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TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 23, 2007Steve FleschVERONA, NEW YORK DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship winner, Steve Flesch to the media center. Steve, great going today. STEVE FLESCH: Thank you. DOUG MILNE: You started with a good enough cushion to be able to do what it took. Just a couple comments about the round. STEVE FLESCH: Okay. Tough conditions again with the wind out there, and the greens actually firmed up quite a bit. This is kind of how I think the players expected the golf course would play all week. But yeah, I got off to a bad start. I've actually fatted two bunker shots today out of the fairway bunkers. You know, just kind of played a couple sloppy holes today in general. The first and the last are two pretty sloppy ones. But you know what, I worked hard the first three days to build that lead, and fortunately I had some shots to play with. So today wasn't my best work but that's all right. I outlasted everybody else, so that's all I was worried about. DOUG MILNE: How big of a momentum turn was the second shot on 3? That really righted the ship. STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, the birdie I made on 3 was huge. I was all right with the bogey on 1. But the bogey on 2, you know, I made another fast swing. That kind of wasn't my strong suit all week. So my birdies on 3 and 4 kind of righted the ship, calmed me down a little bit. And you know, I dare use the word cruise, but it helped me cruise through the middle of the round there, and fortunately nobody made a big enough run to get to me. Q. When you get time to kind of sit down and you have memories of what went on here, what are some of the things that you're going to remember? STEVE FLESCH: I'm just going to remember, one, the golf course; it was great. The conditions were perfect all week. Greens were some of the best -- the whole condition of the golf course was actually some of the best we've played in years out here. So the staff's done a wonderful job. You know, the whole facility, Turning Stone, the casino, the resort, I stayed at the Lodge this week; it's just first-class. It was an enjoyable week. The staff of the tournament, Ray and Ann, made it just easy for everybody. The players I think would be hard-pressed to find anything that wasn't great this week, and you know, I'm sure as word spreads, we'll get better fields year-in and year-out here. Q. Does it feel any different when you win the inaugural event of a tournament? STEVE FLESCH: Well, having not been here last year, my first time here, it was special regardless. I still was getting a feel for the golf course even after playing it on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Pro-Am, just kind of how I wanted to play certain holes. But first time here, just like I said, first-class event, players are treated wonderfully, and the crowds are great. The crowds were very supportive, which it's funny, because everywhere we go, crowds aren't as encouraging as they were this week. I was wondering if somebody passed out some "Go Steve" buttons or something. (Laughter). Sometimes you want a little more excitement in your tournament. But I knew I had that five-shot lead and the crowd knew I had that lead. And everybody was like, "Hang in there, finish it off, you're doing great." You don't get that every week. The crowd was great and supportive. Maybe they like me for some reason up here, but it was a fun week. Q. The average score today was around even par; did the course atone itself? STEVE FLESCH: Absolutely. Like I said, I think this is how we expected the course to play kind of all week. When everything gets firmer and faster, especially the greens, guys are not going to make as many birdies. And with that wind blowing 15 to 20 miles an hour, putts are more difficult. It was tough out there. It wasn't as tough as I kind of made it coming in, but you know, it's a heck of a golf course, and if this is the normal win, the fairways don't need to be narrow. You know, I think it's great how it is. I'd be a fool to complain about anything this week. Q. Conditions like this for four days, what would be a winning score? STEVE FLESCH: Oh, I would think it would be more in the 10, 12 range, something like that. You know, I don't know what the low score was today, somebody maybe shot 5-under or 6-under. Somebody is going to do that everywhere. I don't care if you put them on Augusta National or Pebble Beach, somebody isn't shooting 6-under every day. Somebody in the field will do it, but they are not going to do it every day. I'd say 10- or 12-under. The golf course held its own; 18 won, and for three days, it was pretty benign conditions. It was three days of really soft greens. I don't think 18-under is that bad. You guys don't want us coming out here shooting even par like the USGA does, do you? Because then nobody would show up, I've got news for you. (Laughter). Q. Two wins in five events, Top-30 money, what's that mean to you? STEVE FLESCH: All that, you know, I've come a long way in eight weeks. Eight weeks ago, like I said in the award ceremony, I was fighting to keep my job out here. I wasn't playing great. Missing a lot of cuts by a shot. When I did make the cut I was shooting even par on the weekends and you're just waving guys by when that happens. You know, it's funny, this game is all confidence. Putting's confidence. Everything's confidence. You know, it's amazing that one little spark can kind of turn your year around and turn your game around. All my friends and family told me to hang in there and keep working hard. But I'm like, you know, at some point you want some results. You can only