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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 8, 2008Robert FloydPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Robert Floyd to the interview room here at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. You're here this week on a sponsor's exemption, little bigger venue than the Gateway Tour. You're definitely the story through 36 holes. Talk about the experience so far. ROBERT FLOYD: The experience has been great. We got in on Sunday. My wife is here and my 18-month-old daughter and my mom and dad. It started great, the week started great. Giants beat the Patriots. I'm from Miami, I'm a Dolphins fan, so that was nice to start the week off. And the weather has been beautiful. We're excited, good weather. It rained Sunday. So the whole week has been special. Obviously starting at Pebble, playing well, making a ton of birdies yesterday, you know, really was special. I've been playing a lot of golf, I've been practicing a lot of golf. But I haven't been playing tournaments. I played one two weeks ago, a Gateway event, to get ready. So to come out here and be able to perform for me is really exciting. It's only two rounds, but it's -- I knew I was playing well enough to do this. I didn't know if I was going to be able to handle my nerves well enough to play. So far I guess good enough. STEWART MOORE: Talk a little bit about your past. You've played some mini-Tours, Nationwide Tour. You've played some events out here. Talk about the last three or four years. ROBERT FLOYD: I played the Nationwide full-time. I guess I got my card in '98 and then I played partially in '99, and from there played a couple events here and there via exemption, qualifying, and was playing the Golden Bear Tour that turned into the Gateway Tour. I guess '01, '02, I got my real estate license. I got married five years ago and quickly realized that mini-Tour golf is not really a way to support a family. I've been doing that, I'm still doing that, and it's a nice aside. I'm able to kind of make my own hours. I live there at Old Palm in Palm Beach Gardens, so 99 percent of my stuff is there. So I do that, mornings in the office on Monday and Tuesday usually, and then I pretty much have the rest of the week to practice, play. I play a lot with clients. So that's really kind of what I've done. I haven't played a ton of tournaments. I played the Gateway Tour in the summer last year and played mediocre, made the TOUR Championship, but had a couple weeks that I played well. And then was trying to gear for Q-school and played terrible there, but I think the work that I put in to get ready for Q-school and then afterwards, took a little time off, but then getting ready for the Father-Son, which was in December, I think is just kind of all culminating or starting to culminate where I can get some confidence on the golf course. I think that's the main difference with me today as opposed to the last four or five years. I'm starting to gain confidence. I'm still not where I need to be obviously, but I'm a lot better than I've been the last five years, and I've always said if I'm confident, I feel like I'm good enough to play. Q. You and your brother, I'm trying to remember, played here as amateurs? ROBERT FLOYD: Correct. Q. With your dad? ROBERT FLOYD: Correct, '94. My brother played with my dad. He was, I guess, a freshman at Wake Forest, and I played with Dudley Hart, and we played in the same group, the year Johnny Miller won. Dudley and I were in the last group, and we won the amateur portion of it. So that's my claim to fame among my friends, that I won Pebble Beach. I don't really tell them it's the amateur portion of it. Q. Also, I would assume, Jack Nicklaus, Jr., Jackie, when you have a father in the same profession, whatever it is, people expect a lot of you. Has that been a problem? And have you tried to live up to anything? ROBERT FLOYD: It's never been a problem for me. If anything maybe my expectations on what I felt like I should do or my goals, looking back at it, might have been a little higher than maybe they should. I think that that's the only thing. I've never felt -- when you get on the golf course, you're not worried about your last name. I mean, it's been -- you get far more advantages from it than disadvantages. Obviously, look at my career and how many sponsor's exemptions I've had. The reality -- I'd like to say it's because they think I can play, but after a certain amount of time you know why you're getting them. And the instruction and being able to have a Hall-of-Famer, major winner, and get that sort of tutelage and advice and insight into the game far outweighs any sort of media expectations or what have you. I don't know what it's like not to be. A lot of people ask me what's it like, and you know, it's