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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC

November 11, 2009

Jamie Lovemark

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Jamie Lovemark to the interview room. Jamie stands, on the non-member list, he has $453,872 through two of four events so far this year on the PGA TOUR, and actually, Jamie kind of lucked out. He was going to play Q-School the week of Viking, and thanks to that being canceled was able to use his Top 10 from his playoff finish at the Frys.com Open to enter the Children's Miracle Network Classic. So Jamie, a lot's happened since Frys. Can you kind of comment on what you've been doing? You played well at Q-School, and then your thoughts coming into this week.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. Well, Q-School is a struggle. It's hard. It was cold and wet, rainy in North Carolina, so I came back to Florida on that Friday, and you know, it was rained out Thursday and Friday, and I got a call from my agent on Friday morning saying, you know, if this thing is canceled, you can play Disney.
So I said, yeah. There's no way it's going to happen. Hasn't been a canceled tournament since '96. I thought I saw that somewhere. You can check the date, but it's been a long time since a tournament's been canceled, and I lucked out.
MARK STEVENS: Now, just a little bit on your thoughts coming into this week, how your game is and if you've seen the course at all.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. I've played 27 on Magnolia and 18 on the Palms. They're both great courses. They're in perfect condition.
You know, I'm playing well. I gotta play well enough to finish Top 5 to get my TOUR card. If not, I think make the cut and make a few thousand dollars to get past Second Stage. So those are my two goals.
MARK STEVENS: Okay. Jamie also had a T46 at the RBC Canadian earlier this year. Okay. Any questions? As a pro.

Q. Can you just explain the intricacies? You can still skip the next stage if you -- is that what you just said?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. Top 150 on the Money List gets past Second.

Q. So even though you've played --
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I'm 146 right now.

Q. You can hopscotch and skip one. That would be really hard.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. Second Stage is really hard.

Q. Can you talk about this whole process of trying to clog your way, like a lot of guys are trying to do, clog your way onto TOUR and how you plan your schedule and where exactly you've been playing?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Next year I have no idea what I'm going to do. There's a lot of guys in the same position. It's my first time going through this, and it's a grind. You think about all our time -- you know, if things don't work out, be doing Nationwide qualifiers like I did this summer. If things go well, I'll doing TOUR events. So it's a big difference.
You gotta play well at the right times and take the most -- use the best opportunities you can to -- I don't know what I'm saying. Sorry.

Q. Is it unsettling to have everything up in the air all the time?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Kind of. For me, coming out of college, I expected that. You know, it takes guys out here, four, five, six years to get their TOUR cards. No one does it that soon.
Anthony Kim did it. Dustin Johnson did it, Webb Simpson did it. Those guys have done great getting past Q-School and the Nationwide Tour, but it's not easy at all.
It's going to be a grind to get past just Second Stage and finish Top 125 in the Q-School proving grounds out there.

Q. (No microphone).
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Deerwood. Outside Houston. Yeah.

Q. Jamie, your first couple of years at USC you were pretty wildly successful. You stayed three, right, three years? This last year how did it go? What was your --
JAMIE LOVEMARK: It was good. I played -- yeah. I think I only played --

Q. Player of the Year and all that stuff early on.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I think I only played five or six events last year. I think I played three in the fall. I played one in Hawaii, early February and then broke my finger in February and I was out for two months.
I came back for two and a half or three weeks, and then I broke my rib. So I missed regionals and nationals and a bunch of other tournaments. So I didn't play much, but when I did play, I played well. And my first tournament back was Canada, and that was actually the first round I played since I broke my rib, so I wasn't expecting much. I played one practice round and barely got through that.

Q. How did you break your ribs and your finger?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Basketball the first time. It was very bad, and then the second time was golfing, just a swing. Stress fracture.

Q. (No microphone).
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Football player.

Q. Football player. Who was there?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Anybody there. Pick-up games on the weekdays after class, like 5:30, a bunch of guys. There was three courts, and kind of show up, and there's a lot of really good players. I was going up for a shot, and someone hit my hand.

Q. There has been so many different stories told about the plights of players in Q-School. So far you've already said it's a grind. Is there some mental image or something that you've sort of got in your head about what the final round of Q-School is? Have you heard all those --
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I've heard horror stories. I really have. I've witnessed it on The Golf Channel. The guys showed Final Stage a few times, and I've seen some crazy things happen.
If you're strong mentally, you have no problem getting through. A lot of guys have the game. I'd probably say 50% of the guys out there can get through Third Stage every time they play, but you gotta be mentally strong, and you can't be afraid of anybody or anything, which is hard to do. It's easier said than done. That's for sure.

