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BOB HOPE CLASSICJanuary 19, 2010Ryan PalmerLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA DAVE SENKO: Ryan, thanks for joining us, maybe you could just talk a little about your weekend and a good way to start your year. RYAN PALMER: Yeah. I guess it couldn't start any better. That's for sure. It was a great weekend. Just the whole great week in general. Just from the time I spent here before I went to Hawaii, when I got there and the preparation I put into it and it's the goal for the week to be in contention on Saturday and be playing well. And of course Sunday and the fight with Robert coming down the stretch, to birdie the last hole to win was unbelievable. My expression showed it after I made it. The release I let out. So it was awesome just to play well four straight days under great control and I wasn't that nervous and the first tournament of the year to win that is unbelievable. DAVE SENKO: What, yesterday morning you said you arrived? RYAN PALMER: Yeah, we took the red eye at 10 o'clock. So it was a little -- we had some good celebration though while we were still there. But it was a short plane flight to L.A. and then I rode over with my caddie James from L.A. Then I got here yesterday morning about 8 o'clock and took a nap for a couple hours. I needed a little rest. And I went to the TaylorMade truck to visit with all the guys there and we had a big champagne toast at the truck and it was exciting and it was special to have everybody there to do that. Q. Are you going to come out to Palm Springs now every year to start out the year? RYAN PALMER: I am. I'll make it a ritual now for sure. Q. What made you decide to come out here to get started? Was it the cold in Dallas? RYAN PALMER: Yeah, we had some 10, 15 degree weather in Dallas. I was able to play the practice Wednesday with Randy the week before Hawaii and I knew the weather was coming, so I told my wife, I said I need to got out for a few days, get some work in. So I flew out Thursday night, hooked up with Chad Campbell and his caddie and we played Tradition one day, did a lot of practicing and them came over and played the Nicklaus Private Saturday morning before we drove over to L.A. So we had two great days of practice and play and I felt really refreshed and ready to play when I got to Hawaii. Q. Having won the first time, obviously the goal of any player is to win that year. Now you've reached that goal. Does this change the way you look at the next 30 weeks or so? RYAN PALMER: Definitely. On our drive over here we were going through the schedule. Because obviously it changed for sure. So going through which tournaments I was going to play now and which ones I will not play, and the goal's changed too. Obviously the goal was to win coming into the year, now my goal is to go see how many times I can win, give myself more chances to win. I get back to the Masters, I'm in a couple of World Golfs. I want to play the British Open. I never played there. And of course the U.S. Open is at Pebble. I'm on the Ryder Cup team right now. If we stop now. (Laughter.) But we got a long way to go, I know. Q. Stop now you would be No. 1 in a lot of categories. RYAN PALMER: So after winning, that is definitely high up on the list, for sure. Because I know I have a great chance to do that. I still got to play a lot of great golf up until then. So I'm excited about the opportunity and we'll see what happens. Q. Are you playing Pebble? Are you playing AT&T? RYAN PALMER: I am. Q. Do you normally do it? RYAN PALMER: I do, yeah. I played every year since I been out here. Q. Some guys will play this year because of the U.S. Open is there. RYAN PALMER: I love playing it. I've always enjoyed going there. That's one of my favorite spots, that whole Pebble, Spyglass, right there on the Monterey Peninsula it's one of my favorite spots to go visit. So I'm definitely making that trip and enjoying the time there. Q. And Monterey Peninsula replaces Poppy Hills. RYAN PALMER: They got rid of Poppy Hills, so that's going to entice a lot of guys to come back too. I know a lot of guys weren't real thrilled with that course. I never played Monterey, so I'm anxious to see it and see what it's like. Q. It's an old style course built in the '40s and '30s and it's a charming little course along the water there. RYAN PALMER: Nice. I like old courses now. Old-style courses. Q. Talk about these courses, actually. You say you got a practice round in before you went to Hawaii. Have you seen the golf courses out here and how do you feel your game fits in, especially coming in as the hottest player on the TOUR? RYAN PALMER: It's really exciting because I had success here. I played well on these golf courses before. I think I shot 64 at SilverRock last year when I played it. I played LaQuinta when I've been here before. And I know the Palmer Course really well. I got to play the Nicklaus Course before I left. So I'm very excited about the week. I always enjoyed playing here, these golf courses. And it couldn't be a better time to come here and play after a great week in Hawaii after winning. Q. That's the question, you said you hit the wall about 30 minutes ago. Is there maybe some jet lag or wind lag coming in for the next week? RYAN PALMER: Probably a little jet lag. My family came in last night. I was up a little later going to the grocery store getting all the food for the kids and everything. So a little early wake up call this morning. So I'm a little tired from the traveling all day yesterday and this morning. So I'll get some good rest tonight, this afternoon, and I'll be ready come 9:06 tomorrow at SilverRock. Q. I know you're a big Cowboy's fan, how often do you play out at Cowboy's Golf Course; and I read there's a putting green the shape of a star there. RYAN PALMER: It's funny, I never really, I played there like twice. I haven't played the golf course that much. It's actually a great layout. The greens are a little crazy, but it's a fun layout to play. They could go in and redo the greens it would be a great golf course. I tell you what. I never seen the star. They got a star painted in one of the fairways. But I never seen a star green. Q. That was the only thing that happened that was bad over the weekend was the loss on Sunday against the Vikings. RYAN PALMER: Yeah, it was a little bummer that morning. People asked if it was going to affect me playing, but I stuck to my same routine, I went and did my workouts. When