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FARMERS INSURANCE OPENJanuary 26, 2010Troy MerrittSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: I'd like to welcome Troy Merritt to the interview room. Troy, obviously you won Q-school recently, and starting your rookie year on the PGA TOUR with a T20 at the Sony Open in Hawai'i, and T63 last week at the Bob Hope. Troy, you're kind of new to the TOUR, and basically just graduated from Boise State in '08. Will you kind of take everybody through -- you've got an interesting background on how you got to the TOUR. Maybe start from the time you first picked up a club, how you got into golf. Take us through what has to be a whirlwind for you going from college to Q-school right into the PGA TOUR and starting off really well. If you can kind of take us through that real quick -- actually not quick, if you want to take your time. TROY MERRITT: Well, it seems like a long time ago since I first picked up a golf club, and I'm only 24 years old. We have pictures of me with a plastic golf clubs, playing with my grandparents and my parents out on the golf course when I was two, three years old, and it just kind of spiraled out of control from there. My dad and my mom were schoolteachers so my dad had summers off, and he'd go out and he'd play 150 rounds a summer with me. So I grew up on the golf course. I didn't do a whole lot else. I got my first real set of clubs, I call them, K-Mart specials, when I was about seven years old. It had seven clubs and a putter, not a whole lot, just a real small Wilson Staff bag, and I put it to good use. I started playing tournament golf when I was eight years old and played just on the Idaho Junior Golf Association, just the short-circuit, because we didn't have a whole lot growing up in Idaho, and my parents didn't have a whole lot. We were in a small town. My golf membership for six, seven years was only 75 bucks, and playing 150 rounds it cost me 50 cents to play a round of golf, which most people would find that quite odd. But ever since I was eight years old, I've been winning golf tournaments. I only won one junior state tournament in Idaho when I was nine, but I was second seven out of eight years after that and before that. So I was always in the running. I was always ranked first or second in the state growing up in Idaho and did really, really well. And then my family decided to move to Minnesota. My dad got a job working with his brothers, and it was a good move for the whole family, and the fact that they wanted us to have a better opportunity to go to better schools because there weren't a whole lot of schools in Idaho. So me made the move and I was starting all over, brand new. I didn't play junior golf that summer because I didn't know anybody. I got a membership up at Bunker Hills, and at the time for a junior membership there it was about $450, which was way out of my league at the time coming from $50, $75 a year, and they only let you play Monday through Wednesday before 8:00 in the morning or Friday, Saturday, Sunday after 2:00 o'clock with an adult. Needless to say, I wasn't playing 150 rounds a summer anymore; I was playing maybe 20 to 25 out there because I couldn't get out there, A; and B, I had nobody to play with. So I got through there. I made my mark at Spring Lake Park High School, three-time all-conference, won the conference twice, my junior and senior year; wasn't really even a contest. Won 14 tournaments in high school out of maybe 30, so I had a pretty good winning percentage there, as well, and was ranked second in the state my senior year, and I think actually I was the scoring champion for the state that year. But wasn't looked at by any schools. There might have been a Division III school in the city here or there that asked me would you consider come playing for us, and expensive schools, expensive private schools where you had to pay $25,000, $30,000 a year. Well, that obviously wasn't in the budget. So I had a buddy that was down at Winona State. I played golf and basketball with him. He said, well, I can talk to the coach, maybe give you a chance to try out at a Division II school. So I thought, okay, I'll give it a shot. I go down there and I talk to the coach, and he doesn't want me to try out. He had a lot of guys out, and he just wanted to minimize the number. Then my dad kind of twisted his arm, and it got me the tryout that I needed. We played five practice rounds for qualifying, and I barely qualified for the fifth spot, which is the last spot in the starting lineup, and I went out and I won the first tournament. Well, I didn't have to qualify for any more tournaments after that. I ended up being all-conference that year, all-region for the region we were in, and I was freshman all-American, almost won Freshman of the Year for Division II. Then we went to the next year. My sophomore year I won eight times. I won the conference, the region, I won the super region. I was third-team all-American that year. Got to play at nationals, a lot of fun. And then right after that summer I had lost my playing privileges out at a country club that I was working at, so my uncle said, well, why don't you come out here, or out to Boise, and we'll get you a job here and you can play here wherever you want. I did that, went out, was working, had no intentions of transferring to Boise State by any means. I went out I think in the beginning of July and played with the head pro, shot 63, impressed him. So he called up Coach Kevin Burton and said, maybe you should take a look at this guy. I got