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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 6, 2008Boo WeekleyPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Boo Weekley, thank you for joining us here at THE PLAYERS Championship, playing in your second, and you finished T-44 last year and had a couple good rounds on the weekend. Maybe some opening comments about the golf course and your season so far; you won earlier this year at the Verizon Heritage. BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I did win earlier. The season has been great this year, been playing pretty solid, pretty steady. I haven't hit it as well as I would have liked, but I've been putting it real well. I got to play nine holes this morning on the golf course, and I'll tell you what, it's in great shape. The greens are a little firmer this year, fairways are a little firmer. I hope to see the greens stay like they are all week because they're rolling good. Q. I wonder if your experience at winning at Hilton Head twice will in any way be of assistance here, because you have the same architect do both courses, and there are some similarities in the green size; and the fairways are not as tight as at Hilton Head, but they're still fairly narrow in some places. Do you see that helping you at all? BOO WEEKLEY: I could see it helping if I was hit my driver a little better. I'm struggling right now with my clubs. I don't know what it is, but I'm struggling with the driver off the tee, and my irons ain't been top-notch a little bit this year. Like I said a while ago, my putting has came around, and usually I hit the ball pretty good and don't putt very well. I think I spent a little more time this year working on my putting than my ball-striking, and I think it shows. Q. The ball-striking didn't seem to be a problem at Hilton Head. BOO WEEKLEY: I mean, this golf course and Hilton Head are very much alike, you're right; but I think this golf course is like on steroids versus that over there. It's the same kind of golf course, it's just a little longer, and you've got to hit longer irons into these greens. Like I said, I'm struggling a little bit with my irons, so I'm just trying to find something that I can get on the greens with. Q. Right now if you look at the Ryder Cup standings, you're on the team. I wonder if you've started to give any thought to that yet and if you have your own maybe theories as to why the Europeans have been dominant lately, and with guys like you, Anthony Kim, Johnson Wagner, guys in their 20s coming along, if maybe an infusion of some new blood on the American team is what the U.S. might need? BOO WEEKLEY: I don't know. I don't know if it's what we need to win again. I couldn't tell you that. You know, I don't follow that much on golf. So I couldn't tell you what the record is or how many times we've lost. But it would be nice to go play on it, you know, on the Ryder Cup. It would be an honor to be able to represent my country and say, hey, I got to play this, and this is the reason why is because of my game, not because of who I am, you know? Q. Is it on your radar screen yet? Have you even thought about it? BOO WEEKLEY: I'm just going to play golf, and if I get elected, I get elected to go play. It ain't nothing that's really dramatic to me if I don't make it, because, I mean, that just gives me another week to go play somewhere else or be at home fishing. Q. There's good fishing near Louisville, isn't there? BOO WEEKLEY: There probably is. I know there's some good deer hunting over there. Q. Have you given any thought, and this is a judgment on what type of game you have; do you ever give any thought to whether you would be better at best-ball or alternate-shot, and is there anybody on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team that's a veteran of that team who you've thought about that you'd really like to partner with? BOO WEEKLEY: I really don't put a lot of thought into it. I mean, I'd say best-ball or scrambling, I'd probably be pretty good, you know? I think I'd be better with the scrambling side of it than I would be the best-ball because you start putting a little more pressure on yourself trying to hit the shots; which at the same time, you know, it's the same thing we do out here every week we're playing golf. Q. Is there a guy you'd love to partner with in the Ryder Cup? BOO WEEKLEY: I really -- all of them. I mean, I don't really put that much interest into it. Just whoever they put me with if I make the team, you know? Q. I know people don't like to talk about who's not here, but obviously this is the first big event Tiger has missed. Is anybody even talking about it at all out there? BOO WEEKLEY: Not that I know of, no, sir. I hate that we're missing him. I mean, you know, it's unfortunate that he's having to go through what he went through with his knee and so forth, but at the same time, maybe he'll take five years off and give us a chance out here (laughter). I mean, just take him a little mini-vacation or something would be great. Q. You mentioned the similarities between here and Harbour Town. Is there a type of player that can win here? You're a ball-striker; does that suit you here like it did at Harbour Town, or is it a little bit different? BOO WEEKLEY: It's still a little bit different. I'd say the golf course is a little longer, you know? Of course it is a lot longer, really, if you look at it. And here you really ain't got to place your shots as much as you do at Harbour Town. You've got to be a little particular about where you leave it in the fairway, or you've got to hit it a certain distance. And here, you know, the greens are small like they are at Hilton Head, but you can actually get away with it. If you miss a shot you can still be on the back fringe or you ain't got to carve it around a tree or something like that, you know. Q. You were talking about you worked on your putting, and that, of course, as the history of golf guys say this part of my game is not good, this part of my game is good, but given it all, wouldn't you rather be putting well than striking it well, because so many shots are made up on the greens? BOO WEEKLEY: Sometimes. I'm pretty sure my bag would like it a little better, as many times as I've beat it and kicked it and everything else (laughing). I enjoy -- to me, I know I'm a decent putter and I'm getting better, I know that. But I still to this day, I'd much rather hit the ball solid and have a mediocre putting day than to be standing out there and saying I'm only hitting ten greens, nine greens and shooting the same numbers. That drives me nuts. Q. Do you care what kind of greens you putt on, what kind of grass and all that? BOO WEEKLEY: I mean, Bermuda makes it easy for me because that's what I grew up on. But you know, like these greens here, they're Bermuda, but they're a little faster than the Bermuda I grew up on. It makes it easier