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THE HONDA CLASSIC

February 27, 2008

Boo Weekley

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome Boo Weekley to the Honda Classic media center. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. You're playing well right now. You've had I think three of your last four events have been Top 10's. Just bring us up to speed and what's going right for you.
BOO WEEKLEY: I've been putting pretty good. Hitting it solid, too. So that's kind of been the plus. Still making a few mistakes and a few errors. Made a bunch of them on Woody at the world play there, whatever that was, Match Play. That's kind of the reason why I came on home early.

Q. This tournament last year, it was a disappointing finish for you, but you played a lot of great golf. Coming here, is there good vibes, bad vibes; how do you feel about coming back?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, to be able to come back where you almost won, that's always a good vibe. That's the way you've got to take it. I'm ready to go play. We hope the outcome is a little better than it was last year if I get in that circumstance.
At the same time I just want to go out and focus on golf and play the best that I can play, win, lose or draw.

Q. The last couple years, obviously things have changed a great deal for you. I mean, you're a popular guy wherever you go and people love to talk to you, fans are always -- you're a big deal out there now. Are you comfortable kind of still in your own skin with that? Are you comfortable just being this country guy from north Florida and having all this attention on you all the time wherever you go?
BOO WEEKLEY: It gets kind of aggravating but it's still fun. All them people that you talk to outside the ropes, and they wish they could be here. They wish they could be the one walking inside them ropes and talking to all them people and just being in my footsteps. It's kind of an honor to say that, hey, I'm inside the ropes and this is what I do for a living.
It does getting aggravating to where sometimes, you know, people are hollering your name. It's like, all right, look, guys, I've heard enough of my name; I know who I am. But it's fun. It's always fun. That's the way I like to keep it, and I'm still going to be the same person whether I'm on this tour, the Nationwide Tour or mini-tours.

Q. Just because there is so much more attention on you now and everyone knows your name and everyone is screaming it all the time at you, has it been hard for you to not change and not kind of get all wrapped up in the success and the surge of popularity?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, I think that's what happened to me my first year out in '02. I kind of got caught up, you know, with, I'm on the PGA TOUR, I'm a big guy now, I'm out here with the big boys, got a little starstruck with some of the things that was going on.
I went back to the Nationwide Tour and kind of regathered and had to rethink who I really was and as I person and as a player, what my goals were. And that was my whole concept in '06 when I finally just said, look, this is the year. Either I've got to quit, go home, get a job, or either I've got to play a little better.
And I started getting a little more motivated and focused on what I was doing and got back out here. Now it's kind of like, you still hear it and still kind of every now and then got caught up in the hoorah, but as soon as that's over with, it's like, all right I'm grounded again; let's get back to what we needed to be focusing on.

Q. You played already?
BOO WEEKLEY: I played nine this morning.

Q. Front or back?
BOO WEEKLEY: The front.

Q. So you haven't been to 18 yet?
BOO WEEKLEY: Mm-mmm. (Indicating no).

Q. For lack a better term, when you go back to the scene of the crime, is last year going to be in your head? Do you want it in your head, or is it something that in your make up you just try to block out what went on there last year?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's always going to be hard to block it out. You've got to think about it. That's my first chance of winning a PGA TOUR event. It's always going to be there.
But at the same time, that was last year and I'm just going to try to go out there and focus on what I've got to do. You know, I'm a 3-putt -- that's just who I am. The way I play golf is I have a lot of 3-putts, but at the same time, I make up for it with my birdies. It's just part of golf for me. It ain't the first time I've lost a tournament because I 3-putted on the last hole. I did that on mini-tours. If I gave up then, I wouldn't be here right now.

Q. When you get to 18 tomorrow, do you walk over to where that was, take a look at that 3-putt or whatever it was, or do you push it away?
BOO WEEKLEY: No. I'll probably put it all over the green like I do the other holes. Like we played No. 4 today, I think last year we got up on the tee box and I told my boy, Joe, my caddie, I said, "Look I reckon we need to do something different here because last year we played it 3-over and this is one of the shortest holes on the golf course."
I'm going to go over there and practice putting where I missed that, but that's just part of golf. You have to keep going. Every golf course I play, I'm going to have a 3-putt. It's just very rare if I do.

