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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 7, 2010

Tim Clark

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

DOUG MILNE: I'd like to welcome Tim Clark to the interview room. Tim picked up his first win on TOUR earlier this year at THE PLAYERS. Tim, I know you're dealing with lost clubs right now and kind of the rain delay here. If you kind of start off talking a little bit about obviously the course, what you saw up to this point and then what you're looking forward to this week.
TIM CLARK: Yeah. I would say again, the course is in great shape. It's a type of course that I enjoy playing. I think it's got a lot of great holes, and always makes for an exciting tournament.
So it's nice to be in a tournament leading up to the British Open, get some competitive rounds in. And yeah, hopefully it can stay dry this week and the course can continue to play firm. But it looks like it's going to be a great test.
DOUG MILNE: Thank you. Questions.

Q. What about the lost clubs?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, I'm just praying they come tomorrow. They haven't been delivered to the hotel yet, so I'm hoping -- they're coming in from Chicago today, so we'll find out.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
TIM CLARK: Yes, hopefully I get them by tomorrow.

Q. How much of a difference does that make in your play?
TIM CLARK: It's a bit of a difference. I mean playing today it's not a big deal. I still got out there and saw the course and played, but if I don't have them tomorrow, I'll be in trouble.

Q. How often does that happen to you?
TIM CLARK: This is really the first time that this has sort of happened to me. I've had them not come on my way home, which doesn't matter, so it's been okay. But yeah, this is the closest I've got to a tournament round without having them.

Q. Does that affect your preparation at all?
TIM CLARK: No, not really. Not a whole lot. I mean, like I said, I still got out there today and saw the golf course. The only thing I'm missing really is my putter. That's the one thing I'm not going to be able to get back. I couldn't really get a feel for the greens, but I'll have time tomorrow morning to come out and practice.

Q. What did you play with today?
TIM CLARK: Just a short putter.

Q. Do you have a backup set?
TIM CLARK: Not yet, no.

Q. Did you just get the clubs from --
TIM CLARK: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Tim, a lot of people talk about old stories. You've been playing now for a while. Perseverance, you're like a model of perseverance. All the folks remember you being here, (indiscernible). You broke through earlier this year. Talk about does that take a load off your shoulder that you finally won, or do we make too much of that?
TIM CLARK: Yeah. I think so. To be honest, it's been a couple months now, and nothing really feels any different, to be honest. Every now and then I'll think I won THE PLAYERS, and it sort of kicks in, but it really hasn't changed a whole lot.
I took some time off after that and probably enjoyed myself a little too much, but I'm getting back into it now. And today my swing felt really good, and my game feels like it's getting back. I got back to working out and doing the things I needed to do to play well. I guess after nine years without winning I allowed myself to celebrate.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
TIM CLARK: Again, it wasn't something that really bothered me, and I guess that's probably why I don't feel like anything's changed.
I mean this game is tough, tough enough. And every week we get out there and we try hard, and it doesn't always happen. I just had to believe that it would happen at some stage. And THE PLAYERS Championship is probably the tournament you'd least expect to win. It's a great field. And like I say, I just sort of let it happen. I didn't get ahead of myself and was able to play well.

Q. How do you define this course? It will be 11 years this tournament has been here. How has it grown and developed, and is it a well-rounded test of your game?
TIM CLARK: I think so. I mean talking with the guys today, I think it's probably one of the better courses we play out on TOUR. It challenges a lot of different shots. You have to hit the ball straight. The greens are always good. And it's not a bomber's course. It's a course that's for everybody in the field, which I always enjoy. It makes the tournament a lot more exciting. And I definitely enjoy playing here.

Q. Do you feel like this golf course owes you?
TIM CLARK: No, not really.

Q. Do you think about that Sunday when you come back here?
TIM CLARK: No, no, no. You know, I mean you just hope you put yourself back in that position. That's all you really hope is to play well for three and a half days and have that chance on Sunday.

Q. Since it didn't bother you that much, how quickly do you shed the Sunday disappointment? Would you say by the next day?
TIM CLARK: No, it's pretty quick, to be honest. I think people would think it stays with you a lot longer, but you know, a day or so and you sort of get used to it after a while.

Q. Could happen again the next week; right?
TIM CLARK: Yeah, it did actually. Yeah.

Q. How does one celebrate nine years of waiting for a win? Did you go back to South Africa? Did you go home?
TIM CLARK: No, I went back to Arizona, and I planned to take the following two weeks off anyway, so it just kind of worked out.
And we had a party and got to see a lot of people that were very happy for me, obviously, and unfortunately, I just sat on the couch too many hours, I think.
But like I say, that's a couple months behind me, and I'm feeling recharged again; and obviously we've got a great stretch of golf coming up.

