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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEYMay 28, 2008Ryan MooreDUBLIN, OHIO JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Ryan, thank you for joining us in the interview room at the Memorial Tournament. Great success here last year with a second place finish. And since then you've had a lot of great finishes including an opportunity to secure a victory, but sure you learned a lot from that and we were just talking about how much you enjoy this course and this tournament. Why don't you talk a little bit about that. RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I look forward to this tournament probably more than any tournament all year. And to have played well here last year is just even more of a bonus coming back having played well. And I just enjoy the tournament so much, enjoy the golf course. It's just one of those ones that it's just such a great week. JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please. Q. Why do you look forward to it more than any other? RYAN MOORE: I just love the golf course, to be honest. I think that it's probably the most enjoyable golf course that we play all year. It's tough, but fair. You can make birdies, but at the same time you can shoot a 66 and a 75 just as easily. It's just one of those courses that it allows you to shoot a good score if you go out there and play well, the greens are so good, you get the ball rolling, you can shoot some good scores out here. But there's enough, you can certainly get in lots of trouble too. So I just -- I love it. I just think it's just a great atmosphere. Obviously they treat us incredibly well here. Q. The fact that you've been close to winning, obviously one of the story lines on the TOUR this year is the guys in their 20s who have broken through and won. For a long time the story line was, why aren't the guys in the 20s breaking through. What do you think has happened this year maybe to open the door? RYAN MOORE: I have no idea. I still haven't won, so I can't really tell you. I was close certainly obviously here last year and then a few weeks ago in Dallas. So it was really, really close. I think it's confidence, really, more than anything. You just get out here, you get comfortable, you get some confidence and you feel like you belong and you feel like you can win. And it's hard to feel that way instantly out here. So I just think that it can take a little time and obviously that time has come for a lot of players this year. Q. One of the theories for a long time was that Tiger was just overwhelming everybody in his own age group. Now he's kind of moved on into his 30s. Did a lot of the guys do you think in their 20s kind of grew up setting him as the bar and -- RYAN MOORE: Oh, well, certainly. That's just -- it's hard not to. When you look at that and you see that and you say, well, I guess that's what we're shooting for, because we all have grown up being successful, we have grown up winning golf tournaments. And like you said, he raised the bar. And that's what we all are setting out to achieve. Q. Wondering if your mindset coming into a tournament like this week after having such a good week last year and also at a course you said that you enjoy so much, is it different than other tournaments? Do you feel like, boy, this is a place I should be able to contend or do you keep an even keel? Does it feel like any of that this week? RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I think it can feel a little different. I think I'm trying not to treat it any differently. I don't want to put any extra pressure on myself like, oh, I almost won last year, I better win this year. You can't really go into the tournament thinking that way. So for me I am trying to treat it just like another tournament. I'm just preparing just like any other tournament. But, yeah, there's obviously added confidence and having played well before and having shot some good scores and finishing as well as I did last year on the back nine, I mean all of that stuff helps. And it all has -- it's a positive reminder of when I get out on the golf course and I get on the 13th hole and I remember I made five birdies in a row once there before. It means it's possible. Those are just good, positive things to carry with you. Q. Coming off your phenomenal collegiate and amateur career and I think that summer before you turned pro when you won just about every big amateur tournament, what was the biggest eye opener for you as a young professional and maybe living up to those expectations that not only you had for yourself but everyone else? RYAN MOORE: That's a good question. I guess the biggest eye opener for me was just how up and down the game can be. To have played as well as I had for a long time and to have a couple little things like injuries hold me back, you just kind of realize it makes you appreciate the time when it does feel really good and when you can just go out and play confidently and know you're going to play well and have a chance to win every single week. And having gone through the last two and a half or three years that I've had, I'm going to enjoy it that much more when that time comes around again here sometime hopefully in the near future. Q. We talked to Jack some yesterday and he talked about when he was young how Palmer kind of guided him as to how you treat sponsors and the things you do throughout your Monday through Thursday, sending thank you notes, that kind of thing. Curious to know what's your typical cycle on that, how you handle those ancillary things, if you have an agent do that, and then secondly, is there a role model that, an established TOUR pro that you've talked to about just how you get by out here? RYAN MOORE: You know, for the most part, no, I haven't really, haven't talked to anybody about those sorts of things. Obviously there's a lot of great examples out here of how -- of the right way to do things. And I'm not -- I don't think the TOUR -- I think the TOUR does a really good job of showing us and then explaining to us how important the sponsors are and how that is the reason we're in these tournaments and the fans and I mean and everything. So I think they give us a great appreciation for it and obviously it's our responsibility to take care of it as best we can. Q. What does the TOUR do for you? RYAN MOORE: Just when you first start getting on TOUR you have like a -- I don't even know, it's like a conference type of thing where really they just kind of break it down and they really go through the whole workings of everything and really explain it to you. Which is great. It was great for me and because there's just a lot of things you don't understand. And I think that they do a great job with that. The continued success of the tournaments and the sponsorships and everything I think show that. Q. Have you got a favorite hole out here on this golf course either from a success standpoint or maybe just a hole you think is well designed or you just like to look at? RYAN MOORE: I don't know. I like them all. I really do. I think the whole course is great. There's not a bad hole out there. There's not. There's not really one that sticks out either way. I think it's just a good, fair test. I think it's very evenly matched. Not one side is more difficult than the other. I think they're both very equal. You can go shoot a good score on either one of them. And you can go shoot a bad score on either one of them. So no, I wouldn't say there's anything that sticks out in particular. Q. All the winning you did before you joined the TOUR, do you find that the