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THE HONDA CLASSICMarch 4, 2010Alexandre RochaPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA PHIL STAMBAUGH: Alex, fine 4-under par 6 today. I was telling them before you got in here that you had to go two qualifiers, a prequalifier with weather similar to today. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Correct. PHIL STAMBAUGH: And then the Open qualifier on Monday. This is your fourth PGA TOUR event and first since the 2003 Southern Farm Bureau, I believe. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Correct. That's all correct. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Before we go through the round, maybe start us off and give us a little bit of your background, we pulled some stuff out of The European Tour book and see that you've played six events, I believe, last year, and tied for 13th thea the SK Golf Challenge. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Oh, those would be Challenge Tour events. I've been a full member, full status for three years on The European Tour, 2006, 2007 and 2009. I played on The Challenge Tour in 2008. This year, I am in Asia, actually, after losing my card on The European Tour last year. I got my Asian Tour card in early January this year and there's a break in the schedule now, so I'm very happy to be here, home and playing in this event. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Just talk about your round today. 66, very nice. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Yeah, it was very nice, thank you. First of all, I mean, I had no idea that I was going to be able to start off so well. I mean, I felt really comfortable coming in here. Jason and I, my instructor, we have been working over the last four months very hard, and with purpose. And I've been feeling better and better about it. I've been keeping stats and it's all getting better. We did a little work on the putting, actually, Tuesday, after seeing a video. And I felt good about it, but come out with birdie, birdie, birdie, it was a little -- it wasn't anticipated. But obviously it put me on an even more relaxed state of mind teeing off on 4. I was strangely calm and relaxed today, and that's a very welcoming feeling for me, because it's been something that has plagued me in the past, feeling a little anxiety and feeling a little nervous. I felt none of that today. As a matter of fact I've felt none of that since I've set foot here. I think that is playing a big part on -- well, at least it definitely did today, on my score. Q. Jason who? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Jason Birnbaum. He's sitting behind you. PHIL STAMBAUGH: I understand you're based in Orlando and your wife actually does work for the GOLF CHANNEL? Can you tell us what she does? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Correct. She's in the programming department. She's been at the GOLF CHANNEL for a while. She loves it. She absolutely loves it, and she's looking forward to coming down here. She's not here because she's working. And she won't be here until tomorrow afternoon because she's working, but she'll be here tomorrow afternoon. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Does she give you tips? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Not really. Well, she does, on how to clean the house and vacuum the floor, hang up the picture and all that, yeah. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Before we go to questions, can you just run through the birdies? You had two bogeys, and any good saves you may have had during the rest of the round. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: All right. No. 1, I hit a 9-iron from, I only had about 120 yards and I hit a 9-iron into the wind and held a better part of a 35 footer on 1. No. 2, that hole is just a beast. I hit driver and a hybrid to probably eight feet. The hybrid was probably one of the best shots off the day. Made that. And then No. 3, it was coming downwind. I hit a good drive and a 4-iron to the middle of the green and 2-putted. I had an unbelievably lucky bounce on No. 7, the par 3. I absolutely snap-hooked a tee shot into the houses and it bounced off something back in-bounds. Q. Someone maybe? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Or someone, back inbounds. Very tough up-and-down, which I got it. I made a putt from about, again, seven or eight feet for par on that hole, which I had no business making par on that hole at all. But that helped me calm down again. I had just made bogey on the hole before and I hit the nasty tee shot and I was getting a little worried. But getting up-and-down and birdieing the next hole from, again, 20 feet, 20-odd feet on 8. So I turn at 3-under, and now No. 10 and No. 11, are your back-to-back stressful holes of the week I think. I haven't even gotten to the Bear Trap, but just to start out the back nine, those two holes are dead into the wind and they are very, very long. 11, you're hitting over water on the second shot and I hit a 3-iron in there after hitting a really good drive. I hit a 3-iron that was very, very solid. I was quite happy with it, just to get through those two holes, with only making a bogey, I thought that was, you know, that was fortunate. But then you go down the wind on 13 and 14, I took it advantage of those. Drove it in the middle of the fairway on both holes. I had no more than five feet on either of those holes for birdie. PHIL STAMBAUGH: 12 and 13. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Sorry. That's one hole that I get -- 12 and 13, that's right. 14 is back into the wind. I hit driver, 3-wood on that hole today and I didn't get to the green, and I hit a good drive and a 3-wood. But that was a good up-and-down as well. It was simple. It was straight, forward, not much to it, but still. Now we get to the Bear Trap. Now that is some experience I tell you. I hit a 7-iron on 15 and I thought I dropped my heart on the tee box when I hit it, because it looked like it ballooned a little bit on me and I thought it might not carry the water, and once it did I was calm again. 