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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 9, 2010Jason BohnPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA Q. Did you have any idea that Tiger was in distress at the beginning of this round? JASON BOHN: No, but you know, I've only played a couple of times with Tiger, so I don't know him that well. But he seemed very cordial, very professional. And, yeah, I was a little surprised when he came up to me and said he was done. I didn't see his shot. I didn't know where he was playing from -- I knew he was right there on 7, and, yeah, he just said that he was done. I thought it was his wrist because I saw him the hole before kind of hit a shot and jam his wrist. But he said it was his neck, and he looked in a lot of pain. When I shook his hand and said, "Take care of yourself," he kind of flinched a little bit. He definitely looked like he was in a lot of pain. Q. There wasn't any pain you could see noticeably standing and playing with him in the two holes, three holes before that? JASON BOHN: Like I said, it's hard for me to tell because I really don't know him that well. I haven't played enough golf with him to kind of tell if he was on track of -- he seemed very cordial with the small things we just chatted about on the golf course out there. Yeah, I was a little bit surprised, but once I shook his hand, I could tell he was in some pain. Yeah, I mean, I wish him the best. I want him back out here as fast as possible. Q. Jason, there was no noticeable grabbing of the neck or grimacing that you saw over the -- JASON BOHN: I didn't. See, it's kind of odd. I saw him on the first tee doing some warm-up exercises with his neck, but like I don't know his routine, so I don't know if that's kind of part of his stretching out or trying to get himself ready to go. I really don't know. Q. The shots you saw him play, were those shots you would have expected from Tiger? JASON BOHN: No. To be 100 percent honest, no. I think -- I saw him hit a couple drives that he kind of lost to the right, and, yeah, that -- some of the shots that he hit were quite a bit farther off line than you would expect from the best player in the world. Q. What's it like for you? I'm sure you're pretty amped up to play, and then seven holes later the galleries go away. JASON BOHN: I was a little disappointed. I thought they were there for me to be honest (laughter.) Q. (Inaudible.) JASON BOHN: Well, the most difficult part, I think, about playing by yourself is you lose the element of watching other shots. You lose the element of watching other putts roll around the hole. And like it's always your turn to hit. So that's kind of -- like there's really no downtime, you know. So you kind of have to pace yourself. I didn't do a very good job of it. I had never been in this position before. This is a tough golf course, and I played some terrible golf on it today. When you hit some bad shots, its teeth is right now. I mean, you're going to see -- it's going to be a great championship for sure coming down the stretch. It's playing very difficult. Q. From a guy that's gone through as many back problems as you have, you can sympathize? JASON BOHN: Oh, 100 percent, absolutely. When you're talking about your neck, your wrist -- in golf, every little injury, it's hard. There's no question, that -- yeah, when he said it was his neck, I mean, I was just like, you've got to go. Just take care of yourself. Figure out what it is and make sure it doesn't turn into something terrible. Q. On the back, you hit tons of balls in the short. Can that take its toll quickly? JASON BOHN: Absolutely. I fractured my ribs three years ago and that's what did it. I change my ball position in my golf swing and hit so many balls soft in that short a time just to get used to that position, and my orthopaedic said that's probably what fractured your ribs. You didn't give your body time to adjust to a new movement. Yeah, I'm sure he's practicing hard, he's working hard. Yeah, really, I feel for him. I've been in that situation when you know something's tinged. I'm kind of glad that he doesn't take any chances. We don't need him to sit out any longer. We want him to come back and play great golf like he's been. Q. You've said that a couple of times. That's because of the attention he brings to the game? JASON BOHN: He's awesome for the game of golf. It's awesome. It's 10:30 in the morning and people are lined three deep. That's great for the sport. I mean, it's not for me. I mean, that's -- seriously, that is great, and I mean, I'm a little fish in a big pond, but I still get to kind of dip my hand in the pot. I'm very grateful for what he does for our game. Q. What was the exchange when he shook your hand? Do you remember what he said? JASON BOHN: He just said, "I'm done." Then I kind of inquired about it. I said, "Are you okay?" And he's like, "Well, I'm -- " I said, "Is it your wrist?" And he said, "No, it's my neck." I could tell when he shook his hand he stiffened up. When your neck hurts it's pretty severe. But you could tell, when he was leaving he was in pain. Q. You said you guys talked during the round, the short part of the round. What did you guys talk about? JASON