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THE BARCLAYSAugust 23, 2007Steve FleschHARRISON, NEW YORK NELSON SILVERIO: Steve, thanks for coming in for a couple of minutes. Great way to start I guess, some general comments on your round. STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, having not played last week in Greensboro after the inferno at the PGA, I was pretty worn out. So last week, you know, I just needed some rest. I had played ten tournaments in a row through the PGA and I was pretty worn out physically and mentally and everything. So last week, I didn't do anything at all. I played five holes and hit balls once. Then I got up here Tuesday and played a practice round and got rained out so I didn't play Tuesday and then I wasn't in the Pro-Am yesterday so I went over and played Winged Foot and got my head beaten in over there by a couple buddies. I hit it well. Got off to a good start today. Just hit a lot of fairways, and you know, I just kept giving myself birdie opportunities. I've been hitting my irons great. I switched irons a month and a half ago and everything has kind of come together. That's kind of what I did all day. I kept putting the ball on the green, made a few good par saves, and you know, made six birdies. Q. What did you switch irons to, and why? STEVE FLESCH: The why is the easy part, because I was playing horribly with what I was using. I went to the new Cleveland, they call them CG Red Irons that they came out with a couple of months ago, and I went back to my old shafts that I used my first couple of years out here, rifles. Q. Weren't you doing the CG4 thing? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, I must have tried 15, 20 different sets of irons the last couple of years. It was a number of things I wasn't swinging very well and I kept changing irons. You know, I changed drivers, I changed balls, all of that. You know, I just was kind of looking for an answer. I finally settled on a golf ball. My golf ball, I ended that in Houston and I played five or six kind of balls in the summertime and finally decided on a golf ball and a set of irons and a driver and a putter and got a little stability back in my game. Q. How many caddies did you go through in that stretch? STEVE FLESCH: Caddies, I've had four this year. (Laughter). I had three -- my regular caddie, he had his kids for three weeks so I got three different caddies, Milwaukee, Canada and Reno, I had three different guys, and now I've got my regular guy back on the bag. So I've had a lot of balls in the air. I'm used to confusion. So that's kind of where I am right now (laughter). Q. Is this a different mind-set for you? You have your exemption and now it's points and not money anymore and the whole playoff thing -- STEVE FLESCH: It's always money. No, honestly, I haven't even paid attention to the points. I know I'm 81, that's all I know. And for me to get to Chicago I have to be 70 or higher. I know I'm playing next week. I have to get to 70 or higher to get into Chicago. You know, I think a lot of players are just looking at it like, you know, I've still got to play golf. The low score still wins, I think. And if you play well, that takes care of itself. So I've had enough going on; the win really took some pressure off for me a few weeks ago. And at that point I wasn't even in the FedExCup, so I'm glad I'm here. But you know, I think from a player's standpoint, we are just trying to play. It's still a 72-hole golf tournament out there. The points will take care of themselves. We'll let the media and the TOUR and everybody worry about the points. I mean, that's kind of as good as it gets from my standpoint. I'm glad I'm here and been playing well. You know, I played good today. Q. Did you say you played ten weeks in a row? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah. My last. Q. I can't fathom that. STEVE FLESCH: The last week, I elected to skip -- I'm really pointing myself in a hole here. Last week I elected to skip. I wasn't in Augusta so I skipped that week. But the last week that I was eligible for the tournament I elected to skip was San Diego, February. Q. Why? STEVE FLESCH: You know, it's kind of always been my deal. I always play until I know I've secured my job and I feel like I get my game turned around unless I'm just losing it out there mentally where I'm not fresh or I'm making mistakes because I'm mentally tired. I'm never physically tired. So I just keep playing. And if I miss a cut, go home for three days anyway and go back out to the tournament on Tuesday, play the Pro-Am on Wednesday. I'm getting rest. It's not like I'm going from the tournament straight on Friday if I miss a cut and beating balls Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I've never been a big practicer physically so I never really wear myself out. Played ten in a row and then I won and played in the PGA and that was kind of good and kind of bad. I went there and lost seven pounds and, you know, so that's why last week I didn't do anything. I played five holes on Thursday with my son, and I hit balls on Monday morning before I flew up here on Tuesday. I didn't play a practice round Tuesday because of the rain. So I'm fresh mentally again. Q. As a guy that gets up into the mid 30s