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THE HONDA CLASSICMarch 3, 2007Boo WeekleyPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Boo Weekley, thanks for joining us, so far the round of the day today, 66, 4-under par and right now you're just one shot off the lead of Mark Wilson. You had your first Top-10 last week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and riding that wave this week. Make some comments about a good week for you so far. BOO WEEKLEY: It's been pretty good this week. I didn't think -- the play I played the practice round, I didn't think I had a chance. Q. What's been your best position in a PGA TOUR event going into a Sunday? BOO WEEKLEY: I think when I was in México. Q. Previous to that, what was your best? BOO WEEKLEY: I couldn't tell you. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: The week in Memphis at FedEx, you finished tied for 18, but you were somewhere around the Top-10 heading into the final round. Q. Why did you think you didn't have a chance after your practice round? BOO WEEKLEY: The golf course I didn't think set up for me real well. I wasn't hitting real good and just I was struggling a little bit mentally because I was still tired from being in México and being there and flying over and having a long night Monday and getting here and not relaxing very much. Q. Five years ago, you had that great week at Bear Lakes for Q-School, which is really close to here. How much is playing in these type of conditions, weather grass and all that, is there a correlation that you seem to play well around here? BOO WEEKLEY: I like it because I mean I grew up on it. I'm from Pensacola, so it's kind of the same bermuda that I grew up on. I know they overseeded this place with a lot of rye, so I'm pretty used to putting on that because it's kind of like the same thing at the house. Q. Are you ready to win? BOO WEEKLEY: I'm pretty sure I am, yes, sir. I mean, mentally, I am. I know I am there. Because I put myself last year on the Nationwide Tour I think four or five times, you know, to win, and it just -- somebody out of the blue always came out from behind me, shot 11-under, 9-under, 8-under and I still go out and shoot 3- or 4-under and end up getting beat. So I think I'm ready. Q. How far have you come from that day at Bear Lakes when you got your PGA TOUR card? BOO WEEKLEY: It's a 180. I mean, I feel a lot more comfortable out here. I'm a lot more confident about what I'm doing, where I'm going. You know, I mean, I don't get caught up in the hoo-rah no more, just all the people being around me. I'm just ready to play golf. I don't mean to be rude, but I could give a damn, you know, about anything else. Just tee it up and let's go play golf. Q. Were you overwhelmed in those early days? BOO WEEKLEY: Yes, sir, the first year I was out, you play the mini-tours and all of the sudden you go from mini-tours to the PGA TOUR, I mean, seriously it's like a minnow in a shark pond. It's totally different. Because I've never been on maybe four airplanes until I got my TOUR card, and next thing I know I'm flying to Hawaii. I mean, we flying all over the place and I wasn't ready for it. Q. You got a lot of attention for kind of being, lack of better word, an oddity because of the camouflage and you're a little different. Did it bother you that you were getting that kind of attention, and how much do you want to get the attention for just being a PGA TOUR winner, as opposed to those other things? BOO WEEKLEY: It bothered me the first year I was out because I'm just who I am, you know. We all are. I'm a plain Jane person and if I like camouflage, I ought to be able to wear it; and if I don't, so be it. I ain't going to wear it every day. But I didn't like the recognition just for that. I wanted to be known for who I was because of my golf game. And I think that's what put the fire in me to get back out here, you know, because I felt like the only reason why somebody would say hey to me wasn't because of my golf game. It was because I was a little different, like you say, I wore rain pants and I wore tennis shoes. Q. When you're chasing your first win particularly on a course like this, how difficult is it for you to stay patient with every shot because you know how one mistake here could be -- BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I leave that to my caddie. I mean, I just, you know, that's why I got a good friend from the house and he handles me pretty well I think on the golf course, because I like to get in a hurry and go, go, go. He's kind of like: Look, let's just slow down a little bit and take a deep breath and look around a little bit. Go over and walk over to the pond and see how many fish you see. Q. You mentioned on the Nationwide Tour, you put yourself in position to win, you would shoot 5-under, 6-under and somebody would always come up with an 8- or 9-under to beat you, did you get to the point after that happened four, five, six times where you felt maybe a little snakebit? BOO WEEKLEY: No. It just wasn't my time. You know, we all got a destiny of where we're going and what we're going to do with it in life, and it's just when it's your time, it's your time. And I'm a firm believer in that. Q. You've