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HSBC WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 9, 2007Woody AustinVIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND GRAEME HAMLETT: Woody, welcome to the HSBC World Match Play Championship. It's a bit wet, but from what we've heard back in the States where they've dubbed you 'Aqua Man', you perhaps don't mind this? WOODY AUSTIN: I certainly don't mind because I don't have to play in it if I don't want to today! GRAEME HAMLETT: Henrik Stenson in the first round - how much are you looking forward to this week? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, this is huge for me. This is the first; I guess you would say, world stage or event for me on this side of the pond since the 1996 British Open. From that standpoint I can't wait. I've been looking forward to something like this, and as soon as I found out about it, I've been looking forward to it for a month. I just hope that I can find my game in the next couple days and be a formidable opponent. GRAEME HAMLETT: Has the Presidents Cup whetted your appetite for match play golf? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, it was my first match play in 20-something years. So it at least gave me an idea of the mind-set that I need to have this week. So I just have to stay focused on the fact that I'm only playing him; I'm not playing anything else. Q. Is this what you think of as a typical British day? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, you can't help but think that, like I said, it seems like every movie that we see in the States, or every time a lot of the British Opens, a lot of tournaments that you see on the GOLF CHANNEL, it seems like it rains a lot over here. Q. Were you prepared for it? WOODY AUSTIN: Yes, I was informed to make sure I bring plenty of waterproofs, as you say. I asked quite a few people over the last few weeks, who have played in this event, who told me it was a fun time and to come over; but at this time of year, to make sure I have plenty of rain wear. Q. Have you packed more than one set - do you have a set for every day? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I don't have a problem wearing just one set - especially if I'm trying to beat my opponent, maybe if I stink good enough, you know, he'll stay away! Q. Having experienced the Presidents Cup, did you find yourself sucked into a different way of thinking? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, like I said, it's an entirely different way. Obviously you're still playing golf, but the thing about playing in a tournament, you know, you may go off at eight o'clock in the morning and then half the field goes off at one o'clock, so the weather is going to be different. If you happen to be the guy coming in at one o'clock, you already have the guys on the leaderboard and you see the score you have to shoot. So when you go out and play, you're looking at that score; whereas match play, you have one guy right there and you know exactly what he's doing the entire day. And that's the only thing that you have to focus on. You're still playing to play golf but in match play, you are paying attention to what that guy is doing; whereas in normal tournaments, you're not worried about what he's doing on that day because you have four days. Well, match play, you'd better know what he's doing that day, because that's the only chance you've got. Q. Would you like to see more match-play tournaments? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, it would be nice. I think any change is good in that you don't want the same thing over and over again. I mean, any kind of little change is really good for the game. But it just adds to the problem, as they all say in match play, if you bank on the big names and they get knocked out early, you know, that's all you hear about. Especially at the WGC if Tiger loses early, oh, the tournament is done; they are going to lose out. I think that's a problem that a lot of those tournaments have with trying to push that is they don't want to be the tournament that doesn't keep the marquees up, so I think that's the problem with match play. But if you get an event like this, where it's a world stage and that you've got people from everywhere; so you're not losing that marquee guy because every guy is a marquee guy from his area, I guess you would say. Q. Not having played match play in 20-some years, when was the last time you had played before the Presidents Cup? WOODY AUSTIN: Last time I played match play was the U.S. Amateur back in college, until the Presidents Cup two weeks ago so it's been a long 20 years, 22 years. Q. How far did you get? WOODY AUSTIN: I don't believe I got past the first round. The only good match play I did , I made it to the semi-finals of the U.S. Public Links in 1984; that was the farthest I've been in any kind of match play because I didn't really play much match play. I didn't play much amateur golf. Q. Who did you play? WOODY AUSTIN: He was a truck driver. That's about all I remember. (Laughter) I wasn't anybody, either, at that time. Nobody knew who I was either. I just remember he was a truck driver. I was in college at that point. Q. Do you enjoy the freedom matchplay gives you to attack? WOODY AUSTIN: Oh, absolutely, like I said, you don't have to worry -- like I said, if you go out there and you happen to be the guy that comes out in the afternoon on a Thursday and somebody goes ballistically low and shoots a low number, you don't have to worry about trying to chase him down. So you don't have to -- you don't have to play reckless, but you don't have to play conservative. Whereas when you're playing match play, if you are down and you make a gamble or whatever, it only costs you that one hole. It doesn't cost you, you know, and especially with 36 holes -- I mean, with 36 holes, you can go out and play with reckless abandon if you really want to. If you feel like if you can pull it off so many times, as opposed to not, you're not getting that far behind. So I think like I said, this format with 36 holes, I think really benefits a guy that makes a lot of birdies. The bogeys don't hurt you as much because if you can make a whole lot of birdies, you can get far ahead. Q. Have you changed your mind about playing in the British Open? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, it looks like based on my play the last four months that I have a great chance of being in next year. It just like anything, if I know I'm in and I can prepare, then I'll be here, no doubt about it. I plan on being here because it looks like, you know, the way I'm playing that I'm going to keep my ranking up high enough to get in. I've always wanted to come over and play. The problem we had -- or the problem I had from, let's say, '96 until last year, or until a couple of years ago, is there were no qualifying over in the States. You had to fly all the way over here to qualify. If I had job security in the States, that would be fine, but I have never had job security. So it's kind of hard to take away two weeks from the States to come over for a "what if" qualifier. Now if you know you're in, okay. But if you don't know you're in, like I said, it's hard to come over here for a "what if" qualifying win and I still have to keep my job in the States. Q. Can you tell us about your reasons for turning down a place in this year's Open? