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THE HONDA CLASSICMarch 5, 2007Mark WilsonPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to introduce the winner of the 2007 Honda Classic, Mark Wilson. Congratulations on your victory, your first victory on the PGA TOUR, and it's also the 200th win by a Nationwide Tour alum. Congratulations, and maybe some opening comments, a long week for you, but I'm sure you came back Monday morning to win this thing. MARK WILSON: Oh, yeah, I'm thrilled. Thanks a lot, Joel. Yeah, it's been a weird week. I was telling the guys that I didn't really feel that good on Thursday but peaked more on Friday and Saturday. After the putts went in on 16 and 18 and then in the playoff yesterday on 18, I just had a feeling like someone wanted me to win. I knew God was looking down on me. I didn't sleep very good last night at all just because I really wanted to finish it off here and win. When I hit my tee shot where I was looking, where I wanted to hit it, I knew I was going to be comfortable and it was just a matter of, I could get a birdie putt in somewhere and didn't happen on 10, so thankfully that one snuck in on 17. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: There's lot of perks that come with winning one of them, $990,000; you jump to 7th in the FedExCup standings, and depending how you play over the next couple of weeks, there's an opportunity to play in the Masters, the CA Championship, things like that. Probably will take some time to sink in, but maybe some comments about the things that come along with the two-year exemption of winning on the PGA TOUR. MARK WILSON: That's funny, that's one of my struggles out here because I was a math major at Carolina, and believe me, I studied the numbers last night. I looked at it and said, boy, if looks like if I can win tomorrow, then might I get into Doral and have a good chance at another good week to get in the Masters for the first time. The numbers kind of get in your way sometimes, because then you're putting too much pressure on yourself. But in this case, I think it helped me because I had looked and if I had finished second, I would have made about 400,000, and that would be my biggest paycheck ever to date as well. But it still would not have gotten me fully-exempt status for next year. So I put that pressure on myself and I think it helped this time. Q. Of all the of things you got to cross off your list as you love to do, with this win, what's the one that's most significant for you? MARK WILSON: I guess just today, trusting myself and my swing after hitting some awful shots yesterday. In the past I guess it's been tough for me to come back after -- I really tend to doubt myself; to just put that behind me and realize that the next shot is the most important; I did a really good job of that. You know, just winning on the PGA TOUR is certainly the biggest thing to cross off my list. Q. As far as the perks, is exemption the biggest thing? MARK WILSON: Not having to go to Q-School for the next, hopefully ever, but for surely no matter how I play, if I don't make another dime, I don't have to go back until the end of 2009. That's huge. I mean, I can't wait to -- I think just set my schedule now, too, because I've been always one that has to look at the computer to see if I'm in a tournament or not in a tournament. Matter of fact, I talked to Gerald Goodman (PODS Championship Tournament Director) or left him a message on Friday morning before I played my round and said, hey, how are you going to do the exemptions for next week, because I was second alternate at the time. I just didn't know what tournaments I could get in. I think probably No. 1 is Q-School, and then right behind it is that I can set my own schedule now. Q. It looked like when Jose was making -- taking the last putt, at what point you wanted to look anywhere you could except the hole; you were looking at the water, you were looking down, you were looking to your right or left -- MARK WILSON: I don't remember the moment. Q. Can you summarize -- MARK WILSON: We all say that you have to give your opponent that putt and you just have to go -- so I do remember make something practice swings because I wanted to hit a good tee shot on 18, and that's really all I had in my head. And it's funny how time elapsed, all of a sudden out of nowhere that ball was rolling up by the hole. I don't remember him hitting the putt. It looked like he hit a good putt. It looked like it was going to go in the right edge, and if I remember right, it just caught the edge and lipped-out. You know, it was my time to win then. Q. Can you take us back through the two-shot penalty that kind of got lost in the week with Chris on the 5th tee on Friday, can you take us through what was said and how quickly you forgave and forgot, if that's the best word? MARK WILSON: Yeah, the situation was just that -- it's an important rule to me. I think that the Rules of Golf are there to be fair for everyone. It's a tough rule in the sense, that advice rule, because, you know, a caddie might just be