	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

HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2009

Mike Weir

IRVING, TEXAS

DOUG MILNE: Mike, thanks for joining us here for a few minutes after a successful round 1 of the HP Byron Nelson Championship, 4-under par 66 today, five birdies and just one bogey. Just a few comments on the round and kind of how you're feeling as we're making our way into the week.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a real steady, solid round. Like I said, I had five birdies, one bogey. I played really nicely, hit most of the fairways, most of the greens, had lots of chances. You know, I hit some quite close to the hole, too. I was happy. It was a good, solid day.

Q. When you say pleasantly surprised, were you not expecting that?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I've been off for a week. I was off all week, didn't play any golf. I was actually down whitewater rafting with some friends in southern Utah. You know, I guess maybe in that mindset I didn't quite know what to expect.
As I got into the round, I felt good about it, felt good about my golf swing. After I got off to a nice start, I kind of settled down a little bit.

Q. Did you just want to get away from golf totally last week?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I wanted to get away. I knew I had a big stretch, playing three in a row here. With the U.S. Open right around the corner, I wanted to put the clubs away for a little bit and get back after.

Q. Any good stories about the whitewater rafting?
MIKE WEIR: We had a fun time. You know, huge waves. Southern Utah, Cataract Canyon is big waves, 25-foot waves, so it's a lot of fun. But we had a great crew, a bunch of my friends from Alta, Utah, and some guys that know what they're doing made it safe, and we made it through there no problem. But it was a good hike.
I did play golf. We played a game called "river golf." We bring these clubs down and we play with these plastic balls, and every time we'd see a little nice camp of a beach, we'd pull our rafts over and set up a bucket somewhere and we'd play over these rocks and hit these little plastic balls trying to get it into the bucket. I told the guys, I got my ninth victory last week. I beat them. They couldn't even beat me at river golf, those guys, so they were upset with me. But it was fun. We had a good time.

Q. Did you take a whole set of clubs on the raft?
MIKE WEIR: No. There's a bag of clubs. Everybody just kind of took some old clubs and stuffed them in there with some plastic balls.

Q. What river?
MIKE WEIR: It's the Green River. We start on the Green River and it merges with the Colorado River and then it flows into Lake Powell.

Q. You were 2-under on the par-3s. That's impressive. Are your irons just dialed in?
MIKE WEIR: My irons were. That's one thing I've been working on. Really more in touch with my irons and being a little more creative with my iron shots. I worked pretty hard this week on that. I hit some really nice ones. I hit -- I started on the back nine and I birdied I guess it's -- is it 14? 13 is a left pin par-3. It was 160 yards maybe and I hit an 8-iron in there about four feet, five feet.
The other birdie I made was No. 5 on the par-3. I hit a 7-iron in there probably about 12 feet or 15 feet maybe. So I hit some nice shots even on the other par-3s, hit some nice shots in there and had some chances. That's what's my focus has been. I haven't been hitting close enough to the hole with my irons.

Q. Everyone is talking about how this course has become one of the more tougher ones in the country. Do you think it deserves that reputation?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it's definitely a challenge. This is the first year I've played it since they made the changes, and I notice on some of the tee shots visually are pretty intimidating. Plus with the firmness of the fairways, if you don't get the ball curving the right way it's just going to bounce through into that rough, and it's very unpredictable out there. You could really jump or come out dead.
Yeah, I think they did a great job. I can see why it's not many low scores out there. I can see why 4- or 5-under, 6-under is going to be leading at the end of the day.

Q. When you talk about visually intimidating, one of the things that they wanted to change was the sight lines. Are those different, or when you say visually intimidating, you don't like that?
MIKE WEIR: Slightly. They moved some tee boxes slightly around. That gives you a little different angles. They moved the tee box on -- for us today on No. 6-over to the left. That just gives just little different angles. I noticed on No. 2 it was a different -- No. 3, sorry, is a different angle than what I've played in the past. So there was definitely some nice changes out there that makes you think about what club you're hitting off the tee. Even though the hole might be long, it might not be a driver, just the way the hole pinches in and the wind direction, so it makes you think out there.

Q. Just to clarify something you said earlier, you said you haven't been hitting your irons close enough. Do you mean recent tournaments?
MIKE WEIR: This whole year really. This year I feel like I haven't been as sharp with my iron play. I've been driving it good but been leaving myself a long ways from the hole sometimes. I've been trying to get more creative with my iron play, just working the ball a little bit more, which I've always felt is probably my strength, just little fades, little draws, and I did that well today.