Q. Obviously the 3-putts don't bother you a whole lot; is that just because that's the nature of your game? You must try to minimize them or eliminate them.
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, yeah, ain't nobody wants to 3-putt, but it's just part of how I play golf. It just happens. It just happens. Some people's got what happens to them on certain holes on certain golf courses. For me, every time I tee up, I'm not going to 3-putt every time I go out and play 18 holes, but most likely, I won't be disappointed if I do.

Q. At this time of year when the TOUR comes back to this side of the country, is it only natural that you start thinking about Augusta more and more and more at this time of year?
BOO WEEKLEY: No. My first trip going to Augusta, I didn't even know when it was. I was going to play all the way through to Houston, you know, and then take the week off. I didn't know after Houston was Augusta.

Q. So what are you going to do?
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, I'm going to take two weeks off now before to get ready. But I reckon I can get ready. I reckon I just go home and do some turkey hunting, that's how I prepare.

Q. Did you watch many Masters going up? Do you have memories of a great Masters?
BOO WEEKLEY: The one that Tiger when he chipped it in the ball, on whatever hole that was.

Q. Do you watch golf on TVs?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'm not a big golf watcher. I know I'm supposed to be representing the TOUR, but I'd much rather be watching NASCAR.

Q. You've always been this way, not much changes you but Augusta, it's the Holy Grail, or it's certainly among the Holy Grails of where this game has played. How are you going to not get all wrapped up in that when it's time to go there for that first time and actually see it for the first time?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't know. We'll wait until I get there, look me up and we'll see if I'm still the same person or if I'm changed. I don't know how, I know it's a little different.

Q. A lot of guys go there and they know about the history and they get all nervous going down Magnolia Lane; not having that could possibly help you.
BOO WEEKLEY: It might. It's just golf, man. I know it's supposed to be the elite golf tournament of the year or whatever, but it's still golf.
DOUG MILNE: You said you were at home looking at your house the other day. Bring us up to speed on what you're doing. You're building right next door to where you currently are?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'm living in a trailer right now and then I'm building a house exactly about 15 feet right out the front door. I'm just about ready to blow it up and start all over again I reckon. (Laughter) I don't know, it's aggravating.
We was supposed to be in Halloween and then we was supposed to be in at Thanksgiving and then we was supposed to be in at Christmas and it's kind of like, all right, when are we going to be in it, period. But he says we're supposed to be in in 21 days as soon as the cabinets are in or the countertop is in, which I think they are supposed to be in this Wednesday, tomorrow, or Thursday. So maybe from there we can be in, I hope two months.

Q. By Easter?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't want to throw another one out there. I would like to be home so when we do move in, at least I can help move some of the stuff. But if not, we'll have to hire somebody when I'm not there.
DOUG MILNE: Did you have any hand in actually putting any of it together, any piece of the house?
BOO WEEKLEY: No. I wasn't home half the time, you know. We changed a little bit here and there on it, but they kind of come in and did the rest of it.

Q. What do you consider your actual hometown? Is it Milton?
BOO WEEKLEY: My hometown before I live is Jay. I'm from East Milton.

Q. When you think of that area, what does it mean to you?
BOO WEEKLEY: I think the good Lord started there first and then went everywhere else. (Laughter).
He's given us everything, I mean, seriously. We've got everything you could think of down there, except snow, thank goodness. Don't want no snow, which it snows about once every five years, but it just don't stick. But you can see it.

Q. How long has the house been under construction?
BOO WEEKLEY: I think the end of this month will be six months.

Q. How big is it?
BOO WEEKLEY: I think it's 3,100 square feet, something like that. Got a big master bedroom, is like a 20 X 20, it's big. And then it's gotten-foot ceilings all the way through it. Got two kids rooms, you know. I've got a bonus room upstairs. I think it's a 25 X 19 or 25 X 18, something like that. That's going to be my Alabama room and where I hang all my deer heads since I can't hang them over the mantle.

Q. What has been the delay in construction? Anything specific?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's just part of what's going on down there. You know, for a while there, we had some bad weather whether they was trying to put the roof on. You know, storms are coming through and stuff like that. So that had us delayed.
And then just Sheetrock, you know, just little nicks and cranny things. Ordered the wrong doors, wrong windows. I mean, they have got to be up to a certain code where we live up. They have to be up there, I think 160-mile-per-hour winds and we put in 130. And you know, they had to come back and had to re-buy some new windows. We had to pull them out and put new ones in. If we had been living across the street about 70 yards from where the house is being built, we live on the other side, they had to be up to 120-mile-per-hour codes. So it's just crazy.