hang in there so hard and have these guys beat your brains in for so long before you start losing a little bit of confidence. Milwaukee was a big week for me, I finished fifth in Milwaukee and I think that was what kick-started me to play well. It's been a few years since I've been up there on the Money List. I'm a little bummed TOUR Championship is over already because that's kind of how everybody -- that's my barometer for how my year is gone. I know if I get in THE TOUR Championship, I know I've played well. You know what happened, the FedExCup being earlier, I played so poorly early on in the year that I didn't ever really give myself a chance to get to THE TOUR Championship. You know, I figure I've got four more events this year to secure my spot in that Top-30 and get in all the majors next year. That's my goal right now, get in those majors, because I haven't been in them for a couple of years and I really relish playing in them. Q. Your paycheck here is double what you made in Reno; does that make it the favorite of the two wins? STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, Uncle Sam is smiling, too. (Laughter). It's great. $6 million purse, obviously it's my biggest paycheck of my career. It's unbelievable. If you'd ever told me growing up I'd be playing and making this kind of money playing golf, I'd say you're crazy. But that's wonderful. You know, the money is great. But I tell you what's important to me is being out here for three more years and being able to compete on the PGA TOUR, because it's what I always wanted to do growing up, and it's what keeps me going when I go home. I'm thinking about how I can get better. I'm watching the coverage on TV thinking, how am I going to get as good as this Tiger Woods guy, which I never will, but that's what spurs me on. I've been a competitive guy all my life, and the fact that I've got a chance to play out here for three more years, you know, hopefully have some fun doing it and play well, is what spurs you on. I think it's what spurs you on. The exemption and all that, along with the money, is what drives us, and you know, I'm thrilled. I don't know what more I can say. Q. Did anything specific happen at Milwaukee that made a difference? STEVE FLESCH: How much tape you got? Yeah, I made a lot of changes in my equipment. I changed the iron heads. I went to the new CG(r) Red Cleveland irons. I put Rifle shafts back in my irons which I used my first three years on TOUR. Changed rescue clubs which that's changed since then, too, so that really doesn't count. I've changed drivers to another Cleveland, another model of Cleveland driver. But the biggest change was the golf ball. I severed my contract with a golf ball company and changed to just find -- I didn't sign with any other company. I just went to find a ball of all the balls that are out here on the market that fit my game better than the one I was using. And that I think is why my iron play has been so much better. Just in general, the industry has taken so much spin off the golf ball; that's the only way that skill players like ourselves can control the ball is with spin. So everything is so distance-geared now; let's hit it farther; let's hit it farther. But you know, you've got to use your irons, too. It's not all about the driver. I was kind of getting lost in the shape there because I'm not a bomber. So some of the balls they were making didn't have enough spin and other guys could spin it enough and I couldn't. Just, you know what, I just decided unfortunately I had to walk away from the contract I had. I tried all the balls that are out there on the market, and I came up with one that just fit my irons, and then I changed my driver to hit the ball. That was the strength of my game my first seven years out here. The last three years, it's been a nightmare with my irons. I had to get the strongest part of my game back in check, and that's what I did. So I look like a genius now, but at the time I was thinking, my God, how can I walk away from this. But that was it, basically. Pure and simple, that change is why I've had success the last eight weeks. Q. And the ball is? The ball is? STEVE FLESCH: I'm not going to say it. I'm playing the Srixon ball now, but I'm not going to badmouth anything because the ball that I left, other guys are having tremendous success with. It just didn't fit me. It wasn't doing what I needed it to do, and we parted ways amicably and it was great. They were nice about it. Q. How much is it confidence once you start hitting the ball, hitting the irons better and hitting everything? STEVE FLESCH: It's a matter of being able to make an aggressive, confident swing and know that my 7-iron is going to go 170 yards or 175 yards and no more, or no less, if I hit it solid. But what I was experiencing is every once in a while, I was hitting 7-iron and it would go ten yards too far and it wasn't going the distance that I was accustomed to it going. So consequently the next time I get out there and I've got 170 yards, how confident and aggressive of a swing are you going to make at that 7-iron. It's right here, is where it is (tapping head). It's not my swing that was wrong because I'm hitting the ball in the middle of the face. And the flight was okay, but the ball wasn't going the distance that I was accustomed it going. And confidence is 99 percent of this game and talent is one percent. That was big for me. I finally got back to my roots and got my iron game back. Q. Starting with two bogeys, did that shake you at all? STEVE FLESCH: No, the first one didn't shake me, because I did the same thing in Reno. And not that I expected to do it, but it was just a sloppy bogey. Hey, I made a great save out of the bunker