trying to be nice. There's a lot of camaraderie because amongst the caddies and players. And the caddie may feel like he was being nice, "oh that was a 5-iron," but it's against the rules. I don't mind having my caddie having the bag open so a player can look in there and see what he can hit. It was a weird situation where I had hit my hybrid club, and Camilo and his caddie were behind us and I think Camilo said, "Hey, Matty," to his caddie, "what is that?" And he said, "It's like a 2- or a 3-iron." And my caddie just happened to turn around and say, "Oh, it's an 18-degree." And I'm like, that's just -- I don't think that that's right. I played out that hole and then immediately called an official over to see what he thought. And he wasn't sure at first either if that was necessarily advice. But within 60 seconds he made the decision it was, and he said it was two strokes. He was very upset with himself because he knows how important that is to me. I told him, you know that we don't do that. You know, you don't give advice. That's an important rule to follow. They can look in our bag all they want. He was teary-eyed and really upset at the end of the round. In terms of the actual round, we played through the sixth hole and seventh hole and there weren't too many words said between us. Part of me thought he was just upset with me for even making a big deal about it. But then I finally just put my arm around him and said, "Hey let's go, let's go play golf." Camilo was a gentleman. He did the same thing. He said, "Hey, man, that sucked what happened over there on No. 5, let's go play golf." From there on, I just played some of the best golf of my life. Q. The number of times late in your final round and then the playoff that it could have ended for you, the up-and-down on 18 and your last hole in the fourth round, and then the 30-footer in the first hole of the playoff last night, you know, looking at that, thinking it could end for you at that moment, did you ever think it might end at any moment during the final round or the playoff? MARK WILSON: Yeah, I'm not a leaderboard watcher, so I didn't know where I stood at all in terms of the field until I got -- until we walked up to the 17th green, and then I kind of happened to glance over and saw that I was tied for first. So I never really thought if it was the beginning or the end or whatever. I was just playing and trying to shoot the lowest score I could. When that putt went in on 16, I was just excited that I made a par from the crap. And then on 18, I was disappointed that I hit such a bad tee shot and we made the good decision to play it safe and try to get up-and-down with a wedge. Granted I hit a bad wedge shot, but then followed up with a good putt. I did feel like there were times when I was going to be exiting but a lot of people even talking about the par putt I made on 18. I played the 18th hole in regulation very poorly, but happened to make about a 6-footer to save par. Q. Do you think that there's a reason that you won and maybe part of what happened is part of all this; that there's almost something cosmic or karma involved? MARK WILSON: I don't think so really at all. I mean, when I called the penalty on myself, that's not what I thought. Oh, hey, if I call this penalty, it's going to get me four putts to go in or something. (Laughter). Q. In retrospect, it almost seemed like it was just the right way that it this should have ended like this. MARK WILSON: I mean, I've called penalties on myself before and never won. (Laughter) It didn't work out those times. But I understand what you're saying. I think you try to find a story out of it, but I felt like it was the right thing to do. You know, I don't think I would be here if I had not called it on myself, because I would be thinking about it and if I would be sitting here and had not called on myself, every time I look at that trophy, it would be tarnished. For starters I just don't even think I would have -- in my mind, I would have made sure I didn't win. I'd probably have made sure I missed the cut. So it is what it is, and Chris is a great caddie. He felt so bad about what he did. I'm sure he won't do it again. You know, it didn't really cost him a dime in the end. (Laughter). Q. Is that rule one where there's the most gray area and maybe gets violated most? What about that rule? MARK WILSON: I'm not really sure. I can't say I've necessarily seen it broken recently. You know, you've got TV guys out there and people are flashing to (the bag/club) for a 7-iron but they are talking to the TV guy, that's fine. It's just when there's talking between players or signaling across the fairway between caddies, stuff like that. I haven't seen it recently, but I did see it on a tournament I played in back in like 2000 I think on the Nationwide Tour. And I just thought it was something that you -- that was just, okay, we all sort of break that rule, that's fine. Then I asked a rules official about it and he said, "Oh, no, matter of fact Greg Chalmers just called it on himself at the Booz Allen Classic a couple of