	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

TURNING STONE RESORT CHAMPIONSHIP

October 2, 2008

Brad Faxon

VERONA, NEW YORK

BRAD FAXON: When we moved the TOUR Championship last year a week back and had to push all the other tournaments back, I said to Tim, I said, Tim, you know, Syracuse in October, sometimes those things don't go together well.
He goes, Oh, you'll be fine, you'll be fine. I said, Yeah, I'll be fine because you'll be in Jacksonville. That's what to turned out to be.

Q. A 76, but the scorecard not really what's important in this first round, is it?
BRAD FAXON: Well, you know, I would have loved to shoot a low round, obviously. Would have been a great story if I came back and played great today. It's a good story just getting back and playing 18 holes.
Yeah, I had a little rust falling off here and there, but, you know, I hit an okay drive on the first hole and hit a 6-iron in the left bunker, tough bunker shot to about five feet and made a par. At the end, Hicks told me, That's a Faxon par. So it's nice to know that I can still do that once in a while.
You know, you can play at home all you want and you can play all the practice rounds and play fun rounds of golf, and then all of a sudden that flag goes up and it's a totally different ballgame playing in competition.
I felt okay out there. I felt comfortable. The weather, you know, I think you can -- it actually can make you less nervous, because all you're trying to do is get from A to B. You know, you're not too worried about your score. You stay in the present a lot better in lousy weather. Maybe that was a good thing for me.

Q. What did you miss the most about being out here?
BRAD FAXON: The competition is what I love the most out here, and kind of hanging with my buddies. You know, being able to play a round of golf and talk about the game and watch guys play and help guys out and have guys around you. I love that. You know, I have done this 24, 25 years now, and I missed that a little bit.
But there were a lot of great things about staying at home. You know, I spent a lot of time with my kids and family and some other business stuff. It kind of flew by.

Q. How scary is it to think maybe you don't come back?
BRAD FAXON: Well, you know, that was a possibility. I'd like to think that I can still be competitive out here. I know that -- I feel physically like if I can get back to, you know 80%, 90% with my leg then I'll be able to be competitive again out here.
But if every time you take a step you're thinking about it, that's not where you want to be.

Q. When you're squishing around out here, do you think the conditions are going to challenge that knee?
BRAD FAXON: Well, you know, I played with David Duval today, and he's gone through some tough times with his golf game and seems to be making a little bit of a comeback.
You got soft spikes on in weather like this, and I'm going to wear metal cleats tomorrow. Everybody was slipping a little bit in our group. You know, slick conditions out there. It was tough. I mean, I don't think we've played in colder weather this year.

Q. I don't think so. The British Open was pretty cold, Fax. You would've like it at the British. But one final thing then. One round in the books. Just talk about the rest of the year.
BRAD FAXON: Well, you know, I'll kind of assess my leg after today. I'm not going to play two weeks in a row. That would be kind of ridiculous. I'll see my doc next week, and then, you know, if I continue to do all the rehab and see some progress in my leg and it's getting better, I'll go play the last couple in Florida.
The most important thing for me right now is to be healthy for '09. I don't want to start the year tip-toeing. I want to come out and have my physical health and my golf game both in good shape.
I've never played here before. Tuesday was my first look at the golf course. It was fairly benign. There was a slight breeze downwind, and I hit a good drive and a nice sand wedge in there, so that's a nice starting hole.
Today it was driver 6-iron, and, you know, everybody in our group hit 6-iron. I was like, Wow, this is playing long. You know, obviously the course is wet. The ball wasn't rolling to begin with, but it was frigid.
Hitting balls, I told Bruce you could see your breath out there on the practice tee at 7:15. That wasn't any fun.

Q. What's wrong with your leg?
BRAD FAXON: What's wrong with it?

Q. Yeah.
BRAD FAXON: I'm recovering from ACL and microfracture surgery, which in the December.

Q. What leg?
BRAD FAXON: Right leg.

Q. What went into this being the tournament that you came back for?
BRAD FAXON: Probably that it's close enough to home that I can drive here. My wife and daughter came with me. I didn't want to fly to Vegas to play one practice round and say, Nope, it's not going to work. This was easy to do.

Q. You live in Jersey, right?
BRAD FAXON: Rode Island.

Q. What's been the toughest part of not being able to play? Obviously the competition and...
BRAD FAXON: Yeah, I miss the competition. I miss hanging out with my friends. You know, when you're out here for a long time you expect to play at a certain level. I like to play golf for fun, too. When I go home I play a lot, but it's nothing like being out here playing in a tournament.

Q. What takes the longest, besides the physical stuff, to come back? What part of your game would take the longest after such a lay off?
BRAD FAXON: My game or anybody's?

Q. Your game.
BRAD FAXON: I think the routine of everything. You know, when you get back over a shot and you're visualizing a shot and picking out your club, getting into some flow and a rhythm. You know, when you're playing in a cart and you pull out a laser and go like this and pull a club out, you know, it's not the same thing.

Q. No.
BRAD FAXON: Having to -- you know, I think the hardest thing for people to understand about what we do is, you know, four rounds of golf takes a long time to play, you know, from the time you start Thursday to Sunday night. If you think about it your travel day is on Monday, your practice round is Tuesday, the Pro-Am. I mean, it's a long week.

Q. Sure.
BRAD FAXON: You know, you buzz around at home in three and a half, four hours. Three and a half hours today we were on the 10th hole, right?

Q. Yeah. Concentration obviously is tough, especially on a day like this. What did you learn today about your healing and about your game?
BRAD FAXON: My leg felt okay. I told Bruce earlier it's been hard for me to squat down to line up putts. My knee hasn't been able to flex it that much.
So I got that part a little bit more comfortable. I'm still a little bit timid on it. I don't think I'm swinging as hard as I can or as I know I can. But, you know, I thought today was okay. I started off all right.

Q. Holed a bunker shot.
BRAD FAXON: Holed a bunker shot for a two in the hole, yeah. This is the long course. I'm not a long hitter. This is a long course the way it's set up right now. It's really playing long.

Q. The players so far have told us that actually since it's playing long that the iron-type of players might do better. You don't think so. Because they said nobody is going reach the par-5s.
BRAD FAXON: I played with two guys that reached the par-5s, so, yeah.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297