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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 9, 2008Dudley HartPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Dudley Hart, thanks for joining us at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. 68 today over at Spyglass and 9-under for the week. Maybe some opening comments on three good days and a good start to the tournament for you. DUDLEY HART: Thanks. Yeah I just played kind of solid for three days, and I haven't felt like I've hit it great, but I hit enough good shots and giving myself enough opportunities and I putted pretty well for three days. So obviously that helps. I haven't made many bogeys. When I've hit some bad shots I've been able to recover most of the time. It hasn't been real spectacular but it's been a nice, solid three days. Q. What's going on with your voice? DUDLEY HART: I have no idea. I've been fighting this on and off for about a month. It comes and goes and comes and goes. I think maybe it's some voodoo my wife is doing on me so she don't have to listen to me (laughing). I think maybe I should go see a doctor, too. I've been thinking about it. It's only been four weeks. I'm yelling right now. Q. Maybe she thinks it's sexy. DUDLEY HART: Yeah, it doesn't seem to have that effect on her (laughter). Q. Did you see this coming this week? DUDLEY HART: Not really. I've only played three times, and really almost three times in about nine months. I started hitting the ball better last week in Phoenix and I didn't putt real well, so I was encouraged by my ball-striking. I just worked on my short game, my putting especially, a bunch this week early on, and it seems like it's been paying off. I couldn't even hit the middle of the face. I know it sounds crazy. I couldn't hit a solid putt in Phoenix. But starting to at least get the ball rolling, starting it where I want to a lot of the time, which is a big confidence boost. Q. How hard is it to go that long and now you've got to win a certain amount of money in a certain period of time? DUDLEY HART: You know, the hard part, I don't really think about having to make a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time because the way I look at it, if I play well, 15 events should be enough. The hard part for me, as it's always been when I've taken time off, is just to get mentally back into the groove of things. Physically you can get going, but sometimes to keep your concentration, and then to be hitting shots -- you just haven't competed. You can play at home all you want with your buddies for a couple bucks here and there, and it doesn't simulate the same thing obviously. I've always seemed like I kind of start off slow for a couple weeks on the West Coast, even when I've had just two months off in the off-season, so hopefully this is just a typical thing. I'm just kind of starting to at least be able to hit some good shots and do some of the things I like to do. Q. A lot of us haven't really had a chance to talk to you about this. Give us a synopsis of what went on with Suzanne. DUDLEY HART: Yeah, I went to THE PLAYERS Championship last year, and when I left home, Suzanne, my wife, just had a bad cold. She would get really bad colds. I always kind of said, you shouldn't cough like that, whatever. So she had a bad cold. I go down there, and on Wednesday a friend at home took her in to the doctor because she was really bad. She was sweating and I guess she got even worse. And they called me at 10:00 o'clock in the morning. I was getting ready to play a practice round at PLAYERS, and said she had pneumonia. So I'm thinking, talk to the -- we had a doctor on-site there. I asked him what do they do for pneumonia. We have six-year-old triplets at home. I'm thinking, do I have to go home, is she going to be in the hospital. The doctor was like, no, they usually just give them medicine nowadays and send them home. And my dad was up there, so I'm thinking I'm just going to stay and play. So I start my practice round, and I get a call about three or four hours later, they did an X-ray of her lung and they found a softball-sized mass in her lung, and then the decision was obvious. I went home, and she spent -- basically she spent about a month in the hospital. She ended up having a tumor, a softball-sized tumor, and two thirds of her lung removed. The tumor had cancer -- I'm not a doctor, it still doesn't make sense to me, but it had cancer cells on it, but it wasn't cancerous. So I guess basically in a nutshell we got very lucky. It could have been a lot worse than it ended up being. They have to keep a close eye on her. She has to go get checked up every three months for a year, but so far the checkups have been good. They just want to make sure nothing else grows back. Q. Not serious, but it sounds like it could have been if they didn't catch it early? DUDLEY HART: Yeah, that's what I gathered. It could have gone that direction had they not found it. Q. What was the decision process after that as far as -- was there any thought about you could get out earlier or get out more once the surgery happened, or was it pretty much black and white that you were going to take the rest of the year off? DUDLEY HART: It wasn't necessarily black and white. What happened is the TOUR for myself and David Duval basically gave us a medical exemption, but the issue with the medical is you have to sit out four months for it, and I probably could have played before four months, but the four months for me -- from when it started, took me up to the first week of the FedExCup, and I had already fallen out of that. So then that's another month. And at that stage I just was like, after having