in tournaments, 30, 35 right in that stretch, what do you think when you hear about the upper ilk saying, two weeks in a row is all I can handle; it takes too much out of me. Do you smirk when you hear that? You said you don't get physically worn down. I'm trying to sort of understand where they are coming from on that. STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, I have a hard time. Q. You're telling me ten weeks in a row and it's no big whoop. STEVE FLESCH: I know those guys probably work a little differently than I do when I'm at home maybe. Some guys claim they never pick up a club and other guys claim they practice all the time. I mean, you play two weeks, you fly in on your G2, you fly home on your G2 for two weeks, I don't know how tired you can really be. I'm not in the shape all those top guys are, but two weeks, being exhausted, I don't know. And I'm not only referring to Tiger, a lot of those guys; two, three weeks max. You know, I understand it. But I'm on Freddie Funk's game plan. I just kind of play because I like to play and I tried to get out here for ten years or seven years through TOUR school and no way I'm out here, I want to do it. That's why I play all year, because so many tournaments, ten in a row, you know what, I was doing my best to keep my job. I didn't want to look back at the end of the year and say, you know what, I'm $5,000 short, I should have played Greensboro; that's making a cut. So that's just my mentality. I don't get the two weeks that I'm exhausted thing, unless it's two weeks in Tulsa, you know. I speak the truth here. So that's just me. You guys know, I've always played a ton. I average 31 to 33 events a year. I've got 25 of them in already. Q. I'm wondering, have you noticed the new scoreboards out there, and do you keep an eye on them Friday if you're close to the cut? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, I do. I think that's one thing that the players asked a couple of years ago is they start putting the cut line and what place you're in and stuff up there. Most guys always want to know where they stand. I mean, I do, whether it's Friday or Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I want to know where I stand. You know, because sometimes on Friday afternoon, you know what holes you have ahead of you and you know maybe which ones you can play aggressively or not, so it helps to know where you are on the cut. The graphics and everything are great. Some of the stats they put up there are not real -- what's the word when you're 185th in driving accuracy or something. It's like, do you have to put that one up there? (Laughter). You know, they look great. It's the new TOUR, man. It's the modern age. Q. I want to know what sort of preparation is Winged Foot for this place. Was it just fun or was it good preparation for today? STEVE FLESCH: I don't know if it was good preparation. I went over there mainly because I had not played any golf, and when I got up here Tuesday and it was rained out -- I don't play in the rain unless it's a regular round. I play enough golf to where I'm not going to elect to go out and play in the rain. Especially since I've played this tournament many times and they haven't really changed the course. So I wasn't going to go out and get all soaking wet and chance just feeling cruddy for a day or two. No, I actually called up Butch Harmon who is my teacher and said, "Hey, Butch, can you call over there and see if I can go over there with a couple of guys." He made a phone call, we went over there like 3 o'clock in the afternoon, took my caddie and buddy of mine from Cleveland Golf and a buddy of mine from Aldila and went over there and played about 18 holes in about four hours, max. It was nice. But after about 18 holes, playing 475-yard par 4s, it was like, man, why did we do this. It was fun. We got to 18 and went over there and saw where Phil was -- because I didn't play the Open that year. So these guys, they were really into playing because none of them had ever played it. So I got a kick of going over there with him. I had only played it one other time. Q. What do you mean play over there? STEVE FLESCH: We went over there and saw how far left he was off the tee. Q. Pretty far. STEVE FLESCH: Way over there. Q. I don't know if you noticed, you mentioned the scoreboards earlier, but before you came inside, Rory Sabbatini moved to 7-under par to take the lead. What do you feel about competing with him over the course of the weekend? STEVE FLESCH: I'm not going to say a word. (Laughter). It's out there. The greens are really soft. Fairways are soft. It's out there. You've got to get the putter going. But, you know, the slogan says, "These guys are good." I wouldn't be surprised if he gets to eight by the time he finishes. The greens, when they are soft -- is it the shortest course we play all year. Q. Statistically. STEVE FLESCH: You're going to have a lot of short clubs into some of the holes. The par 5s are reachable. So you can shoot a good score. It's a shame we got the rain on Tuesday because I heard it was playing nice and firm and fast. Q. What were you before Reno? Not physically but ability-wise and how much has that done for you? STEVE FLESCH: Well, I played well in Milwaukee. I finished fifth