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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AMFebruary 15, 2007Scott SimpsonLUTZ, FLORIDA PHIL STAMBAUGH: We just had Tom Watson in and both of you played last week at the AT&T, the difference being that you're going to play with the same guy. SCOTT SIMPSON: And the difference being he played good. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Bill Murray, you're playing with the same guy and you guys have played together a long time and known each other a long time. Just a couple thoughts about him coming to play in this week's out back stake how is Pro-Am on the Champions Tour. SCOTT SIMPSON: Obviously we played in the AT&T since '93, and had a blast, but you know at times the more people around, the funnier he gets because he sees things that nobody else sees. But at the same time, when it turns into an autograph fest, that can really wear him down. He played last year at the end of the year. Wound up he played Pebble Beach at the Wal-Mart First Tee and had so much fun. He absolutely loved it because the crowds were a little smaller, you could still interact but at the same time it wasn't thousands of people yelling for your autograph every hole. So he really enjoyed that, just playing golf and having fun. So I think that's what got him thinking about maybe playing here. Because normally after the AT&T, he's pretty much dead, he's beat. (Laughing) You know, because he's out there, he's on out there. He's walking with the gallery and making sure they all have a good time. Not like some of those other celebrities, you can go see them; they are into their golf. Bill is into both. It's great. I think it's fantastic he's here. I hope he has a great time. I have no idea what the galleries will be like, so it will be interesting to see. Q. (About cold weather.) SCOTT SIMPSON: Bleak in many ways, cold and nobody there. Hopefully it warms up a little bit. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Peter touched on it yesterday, but can you recount how you two got paired together and became good friends? SCOTT SIMPSON: It started, he played in '92 and he played with John Adams who was kind of a struggling pro on Tour. I was reading in the paper -- actually, Bill was not even on the celebrity side of the field back then. I think they were afraid of what he might do or something, rightfully so. But they had the local TV stations that were showing everything he was doing, the interacting with the fans. It was hilarious, and I was busting up. But I read in the paper where John Adams said, it was really distracting, you know, playing with Bill. It was hard. And I was on the putting green with my caddie at the time, Jim Mackay, who works for Mickelson now, and Peter. I said, "Golly, can you believe he said it was distracting? It would be so much fun to play with Bill Murray." He said, "Scott, you guys would be great together, why don't you let the tournament know you want to play with him." "No, I can't do that." "No, no, do it, do it. Tell them you want to play with him." I thought, well, okay. The worst they can say is no. So I actually wrote a letter to the tournament, and first of all told them I thought Bill was great for golf, great for their tournament to bring so many people out and that I would love to play with him. So about two weeks before the tournament the next year in '93, they called me and said, do you still want to play with him. Because everyone thought that would be crazy. Back then nobody wanted to play with Bill Murray, and now all kinds of people love to play with him. Lietzke played with him -- at the First Tee, I played with him the first day and Lietzke played with him the second day. Bruce had a great time. Bruce is kind of quiet out there but he said, I forget exactly what he said, too, it was something, it wasn't distracting, because Bill was out there, not only -- not only to have a really good time and have a lot of laughs but also he wants everyone to play well. And so you know, he's going to be rooting as hard for me and Peter tomorrow as anybody out there. So it's fun, it's different, and I know if I was buying a ticket to the tournament, I'd go watch Bill Murray. Q. (How good of a golfer is he or could he be)? SCOTT SIMPSON: I think if he ever put his mind to it and really started practicing -- he's got a good, natural swing, and he actually gets in positions that only low handicappers get in. If you watch him swing, even slow motion, because he really, you know, he gets his body leading. He gets that club to lay. He's got a lot of power. I mean, he can hit it as far as I can, which is not real far but far enough. I mean, he can hit it 270. But at the same time, because he doesn't play a lot, every once in a while he blades a shot over the green or he hits a big 'ole hook or slice. He plays to probably around 