|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 15, 2010John DalyST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND MALCOLM BOOTH: Ladies and gentlemen, we're joined by 1995 Open Champion John Daly, who shot 6-under par 66 today to be atop the leaderboard. And John, that must have just brought back some great memories out there on St. Andrews playing so well. JOHN DALY: Yeah, I mean, for me the way I hit my driver today, I had so many opportunities. I could fly a lot of those bunkers and had a lot of wedges in there, and I putted a few out from the green, 30, 40 yards off the green and putted. No, all in all it was just a great, solid ball-striking day. I hit some good putts on the back nine that I thought were in and just kind of trickled away from the hole. It was a good, solid round. MALCOLM BOOTH: Going through your card, there seemed to be any number of holes where you managed to get it inside ten feet on your approaches. JOHN DALY: Yeah, I did. I hit a great chip on 12 that I managed to get to 10 feet and I hit it about four or five feet and missed the putt. It happens after -- you can hit some good drives and kind of have some different angles, but my whole method of playing here is worrying about one bunker, instead I'm worrying about five or six that can come into play, and for me it just puts driver in my hand. Q. You were talking about expecting to play well just because you get warm and fuzzy about St. Andrews and about this course in particular. Could you talk about that, about the special place it holds and why? JOHN DALY: Yeah, I fell in love with it in '94 in the Dunhill Cup when me and Payne Stewart and Freddie won. It's just a great course that I just love it. I don't know why. It just suits my game. Like I said, come here, I guess they're going to have it back here in seven years, it may be playing 8,500 yards long and I may not be long anymore. Like I said, for me it's just a golf course that not only brings great memories, but it's a memory before you've ever played it because of all the great players that have won and played it. So it's just a special place. It's to me my favourite course all over the world that I've ever played. When you've got that going for you, you don't feel disappointed when you don't play so well, but you feel even better when you do play well. Q. A follow-up to that, how much does it come into play, though, that first of all, your pants, how much did that help? JOHN DALY: I don't know. This has been a good first round the last four or five weeks, and that's why I've been wearing them on the first rounds because I've been getting off to some rough starts in the States, and I've made nine cuts in a row there for a while. But it was grinding cuts. It was just barely making them. You tee it up on Saturday, you're 12, 13 shots out of the lead, and it's tough. I think I wore these the first round of Valero and played really, really well, or second round, whatever, and just got off to a good start. So it's kind of like my good luck start pants. Q. If we would have told you you'd be in this chair on top, what would you have thought? JOHN DALY: I don't know. I don't think about it too much. It's good to be sitting here. I think this is the first time I've seen the media centre at the British Open since '95, who knows. It's a good feeling. But no, I think if the wind doesn't pick up, I think somebody is going to beat that today. It's just a matter of making some putts. The greens are not real fast, but they're rolling really good. A firm putter is going to have an opportunity if he gets it going. I'm not a firm putter and that's why I missed some of those putts down the stretch. But if somebody gets it going, you can get it going today. I think today is the day. Q. Well played today. Could you talk us through what happened at the 3rd hole off the tee there? Were you in danger of losing a ball there at the 3rd hole? JOHN DALY: I don't know. Everybody was looking to the right for my ball, and I'm going, I know it's got to be in the fairway. I thought it was further left than that, and that fairway has got a lot of little ridges in there. I thought it must have got a bad kick or something, I didn't know. Some of the fans said, "no, you're right in the middle of the fairway," and I went up and looked in the bunker and all around, and there was that little dip there that I couldn't see over it, but it was in the middle of the fairway. Q. But the stewards were all looking in the gorse for your ball, weren't they? JOHN DALY: Yeah, and I don't know why. I must have got a really, really bad bounce because it would have had to bounce 30, 40 yards to get over there. But when people were looking for it, I'm going, wow. Luckily it was where I thought it was going to be. Q. I've been reading this morning that you're no longer "wild thing." What can we call you now, please? JOHN DALY: I don't know. (Laughing.) I don't know. I'm 44 years old. I've learned a lot. I have never