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CANADIAN OPENJuly 25, 2007Mike WeirMARKHAM, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: Welcome, Mike. Thanks for coming in for a couple of minutes. National Championship, obviously, so it's good to be here. But more curious to see how the course is playing today. What are your thoughts on it? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I thought the golf course was playing really, really good. You know, it's soft. It's a lot softer than I thought. I was kind of surprised about that. So you'll see the ball stopping on the greens pretty good this week. The contour of the greens, the green speeds are really good. So the greens have a lot of slopes to them. That's going to be probably the toughest factor of this golf course is really around the greens. There's a lot of roll-off areas and deep rolls around the greens. It's fairly generous off the tee, but around the green is going to be the toughest part. I think they did a great job get ting this golf course ready. I've played it about a month ago, and it's really come a long way from there. It's going to be good. Q. Talk a little bit about where you are as far as the President's Cup goes? A couple of top 10s in your last few majors. But could you talk about where you stand right now as maybe being made a captain's pick. And how important the next couple of weeks are for you in that situation? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I guess you'd have to ask Gary as far as where I stand in his mind, I have no idea. But, you know, where my game stands is good. I've played well the last few weeks, and the next, through these three weeks and the last three weeks, PGA's the cutoff for that. So I like to play well the next three weeks and be in the Top 10 by the end of it. That's my plan. Not even really think about it, my plan is to try to win. So if I win, you know, I'll probably move right into that Top 10. So that's kind of, you know, hopefully what might happen. And be working towards. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: No. You know, I can't worry about that. I can't worry about the President's Cup. You know, I'm trying to get focused this week and get ready for tomorrow. This is a big week, so I'm not looking down the road there. I'm focusing on this week and, hopefully, my play this week will kind of lean into next week, and we'll be ready to go at the end of the PGA. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: Pardon me? Yeah, that would be, that would be ideal. Q. I guess you get asked this every year. It's been more than 50 years since the Canadians won the tournament. Do you feel any additional pressure being the Canadian golfer with everybody watching? MIKE WEIR: Not really. I mean, you know, every year it's, for the Canadian guys, you know, there's more attention. And you know, for myself, probably a little more so. But it's a great contingent of Canadians this year. I played with Derek Gillespie, and Vick, I'm not even going to -- I'll butcher his last name, so I'm not going to say it. Ciesielski. So we've got a great future ahead of us with the young guys coming up. And you know, hopefully that 50-year-plus drought will -- I'd love to do it, but hopefully, somebody will do it soon. I hope it's me. Q. Actually, you mentioned a few of the guys from the Canadian Tour. But there are like ten guys from the Canadian Tour playing this week. You started your career on the Canadian tour. So can you tell me what you remember about those days and what the Canadian Tour meant to your development as a player? MIKE WEIR: It meant a great deal. I have great memories of the Canadian Tour. I remember, you know, looking forward to playing well enough to, you know, to talk to Bill about getting in and hopefully playing well enough to get one of those. As you said, there were ten spots this year, there wasn't that many when I was there. But just try to get into this event, and what it means when you're on the Canadian Tour to play in this event, what a thrill it is. But the development of the Canadian Tour to get out here for me is very important. It is a legitimate international tour from guys from all over the world trying to make the next step. So everybody's hungry. You get used to, you know, playing Thursday, Friday, making the cut and winning out there, you know, you have to play some really good golf. You've got to beat some great players down the stretch of the tournament when you're winning. So, you know, it's kind of when you're getting on the PGA Tour, you don't just jump there. There's steps. And the Canadian Tour is a big step for me when I was out there. Q. You're playing Vijay in the first couple of rounds, just what are your thoughts on playing with Vijay? And I guess at the same time also harkens back to 2004, the playoff with him, and is this an opportunity to exercise any demons? Or are there any demons for that matter, at all? MIKE WEIR: No, not at all. I love playing with Vijay. He's a great guy to play with, and I would say a great player. You know, got a good group. Playing with Tom, and we should have a good group. No, I'll be thinking about my first tee shot tomorrow, and he'll be focused on his job tomorrow, won't be thinking about a thing but that. Q. People ask you, does it ever get old for you when people constantly ask you about winning the Canadian Open? I know you always say the right thing, but do you sort of not look forward to it when you come here and everybody starts asking you that? MIKE WEIR: No, way. Not at all. This is a national championship. No way. I love being here. I want to try to win this tournament. I don't mind talking about it one bit. I want to win it. And as the other Canadians do in the field, I think Canadians more so, we grew up watching it more than, you know, the U.S. guys or the other guys from around the world, and obviously, we really want to try to do it. But, No, I look forward to this week all year. Q. Some of the guys said there may not be a fairway missed this week. Can you sort of give us an idea how much narrower it is and was before the redesign, and whether, you know, you can see evidence of it where the old fairway lines might have been and what else they might have changed along there? