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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPMay 20, 2009Scott VerplankIRVING, TEXAS DOUG MILNE: Scott Verplank, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Obviously a tournament that's very near and dear to your heart. In 2007, a big year for you here. Just a couple comments on what this tournament means to you and kind of the state of your game as you're heading into the week. SCOTT VERPLANK: Obviously it's a huge tournament for me. You know, I've said it for a long time. But being a native Dallasite and having a relationship with Mr. Nelson, it's always been a big tournament to me. It was a dream for true for me to win it a couple years ago. I'd like to relive the dream, if possible. But you know, I'd really like to see the tournament continue to grow and do whatever it needs to do to kind of continue the legacy of Mr. Nelson. Like I said, to me it's a very important tournament. DOUG MILNE: And how about the state of your game as you're heading into the week? SCOTT VERPLANK: You know, it's not bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. I've kind of been right off the edge on pretty much everything. I mean, I'm kind of hitting it pretty good and putting pretty good. But then it's kind of the momentum shots for the last month or two have not cooled off. You make a putt and then you stick it close on the next hole and then birdie and all of a sudden you make two or three birdies in a row, you think, I'm playing pretty good, and I'll hit it in there and miss a three- or four-footer. Not bad, though. It wasn't surprise me if I got some good vibes going here and got the ball in the hole a little bit faster. Q. Did you hear about Amy? SCOTT VERPLANK: I heard, yeah. Phil sent me a text last night. I mean, nobody knows any details I don't think, unless y'all do. I don't know what he sent out to the media. Q. T.R. just sent out that she's going to have major surgery in the next two weeks and Phil is out indefinitely. But you know Amy so well and she loves how you rib Phil. Just a little bit about, she's a fighter, isn't she? Tell us a little bit about her. SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, yeah. Every time I've been around her she's always got a smile on her face. You know, she's always upbeat, much like Phil. But yeah, we've been over to their house to have dinner and spent some dinners on the road at these Cup things. She's a neat girl. I think several of us got a text last night, but I got one at about 10:00 o'clock, and I had a hard time sleeping, just thinking about that. My wife was already asleep next to me there, so when I woke up this morning she woke up for a minute, so I told her. So I think she's probably worried about it now. You know, hopefully it's early and hopefully they take care of it. Like I said, I just sent Phil a text back. I didn't call him or anything. He'll call me if he needs to talk to me. Q. Give me your favorite Amy story other than that ever-present smile. SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, I really can't tell you my favorite story. It was at a Presidents Cup dinner, and I'm sorry. I can tell you outside if you promise not to print it or repeat it. Anyway, she likes the good-natured ribbing that Phil and I -- we have a pretty good relationship. She always brings that up, that I'm one of the two people in the world that can give Phil s-h-i-t. Q. Who is the other one? SCOTT VERPLANK: Some buddy in Scottsdale. I don't know him. But yeah, she's a neat girl. I hope everything turns out good. We'll be thinking and praying for her. Q. You talked about your putting. Did you ever switch putters at the end of last year? SCOTT VERPLANK: I have used a couple different putters this year, and I've gone back to my original one. But I think I'm going to go do some minor surgery on it today and try to tweak it a little bit to where it looks a little bit better to me. I think the greens here are really pretty nice. The golf course is way better than it was last year. So the greens are nice. I think if you can get it going, you can make a lot of putts this week. Q. What's the biggest difference in the course, how it's playing? SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, I think it's just grown up. It's grown in. Last year it was basically cool season grass on top of dirt because they were in a hurry to get it done. It was fine, but it's much more mature now. There's a nice stand of Bermudagrass and the greens look like to me that they've filled in pretty nice and all that. You know, last year I was probably the least excited person that they had changed the golf course, so I decided that I wouldn't make a final determination about it until after this year. You know, I win the tournament and they change the golf course. That's one of the funny lines that Paul Azinger said, you win the tournament and they're going to change the course. It looks pretty nice. It looks much better, and I think the date helps, too. Q. Playing-wise how does it change things? Any particular things about chips or anything like that? SCOTT VERPLANK: It's different because some of the shots around the greens, they're much more severe, and you have -- I don't think you necessarily have an option like maybe you originally thought you would because you can't putt up these slopes. They're too steep and the grass is a little too thick. But it's a little different. There's just more different kind of shots that you're going to have to hit around the greens now than you used to. But like I said, it's the same piece of property, the sight lines are still pretty good to my eye. I've done pretty well on the old course for a number of years by hitting it in the fairway and on the greens and hopefully making some putts. So the sight lines are very similar. It's a little different, but like I said, I'm reasonably comfortable on them. Q. When you won here a couple years ago you talked about how it was like your fifth major and were real eloquent about that. How difficult is it to win an event in your hometown, and having done so a couple years ago, do you appreciate that feat even more? SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, yeah, I do. I guess fortunately and unfortunately I'm getting a little bit older, so it's getting a little bit harder to beat up on the -- I can't believe there's guys out here that are more than 20 years younger than me. You know what, the hardest part was dealing with the emotions of -- Q. As it's going on? SCOTT VERPLANK: Yeah, coming down the last couple holes. Like I said then, I still have never been so nervous over a two-foot putt as I was on the last hole here, just because I had done a great job of not thinking about it and then all of a sudden it hit me, holy crap, you're going to win the tournament, which had obviously been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. That was probably the wrong thought at that time (laughter) because it really made me nervous, but it's a neat deal. I think if you're ready -- a lot of people dream about that, so if you're prepared for it, I think that's what happens. Guys often times do well at home. Some guys don't, some guys do. DOUG MILNE: Scott, we appreciate your time as always. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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