Q. (Indiscernible) at the Open?
TIM CLARK: Actually I didn't play well there. I felt like I had a chance -- going into the Back 9 on Sunday I was 2-under par, so I was right in the tournament. Yeah, like I said, the last four weeks I've been putting in the effort again and the game is starting to come around.

Q. Does winning take some out of you as well?
TIM CLARK: A tournament like that, I think, does. You know, when you're dealing with a tournament of that magnitude and that sort of pressure on Sunday, it certainly takes a lot to come down from that, for sure.

Q. What's it like, the transition from this to that series, the British Open? And the charter flight that John Deere provided, what is your take on all that?
TIM CLARK: That makes a huge help for us guys. If you left this tournament and tried to get to the British Open in Scotland, you're going to be catching three or four flights to try and get there.
It certainly made it a lot easier for us, and I certainly think it's helped attract a better field. We know we can come here, play the tournament and we know Sunday evening when we go to bed we can get on the plane and get to where we need to go.
And that's important when you're going that length of travel. You know, the British Open is an extremely important tournament for us. We want to be as well prepared as we possibly can be.
Barring playing a tournament in Europe, this is the best -- I think for us this is the best situation we can have, you know. Like I say, it's certainly a great golf course. It's not links golf, but you're going to get on a strong golf course and play competitive rounds and now against a good field.

Q. I know winning breeds confidence and everything else. But can you talk about the Presidents Cup, you played there last fall, and how that springboards and increased your level of confidence?
TIM CLARK: I mean by the time I got to Sunday at THE PLAYERS, that was a distant memory. That probably didn't weigh in at all, you know. But we have stretches where we play good, and I've certainly done that over the last nine years, had stretches where I've played well enough to win tournaments and played just as well as I did at THE PLAYERS, but you come up one or two shots short and that could be one bad swing, a couple of missed putts, and it just so happened at THE PLAYERS, I felt comfortable all week.
Even that Sunday under all that pressure I felt really calm and at ease with what I was doing. So that made it easy. It made it easier to stay focused, and I guess the difference was I just made the putts I needed to make.

Q. When did you put this event on your schedule? Qualifying for the British Open, was that a factor?
TIM CLARK: I was already in the British Open. So I think I just, again, I wanted to play before the British Open, definitely a golf course that I like and feel like I can win on.
I think it gives me a good chance to win. And again, what John Deere has done in providing us with transport over there, making it easy. That has a lot to do with it.

Q. When you think back to the singles match in the Presidents Cup, is that the best display you've ever had for one round as a professional? Would that rank right up there?
TIM CLARK: I mean obviously I made some putts, but you know, if you look at the whole round, I hit a lot of shots like this, too. I probably made five or six birdies -- four or five birdies that were inside five, six feet and then I made three long putts. And you have eight birdies in however many holes.
So it wasn't a case of just putting. That was probably some of the best golf I've played at any stage, you know, tee to green and then putting. But I certainly felt like THE PLAYERS Championship was the best I've putted certainly for a four-day event.

Q. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, was there a point where the frustration mounted and you were just wondering why the heck haven't I won?
TIM CLARK: Not really because I'd won overseas. I'd won the Scottish Open in that time. I'd won two South African Opens. I'd won the Australian Open. So I'd won tournaments, and that let me know that it was possible, and even some of the years the Scottish Open was against a strong field, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen at the time. So I had won tournaments and I think that's what kept me going. I knew I could do it. It just hadn't happened on U. S. soil.
But yeah, after a while you think, man, is it ever going to happen here. But again, I couldn't let that be the main focus when I come out to tournaments. You can only come out and do your best, and if you come out thinking about winning from day one, you're never going to win. So it's just something I had to let happen.

Q. When you come in as a young man to the TOUR, do you really understand just how hard it is to win?
TIM CLARK: I think I had a good grasp of it. I spent two years out on the Nationwide Tour; and my first year I really struggled, and my second year I was able to win twice. But I realized how hard it was to win out there, and I knew coming to the TOUR would be even harder, for sure, so it certainly was no surprise to me.

Q. How many days was the party?
TIM CLARK: How many weeks? (Laughs). A few weeks.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. Thanks a lot, Tim. Good luck this weekend. Good luck finding the clubs.

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