pursuit of victory is the same when you're playing golf no matter where it is, or is trying to win on TOUR a completely different beast than how you did it coming up? RYAN MOORE: Obviously every level you move up the depth moves up. So the better you have to perform certainly. But at the same time winning is winning. It doesn't matter where you are or what level you're at, it takes the exact same thing to win. And that's playing better than everybody else. Or somehow getting it in the hole faster than anybody else does for the week. Which is not necessarily that you're playing better than anybody else, but you just kind of figure out a way to get it done. So, yeah, honestly, it is more difficult, just because if you do screw up, somebody's going to take advantage of it. You see that every single week out here. If somebody stumbles coming down the back nine, they're probably not going to win because somebody else is going to play good. That's all there is to it. Obviously your margin for error is a little tougher out here. You just don't -- you can't screw up. Q. Do you feel the same on the course while you're playing -- RYAN MOORE: What's that? Q. -- as you did when you were a younger player before you joined the TOUR? When you were out playing a hole, do you feel the same way or when you know you can't screw up or the margin of error is so thin, does it affect how you feel walking on the course? RYAN MOORE: No. It doesn't really affect in any way how I think when I'm out there. Because a golf shot's a golf shot. Doesn't matter if I'm home playing with my buddies or I'm on the 17th hole of a Major, the 17th hole at Memorial, it's a shot. And you just have to simply hit a golf shot and that's kind of, that's my approach, that's how it always has been. Obviously when you're hitting it better, controlling your ball better, shots are a little easier. And those negative thoughts aren't going to be racing through your head. But the 17th hole a few weeks ago in Dallas, it was about the toughest pin you could ever imagine. Tucked back in the corner, over water, and somebody hit it in the water right in front of me. And I had to watch it and I was one shot down or tied for the lead at that point in time and it's like, you know what, it's a shot. Just got to step up and hit it. And I had the shot, I saw the shot. It was just a matter of going and doing it. You can't sit there worrying about this or that. When you get in those situations I think that just kind of takes over. Q. A lot, or some of the players have said that the rough this week is tougher than they have ever seen it here. I wondered if you think it's going to be maybe a bigger penalty than when you've played here previously or not? RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it's really long. Actually, this year it's really, really long. So it's certainly been penalizing in the past. It's not like it has a little two-inch rough out there. But at the same time the fairways are very generous out here. You have plenty of room to put it in the fairway. And if you don't hit a fairway, you deserve to be penalized. You really do. So it's one of those golf courses that I think that's what's so great about it. It's not quite as difficult off the tee but then you have to put it on the right spot on the green. And the greens are so fast that if you put it on the wrong side of a tier, you're in big trouble. So it's certainly more of a second shot golf course, which is understandable, him having the success that he had at Augusta, and that being the way it was originally intended to be, I think that's kind of how he designed it here. Yeah, I think there should be a penalty. I might be a little frustrated about it at times. I'm not going to lie. You get in some of those spots and it's pretty deep. But at the same time definitely you deserve it. Q. What's your athletic background outside of golf? Did you play high school athletics and today do you do things, do you play tennis or something like that outside of golf? RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I played baseball and basketball in high school back in Washington. And shortly along the way in high school I just kind of realized that golf was more for me. I didn't really know what really drew me to it. I think it might have been just not having a coach might have been it, that might have been my biggest draw, not having coaches. But I just kind of went with it and anymore, yeah, I'll still go play basketball, play tennis, play racquetball. Yeah, I love sports. It makes it tough to schedule, and as much time as we have to spend out here, you don't really get a lot of extra time. But yeah, I was home a couple week ago and played some basketball with my buddies. Yeah. Q. What was your all-time high school baseball highlight? Do you have a special moment? RYAN MOORE: Let's see, that's a great question. I don't know if I have a specific highlight. I have a specific basketball highlight when I was like 8th grade. Q. That's okay. Let's hear that one. RYAN MOORE: I definitely -- I had a buzzer beater and the funny thing was it was against a buddy of mine that was on TOUR last year, named Michael Putnam. We played in rival high schools. And I definitely took the ball full court with about five seconds left and made it on the buzzer with two guys like knocking me over. I still remember it. And one of them was Putnam, which was funny. But, yeah, so that was probably my all-time sports. Q. What kind of a shot? Outside shot or did you drive the lane? RYAN MOORE: No, it was -- I drove. I drove in the lane and like I said, the two big guys, Michael's a big guy and he always was a big guy and he kind of -- they tried to get me and I spun right around them and it was pretty sweet, them knocking me over and I was laying under the hoop and I was watching the ball go in when I was under the hoop. So that was pretty fun. That was in 8th grade so that was a little while ago. Q. I'm sure you still mention that to him when you see him? RYAN MOORE: Oh, yeah. Pretty much every time. So. (Laughter.) Q. As well as you played here last year, when you think about last year, is it all positive that you gained from it or, you know, is there a little bit of a shot here or shot there you're kicking yourself how maybe you could have won the tournament? RYAN MOORE: You know, it is mostly all positive. I did have to sit there and watch someone make a 5-footer to beat me so obviously there's a little negative in there, but, yeah. When it comes down to it, I mean, I pretty much just remember that back nine and I remember, I didn't even know if I was in the Top-10 making the turn. And I missed about a 10-footer on number 10. I lipped, power lipped all the way around the hole on 11. And then missed about a 15-footer on 12. And that was not -- I was not very happy. And then I was like, all right, whatever. Let's just -- I just wanted to make a couple birdies and get myself hopefully in the Top-10 or Top-5. Because I hadn't had a good finish the rest of the year. And it just kind of went from there. Made a couple birdies in a row; and made about a 35-footer on 15; and standing on 16 green and just realized, wow, I'm within two shots. I didn't even realize that I was even in the tournament. I was like seven shots down making the turn or six shots down. So yeah, I think there's a lot of positive to be taken from it. There really isn't any negative that I'm holding on to. JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for your time. RYAN MOORE: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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