more than anything else. So this winter I really got back to the gym and started working out. In the beginning my back was sore but (knocking on wood) knock-on-wood, it's fine right now. I try to keep up with my exercises. And I told my wife before Hawaii, "I hope all of this hard work I'm doing pays off, because I'm killing myself." Well, it's paid off. For me that's what I need to do is not kind of be active, but keep myself going to keep my back from being the issue which then sort of becomes that little drip of water on the forehead; after a while, it kind of beats you to death. Q. You've seen a lot of new guys come out since you've been playing out here, Mark O'Meara is playing this week -- HALE IRWIN: Was it Price last week, O'Meara this week? Q. Right. What do you expect out of Mark, and obviously it's never really as easy as everybody -- well, not that he thinks it is but it's hard to win out here even for a guy who is coming over. HALE IRWIN: It is. I think it takes a little while for you to get your feet fully on the ground. Probably the best player to ask right now would be Nick Price. He's had one week at it. You know, Nick and Mark I think are both very, very accomplished players, major championship winners that have played all around the world. They know what it takes to win and they will do very, very well. But you can look at a guy's game, Fred Funk. You just know Fred Funk is going to do well. Nick Price is going to do well. Mark is going to do well. All of these guys have the kind of game, they were not sort of a flash in the pan for a short period of time and disappeared. They were around for a long time at one stage or another or maybe more times than not, were at the top of the world or at least near the top of the World Rankings. So they know how to win. As these guys come out and kind of go through the initial meet the press, meet the guys, do the locker room, do all of the new stuff and it becomes less of something new and they settle into their games, they are going to be very effective. Q. Speaking of Nick and Mark who are coming out and later this year, there are some other pretty notable names, when you look at the Tour overall. How does this era compare to maybe what was the golden era, not so much just talent but maybe the sizzle, pizzazz, is this a chance to be the second golden era? HALE IRWIN: Well, I think in a way, yes. I keep going back when I kind of hear that -- I keep going back to the evolution of how this whole thing started back when it was almost like the parade before the bowl game, you know. Here come the Sam Sneads and the way they kind of did their thing, and there really wasn't the competitive environment that it has become. So we've kind of evolved, and as that evolution of Nick Price, we had Arnie and Chi Chi, and when Jack did participate, Gary and Lee. That was a very, very strong catalyst to what it's become. Those guys were golf as we've known golf for many, many, many years. We're going to see, as they have taken their bows and are doing other things now, we're seeing this new wave and they are coming rather rapidly. Maybe there was a Hale Irwin and there was a Tom Watson, and they were single entities that were coming. Now we are seeing guys that have achieved on the world stage and they are coming out, or I presume they are, they are going to come in a nice package. As you say, it could be a golden age; call it a silver age; maybe it's a platinum age. It's going to be very exciting, though. I think they are bringing great credentials. I think they are bringing a presence that is going to perhaps fill a little of that void that those great players had that are stepping out on the scene. I see Gary out here. Gary will never quit playing. He'll be out here at 95 years old doing his sit-ups (laughter) and still playing, which is fantastic. But I think there is an opportunity for these guys to come out and exhibit the skills they have and be the gentlemen they are. I just saw Nick this morning. I'm looking forward to it. Whether or not you compete with them head-to-head or not, you still have to look at this time period as a very exciting time. I had an opportunity to play with Jack and that group on the regular tour as well as the Senior Tour/Champions Tour. And then as an older player, you got to see the Nick Prices and Mark O'Meara as come on. I've kind of been in that time where I've got to do both and it's been very exciting seeing it from both perspectives. I think it's going to be a wonderful time myself. Q. Have you experimented at all with hybrids, and if so, what's been your reaction and is there any value to that for a really accomplished player? HALE IRWIN: Yes, I have experimented. The experiment has been an utter failure -- strike that from the record. It's been disappointing. It has not been "utter," there's nothing that's been "utterly." I have not hit upon the right combination until I think yesterday. Bear in mind that I have always been a fairway wood player, so I've been fairly reluctant to give up on my fairway woods. I say, okay, I did drop the 2-iron, I inserted the utility club, not the utility, but the hybrid thing. But it weren't working, so, well, do I put the 2-iron back in? Last year, or in 2005, I finally went to the three wedges towards the end of the season and I had to drop out something. So I've kind of gone through a little bit of a metamorphosis of what I've got 14 of in my bag. The hybrid has not been in there. But what I can do is I took what was my 4-wood or my 4-metal and I made it a little bit shorter and put just a little bit of loft in it so it kind of became a strong 5, because I hit the ball pretty high with my fairway metals. So that became a 5-wood for me, and that's something I played with for years and years and years, so it wasn't like I was introducing a new club in my bag. The new TaylorMade rescue club I prefer over the other ones, not so much in the head, but I just could never get the right shaft. The shaft and the head are, I keep saying to me the club and the shaft, the people sell the head; that's the sizzle the steak is with is the shaft, and I just could never get that right, that head. But I think I may have found something. Q. It's always confounding what pretty decent player seems to just lose his game, you look at Chip Beck, what's your thoughts on his ability to come back last year and be competitive after being basically out of the game for a while? HALE IRWIN: Well, I think you have to look beyond a guy's game. In Chip's case, I think living in Chicago was not necessarily new, but he was kind of taking him out of an environment where he could play golf just about all the time to an environment that was different weather-wise at least. And the older he got, the more children they had, I don't know how many he's got now, but he's got a few. So I think as a parent, that affects your career. Once you kind of lose it, having lost some of mine in '85, after I won at Muirfield Village, my game went south. I could still hit the shots. It wasn't the fact that I couldn't. I could still do all of the things I was doing but I just couldn't put it together out there because I wasn't there. I had just forgotten how to think. I had forgotten how to literally play. It wasn't physical. I could do that. And I think in Chip's case, I don't think it's physical. I think it's just a matter now of doing it. You know, my success in '90 did not surprise me because it just sort of ratcheted up my mental processes again. I took them away from where they were. You've only got 100% of yourself to give in anything, whether it's being a parent or being a golfer or being a golf course designer or being Phil Stambaugh's assistant. You've only got 100% of yourself and how you allocate affects your performance. And I had taken some out of being a player to some being a designer and spending a little more time with my family. Here I was, I could still do it, but I was down here. So in '90 I decided, I need to take a little more out of the design and put it back over here. And that's what it was was right there, just sort of reallocated things. I think it's a time commitment. It's a mental commitment to do it. Some people don't want to have to pay that price. They don't want to have to give up perhaps something that they have really grown fond of just to go play golf. They may be satisfied with something less than what they have done in the past, and in Chip's case, I don't think -- he's not off. He's just got to find it. It's there. We've all put our car keys down should where and just don't remember where we put them. They are probably right there in your pocket. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Well, thanks for coming in. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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