run from my mistakes. I've always been honest with you guys and everybody around me. You know, it's how you come back, I think, is -- for me, I'm on a comeback. I've been hurt for a good three and a half years. It makes it very tough to play, get your confidence up when you're working around injuries. Me and Fuzzy talked about it when he had his back problems. He said it was just so hard to get any confidence in your game when you're hurt. But no, I don't know. "Mild thing"? (Laughter.) Q. How much does a round like that today boost the confidence that you're rediscovering? JOHN DALY: It's great, you know, I'm not out of it. I'm in it. Even if somebody goes out and shoots 7- or 8-under, you know, that's what you want to do. And I haven't been in this position in a long, long time. You know, I feel the game is coming around, and when I'm hitting my driver the way I am right now, it brings confidence. A lot of guys when they're putting well it brings them confidence, but for me I've never been a great, great putter, but I've never been a horrible, horrible putter. I've always been kind of in between. For me to be able to hit driver on a lot of these holes, it's a big advantage for a long hitter if he's hitting it well. Q. You said those trousers are your lucky trousers and I assume you'll keep them on, but where did you find them in the first place? JOHN DALY: I didn't design them. These are called the Paiseltines. You'd have to ask Woody and Larry how they came up with these. All of these pants, the good thing about them is you get dressed in the dark, any shirt is going to match. (Laughter). Q. Being in the public spotlight, we see your struggles in person. It's for the public to see. Coming here today I talked to some of the fans coming here, they identify with you. Could you understand how the fans, the patrons seem to connect with you, your struggles? They call you an everyday-type person. Do you feel that your story is something that an everyday fan can relate to? JOHN DALY: I think so. I mean, like I said, I've never ran from my mistakes. I've always kind of been the man that you're supposed to be when you screw up, and I've screwed up an awful lot, not just on Tour but in other aspects of life. And like I said before, I think it's how you come back and deal with it. I don't know if it's motivation for fans or if it's helping them. Whatever it is, as long as it's a positive, to me that's all that matters. You know, something great was to happen this week when you have so many ups and downs in life like everybody does, so much smaller and bigger, but it makes it so much more gratifying when you do something special. Q. You've talked about what St. Andrews means to you. How emotional to you get standing on the tee? Feel a lump in your throat, memories of '95, anything like that? JOHN DALY: There's just something peaceful about this place. I remember when I came here in '95 I wasn't playing good golf. I was playing horrible golf. I think I had come off missing a few cuts and didn't know what to expect, but I knew how much I loved this place. You don't really think about it too much. It's just more of a place whether the wind is blowing 50 miles an hour or it's a calm day like today, it's just one of those places that I just love. And it's more at peace than it is anything else. I don't know how other players look at it, but I think a lot of them look at it the same way. When you've won here, it makes it even more special. But I can't pronounce the young kid I played with today, but he's 19 years old, and he just said he absolutely loves it here. That kid is going to be phenomenal. He's a good ball striker. But I think everybody that comes here, it's one of those places that you either just absolutely love or you absolutely hate. And I think that's a testament to a lot of the British Open courses. There's not really one British Open course that I don't like, but this is definitely my favourite one. Q. You're hitting a ball a country mile, but you look half the size you used to be. Are you dieting and are you still drinking? JOHN DALY: No, I'm not dieting, not drinking. I just can't eat as much as of the bad crap as I used to. I can only put a little bit in my belly of the bad stuff, not as much as I used to. It's amazing, the band, what it's done for me and what it's done for my daughter. She's probably lost 100 pounds since July, and you just eat different. You crave a little more chocolate. It does go down, but you can't eat as much of it. The thing I miss most about having the band put in is I can't drink the vitamin D milk, the whole milk. I used to drink a half gal of that a day. When you used to be as hungover as I used to be, it was great. Got rid of everything. (Laughter). But no, I haven't had a drink since I had the band put in. Q. No beers? JOHN DALY: No, beer definitely won't go down. I sip on Diet Cokes. They don't go down real good but that's the taste I gotta have. I gotta have my caffeine. Q. Are