the waiver from Winona State to talk to Coach Burton, and I transferred pretty much right away at the beginning of August. It was just a spur-of-the-moment deal. And got in, got my feet wet just a little bit in Boise before I had to go play in the U.S. Amateur that year. I played that, missed the whole first week of school, which really disappointed my mom, being a schoolteacher, but I didn't have a problem with it. We started the season up. I won twice -- won once in the fall, once in the spring, and then had all-conference. I was just -- I was probably runner-up for Player of the Year in the conference, but I didn't get it that year, and that really motivated me to play well my senior year because I wanted to win that award because I felt that I had -- I don't know, I didn't get it my junior year, let's just put it that way. So I go out senior year with a little bit of fire in my pants and won the first two events right away and had a good chance to win three or four more in the fall, almost won the entire fall schedule. Went into the spring, played pretty well in Fresno, and then won the next five in a row. And some of them not even real close. The first time I won by six; next one I came from two behind to win by one, next won I won by eight; next one I came from two behind to win by two, and I won the WAC Championship by ten shots. Was second-team all-American, all-Nicklaus Award, won almost every scoring category there was that year. Still wasn't getting a whole lot of respect because I went to Boise State, and we've all seen the football team struggled to gain respect that they now have. So I turned pro right away and didn't get any exemptions really or anything, so I tried a few things on the Gateway Tour and had a couple Mondays up in Canada and a couple Mondays on the Nationwide Tour and didn't have any success. I ended up getting two exemptions on the Canadian Tour up in Montreal and Toronto in August and was able to make the cut in Toronto, which got me through the pre-qualifying stage of Q-school. So I went to first stage then, played real solid and didn't really worry about the bubble at all. And second stage we were coming down the stretch, and I hadn't made a birdie in the last 26 holes, but I was just inside the number, and I was on the number coming down 18 and slam-dunked a wedge from the rough and moved the number to 9. I ended up finishing at 10-under. Funny thing there, I didn't have a birdie the last 26 holes, but I had three eagles the 12 holes that got me to final stage. Didn't play well at final stage. Finished 137th, got my conditional status on the Nationwide, which they should have told me was super-conditional status because I didn't see an event until the ninth one, the BMW. Flew all the way across the country at the last second, played, made the cut, bumped my number up just a little bit. Did a bunch of Mondays still and no success but one. And then played not very good on the Nationwide Tour until I won in Mexico and was able just to sneak inside the Top 40, which got me straight into last year's final stage, and obviously won, and now I'm here. Q. You mentioned that you played your practice round with Graham this morning. Just wondering how much the two Boise State guys hang out together on TOUR. TROY MERRITT: We haven't had a chance to really hang out while we've been out here, it's just been so fast the last couple weeks. In Hawai'i I stayed way out at Turtle Bay and he was down in Waikiki, so we only saw each other once or twice on the putting green before rounds. So didn't do anything there. And then last week at the Bob Hope didn't really see him because we were playing different courses at different times. Today was the first time that we actually got to really talk to each other since we both started back in Hawai'i. Q. When a guy like Alex plays as well as he did at the Hope, does it kind of inspire you as a fellow rookie that maybe it's out there for the taking? TROY MERRITT: Absolutely. And the only reason for that is because to start the year I had the best number coming out of Q-school obviously, and we reshuffle after Phoenix, and I have this fear when I play on the golf course when I have the lead, it's the fear of being caught, and the same goes as where I am now on the number; I want to after the reshuffle still be in that top spot. So when other guys play well it forces me then to go out and play better to make sure that I don't lose my spot. Q. Do you play golf with a chip on your shoulder? Or feel like you have? TROY MERRITT: Absolutely not. I just play golf because I love it, and I do what I do because I love to win. Q. I didn't know if you felt like sort of an underdog just as far as how your career has kind of gone. TROY MERRITT: Well, I've always been the underdog. Even though I win, you don't get the respect as other guys who win other tournaments, who win fewer tournaments than I do. But yeah, I don't have any problem with that. I don't mind flying under the radar. It just keeps me -- I just do it for myself. Q. How are the course conditions today? TROY MERRITT: It was pretty soft, and with how long the course is, I was hitting some irons and some woods into some of the par-4s. I'm not using to hitting long irons and woods into par-4. It was real soft out there. Q. Have you played the North yet? TROY MERRITT: I've never seen the North. I'll probably play that one blind. Q. Have you had any rookie moments yet where you did something somebody got on you about? Are you past the awe stage, or are you still getting wowed out there seeing some of these