Q. You've had plenty of at-bats out here before.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah.

Q. (No microphone).
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Q-School is in Jupiter, or Palm Beach. I'm living down there now, so I'm trying to get out there as much as I can.
I haven't been out there yet, but after this tournament, hopefully get past Second Stage, or at worst, I can go out there and play that course.

Q. How do you look back on Vegas? Is it disappointment that you didn't win, or do you take a lot of good out of getting yourself in that spot?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: In Phoenix?

Q. Was it Phoenix?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. Phoenix. I did the Vegas qualifier the week before.
I'm disappointed I didn't win a little bit. By the way, I played the final round. I think I was five strokes back or something starting the day and then six strokes back on the Back 9.
I fought my way back to tie. So when I was done, I didn't think I had a chance to get a playoff, and luckily that came down the way it came down.
But you know, all I want is to get my TOUR card next year, and that's one step closer, making a lot of money was good, put me in a better position for getting past Second Stage into Third Stage and getting my TOUR card.

Q. I have two questions. One, I think it was -- could be two years ago, could be last year. But you played a Nationwide Tour event in Columbus, and I think it was Jerry Faulk saying that you never had a swing instructor. You were more of a feel player. Do you still not have a swing coach?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: No. I have a swing coach now. I've used one for the last year. His name is Greg Labelle. He teaches a few guys out here. I think he teaches Scott Piercy, Greg Kraft, Tyler Aldridge and a few other guys.
But he's been good. My misses are a lot tighter. I'm more consistent week in and week out, and that's good. That's all you want out here is to be consistent.

Q. From junior golf days up to this point you didn't have a swing instructor?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. I've been 20 years without a swing coach, and the last year I've had one. So it's been different.
I think it's good, though. It helps me. When I go to the range, I have something to work on. I'm more focused. I can spend more quality time doing what I need to do instead of kind of going out there and beating balls.

Q. Your relationship with -- your friendship with Ricky Fowler. You know, you guys grew up in kind of same areas, Southern Cal, junior golf, and played in Eisenhower Trophy and Walker Cup. Is it more of a rival thing or is that more of really a friendship?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I don't think there's a rivalry. Not yet at least.
You know, we're both in the same position. We're both trying to get TOUR cards, and we've spent a lot of time in college and junior golf and high school golf playing together. So we're good friends. There's no reason to make rivalries out of nothing, not until we're coming down the stretch at the Masters or the U. S. Open. Then we'll start maybe arguing a little bit or something.

Q. When was it, like how old were you when you first, you know, met him?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I was probably 17. I think I was a junior in high school, and he won the So. Cal state championship in high school, shot 62. Never heard of him before that. And I guess the rest is history.
But yeah, it was his coming-out party. I think he won by like four or five or something, probably won by five.

Q. (No microphone).
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. At the time that was the state championship. There's no state. So that was the biggest thing in California. He won that.

Q. Is playing with him tomorrow going to be kind of a good thing in that you guys sort of have a common goal and can maybe pull each other along and try to satisfy your various money thresholds?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah. I think we're both going to shoot 58 tomorrow or 56. It'll be fun, light-hearted. Two amateurs. So it'll be a fun group.

Q. Jamie, Phil Mickelson is obviously, you guys hang around the same club when you were still living at your dad's place out there. How much have you played with him over the years? I don't want to overstate it, if it's been three rounds or a hundred rounds. I was just kind of curious.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: It's closer -- not closer to three, but it's around -- I don't know, maybe high single digits. Something around 10.

Q. Do you play the Bridges more often?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Just a golf club in town. So he comes out there sometimes, takes his kids out. We played before the PGA. We played a few times before the Buick this year. So maybe 10 times.

Q. (No microphone).
JAMIE LOVEMARK: No, man. He's fun to play with. He's a riot. We played with a kid from UCLA and Phil's brother, so we had good teams.
He's fun to play with. He loves betting, and he loves giving us a hard time, so it's all good fun.
MARK STEVENS: Okay. Anything else? Okay. Thanks a lot, Jamie. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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