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, you can't really see any evidence of where they've brought it in a little bit. You know, it was 2001 I played the Skins game out here, so I do remember it being pretty wide. I can't tell exactly how much they brought it in, but they brought it in. With the Fescue and the visual look that it has with the Fescue hanging up, it does look tighter than maybe what it actually is. But there are a few narrow tee shots out there, and a few tee shots that get your attention, no question. I'm not going to say it's the tightest golf course that we play, but it's not like Muirfield Village. Muirfield Village is very, very wide and forgiving off the tee, and it is very demanding around the green. So this is a little bit more reminiscent. Even though we have Fescue off the fairway and Muirfield doesn't, but it kind of reminds me of that golf course. Sure, it's generous off the tee but around the greens are difficult. I think you kind of have that here. If you're not precise with your irons and placing them in the right spot, you'll have some tough ups and over, and there are a lot of greens that slope right off the green. So you'll see some guys maybe struggling around the green more than off the tee. Q. You play a lot of practice rounds with Vijay, and I understand you guys are good friends. Can you tell us a little bit about what Vijay is like, as opposed to kind of the stoic player we see all the time practicing for hours? What's he like as a friend? MIKE WEIR: Vijay is a genuine guy. What you see is what you get. I think among the players, my experience is he's funny, he's very easy to engage, especially in the practice session. If we're on the green or something, and he hits a shot, he's not going to not tell you how to hit it. He really wants to help you out on a shot. And we've done that a number of times, on a number of different shots even at this year's US Open. We were playing and he was hitting the shot out of the deep rough, and I was asking him how to hit it, and he showed me. I used it a couple of times during the Open and it helped. So he's always -- I see him doing that with other players. So he's just a great guy to be around. I always enjoy being around Vijay, and enjoy playing with him. Q. The week of the great comments. The head of the antidoping agency called for golfers to be tested for performance enhancing drugs. What is your take on that? MIKE WEIR: I think that's fine. Do I think they'll test positive for anybody? I don't personally believe anybody out here is doing that, so that's my own personal view. I don't think so. But, yeah, I think we probably should do it just to put people's minds at ease, I guess, to lay the question to bed, I guess. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: Well, I'll let you ask him. I don't agree with him. I don't agree -- and the other thing, I didn't exactly hear what he said, so I'm hearing hear say what he said. But I don't know. I don't believe there are players out here doing that. Q. Seems like all Canadian kids love hockey. So how did you end up loving the game of golf? MIKE WEIR: I love hockey, too. I just wasn't very good. I love golfing. You know, I moved across the street from a golf course when I was about 10 years old or 9 years old, and I got a job at the golf course, cleaning the clubs, and picking the range. From there I worked my way to the pro shop, and that gave me a chance to hit balls all the time when I was out there. So I was a golf course rat. I was out there all day. And that's how I got involved with the game. Q. You say that you grew up watching the tournament, what is your best memory as a spectator of the tournament? MIKE WEIR: My best memory, probably, was at Glen Abbey, I remember watching a clinic with Andy Bean and Tom Kite. It was a junior clinic. I remember being in a semi-circle behind the guys and they were hitting different shots. They were doing a clinic, and Greg Norman came over and started rifling these 3-irons, and the cart guy was out there driving and picking up the balls. And he was hitting wherever he was driving, he was trying to wrestle these 3-irons off the cart. And I remember sitting as a kid sitting there watching him. He nailed him a couple of times, and I just thought that was pretty cool. When you're 8 years old, you think that's pretty cool. Then they took the shag bag of balls that Andy bean and Tom kite were hitting, and they just rolled them all towards us. So we had a free-for-all diving on them and putting them in our pockets. They let us have all the golf balls. So that's one of the memories as a kid. I still remember that, that was fun. Q. You've undergone some pretty significant swing changes. Can you tell us what you've learned since leaving Mike Wilson and what stage your rebuilt swing is at? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I don't like using the term rebuilt. But changes, the few changes I've made or feel more comfortable. I've been working with Mike and Andy for about eight months, and really the biggest thing is I'm able to practice without any pain afterwards. I don't have any back or neck issues. And, you know, to really sum it up, it just feels more efficient. It's a lot less going on. Maybe a little more powerful. But maybe, just more efficient and I can get out there and get the work done that I like to. I love to practice, so I've been able to do that. So that's what I like about it. Q. (Inaudible) are there a couple of significant things that they've changed in your swing? