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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 27, 2008Mark WilsonPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the Honda Classic defending champion, Mark Wilson, to the interview room. Thanks for joining us. Obviously 2007, a banner year for you. You got your first win on the PGA TOUR right here, and you finished 2007 strong, Top-10 at the Frys.com Open, and I guess so far this year, you've had a tie t-9 at FBR and a T-11 at the Northern Trust Open, so you're keeping the momentum going. A couple comments assessing the state of your game heading into this week? MARK WILSON: Yeah, my game feels pretty good so far this year, best start I've had on the West Coast, just kind of going with what I did last year where I didn't really practice a whole lot when I was home or preparing for an event. Just kind of when I got there, I did all my work on site and it's been working okay. So I haven't been grinding too hard and I feel more well-rested when the event starts. Had really three good chances to win. Tough round on Sunday at Pebble is really the only one that stands out as disappointing, but the ones at Northern Trust and at FBR, was really thrilled to play good at FBR in front of that rowdy crowd, first time I had had a chance to play there. DOUG MILNE: You had just mentioned the course here, just a couple comments on the course, you got out and saw it yesterday. MARK WILSON: The course is looking really good, just a couple minor changes. Moved the bunker a little further on No. 10 to make it much more difficult to carry. And maybe not as much rough as I remember last year, so you have a better chance of getting to the green if you do hit in the rough. But still, playing tough. I had forgotten how tough it was. You know, obviously daydreamed about this tournament, coming here and kind of played through the holes and was sort of thinking, they are not that tough. Then played yesterday and didn't make a birdie until the last hole. Q. How many did you play in Florida last year, finally? MARK WILSON: Yeah, I played this one and the rest of them, and then I played THE PLAYERS Championship, too. Q. The scores on the Florida Swing last year, I think the lowest score among the four from here through Doral was 10-under. Is there now a tougher stretch on TOUR of four consecutively? This was 5-under and then 10-under and I'm trying to remember the sequence of it. But you used to be able to come here and light it up, and now it's become a little more punitive, it seems. MARK WILSON: Yeah, it's different. I remember being at Bay Hill on Sunday getting ready to play, and I was teeing off kind of early, I didn't play great at Bay Hill but a couple of us were talking about how we are just exhausted after three weeks playing, because the rough was really difficult at Bay Hill, and it was tough here. The bunkers were really tough the way the bunkers were; the way the ball just kind of sat down in them. So it did, you were mentally exhausted at the end of each week, and then you had to turn it around and do it again. We had a little break at Doral, seemed to play a little softer, not as tough. But I think that's where it seems like everyone is going. They don't like to see 25-under par winning a tournament for some reason. They don't like to see that many birdies. They like to see it around 10-under par. And I prefer that setup. I think you still see enough birdies. It's for what the fans want to see, but it doesn't end up just being a putting contest amongst the pros. Q. Is there a real tangible difference in your mind-set when you come back to a tournament as the defending champion? MARK WILSON: I've only done it a few times on mini-tour event. I know in the past I've kind of put way too many expectations on myself so I'm trying to go into this week with low expectations and try to get myself back to the feelings I had going into last year's tournament where I was just kind of doing the best I could and you know, I still remember opening with 2-over par the first day, and it was a tough, windy day. I wasn't devastated by that. I was always looking to the next day, trying to make the cut, and lo and behold there I was in contention on Sunday. I guess I've figured out with tournament golf, it can happen that easily. You just have to keep plugging along. But at the same time I have to remember the successes I've had here and try to feed off those and the good shots I hit last year and the good putts I made and remember those when I'm faced with a similar shot. Q. Obviously the story kind of kept snowballing and snowballing as you stayed closer and closer to the lead last year and ultimately ended up winning, of course, does it surprise you how much attention you got and still get for doing something that seemed second nature, the absolute right thing? MARK WILSON: I guess it makes for something you can write about, you know, versus just talking about golf. So it makes it something different than, "Oh, he made this putt" or "he hit that shot." I guess it shows that there's more to the game than just hitting the ball in the hole. You know, I think that's maybe why it snowballed. Q. Trying to remember whether you had ever in the past kept your card, so I apologize -- MARK WILSON: (Shaking head no). Q. Then this will be a good question. What was it like heading into the off-season knowing you were good for two more years? MARK WILSON: Well, it was good timing. I don't know if you guys know, we had a son August 27th, so I was able to enjoy time with him. I only played two tournaments -- well, let's see, three tournaments after he was born. Normally I would have to be grinding away trying to keep my card, and if not, then go to Q-School and spend all that time. So it was a blessing that I was able to spend all the time with him and still find myself being very interested in Q-School, but would you tell me looking where my name is in relation to the other guys. But I've still got a lot of friends out there that were trying to make it, and it was fun watching them and hoping that they would make it out here. Q. Kind of back on the tough course issue here, do you take any