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AT&T NATIONAL

July 2, 2008

Paul Goydos

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Paul Goydos for joining us here in the media center at the AT&T National, continuing a nice season for you.
PAUL GOYDOS: Yes. Nice for me. Not nice for other players, but nice for me.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Just make some comments.
PAUL GOYDOS: Happy to be here. We played the Kemper here and U.S. Open here. Qualified for the British. Everything's going good. First British -- Tiger is trying to win 18 majors; I'm trying to play in 18 majors. I think the PGA, it could be my 18th major. (Laughter).
So I think you've got to have goals, and I'm happy to be attaining them.

Q. Have you tried before to play in the British?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I've attempted to qualify. Yeah, I did once over there, which was an experience unto itself, and I did it over here a couple of times, too. I just wasn't successful.
Over there, it was just a kick. That was the craziest two rounds of golf you'll ever play. I think it's good they have it over here. It's fun. I think it's good for the tournament and gets people excited to play. I think there's players playing in the British this year that would not be playing in the British if the qualifier were not over here; me being one of them.

Q. You've played in a lot of Kemper Opens, just curious, you look at the field here this week, again, in Washington for whatever reason, there are only two Top-10 players, five or six of the Top-25; why aren't more players playing in this event? It Tiger's event, the guy's made guys a fortune; is it a coincidence? What do you think?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's the media. (Laughter) Yeah, it's their fault.
I think that, again, when I say media, I'm kidding to an extent, but also, I'm in a sense being true. The media is trying to decide what's a good field and what's a bad field, and I don't think they are very good at deciding that. I think we have these arbitrary rankings and those are very good at identifying the best couple of players, and maybe the next ten but are they good at identifying the next 90, in my opinion, no. So I think going by the World Rankings can be a tad askew.
TOUR School has got a great field. It's just we had never heard of Anthony Kim. We had never heard of Jeff Quinney. We had never heard of all these players who have played good golf, or John Mallinger. You see John Mallinger in the field, who is this guy, but the reality is he may be the next guy to challenge Tiger. The reality is there are not any bad fields, and I guess we as players need to step up and show our talents a little better, players like Paul Goydos.
It's not a weak field. I don't buy the argument. It's just a field that hasn't been known as strong yet.

Q. But guys like Mickelson, Els, Goosen, Sergio, guys who are sort of marquee players --
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I think it's a tough day. We do live in a world where again according to the rankings in our top players, they are Americans, and this is the height of the season, in Europe, too, and people are preparing for the British.
Right now unfortunately I think it's personally a bad attitude but right now the British is on people's mind and my mind is on AT&T. We just happen to be at this point in time in our life where those players are European players and they are over there playing. That to me could be cyclical. Maybe ten years from now all of the top players will be American players and not playing here. Right now, we are not in this world.

Q. If you could be in a writer, in your dreams, of course, would you look at the World Ranking, or the current Money List?
PAUL GOYDOS: I would look at the current Money List.

Q. Why is that?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think, again, it's current. The World Ranking is a two-year period. I still have points from when I finished second at Tampa and I have a lot of points on my World Ranking from winning Sony.
I think that what Anthony Kim has accomplished this year, I don't know where he's ranked in the world but it's probably somewhere near me, within 20 spots of me, and I think that's a little ridiculous. Jeff Quinney has played well every week. Brandt Snedeker has played well every week. These are guys that we as the TOUR need to promote a little better.
This is going to get me in trouble now. This is a bad question. This is a bad question. I think to me that we shouldn't be marketing Phil and Tiger. They market themselves. We don't need to do any extra for Phil or Tiger to be the PGA TOUR. They should be marketing other players. I don't think they should be marketing me, but I think there's a lot of good, young players that if we market a little better, maybe five of those guys, five of the 5,000 are following Tiger might drift over to Brandt Snedeker or something, and they are exciting to watch.

