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DICK'S SPORTING GOODS OPENJune 28, 2009Lonnie NielsenENDICOTT, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Lonnie Nielsen, one day before you celebrate your 56th birthday, you win your second Champion's Tour event, the Dicks Sporting Good's Open. The other event you won came two days after your 54th birthday at the 20007 Commerce Bank Championship on Long Island. Congratulations. Final round 63. Starting with four birdies and eagle in your first five holes, lowest finish by a winner on the Champion's Tour this year. 20 under par -- 21 under par, sorry, you earned 248 Charles Schwab points which should help you move up in the standings congratulations. LONNIE NIELSEN: Thank you. Thank you. What a start. Gosh, I never could have dreamt of a start like that. I thought if I could have birdied three of the first five holes, you know, I would have loved to have had that start. Then to be six under after five, beyond brief. I had a lot of breaks that went my way and the first one came on the first hole. I watched Gary Hallberg putt on a similar lie and his ball broke a little to the left. And I had about a 25-foot putt that was breaking and was well left of the hole, and for some reason it got a foot of the hole and it broke back the right. I have no idea why it did but thankful that it did. And I turned right around and [inaudible]on the second hole and made that miracle putt on three. I think it was about 60 feet away. I hit it way too hard but it was right on-line. If it wasn't dead on line, it wouldn't have gone in, but it hit the back of the hole and bounced off and went in and might have saved me two shots. So it was a huge putt and a big confidence boost for me. And come right back on that fourth hole -- they had that -- that was a real difficult pin there on four. Tough over by the water. If you bailed out, you had a real tricky putt. And I just stood up there like a man and hit it and about four feet, and another real confidence builder. And made a nice sand save on five for my fifth in a row. So a great way to start. And I had a couple of nice putts there to finish up. I think Fred was right behind me, and I figured he probably is going to birdie that hole, and felt like I needed to stay in front. And I made about a 20-footer there. A left-to-right birdie and just right in. A great putt. Q. Can you talk about the shot on 18? LONNIE NIELSEN: One of my favorite moments of the whole week was after that I hit that tee shot, and I'm walking back to my bag. I was proud as punch, trying to act cool like I do those every day, and Jay Haas put the knuckles out. He knew what a tough shot that is and how important it is for me to get to ball on the fairway. And that was the favorite moment of mine today with Jay. He is a hell of a player. He's been through it many times before. He knew what a tough shot that was so it meant a lot. Q. No Microphone ]. LONNIE NIELSEN: They had a hell of a week. 24 birdies, an eagle, if I'm not mistaken. I've never had a week like that, never been even close to 20-under par for three rounds. To think back, walking off the second hole of the tournament, making the most ridiculous stumble I ever made in my life, 70 yards middle of this fairway, and I didn't even mis-hit it, just didn't swing hard enough, didn't get it over the water and walked off there with a double. I knew I was playing well, and I thought, how can you do something that stupid when it was so unnecessary. Just hit it 10, 12 feet past the hole and deal with it. I tried to squeeze one in there. It was a tough bogey but came back with three birdies that first day and got me back to feeling like I was still going to have a good week. So 24 birdies and an eagle, incredible. Q. [ Question about GIVE Foundation.] LONNIE NIELSEN: Give Foundation -- it's Golfers For Injured Veterans Everywhere. I give them $50 for every birdie that I make on the Champion's Tour and $500 for every eagle. Met up with a friend of mine, Lou King who is a long-time CEO of Amana back in Iowa where I grew up, and it's foundation that he's helped start to help our injured veterans and with the whole PGA and I was behind them. The guys come out and they help them and they give them some golf clubs, they give them a place to play, give them a place for fellowship and to get back and feeling like they're part of, you know, society again. We owe so much to our veterans for the peace and the way of live that we have here in the United States, so I really felt I needed to do something for our veterans, and I got to talking with Lou, so it worked out great. And, I think, it's a big reason that, you know, that I won this week. To have that closeness with them and to -- I could feel them pulling for me every time I made a birdie, and it helped. Q. On 17, bad shot, lucky