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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 9, 2010

Paul Goydos

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

DOUG MILNE: Paul, thanks for joining us again for a few minutes after a 3-under 68 Round 2 of the John Deere Classic. Out there you said the difference between yesterday and today was that reality kicked in today.
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah.
DOUG MILNE: Just a few comments on the round and just kind of how you're feeling after the big day yesterday. You got today out of the way, and now you're focused on the weekend.
PAUL GOYDOS: Questions? (Laughter.)
No, I played good today. Tee to green I think I was better than I was yesterday. That shows you what putting can do. But yesterday putting kind of carried the day. I hit it good but really overshadowed it. Today I shot 68 because I hit it so good. I didn't putt as well. I started out pretty good but struggled a little coming in.
But if yesterday was all about putting, today was all about ball-striking.

Q. What were your expectations for yourself today after you have a round like that?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, it tells you you're playing good, let's just start with that, and you feed off of that. But you don't, in a sense, I don't think forget about yesterday, but let's not do any comparison shopping. Let's just go out and play and see what it gives you and stay patient and keep trying to hit good shots, although clichÃ©s are clichÃ©s for a reason.
But definitely there was -- after shooting 59 and going through all the stuff and then maybe -- and I'm getting the question, everybody asks you the question, "How do you back that round up?" Like I know. (Laughter.)
It actually got me thinking about it a little bit. Maybe there was a little more apprehension yesterday afternoon and evening. This morning woke up, felt pretty good. Had a good warmup session, almost holed it on the first hole and got things calmed down.
I think I birdied 17 of the first 29 holes of the tournament, which is pretty nutty. I didn't finish off the round today as I would have liked, but if you would have told me Thursday morning that I was going to be at 15-under and have a round of 59 in there, I probably would have gone back to bed and said I'll take it.

Q. You talked about your routine, but after shooting a 59, the post-round routine must have been all blown away.
PAUL GOYDOS: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Q. How did yesterday's post-round activities affect today?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, first, it caught me off guard. I thought personally it was pretty cool to shoot 59. I didn't know there would be all this talk of historic rounds and blah blah blah. That I wasn't ready for per se and how big a deal it was.
I've been out here long enough. Dealing with the media is something you do. That's part of the reason why we do this for a living and make the money we make, because the media is interested.
And it was -- again, I think part of the issue that helped is I did it in the morning, and so I had all afternoon in a sense to kill time. One of the things you do on TOUR, you learn, is you learn to kill time. So I answered a lot of texts, a lot of emails last night. That's part of the fun of shooting a good score. It's part of the fun of playing golf, part of the fun of what we do. We all have an ego, and my ego was definitely taken care of yesterday.

Q. You mentioned that your putting today was the difference, and statistically you're right; you actually did hit the ball better today. Did it feel different, the putting, or was it just a matter of they weren't dropping?
PAUL GOYDOS: It started out pretty good, and it slowly got worse I would say as the day progressed, for whatever reason. I hit some pretty squirrelly short putts coming in, but that happens. It happens with me more than on one occasion.
Again, you have to at some point in time take it as a package and not as an individual shot or hole or whatnot. It's the portrait that we're looking at, not the blemish over here in the corner.
I'm, again, very pleased with where I am right now. I played very well tee to green. Yesterday was one of the greatest putting rounds maybe of all time, and today was not. But that's not -- I think they call it the Sports Illustrated jinx; it's just reversion to the norm. Things tend to want to work their way to the center.

Q. Are you superstitious at all? Did you start thinking I've got to have the same breakfast again, wear the same cap?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I did wear the same cap, I'll be honest with you. I don't know about superstition, but it goes back to routine. You need to do what you do to get prepared. I didn't have the same breakfast. I didn't really have much of a breakfast because your tee time, it's tough sometimes, I need to eat at about 10:30, and I don't know what meal comes at 10:30. So I had a little bit at the hotel and then I ate basically a lunch. So those types of things.
So yeah, I don't think what side of the bed I slept on had a lot to do with how I played yesterday, quite frankly.

Q. You mentioned yesterday going into 16 you had the challenge set in your mind making birdie on those last three holes. Did today offer any specific challenges like that while you were out on the course?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, I really thought it was a challenge responding to the round in itself. I was, like I said, nervous or apprehensive about the round tomorrow and the expectations of the world. The world didn't watch me shoot 59, they watched me shoot 68. (Laughter.) So the world was going to watch today's round a lot more than yesterday's round. We do that for a living, and you get used to it. I don't even notice the cameras anymore.
But I did kind of say, hey, look, we need to stop worrying about that stuff. You are playing good, things are going well, just enjoy it. We had a good time. I had a good group. Cliff and J. Byrd are fun to play with and we had a good time. Again, very pleased with the way I played.
Finishing up, I'm going to go work on the putter a little bit and work on a few things here and there, but all in all a pretty good day.

