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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

April 17, 2008

Mike Hulbert

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVE SENKO: Well, Mike, thank you for joining us. Maybe just start us off by talking about this, your first event. I know you probably were anticipating this day arriving, and just what your thoughts are of finally joining the Champions Tour.
MIKE HULBERT: Well, I appreciate what you just said, but the problem was, I started thinking about this when I was about 46, and the days seemed to go by a little bit slower. If I would have not thought about it for maybe the last year -- but anyways, it's here. I know I'm a new fish in the pond, and it's just nice to be back, seeing old faces, getting back competing again against those guys.
DAVE SENKO: You obviously had an opportunity to talk to some guys, guys you played with on TOUR. What kind of things did they tell but what to expect when you came out?
MIKE HULBERT: Well, it's been a little bit of a variety, but most of the guys were, for one, telling me that the guys out here can still play, and play really well, and I knew that. Can't help it by the scores they are putting up week-after-week. So I knew that.
So I think they were just pretty much warning me, don't expect to come out and jump right in the fire and people falling off the edge for you. But I knew that. I've been working hard trying to stay in shape.
You know, we'll see, who knows. People ask me, you feel all right; I don't know how I feel. Alls I know is I'm getting ready to play golf again, and I feel like a rookie, so it's almost like when I was a rookie out there on the regular tour, except you know you're going to get paid every week out here.
So, you know, with a little less -- I told some guys on the radio the other day. It felt like less grinding. I'm not grinding as much. On the regular TOUR, you're grinding every single round, and I don't know why, it's just the nature of it. You just felt like you keep your head pointed ahead and grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, and a lot of the guys said, "You know, it's great out here, you'll have a lot of fun. Have as much fun as you possibly can and enjoy the walk."
It kind of gets you in that mode, you play in a lot of Pro-Ams, and that's kind of the mode you kind of get in out here.
DAVE SENKO: Any guys you've talked to, guys that are currently playing out here?
MIKE HULBERT: Jay Haas. We used to stay together a lot, so I've stayed in touch with him. I'm always picking his brain a little bit. Last year I stayed with Bobby Wadkins. Those were the early guys I talked to. A little bit with Thorpe, and a little bit with Fleisher and Irwin and then I also talked to the guys -- recently I walked to Wiebe, and he's had a great run when he's come out, the younger guys coming out, a little bit with Donny Hammond when he played, he started last year.
The thing I got from most of them, it's like they really, really enjoy this tour. They just enjoy the Tour, and you know, forget about the money, forget about what's at the end. They just enjoy coming out here. It's just everything is a little bit more laid back. I mean, heck, how about the practice rounds and whatever, you jump in a cart and start any hole you want and just practice away.
You know what, there's not many guys out here. Until a couple days ago, it was hard to find anybody, which is fine. I might not be showing how excited I am, but I'm really excited.

Q. Joey your buddy is also brand new to this, too. Joey won at Wachovia at 46 or 47, and he talked about that bridge that got him pretty much to this point; how much tougher has it been for you, because you didn't have that bridge, you had four or five years where you weren't getting the opportunities like a lot of the guys were.
MIKE HULBERT: Yeah, it was tough, because seeing if you were going to get in on your past status, which wasn't very much, and you had to go the exemption -- right for exemption right for quite a few years. And you know, when you do happen to get a spot, you want to make sure you play well for more people than just yourself, the tournament people. You put a little more pressure on yourself.
So I wasn't -- I didn't have that bridge. Although I tried to compete as much as I could. It was hard. It kind of got to me. It kind of grinded and grinded and grinded on me, because I was wanting to play so bad, so well, that it just wasn't happening.
Now I feel like, I don't know, I said to somebody the other day, I felt like when I turned 50 on Monday, it felt like a piano was lifted off my back, and you can take that any way you want. There was a relief. It was like, okay. I know they can play but I feel like my game is there, and I feel like I can compete with what I've got.

Q. What do you expect Joey to do out here?
MIKE HULBERT: Well, I think Joey will be fine. I was expecting him to do well just because he's had success in the last couple three years on the regular TOUR, competing out there and being in the hunt a few times, making a bunch of cuts and doing this and that and still shooting scores. So maybe we take for granted that he's going to come out here and just tear it up, but he might.
I'm not worried about him. He's going to be fine. He talked to me after the first week, and he said, "I don't know what it was, but I was jumpy, I was as nervous and jumpy as I've ever been."
So he says, "I'm just kind of warning you a little bit. I talked to Fred Funk. I talked to a couple other guys, they were real jumpy, the first week. I'm just giving you fair warning."
I said, "Heck, I've been like that the last receive especially years." He'll do fine. You had a feeling, your Bernhard Langers; Joey will get going. We're still waiting to see the Nick Prices and Mark O'Mearas and John Cooks, although Cookie did win in the fall, but we are looking for those guys to win on a consistent basis.
You come out here and you just try to hang on to some of their coattails and follow their lead and go from there. There's some guys that really latched on and they get it, they get the system out here. Brad Bryant has been a perfect example. He's played his tail off the last 2 1/2 years. But he did it his way and that's that. But you've got what I call your good players coming off the TOUR: Your Loren Roberts, Joey, Langer, Cookie, O'Meara, you've got to move them right up to the front of the bus here so to speak. It will happen in due time.
That's the same way I'm approaching it. I'm not expecting anything. The seas are not going to part for me. You still have to play golf. But if you play this game for a living, you're competitive. I just want to get my competitive juices flowing again.

Q. Have you been thinking about what it's going to be like or do you know how you'll feel when you put the tee in the ground for the first tee and they call your name?
MIKE HULBERT: It's starting to come through my head. You know, I felt good the other day in the Pro-Am and when I did turn 50, and reality set in.
Yeah, if I'm not nervous, something's wrong. I'd be lying to you. So I just -- you know, hopefully the nerves will go away and after that first tee shot, and I'll be able to stick it in the ground and get it there, tee it up.
I feel pretty comfortable I can do that. Going forward, you know, as long as I keep playing golf in that direction, all the time, we're going to be fine. I'm paired with Wayne Grady this week. He's a good friend, so we're going to have a good time. Find out tonight who my amateur is. I've heard a lot of stuff about this tournament, all good stuff, and they said, this is one of the best tournaments we have out here, good crowds and they do it right, so I couldn't have thought of a better place to start.
DAVE SENKO: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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