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BUICK INVITATIONALFebruary 3, 2009Bill LundeSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA MARK WILLIAMS: Bill, welcome to the interview room at the Buick Invitational. Good to have you here, being a native of San Diego. It's probably good to be back after three or four years of experience. Talk about your past and how you're here now. BILL LUNDE: Yeah, thanks. It's great being here, and I guess it's even more fun that this is the first PGA event I ever went to as a kid. I grew up in San Diego, was here at the Buick, which used to be the Andy Williams, I think, back in the day. But it's pretty cool to be here and to be able to play this tournament. I played the North Course this morning, and I was thinking that I don't think I've played the North Course since like the match play junior tournament that we had here. More than anything it's fun to be here again and be a part of this event. It's kind of an honor, and it's great to be here. MARK WILLIAMS: Three or four years ago you were working as a mortgage broker in Vegas and threw that in and qualified for the Nationwide Tour and ended up winning last year. To be here now must sort of feel pretty good. BILL LUNDE: Yeah, after the '05 season I didn't have a great year on the Nationwide. I kind of half-heartedly went to Q-school, kind of whatever happens, happens, not too worried about it. I told myself if I didn't get through Q-school I was done playing golf. I wasn't enjoying any aspect of it, whether it was practicing at home, travel, any aspect of being a professional golfer. So I went to work for Las Vegas Founders, the group that ran the PGA event in Vegas, and I did some sales and marketing for them. I was there for like ten months, then kind of got a job working for a title company doing kind of sales and marketing on the commercial side of that business, which was kind of a good step in the corporate world, so to speak, another new job. Then the market kind of started to tank, as we all know, and I was kind of out of a job, so I had to figure out something else to do. I talked to family and friends and decided to play golf again. There was a mini-Tour in Las Vegas called the Butch Harmon Tour. I decided to play that for the summer. It was about three or four months long. It gave me a chance to stay at home, play a little golf and see if I was going to enjoy it again. It kind of gave me a new perspective obviously coming from working and with no job experience, and I've got a college degree. Thankfully I have that. Trying to find a job, it's a pretty eye-opening experience. You don't start at the top, that's for sure. So when I started playing again it gave me a new appreciation for the game, and I just really kind of embrace what we get to do day in and day out now. I'm definitely more thankful for the opportunity to do this for a living, having worked. I wouldn't change it for the world. I think it was a great experience I needed to learn. I definitely took golf for granted before and would beat myself up a lot. Now it's like I know what my alternatives are, and hitting a bad shot, as long as it doesn't hit anybody, I'm okay with it. Q. Just talk about, when you were in business or however you want to describe it, did you have a great moment, a big moment, a big transaction that was a memorable highlight? BILL LUNDE: I think my first big moment was finding the first job. My wife obviously works, and when it came time for me to look for a job, I said, "Honey, you have a job. How did you get that?" I really had no clue. She said, "Well, you'd just better start calling everybody you know." Fortunately that's how I got my first job. Through that one, meeting other people, it landed me another job in the title business, which I thought was kind of a nice break, and it was a chance to really kind of build a career, so to speak. The title company was obviously doing well and the market was doing well, so it was a good opportunity. So I was kind of excited about that. Then when it started to tank, my buddy who kind of brought me in said, "You're going to be one of the first to go." I was on the commercial side so I was doing all right even when the residential went down. He said, "You're going to be one of the first to go," I just want to let you know. I said, "I'm going to finish out this week because I need to build contacts because if this doesn't work out I need something else to do." That's kind of how I fell back into golf. I'm kind of a guy that believes that everything happens for a reason, and you know, to go through that whole process of working and all that, kind of a career and an opportunity to have a good job at that title company, when it fell through, it was like, maybe something is telling me I should go back and give golf another try, and I have a new appreciation for doing it for a living. Q. You didn't have a great highlight, great sale or anything? BILL LUNDE: No great highlights. The one thing I did learn is when you're working, you have a great week, you really do your job well and get a lot of things done, you still get paid the same amount. Out here you