five months off of golf, coming back and playing three tournaments in the fall and having two more months off, I just said, you know what, I'm just going to start back up in January fresh and go from there. Q. Talking to you guys last year around this time, I think at the Hope, you've obviously been very hands-on with the kids the entire time when you were home and all of that, and they've traveled with you a lot. What was it like for you being kind of the primary parent I would assume for quite a while? What was that experience like? DUDLEY HART: It definitely opened my eyes up to what my wife goes through on a day-to-day basis. Like I said, I had them basically for a month. We don't have a nanny, we don't have anything. My mother-in-law came in, but my wife ended up having the surgery in Pittsburgh, and my mother-in-law spent the whole time in Pittsburgh because my wife wanted the kids to stay in school. They were going to preschool, but she wanted their routine to stay as normal as possible, so I stayed home with the kids. It was a blast. It was stressful at times. I mean, we moved. During this time I had to pack up. Anybody with wives, if you can imagine having to pack, because we went from a rental house we were building into a two-bedroom apartment for two months because our house wasn't done. Try to pack for your wife for three months. That was the scariest part of all, I think. I ended up going to Bed, Bath and Beyond and buying about eight big tubs and just threw everything in. I figured I couldn't go wrong that way. I just said, there's everything. I unpacked into the apartment, and by the time we moved out of that apartment she was fine, so she helped me move out of that apartment into the new house. It was very scary. Until they got it out of there, we didn't know for sure -- the doctors kept saying, well, generally these things are not too bad, and they were being very positive, but they also were saying we don't know for sure until we get in there and see what exactly is going on. You know, you have a lot of negative thoughts, what if something -- crazy things happen, and if it's really bad -- it opens your eyes to what's truly important sometimes. I think we all take for granted what we have, whatever we're doing, and take our health for granted. You know, it definitely scared me. I kept looking at those kids, and I'm like, I can't imagine -- God forbid when they get that tumor out it comes back bad and something happens and they don't have their mom around. So that fortunately wasn't the issue. But you have a lot of positive and negative thoughts, but the negative ones really scare you. Q. How old is she, and when was the surgery, and how long did you go without picking up a club? DUDLEY HART: She is 36, and she -- when was the surgery? The surgery was in -- it was May 21st. She had surgery on her birthday. May 21st. Happy birthday (laughing). I didn't touch a club for at least probably -- well, I wouldn't say -- for the most part I didn't touch a club for a month. I may have snuck out when the kids were in school and hit balls a couple times, but I didn't play much until she got out of the hospital. I played a couple times with my buddy that's caddying for me, Dave Young. We'd go out and play three times a week and I'd beat him up for a little pride. But I didn't do a lot -- I really didn't practice. I didn't practice at all for three months. I'd play a few days with my friends, like I said, but that was it. Q. Where did you move to? DUDLEY HART: Buffalo, New York. Q. You were in Florida. Did I miss something? DUDLEY HART: Well, it gets kind of boring when it's 80 degrees every day. We moved the summer of '06, so just a year and a half basically, going on two years. Q. Robert Floyd was in here yesterday talking about your Pro-Am victory. It's already, what, been 14 years? DUDLEY HART: Yeah. Q. You like this place, you have a good record. You didn't play real well as an individual I don't think that year. At least you weren't at the top of the leaderboard -- DUDLEY HART: I was until Sunday. Thanks for bringing that up. Just kidding. Q. You played in the last group? DUDLEY HART: Yeah, I played in the last group. That's when Johnny won. Q. Was that Pro-Am or your score that got you in the last group? DUDLEY HART: I think we were pretty good as an Am. We won the team, so the team had to be doing pretty good, too, but it was my score. I assume that's how they do it. Q. You've had some decent results around here. Obviously some people don't like it, and people who didn't come can look and say I should have been there, but do you like showing up here every year? DUDLEY HART: I do. Nobody likes it when the weather gets nasty. I say there's no place more beautiful than Pebble when it's pretty, and it can be really ugly when it's not pretty. There's like two sides to it. I do like coming here. I mean, I enjoy it. It's just the weather -- the Opens that I've played here have been great. The weather is the only issue that I think scares guys away because when you get a lot of rain, the greens and all the traffic on the greens, the greens get chewed up. The guys are like, oh, I always lose my confidence when I go putt and see the ball go like that. I just come here and try to say, you know what, hopefully for every one that bounces off-line maybe one will bounce back on-line and go in for me and hopefully they'll even each other out. Q. (Inaudible) was saying he thought this is the best the greens have been since the 2000 Open. DUDLEY HART: I'd probably agree with that. Yeah, No. 15 is a little -- they don't have a lot of grass on that green, but the greens are really good. The greens at Spyglass today