BOHN: The golf course, same thing. We were kind of -- we were both kind of saying that we wished the golf course would play for four days like it did today. We thought as far as it being considered a fifth major championship, I mean, this golf course is right at its top peak right now. It's playing very firm and fast and very difficult. So that's kind of -- you know, that's the comments that we made about it were just -- yeah. Q. Did the TOUR ask you at any point if you wanted a marker to play with? JASON BOHN: No, I didn't know the policy, and I just said, "I can just keep going by myself, right?" They said, "Absolutely." They needed my scorer to attest my card, so that was the only thing that I was notified on. Q. When you were out for that stretch in '08 was it -- JASON BOHN: Yeah, '08. We actually talked about that a little bit because my time -- it was the same U.S. Open that Tiger won with all his knee problems was right when I blew out my back. And I tried to play through that, obviously not to the success that he had, but we were just kind of talking about that. And then it was right after that, it was the very next hole. Q. Did you have surgery? JASON BOHN: Yeah, I had three surgeries, yeah. Q. What did you have? JASON BOHN: I had a fragmented disk in the L4-L5, so a piece had broke off, and then I had some spinal dura problems during surgery. They kind of cut my spinal cord. And then I had a couple surgeries just to really repair the spinal cord and the dura. Q. How difficult was it for you not hitting golf balls? You can empathize with Tiger wanting to? JASON BOHN: Totally. I completely understand from an injury standpoint. I was bedridden for 32 days. I couldn't lift my head above my waist. The second you see somebody and they're injured -- I have complete passion for them and I feel like 100 percent you've got to shut it down and get it taken care of. Q. Why is it so hard for guys that play this sport to shut it down? So many guys play injured out here. JASON BOHN: I don't know, Alex, maybe money. Seriously, I think that one of the things is to play on a medical exemption is so different than playing on full status, and I think guys just think, oh, I can kind of fight through it and get there. You're really only looking for a couple good weeks, lock up your card and then maybe sit down for a while. I don't know, I think the TOUR does a great job of enticing you to play every single week, so it's pretty hard not to. Yeah, it's hard for me to speak for other people. But I mean, I'm definitely enticed by the amount, the purses, the -- I mean, just to be able to play on TOUR. It's pretty hard to kick it down. Q. Don't a lot of golfers play anyway with a nagging this and a tweaking that? JASON BOHN: I think so, but I don't think anybody does it very successfully, and I think that's what makes that whole U.S. Open Championship with Tiger like one of the greatest sports stories ever, because it's very difficult -- our game is such finesse. There's so much touch and feel involved, that just -- this sounds stupid -- but like a hangnail, just something that's aching on your thumb or a little pulled muscle somewhere, it makes a major impact on the way that you swing the golf course. Q. One quick thing I want to go over again. Did you have any indication before the 7th hole that he was in pain? JASON BOHN: No, but like I said before, I don't know -- I haven't played enough golf with Tiger to really know whether he's in pain, he's not in pain. Like I don't know his routines, I don't know how he walks. There are some guys out here that I could easily tell you that just through conversation. But I don't know him well enough to even be able to say. He never said he was in pain to me at all. Q. And you never took notice and thought, Wow, what's wrong, other than the fact that he was hitting it wayward? JASON BOHN: First tee I saw him doing that. I thought that was part of his routine. Yeah, I know he hit a couple of poor shots, but, yeah, I didn't notice. Q. Is there a macho element to play, too, that you want to be seen as tough, and it's part of competitive sports that you play hurt? JASON BOHN: I wouldn't say in our sport, no. Yeah, I don't think there's -- Q. People saying, oh, he's hurt, or if you don't play -- I don't know -- JASON BOHN: No, I wouldn't say that by any means at all in golf. Yeah, I don't think that there's -- Q. There shouldn't be, but in some other sports -- JASON BOHN: Yeah, in other sports I can see that. Yeah, absolutely. But in other sports, guys can play with fractured ribs and all kinds of things. Q. Were you a little nervous at 1? JASON BOHN: Considering I started two doubles in my first three holes, yeah. I was anxious to say. I kind of wanted to get out there, and obviously it's -- Q. Put on a show? JASON BOHN: Yeah, yeah, not really, I just wanted to play well for myself, and then to hit some wild shots early, it throws you off of where you want to be mentally right out of the chute. Yeah, I definitely got off to a very poor start. Q. Then it must have been just hard to keep the rhythm? JASON BOHN: It's a little tough, yeah. It's all a learning experience. End of FastScripts |
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