Q. That's why you want to blow it up and move it over to the other side.
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I don't want to have to buy the land on the other side.

Q. Is there hunting and fishing right outside your house?
BOO WEEKLEY: I can get in my golf cart and be in think m I tree stand within ten minutes. I can be on the river in the same golf cart in about 20 minutes if I wanted to ride that far with it. It wouldn't pull my boat or jet skis or nothing.

Q. This tournament moved around a lot and obviously found a home here. You know, last year at 5-under, being the winning score, nobody found it too terribly easy. Are you surprised so many guys came back and that this field is probably even a little bit stronger than last year's was?
BOO WEEKLEY: I think a lot of people should come play in it. It's still a lot of the guys advantage that it don't take that much to win. I mean, you know, there's not a whole lot of birdies out here, but at the same time there is. If somebody gets on a roll, they can run away with it; if you're hitting solid and putting it good. But I think the field should be big here every year. It should be good, because it's such a good golf course, good lay-up, good venue.

Q. What do you think of the Bear Trap holes, 15, the par 3, 16, the par 4, and then 17, the par 3?
BOO WEEKLEY: You know, I just found out that was called a Bear Trap earlier today. I didn't even know it was called a Bear Trap. It's pretty good.

Q. Do you see why they have a name for it?
BOO WEEKLEY: No. I don't know, I just go and play golf, dude. If it looks like a tough hole and I hit it in the fairway, I'll turn around from the fairway and look back at the tee box and try to pick a line, you know, and say, okay, if I can start it on this line, and whichever way the wind is blowing, it should be good, it should be in the middle of the fairway if I can start it on that line. I look at the golf course backwards in a lot of ways and a lot of players do.

Q. Do you remember what you were hitting into 16 last year when the wind was really blowing?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I think it was 4-iron or 5-iron, somewhere in there.

Q. Is there a tournament in golf that would mean more to you winning than any other? Is there one in particular or are they pretty much --
BOO WEEKLEY: They are all the same to me.

Q. If you had a choice, would you choose to be a consistent performer who makes a lot of money on TOUR but doesn't win very much, or a guy who maybe wins a major or two, gets a couple really good wins but then fizzles out and can't stay consistent on TOUR every year?
BOO WEEKLEY: I want to be consistent.

Q. Why is that?
BOO WEEKLEY: I mean, it ain't about winning. I mean, it is, but at the same time, if I don't, I want to do my time out here and when my time's done, I want to be able to float back and say, you know, I played the best golf I could play there in that time I was out here. And if it wasn't good enough to win, it wasn't good enough to win.
But at the same time, I made enough, I'm happy where I'm at, I'm happy with who I am; I'll see you later. I'll check out of here and go do my fishing and hunting and have fun.

Q. If so much of sports is determined by wins and losses, but is golf a sport where you don't have to win; you can still be respected if you never win, but you have Top-10s?
BOO WEEKLEY: You know, that's where y'all come into play. That's where y'all are going to do the criticizing if we don't win or if we don't do this or we don't do that. Like Sergio, y'all get on Sergio and y'all write things about him that says, hey, he should be winning and he should be in the top five in the world. He's just playing golf. He's playing steady golf. There's nothing wrong with that.

Q. We know this is a long time ago, or a few months a way, what was the experience in China like for you, being over in that part of the world for the first time?
BOO WEEKLEY: It was different. We didn't get to see a whole lot because they drove us straight back to the golf course and straight back to the hotel. So we just really didn't get to see a whole lot. It was pretty neat getting to see the stuff that people were driving because you see a motorcycle with six or seven kids hanging off of them; they looked like a bunch of monkeys, dude. I ain't kidding you. I was like, Holy Cow, you pull up to a red light and whoever started honking the most, he got to go first. (Laughter). You can't understand them.

Q. It's kind of like out here in that regard.
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I don't live down here. Where I live, you get either run over or shot at. (Laughter.)

Q. Is it a place you would go back to to see, not for golf?
BOO WEEKLEY: No. I ain't going back over there unless I'm doing some business over there.