16, second shot into 16, is so tough, because you get the wind -- it's a cross-wind, but actually what happens is the first half of the flight, you're playing into the wind, because you have to aim it so far left, or try to draw it in there, into the wind. First half of the flight is into the wind and as it gets to the green it actually rides the green and becomes a little bit with you. So it's really hard to judge. I missed the green. Had a nearly impossible up-and-down and made a 25-foot, 28-foot, downhill right-to-left breaking putt, which by the way I was just trying to lag but I'll take it. And I was really proud of the shot on 17. It was a 7-iron again. I hit it absolutely like I wanted, where I wanted and how I wanted, and that was a great feeling, because that hole is very nerve racking, but I was happy with the swing I put on that hole. And that was it. Getting through the Bear Trap today at even par, I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. It's tough to do and I'm quite happy with it. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Routine par at 18? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Routine par, well, if you can call it that. There is plenty of stress on 18 as well. The third shot, there's water all around the green, and the wind is cross. You don't feel it so much around the green because of the grandstands. I didn't hit a particularly good third shot in there but I had a good 2-putt. So, more or less routine par I guess if you want to call it that. Q. Are you the most surprised guy in the room right now that you're sitting right here? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: I tell you, I'll answer that; I am surprised at one thing. I am surprised at how calm, how relaxed and how confident I felt all day. That surprises me. I am not surprised about the fact that I can play proper golf. I've been working at it, and hard. And it has come out of me in the past before. I'm very satisfied with it, yes. Am I surprised to be in a good position on the leaderboard? Yes. But I wasn't shocked to see myself playing well. This is why I work so hard for. I was surprised about being so calm. Q. You addressed this a little bit outside. Last year when you were entertaining notions of whether you wanted to continue doing this after a very bad year, and then the news out of Switzerland that the Olympics were heading home, sort of lit another fire for you. Can you go back over that and talk about how that gave you a whole extra boost of motivation at probably your low point? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Yes, of course. I was having a low point. I was playing horrible. There were a lot of issues going on. There was a technical issue, some mental issues, whatever. I was hurt, as well. And I was really confused. I didn't know if I should be doing this, if I shouldn't be doing this. I didn't know I had the drive, until they said that we got the Olympics and golf is coming back in Rio. Now, as a Brazilian, nothing makes us more proud than to host an event such as the Olympics, and the World Cup two years prior to that. I guess being from Brazil now and the next few years is going to be a cool thing, and I'm very proud about that. It gave me a time frame of six or seven years to go back to the drawing board and start all over again, which I did. I changed my managing group. I changed my instructor. I changed my company, my equipment, which by the way happened just very recently. And how I go about practice and how I go about planning everything that I do; that's all very new. And it's a plan and it's a process for the future. We are working on something that is six years ahead of now, but it's obviously working out -- it's beginning to work out already. Evidently it's evidence of the work being put in the proper way. Q. We have all heard various reports about golf in Brazil and there's only just a small handful of courses, apparently you would be more able to speak on that. You were the Brazilian Tiger Woods before you got to Mississippi State because there was nobody else. They were calling you that from -- ALEXANDRE ROCHA: From a kid. Q. You were the guy. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: That's right. There are about a hundred courses in the country, which the number, a hundred, is certainly bigger than a handful, but when you consider that Brazil is the fifth biggest country in land in the world, it's a very small amount of golf courses. There are only about 15,000 golfers in the country. Having said that, São Paulo, where I'm from, has probably 80 percent of the courses in the country and my family was big into golf when I grew up there, with the -- it was in my family. Now, it has been growing, steadily, over the last five or six years, maybe a little bit more than that. There's a particular region of the country up the northeast country in a state called Bahia. There's a part of land, a stretch of coastline that has been bombarded by tourists and big hotel chains decided they are going to build golf resorts there. They have built some seriously good golf courses and resorts and now that's catching the attention of people all around the world to go play there, and they are quite nice courses. So, it's growing slowly, but surely. Q. Just wondering, have you been able to put your finger on why you have been so calm and so relaxed ever since you stepped foot on this property earlier in the week? