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THE HONDA CLASSICMarch 3, 2007Mark WilsonPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Current leader in the clubhouse, Mark Wilson, 6-under par through 54 holes. Well, it's got to be a good feeling, a lot of work to do tomorrow, but you're in good position heading into Sunday's final round here at the Honda Classic. MARK WILSON: Yeah, it feels good, it feels good to be here. I'm not as colorful as the last guy you had in here (Boo Weekley) but maybe you can find something if you dig hard enough. (Laughter). Q. Have you ever led going into the final round out here? MARK WILSON: I don't think so, no. I think I was one back at the Texas Open in 2005, I remember that. I think that's the closest I've been. Q. Obviously this it looks like there's going to be a few guys pretty close, and with the course playing as hard as it is, what do you think your approach is going to be tomorrow? MARK WILSON: Same thing again, just hit it -- the greens are so receptive to quality shots, that hopefully I can just keep hitting my irons solid, keep hitting the fairways is obviously the huge thing. So if I can hit my driver well, the course seems to play so much easier, but I was in the rough a little more today. Granted I still shot the same as Friday but I didn't feel like I played as well. So hopefully I can drive it straight and still keep attacking. You can't really play away from too many pins because you get sucked into different tough positions that Jack has put out there. Q. What will you fixate on tonight, will it be what that feeling could be like of a win, will it be the check, will it be everything that comes with the win, or none of the above? MARK WILSON: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure I'll think about all that. You think about that every tournament you play: It would be so cool to get that first place check or to win and be exempt. I go to Q-School every year, that's on my schedule. So to win, I think that's the main thing, if I can walk off that green and know that I'll be exempt through 2009 would be just a great feeling. But it's more about just the journey and enjoying the whole journey that I've gone on. I've played in the 1991 PGA Junior here for instance. I think I shot 305, was pretty happy about that. I think I finished in the Top 20 and here I am, what, 16 years later, with a chance to win on the PGA TOUR. Q. How many straight years have you gone to Q-School? MARK WILSON: I think ten. I've lost track now. I know you turned pro in '97 and I've gone every year. So '97 to 2006, that would be ten times. Q. Are you ready to win out here now? MARK WILSON: I sure am, yeah. I've got a different perspective on how I play. It's not so important to me anymore. In the years past, it's just been so important, like, oh, my gosh, I've got to play well today, I've got to make the cut or I've got to, you know, finish as high as I can to make that check to try to be exempt. But I'm more comfortable in my life now and just who I am. I'm just going to go out there and give it my best. I can be satisfied with myself at the end of day if I was trying to hit every shot at my target. I know they are not all going to go there, but as long as I was trying and I didn't get overwhelmed by too many situations out there, I'll be satisfied. Today I did a good job with that. 15 and 17 are playing tough, side, left-to-right win and in going back to the water. It was great to hit two good shots there. Q. Can you talk about playing 18 now that that wind has turned around and it's kind of coming into your face, kind of really makes it almost impossible to get there for almost anybody. MARK WILSON: Yeah, I would be surprised. I don't think Bubba Watson is playing this week, but I think he would have a hard time getting there today. Whereas yesterday with just a little different wind, playing with Camilo, he got there and I even considered it. I had about 255 front and decided to just lay up. But it was funny, today I hit a good drive and a good hybrid club and still had a 9-iron left. So if they -- I'm sure the tournament is probably hoping maybe the wind will turn around a little bit for tomorrow because it's a lot more exciting finishing hole when you have guys going for it in two. But no matter what I know they are probably going to throw that pin over there on the right. Today I had a 9-iron; that's a little dicey shot. Q. Why are you more comfortable about yourself and your golf? MARK WILSON: I've been working with Dr. Rotella a little bit. You know, it was one of those things where I asked him, I said, you know, I wake up some days and just go play golf and other days I wake up and go, I'm wasting my time, I need to change things, I need to go work with my swing instructor and I need to get better that way. My mechanics need to get better. He just looked at me -- I said: Which is better, do I just need to go play golf or spend some time working on my mechanics. He said, "When you finally decide that you've got what it takes and your mechanics are fine, you're going to be a lot more comfortable with yourself and you're just going to go out there and play golf." That's what I try to do. Some days I don't show up great but I feel better about myself after each round than I used to because I'm just trying to hit the ball to a target instead of think about what I'm doing in my mechanics, if that makes sense. I just focus on the target and go with it. Q. When did that conversation come, and were you able to make kind of the mental adjustment immediately or did it take some time? MARK WILSON: Believe it or not almost immediately. I talked to him and worked with him in the Palm Beach area. We played three different golf courses and it was a different approach than any psychologist has ever taken. We just went out and played golf and I thought he was going to analyze everything I did. It wasn't like that at all. It was just, let's go have fun and we talked about it afterwards. I took it to the Second Stage of Q-School, and it was just so much more fun to not grind so hard and just enjoy trying to be a kid again and just letting go. Q. So this was last year? MARK WILSON: Yeah, 2006 November right before second stage I worked with him. Q. Given the nature of this golf course and the challenge on the finishing holes, what do you think tomorrow's finish will be like? MARK WILSON: Yeah, I think it will be exciting just because no matter -- I'm standing on the 15th tee even with like a six-shot lead, I'm going to be pretty nervous still. You've got to hit some good shots coming in. Double-bogeys are out there, so quick, and other tournament it is might not be the case. So I think it's going to be very exciting. Q. Is Dr. Rotella getting a call tonight? MARK WILSON: I probably will talk to him. He gave me a call last night actually, I didn't even call him, but he gave me a call, said, "Looking forward to watching and stay in