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CHEVRON WORLD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY BANK OF AMERICADecember 16, 2008Boo WeekleyTHOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA DOUG MILNE: Boo Weekley, thank you for joining us at the Chevron World Challenge. At this point you're pretty much coming off a spectacular year, you had 11 Top 25s, five of which were Top-10s, and one of which was a win. Just some thoughts overall on the year as you're winding down. BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, I'm sure ready to wind it down. Especially with this cold weather out here this week, kind of asking myself, why did I come? (Chuckling). No, it's good. It's for a good cause. I've had a good year. It's been great. It's been fun. Getting the opportunity to play in The Ryder Cup and getting my second win back at kind of like my home golf course. It has just been a great year overall. Playing in my first Masters; it's been one hell of a year actually. DOUG MILNE: Would you say the one comment you get from people the most, more than anything this year, is the horse ride down the fairway at The Ryder Cup? BOO WEEKLEY: I've got questioned on that a bunch. People congratulate me for doing that. They kind of say like they need a little more life to the TOUR. I think the atmosphere set up for it. The whole Ryder Cup, it was a great experience. But on top of it, it was kind of like, you know, it was golf, but it wasn't golf. It was kind of like you can go out there and be who you really are as a person and kind of let your emotions blow and show a little more than normal, and that kind of suited me pretty well. Q. Why can't it be like that on the regular TOUR? Why can't you let your emotions show? It proved to be successful for you guys as a team, so why wouldn't that work individually? BOO WEEKLEY: I just think that you've kind of got a mold you kind of hold onto. You've got to stay in -- it's kind of hard to explain. I think it's just kind of hard because a lot of people don't want to show emotion. They don't want people to know they are frustrated over this or frustrated over that, so they kind of hold it to themselves. If you followed me around, if you went out and followed me around the whole year, you'll see, I'll beat the pure snot out of my bag. I'll break at least one or two clubs. That's me, though, you know. A lot of people are different and they don't want people to know that they are aggravated or mad or something. Q. You mentioned you're kind of cold right now, but I guess next month, you're going over to the Middle East, I think you were saying last week, Dubai -- BOO WEEKLEY: No, it ain't Dubai. Q. Qatar. BOO WEEKLEY: However you say that. Q. Can you tell us how that came about and why you decided to do that? And obviously you gave up PGA TOUR golf to do that; right? BOO WEEKLEY: Well, that kind of came up, they changed to Dubai; kind of the same concept that we have over here, our TOUR Championship and our chase for the FedExCup. So, why not put why yourself in the place where you've got the opportunity of trying at least at both of them? If you don't succeed in one, at least you might have the opportunity to succeed in the other. It's there for us to try, so why not try. That's the reason I'm going to try that out a little bit and play a little bit on the European Tour. Mostly for me it's going to be to try to get my World Ranking down. I take such a long time off in the winter. I don't play. I go, say, as soon as THE TOUR Championship was over, I think I was at my low, like 32nd in the World Ranking and now I'm like 47th, just because I don't play in the wintertime while they still play over there. Q. Does that mean you're going to take up European Tour Membership? You've got to play 12 on their tour, and obviously you have the seven that count on both; do you know where else? BOO WEEKLEY: I might try Loch Lomond before the British. We might try to find something in between all that. You know, it all depends. I might take the junior or whatever, or not the full membership. I might take where you can play in nine, I think, something like that; according to what I understood what Anthony Kim and them were doing, I might be on the same ride as they are. Q. Could you share with us what maybe one or two of your personal highlights were for yourself this year, not what most media-important thing was, but what you liked the most about this year? BOO WEEKLEY: I would have to say the Masters. For me that was one of the biggest things. You know, I went in there with no expectations really of what's going on, how to play the golf course; and then actually finishing 20th and not having a real good week of what I consider a real good week of ball-striking. So I was