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think, yeah, there's a few things. (Laughing). Yeah. I mean, they're pretty evident. I mean, you watched some old footage of me and you watch now, I don't move off the ball as much. I mean, that's the biggest thing. Their theory is you don't want lateral motion. You don't change the circle of the swing. If you were to, you know, have a weight with a string and get that weight at the end of the club head swinging the fastest, you wouldn't move your arm like this to get that weight going like this. You keep it centered. And that is their keep it simple, keeping my swing more centered. Q. (Inaudible). Do you have any lucky coins or anything in your bag? Anything you use at the moment? MIKE WEIR: Not really. Not really. I switch around. I've got a couple of coins that I switch around. When I was a kid, I used to use this Italian Lire that my grandfather gave me. And sometimes when, you know, I use a Loonie sometimes, sometimes I use a Canadian quarter. Sometimes I use an American quarter. Ball's not going in, but most of the time I dig in my bag and what's in there now. Q. I know you said you came out here a month ago to play this golf course, but it's a new golf course. So how does that effect your approach coming in in the practice day? Do you find yourself, you know, building a game plan later? How does it work, you know, when you want to get the work in these days to get ready for Thursday? MIKE WEIR: I think that was the purpose of coming here a month ago. To see the golf course for the first time since 2001 and see the changes that Davis has adapted. And try to get that, you know, kind of the brain going about how I'm going to play the golf course. Even though when I played out here, it was really windy and a little firmer and faster. Gives me a good idea how I want to play each hole. Then I played nine holes yesterday. I played the whole golf course today. So, now I have a good idea how I'm going to try to play it now. Q. Now do you normally come in a week before you play (Inaudible)? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think so. Probably a little more so. You know, you pay attention to the details maybe a little bit more. Like today in the Pro-Am I paid a little more attention to what was going on. Whereas a Wednesday Pro-Am where I played five years in a row on the same golf course, I kind of know where the pins are going to be. Where today I'm out there kind of thinking where the pins are going to be, so hitting some spots and some shots, some different hole locations. But nobody knows where, you know, things are going to be. It's a first for everybody. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: I'm not sure. You know, it may have today, you know, to just kind of preparing. But I don't think it has that big an effect. Q. You talk about the expectations and how, you know, there's a little more attention on you when you're coming up here for the National Open. But how about having your game where it's at right now? And how encouraging is it when you're coming into the spotlight, so to speak, and you've actually got your game, what seems to be, where you like it right now? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it feels good. The last couple of years hasn't felt very good coming in here. It feels good this week, so, yeah. It's nice when you're coming home to this tournament, and a tournament that means a lot, that you have some momentum going. You have some good feelings going with your game. So that's real important coming in, especially this weekend. Q. I know you're not looking ahead to the President's Cup. But looking back, having played under Gary Player, can you just describe what it's like playing for him and what kind of captain he is? Is he like a motivational guy, very hands on? Very rah-rah? What's it like playing for Gary Player? MIKE WEIR: Well, Gary in his own game, he's kind of gregarious and very fist-pumping guy when he plays. He's not like that as a coach, as a captain. He's a little more laid back. Maybe when we get together as a team, he's talked more with all the players who he feels. He kind of comes up with some different pairings of who he feels. Then he talks to players and gets our input to what we think. So I think he likes to, you know, get the input from all the players because, you know, he's not out here every week. He doesn't know whose games really gel, and what players' personalities gel. So he does a great job. He does a really good job, I enjoy it. Q. If you had such a wide experience now playing golf courses around the world. Two completely different courses, Carnoustie last week, here this week. If you were to be given the opportunity to design a golf course with the assignment being, in a sense like Jack Nicklaus had 30 years ago, design a golf course to test tour players. Has it crystallized in your mind what you would do given that assignment? Mike, your assignment is is to design a golf course to test the best players in the world. MIKE WEIR: Right. I guess, probably would depend on the piece of property, kind of what you're given there. But I think I have a good idea what, in my mind, how I would do that. You know, for me sitting here, I'd have to get with the agronomist, and the people that know that kind of stuff, and see if we can do the things that I would want to do if it would work here. But I think if the property's big, you know, having the right thing. But, you know the challenge, I wouldn't be 7600 yards off course, and just 490 yards off course all day long. It would be a good mix of a lot of different things from my perspective. I don't like that. I'd have some real creative short holes. Lot of options. That's how I would design it. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: Little draws. Lot of right turns. Set up the pins and put them on the right side. (Laughing). Q. You talked about the weather when you played here last month. The wind has always been a mitigating factor out here. How fast can this golf course change, do you think, depending on weather conditions? MIKE WEIR: It actually changed quite a bit today. You know, we started off, it was very calm all day. I started the back nine, and we got to the front nine, and with about three or four holes to go, that wind picked up pretty significantly. So I think it can play a big factor. We played, I think, 5, 6, 7, 8, all of those holes with a pretty strong wind. 6, 7, and 8 right into the wind. Those were pretty beefy holes right there into the wind. And with those greens, a lot of contours on those greens for irons, you know, 4 or 5-irons into those greens. I think it can have a big factor. You get out in the morning and maybe have calm conditions and soft greens. Then the afternoon goes on and it drys out, and you get some wind, and the golf course can play a lot different, given the two different tee times. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: Well, the course, yeah, any golf tournament usually changes a lot from Thursday to Sunday anyway, the way they let the golf course usually dry out and get a little firm error faster. Depending on the weather change. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: You know, I was a little concerned about that when I played a month ago, but it seemed the transition was okay today getting up and over there. You know, I think it's fine. It's a nice amphitheater there on 18. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I mean, it's not ideal. It would have been great, 17 and 18 on the other course. Probably stronger holes. I hadn't played 17, 18 since 2001 when we had that Skins game here. But I remember them being pretty challenging holes. I'm not sure what the reasoning of doing that. Maybe because of the amphitheater of the Hill. But I think, you know, ideally it would have been nice to play the other two holes. Q. There are, I think, 20 Canadians in the event this week. Do you see that as an encouraging sign that Canada may now be developing more and better professional players? MIKE WEIR: I definitely think so. You know, I said this last night at the dinner and I meant it sincerely. The talent of these young guys out here, to me, is they've really if they get good direction, which I think they are, I think sky's the limit. We're going to have some great champions out here. These guys, I'm really impressed with them. They're all good, young guys. I think they all know what it takes, I think. They've got a lot of talent. These guys really hit the ball well. Now channelling that. And the small intricacies of the game, getting that straightened out and getting the experience, and getting that going. You know, there are going to be a lot of guys out here. It's funny, you know, as I was walking up 18 at Carnoustie, and Andres Romero was playing behind me, and he had that unfortunate bounce that kicked over the fence. Before that I was thinking we might have back-to-back guys from Argentina win majors. I was walking up 18, and I was like there is no reason we can't have the same thing. With these young guys, I think it's going to happen. I think we're going to have some really great players in the future coming out here, there's a lot of talent, too. It's not just three or four guys now. There's 12 or 15 guys out there. I watched them all hit balls from a distance, and watched what they were doing. It all looks really good. All the little pitch shots I watched them hit and everything looks really good. Q. When you were talking earlier about the new swing, kind of correcting some of the physical problems you were having. Were you still talking about the shoulder and neck problems that came from 2004? And could you, just as a second part to that, was the physical fallout of 2004 been far more traumatic for you than any mental fallout from, you know, coming that close? MIKE WEIR: The answer to the second part of your question, I don't think there was any mental fallout. I didn't. I didn't take that in more than what I needed to. I never had been one to do that. But, yeah, physically, that was the start of it. And I don't know, you know, I can't trace exactly that. Maybe I started making some compensations because I was getting pain in my neck and MRI's showed I had a come of compressed disks in there, and I don't know if it was already there or I was pre-exposed to that after that happened. But it progressively got worse from there. Then I started seeing some bad flaws in my golf swing because of that. And it snow balled a little bit. So that was part of getting the ball rolling there. So I'm not sure, you know, I don't have an exact medical thing to say to that. Q. (Inaudible). MIKE WEIR: I have an awesome chiropractor in Utah, that my weeks off, I go to him three days a week. Because after being on the road, he kind of gets me back in alignment. Because when I went to see him, yeah, I was pretty messed up. I had, I could turn my head, you know, halfway this way, and pretty good range of motion the other way. But you know, now I'm pretty good. But I still have to do maintenance with him, because of the disks in there aren't the greatest. THE MODERATOR: Great, Mike, thanks for coming. Good luck this week. MIKE WEIR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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