bounce? LONNIE NIELSEN: 13? Q. 17? LONNIE NIELSEN: Oh, 17. Bad shot, lucky bounce. Q. Hit off the tee? LONNIE NIELSEN: I hit a 7-iron there, and I hit the same exact shot the first day. It turned out just the same. Right in the same spot. So when I hit it in the air, I said, give me another one of those lucky bounces; on call, there it was. So you need those. You need those to win out here. Q. What's the difference between the guy who was in the shop and giving lessons, planning tournaments, et cetera, between that guy and the guy hit sitting here? LONNIE NIELSEN: I hope not very much. I'm just more confident when I'm on the golf course than I was. You know, I tried this back in the late '70s, early '80s after playing six years on the regular tour and just didn't believe in myself. I'm getting much better that. I certainly believed in myself today. And, you know, makes it that much easier to believe in myself the next time I get in a situation. That's really what this game at this level is all about. Q. Can you take us through 16 and how big was that getting the birdie there and that gave you the two-shot lead on 16? LONNIE NIELSEN: I thought it was critical. I just figured Fred would birdy there. He is such a straight driver and beautiful putter, I had him penciled in for a birdie. So I figured I needed to make a three to keep pace. I didn't hit the best drive. I really didn't leave it in the very good spot. I just didn't have enough confidence to try to pitch it right at that hole. So I decided I'm going to pitch it to the right see if I can't make a 20-footer. So that was a big putt. Q. 18? LONNIE NIELSEN: Well, 18, like I said, the drive was a big one. That's a scary tee shot. And then after I hit it out there, and only had 125 yards left with a pitching wedge even if nervous I can get those on the green. I was really trying to lie that putt down there and I hit it harder than I wanted to, put it went right in the middle, about a 15-footer. Q. Back up to 16. You hit the second shot, couldn't go in the hole; why? LONNIE NIELSEN: There just wasn't enough green there. Would have had to be such a precise shot. I was on a downhill lie and a pretty tight lie. I only had about 15 feet short of the pin and maybe only 15 feet past it and it was all downhill. So I was going to have had to land that within just a few feet of where I wanted to. With the lie that I had, I didn't feel comfortable doing that. I just felt like I had to play wide where there was much more green and take my chances with a 20-footer. Q. If you were setting the over under of Fred's round today, sitting at breakfast, what would that have been? LONNIE NIELSEN: I would have thought he would shoot three or four under. Think he got a couple of early birdies, too. I don't know if he made any bogeys, but, you know, it's hard to maintain that. He just played an unbelievable two days. It's hard to do it three days in a row. I don't know why I did. But, you know, this game's a lot harder than maybe we make it look sometimes. I mean, I've watched Fred just, you know, my jaw dropping yesterday. He made it look so easy, those first ten holes, you know, 15-under through, what was it, 27 holes? Just unbelievable. But this course doesn't look that easy to me. My caddie said -- when we were playing the Pro-Am, he said what's [ inaudible ] here, ten under? I go, believe it or not, seems like it should. I am just so surprised by the score. We had beautiful conditions. I mean, the course was the best it's ever been, greens were holding, putting as smooth as glass, you know, and we had great weather; so those are the kinds of things that add up to scores like these. Q. Can you take me through that eagle putt again, just what you are seeing, what you are looking to, just, kind of, what's going through your mind? LONNIE NIELSEN: Well, I had to go up and over a hill early in the putt, and I thought, I don't think this hill will slow down my ball down so just, you know, try to coast it down there. I was just trying to dribble it up to right around the hole, and it took off, and it was kind of doing a lit bit of zigzag going down there. I felt like it was going soft enough where if it did hit the hole that it might go in or at least slow it down where I could make the next one. And at the last minute it just swung over and hit right dead center, popped up and went in. So I was praying for a two-putt there. Q. Was that the key moment of your start, or was there another moment later or earlier where you thought I know this is really going for me? LONNIE NIELSEN: I think it was that coupled with the putt that really walked up hill somehow in the first hill, 25 feet. That ball had no reason to do what it did. And somehow or another it wiggled in. Then to make that putt on three and then on four I was just off and running. Q. If