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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSICJanuary 15, 2008Richard S. JohnsonLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOHN BUSH: Like to welcome Richard Johnson to the interview room. Richard is fresh off of leading the Money List on the 2007 Nationwide Tour that gives him fully exempt status on the PGA TOUR. So Richard, welcome to the PGA TOUR. RICHARD JOHNSON: Thanks. JOHN BUSH: Obviously an outstanding season for you last year. You played in the final group six times during the season, led the Money List, and you won twice right here in the State of California. So just look back on the season for us if you can. RICHARD JOHNSON: I had a great time last year. I played pretty well most of the year. Didn't really get what I would have liked to have gotten out of my year last year early, but then came through and won two of the last four tournaments. So obviously No. 1 on the Money List makes this year I don't want to say easier, but a little more comfortable for me to start off and do what I want to do, tournaments-wise. So I was lucky enough to not have to go to Hawaii last week, so I had time here to get some practice on all these courses, so it was good. JOHN BUSH: You won four times during your career on the Nationwide Tour, with three of those coming in the State of California. So just talk a little bit about your goals this week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. RICHARD JOHNSON: I don't know. I haven't done a whole lot of work this winter, I guess. I kind of stepped it up the last couple of weeks. But just like to play pretty good and make a few putts, that's pretty much what it's going to be out here this week. The courses are very scorable, so just shoot low numbers and hope you finish pretty good. JOHN BUSH: We'll just get you to address your time on the Nationwide Tour, obviously leading the Money List and having that fully exempt status is really important for you. Just talk about your scheduling over the next couple months, making your first start here. RICHARD JOHNSON: Last year I decided I shouldn't play more than three tournaments in a row. Because I'm getting old and can't handle it I guess that's probably what it is. But my wife told me as I had two months off I needed to go play at least the first five on the west coast. So I'm going to do that's five, skip Mexico, and then start scheduling based on the three in a row thing going on once we hit the east coast. So it's kind of tough, you see six million bucks and all these great golf courses and you go, well, where do I take one off? But I'm going to work on it and just try and work out where would be better for me and then again stick to that three in a row schedule at the most that I can do. JOHN BUSH: We'll take questions. Q. Clearly you're not a rookie in terms of golf, but does it feel a whole lot different being fully exempt out here as opposed to -- and the six million dollars purses -- as opposed to being, playing week in, week out on Nationwide Tour? RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, definitely. I would think, I would still saying a couple of weeks ago it hadn't really sunk in to fully exempt No. 1 spot, because once I didn't have to go to Hawaii, that's when it kind of sinks in that I don't have to go chasing tournaments at the start of the year, whereas most of the guys do. They need to get in the reshuffle and get some money up so they can shuffle up and stay pretty high on that list. So that makes it a lot nicer for me. There's a huge, huge advantage over even No. 2, Roland Thatcher, he's got to get in that reshuffle now and start earning money. So it's a huge advantage for me to come out, play relaxed and pick and choose where I want to play. Q. I would imagine at some point down the stretch last year you got the idea that you were going to get a card, but in those class closing weeks the No. 1 thing, the No. 1 place on the Money List was your absolute goal? RICHARD JOHNSON: No, no, I never actually thought about it until probably halfway around the third round of the TOUR Championship. I never really even considered it. Roland was miles ahead and basically the last week I had to win and I had it locked up anyway, so it was one of those who cares week and it was just go out and play and whatever happens, happens. And it just so happened I won. And it was like, okay, this is good. And it didn't really sink in until probably a couple weeks ago that when I decided not to go to Hawaii. Q. Do you feel like a little bit of a kid out here? Any of these guys you're interested in meeting. I know a lot of the top players aren't here right now, but as the PGA TOUR season progresses is there anybody you're excited about playing or meeting? RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, it would be neat to meet Tiger and Phil Mickelson. I've played a couple of events before just through Monday qualifying and I've met Vijay and I'll bump into guys and it's kind of nice just to do it. But a lot of the guys I already know through the Nationwide Tour anyway at some point I was out there so long that Zach Johnson and those guys have come through there and being and been and gone kind of thing, so I know a lot of the guys anyway. Q. So you've been playing these courses the past week or so and what make of them? RICHARD JOHNSON: Oh, it's wonderful. I have got an RV so I park my RV out here about just over a week ago and I'm planning on coming back in about November time as soon as the season's done and I'll come back here again. Because it's -- I've always enjoyed coming out here and the golf courses are fabulous. The place is wonderful. It's pretty. It's green. It's warm. It's everything, really. So it's been a nice week or so getting ready. Q. What's the best thing that you learned from the Nationwide Tour and what's what was the worst thing? Did you ever think about quitting, obviously the travel is tough and the places you go, but so what's kind of the best and worse about that? RICHARD JOHNSON: Nationwide Tour, it's a proving ground, it's a place to learn how to shoot numbers. Go out and if you are 5-under you got to get to six. If you're six, you got to get to seven. And things like that. And it's tough. It's hard to -- I came out there in '99 when the purses were really