to even make bogey. But I was like, that's fine, woke me up a bit. But then I drove it down the middle on the second hole and kind of slipped an 8-iron that rode the wind that went over the green, and I was like, wait a minute, this isn't how it was supposeded to go today. And I made a cruddy bogey there. So I got on that third tee and hit that 6-iron in there about four feet, calmed me down a little bit. But I still had to make the putt, but that calmed me down quite a bit. Because last thing you want to do with a 5-shot lead is start coming back to the field and that's what I was doing. Two bogeys wasn't kind of the game plan I had sitting around this morning in the room before coming out. (Laughter). Q. How much do you watch the scoreboard when you're playing? STEVE FLESCH: A little bit. I didn't watch it at all after I made the two bogeys, because I just had to get myself straightened out. You know, once I got it -- made the turn at 1-under, and I should have birdied that damn ninth hole. I don't like that hole. Any changes you guys can make to that hole would be fine with me. But you know, anyway, I finished at 1-under and on the 10th tee they have a big board and I saw I had a four-shot lead over John Senden. I figured I didn't play that great on the front nine; I'm 1-under, but still got a four-shot lead so I watched it a little bit. Q. Did that change your game plan? STEVE FLESCH: Not really because the holes that laid ahead I had kind of a certain way I kind of planned on playing them anyway. It affected the lines I took into the greens. I wasn't as aggressive on some shots as I might have been if I had a one-shot lead or a two-shot lead. It's hard, I knew I had a four-shot lead with four holes to go. You're just kind of trying to run out of holes, you know. But I played the 18th, I hit the club I wanted to hit, but you know, I just hit my third shot identity of the first cut, just went over the green. You know, I hit good, solid shots coming in. I just made a couple of bogeys. I knew where I stood the whole time. I was watching the whole time coming in. I wanted to make sure nobody was coming within two. Q. Can you explain how hard that is? STEVE FLESCH: When that 20 X 40 foot scoreboard is sitting right there, do you know how hard it is not to look? That's like saying, "Don't think of red." I figured if there was anything going on, my caddie would let me know. He knew my game plan was just keep the ball in the fairway and hit the greens. We weren't picking clubs that were getting all the way to the hole or in the corners and stuff. I put a lot of pressure on my putting today, leaving myself a lot of 40-footers which, you know -- but I don't know, I was just trying to string some pars together on that back nine and get to that 18 tee to be honest with you. Q. The putter did seem to work very well today except maybe on 16. 15 was a really good save there. STEVE FLESCH: 15 was a big putt. I took an extra look at that. You know, that was a heck of an up-and-down I made out of that bunker. That ball was buried in that front bucker. You know, that was a big putt because you know, I knew what my lead was, and I didn't want to start just kind of dropping that lead one shot at a time in the last four holes. Not that I was thinking about that, because I was hitting solid. But, you know, that would have just been another sloppy bogey and that's kind of not how I played this week. That was a good par I made. Q. You mentioned yesterday that you called it the apparatus. Do you know when you nicknamed it that and why? STEVE FLESCH: No, I didn't really -- it's not even a nickname. It just seems to me like it's an apparatus. It doesn't seem like a natural way to putt to be honest with you. It doesn't feel natural either. But you know, it's effective for me, because my misses tend to be pushes, and that putter keeps me from pushing the ball because it's working on a true pendulum being anchored so to speak in my belly. But you know, hey, I wish I wasn't using it, but it works to be honest with you. I don't think when the founding fathers developed the game of golf they ever thought people would be anchoring putters on their stomachs or chests. It's funny how many guys are using it today in the last three or four groups today: Billy Haas, Carl and I, Charles Warren. It's like if you're playing with a normal putter now, you're a nut. I don't know, it's been a savior to me the last -- this year, because I just didn't have any confident the other way. Not that my stroke felt bad. Just nothing was going in. It's been a nice addition, and that was new, too, by the way, that belly putter. (Laughter). DOUG MILNE: Just real quickly if you can just run through the bogeys and birdies. STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, driver in the fairway bunker on the first hole. Fatted a 9-iron short. Then I went right underneath a sand wedge into a buried lie and then I knocked that out of the buried lie to about a foot. Then a driver and an 8-iron over the back right side of the green on 2. Chipped it to about 15, 18 feet and missed that. 6-iron from 204 on 3 to about four feet and made that. Driver in the right bunker on 4, and 9-iron to about six feet and I made that. Birdied 8. Driver and a rescue club into the left green-side bunker out to about five feet and made that. 3-putted 16 from about 50 feet. And then hit it over the green on 18. And just kind of dumped a chip down there about six feet and missed it. DOUG MILNE: Steve Flesch, 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship winner, fourth win on the PGA TOUR, second win this year, congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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