were about as good as you can expect greens to be. I mean, they're really good over there. Firm, not leaving real big ball marks. They're rolling nice. Q. What's it like to be back? Obviously to be playing again, but obviously your family is not with you. Is it more difficult now given everything that's happened in the last year? DUDLEY HART: Yeah, it's going to be harder now because my kids are in kindergarten and can't travel quite as much. They've got to go to school. So in the last five years they could come out whenever they wanted basically. I'm going to get a little taste of what everybody else with older kids goes through on TOUR now. I'm not looking forward to that part of it because to be honest with you, I love doing what I do, but my fear is I don't want to look back when I'm 48, 50 years old and say, man, look at all the stuff I missed with my kids. So it's going to be a tough year, and it's going to be -- maybe I'll play a couple weeks, not play a week. Just the way I'm going to try to -- I can't go out for a month in a row. It's just too hard to be away from the clan for that long. Q. Why did you move to Buffalo, just because you're a big hockey fan or what? DUDLEY HART: Well, I am a big hockey fan, but I grew up in Buffalo. I moved away a while ago. I finished high school in Florida, but I always felt like Buffalo was home. My kids were getting to school age and not real fond of the schools in Florida. The school system in New York is great. I have a lot of friends up there. To be honest with you, I just got to the point in Florida where I wasn't looking forward to going home. I was tired of the rat race down there. It just wasn't for me. I can't knock it; the weather is great. The people in Buffalo are what I call more real-like people. It's not superficial, it's not what kind of car do you drive, how big is your house kind of thing. It's not a contest like South Florida can be is my feeling. Now I'll probably have to withdraw from the Honda (laughter). I can't go play the Honda now (laughter). But it was just -- it was more family-oriented. I just thought it would be a better place to raise my kids. Q. You went to high school in Florida? DUDLEY HART: Yeah, I finished high school, yeah. Q. Where is Suzanne from? DUDLEY HART: Suzanne is actually a native Floridian. She went for it. It took me a couple years of negotiating, and she actually loves it. She brings it up on her own. We went to Florida for Christmas and we were there 24 hours, and she's like, you know, the weather is nice but I just -- she just doesn't miss it. She really enjoys it. She has more good friends in Buffalo in a year and a half than she had in Florida. It's hard to explain. I mean, Buffalo gets ragged on a lot because of the weather and the town, but there's a lot of great people, and it's a great place to raise a family. Plus you can build a really nice house for almost nothing. Q. Given everything that's happened in the last year, are you at all surprised to be at the top of the leaderboard? DUDLEY HART: Not really. I mean, it's -- I've been out here for -- this is my 18th year, so I'm not going to get ahead of myself. I know there's a lot of work to do tomorrow, but I'm happy to have a chance, happy to be in there and happy to have an opportunity to go -- it's a lot better than barely making the cut and going out there and trying to shoot 60 to make any kind of move. It's just nice to see something positive happen. No matter what happens tomorrow, I've done some good stuff already this week that I can build on, and hopefully tomorrow the putter works again and I can hit enough good shots to give myself some chances. Q. Obviously as you said no matter what happens tomorrow you've played well and taken a step forward. Do you allow yourself to think what it would mean to win, not just the money, but also I would imagine it allows more flexibility in your schedule if you were to get a win? DUDLEY HART: That too. That would, to be honest, be probably one of the best parts of that. But like I said, I mean, there's 18 more holes to go and there's a lot of work to do and there's a lot of hard shots to hit and putts to make. I've been out here long enough to know that you've got to go out there and you've got to grind and you've got to try to be as positive as you can and try to be aggressive when you can be. Not to give you the old cliché, but just kind of play the way you know you can play and try to give yourself the best opportunity you can. Q. You mentioned that concentrating was one of the tough things about coming back after the long layoff. Do you find it easier to concentrate in this kind of a format or harder to concentrate? DUDLEY HART: I think it depends how you analyze it. I think sometimes it can be distracting because you're not -- you have amateur partners you're playing with, guys who may be wanting you to read putts or asking you how much uphill or downhill things are. My partner has been great this week. He's asked for a little bit of advice but he's got a good caddie that's a pro at home in Buffalo. My partner is from Buffalo, we know him. So that helps a little bit. But I think if anything, playing in this type of format, sometimes if you let it, it can distract you a little bit because the amateurs haven't played 9 million tournaments and they don't necessarily know all the etiquette, where to stand, where not to stand. They try, but it gets confusing. They're nervous sometimes and they're not paying attention. If you let it, I think sometimes it can be more of a distraction. Q. With respect to what happened to you and your family last year, when you started out in January, was it almost a sense of great