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, the problem, like I said, I played eight weeks in a row, the British Open would have been nine straight weeks. I was already playing pretty poorly, because I was playing too much as it was, and if I would have flown over here after playing the night of finishing the eighth tournament in a row, I would get over here on Monday, and that would have been a wash. And Tuesday would have been part of a wash because I would have been so exhausted. How am I going to prepare for a British Open, not being over here in 12 years, when I want to win? I'm just like anybody else. I'm not going to come over here just to come over. I'm coming over to win, especially if it's a major. If it's okay for Tiger to play only two weeks in a row and say he's tired, how do you think I felt? I'm 12 or 13 years older than he is, how do you think I felt after eight? I was exhausted. It had nothing to do with not wanting to come, because trust me, I've love to come. But I also don't want to come over here and shoot 80 two days in a row, and that's what would have happened and I would have been really angry that I did that. Q. What do you think of Wentworth, is it similar to anything in the U.S? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I've only gotten to see a few holes. I've only gotten to walk a few holes because of the rain today. It has a lot of similarities as far as the trees and the shaping of the holes and stuff. It just I didn't get a good enough look at all of them. But the ones I did see remind me of a good, old traditional golf course with the tree lines and stuff. So it looks like a great play. Q. What do you know about Stenson? WOODY AUSTIN: Nobody has told me about him. Q. Have you asked? WOODY AUSTIN: No. Well, I've played with him before so I know who he is. Like I said, my job is to worry about me and when I go out and play tomorrow. Obviously if I'm playing well, then the rest will take care of itself. But the thing about this game is anybody, I don't care who you are, anybody can be beaten on a given day, and that's the neat thing about match play. You could be completely on paper out of your element, but you can still win because on any given day, anybody can be beaten. Q. Have you been given any pictures of your falling in the water at the 14th at Montreal in the Presidents Cup? WOODY AUSTIN: I see it all over the place. I see it on the computer. I see it in the papers. Nice spread in the Golf World this week at home with it, on the PGA website - with a nice little one, two, three, and then in! So it's everywhere! Q. Did you bring the goggles with you? WOODY AUSTIN: No, I actually took those goggles and got all my teammates to sign them, so that's going to be a memento to keep. Q. You talked about job security and not having it - when was the last time you had a job outside of golf? WOODY AUSTIN: I actually still, when I won the qualifying school in 1994, I was Medalist at Q-School, I still worked after I won the Q-School. And so that was the last time I worked at the bank. But I did work leading up to the qualifying school, and after until the beginning of the next year when I started playing on a regular basis. So 1994 was the last time I worked. Q. In the bank? WOODY AUSTIN: In the bank, yeah. Q. Were you a teller? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah. Q. Do you remember your salary? WOODY AUSTIN: Let's see, when I was done, I was making, I believe $7.20 an hour I think. I think that's about where I was at, somewhere in that general area. Q. But you're making more money nowadays? WOODY AUSTIN: Yeah, I'm doing all right. Except I have a wife who takes a lot of it and two boys who take a lot more. Q. Is there more pressure in match-play events? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I think every event is pressure. I mean, let's face it, unless you're a person who can I guess distinguish between what you consider important and not important, I don't know how you can do that; but if you have any competitiveness in you at all, every event you play, you want to win, so there's got to be pressure. So if you've ever seen me, you know I'm a very competitive person. So every event I play in, I'm going to give it everything I've got. So, yeah, there's a lot of pressure. I certainly don't want to be over here to make a fool of myself. Q. What's the most pressure you've had? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, the pressure I had was not only working and doing my job, but I also had to do that and save the money to do what I really wanted to do. So you try surviving on your regular salary but then also trying to save money to do something that's a lot more expensive. So that's why at times I had to do two and three jobs because I needed that extra money to save to play. Any player will tell you once you make it out here, it's not so expensive, but to get out here, it's very expensive. Because the smaller tournaments they don't have the sponsorships and the Pro-Ams, so your entry fees into the smaller events are a lot higher. So it's more expensive to play the lower echelon. So when I was playing mini-tours in Florida, that was very expensive, because to play a two-day tournament in Florida was anywhere from $300 to $400 for two days. And if you won, you only made $1,000 or $1,200. You're not going to go very far. It's very expensive, so that was the hard part. Q. Did playing in the Presidents Cup make you think about The Ryder Cup next year? WOODY AUSTIN: It makes me want to be there really bad. I'm hoping that the game will continue to improve and show the signs that I've shown the last four months; that I am a world-class player. And that was such a blast that I really want to get on that Ryder Cup Team. I've always wanted to be on one. I mean, why wouldn't you? The problem I seem to have, I've come close to making a few but the problem I've had with trying to qualify for our Ryder Cup is you only get points based on Top-10s, and over a two-year span. I might have I really pretty solid year the first of the two years, and then the second year is double points and then you don't have a great year and you just get run over; so it looks like you didn't play good. Well, you played good, but the second year being double points and other guys play great. And then I remember one of my best years in the 90s, had a lot of 11th through 15th place finishes; you get nothing. So it's pretty harsh. We were talking about it the other day, that you could go -- you could have a great two-month span where you have maybe one 5th, and then you have four or five 11ths through 15ths, and then you get bypassed by a guy in that, say, two-month span, who has one great tournament. Q. Will the Ryder Cup qualifying format change in America? WOODY AUSTIN: Well, Paul has done a little bit. This year didn't mean anything in that it was just the four majors. That's the only way you could make points was the four majors so there for all of the points are based on just the one year, so that's good. Q. How well do you know Paul Azinger? WOODY AUSTIN: Pretty well. Super great guy. Not afraid to light a fire under you, which I think is really good for a captain. GRAEME HAMLETT: Thank you very much for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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