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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 5, 2009

Mark Wilson

DUBLIN, OHIO

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Mark Wilson to the interview room. Mark is at 6 under for the tournament. If you'd just start off and kind of talk about your round today, and then we'll take some questions.
MARK WILSON: Yeah. I got off to a good start on the front nine. I made four birdies, and the putts are just flowing in no problem. Just played some steady golf on the back and got tripped up on 14 a little bit. I laid in my ball with a wedge ten feet from the hole, but it spun off into the rough.
Led to the first bogey of the day and then hit a poor iron shot at 16 to lead to another bogey. But then I hit two quality shots in 17 and 18 that had good chances for birdies but didn't get them in.
I'm thrilled where I'm at. I haven't really felt like I've hit the ball as precisely as I'd like to, but the putter's really bailed me out.

Q. A lot of the guys coming in have remarked on the speed of the greens and the windy conditions. I wondered how, in that birdie putt you had on 18, how far you took the putter back.
MARK WILSON: I practiced like I was trying to take it back a half inch. I think on the real stroke, I don't watch it, but it seemed like it went further back than that. I was just trying to tap it, just get it rolling at the left edge. Sometimes, when you're hitting it that soft, it's hard to get it started online, especially with a left to righter.
I started in the middle part of the hole and didn't have a chance. Sometimes, the fans, I guess, don't understand that, when you're five feet from the hole and you've got to putt like that and you're actually playing defensive a little bit, you want to make it, but if you take the speed where you want to make it, here that putt could probably go 12 feet past the hole. You've got to be a little careful at times.
But in my head, I'm trying to make the putt, no question.

Q. To play like you did today and at the Memorial Tournament, what does that mean to you?
MARK WILSON: It's one of the best conditioned golf courses we play all year. Obviously, Jack Nicklaus being the host here and his course, certainly looked up to him, like all of us do, from an early age and watching him play.
It means a ton. We're only halfway there. I've got a lot of work to do. The greens are just the main test out here, and I was really happy my stroke held up. That's kind of what it means.
Hey, if I can do it, the way things are rolling this early in the week, why not do it for the rest of the week?

Q. Mark, I think when you won earlier this year, it was your third week in a row playing. This is your fifth week in a row, I believe, playing?
MARK WILSON: Yeah, it was the third week, but this is just my second. I took a week off before Colonial.

Q. In terms of grinding week after week, do you notice a difference when you get that week off mentally?
MARK WILSON: Yes. This is my fifth out of six weeks. I'm going to play the U.S. Open qualifying on Monday unless I'm holding a trophy on Sunday, which is great incentive to not have to play 36 holes on Monday.
Yeah, I love going home. I mean, it's my favorite vacation spot. So I recharge the battery when I'm home and hardly play any golf at all. Butler National and Cog Hill in my hometown of Chicago are really nice to play, but I don't visit them too much. The one thinks I'm playing at the other one and you know.
I don't play a lot when I'm home. I play with my 2-year-old son and give my wife a break from taking care of him because they travel with me most of the time. You definitely see it wear on you week after week.

Q. Mark, if the conditions stay the same the next couple of days as far as the fast greens and the swirling wind, and I assume the fairways probably get more run in them. What is it going to be most important for the people who are in contention to win this tournament? What part of their game are they going to really have to have under control?
MARK WILSON: I think the putting. Certainly the putting, it all comes down to that. Overall, just being patient out there. There's a lot of holes that can jump up and grab you. For myself, I just need to play my own game and not get suckered into going to the pin just because I want to make another birdie or something like that, and that's when disasters happen. So just being patient out there and plodding your way around.

Q. I just want to follow up. What would have been a common, if there have been common denominators in the two tournaments you've won so far on the tour?
MARK WILSON: I putted good. I mean, the golf courses both were important to drive it straight, which is a little different on this course because you have a little more room off the tee here.
But conditions were very windy both at the Honda and in Mexico. I guess, if it boils down to anything, I guess the wind stands out. If you say it's going to be windy the rest of the week, I guess that bodes well for me.

Q. For the most part, were you putting yourself in the right spot on greens when you were coming into the holes, or do you have to make some tough putts from tough spots downhill?
MARK WILSON: Today -- I've kind of forgotten about yesterday, but today I didn't have many long putts, crazy putts. I caught the right ridges. I think that's the key too. Sometimes you're trying to play off a certain bank and thinking, okay, the best spot to be would be to keep this below the hole, 15 feet, and have an easier birdie putt.
Sometimes you start doing that, then you mis-hit the shot and find yourself in another tough spot. I try to play the shot that looks the most comfortable even if the shot calls for a fade but the draw feels comfortable, I'm going to hit it to the fat side of the green.
12 is a good example today. Pin is over on the right. I just took one less club and hit over to the left and tried to two-putt from 55 feet, and I managed to do that.
It's just an amazing course in that sense where you can find yourself in some tricky spots without trying to.