have a great week, you do well, you have a chance to really change your life, so to speak. You can learn a great living out here. No real particular things. I think one of the funniest things that happened to me when I was working is I was sitting in my office when I was working for the Las Vegas Founders, and my phone rang, which is always kind of fun because my phone never used to ring because I was always calling everyone trying to drum up business; no one ever called me. It happened to be Chad Campbell, and first I was shocked how he even got that number. He goes, "What are you doing?" I go, "Well, I'm sitting at my office." He started laughing. He goes, "I'm sorry." I said, "It's funny to me still." It's bizarre for me when friends call or something that I'm sitting in an office. We kind of had a good laugh about that. It was always an awkward -- it never felt like that was what I should be doing. But at first I just thought it was a whole 'nother chapter in my life and it was going to take time to adjust and kind of learn how the whole corporate world and office life is. I was just kind of rolling with it, and it was all right, but I got comfortable with it and really thought that's what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. For whatever reason, I got led back to golf, and here I am today. I'm blessed for the opportunity to play and do this for a living, and the success I've had the last few years has been wonderful. Q. You talked about your run at the Hope, and then going into 18 and all that, what happened? BILL LUNDE: Yeah, I obviously had some great moments at the Hope. I played well. I think it was the third round I shot 62. It's always great when you have those kind of rounds. I played solid all week. At times I was playing great, other times I was just kind of going through the holes. But really played well on Sunday. I was happy with how I played. I hit a lot of good shots, didn't make all the putts I had chances to, but really played solid until the last hole. I hit a good drive, perfect, and only had like 220 yards to the pin and decided I was going to hit a 4-iron. Really it's not a small target up there, plenty of room, and just didn't hit a great shot. I hit it on the path and it bounced in the water. But it still wasn't that big a deal because I was up by the green and I could usually get it up-and-down and salvage par. So I took my drop and knocked it up there to four feet and decided to three-putt it. So I made double, which was obviously not what I had in mind. Then kind of started thinking about where I finished, and I knew where I was in the tournament; if I make birdie, I finish tied for third, great start to the year and good finish in a tournament. But on the Nationwide level, everything is on a smaller scale, so a mistake like that costs you $15,000, $20,000. It took me a couple days to see how much that really cost me, and I knew it was big. Big for me. Maybe some of these other guys might not think so, but I had a little knot in my stomach because it was a lot of money that I gave away. I think that's just a learning experience. It wasn't so much that I made a mistake, it was just the fact that I felt like I gave so much money away because it was a lot for me. I played well that week. It was a good experience, a good week. It was kind of fun. I was never really in contention for the tournament. Maybe if a few more putts dropped early in that final round I could have gotten in the mix a little bit. But more than anything I was playing solid golf and had a chance to make a good finish. It was a good finish, but it could have been a great finish. It was a good week. Q. A couple hundred thousand? BILL LUNDE: Yeah (laughing). You know, every dollar counts out here in FedExCup points as well as money, but it was just -- it's just little changes like that. I was kind of joking around with Chris Riley about it because he called today, said, "Good play." He said, "What happened on the last?" I said, "I made double." I said, "Do you have any idea how much that cost me?" He goes, "No, but don't look." As blessed as we are to do this for a living, that's the kind of things that happen when you get to that Top 5, a lot of money and the FedExCup points you make. Q. Apart from the money out there, what do you think is the biggest transition for you coming from the Nationwide Tour to the PGA TOUR? BILL LUNDE: Obviously everything is on a bigger scale but I think that makes it more fun, more people, bigger venues and all that, bigger cities, and it makes it more fun. More than anything I think -- I played Nationwide for three years, two before I stopped playing and then the one the previous year, '08. I knew the towns, I kind of knew where the courses were and all that, and now I'm kind of the new kid on the block again, so obviously this week is different because I grew up here so I'm very familiar with San Diego and Torrey Pines, but just get to know my way around all the new places. Everything is very similar, it's just a little bigger scale. But I think playing the Nationwide Tour and how they run the tournaments and just the day-to-day life out there