Q. I've covered every one of these for the last 28 years, and this is the typical kind of good field that we've had in Washington, year after year, with a lot of players if you're a golf nut. But Jack's tournament gets name guys, maybe not European guys, but it gets name guys, and why can't the combination of the PGA TOUR after all of the support they had here over all the years plus Tiger's name, why can't we get a more Jack-like field here?
PAUL GOYDOS: Funny thing is, I didn't play at Jack's event, so I think this 4vent feels a lot better personally. (Laughter).
I think one thing the PGA TOUR struggles with are dates. And again, that's a tournament that's leading into the U.S. Open, not leading into the British Open, which is across the pond. I think that's your biggest issue.
The best story -- I'm not really the person to ask that question because people aren't clamoring. I think if Tim is here, I would ask Tim that question or I would ask Tiger that question. Tiger at some point in time -- I don't think Tiger has played in this event yet. Did he play last year? Okay, well, he's played half of them, as many as I have. (Laughter).
I think once Tiger is more involved and he starts using -- Jack asks you if you're going to come play in his event and Arnold asks you if you're going to come play in his event, and Tiger will start doing similar things; he just has had other things going only. I think this is an event, I think Tiger has done a lot for this TOUR the last 11 years; and I think Tiger asks you to come help him out, you're going to come help him out, and if you don't, you're a nut.

Q. But he hasn't done that?
PAUL GOYDOS: He hasn't done it with me. But again, he is not looking for me to play. You would have to ask Ernie or Sergio, you'd have to ask if he's done that with them. The dates are tough.
The best story I can tell you about that is I won Bay Hill in '96 and got me in the Masters. And I kind of sat and I was like, okay, I can set my schedule now and I looked, well I never really played well at the Byron Nelson and I'll skip that and play Colonial and Memorial and whatnot.
And I'm playing the second round of the Masters and Byron Nelson is sitting on a chair five feet from the tee markers; you had to take your practice swing to the side because you would hit him in the forehead. And he looks and goes, "Hey, Paul, great playing at Bay Hill. Are you coming to the Byron Nelson?"
And I looked at him, and I said, "I am now." (Laughter).
Eventually this tournament, this golf course, it's a really good golf course, and it sounds like they signed an agreement to play here for the next few years. I know they are going to have the Open, might get bumped around a little bit, so 2017, okay, there you go, hopefully I'll be three years into the Champions Tour by then. The field, it just takes time. It's a two-year-old event. If you are asking the question of whoever might be sitting here after the U.S. Open is here, I think that's a whole new set of problems.

Q. A lot of the guys that were here last year did not choose to come back. Is there any kind of buzz on the TOUR about this tournament?
PAUL GOYDOS: Not that I know of.

Q. The schedule is the same.
PAUL GOYDOS: Not that I know. I didn't play last year and I'm here this year, so I had the opposite issue. I played in the Pro-Am today. This golf course is hard, and it's a U.S. Open-style golf course and good players are going to want to come here, no question.
And it's in great shape. I think the city is great. I'm standing on the 9th fairway and they played the National Anthem. I take my hat off to stop. Never had that happen before. Paratroopers are landing in the fairway; the Fourth of July; this tournament in my opinion at some point in time will have the field it deserves, or the field you guys seem to think it's deserves.
By the way, no more investigative journalism. I need softballs while I'm here, no tough questions.

Q. How is your putting?
PAUL GOYDOS: Putted good at the British Open qualifier.

Q. You didn't play here last year?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I've obviously got family issues, I probably was home with my kids.

Q. How has your game been since THE PLAYERS Championship?
PAUL GOYDOS: It has not been as deep where I've had good driving weeks and good iron weeks and good putting weeks and good chipping weeks. That week, everything was good, but not bad, all things considered.
My last six events, I've made four cuts starting with Wachovia, something like that, and those are my four best finishes of the year. So I think it's getting a little better. I think I'm still feeling like I'm doing the right things. You know, again the problem is, so is 144 other guys every week. I'm happy with the progress I'm making.