half time came, I missed most of the third quarter because I was busy doing my routine, getting myself mentally, doing the work I needed to prepare for the round of golf. So I didn't let the football get in my way. But it was a little disappointing and frustrating that we couldn't play a little better game. Q. They made it a lot farther than some people thought they would. At least a month earlier. I've asked a few guys this. The TOUR had finished by the time all the Tiger stuff started. Now you're back. Are guys talking about Tiger? When you played these practice rounds here with Chad and everybody, did you discuss it? I just wondered over in Hawaii was there much discussion or guys basically saying don't ask me about it anymore? I'm just wondering what the thought on TOUR is. RYAN PALMER: I think it's past a little bit. I don't think anybody's really talking about it. I think everybody's read about it, talked about it, and I think it's already gone by. Season started and everybody's getting down to their business. And I don't recall having any conversations about it with anybody. I did -- I heard Robert Allenby talk about there's a chance there was a rumor he might play next week. So I don't know. I don't know if that will happen or not. No, everybody's kind of forgotten about it, I think. He's got a lot to do in his personal life and his private time. We all respect that. We look forward to when he comes back out. Q. You said your schedule changed a little bit. What's your west coast schedule? RYAN PALMER: Play next week and then go home during L.A. I'm 1-7 at L.A. so I figure that's a good week to take off. I'm going to go play Pebble. Then I'm still up in the air about going to Cancun. We talked about going, my wife and I, but I might take that week off and go have a little vacation or something. I'll play Phoenix and Honda. Well Phoenix I guess is the end of the West Coast Swing after Phoenix. Q. I suppose if you won a second time out here you could go play Accenture because you would get in the top 64. RYAN PALMER: If I get in, yes. I think I'm 92 now, so if I have some good weeks ahead I'll definitely be there if I'm in the 64 for sure. So that's a short-term goal. I'm going to strive for that the next two weeks. I've got a good chance to do that. If I keep playing the way I'm playing I'll have a good chance to make it. Q. You mentioned Ryder Cup. Is that a top priority or is it down a bit? RYAN PALMER: I think I could probably put it up there at the top pretty close. I won this year. I achieved a big goal. I don't have to worry about keeping my card now, obviously. I have the rest of this year, that's great, but I'm going to focus hard on just playing more consistent, to get myself more chances to win. Because the more chances I have, the more top-10s I get obviously it bodes well with the selections when it comes down to the Ryder Cup picks if I'm not on the team. So I'm going to put a lot of focus into that the rest of the year and when it comes close, I hope I'm at least within the talk of it and maybe one of the ones to choose. Q. If you run into Corey Pavin will you do any lobbying? RYAN PALMER: Sure I will. Whenever he's ready we'll have dinner. No, I'm kidding. I know Corey pretty good, so I'm sure he'll pay attention a little bit. So we'll see how the rest of the year goes and hopefully we'll be close. Q. A lot of the guys are playing at Abu Dhabi this week, the top-ranked player here is number 37 in the world. Is that sort of a bummer for a tournament like this, do you feel like, that so many guys are playing those international events? Does it matter? RYAN PALMER: I think I would say you want to give -- this TOUR needs to be your focus if you're a full-time player. I guess a lot of guys do that Race for Dubai is the reason they go over there, which, that's great. I would love to go play internationally, but my main focus is over here. I don't think -- I wouldn't give up tournaments that I love playing, enjoy playing to go over there and play. Obviously the more here, the better. I wish they would focus on playing over here a little bit more in these early events. Because this is a great tournament. It's a great week. And I wouldn't miss it. But those guys love playing over there, which is great and all. That's their choices, I respect that as well. DAVE SENKO: I wanted to ask one more question. Jack Nicklaus is coming up on his 70th birthday. Do you have any dealings with Jack in your career or anything that you were able to pick up from him? Any kind of influence on you. RYAN PALMER: No, not really. Just the few times I've met him, I got to chat with him briefly. We haven't had any long conversations or anything. I've obviously watched a lot of his highlights. Obviously his '86 Masters. But other than that, I never really had a one-on-one to where I could draw off something he did or said. I haven't had that opportunity yet. Q. Sam, who is Arnold Palmer's grandson? RYAN PALMER: Real grandson. Q. We were kidding. Obviously with his name, if his name were Palmer, he would get a lot more. Everybody assumes you're Arnold Palmer's kin. Do you get that a lot? RYAN PALMER: Yes, I do. I'm always asked. And then there's some that doesn't believe me. (Laughter.) I'm like, okay. Or there's others that go on a big old story about him, how much they love him, and I don't want to burst their bubble. I say, yeah, that's great. I'll play it off sometimes. I don't want to tell them, well, sorry, I don't know the guy, but. No, it's flattering to talk about it a lot. So -- I have had opportunities to talk to him at Bay Hill and he calls me "cuz" every now and then, so that's kind of, that's pretty cool. Q. Have you met Sam? RYAN PALMER: I did today for the first time. Yeah. Q. Did you kind of joke around with him? RYAN PALMER: No, I know his caddie real well that's caddieing for him this week. We just met briefly, he was passing by. So we didn't talk at all. Q. Will you tell him thanks for the trouble? RYAN PALMER: If we get a chance to talk later, sure. I'll ask him how he really feels, how it really feels, let's put it that way. I'm the playing grandson. I'm the actor. He's the real one. Q. You could confuse him by winning this week. RYAN PALMER: That would be great. I'm looking forward to give myself a chance again. I couldn't be any more confident, that's for sure. DAVE SENKO: Okay, thanks, Ryan. RYAN PALMER: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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