pretty impressed at that. I felt like when I left there, I was struggling, you know, just trying to get it to where I want it. And then it's like the following week at Hilton Head, I found what I was looking for. I felt like if I could have found that the week before at the Masters, I would have felt like I had a good chance competing for the win there. But of course, I didn't, but it carried over. And then getting actually the last round at the PGA this year, I think 68 or what I shot, something like that, to actually make it in on the number for being the eighth man on The Ryder Cup; that to me was a hell of a highlight to me, not knowing -- because honestly I didn't keep up with nothing. I just knew I wanted to make it on The Ryder Cup Team. I did want to make it. But not knowing that last round, because that third round I shot like 77 or 76 and it kind of knocked me out to where I might -- if I was going to get in, I'd have to be a captain's pick or something like that, and then all of a sudden coming back and shooting that number and make the birdie on the last number and when I walked up that hill, they were like, "Congratulations, you have made it on The Ryder Cup Team." I was overwhelmed. It was awesome. Q. With everything you've experienced this year, how much do you think Boo Weekley the golfer today is different from Boo Weekley the golfer 12 months ago? BOO WEEKLEY: Well, firstly, there's a lot more people that recognize who I am. I'm going to go home and find one of those little rubber glasses with the mustache and big nose and hide a little bit. No, it's been fun. I'd say as a golfer, I really found out that I can compete at any level that I want to compete at. I just got to get my mind right to get out there and do it. Because I played probably the best golf I ever played in my life at The Ryder Cup. I actually saw more shots where I -- when I took my practice swings, I saw more shots hit, if you can understand what I'm saying, when I'm sitting there taking a practice shot; I can actually see it and feel it in my swing with what I was trying to do with that golf ball. If I could ever find my way of getting back to there, I would probably win ten times a year like Tiger. Q. Do you think you're maybe the quote, unquote, poster child, for being able to have fun and being successful on the TOUR? So many players are so serious, and it's a business; why is it that you think you've been successful being able to have fun and show your emotions? BOO WEEKLEY: That's the easy part, just being myself. The hard part's playing golf. (Laughs). I don't know. I mean, I think that the reason why is just cause I take golf, the Lord has blessed me to be able to come and do this, and it ain't my first true love. I think that's the reason why that I play the game as well as I do; or am as fortunate as I am to play it. Because I look at it as, what's the worst thing that can happen? If I miss the cut, hell, that just gives me two days to go fishing, you know what I mean? Seriously, that's the way I look at it. And break it all down to my mental concept of -- I don't use a mental coach, none of that. I just think it's easier for me to say, hey, look, you've got to find -- if something bad happens, you've got to find something good out of it. And that's the way I have to look at it is if I don't play good enough, I don't make it to THE TOUR Championship, that's okay. We'll get them next year, but I'm still hunting this weekend. There's always a different side to every story. Q. Just to clarify, if golf isn't your first true love, what is it? BOO WEEKLEY: Hunting. Just the outdoors, hunting and fishing. Q. Which one, hunting or fishing? BOO WEEKLEY: I'd have to say hunting. I just love the smell of gunpowder. (Laughter). Q. Did it take you a little while to feel that you belonged or to see that your game, even though most people who watched you, talk about you having a lot of game, did it ache a little while for you to think that you were matched up? And maybe when was that. BOO WEEKLEY: It took me a while. I mean, I made it out there in '02, my first year out, and about that time, I knew could I play. It's just how good was I at that time. I look back at it, how good really was I? I look back at it from there and I say, I'm a better-ball striker then and I'm a better driver of the distance of the golf ball. I'm just not as straight as I am now, and not more consistent as I am now. Just everything comes back. The older you get, once you start maturing, I started realizing that, hey, I can do this. It took me four years on the Nationwide Tour to beat my brains in: Why I'm out here, why I'm doing what I'm doing, and finally to put up all of my love of hunting and fishing, I had to put it to the side and say I'd focus more on the