Q. You were back on the course about 10:15, 10:20 still doing interviews about yesterday, two hours before you teed off. How were you able to put that in the back and start focusing on today's round?
PAUL GOYDOS: So you think that talking to the media somehow two hours before my round -- how intimidating do you think you people are? (Laughter.)
You know, again, part of what you're doing prior to -- I actually did something for somebody this morning in the hotel, too. You need to keep occupied. I woke up at 7:30, and I don't play until 12:00; that's four and a half hours I need to find things to do for lack of a better word. I think staying occupied -- I did an interview, two things, I did the NPR deal, and GQ. Someone figured out the GQ angle --
DOUG MILNE: Cover of the next one?
PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, cover. (Laughter.)
No, that's a non-issue. I guarantee you, tomorrow he'll come up to me and say, is it okay if CBS talks to you for 20 minutes before your round, and it's part of what we do. It doesn't affect my routine that much.

Q. Do you ever think you'll look at tape of your putting from Round 1?
PAUL GOYDOS: I have tape of when I won at Bay Hill, Sony, PLAYERS. I have looked at things like that in the past. I'm sure if I asked The Golf Channel for the highlights they'd give it to me, and I probably will at some point in time.
And yeah, I think those things can be helpful. Sometimes you don't get a good look because of where the camera angle is and all those other things. But refreshing the memory is not a bad thing to do. You get into -- if you're in an 18-hole playoff with Tiger Woods, I don't think watching "Hoosiers" the night before is a bad idea.

Q. I hear things from professionals that I can't relate to such as swing thoughts. Did you have different putting thoughts today?
PAUL GOYDOS: No, the same ones I've been working on, good balance, making sure you're comfortable, those types of things, and doing your thing.
But again, nowhere near -- yesterday it was auto pilot. Today I had to think about it. That was probably a big part of the difference.

Q. Did you follow Stricker's round during the morning at all?
PAUL GOYDOS: Not really, but I saw something somewhere, noticed that -- I shoot 59 and I woke up and I was three back. (Laughter.)
I think that says a lot about Steve. We have this barrier -- the difference between 59 and 60 is humongous. It's a solar system away. For Steve to start his round on the first tee and kind of look over at the leaderboard and say, how's it going today, I'm 12 back, and to shoot 60 and shoot 11-under par and get 11 of those shots back I think is pretty impressive. That round probably got covered up a little more than it deserved.

Q. Is he playing as well as anybody right now?
PAUL GOYDOS: Well, he's playing better than anybody this week, I think no question. His game is -- he's moved his game to that different plateau where when he plays mediocre he's finishing in the Top 10, and when he plays well he's got a chance to win, and that's a tough place to get to. And I think he's there right now. He had a little injury issue earlier in the year, but when he's healthy, he seems to be very competitive every single week, and that's not easy to do out here. There's very few people who do it.

Q. Talk about the shot on 18 yesterday.
PAUL GOYDOS: I heard a guy say it was pretty close to going in. That's all I know.

Q. Okay, today, how do you follow up 59?
PAUL GOYDOS: With 68.

Q. Seriously, with perspective now, do you see it differently?
PAUL GOYDOS: No, I was pretty happy with the way I played today. Birdied five of the first 11 holes, too. No, I think I handled it the way I should have. I think I used it as, hey, you're playing good, no reason you shouldn't play well today, let's just keep going in the same direction.
I think part of the issue that helps, too, is you know going in and you know going into the round tomorrow that 15-under par is not going to win the tournament, 12-under par is not going to win the tournament. At the end of the day that's really what we're here trying to do. It wasn't like I needed to be conservative or any of these other crazy things. You need to go out and play the way you are, and if you're playing good, which I was, it allows you to be very comfortable playing today. I never really felt -- I was hitting basically at most of the pins and felt pretty good about my game.

Q. Having today in the rear view mirror, do you feel like you're going to be freed up a little bit tomorrow?
PAUL GOYDOS: We'll. I don't know if I'll be any more freed up than I was today or the day before, just a matter of executing and doing things right. Again, I've done this enough to where I kind of know what to expect tomorrow. In a sense the challenge tomorrow is dealing with everything in front of you and doing the best that you can. That's the challenge of the game. I can't 4-iron a shin or anything like that. We've got to go out and play our game and see how well your game handles it. At least I'm happy with where it is, and I'm looking forward to challenging myself this weekend.
DOUG MILNE: Paul, as always, we appreciate your time here. Pleasure to chat with you, and best of luck on the weekend.

End of FastScripts

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