is so similar to here, it's just a smaller scale. So playing out there for the three years I did was a good experience, and it really prepares you for the PGA TOUR. Q. Did you have a favorite memory or favorite highlight of attending this tournament as a kid? I mean, did you come out and see somebody -- BILL LUNDE: Yeah, actually one of the memories I have is I was on the 5th green, the South, and I was out here with my grandfather. And Fuzzy Zoeller was coming up the fairway, hit his shot on the green and finished the hole, and when he was walking off, they've got the little exit point for the players to go to the next tee, and when he was walking off he handed me his golf ball. When you're eight years old, that's like the greatest thing in the world. You would think they just handed you a gold brick. That was one of my memories, and yesterday when I was playing I brought it up to my caddie, and it's one of those things. Q. So are you going to be handing off a ball to some little kid this week? BILL LUNDE: Yeah, definitely. Anytime I'm getting ready to change balls I'll give it to him because I know how cool it was for me to get that, and hopefully it feels the same, even though good chance he might not necessarily know who I am. Q. If the market hadn't have tanked, do you think you would have stayed with that fancy corner office? BILL LUNDE: Yeah, actually I don't know that I actually had an office, it was more like a group bench. It was kind of an open space. I was kind of out and about running around the town. I just kind of had a computer I could use in the corner, but it was kind of a community usage thing. But yeah, I think there's definitely a good chance I would have been in there working away pursuing that as a career. But like I said, I believe that things happen for a reason, and for whatever reason, obviously I don't think the economy tanked in order for me to play golf, but for whatever reason I was led back to playing golf, and here I am. Obviously I enjoy it much more now and don't take anything for granted now doing this for a living as I did before. Q. When you give the kid the ball, you're not going to say you're going to be a commercial mortgage broker or something? BILL LUNDE: If that's what they want to do, you've got to support them. I don't think I'd necessarily say that. Q. How do you feel about your game going into this week? BILL LUNDE: Good. I wish I could have -- kind of after having a good finish I really wanted to play over in Phoenix, but unfortunately I didn't get in, just missed out by a couple spots. But I had a good week of practice last week and feel good. I actually feel better about my game this week than I did going into Hope. I don't know if it's being back home in San Diego, comfort, but I had a good week of practice and I feel good about my game. Q. What would you have needed to get in the Top 10 to make it into next week? BILL LUNDE: Make about a foot-and-a-half putt. Q. Bogey would have got you in? BILL LUNDE: Yeah, bogey would have got me in. I missed the first four-footer, and I don't know how far it was but it wasn't much of a putt. I didn't necessarily go up and slap at it, but I got in there and hit it and missed it, so I got to take the week off. MARK WILLIAMS: Thanks, Bill, for coming in. I appreciate the time. Just as a little aside, it's the 20th anniversary, it's 20 years since the Nationwide Tour began yesterday, the first ball was struck in a competition, and you being a winner on the Nationwide Tour last year, we thought we'd have the opportunity to present a little cake. We just wanted you to give us your thoughts on the Nationwide Tour and how it's progressed and what it offered you while you were out there playing. BILL LUNDE: Yeah, I think I kind of touched on it before how well the Nationwide Tour prepares you for the PGA TOUR and life traveling and just the day-to-day, how these tournaments are run. Like I said, it's very similar, Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR, just the PGA TOUR is obviously a little bigger scale. I think it's a great opportunity to, like I said -- it prepares you for the PGA TOUR from top to bottom. You have a chance to make some -- you can make some good money out there, too. I know this year I heard they're having another million-dollar purse so there will be three tournaments with a million-dollar purse, so it's great to see that Tour growing. I think every year out there it gets a little better, just a little better golf courses, everything. You go to these towns and cities year in and year out, and the first year they have a tournament, not a lot of people out there, but as the years go by, more and more people get involved in the tournament, and I think that's what you're seeing out there. I just think it's a great deal, obviously, the Nationwide, being a big supporter of that Tour. They've done a wonderful job, and I'm lucky to have them on board. I just think it's a great Tour and prepares you for the next step, which is the PGA TOUR. MARK WILLIAMS: Thanks again for your time. Appreciate you coming in. End of FastScripts |
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