said that -- I want to use your words, that you weren't ready when you got out here, at what point since that did you finally start realizing that you maybe were ready? BOO WEEKLEY: Well, you spend four years on the Nationwide Tour competing with them guys there, and it's a dog-eat-dog out there. It ain't like out on the TOUR out here. You finish 20th out there, you might get $3,000, $4,000. Where you finish 20th out here, you can make 50-something thousand dollars. I think you play harder out there because you know you've got to make more money out there to keep your focus or keep your status up to where out here, you take, what, ten or 15 top 20s and you've got your TOUR card for next year more likely. Q. So is it more important for you this week if you did win, is it more important excluding the precious FedExCup points; is it more important for the money or for the two-year exemption? BOO WEEKLEY: It's more important for the two-year exemption. I ain't worried about the money. The money's going to come. Just keep playing this game and if the Lord let's me; He lets me keep playing, the money will come. I don't know nothing about how them points go. I'll leave that to somebody else, too. Q. What was your playing with Glen Day today like for you? BOO WEEKLEY: It was fun. We're living together this week. He's got a house about seven miles from here, and, you know, we kind of got the same background. He's from Mississippi and I'm from Florida and we're kind of both rednecks, I reckon what you would say. We cut up with each other and he has a house over here and invited us to stay with them. We've been over there every night cooking and swimming around the pool. Q. Before the tournament, did he give you any insights to this course? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir. He just -- "Play hard." He flew in Sunday night from México and he played it on Monday in the Pro-Am. When I saw him Monday might when we got in, he said, (laughing) "Play hard." Q. What stood out about your round today? BOO WEEKLEY: I had to say all of it really. I drove the ball pretty well later in the round -- or the first couple of holes I didn't drive it real, real well off the tee. Kind of made a good swing with a driver and kind of got it back together there. Just hit a lot of good, quality iron shots. If I just could have had that putter, it could have got hot early in the round. It could have got ugly out there. Q. When did you start noticing -- did you notice yourself on the leaderboard today? BOO WEEKLEY: I don't look at that thing. Q. Did you get a feeling that you were in contention? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir. I'm just out here to play golf. Q. On the 18th did you look? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir -- well, yeah, I looked over on the board, but I didn't know what all was going on out there. I was still trying to figure out how to get back. Out there floating in the pond, I'm thinking, how -- (laughter) -- are they going to get back there from here? I didn't see ropes. Do they have a boat to pull them in? Q. When you realized where you were, how did you feel? BOO WEEKLEY: I didn't know until I got through signing my score card. I mean, I didn't know. It feels great. It always feels good when you're at the top, no matter what profession you're in. Q. Besides shooting the low score, what do you have to do tomorrow? BOO WEEKLEY: Just go out and stay focused, go out and play my game. Don't let nothing else distract me. Just be patient, and like the man said right over there, that's all golf is for us is a game of patience. You're going to make your bad swings and you're going to make your good swings. You've just got to be patient and go with the flow. Q. Given the nature of this golf course, especially the finishing holes, what are you expecting tomorrow to be like? BOO WEEKLEY: I ain't got that far yet. I mean, I just go, I don't know. I just go out there and play golf. I figure it's going to be pretty good. We got to see some of where the pin placements were going to be, and yet the last three days we haven't had the same wind blow. All three days it's been a different wind so you never know what can happen. Mother Nature has got that. Q. What kind of material are your pants made out of now? BOO WEEKLEY: A little bit of polyester and little bit of cotton. Q. Do you have them made or do you just buy them? BOO WEEKLEY: I got them from Fiya (ph) so I figured I would wear something for free. Q. When you had that cotton allergy, did that apply to shirts, as well? BOO WEEKLEY: I just had a rash on my right leg that was down the back of my calf. I had no problem with it. Went to the doctor and they looked at it and said everything looks fine. Doesn't look like it's going to come back. It could be gone for all I know. Q. When did you get comfortable wearing golf shoes? BOO WEEKLEY: That's been about three years ago. Q. And what was the change there? BOO WEEKLEY: I was actually playing the tournament in Rochester, New York I think is where it was. I met a guy named Jeff Hart (ph), and actually he was out following me around playing because he heard about my foot condition. Q. Jeff Hart, the old TOUR player? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir. I think his name is Jeff Hart. His last name is Mr. Hart, I know that. He works for a ski boot company and he builds insoles. And I got through playing and he said, "Look, why don't you come to my shop with me and I'll build you a set of insoles." I said, "I done tried Dr. Scholls and tried everything I could try." He said, "Just try, it won't hurt." I went back to the shop, he molded up my foot, put them in and the next day I felt pretty good. Because I could go about 13 holes and I would be done. I would be out of energy just because I was having to hobble on one leg more or less. He put them in and it feels good now. Q. And he was a ski boot manufacturer? BOO WEEKLEY: I don't know, he ain't a ski boot manufacturer. Like for the Olympics he built some boots for the Olympic players, the insoles. Stuff like that is what he does. I think he just builds insoles. I couldn't tell you the whole deal. Q. So you could wear regular golf shoes with these special insoles? BOO WEEKLEY: Yes, sir. Q. I'm curious you, said at times when you had chances to win on the Nationwide Tour and someone would shoot a lower number or something like that, how did you approach going into the final round when you were either in the lead or had a chance, and will you use the same approach tomorrow? BOO WEEKLEY: I'd have to wait to see what tomorrow brings me. It might be raining first thing tomorrow, I don't know, when we tee it up. I'm going to go in there just playing on my game, focus on the fairway, focus on the green and then we'll worry about the putt. Q. Do you have to look at the leaderboard at some point tomorrow? BOO WEEKLEY: I let my boy do that. I let my boy Joe-Joe handle all that. Unless it just pops up or right in front of me, if I have to hit it at it or something, usually I don't look at it. Q. Could you tell us your caddie's name? BOO WEEKLEY: Joe Pyland. Q. How long has he been on your bag? BOO WEEKLEY: Since last year. I picked him up at a little Hooters event around the house, they had the Hooters Tour and I picked him up. He caddied for another friend of ours in the Monday qualifier and picked him up and asked him if he wanted to do and he said, "Why not? I ain't got nothing else to do." Never caddied a day in his life. Q. Had you been to México before? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir. My first time. Q. What did you think? BOO WEEKLEY: It was all right. It was all right. (Laughter). Q. Would you go back? BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I'll go back down and play, yeah. I don't know about going back for any recreation or anything. Q. What's the one perk out here you guys get on the TOUR that just kind of blows your mind like, 'I can't believe we get this for free,' whatever. BOO WEEKLEY: Equipment. I mean, if you didn't sign with a manufacturing company out here like, say, Cleveland, Titleist, you just played an assortment of whatever, you could literally pick up everything and anything that you want from any company out here. It's unreal what you can get from these guys, and they are good guys. They want you to play them so that's why they are pushing them to you. So it's amazing the clubs that you can get. Q. Didn't you win a whole bunch up in your neck of the woods up there? BOO WEEKLEY: Yes, sir. I won a bunch of mini-tour events, and probably close to 30. Q. So you know how to win, but how has it been translating to here; do you have that confidence? BOO WEEKLEY: I'm pretty sure I've got it. It's just getting there and doing it. That's the whole key, just getting yourself there and then let's go do it. It's just a matter of time for me. I hate to be sounding like I'm bragging about it, but it's just a matter of time. When everything goes clicking in the right direction, and when I get my confidence like it is right now, I mean, I feel good. I feel like we can go out and play another 18. Q. When you were working with the chemicals, how long did you do that and how dangerous is that? BOO WEEKLEY: It was pretty dangerous. But I did it for three years. I worked out there at the Monsanto chemical plant. Q. What would you do? BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I was a hydroblaster and what they do is they lower you down in tanks and you spray the tanks out, like ammonia tanks and other kind of chemicals. We would do this -- I can't think of what the thing is called, but they lower you into a cylinder and you had to clean out every one of the cylinder holes, I think there was 3,652 of them. Q. Roughly. BOO WEEKLEY: I'm pretty sure that was it because I remember counting it when we was sitting there doing it. Q. What you get paid for that? BOO WEEKLEY: Right around $15 an hour. I could do a lot of shutdowns and drove a little bit of the heavy machinery they had out there, running loaders and graters and stuff like that, help them drag the roads out because they had a lot of woods and an acid pond where they had to put the chemicals and everything. Q. Did your skin condition come from any of that? BOO WEEKLEY: No, sir. It came from a cow. I had to estimate it, from giving birth to cow. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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