in Milwaukee and that was the week after I changed my equipment. You know, I told a lot of friends, you know, it's never been that far off. It's not like I'm shooting 85 out here. I was barely making the cuts, shooting 1- or 2-under on the weekend, finishing 45th and 50th. You don't move anywhere on the Money List with those kind of numbers. But I was making three quarters of the cuts. It's not like I'm missing every cut but I'm like, man, it's a shot here and a shot there; a putt here and a putt there. It's not like I was mopping it all over the place. It wasn't as far off as sometimes the statistics or final results say, but I was kind of caught in a funk. I go see Butch and say, what's it look like. He says, "You're swinging great." Well then why the hell am I playing bad? But I'd just miss a fairway on a par 5 and it's a birdie hole or I'd miss a 6-foot par putt had it kind of could have kept a little momentum going. Nothing was working out. And then I played well in Milwaukee and screwed up the last hole there and finished fifth. I don't know, you know how this game is; hard to explain sometimes. Q. How do you feel now? STEVE FLESCH: A lot better. Q. You went wire-to-wire, didn't you? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah. You know, and that first round at Reno, I said in the paper, and I certainly wasn't bragging after the rounds but I said, if I ever in my career had a chance to shoot 58 or 59, it was today. I shot 63 and I didn't putt that great. I just hit the par 5s in two. I made two eagles from like ten feet on those and it was just ten feet every hole, ten feet, ten feet, seven feet. But, it's amazing. I changed my driver, my irons, my ball, my putter, caddie. I mean, other than that, nothing was different. Changed everything; rescue club, shoes. I just cleaned house is basically what I did. I started over. Nothing was going, so I cleaned house. Q. Do you remember at all what you were on the Money List before Reno? Or before Milwaukee, actually. STEVE FLESCH: Before Milwaukee I was 132 or something. Q. What did you think about the Playoffs before you got to Milwaukee, and what do you think of them now? Has your opinion changed at all? STEVE FLESCH: I was like 148th on the points list. I wasn't in before Milwaukee. You know, honestly, I think Tiger not being here this week, I know a lot of people don't agree with it, but I think it's going to really generate an interesting last three weeks. Because if the right person wins this week, that puts him far enough behind and he's got to play good, I think it's going to generate a really interesting final couple of weeks. Not that this week isn't interesting; but if Tiger came here and he won, and he went to Boston next week and he won or he won Chicago, would he play THE TOUR Championship? You know what I'm saying? I never thought that putting Bridgestone, PGA, Greensboro and these four events in a seven-week stretch, you would ever get Tiger to play four in a row. I don't know what he was thinking. He intended the whole time to play four in a row but he's never done it and he's still never done it. I think the fact that he's going to play the final three weeks, skipping this week, is better off for everybody. Because my worry would have been, hey, if he plays great the first couple, well, would he play the last couple or the last one? I'm sure he would, but you never know. Q. As it relates to you -- that was a good answer, you just didn't answer it. STEVE FLESCH: Should have been a politician. Q. Did your feelings or thinking about the FedExCup change before Milwaukee and now? STEVE FLESCH: (Scratching head). Is the Commissioner around? It's the same thing, I thought about the points, but the biggest thing I was bummed out about honestly was my goal every year is to play THE TOUR Championship. However I get there, a great year for me is if I get to go to THE TOUR Championship. If you get to that tournament, you know you've played solid over the entire course of the year. But I've always played well in Chicago, and I've played that tournament every year. I love that tournament. But I'm like, you know what, I might not even be in the Chicago tournament. So I was pumped after winning that I moved up far enough that I'm like, okay, I'm going to get to play Chicago. I love Cog Hill. But that's kind of all I really thought. I haven't thought about the points and the ten million. You know, who wouldn't want that ten million but that's out of my grasp unless I win three. Q. But being in that middle zone, that 80-spot, thereabouts and having a chance -- STEVE FLESCH: I'm not answering your question, am I. Q. You're doing all right. STEVE FLESCH: I'm kind of getting impatient -- no, I'm teasing. Q. How do you think I feel. STEVE FLESCH: I went to Kentucky, all you have to do is dribble between your legs and you get in there. (Laughter). I had not considered the FedExCup at the end of the year pretty much until I won because I wasn't in it. I wasn't in it. But having said that now, and having played well today, my goal still is I've got to get to Chicago before I can worry about anything else. That's all I've got for you. NELSON SILVERIO: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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