golf, otherwise I'd be holding a shovel and hunting and fishing on the weekends. Q. Are you wearing a mouthguard out on the golf course? BOO WEEKLEY: A mouthguard? I've got one. I'm probably going to try it. I'm trying to quit dipping, so I figure that might be a good way to do it, is to wear a mouthguard, to help quit dipping. Q. Is that the Pure Power Mouthguard thing? BOO WEEKLEY: I think it's the same thing. I really don't know. Like I said I just got it, I just did it this past week at Greg's deal. I'm curious to see how it works. I played with it a couple times. They gave me a spare, just one to try when I was down there playing, and you know, I wore it. It was all right. I didn't feel no different. I just didn't feel no different. Q. Can you take me back to Augusta, and were you surprised at the elevation changes at Augusta, and how much did that affect the way you go around that golf course? BOO WEEKLEY: I wasn't surprised. I have been on the golf course before. I wasn't surprised at that. You know, it didn't really change the way I go about it. I just wasn't hitting it on all cylinders that week. I mean, it's a pretty place. It's got a lot of history. I think with them lengthening it, I think they took a lot of the character out of the golf course, you know what I mean. It's just like all of the golf courses they build nowadays, they are just building it so out in front of you, it's right here in front of you, there ain't nothing to it. It's more of a bomber's golf course nowadays; where you look back, to me, you go back like to Hilton Head, you go to Colonial, you go to these golf courses that are 6,700 yards, you look at the scores on them, why are the scores so low; because they grow the rough up, narrow the fairways and got small greens. So that's what I feel of how the TOUR's going in the direction of building golf courses and stuff like that, if you wanted to know. Q. If you were told that hunting and fishing would offer as much money as professional golf at the start of next year, would you think of walking away from the game? BOO WEEKLEY: I would walk away. Q. No hesitating? BOO WEEKLEY: No hesitating. There ain't nothing like it. It's hard to explain, unless you just hunt and fish for a living, or you do it as much as I've done it. That's like as soon as I got home from the Ryder Cup, you know, I went home and I wasn't home two days and went down there with my brother-in-law, calls me up and says, "Let's go pig hunting." I get down there, the first pig coming out of the middle of the road, I can hear him, and I can tell you my heart's beating 90 to nothing. Just like it was the same thing I feel when I stand up on that tee box when I'm first getting ready to tee off, you know. And to me, that's awesome. Q. How fast -- (no microphone). BOO WEEKLEY: It wasn't fast enough. (Laughter). Q. At the Ryder Cup, AK had a great Ryder Cup and you beat him down the stretch at Hilton Head, and a lot of people are saying he's the next challenger to Tiger. What makes AK so good, and what do you see that makes him so good? BOO WEEKLEY: He's young. He's still got a little bit of growing up to do, but I think that he can hit all of the shots. I mean, he can hit it a long ways when he wants to. He's good. He's got a good caddie on his bag, Eric Larson. I think that Eric brings a lot to the game for him, because of him working with Calc for so many years and knowing what it takes to win a golf tournament. He knows when to keep him at bay and when to turn him loose and let him fire at a pin. I think that's pretty good. And I think not just him, but you look at Camilo, he's another one, that's right there. I think them two are going to be the next ones I think that actually -- there's so many different young guys coming up; I hope I can do this a couple years and they leave me alone and let me have my money. I'll wave at 'em when I leave. Y'all can have it, you know. Q. Getting back to that question about hunting competitively, where would you rank in terms of being like a great hunter, if you had to rank yourself and what is it that makes a great hunter? BOO WEEKLEY: The last couple of years, I haven't hunted none, not considering when I grew up. There was a time that I would spend probably out of a month, I'd spend 20 days, close to 30 days a month in between 20 and 30 days in the woods; where now, I don't spend maybe two or three, if I'm home, I spend all day out there. But I would say what makes you a good hunter is just learning what the woods are and what it presents you. I think that's the same thing, kind of how golf is. I bring everything I do on the golf course is something that's happened to me in the woods. That's how my focus is and what I'm thinking about, not just like a different shot. This is a shot right