freedom or urgency to make up for lost time? DUDLEY HART: Maybe more freedom. I really wasn't anxious or urgent. I got anxious to get out and play. I know my wife was ready to get me out of the house. The time off was nice but I know she likes her space, too. But it was more anxious to get going. The long break, it's the most I've taken off, really. I had wrist surgery and I took basically five months off, but this was a little bit longer and a lot more stressful obviously with what was going on. But it's good to come out and see your friends and get back to -- this is all I know. I mean, I'm not really qualified to do anything else, so it was nice to get back to work. Q. You're renowned, almost beloved, for a short fuse inside the ropes. DUDLEY HART: What do you mean by that (laughter)? Q. Has that changed at all? DUDLEY HART: I think it's mellowed. I'd like to sit here and tell you that it's completely gone because of that, but when you get inside the ropes and you're playing and your competitive juices are going, you know, you still get -- I still get a little fired up. I still got a little fired up today a couple times with some shots that I hit where I wasn't really thinking right, which bothers me more than anything really because that's something I can control. You know, I think where it's mellowed me more is off the golf course where it doesn't bother me as long after I play bad. I go out and practice and do what I can and try to prepare and then whatever happens, happens, kind of thing. But when you're playing inside, it's hard to take away some of that fire sometimes. Q. Did you have any discussions at all with Duval last year, and at what point were you aware of the family crisis portion of that? DUDLEY HART: Well, I didn't talk to David at all, but I knew of his situation because the guys from the TOUR told me that David was in a similar situation. We were looking at it -- and they asked me a little bit about it, and obviously I'm a little biased on it, but I said, whatever you guys rule is not going to really change what I'm doing. I have to do what I have to do. Obviously we didn't know how long -- we didn't know what was going to happen. But I told them, I said whether you do it for David and I, I think you guys need to look at it, because as it turned out for me and for David, everything worked out well. But unfortunately it's the way life is; it's only a matter of time before something even more serious happens to another player. You know, it's tough, to tell somebody okay, sorry that happened, but your job is no longer available, go back to Q-school. That would be a tough way to handle things. I don't think that's quite the way to do it, and the TOUR fortunately looked at it that way, too. Q. Did you make an inquiry? DUDLEY HART: Very casually. I mean, to be honest with you, I'm not one to kind of lobby for things, because especially in that situation it would look a little selfish because I'm trying to help myself out in a way, and even though I was in favor and I was happy and glad that they made that ruling, but they asked me a little bit about it, like I said, and I told them what I felt. I said, listen, whether you do it for us or not, I think you need to do it down the road. It was a little bit unprecedented because it was in the middle of the season. Apparently they don't change -- it's kind of hard to change guidelines during the year. But from what I understand, basically every player they talked to was 100 percent behind it. Pretty much everybody out here has families, kids, married, whatever, and they can put themselves in our shoes. You know, hopefully not, but it can happen to anybody. Q. Would you mind going through your card real quick? DUDLEY HART: I birdied -- you just want me to go through birdies basically? Basically parred 1, parred 2, birdied 3. I hit an 8-iron about 12 feet left of the hole, made that for birdie. Then I went on a string of a bunch of pars, a couple good up-and-downs. I hit it in the front bunker on 9, tough bunker shot and got that up-and-down. Kind of hung in there, I didn't hit it very good in the middle of the round, didn't give myself a lot of good birdie chances and kind of scrambling a little bit, but kind of got it going at the end on 15. I hit a -- just chipped a little 9-iron downwind -- into the wind, sorry, downhill, about 25 feet, made it for birdie. The next hole, I made a good up-and-down out of the right bunker on 16. 17, I hit a pretty good tee shot just in the right rough, just went through the fairway, and hit a sand wedge about ten feet behind the hole. Then pretty tough little downhill, real fast putt, and wiggled that one in for birdie. 18, I hit a drive and I hit a pitching wedge about 10, 12 feet again, actually had a pretty decent putt, pretty straight up the hill to a tough pin. Ball just happened to stop in a perfect spot for me, and I made that one for birdie. Q. How big is it that you had no bogeys? DUDLEY HART: For me that's a miracle to be honest with you. I told Dave when we were done on the green, I said, well, I think I just beat my stroke average at Spyglass by about six shots, so that's a bonus. I went into today trying not to -- sometimes when you don't have success somewhere you can kind of psych yourself out a little bit, and you go, oh, crap. As soon as something not-so-great happens, you're like, here we go again. That was kind of my goal today was just to keep grinding, do some funny things, just keep going and do the best you can on that course. I love the golf course, I just haven't played well there she often. Today was a different story. End of FastScripts |
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