you about 200 now? JOHN DALY: About 195. Been about 190 to 195 since October of last year, and it's kind of where I like to be. Q. You have a momentary instance of self-loathing at Torrey Pines this year where you talked about being tired of playing and possibly quitting the game. How do you get from there to here in these intervening months? JOHN DALY: Well, I had worked so hard on my game in the off-season, and in the past when I've worked hard on my golf game, I've gotten results. I think I just wanted the results quicker. So I did, I didn't play for like three or four days, and I got a great place at Red Hill Country Club just outside of Ontario, California, that all the members were great. There's a few of them that flew over this week, Jeff and Jim and the guys, and they sat down and talked, and I've been close to them for 14 years. You know, you've got friends like that, just positive friends that tell you to come on, keep going, and -- you know, when you're upset, I'm probably the only idiot that would say it on TV, but it's like I talked to Tim Herron, he's said, "I wanted to quit a million times." There's a lot of guys that say it. But I love the game too much, and I think there's not too many players that haven't said it, but I was just the idiot that said it on TV. Q. Obviously it's early here, but you said maybe something great could happen this week. If you were to follow this through and win, could you just talk about what this would mean in terms of this comeback in terms of where you've been, the depth that you've hit and whatnot? JOHN DALY: I would appreciate it probably more than any tournament that I've won. I had that long, long drought. I hadn't won a tournament since '95 until San Diego in '04. But I had played some good golf in between there, had some chances to win. But I think just the injury -- I was never used to being hurt for that long, and to be able to finally get it -- feel like I'm getting healthier and being able to work on my game and some confidence built up, it would be just the most gratifying victory I could ever have. If it doesn't happen here, if it just happens again, I don't care if it happens on a Nationwide event, a Tour event or a European event, just that I'm feeling comfortable about any game where I can hopefully put myself in a position to win. Q. Your body has changed after the diet, did you have to change your swing, too, or not? JOHN DALY: No, I didn't have to change the swing too much. I think after the rib injury in '08, I was with TaylorMade, and I was on their range for like two weeks, so I was at the Kingdom, and Scott Kuppy was working for me, and he was like, "what are you doing?" I said, "I've been in so much pain I've been trying to shorten my swing," and shorten my swing because I couldn't take it all the way back. But I think losing the weight more than anything has just given me more energy and more stamina to get through 18 holes. When you're as heavy as I was, I was good for about 12 holes, and those last six I was getting so hungry and I was just getting tired a lot, didn't have the energy. Just losing all this weight, I could probably walk 36, 54 holes now in a day, and it wouldn't bother me. Q. Just the one shot today on the modified Road Hole, can you just tell us what happens there? I saw you go onto the gravel. JOHN DALY: Yeah, I thought I hit a decent shot. I played a conservative shot to the right of the flag, had 171 and tried to chip a 7-iron and hit it too solid. I figured I could land it just on, just over the slope to hopefully be pin high, and I just flushed it. I just hit it too good. You know, that's okay if that happens. It's when you pull hook, chunk it in the left bunker and you make 7, that's what you don't want to do. No, I hit a very good shot, a very conservative shot in there. I wanted a 30-footer, and just happened to hit it too solid. Q. You've had over the last number of years a good round here and there. Talk about how important it is now to come back tomorrow and follow this up with another good round. JOHN DALY: It would be great. You never know what the weather is going to do here. It could be blowing 30 or 40 miles an hour tomorrow and you shoot 1-under and it would feel just as good as shooting 6. It all depends on the weather. I know this course is not playing real, real difficult today, but it's still not that easy. You've got to maneuver the ball around to avoid a lot of bunkers. I mean, there's only one time a year that we kind of play golf like this, where if you hit it in the fairway, you usually don't have to worry about what's there, but there's so many little pot bunkers out here that you can hit some decent shots and get in there. Luckily for me today, I could avoid most of them, so -- come out tomorrow and just try and play the way I did and hopefully make a few more putts. MALCOLM BOOTH: John, well played today, thank you for coming in. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|