here, I've got to hit this cut shot. Well, if I shoot this bow, if I'm shooting my bow, I have to slide it right through this window; is that what I want to do, or do I want to try to wait for my opportunities later on the next hole? I break it down the same way to me, but hunting -- fishing is a lot easier than hunting I think. You can rate yourself a lot easier on fishing. If you go out there you can't catch a fish on a lake where they are all swimming around you can go ahead and tell yourself that you're not that good of a fisher. Q. What do you like to hunt the most? BOO WEEKLEY: I would say deer hunting, more than fishing, yeah. Q. Do worry that your life, maybe you had more anonymity before The Ryder Cup, do you worry that's going to change? Like you said people are starting to recognize you more and you're joking about putting the mask on; do you worry that you're going to get stopped so much more and things are not going to be as easy as they were before? BOO WEEKLEY: No. It don't matter to me if I get stopped. It's all good. I mean, it's all for the TOUR. It's great to be recognized, it really is. But only reason why they know me is just because of what's happened on TOUR. They really don't mow me as a person, if they sat down and got to know me a little bit, they probably wouldn't stop me (laughter). Q. What do you wear when you're hunting, and is it difficult putting on the polo shirt and the khakis? BOO WEEKLEY: It is difficult wearing khaki britches. I'm just not into that. It's find of funny because it seems like every time I get home from being on the road for, say, four weeks, five weeks and everybody is wanting to go out over to Pensacola to have dinner. And I'm looking at them like, all right, let's go. And everybody shows up at my house and they are all dressed up wearing nice stuff, and I come out wearing a pair of old blue jeans and a tee shirt. I don't want to wear a collared shirt when I get home, except when I go to church or something, I don't mind doing that. But I don't want to have to dress up no more than I have to. And out here, I'm not a fashion statement out here, I can tell you that right now. Now don't even try me in that department. Q. Just curious when you went on the Leno Show, were you nervous? Was that fun? What was that experience like? BOO WEEKLEY: That was pretty neat. I got to meet Dennis Miller before I went on the show and I was talking to him a little bit and asking him questions and picking his brain about what's going to be said and what's going to happen. About that time, Leno shows up and he's kind of got a script of what kind of questions he's going to ask. And he's like: You want me to ask this or and that, and I said, "You ask whatever you want, it don't matter to me, I'm a Q&A guy." Then he shot out of the room. And I was nervous, but I got more nervous when I got up on stage, because I thought it was just a taped-delayed thing. I didn't know it was going to be live. I don't watch his show, which that's kind of one of the funniest things Leno he had, he said: I play golf but I don't watch you; I apologize, I don't know much about golf. I said, "I don't watch you, neither. I didn't really know who you really were except that I heard you a couple of times on TV flicking through the channels." It worked out pretty good for both of us I thought. Q. Did you know that the portable bathroom story was going to get asked about? BOO WEEKLEY: There was a couple different stories that he wanted to know, and I didn't know which one that he was going to bring out. So that was the one he picked. Q. And you had no problem telling the whole thing? BOO WEEKLEY: It was a true story, why should I have a problem? Q. (No microphone). BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, that will be coming out soon, though. It will be out later, a couple months. Q. (Regarding writing a book). BOO WEEKLEY: I think his name's Paul Brown out of Jackson, Mississippi. We are working on one right now. We are trying to find a publisher that might be interested in it. You know, going to be a lot of different things going on. Q. What's the working title? BOO WEEKLEY: Don't know yet. He's coming up with all that. We just trying to start out -- we are trying to start it out and just trying to -- of how I got into golf, you know, and what my past has been like and the things that I've come about and the thing that I've overcome, just different things like that. It's just mostly about golf, right now until we find a publisher and then I started throwing some other stuff in there. Q. Such as? BOO WEEKLEY: (Smiling, devilish laugh.) DOUG MILNE: Boo, as always, we appreciate your time and thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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