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RBC CANADIAN OPENJuly 21, 2010Mike WeirTORONTO, ONTARIO LAURY LIVSEY: We'd like to welcome Mike Weir into the interview room. I don't think there's any need for introductions, so we'll just open it up for questions. Q. Mike, I guess you had to cut your Pro Am round a bit short today. Can you just tell us about the status of your forearm there? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I just got tendonitis in my arm. Yeah, started bugging me a little bit last week at the British Open. And I put a little brace on it Monday when we played, and that seemed to do the trick pretty well. And kind of took it easy, just hit probably 20, 30 balls yesterday; and today it progressively got worse. So decided to call it a day and after 15 holes I got it worked on, so hopefully I'll get it ready for tomorrow. Q. Just as a follow-up to that, you get enough attention as it is this week, and now you have this. How do you make sure that this doesn't affect your concentration more even all the attention you do get just during a normal week here? MIKE WEIR: It's, you know, it's part of it, I guess. Every week sometimes, you know, you're not 100 percent, and it's just happened that it's this week that it's bothering me, but I don't think it's a distraction. It's just the fact that, you know, I'm not able to practice as much as I would have liked to coming off three weeks off and only playing two rounds last week at the British. So I would have liked to have practiced a little bit more, but I'll just rest the rest of today and get ready for tomorrow. Q. Mike, not to be a smart aleck, but you turned 40 this year. Things like tendonitis, things like that, are those things you have to deal with more? MIKE WEIR: Probably. (Laughs). I think so. I mean that's part of getting older, I guess. You get little aches and pains. But yeah. Q. That being said, are there other parts of your game now at this point that you have to do differently, sort of in the big scheme of things? MIKE WEIR: Nothing really with my game. I think, you know, you gotta take a little extra care of yourself, there's no question. And you have to spend a little extra time warming up and stretching, and I think staying fit and limber and all those kind of things are important, you know, to prolong your career. But everybody goes through little things like this. All the guys that -- there's probably not a guy playing in the tournament that hasn't had something, and in the fitness trailer for something some weeks. You know, it's just part of the game. You know, you practice a lot and you work at the game hard. Sometimes you get little things that flare up. Q. Mike, Stephen Ames was just in here talking about the old course has more of a feel of a national open. Can you describe what that feel is? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Q. What it entails? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I would agree with that, with Stephen's comments. It does have a great feel. I think just that there's just natural hazards to the golf course, and that being just rough, tough greens, some doglegs, a few little blind shots here and there, instead of man-made things and artificial things. So to me that's -- you know, that's a traditional, I guess, way of setting up a golf course difficult, and St. George's is a good test and able to have a nice member's course for regular play, but able to get it ready for a championship. That's the main mark of a great golf course, when you can kind of with agronomy make it challenging, and then you can play it member friendly after the tournament, and I think that's the mark of a great golf course. So it does have that feel of, example, like Oakland Hills or something or Oakmont, courses that, you know, day to day are fairly hard, but you can really get them ready for championships. Q. Anything outside the ropes that they're doing to make this a national championship atmosphere? MIKE WEIR: I don't know. I don't know if I can think of anything outside the ropes. I mean not really. I think the feel of it -- they've done a great job. It's a really nice range setup they have down there. So I think overall, all the comments I've heard, everybody is really feeling it, and I think it's really the golf course that gives you that feel. Q. Mike, you just mentioned the tough greens. Obviously lots of slopes, regulations, not running as fast as maybe a course like Augusta or whatever, but as far as the slopes and the greens, is there anything else, any other course on TOUR that you can compare it with or is this maybe the greens that have the most slopes in them? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I can't think of any that have -- that can be this severe, and I think they're a great greens speed right now for the slope. Otherwise, you know, it's tough to find pins out there right now, so if you have any bounce here, you can really lose some pin placements out there. So yeah, I can't think of any. I mean Westchester Country Club that we used to play had some pretty severe greens, but not -- you know, I think there's probably a couple greens out there that are semi-flat, and there's probably 15 of them that are very severe. So I guess overall consistency of very difficult greens, I can't think of any outside of really Augusta that are this difficult. Q. Just talking about specific holes, I know you've been around, what, three times now? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Q. Are you getting some better sense of what are the key holes that you gotta get through here, where you can actually score versus where you gotta play perhaps more defensively? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Definitely. You got a little feel of it. Obviously I think 2, 3, 4, that's a good stretch of holes right there. 4, converted par-5 into a par-4. Very difficult tee shot, and then that big tree overhangs the left side. Q. What do you hit into that? MIKE WEIR: Like a driver, 4-iron. Q. Stephen was talking about 18, hitting driver, 3-iron today. MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Q. There's some big par-4s out there. MIKE WEIR: Exactly. There's some big par-4s. Another one on 14, BC as well. 17, you know, it's a driver, 6-iron to a front pin yesterday, so it would be a 4-iron to a back pin. So there's some meat to the golf course out there, so some of those holes coming in as well, as Steve said, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are great finish there. Q. Any place you think you can actually put up a score? If those are your opportunities to get beaten up, where are your opportunities to go ahead? MIKE WEIR: A couple of the par-5s you can. I mean 9, you gotta take advantage of 9. And what's the other one? 11. 11, yeah. You gotta get through those holes, 9, 10, 11. If you can get those holes, that's a stretch that you want to be under par, for sure. Q. Got a sense of what the winning score might be here? MIKE WEIR: If it stays like this, I think it's a possibility it's single digits. You know, I think 9-under would be very good. That's what I think, yeah. I think 9-under when it's all said and done would be very good. Just because of on the greens you have a plan of being underneath the hole, but when you're hitting 3 and 4-irons in there, sometimes you're going to find yourself above it a few times. And they're really difficult above the hole. Q. Mike, with your arm acting up overseas, were you hoping it was going to be gone on its own when you got back here, and what was your reaction when you sort of felt it again? MIKE WEIR: I said when I played Thursday and Friday last week, Friday in the cold and wind in the afternoon, the ground's so firm over there, it started acting up pretty good Friday afternoon, and then I -- unfortunately, I had Saturday and Sunday off. So I was able to rest it a little bit. But it's still bothering me a little bit. And I've been icing it, and I thought it would be better. And like I said, I put that wrap on Monday, and it felt a little bit better Monday. As I already said, I hit a few balls yesterday and it wasn't too bad, but today was a lot worse. So I'm just going to take it easy the rest of the day. And good thing I'm tomorrow afternoon. I can get a few more treatments on it and get ready to go. Q. Also, can I get your reaction to the confirmation of Hamilton as the host for 2012? MIKE WEIR: I just heard that today, yeah. I think it's great. Another two great venues coming up, Shaughnessy next year and then Hamilton again. I think the players like that, playing these great golf courses that we have here. So everybody really liked Hamilton the last couple of times. So another good stop. Q. Having turned 40, kind of a milestone, I know you've always been a bit of a goal setter. Did that birthday come and you kind of said these are the things I want to do in my next kind of phase on TOUR here, and if so, where do those goals take you? MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I don't really have any in mind. I mean I have some things, the Olympics being one of them. That's one I sure would love to do for sure. That's something I'd love to play. It's six years away. That's something that's really going to motivate me for a long time until that comes. But other than that, just I'm pretty self-motivated with everything. We talked about this before; I don't set goals of trying to win tournaments and trying to do these things. I'm just trying to improve. So that's really what it's all about. Q. (Question about some of the older guys playing well). MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I think, you know, as long as you're fit and healthy, there's no reason you can't play really well in your 40s. There's been plenty of guys that have, so yeah, I definitely want to focus on that and hopefully play really well here. You know, it's been a bit of a tough stretch the last few months for me, but you know, I've gone through those before; and I'm still very motivated, so I'm working hard, and you know, maybe a little too hard. So I'll back off here after this week. Next week I have a week off before I play Firestone and the PGA, and maybe get a little rest in before the end-of-the-year push. Q. Mike, the Golf Canada has generously provided the Canadian Tour with six exemptions into this event, and you were a long time working on the Canadian Tour developing. Talk about the value that that tour provided and the type of experience that it teaches these young players that are, some of them, playing their very first PGA TOUR event. MIKE WEIR: Right. I think it's very important. I get asked this by, you know, if I go down and help Bruce Brockbank, he's the coach at BYU and help him with their young guys and some of the seniors that are thinking about turning pro and some of the Canadian guys that have asked me, I'm always like, try to play a tour that you're playing four rounds, you're playing a cut. A lot of players get caught in the rut of playing mini