sort of significance in the fact that last year, other than the majors, you won the tournament that had the highest winning score on TOUR? MARK WILSON: I do. I certainly do. I think, also, being it's the first time that we all saw the course, you just don't know maybe how tough or how certain holes are going to play. I think -- I don't want to make a prediction this year, but I really feel like the winning score is going to be lower than 5-under, closer to 10-under I'm thinking. I don't know what the weather is going to be like, but I know we had a lot of wind last year, and I think we all are a little more comfortable with the course. With that being said, it is tough, and it's going to take a lot of good shots and good putting to win it. But I am proud that I won on a tough layout. Q. So they shaved a par off last year? MARK WILSON: No, it was 70, I believe last year. Q. 10 wasn't a five last year? MARK WILSON: No, 10 was a four and so was No. 6. Q. They said they were going to change the sand after the complaints last year; did you notice a change? MARK WILSON: Yeah, definitely. I hit it in a couple fairway bunkers yesterday. It was much easier to get out of them. The ball set up better. Last year it went all the way down. It's like half the ball was buried just from rolling into it. That will help, just a couple shots right there I think to almost every player in the field. Q. What Tiger's doing right now, where do you put that in the annals of not just golf, but all sports. Does that trump MJ in your book? MARK WILSON: I guess it's tough to compare the two since it's more of a team thing with MJ, but he was obviously the biggest part of the Bulls and their success. I don't know, I guess I'm probably just like the rest of you in this room where you kind of just expect it. You know, when Tiger won the Match Play, I didn't really follow it, but then I heard the stat of how many birdies he made that week. It's like, "Oh, yeah, you just figure he's going to win no matter what." And he actually did it with great golf again. In match play it's tougher to measure, I guess, how well you play this week versus everyone else. I don't know, I know he's still got the perfect season going, and we'll see how far he goes. But it's very impressive, obviously. I echo Stewart Cink's comments that I heard. I'm a golf fan, too, and I agree with him. I haven't played with him yet on TOUR, but I look forward to the day; now that I'm a tournament winner, we should get paired together Thursday and Friday with the way the pairings go. So it should be fun to have a front row seat just like Stewart Cink. Q. Does it surprise you at this point that people would even ask about a perfect season or going after Byron's record, etc., etc.? MARK WILSON: Only with him, right, you talk about it. And you think it's possible. But for the longest time you thought it was impossible, but now with him coming along, each time he gets a few in a row, you go, "Oh, he could maybe do it," he could eclipse that 11 number or whatever. But it's funny, because I was watching that J.B. Holmes match, and if he loses that match, then they might start reading, like, oh, you know, Tiger took too much time off and maybe that was a fluke, those five in a row. And then he comes back and wins it and wins the whole tournament, so it's still going and here we are praising him. Q. Why do you suppose it is, you referenced homes 3-up with five to go; Baddeley had putts on 18 to win, 19 to win; and for reason, many have tried and many have failed, it doesn't seem like too many guys when they get to the eye-to-eye situation can get it done. I know the guy has got an aura but -- MARK WILSON: I think it's just pure luck, really. (Laughter). No, I was there, too. I was 2-up with five to go in '92 at the U.S. Junior and it was kind of like, I thought I had him and this mystique of everything around him, and I knew about it already then. Every tournament we go to as a junior, he would be the cover story before the tournament started. So you would read about him. I still remember that day playing and going, "Hey, I'm 2-up, this is really cool." But in the back of my mind, I knew that he had all the tools necessary to still hang in there. He had a sports psychologist on his bag, which was unheard of in junior golf like that. I just knew that he was going to hang in there, and lo and behold I made a couple mistakes, he made a birdie and he's the one holding the trophy at the end. It seems like it's continued here in professional golf. But believe me, we're trying. We're trying the best we can, and he's just a lot better than the rest of us. It's funny because in a 72-hole tournament, he certainly has the edge because the cream rises to the top. But in an 18-hole match, maybe we have a better chance. I feel like he looks at it more as a sense of urgency, that he has to get it done in 18 holes and he manages to do it. Q. Where is that event in '92; you're talking about the finals? MARK WILSON: Boston. Wollaston Golf Club in Milton, Massachusetts, a little suburb south of Boston. Q. To bring it back to here for a second, obviously you knew at this time a year ago you were a pretty good player, you obviously knew that before you won here. How much does a guy on TOUR that knows he's a good player need a win to almost validate, if only in his own mind, that that he truly belongs out here? MARK WILSON: Oh, it helps tremendously. I know when I got this that position, I had not been there very often on the PGA TOUR, especially leading going into Sunday, it was the first time ever. I was curious to see how I would do, too. And you know, when I actually did -- I was so nervous out there, I was even physically shaking and all that stuff, but my mind was in it so much that I was able to -- for the most part, make the ball go where I want it to. I hit some loose shots but still managed to get some putts in. I took a lot from that, realizing that no matter how shaky you might be physically that if your mind is in it, that you can get it done. DOUG MILNE: Mark, thanks for your time. Best of luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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