bad, but they have come up a lot now. But you still got to play -- top 60 on the Money List out there you're just about making probably about 40,000 by the time your expenses are done and you've played pretty good golf. So it's tough. Worst thing about it? I tried to quit for the last five years, I guess, since about 2002. Couldn't get any jobs and things like that, so I kept on going. I kept trying to quit and no one would hire me, so it's like, 2005 I came back and it was kind of got better for me from there so I thought, well, I'll keep going and then obviously last year was a whole lot better. Q. What kind of jobs did you try to get? RICHARD JOHNSON: I tried to get coaching jobs. Universities and things like that. I applied for a bunch of those. I don't know. I had one of my old coaches, he's the head coach at the University of Tennessee and I applied for an assistant coaching job there and didn't even get that. So it was like maybe I should start playing golf again. It was pretty bad. Q. You've seen the courses, SilverRock's a new golf course in the rotation this year, I guess they're going to stretch it out to about 7,300 if I understand correctly. Just what are your impressions of that golf course? You get to learn all of them real fast as opposed to some guys who know some of the other courses and are just learning now. RICHARD JOHNSON: SilverRock's a nice, it's a nice golf course. It's going to be hard for the amateurs I think. You need to flight the balls into the par-4s there's a lot of bunkers in front of the greens, so the amateurs are going to have a whole lot of fun out there. But it's a nice course. Hopefully they will shorten the par-5s to where you can have a crack at them in two. There's a lot of trouble around the greens which would make it interesting if you could reach them in two then you bring 3 through 7 in. Whereas, if they had them fully stretched, four and five's is about all that's going to happen on them. So I'm sure they will shorten them up to where they're tempting for us. Q. One of them, I think the 12th hole there it's still going to play like 625, I think. RICHARD JOHNSON: Right. Q. But it's got a second shot over a canal there? RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah. I think you can -- that was downwind yesterday and you could get on there in two. You could get it skipping off the left side. Q. 625 yards and you can get on in two? RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, there's a little mound to the left you can get home in two. But that one is not quite as, it doesn't have water right on top of the green. But the other ones do. So if they're at 560, so where you can get there with a 3-wood or something and squeeze them in, that would be kind of fun. Q. Can you talk about your experience at the Waffle House? What exactly did you do there? How did you get that job. See, you get some jobs. RICHARD JOHNSON: Well, back in what was that, '95? I was selling cars. I was doing that too. And then I knew some friends that were business, district managers of Waffle House and they got me a management position there. And I went through the training and had a few couple of stores and then went to, they gave me the one just down the road from Augusta National about two months before the tournament, told me to get it ready for the tournament and I did that. And then I guess that was '97. And then I was cooking breakfast, because that's what a manager does. And I think Duval came in there to eat one day. I was like, this sucks. So, you know, so luckily I had my brother was over, he had a friend of his whose dad was very wealthy man over in Wales and he said, come on let's go back and play golf. So he helped me get back on it and get back to playing again. Q. Did you spit in his eggs? RICHARD JOHNSON: No. No. Q. Just kidding. Your success here in California do you like playing on the west coast, what about playing out here works for you? RICHARD JOHNSON: I don't know. To be fair, I played the first one I won was at Bayonet which is about the hardest golf course on the planet. And I played good there, shot 3-under and won that somehow. Rancho, played there in about 2000 was the first year it was there and I was like, I'm never coming back here ever again. And then last year I got married the week before the tournament and my wife's like well go play the golf tournament and I'm like well -- and I won. And I said, well, I like this place, this is good. And then came back here again for San Diego and won there too. It was kind of weird. My wife's from southern California too so her family's all here so it was kind of a neat thing to be doing that. Q. I guess I probably have never been in a press conference or talked to a golfer that seems more laid back or could care less about playing golf full-time than you, but it sounds like you really want to play, but you think this attitude, maybe like going into the TOUR Championship on Nationwide Tour and you just kind of said, what the hell, that can help you; and is just being laid back, is that just your style and do you think that's what helps you win? RICHARD JOHNSON: I think it probably to a point, but I don't think I'm that laid back when I get out there. That's the problem. I think once you are off the golf course and you finish playing, I mean, what are you going to do? On the golf course, I'm not that laid back. I'm pretty uptight about it. I get in the same stressful situations, like last year it took four times for me to work out what my body was doing when I was close to winning kind of thing. So yeah, it helps, it helps to, it helped to know that I had a PGA TOUR card wrapped up at some point in time which made the end of the season easier, but so, yeah, I mean there's a lot to be made for that. And there's a lot to be made for me not being in that reshuffle now to where I'm sitting here going, oh, I have to make a cut in the first three events or something and just freaking out on that. But I'm not saying the guys are freaking out, but they're probably a little worried about it. It's in the back of their mind at all times, they need to make money, they need to make money. So it's a big thing. JOHN BUSH: Richard, thank you very much. RICHARD JOHNSON: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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