tours where you're in a cart and you play two rounds. It's fine for competition to play a little bit like that, but you're not really learning the game that's going to be played professionally at the highest level. You gotta learn how to travel, manage yourself, manage all the little aspects, not just golf. But playing the Canadian Tour, there's players from all over the world come over here to play. So you get that international experience, and it's always been a good tour, good quality of players. So to play on that, get used to making cuts and playing well. I think it gives you more confidence compared to just playing maybe some of the smaller mini tours type of thing. So yeah, it's always been very strong. So I'm glad there's six guys playing. Q. Mike, you just talked a bit about the state of Canadian golf. You see kids like Taylor and Hill and the strides they're making in being here at the Canadian Open this week. MIKE WEIR: Yeah. I think it's good to see those guys, you know. They have outstanding obviously college golf careers and amateur careers, those two guys you're talking about, Nick and Matt, Matt obviously turning pro and Nick probably pretty soon. Those guys, along with guys like Graham, are the future of the game in our country. So you know, we still have some other younger guys, like John and David Hearn, I mean those guys aren't too old yet either. So they're going to hopefully do well, but Nick and Matt, I think obviously what they've done in their amateur career are going to continue on, and it might not be right away, but I think, you know, they're really smart kids, bright kids. I think they're -- they just have solid games. Their all-around games are very solid, so I'm going to enjoy watching them and competing against them here as well. So yeah, I think the state of Canadian golf is getting better on the male side for sure. Hopefully we get those guys on the TOUR, you know, few more practice round partners to play with. Q. What does it mean to have a guy like Paul Casey, so high profile and higher ranked in this tournament here? MIKE WEIR: Yeah. Paul, I mean Paul's obviously one of the highest ranked players and one of the high-profile players in this event. There's a lot of them this week. But Paul coming off a great week last week and gave it a good run at the British Open. He's going to get a major some day. And we have Luke Donald, Camilo. We have a great field here. I said that when I was here a couple months ago for the press conference. I thought this field was very strong. So it just keeps getting better and better, the field. So good to have Paul here. Q. Mike, could you just maybe talk about the state of your game and whether the tendonitis has affected your play this year? MIKE WEIR: It hasn't affected my play this year. State of my game, I was actually very pleased the way I struck the ball last week. My short game was a little bit rusty at the British Open, and that was really the downfall. If I would have been a little sharper with my short game, I think I would have been easily 5 or 6-under after a couple of rounds. So I'm encouraged with where it's going. I mean I haven't had a very good year, but I'm still very positive and I'm looking forward to finishing off the year strong so I can still make a good year of it. Hopefully this doesn't hold me back to much. Q. What's been the reaction amongst the players and what was your reaction seeing Louis go out there and do what he did? MIKE WEIR: He played great. I didn't get a chance to see much on Sunday, as we were kind of traveling to the bus -- or to the plane. But obviously played great, and you know, to keep the pedal down like he did and kept going was, takes some mental toughness to do that. And I've never played with him and I don't know him, so I don't know his game at all, but obviously he has some good stuff there. Q. Just real quick, when do you decide with an injury like you have is it worth pushing through? Obviously this is a special week. How do you make that decision about playing versus withdrawing? MIKE WEIR: I can't see myself withdrawing. I mean I'll play through it. I mean I have next week off, and I just knew today in the Pro Am, it was really bothering me, and every shot I hit. I thought today was a good time to take it easy and the PT, Jeff, said it was a good thing you did that. He said, don't hit any more shots today. Just keep doing ice and Advil and rest it. But I don't know. I mean I can't see myself pulling out. So I'll be playing through it. Q. Mike, can you just talk a little bit about the PGA training facilities, the physios and the trainers and the guys that are on TOUR with you guys regularly with injuries? How important those guys in the work that you're doing? MIKE WEIR: They are. This is when it's crucial to have those guys out there. There's plenty of times I go in there just to use the facilities and work out and ride the bike or do whatever and they're working on a number of guys in there. But I really had to use them today, and I've used them a few times. I haven't had too many nagging injuries. I guess four or five years ago I did, but it was more chiropractic, so I did a lot of that away from the TOUR. But yeah, in a time like this, it's good to have. Jeff worked on it. He did stim machine and iced it and stretched it out with his hands. So they do a great job. LAURY LIVSEY: Mike, appreciate you coming in. MIKE WEIR: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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