that target." Q. You mentioned not being as colorful as Boo; how well do you know him and do you go back very far? MARK WILSON: No, I don't know him very much but everyone knows him out here. He's a character. I remember one time on the Nationwide Tour, I think they had a rain delay in Richmond and they just had the camera on him while he was fishing for a half hour. And I could not turn it off. It was so funny, him just commentating about what he was doing with the fish. It was hysterical. We know each other just by name basis and that's about it. I haven't really spent any time with him but it looks like, I don't know if we are paired together tomorrow or not, but that will be really cool if we are. Q. The whole idea about closing and going into this final round with a lead, how much do you figure you're going to have to kind of tell yourself to keep things the way they were the first three rounds mentally? MARK WILSON: Right, that will be the biggest challenge. It's going to be exciting going to it. In the past I would be so nervous -- I'll be nervous tomorrow but I would be overwhelmed by the situation and not do my best. Whereas I really feel tomorrow, I'm not going to be overwhelmed by the situation, but you never know with golf what's going to happen. The putts might lip out instead of lip in and we'll go with that. Like I said before, I'll be comfortable with whatever happens as long as I am committed to each shot. Q. How did you decide to see Dr. Rotella? MARK WILSON: My caddie gave me the idea. My caddie used to work for Dicky Pride. Dicky Pride spent a lot of time with Dr. Rotella. I think it was in San Antonio last year, I shot an 82 in the final round and just was pressing and he just said, "I think you need to talk -- go spend some time with Dr. Rotella." I called up Dicky, got his number and played out rest of the season on the PGA TOUR without talking to him. But then made sure I got to see him right after the season was over before I had to go to Q-School. Q. Had you seen other psychologists before that? MARK WILSON: I have, I've seen a few, and they have all helped me in different ways. But you just never know, same thing with a swing instructor. You just mesh better with someone else, and I just really enjoy Dr. Rotella's approach. Q. What's his own golf game like? MARK WILSON: It's pretty good. You'd be amazed. His mechanics are not great but he'll wear you out. I remember a match we played he birdied the last hole on me. I had to top him. It was like he was just doing it to see how well I could respond to him. And he never hits a bad shot. You know, what he says in his books, it was never his fault, and I really took that from him a lot. He hit some, I thought, awful putts from three feet, and he would always just look at the ground like he hit something. I think that's just the best approach; it's never his fault. I'm trying to do that more and more. So he's a role model. Q. Could you just talk about this golf course, the challenge it's offered this week and what you think of it? MARK WILSON: I love it so far, of course. I think in fairness the greens do feel a little on the soft side for me. If you hit a quality shot, the greens really do hold. So I like that. There's been some tournaments we play where by Saturday and Sunday it gets baked out and it doesn't really reward a quality hit iron shot into the green. So I really like that. I think the fairways are generous enough and they have been good, 10 and 11 they have not played all the way back, I don't know what they are going to do tomorrow. We played a practice round on 10 and 11 we thought were just ridiculous. I think they made a good choice moving those a tee up and 5 was even up today. So I think they have done a good job with the setup. Q. You love the course now; did you love it in the practice rounds? Did you even love it after your opening of 72 on Thursday? MARK WILSON: The practice round I didn't. I had a long week last week in México. We didn't get here until late and I just kind of went through the motions. I really felt the least prepared I have for a tournament really to be honest with you, because I just played it once and didn't pay attention to the different subtleties around the greens. Just relied on my caddie to take good notes. But enjoyed it after the first round. I love it when I shot 2-over and you're still within the cut line. That's really cool. Q. Steve Stricker, another Wisconsinite is on the leaderboard, how close are all you guys; is there a little competition among the Wisconsin guys? MARK WILSON: Yeah, we're all pretty close. Steve and Skip and JP and Jerry are about ten years older than me so I never got to play with them in amateur golf. I always looked up to them. When I came out, they have all been so nice. Certainly I'm the closest with Skip. My wife and I have gotten good friends with Tracy and Skip, and we spend a lot of time on the road together. We're always rooting for each other. In golf, we all want to win, but you love seeing somebody else do well because there's a lot of money for everybody out here and there's a lot of weeks you can all win. Q. Wisconsin is kind of an underrated golf destination. MARK WILSON: I think so. We have five players on the PGA TOUR, Mario Tiziani, who was on with us three years ago and just some great golf courses built back in the 20s. I grew up on a Donald Ross course, learned how to play, learned how to hit shots, and of course they have got Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run. For only being able to play five months out of the year, they are doing well. Q. What golf course did you grow up on? MARK WILSON: Oconomowoc Golf Course. Try to spell that. It's "O" very other letter. Q. The wind has turned around a little today that, No. 2 hole is playing the toughest today; can you remember how you played it and why it was tougher? MARK WILSON: Yeah, the wind the first two days we had some helping wind. I remember hitting a 9-iron and 7-iron and today I hit it left and a bad lie in the rough. I just hit an 8-iron down and a lob-wedge to about ten feet and made the par. I made a scrambling par. I could see that -- I'm surprised No. 6 is not the hardest hole today. It's got to be No. 2, that was straight into the wind, 460. Q. Was 3 straight downwind? MARK WILSON: It was kind of left-to-right, a little help, so I was able to get there today. The first day hit 4-iron in for my third shot because I hit it in the fairway bunker and it was blowing straight in. So it's kind of neat to see the course in all different -- with different winds so you can kind of play it all different ways. And tomorrow, I don't know what way the wind is coming from, I think it's going to come from the northwest, so it's similar to what it was today. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Wilson, thank you, good luck tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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