just like a doctor's son growing up under a doctor. You don't know any difference. That's what I'm used to. As far as expectations, I think I'm harder on myself than any of the media or any of my peers would be on me. No, I don't -- Q. Because you grew up around the game, did you always want to be a golfer? ROBERT FLOYD: I always wanted to be a golfer. As soon as I had some success as a junior -- I matured late, so I didn't hit the ball very far. But when I turned like 16 is when I started really being able to play and had a really successful junior and amateur and collegiate career. But I think ever since I was 15, 14, it was kind of what I wanted to do. I know going to University of Florida was all I wanted to do. You know, we actually talked about not even going to college because I knew that was what I was going to try to do. I'm glad I did. I'm glad I went the path I did. I didn't graduate, but -- so yeah, I've known for a long time that's what I've wanted to do. I've changed my mind a couple times. When you're not playing well you look for other things to do. Not that real estate is my passion or anything like that, but you need to find something to support a family and stuff. I mean, I've always known I can play somewhere in there, and it's just a question of who you're working with or going in the right direction as far as trying to get better, and I just feel like I've been lost for a few years. But I know it's there. There's signs of it kind of every year or every week. So it's always been in the back of my mind and always is, I think. Q. Given how well you've played, what prompted this this week, and what was sort of the process leading up to this week? ROBERT FLOYD: I played the Gateway last summer. I was going to go to Q-school, so I hadn't played any more than four tournaments in a year until we go back to maybe '04, '03, and last year I decided that -- I mean, to compete at Q-school, that I can't compete with guys that are playing 20 weeks a year and going into Q-school sharp and no nerves, and like it's another round of golf. I'm going into Q-school and it's the biggest tournament of the year for me. That first stage, a lot of guys are just going straight from the Gateway events and going in and playing and just being comfortable. I mean, I think that's the big thing. You can play -- two equal guys can play. If one is comfortable and one is jittery, the guy that's comfortable is going to beat him 99 times out of 100. I played the Gateway Tour to get ready for Q-school. It didn't help, but I did. I put some hours in. I've been working with Mark Hackett, who's our pro at Old Palm, and he's helped me a lot. I've been working with Ken MacDonald, who's the director of fitness at PGA National, and I've worked with some other teachers, and my dad's been there and helped. I think the combination of all of that together, playing some tournaments, working on what I feel is the right swing changes, getting a little confidence, getting physically able to do things that we've been trying to do for five years that maybe I wasn't able to do physically, I think all of those combinations -- it's kind of culminating. Like I said, I don't think I'm there, but I'm obviously far enough along to be able to compete for at least a couple rounds at this level. Q. Did you request a sponsor exemption because you had been practicing? ROBERT FLOYD: I played here last year. AT&T is the sponsor, and I think my dad has been with them for 25 years. They sponsored me. It was SBC when -- they sponsored me when I turned pro and got my Nationwide card. So we've always had a connection here. Yeah, I think last year we got in and I knew I was going to play last year and it was special to play with my brother. This year I kind of viewed it a little differently. Last year it was more come out and we were going to spend a great week, and this year I have an exemption, fortunately next week, too, into LA, the Northern Trust. It's very rare if you don't have a TOUR card to be able to play two weeks in a row, and to be honest with you, my goals here was to play four rounds, and if I played well, top 25 was kind of my goal to get comfortable and then maybe see what I could do next week. Fortunately enough, I'm in a position after two rounds to where maybe I can reassess that. Yeah, I'm definitely viewing it a little differently than I have in the past. I'm here because I think I can play, you know? If you asked me that in the last four years I couldn't look you in the eye and have said that without lying. Q. There's a number of guys who things don't work out for them right away, they're late bloomers or whatever, and they decide to go out and get a real job, if you will, and others that just don't want their life to go without giving it one more chance. Look at Joe Durant, for example, a guy