Q. You say you want to put in your time here; what is your time?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't know yet. I ain't got that far.

Q. Is it a time factor or is it a money factor?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's a little of both. I want to be able to go home and watch my kids grow up. My boy is six years old right now. I didn't even have a clue what he's done from the time he was about half a year old until he was three years old, four years old. I didn't even have a clue. You know, I didn't know the things that he liked.
Ands way I was raised with my family, we were real close. All my family is real close. I kind of had my daddy in the afternoon, my mama was there every afternoon and I want to be able to do the same thing. I want to be able to raise my children the same way.

Q. Even though you didn't win last year, you took something away there it obviously that you were able to carry through to Hilton Head; what was that?
BOO WEEKLEY: That I can compete out here. That's the biggest thing. A lot of the guys that's coming up from the Nationwide Tour, the guys that make it through Q-School is that you have got to get a feeling that you belong out here, and that's the whole goal is to be able to get to where you feel comfortable, and I finally got to where I was comfortable. You know, I proved to myself that I can play with the best.
And all the best might not have been here, but that week, that was the best that was here, you know. And I proved to myself that I can compete. Now, granted, I choked. That's just part of golf. Y'all watch a lot more golf than I have, so you can tell me how many times you've seen people choke. It happens. That's why this is the hardest game in the world to play and to win at.
That's what makes Tiger Woods so amazing to me is that kid, he is by far the greatest athlete that has walked this earth during my era, my time.

Q. In your 14 months back on the big tour, what are the main couple things that you've learned besides that you belong and you can compete against the best players?
BOO WEEKLEY: I had to learn how to play golf. I mean, I come out here with an attitude that, you know, I can hit it from any spot you put me in. Put me in any place, any tee box, I can hit any shot that they can hit. I had to learn the hard way that I can't. I can't hit all them shots. You know, you've got to set it up to what fits you.
You know, you've got to play my game instead of trying to play somebody else's. Like I see somebody hit a lot on the golf course, well, next thing I know, I'm out on the driving range trying to hit that same shot, trying to work on it. Well, instead of just saying, okay, I'm going to just focus on mine and trying to do what I have to do to make myself better.

Q. That was more the first time you were a rookie and did that; when you came back, you kind of knew who you were.
BOO WEEKLEY: I knew how to control my anger, my speed, just a lot -- actually just control who I was, because I get in such a big hurry out there on the golf course. That's why a lot of people like to see me back there, I'm like usually the last one walking up, because I'm in such a hurry. I want to get there, get me a number and let me pull the trigger.
I think for me, the less I think about it, the better shot I'm going to hit and the better golf I'm going to play because I ain't sitting there worrying about, oh, it's over water or where is that bunker at. Just stand up there and pull the trigger, let's go.

Q. If you taught golf, first of all, could you teach golf? Fred Couples, he has a hard time explaining what he does; he just kind of does it. If you taught golf, I get the impression that you would keep it very simple to who you taught it to.
BOO WEEKLEY: Yes, sir. I wouldn't mind, it wouldn't hurt my feelings, you know, later in life if I'm done playing golf or whatever I'm done doing, it wouldn't hurt my feelings to go to the high school and maybe be the golf coach or to go out to the clubhouse or the pro shops around our area there and each week, you know, work with the head pros and see if we can do some teaching with the kids. It would be great for me.

Q. What would you teach them?
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, first thing is I would teach them to have a good attitude on the golf course. Because if you don't have a great attitude on the golf course, you ain't going to have fun out there; and if you ain't going to have fun, you ain't going to be able to play good golf.

Q. You have been known -- I'll just give a couple, in the golf community, as one of the game's best ball-strikers, and one of the game's most likable characters, those two things. What do you think of those two and which one do you like better?
BOO WEEKLEY: I like someone to think that I was a great guy. Ball-striking, I don't think I'm as good as I once was, kind of like that country song, you know. I've got a little older and got a little more, I reckon where I've kind of got some sore issues with some hands and shoulders and feet and stuff like that and it turns into play with my golfing. But I don't think I'm as good a ball-striker as I once was.
DOUG MILNE: Boo, as always, we appreciate your time. Best of luck this week. Best of luck all year.
BOO WEEKLEY: Thank you. Have a good day.

End of FastScripts

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