guys? TROY MERRITT: You know, I kind of felt that way in Hawai'i. Standing there before the first round you're watching guys warm up and practice, and then you realize, I've been watching these guys since I was 10, 12 years old playing on TV and playing real well then. And now I have to go out and try and make a living by playing against them. It was real humbling for me I would say. But for me I've stayed out of people's way. I just kind of do my own thing, and I like to just be on the outskirts and take it all in. I think the only real rookie moment I've had is the score bearer on the first round in Hawai'i, played with Rickie Fowler, and he pointed out to me walking down the third hole that my name was spelled wrong on the score bearer. It was Merrick, like John Merrick. Other than that, it's just same-old-same-old. Q. The check was right? TROY MERRITT: Yeah, the check had my name on it. Q. I wonder if you could talk about playing the first three events, seven courses. TROY MERRITT: It's a lot to take in right away, that's for sure. It was nice -- and even playing the Sony, obviously it was one course, but it's so far away. You've got to get readjusted to the time changes. It's obviously the first event. You're trying to learn a lot and take it all in, but you're trying to enjoy it at the same time. You know, there's a real fine line doing all that and still playing well. I think I accomplished it in Hawai'i, and last week at the Hope it was a little bit different. I had gone over and looked at three of the Hope courses before New Year's because I knew I wasn't going to get the chance to see them before the tournament if I hadn't have done that. So I got in on Tuesday, saw LaQuinta, and then we went out and played one round. Thursday was a blessing for me last week not playing. We just got to relax, played a bunch of cards and then got to go back to the grindstone. But that was different, as well, because I played with celebrities, people you see on TV. That's a whole new ballgame. You're not seeing golfers that you watched growing up, you're seeing celebrities that everybody watched growing up, which I thought was pretty cool. Q. A little far away from Arizona or from Turtle Bay? TROY MERRITT: A long way from Arizona, yeah. Q. What was it like playing with Rickie Fowler? He seems to be pretty popular already. TROY MERRITT: Yeah, actually the first time we played together was the final round of the Soboba Classic on the Nationwide schedule last September, which was not too far from where he grew up, so he had quite the crowd following us. We battled it out all day. I think he shot 77, I shot 78, so we wanted to beat each other even though we weren't playing very well. I thought it was a lot of fun in Hawai'i, too. I got to know him a little bit. He's a real good kid. Hopefully I'll get to play a lot more with him in the years to come. Q. How did you win that tournament in Mexico? Did you have a lead going into the final round? TROY MERRITT: I was always at or near the lead pretty much the whole way. I think I was tied for the lead going into the final round, and I came out swinging early. I made eagle on the first hole, and I was playing with Garth Mulroy, and then he beat me the next three holes consecutively, and then I was down again. It was a seesaw battle the whole way. I was down two at one point. I cut it to one at the end of the front nine. I came out and birdied 11 to pull all square, and then I bogeyed -- or I birdied 10, then I bogeyed 11 to lose my shot. Then I birdied 12 and 13. And at that time I had a two-shot lead on him. But we had Adam Bland surging up the leaderboard, and I think he shot the course record the final round, 64. I bogeyed 14 to pull even with him and then came back and birdied 16, took a one-shot lead, and then he birdied 18 to pull even with me while I was still on the golf course. I had about a 12-foot birdie putt on 18 in regulation to win, and I never felt so nervous over a putt in my whole life, and obviously put a good stroke on it, missed it pretty badly. And went out in the playoff hole, and it was back and forth. I had the advantage after the tee shot; being in the fairway I could go for the par-5 in two, and he was in the rough having to lay up. He laid up in the fairway, and I pulled it left into the bunker, so then he had the advantage. He hit it in to eight feet and I had a bunker shot with water behind and just kind of chunked it out to 25 feet, left him the advantage still and was able to roll that one in and he missed, and I ended up with a victory. Q. What's the most interesting thing that's happened to you in your young TOUR career? TROY MERRITT: Just on the PGA TOUR? Most interesting I think is having a share of the lead after the first round in my first-ever round on the PGA TOUR. You know, I wasn't expecting to go out and be really anywhere near the top of the leaderboard. I was actually just trying to make the cut that first day or the first round. Things went a lot better than I had planned. But so far it's been very boring. Q. What's your schedule the next three weeks? TROY MERRITT: As of right now, I'll play this week. As long as I stay under the cut line to get into the Riviera, I'll play there. I'll play Pebble Beach, and if I play well the next three weeks, then I'll take Mexico off and then play the Phoenix Open the week after. And then we'll reshuffle, and we'll go from there. MARK STEVENS: Thanks a lot, Troy, for taking the time, and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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