I would have told you on Thursday night you shot a 195, what would you have told me? LONNIE NIELSEN: I've never shot one before, why would you think I'd shoot one now? 21 under, I just can't believe it. Never would have thought that Fred Funk or Jay Haas or Brad Bryant, all the great players here would shoot 21 under here much less me. Big thrill. Q. You got to Orchard Parks from Iowa, and you have dual-residence; can you just explain that? LONNIE NIELSEN: My wife and I both grew up in Iowa. I played the Tour from '77 to '83 when I was still living in Iowa. Then I got the club job in Buffalo, New York, actually, in 1984. We spent 20 years there; raised our family there. When I first got my Tour card out here I just felt like we needed to spend the winters some place else other than Buffalo, so off to Florida we went. Sold our house, much to my wife's chagrin. Then last couple years we decided we would move back and we want to spend the summers here. We still have two children that are living in Buffalo, and we have a new grandson, five months old. So we want to spend our summers there and winters down south. Q. Just so you know, she's making reservations for Hawaii. LONNIE NIELSEN: Good. She's been running me through the gears saying we got to get back there. What a treat. That's one of the big prizes that comes with winning. Q. Just recap 16 again? LONNIE NIELSEN: Yeah. Like I said, I knew I could drive that green easily today. I hit it on -- actually on the fringe on Friday with a much longer shot. Today we had a little bit of wind. They moved the tee up, obviously, to encourage to go for it. I just pushed it a little bit. I was trying to get it real high to make sure I got it over that big tree there even if I pushed it, and I did push it but just to the right of the green on a down slope, kind of a tight lie. With the pin cut close and the green sloping away from me. So I just felt like prudent play for me was to hit it wide right. I had two to three times as much room to play with if I just played it 15 or 20 feet right of the hole, so that's what I elected to do and just take my chances. I just couldn't take the chance of making a bogey there and maybe not hitting that first shot on the green. Felt like that was the thing to do. Q. What does this win mean to you? LONNIE NIELSEN: Well, you know, my first win was beyond belief for me. I just never really -- I mean, you dream about doing it and it just never really thought I'd ever get the job done. I had been close a few times. You know, it's those last couple of shots that get tough to pull off. Even though you've had a great week and feel like you are full of confidence, it gets right down to crunch time you are going to have to hit two or three critical shots, and you don't have that comfortable feeling inside any more when you get that close to the end and that big chance to win. And I just hadn't, you know, you just hadn't pulled the shots off when I needed them up until last year or two years ago in Long Island, Commerce Bank. But I really drew on that experience. We've done this before, we can do it again. You just have to stay in that moment and not get ahead yourself and think about what it means. Like I said, the trip to Hawaii for the next few years for the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, it's just such a wonderful way to start the year. Also gets me over the hump for this year. A good chance now I'll get to the Charles Schwab Cup. I'll have over 500,000 for the year and it usually takes about 600,000 to get in that. All those things just come into play and those are the real prizes, I guess, that come from winning. Q. What are you doing tonight? LONNIE NIELSEN: You can bet we'll be celebrating, all night tonight and probably all night tomorrow. Q. What is this thing with you and your birthdays and tournament victories? LONNIE NIELSEN: I don't know. I guess it's my time of year to play. I've always been a slow starter out here. I don't play as well on the Bermuda grass. I don't think it's putting as much as it is maybe the chipping and pitching is quite a bit different on Bermuda as opposed to the Blue Grass around the greens up here in the northeast. That's what I grew up on. That is what I play the best on. I like it when it's hot. So this is kind of the time of year I start to play, June, July, August, has always been the best part of my season. So I think that's as much to do with my birthday, but always nice to have another reason to celebrate. Q. Seriously, what will you do next; will you go back to Florida tomorrow? LONNIE NIELSEN: We have friends that drove down. We're going to have some dinner here tonight before we head back. THE MODERATOR: Lonnie, congratulations. LONNIE NIELSEN: Thanks. Appreciate it. End of FastScripts |
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