to read, I'd say, for me. I can read them a little easier because of the grain and stuff. Q. When you won at Hilton Head, you said you were hitting it left off the tee, and then right on Sunday, every shot went right. Have you got a direction this week yet? BOO WEEKLEY: No, I ain't got a direction yet. An eagle that comes when I stand on the first tee, I say, I'm hitting it right and so let's aim left, and then we just play what it brings. We ain't sitting out there fighting it. That's a problem with a lot of the amateurs that play is because they stand up there and they're used to drawing the ball and all of a sudden they're hitting it right or hitting it straight. Instead of standing there going this is how I'm hitting it. I think that's a difference between your scratch golfers and guys out here or guys on the mini-Tours or Nationwide Tour. Q. In retrospect did you hit enough good shots at the Masters to make you believe or make you confident that when you play in tournaments like that, majors, this one, that you've got the game to compete at that level; if you get a break or two here and a putt or two falls here and there? Do you think you've got the game for those kind of venues? BOO WEEKLEY: I do, sir. I do. The Masters, it was very difficult for me because I haven't putted on many greens growing up on out here that -- you ask a lot of the players, first-timers especially, you don't play on too many greens that are built like the Masters. I mean, you just don't. A lot of them greens ain't built for us to be hitting 4-irons and 5-irons into, neither. That's what makes the golf course so hard. I think it's an awesome golf course from tee to green, but when you get on the green I think it's a little unfair sometimes. Q. Did you learn anything about yourself that week, about your game, that you might not have known? BOO WEEKLEY: I was a little more patient than normal, you know what I mean? I was just a little more, I think -- I get in a rush out there where I want to hurry up or when I get aggravated, just a little mad, where you kind of catch myself getting into a rush. Especially when I hit a good shot, and the next thing you know, I've got probably the second-toughest shot on the golf course. You hit two great shots and then get penalized for it. I think I've learned to be a little more patient because you're going to get some chances out there. You're going to hit a bad shot and it's going to turn out good. That's the good thing about them greens in a way, is that when you do hit a bad shot you do get that opportunity. It might roll around a corner and roll back down to you or something. Q. Will you try to apply the same patience out here this week? BOO WEEKLEY: I'm going to try to. I'm a little aggravated right now, though. Q. Why is that? BOO WEEKLEY: Just because I'm hitting the ball so crooked. Q. Are your misses going different directions right now? BOO WEEKLEY: Everywhere. They're low, they're high, they're left, they're right. I look like I'm playing in the Army, man, just Army golf. Q. What do you want your golfing identity to be ideally? BOO WEEKLEY: What you see is what you get (laughing). I mean, I don't know. I never really sat down and thought about it. I just want to play golf, and whatever somebody thinks is their opinion, you know, or whatever. It really don't matter; what somebody else thinks is not going to make or break my world. Q. Generally do you just snap out of lefts and rights, or do you have to make your way out of that? BOO WEEKLEY: I'd say the first two days of last week I hit it solid; I hit it good. I hit 83 percent of my greens the first day, stuff like that. First two days I was hitting it good, just didn't really putt the ball that good. Then all of a sudden the last two days, I couldn't hit my own rear end with both hands (laughter). Q. What makes this golf course so hard? BOO WEEKLEY: Well, 17 is one of them (laughter). I mean, I was just talking to Heath Slocum a while ago down there as he was walking back from lunch, and I said, "Did you see 18?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "How did you play 17?" He said, "I hit a pretty little 8-iron in there." I said, "Where did it land?" He said, "I landed it six feet short of the hole and it rolled almost into the back water." I said, "Wow, it's going to be interesting this year, huh? " Q. I've read this and talked to people; if that were not water, if that were all sand, that guys wouldn't even have a second thought when they stood up on the tee. BOO WEEKLEY: They wouldn't have a second thought. I can tell you that from experience, just from the time I played it. I mean, it would make the hole just -- you can take a good breath before you tee off because when you get there, you start taking them little short breaths, you know? Q. Did you watch this tournament a lot when you were growing up? BOO WEEKLEY: No, I didn't watch no golf. I didn't even know who done won. I was trying to figure out who won it last year, and then I happened to see Phil on one of the tickets. I said, well, I reckon Phil won it last year, there you go. Q. Do you have somebody look at your swing, your caddie, or do you work your way out of your swing problems? BOO WEEKLEY: I've got a guy, Mark Blackburn, he's here. He works for Heath and one of the Swedes, Carl somebody. Q. Pettersson. BOO WEEKLEY: I think that's him. I probably done pronounced his name all wrong. But I work a little bit with him. But mostly it's what I feel is when I'm swinging my best. I can feel what I'm doing wrong, what I ain't doing wrong. I'll have him look at some things, like is my weight too far left, too far right. Q. Have you gotten a lot of reactions just from people on the street because you interacted with the crowd so much at Hilton Head? BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, the way I've been hitting it lately, you're going to spend a lot of time with the crowd (laughter). I'm being serious. I've gotten to meet a lot of new friends. But it's fun. I mean, I think -- the way I was raised, it was kind of like I look at it as these people here are paying my bills. They're coming out here to watch us play good golf, you know, and whether they're shouting my name or whose ever name, it's fun to always say, hey, how you doing. You make their day, especially a little kid. You walk up there and shame his hand or give him a knuckle or anything. It's an honor to be able to do it and for them to stand there and pull for me or for whoever out there, it's great. To be able to stand there and say, hey, you know, I got to play on the TOUR for however long I played and at the same time I got to meet a lot of new people and I've touched a lot of hearts and did a lot of things that were nice. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Boo Weekley, thank you. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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