11 or 12 handicap just because he maybe doubles and triples now and then but he can make occasional birdies and a lot of pars. If he put his mind to it, I think he could get down to probably a five or six handicap. Q. The public has this vision that they seem of him when he is in the spotlight. What's he like with you, is he any different and has there been any cases on the golf course where you just have shaken your head and gone, where did that come from? SCOTT SIMPSON: Oh, all the time, where did that come from. He says stuff -- one time we were walking down the 16th hole and kind of real cold and saw this kid over there with a red sweatshirt and kind of the hood pulled up and just waiting to cross really. Not many people were out there, it was late in the day. Bill kind of looks over and goes, "Hey, kid, good luck on the way to your grandmother's house." You know, stuff like that all the time. There's one lady that started yelling at him, "Bill, Bill, do you remember me? You hit me with your ball two years ago." And he just kind of, "oh, hi." "No, you remember! Remember me? You hit me with your ball!" He looks over goes, "Man, I would have thought you'd got better by now." It's just stuff like that all the way around. Gosh, he had one last week, I can't tell it as good as it was, but some lady said, "Bill, I love you man, I really love you!" And he goes, "Oh, thanks." And she goes, "No, I've watched you and you're the one! I've loved you for 15 years, since you first started making movies." He goes, "Yeah, that's great, it's just you and me." And she goes, "you're the only one for me." And he goes, "well, I've got a confession to make" -- I'm sorry, I butchered it. 'Just you and me,' and he says, "Well, I've got a confession to make. There have been others. Sorry." All off the top of his head. That's why sometimes when there's more people around, he can see stuff and just sometimes he starts talking to people and it gets hilarious. Sometimes they will start talking and he'll be going with someone. There was one time he started teasing this lady, lady that was a marshal, and so he started teasing her. He said, "Well, what are you doing here? What's your husband doing?" She goes, "Well, my husband just passed away." I thought, oh, geez. "My husband passed away six months ago." He says, "That means you're available. Anybody here need somebody? Look at all of these guys around here, I'm sure there's someone here that can catch your eye." And he kept going off and off and it was so funny, and she was cracking up. He really handled it fantastic and she was just laughing. But then when it's time to hit, all of a sudden, he went, okay, where are we, basically: What do I have here, what iron do you think I should hit. Q. (Is there a best hole that you can remember, one that stands out over the years)? SCOTT SIMPSON: The best hole? Well, we made the cut at the AT&T I think three and four times, and we missed this year just because we were in the -- we should have made it this year, but he had a putt on the last hole and then we tied to make the cut and then unfortunately they matched the pros' scores and I played terrible. So, we didn't make it. He's birdied No. 8 at Pebble Beach, really tough hole. Last year, last year I think we played pretty well. And he had one streak where he went birdie, par, par, birdie, on 9, 10 -- no, birdie, par, par, birdie, 9, 10,11, 12, at Pebble Beach and those are brutal holes. So every once in a while he gets really hot. I mean, he can really play some golf sometimes. Q. By just a little bit, you're not nearly as outgoing as he is. So how have you been able to keep his antics from bothering your golf game, or is it worth it? SCOTT SIMPSON: Partly, yeah, if it bothers me, it's still worth it just because it's so much fun. You've got to have fun playing this game. That's what I always thought at the AT&T. Even if it did bother me as far as playing, it's only one week a year. That's no big deal. I don't know, it's so much fun, and he's really a nice guy, too. All of these celebrities, they are not always nice guys, but he really is. He's a good guy. He really -- I've never seen anyone so giving of himself, especially to people that sometimes we kind of overlook, whether it's older ladies, people in wheelchairs, he kind of singles them out and teases them and makes them feel special and I think that's really cool. We get along great. When he's off the course, I mean, he can be funny but at the same time he can be really serious. He's really a smart guy. We'll talk about religion and politics and all of those kind of fun things. We don't necessarily agree, so it's pretty fun. Q. (Do you stay in touch during the year?) SCOTT SIMPSON: Yeah, sometimes. He lives in New York most of the time, but every once in awhile he's passing through or I'm passing through and might get together and play or go to dinner or something like that. We'll stay in touch through the year a little bit. I'll call him once in awhile. He'll call once in a while. If I do anything good, he'll call. (Laughing). Yeah, it's a friendship, a good friendship. I think it's great for the tournament. Q. (About last week). SCOTT SIMPSON: Pebble Beach. It was cold last week, Pebble Beach, especially at Pebble on Saturday. It was cold and windy and rainy. It was a bad day. Hopefully it's not 27 tomorrow morning, though. That was our warm-up tournament. Played with Huey Lewis, and Bill and Huey are good friends. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Can you sort of talk about Mark O'Meara, he's debuting this week on the Champions Tour. Last week we had Nick Price. SCOTT SIMPSON: My mom always said, "If you can't say anything nice" -- no, I've known Mark since we were in college. He was at Long Beach state and I was at USC. He's always been a good, steady player. I think he'll do real well out here, especially it's kind of neat that he and Nick both seem like they are pretty excited to be here. So that's what's great. Obviously Mark never has a problem with Pro-Ams. He won the Pebble Beach five times, won the Bob Hope. He kind of enjoys playing with the amateurs. You know, truthfully, playing with Bill and playing with the amateurs a lot of times can help you relax because it just makes you realize, a lot of us -- I donate more, but a lot of us have worked with sports psychologists and things. Usually what they try to do is to get Tour pros to do is to relax. You know, to play the same way under the gun as you're playing when you're playing with your friends or something, and so just to make a free swing, to relax. Our tendency is to grip it harder and try to force it in there. And so how to free-wheel it. So a lot of times with amateurs when you're playing in a Pro-Am, you don't get quite as serious, so a lot of times it's good. In that respect I think playing with Bill, obviously sometimes it could be hard playing with him at the time, but it becomes a reminder that, you know, let's have some fun out there. It's a game. And O'Meara especially, he always has fun playing. I think he's going to do real well. Q. Had you seen Caddieshack before you played with Bill? SCOTT SIMPSON: I'm a golfer, of course I've seen Caddieshack. Q. (Inaudible). SCOTT SIMPSON: Very occasionally. Q. A lot of guys -- they see movies like that and they don't like to refer -- SCOTT SIMPSON: No, he's done it a couple of times. Not very often though. The one time, gosh, it was -- was it last year? It might have been last year, where it was kind of windy and he had a putt -- I had just 3-putted 18. We needed to par the last hole to make the cut. So he had about a 3-foot putt, maybe even 3- or 4-foot putt that he had to make it for us to make the cut, and he knew it. And so he's just about to get over the putt and some guy up in the gallery yells down, "Hey, hey, why don't you do the Caddieshack thing, greenskeeper." And I thought, Oh, my gosh, he's going to tear this guy apart; 'yeah, I'll do it when you get another drink.' But he just kind of looked up there and goes, "Well, on the 18th hole of Pebble Beach, he's got a 4-foot putt to make the cut." (Speaking in voice.) He did the whole thing. "He's got a tear in his eyes." Q. Did he make the putt? SCOTT SIMPSON: Absolutely right in the center. He did the whole thing it was great. Q. (Does it bother you as a pro that you're talking about him)? SCOTT SIMPSON: No, shoot, like I said, if I was buying a ticket I would go watch him because it's so much fun. Q. (Any memorabilia from over the years)? SCOTT SIMPSON: I have nothing. Just what they have at the AT&T, you know maybe I've got some of those. We missed twice. The year 2000 I missed with a broken ankle, so we didn't play that year. And then it was -- maybe it was two years ago we didn't play. It was either last year or two years ago probably. He was finishing that movie "Life Aquatic" with Steve Zissou. Not a big hit but actually a pretty good movie. He was finishing that in Italy, so he couldn't get away. I'm really hoping he likes it a lot here. But I would rather play here than AT&T anymore, it's getting tough. Q. How is the course playing? SCOTT SIMPSON: Oh, the course is great. It's playing much longer this year than it did last year, so that will be interesting to see. It's just kind of wetter and playing a lot different. So I don't know where they are going to put the tees. It's long right now. Q. Have you seen him yet? SCOTT SIMPSON: No, I just got a message from him this afternoon. I don't know whether he'll make it out to chip-and-putt a little bit, we'll see. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Good luck. SCOTT SIMPSON: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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