Q. Did you change anything with your clubs or anything?
MIKE WEIR: No, nothing with my clubs. I didn't change anything, just different mindset, a little different mindset.

Q. Short game has been okay?
MIKE WEIR: Short game has been fine, putting well, bunker play, all that stuff. Just haven't been as creative with my iron play. That's the best way I can put it. So just trying to tap that part of the brain, I guess, to get the ball curving the right way towards the hole.

Q. Is one good round like this significant or is it too early to say?
MIKE WEIR: I think it's significant. It's significant to me that I've worked that in, that I was hitting the shots I wanted, carving the ball in there, like I said, on that par-3. 13, that 8-iron with a little bit of cut on it that got close to the hole. The very next hole, a low 8-iron that got in there about six feet from the hole. The long one, 15, I had a 5-iron that shaped the right way, right to left, right at the hole. Those kind of shots tell me that I'm doing the right things.

Q. Are you going to play the next two weeks and then take a week off before Bethpage?
MIKE WEIR: Yes.

Q. Just your thoughts real quick going into Bethpage. It's a brutal course. Have you been thinking about it?
MIKE WEIR: I have a little bit. I have a little bit. You know, I'm trying to remember what I did the last time. I know I made the cut but I just kind of finished middle of the pack. I spoke with Mike Davis actually at THE PLAYERS, and he was telling me a little bit about how he didn't shorten the holes but he brought some of the fairways back towards the tee boxes. There was a couple of those forced carries, 10, 12, that they're not -- they're still the same length to the hole, but they're not 255-yard carries into the wind sometimes.
So I think he's done a great job since he's taken over. I think he's really nailed it I think the last few years, and I suspect it will be tough like they all have been the last few years, but it's at least playable. The way he sets up the courses, if you're playing great you can shoot around par or something. If you're not, it's still going to punish you. I suspect that Bethpage will be no different. If a player is playing well, he can probably score, but if not you're probably going to get punished.

Q. Did you have trouble getting to 10 last time?
MIKE WEIR: I did. I was one of the guys that teed off on 10 Friday morning early when the wind was in and made a 6. I couldn't make the fairway. It was unbelievable. Nick Price was playing right in front of me, and I got to the tee and I watched him hit it. The thing just disappeared. He hit it right down the middle of the fairway and it just disappeared. I thought, well, this is going to be something today.

Q. Do you remember what the carry was?
MIKE WEIR: I think it was close to 255 probably. But it was an unusually cold morning and it was probably a 15 mile-an-hour wind right in, so that 255 was about 280. I suspect probably half the field couldn't reach that. I don't know how long that lasted that morning with that wind. I can't remember. But I'm sure there was -- the first few groups that went through there that unless you were really long you weren't getting in there.

Q. Did you hit it straight and end up in six inch rough?
MIKE WEIR: There was six inch rough at the bottom but there was fescue on top of that, so you were lucky to find the ball.

Q. How far short of the fairway?
MIKE WEIR: I was, if I remember right, maybe seven, eight yards probably.

Q. And you just chopped it out?
MIKE WEIR: Just hacked it out, and then I could only advance out of there I remember about 15 yards, and then I was in there with probably a rescue club or some kind of wood or something, missed the green, didn't get up-and-down, and it was a 6 right out of the gate. Yeah, Mike hasn't done that lately.

Q. Frustrating, aggravating, laughable, how would you describe that?
MIKE WEIR: It was kind of laughable. You think you see everything in this game, and that was something I hadn't seen before.

Q. I don't recall Nick Price laughing about it when it happened.
MIKE WEIR: I remember him muttering under his breath walking off the tee (laughter).

Q. This has been a tough tournament for you schedule-wise over the past six or seven years. Is it better now?
MIKE WEIR: It has been a little bit. There's so many good tournaments out here. This is obviously one of the best ones out. But I've always enjoyed Colonial, I've always played well at Memorial, U.S. Open is right around the corner. It's tough to play them all. But this has always been a great tournament, and I've hated to miss it the few times I've missed it. But I'm glad I'm back this year to play.
DOUG MILNE: Mike, good playing, congratulations on a good first round. Keep it up. Thanks for joining us.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297