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: I can't explain exactly why or the process of feeling so calm and relaxed, but I can explain one thing, is that all of that started with a decision I made of being just that. So I thought, I've played three events in the past on the PGA TOUR and I struggled miserably in all three of them, and that was seven years ago the last time. And I thought one thing was common among them, which is the fact that I never felt comfortable out here. I felt that I -- I just felt really nervous. I couldn't really do anything properly. I wanted to get in and out of the property as soon as I could. It just made me very uncomfortable. And on the course I had no chance of playing golf because I could barely feel my arms. It was a mess. That was constant in my previous experience on TOUR. And I decided this time, that wasn't going to be the case. Having said that, I mean, that was seven years ago. I'm 32. I've played golf in more an 80 countries around the worlds. I've played on The European Tour. I have a little bit of experience, is what I'm trying to say, which helps to calm me down. But really it was a decision. It was just a decision of being calm and taking it in. Obviously expecting nothing; well, how can I? I had to go through two qualifiers to get here. What am I going to expect. But more than anything else, it was just that simple. It was a decision and sticking with it. Q. Was it tough to stick with it? Were there times where you had to tell yourself, no, I'm going to be calm? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Well, if you're having to tell yourself that you're calm, then you're not calm. That decision was made before I got here. On Monday after I got through the playoff, I said, right, I was driving -- I drove straight here to do registration, and on the way here, I said, right, before you get there, why don't we just decide that this week, you're going to feel like you belong this week, you feel like you can play golf, you're going to concentrate on golf, and you're just going to feel very calm, very comfortable. And that was it. I mean, I haven't repeated to myself again and I just genuinely feel that way. I really do. Q. It says in your bio that you started golf at the age four or five? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Five. Q. Were you a prodigy? Were you considered to be a prodigy? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: There weren't many golfers in Brazil. Q. Still aren't? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: There still aren't. There weren't very many golfers in Brazil. But I did well in international competition from a young age. I did well in national competition from a young age, and I did well in collegiate competition as a young adult here. Prodigy, I didn't know. I was just better than the curve I guess, in Brazil. Q. What were your impressions of Starkville, Mississippi? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: I mean, honestly -- (laughter) -- so get this. I get there. I didn't even visit the school, right. I just showed up. São Paulo is the third biggest city in the world; it has 22 million people there. I get to Starkville, Mississippi and my coach drops me off at the dorm room, his first mistake and I thought ought Riley and he says to he many how are you going to get to practice. I said, well, just ride a cab and he laughed for 20 minutes. He said the nearest cab from Starkville is in Atlanta, which is 400 miles away. (Laughter). How is it comparing to -- you can't. The whole City of Starkville is my street in São Paulo. The life is great. Q. So how did you adjust to that? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Very quickly. I got right into the swing of things. I was very comfortable in school. I spoke no English; that was a little hard. But I was living the dream. I wanted to come. I wanted to play collegiate golf and I was happy with it. I did shrink a dozen of my sweaters because I dried them in the drier. I had never washed clothes before. But other than that, everything was all right. Q. So you spoke no English whatsoever? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: No. None. Q. So how do you attribute speaking basically flawless English? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Well, 13 years down, one I think this. But my family is good with languages. My mother speaks six fluently, both my grandparents, their parents, they both spoke six fluently, as well. I've done English, Spanish, Italian, a bit of French, Portuguese evidently. I can't really claim French. I can understand a little bit. I can claim the rest of them. I don't know, it's just something to do at home. Sorry, I have to continue that, education in Brazil, because we are the only Portuguese-speaking country in Latin America, you were forced into Spanish, you know. They teach new school, as well as English. So you get a basic sense, doesn't mean you can speak. I bet a lot of you might have gone to Spanish classes in school and how many of you can fluently speak Spanish? It's the same thing. Same with English. But nothing like being in the culture, bombarded by it from every way, television, radio, teammates, classroom, whatever. There was no Portuguese in Starkville. None. (Laughter) I had to learn. Q. Which six does your mom speak and is she involved in international relations or something? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: My mother's side of the family, there's a private school that was my great grandmother who found -- well, actually, my mother's great-grandmother founded in 1904. It's a private school for every grade in Brazil, from kinder garden all the way to senior in high school. I went to that school obviously. Q. What's the name? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: It's always Elvira Brandão. Q. You're going to have to spell that? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: I thought so (laughing). That's the name of the school. She studied abroad. She studied in both France and England. It's part of Brazilian culture. Most Brazilian people you will find speak two, three languages with no problem. We have to. Q. Say you go into the final round of this tournament tied for the lead, are you going to be able to keep that new found calmness? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: I will tell you when that happens. I have no idea. I mean, how can I possibly know that. (Laughter) I don't know. Now, I don't mean to confuse you guys. I'm not saying that I didn't feel pressure out there. I'm not saying that I didn't feel the natural, normal nervousness of the situation and the golf course and the water and the wind; yes, of course I felt all of that. It's not like I was on some kind of cloud nine out there. The difference is, understanding that a shot is a particular difficult shot; being able to go through the process of actually picking the right club and the right line and the right shape of shot, and performing that shot, is what made the difference. I was calm enough to be able to go through those stages, whereas before when I was so anxious, I want, literally, wanted to get rid of the shot, hit it as fast as I could because I just wanted out of the problem. That was the nervousness that I'm talking about. Yeah, I was nervous out there. I felt the pressure evidently but it doesn't mean that it debilitated me perfect performing. That's the sense of calmness that I want to make sure that I don't get misunderstood. It wasn't like a Zen, oohh. No, it wasn't that. I very much felt everything but I was able to take it in, understand it, process all the information and perform the shot. Q. No matter what happens going forward, how much did you need a day like today to reaffirm that you can play this game better than 99% of the world? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Like my life depended on it, really. Listen guys, I'm going to be very front, I've been a professional for ten years now, right. And to be quite honest, I have felt over the years that I have underachieved, since becoming a professional that. Is my amateur career was great and I think that was a bit of a problem because I was on a path when I left Mississippi State, I left that school having broken nearly all the records they had. I was the all-conference -- I was the best player award, whatever, first team All-American, which was the first time that ever happened in that school. So I was in a path, and my All-American mates were Paul Casey, Luke Donald, guys like that. So I was on a path that was similar to theirs. Look at all of them. So by comparison, I would have underachieved a little bit. But it took me a long time to realize that it's not about that. It took me a long time to realize that one will do what one can do and it will happen if they have enough talent and enough will whenever the time is right. Ten years into my career I'm just now beginning to embrace that idea, and before evidently I had some issues to work on before. So I needed a day like today like if -- you have no idea how, and it was for nobody. It's for myself first and foremost. Evidently I'm very happy. I mean, people in it Brazil today are going to be very happy. My family is going to be very happy. Jason I hope is very happy. But for the kid in me, you know, that kid that used to dream about this stuff, he needed that. Q. Can you just putt a little perspective on the strong play it takes to get through the prequalifier and the qualifier to get into this field? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Yeah. Q. How many people were in each, also, if you know, for how many spots? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: The first one, the prequalifier, I don't remember how many people exactly. Q. 111, two prequalifier, 111 at each one of them. ALEXANDRE ROCHA: 14 and ties got through and then four. To give you a perspective, I played the prequalifier with a World Cup winner, two-time European Tour winner Marc Warren. He had to go through the same stage because it's just how the rules are. He didn't get through. He did not get through unfortunately. At the actual Monday qualifier, I played my practice round with Len Mattiace. Here is a guy who almost won a major. He didn't get through. So how tough is it? It's about as tough as you can -- it's brutal. The odds are never in your favor. There are 70 guys for six spots, and the playoff, there are six guys for two spots; you felt like you've just won a war if you get in. You never expect to get in honestly. I don't think anybody in your right mind will say, you're going to get in today. You can't say that. You can't expect that. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Do you remember what you shot in the prequalifier? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: Jupiter Country Club, it's very exposed course to the win. It was howling out there. It was cold. I shot even par. Played very solid to shoot even par actually. I hit 16 greens that day which was quite helpful. And then I shot 68, which is 3-under at Fox Club, which is a very tricky golf course, very fast, undulating greens. Q. And that got you to a playoff? ALEXANDRE ROCHA: That got me into a six-pan playoff for two spots, it did. And by the way, here is another thing. Playing my fourth hole on that Monday qualifier, I was 2-over par. I had just mad a double-bogey on a reachable par 5 by hitting in the hazard not once but twice for good measure. When I got on to the next tee box, that's when all of this started to unfold, because I normally would have been first, upset, secondly, a little bit desperate and I would have probably gotten the wind knocked out of me. None of that happened. Somehow walked to that tee box and I was just ready to hit the next shot. I don't know how. I don't know why. But I just did it. And I continued to plug along that day. I didn't play necessarily very well that day as far as ball-striking or putting for that matter is concerned. But what I did do was every couple of holes or so, I would hit two really good shots to have a birdie chance and I will make the birdie and I would just kind of scrape my way around the rest of the course and I managed to get a 68 in, which I didn't think was going to be enough, but it was, and so here I am. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Continued good luck. End of FastScripts |
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