Q. I think you may have addressed this earlier with Doug asking a little bit about the British. The British will be the first major without Tiger, and I wanted to get your take from a player's point of view of a major tournament, not just your regular event without Tiger.
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I think obviously this question is coming; if you play good, especially that week, I think it's bad for the game. I think Tiger is bigger than the game itself right now so if Tiger is playing in the event, media coverage is going to be bigger and everything is going to be bigger.
Having said that, the aspects of professional golf are a number of different things, and one of them is that you're healthy.
So when you start hearing somebody write about maybe these next two majors need an asterisk, well, then we need to put an asterisk next to all 18 of Jack's because Tiger didn't play in any of those. He's not healthy enough to play. It sounds like this will be good for his long-term health. I heard some story, you guys said he's been torn for ten years?

Q. Deficient.
PAUL GOYDOS: Well I haven't been deficient for 44 years. I don't even know what that means. Does that mean he's coming back at 100% and he's been at 80 and now he's going to be at 100 when he comes back?

Q. He had a sore knee for ten or 12 years. Torn for ten months.
PAUL GOYDOS: Just think about that for a minute. I don't think it's good for the game when the marquee player of the game is not playing. If it were Federer, I don't think it would be good for Wimbledon if he's not playing; and it's not good for golf if Tiger is playing.

Q. Wondering, when you saw highlights or watched Tiger play during the Open, what did you think of him playing with his visible pain, and after you found out the extent of what it was, how did it retroactively change what you thought you had seen?
PAUL GOYDOS: There was some comments, I guess, players had made about it hurt more when he hit a bad shot, and I didn't know if the players could see his emotions. But there you go.
I watched him play, and I'm thinking, what's he doing. It looked in a sense risky to me. Again, I'm not his doctor.
And then he's wincing, but he's getting through, and he's a little mentally tougher than the rest of us, too. And then you hear the reports that, well, actually he's got a torn ACL and a broken leg, and you're thinking, that's insane. That's instant. He walked 40 miles, didn't he, that week, and some of it through the rough, which is harder to walk than the fairway. He said that it didn't start hurting until after he made contact, I think that's the story that I heard. Again, I didn't play in the tournament.
In my opinion, that makes it worse, because you have to -- and it's not like Tiger's easing off on shots because his knee is going to hurt. I would make the argument that it hurt the whole time, it would make it easier; and if it only hurt after, it would make you apprehensive to hit wouldn't it, subconsciously. It's like when you're up against the tree and you only have two inches of follow-through, you tend to slow down before you get to the ball. Maybe Tiger doesn't, you look at the Masters, he snapped the 4-iron around the tree and that's part of the deal.
To me, the fact that it hurt after he hit, is more impressive. Yeah, I'm going to slow down and stop doing whatever I can to avoid pain. Obviously he fought through that. It's an amazing tournament. It's an amazing thing.
But you know what, everything he does, and this is just another thing in the pyramid of his success. Okay, he played one with a broken leg. Okay, no kidding. Next? (Laughter).

Q. You think he'd win the British?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think he'd win the British if he was playing right now.

Q. He's probably going to win without --
PAUL GOYDOS: On one leg and in sling and hopping -- probably be in the Top-10.
I'm interested, he's a guy that he likes challenges and he's giving himself a pretty good one here. He's going to be off for whatever it is and start up sometime by the Masters, and if he goes out and wins the Masters as his first tournament back, you know, he's going to get that God-like status.

Q. Do you think you'll get tapped on the shoulder this week for a pee in the cup?
PAUL GOYDOS: Me?

Q. Yes.
PAUL GOYDOS: I think it's random, so I would say that I have the same chance as everybody else.

Q. Is that a first?
PAUL GOYDOS: Is what a first? That I have the same chance? Good point. They explained to me how it works. I think it's unfortunate that we live in that time but this is the world we live in, and we live in a world where when it comes to athletes and to this particular issue, that it's clouded and you have to -- in a sense, you're guilty until you prove to us that you're not. And I don't know that I necessarily agree with that, but I understand that's the world we live in, and you have to live in that world.
I would love to live in my little dream world but I don't, and it's a necessary evil of what we're going to do. We are in the entertainment business, and we are fighting for ratings and if we need to do whatever we need to do to make sure everyone is seeing what they think they are saying; and if someone is using something bad, we need to in the long run show the world that we are not.