weeks ago. You know, he told someone that he hit a 9-iron and he disqualified himself before playing the final round." When I heard that, I said, "Oh, okay, it's not normal." It's just some people take it a little more loosely. Q. Growing up, did somebody really empress upon you the importance of integrity in this game or is it just something you absorb? MARK WILSON: I think my father, certainly, he taught me the game and taught me etiquette and the integrity of the game and the rules right away. Growing up in Wisconsin, we didn't have too many months where you could play and we would get out there in April and it was always winter rules. I thought that was so dumb to move the ball in the fairway. If I could hit it out of that bear lie, I could certainly hit it out of a good lie. So I always wanted to keep it on the ground. I don't know, somehow he must have taught that to me and it just kind of gone with me since then. Q. How did Chris get on your bag? MARK WILSON: I saw him when I was first on TOUR working for Dicky Pride and I thought they worked very well together. And then he worked for I think Joey Snyder and Paul Claxton and a few other guys in 2005 when I had a good buddy of mine working for me. In 2006 I was out of a caddie, and I knew Chris was looking, so I gave him a call and we've been together ever since. Q. Can you go back to when you played with Rotella; where did you play at, why were you down here and you mentioned out here, like it seems like a turnaround point for you. MARK WILSON: Yeah, it was. We played over at -- see if I can remember the courses. We played at McArthur, and the Floridian, and Bear's Club. So three pretty good ones, yeah. I was a guest of Dr. Rotella and a guy named Gary Birkherd (ph), who is a member at a couple of those clubs. We just had a blast. Q. What were you down here for? MARK WILSON: To see him and second stage up in Panama city at the Ambry (ph). I was getting ready for that, so I flew down about a week ahead of time to work with Doc. That's the first time I had met him. Q. How important do you think that was for you? MARK WILSON: It was the best money I ever spent. Greatest return on my investment by far. You know, he just taught me to be comfortable with my game. The main question I asked him was, you know, I wake up each day not sure what I should do. Should I work on certain things in my swing with my teacher, Dr. Study (ph) or should I just play golf? And he says, "The day that you could decide to just play golf is the day that you're going to finally realize your dreams on the PGA TOUR." And I'm like -- so from that point on, I stopped practicing as much physically. I did a lot more mental practice thinking about the good things. I've started making a log where after each round, I sit there with my computer and I think -- I write down or type in all of my good shots and good putts and good chips and then read through them over and over that night. Because he thinks, you've got two choices, you can think about the bad shots or you can think about the good shots. I used to always harp on the bad shot. So the old me would have last night in the hotel room thought about, the flared tee shot on 18. But the new me thought about the putt I made and that helped me today. Q. Along those lines, Dana Quigley over on the Champions Tour said recently that you guys pay people like Rotella a lot of money to tell you things that, really, you already know that you knew as a kid. Why do you think, what is it in golf that makes it so difficult to follow rules that, really, you all know: Play like a kid, play to gray great, and yet you don't do it and pay them a lot of money. MARK WILSON: Yeah, that's true. You know, I guess just we need to be reminded because there's just so many distractions out here and there's so many armchair quarterbcaks or whatever who don't necessarily know what we're going throughout there. You know how nervous I was playing yesterday in the afternoon; you just want to see how you're going to perform in those situations. You want it put yourself in there, and if you do throw up on yourself, so be it. You learn from it and come back next time hopefully stronger. We just need to be reminded. I talked to Doc the last two nights and he always had something just a little bit different, a little tweak on something to remind me about. He told me to be as patient as I've ever been on Sunday. He said that. And then for today he says, "Playoffs, you've got to go get it. You've got to play aggressive." I wouldn't have thought of that, and I certainly did that coming into 10 and 17 as well. Q. You've got a little more money to keep paying him now. MARK WILSON: That's right. That's right. (Laughing). Q. What did you hit on 17? MARK WILSON: 9-iron. Q. What were you going to do with a math major out of Carolina if you didn't play golf? MARK WILSON: I'm not sure. I didn't have that in mind at all. I knew I was going to go try the professional golf thing and just loved math growing up. Everyone went the business route on my golf team. I decided to be a little different, and