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FARMERS INSURANCE OPENJanuary 29, 2010Michael SimSAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Michael Sim, thanks for joining us after a 62 on the North Course today, just one off the course record held by Mark Brooks and shared by Brandt Snedeker in 2007. Certainly a great day for you. Before we get started maybe go over your birdies and bogeys, if you had any bogeys. MICHAEL SIM: I did have a bogey. I bogeyed No. 8. I hit a poor drive to the right into the fairway trap and came out short and didn't get up-and-down, so that was my only bogey. But I birdied 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14 and eagled 18. So yeah, it was a great round. I've been struggling a little bit with my swing the last couple weeks, and I guess I was 4-over after three holes, and here I am working my way back into contention. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've been on TOUR before, but certainly I'm sure you came to the PGA TOUR in 2010 after winning multiple times last year and being the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year. I'm sure you have some increased confidence over your first TOUR experience. MICHAEL SIM: Yeah, definitely. Obviously last year was a tremendous year. I won three times and had numerous amounts of Top 10s, as well. I feel comfortable thereabouts or in the lead, and I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I haven't really been in this position before in a PGA TOUR event. It's going to be an exciting next couple of days. Q. 4-over after three holes yesterday? MICHAEL SIM: Yeah, I started on 10 and hit a poor drive, and like I said, I was struggling with my game and made bogey there and double-crossed my tee shot on 11 and put it on the green and three-putted. And then hit a similar shot from the fairway on 12 yesterday for my second, so I made bogey there, as well. Yeah, I don't know. I found my swing after that. I just started concentrating on my lower half. My lower half of my body tends to get a little bit sloppy at times and just tried to focus on an area that's worked in the past. Yeah, made a few birdies. I sunk a long putt on 15 yesterday that kind of kick-started my round. I still made two more bogeys after that. I've been rolling the putter tremendous the last two days. I went to the Scotty Cameron studio on Wednesday afternoon and had a look at my putting stroke with Paul Azanko (ph.), and it wasn't as good as what it was last year when I went in there, and managed to correct that in probably 20 minutes. Yeah, just rolled the ball pure the last two days, and even with the greens a little bit bumpy with the poa and the amount of rain they've had, it didn't really affect my ball. I've probably got to thank him a lot for that. Q. Is there a sense of panic you get when you start that poorly, or do you just kind of let things go? MICHAEL SIM: You know, it was on my mind, but I just tried to focus on my lower half, like I said, because I know that's the area where I get those bad shots from. I mean, even today I stood up on the first tee and hit a quick hook left. I was thinking it was going to be a pretty similar day to yesterday. But I managed to sort that out quite quickly, I just trusted what I was doing. I noticed yesterday afternoon on the range my ball position was probably in the middle of my stance, and I moved it forward about two inches, and I think that really helped a lot today. I didn't drive it too well, but on the North Course you can get away with it. The rough isn't as thick, and you're going in there with sort of sand wedge, 9-iron coming out of the rough because there's a lot of short holes. I'm going to have to drive it a little bit better tomorrow on the South Course. Obviously it's a lot longer golf course, and you know, hopefully I can sort it out. Q. That was after your round when you were on the range that you moved it -- MICHAEL SIM: Yeah, yesterday afternoon I moved it. I just got my alignment a little out, and my ball position was kind of in the middle of my stance. I moved it forward and had a pretty good session on the range yesterday. Yeah, felt a lot more comfortable on the golf course today. Q. There are so many players from Down Under playing on the U.S. Tour. I just wonder, when you were a kid or younger, did you think of yourself as playing in the United States, and when you're here, do you sort of -- you've been here for a while, but do you feel like you belong? In other words, this is home or not home? And is it very difficult adjusting? MICHAEL SIM: That's a good question. I didn't find it difficult because after high school I went to Melbourne and went to the Australian sport program for two years, so I left home quite quickly and then came to America and played some amateur, a summer of golf over here. So I was always traveling as a young kid. So I didn't find it that hard to make the adjustment. I always wanted to play golf on the PGA TOUR, and it's my dream to be out here. I want to win golf tournaments. I haven't really found the adjustment too much, and it's great to have so many Australians on the TOUR. It's great to have guys like James Nitties and Jarrod Lyle and Marc Leishman, who I grew up playing amateur tournaments with, and I played with James the first two rounds. It's nice to play golf with them, and it's great to have, like you said, so many Australians out here. Q. What do you miss from Australia, cricket or Australian football or any particular food or comfort zone? MICHAEL SIM: Well, all the Australian cities are on the coast, so my parents live probably two minutes from the ocean in Australia, and I miss that a lot. I live in Scottsdale now. It's a little bit of a difference. But I do miss that. I think the food is a lot better down in Australia, and I feel like you eat a lot healthier down there. And Australian football. I'm passionate about Australian football. Last year I ordered on Setanta Sports just to watch two odd games every weekend. I think it was like 30 bucks a month. But I just ordered the channel because I wanted to watch the football. Q. Geoff Ogilvy once said -- of course he's been here for quite a few years. He said, if you don't talk about the Cardinals, there's no conversation in Phoenix. Have you accepted and do you like American football at all? MICHAEL SIM: I do watch it, but I still don't know all the rules. There's a lot of rules in that game, and I watched the game the other day, Cardinals played New Orleans, at Aaron Baddeley's house. I sat there, and I know most of the rules, but after every play I was asking friends what happened there, and why is that a penalty and stuff like that. It was nice to have the Cardinals in the Super Bowl last year, and they made the finals this year. But I've been home for ten weeks, so I kind of missed the whole season. You know, it's great to see the Cardinals doing well. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Michael Sim, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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