Q. Do you think that going through the testing will satisfy those who want to see golf proven clean?
PAUL GOYDOS: I think that the detractors are going to be the detractors. I don't think you'll prove anything to them no matter what happens with the testing.
Drug testing, there are three possible outcomes and they are all bad. We could test and no one tests positive and they say, well, your test was no good; you're lying.
We could test and people test positive, that's bad.
And we test and a lot of people test positive, that's bad, too. So there's no win. So.
We can't worry about the outcome. I think you just need to go out and do your thing and present the evidence and people will make up their mind. People out there that say no matter what the evidence is will say we're cheating. You can't really control that and just do the best we can to present the evidence and live with it.

Q. Tiger obviously knew he was playing with the ACL and broken leg, but did not mention it until two days after he won. Have players talked among themselves why he didn't mention it?
PAUL GOYDOS: I don't know. It never really crossed my mind as to why he would do that. My guess is that's just a privacy issue with him. I don't think he said if I do this, I'll get some extra publicity; he doesn't have any problems there.
I think if he walks in there and says look I have a torn ACL and broken leg and I'm having surgery that, would distract. My argument and again, you would have to Tiger, would be do I really need more distraction.
The story about Tiger at Disney when he played in front of me in '96, his first year out. I was playing right behind him and we had a 200-yard walk to the locker room and I got there before he did and I finished 15 minutes after him. And when he got there, he was covered with ink because of people trying to get autographs. I think he has enough distractions in his life. I don't think he needs to add to them.

Q. Rocco had got a little bump with playing with Tiger. You had a similar thing, I guess at THE PLAYERS; do you see any parallels there, people being exposed to your personality and liking you now?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I think that's a function of the television ratings. Someone said the Open had like a 13 share, that's like Seinfeld, a pretty high share. So a lot of people got to see Rocco. I think THE PLAYERS Championship was a little less than that.
I think the game, golf's a great game because of the people that play, not because of the silliness. If you really think about it, the game is silly; it's a big grass field and we're hitting a little ball around it. The people who play the game are what make the game great.
Rule two of the book is etiquette and how you treat your fellow competitor, and everybody does their best and you shake his hand after the round and say, job well done. I think that was the whole idea behind The Ryder Cup when it first started out; you have a beer after the round and congratulate the winning team. If you don't like that idea, if you want to heckle a player, go play the NBA. They get bored with golf and say this is silly and go do something else. People that play the game appreciate that particular aspect of it.
Like I said before, Rocco and I are just two examples of hundred of people who play this TOUR; if given the same opportunity would most likely act the same way.

Q. You just touched on it there as far as yourself and Rocco and kind of personalities make the game, not the game itself; some young players are coming along, Anthony Kim is pretty brash and confident and there have been times where he's been criticized for that; why do you suspect that so many young players in the game have trouble expressing their personality and being a character, so to speak? There's been some people saying there are not enough characters in golf the way there used to be.
PAUL GOYDOS: I think character is something that grows, not something that you have. A 20-year-old is never going to have the same character as a 40-year-old. Personality is something, we were talking about that with my Pro-Am today; a 22-year-old, and Anthony Kim is a good guy. A 22-year-old has less experience dealing with those situations and will not be as comfortable with it as he looks hitting a 350-yard drive and making birdie at Charlotte. He's probably less comfortable talking to CEOs, so that's something you have to experience and do. Ask me that when they're 35 and people will say, Brandt Snedeker he's great with them. But those young kids can't do anything. That's a cycle we live in and we expect so much of our 20-year-olds, and the reality is the one thing they don't have is experience.
I'm sure I was terrible in Pro-Ams when I was 20 years old, too. Having said that, I don't know that Anthony and those guys are. I'm not saying that they are not good at what they do, but just saying that generation just doesn't have as much experience as my generation. So there for there's a perception that I'm better at it, but the reality is that I have done it more.

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