that was stocking shelves, and look at him now. Where do you fit in that mix? ROBERT FLOYD: See, I don't think I really ever gave it up. I mean, real estate, I didn't get a 9:00-to-5:00 job. I know Petrovic was delivering pizzas and Rich Beem was selling TVs. I never got a 9:00-to-5:00 job. I chose real estate, and my parents -- it was my mom's idea, which ended up being great, a blessing. My dad was involved with the community down there in Old Palm, so the timing of it was really good for real estate. But I chose a profession where I make my own hours, too. You're still an independent contractor, you're still self-employed. I don't think I really ever gave it up. For me the hardest part was I had a lot of success early, you know, and I was a good junior and went to the semis at the Amateur and played well in college and was an All-American and had some success early in 1998 on the Nationwide Tour. I had chances going into weekends a lot there and then didn't play well. And then from the end of '98 on, it's been a struggle. It's always been there, it's just you kind of get sick of playing bad. I think it was more that than ever really giving it up and deciding to come back. I think it was always there, just a question of when am I going to feel like I'm playing well enough to where it's worth going out and trying to compete. Q. The glare that your father is so famous for, how much do you get it as a kid? ROBERT FLOYD: Off the golf course, quite a bit. I think that's where we received it more. There was a couple stories where I saw it on the golf course when we were trying to beat him. I think two times in particular. I got it then, but I think it was more for my brother and I roughhousing and breaking vases or windows with balls in the house. Q. What do you remember about winning here with Dudley in '94, and were there any heroics the last hole? How did that finish up? ROBERT FLOYD: We were playing with Johnny Miller, and Dudley actually had a chance to win coming down the stretch. I think -- but no, I think we had a three-shot lead going into 18 as far as the board was concerned. I know that can possibly be wrong. But we were on 18, and you know, I was kind of alongside. I just remembered that last day, my dad was playing with my brother and they had both made the cut, and he -- I saw him on the leaderboard. He shot 3- or 4-under on the front nine and got into contention. I think he was one or two back. Dudley was tied for the lead with Johnny Miller, Tom Watson was there. I remember leaderboard watching, rooting for my dad obviously and rooting for Dudley because we were friends. So I remember that. And then on 18 the only -- I actually picked up my coin. I had a foot putt for par, and Dudley had like four to six feet for birdie and Johnny Miller had I think 15 feet for birdie and had a one-shot lead over Watson and if Dudley made his birdie would have been one shot over Dudley. And Dudley three-putted and my ball was already in my pocket, so we made bogey, but I think we won by two. I think the drama was watching Johnny Miller with a 15-footer and playing with him. I mean, talk about managing nerves. From what he was saying that last round, if he was able to do it, I think there is hope for me the next two days (laughter). Q. He was putting with his eyes closed, wasn't he? ROBERT FLOYD: I don't know, I didn't see his eyes, but he had some version of the claw. I guess he was the first one to do it. But it wasn't the claw, it was more like a death grip of some sort. And he'd make a putt and walk off the green and come right to me and say, "Can you believe I made that putt?" It was amazing. He played good, and he hit the ball great. I think he hit most of the fairways. It was windy, and he played great. And maybe it was calming for him to talk about it. But it was unbelievable. For a guy -- I had never really seen him in my era with much success, and to see him come out and win after not playing was one of the most amazing things I've seen, and to be able to play with him in the last group was pretty neat. Q. How big of a deal is it to have your name on the wall out there? Did you come back and look at that right away the next year or sooner? ROBERT FLOYD: Yeah, I look at it every time I walk here. Unfortunately I haven't been here much since '94, twice, last year and this year. But yeah, we look at it. We have pictures of it, and it's neat. It's an extra little boost of confidence. I see Dudley played well yesterday and we joked about it a little on the range. And then I saw him on the leaderboard today, and I thought it would kind of be a pretty neat story if we were both playing well on Sunday. But got a little ways to go. STEWART MOORE: Robert, thanks so much. Good luck this weekend. End of FastScripts |
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