Q. Do you consider yourself a good wind player just because you've -- growing up in Milwaukee, it's actually a much windier city than people give it credit for.
MARK WILSON: The golf course I grew up on, Oconomowoc Golf Course, was up on a hill. It's pretty windy there. But I've seen all the different conditions as I've played throughout the years.
I guess the one thing I like about the wind is you don't have to shoot lights out. If you look at my record, funny thing is I have some weeks where I have shot 18, 20 under and had some good tournaments. However, in my head, I prefer when the winning score is single digits or close to 10 under par where you don't have to go out there and feel like you have to shoot 67 every day. I do like the wind in that it brings the scores a little bit higher.

Q. You're not like Trevino or Tom Kite, yeah, it's windy today. This is great for me.
MARK WILSON: Not really. I just go with the conditions, whatever it is.

Q. You've had some good weeks this year. Any part of your game that's kind of come around or any change you made that got you going this year?
MARK WILSON: Not really. I mean, just kind of practicing less, I guess, which is a weird thing. Thinking about the right things. I guess I've learned over the last couple of years that, when I go home, I grind too hard, and then I'd be tired when I got on the road.
To get back to that question before, yeah, I really take my weeks off at home, try to get away from the game. I have a rule that I play only at the most one round of golf per week when I'm home. It gets me excited when I come out and play, out on tour.
Nothing's -- I haven't changed anything in my swing. I really -- my putting has varied a little bit. Kevin Weeks, of course, helped me the days leading into Mexico, and that helped me win there. Nothing much different.

Q. That decisions to practice less and get away from the game when you're home, did you get any advice about that or just sort of a realization you came to on your own?
MARK WILSON: Dr. Rotella, who's worked with many players, back in '06, when I was struggling and I was going back to Q School again. I asked him the question, I said, do I need to trust my game the way it is now even though I'm not totally thrilled with it, or do I need to take a couple months and just grind with the teacher and really change the couple things that I dislike about my golf swing?
Because right now, as I'm sitting here, there's a couple things that I just hate about my golf swing. He just looked at me and said, "The sooner you decide to love your golf game is the sooner you're going to succeed."
So from that point forward, I practiced less, and, shocker, I got through Q School and then two months later won the Honda. I just have a little bit more belief in myself and my -- the way I go about it.
Like I said, there's still things I would love to change about it, and every once in a while, I think I should go change it. I try on the range for a couple of days. No, I can't take it to the golf course. I'm just going to go play with what I've got.
It sounds weird that I'm not trying to get better. That's what everyone says. Amateurs always want to get better. What's the next tip? How can I be better? I just want to stay the same. I just want to stay where I'm at and each day believe in myself a little bit more, and that's going to produce the low scores.

Q. I don't know that I've ever had an athlete say that before. It's like a revolutionary approach, it seems like to me.
MARK WILSON: I don't -- obviously, I want to get better in the sense that I want to shoot lower scores, but I don't want to do that by changing the way I play the game. I think I'm going to shoot better scores and so-called get better by believing in what I do and sticking with it and not jumping from idea to idea every day.
Like many golfers do what I did the first five years I played on tour.

Q. Did winning that second tournament help validate that thought process a little bit?
MARK WILSON: Yeah. It's funny. That tournament on Tuesday I got in late and sat on the range and went through a rolodex of swing thoughts. By the end of it, I was like, well, okay, let's take that out to the Pro-Am tomorrow.
I used it for a few holes, and it didn't work as good. So then by the end of the round, I was just like, oh, forget it. I'm just going to try to hit at my target, and I went out and played great that week. Go figure.
You grind your whole life. I'm 34 years old. I kind of think you have to put in a lot of time and a lot of hours. I've tried all kinds of different methods. How about we just perfect the method I have?

Q. When Rotella told you this, had you been working with him a long time?
MARK WILSON: That was the first time I worked with him. I read all of his books to that point, so I really believed in him and his credentials and everything. It took someone of that magnitude to tell me that. I certainly believed him. If my dad told me that, I wouldn't have believed him, for instance.

Q. Mark, do you still find that people identify you with the way you won the first tournament with calling the penalty?
MARK WILSON: A little bit, yeah. It's less and less now than it used to be.

Q. I just wondered how that affected your career in any way other than obviously winning.
MARK WILSON: I guess the most heart-warming thing is when I do have parents come up and they've got a 10-year-old kid with them, they say, hey, you showed my son or daughter the way to play golf, that you called penalties on yourself. That makes me feel good.
It's not what I was -- that wasn't the intent at the time, but I was on a big enough stage where it took off.

End of FastScripts

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