it was taxing, that's for sure. It was tough figuring out all of those proofs and all that stuff. But I'm glad I did it. Q. Will Chris get the standard, what is it, ten percent of the win? MARK WILSON: Well, that's between me and him, but you know -- you don't know what I pay him, but I am going pay him the same way I would any other week, yeah. Q. Joel mentioned this is the 200th victory by a Nike Tour/Nationwide Tour alum; can you talk about how that experience, if at all, helped you prepare for a week like this? MARK WILSON: Yeah, for me, it was kind of weird. I struggled in 2002 on the Nationwide Tour and I did get my card. But then I went to Q-School and things clicked. You know, just being around galleries on the 18th hole and having the ropes everywhere, and things run, the 72 holes. I think the Hooters Tour helped me as well, just a 72-hole tournament, know what it's like to try to make the 36-hole cut. Yeah, Nationwide Tour is just fantastic. Look at how well all of those guys are playing. After leading into this week, I made $105,000, thought I did great and I was 25th out of the Q-School/Nationwide group. Jeff Quinney and Brandt Snedeker, those guys have just done fantastic. Q. As you know the Masters changed its rules, so winning a TOUR event doesn't necessarily get you in. MARK WILSON: Top-10 on the Money List does though, through Doral. I looked at that last night. (Laughter). Q. What do you think about that rule? MARK WILSON: I know they are trying to get the best field they can. I thought I heard that they were thinking of changing it. I thought it was always exciting when I was a kid, Davis Love won in New Orleans the week before to get in the Masters, other stuff like that. I thought it was a really neat thing. But I understand, they want to have the best field possible. Q. What's Chris's strength as a caddie? What's the best thing he does on the bag? MARK WILSON: He's good with crowd control. He's very loud. He's from New Jersey, so he's not scared to scream. (Laughter) And he's great with the crowd control. And then he just really -- he helps me keep my head up. When I'm down he's always got the right thing to say. And so hopefully we can be together a long time as long as he wants to keep doing it. Q. Fair to say that winning on the PGA TOUR was the top of your to do list? MARK WILSON: Yeah, it sure was. Q. Now what's at the top of that list? MARK WILSON: Well, I guess in the short run here is to go to Tampa and do it all over again. But yeah, looking at the numbers, I want to stay in the Top-10 so I can get into Doral. I've played really well the two times I've gotten to play at Doral. I'd love to play that course again. The Masters would be just something else. I just can't even imagine how cool it would be to bring my dad out there the weekend before and go play a practice round. It would be so cool. Q. Can you talk a little bit about this course, obviously first year here, players have said good things except for the sand in the bunkers, a few thoughts on the course. MARK WILSON: The course, it played pretty fair. I thought the rough was a little too spotty though. I got too many good lies in the rough -- I probably shouldn't say that. But they could have made that a little thicker. I thought you should have been penalized a little bit more for missing the fairway. Bunkers were the worst penalty, no doubt. Fairway bunkers, the ball sat down, unless someone had raked it before. The bunkers were a bit of a penalty which I think it should be. Some of the bunkers on TOUR have little sand in there, and you hit in those fairway bunkers or green-side bunkers, and obviously we're rooting them to go in there versus the long hay. So I think the bunkers are good. And overall, I think it was a fair test. You know, moving the tee up on 17 to add a little bit of drama was kind of cool. I'm sure the stroke average was under 3 yesterday just for that fact. I thought that was a nice idea. But then keeping the tee back on 15. So I think the committee did a good job. 11, using the up-tee the whole week I think was a good call. It's a long enough hole already from there. It's a neat course. Q. What did you hit on your second shot on 10 and how far did you hit it? MARK WILSON: We had 224 to the pin. I hit my Ping Rapture hybrid 18-degree. That should fly about 220. (Laughter) Yeah, you know it's 18 degrees, right. Q. Is that the only hybrid you carry? MARK WILSON: Yeah. I went with a new thing this year, an experiment. I think I'm going to stick with it. Even though I'm a short hitter, I went to four wedges and took out my 3-iron. I strengthened my 5-iron and 4-iron and got rid of my 3-iron, and so now I hit that 2-iron from 220 and my 4-iron from about 200. I have a bigger gap there but now my wedges only have about a 12-yard gap. I never used to have a full club from 90 yards, and now I have a 56-degree for that. So far that's been going good. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Wilson, congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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