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RBC CANADIAN OPENJuly 21, 2010Stephen AmesTORONTO, ONTARIO NELSON SILVERIO: All right. We welcome Stephen Ames to the media center here at the RBC Canadian Open. Stephen, thanks for joining us. Could you just get us started, obviously coming back to Canada always a big deal. Just give us some thoughts on that and maybe some thoughts on your season so far. STEPHEN AMES: Oh, yeah. This is like probably the fifth or sixth major for us, the Canadians, should I say. We take pride in our national open and pride to the aspect of we want to be playing great golf courses and making it feel like a national open. And that's the reason why I think Mike, myself and a couple of other Canadians are getting involved with Golf Canada trying to uplift and bring the Canadian Open back to the nostalgia that it's had over the years between the U.S. Open and British Open. NELSON SILVERIO: Let's open it up to questions. Q. Can you talk about the national part of it? Scott Simmons this morning was talking about, although it's not a done deal obviously yet, the possibility of the Open actually going to Calgary and it would be living there. Your thoughts on that? STEPHEN AMES: Obviously Calgary is the best city in Canada. It's gotta go there. Q. You just say that because you're from there. STEPHEN AMES: Exactly. You know what, as we all know, the city is very much up for great form of events and entertaining, and there's a lot of money there. As we all know, the Oil Sands is there, and the prospects of it hopefully being hosted in Calgary, as I say, it's on the horizon. We are working at it and looking for the future. There's nothing signed. We have nothing in writing in any sort of sense, but I think that is, as I say, it's a goal for Golf Canada, and it's a goal for me, being from Calgary. I'd love to see it there in Calgary, and we're working at that, and we'll see what happens in the future. Q. And just a follow-up question as far as the course itself goes. STEPHEN AMES: Which course, this one? Q. This course. STEPHEN AMES: Oh, yeah. Q. I mean basically, what stands out in your mind as the challenge? Is it the greens or is it the rough? STEPHEN AMES: It's the rough. Q. Okay. And why is it the rough? STEPHEN AMES: The rough is I would say it's probably thicker than this year's U.S. Open, because I think the USGA pretty much have realized that coming out of a three-inch rough or two-and-a-half-inch rough which is basically what it's gone to now, three inches of rough, challenging the guys to get the ball to stop on the greens that we play the U.S. Open course on is much tougher. These greens are going to be a little softer. Really not going to get it to the standard of a U.S. Open, for a couple of reasons: We don't want to lose the golf course; and two, the greens have probably three times more slope on them than Pebble Beach, and I use that as an example. But yeah, this one it's the kind of rough that you would -- if you're lucky, you can get an 8-iron on if you're lucky. Yeah, it's that thick. Yeah, so that's going to be the challenging part. Q. Coming off the U.S. Open is there anything that you change about your game coming in here where it looks like, like you said, there's going to be some thick rough? STEPHEN AMES: Well, coming from the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and coming here, this one's in better condition than that one was. That was, in my words, I think it was probably the worst I've ever played a U.S. Open condition wise. The greens were horrific, unfortunately. And Pebble Beach, great golf course. The layout was fantastic. I thought they did a great job in laying it out, but the greens just weren't up to standard for a USGA event, I thought. And I think a lot of players would agree on that part. This golf course is in fantastic condition. Besides the rough being a little high or maybe cut the wrong way because they're actually cutting it back to the tee, so actually when you're hitting into the green, we're actually hitting into the grain. So the ball tends to sit down a little bit more, and of course, it's harder to get the club through it. So it's kind of tricked up in some ways. But overall, this -- I think a few people, this is one of my favorite courses here. And I'm glad to see the Canadian Open is on one of our great golf courses here. Q. Follow-up to that, given the fact that a lot of Canadians aren't familiar with this course in that it hasn't been played as a Canadian Open, how big of an advantage is that? STEPHEN AMES: I don't think it's a big advantage. To some extent it still comes down to the guy who's going to hit the most fairways, gets the ball on the green and makes the putts. It still comes down to that. I mean it's an advantage, but not a whole lot. Q. Going back to Calgary, they mentioned this morning that it would take a course with altitude 77 to 7800 yards to do it, and do you agree there's no current -- that it would take a new facility? STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. A new facility would have to be built. There isn't a current one right now. We've looked. A lot of golf courses have come up and asked if they could host it, and we've looked at them like, yeah, are you willing to add like a thousand yards to your golf course. They're like, that means cutting trees down, making new tee boxes. They're not willing to do that. So there's a new facility that we're looking at, yeah. Q. What is it about this golf course that you're so fond of? How many times have you played this over the years? Half a dozen times? STEPHEN AMES: More. Probably eight or nine, yeah. There was a guy this week that actually came and reminded me -- he was a member here -- that we played golf here when I was 16 years old. Q. Really? STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. I was here because I have an uncle who's a member of this golf course, and he got me out here with this member, and he reminded me this on Monday. I was like, 16, how was I? 30 years ago. Q. You don't remember playing? STEPHEN AMES: I don't remember it. No. I don't. Q. When was the first time you remember being out here? STEPHEN AMES: It would have been a couple years after that coming back here. Q. And were your impressions at that point that this is a really good -- STEPHEN AMES: Oh, yeah. It's a great golf course. It's a ball striker's. You gotta move the golf ball off the tee. You gotta move the golf ball onto the greens. You get above the hole, it's a fast putt. If you're below the hole, you got a not-easy uphill putt. You gotta think on every shot, where you want to miss it or where you don't want to miss it, those kind of things. How many golf courses do you play like that? Q. I was going to ask you the same question. Riviera? STEPHEN AMES: Riviera would be one of them, if you get the greens up to that standard. Q. Maybe Westchester? STEPHEN AMES: Correct. Westchester. You're going to play Hilton Head, Colonial. Q. There's a handful really. STEPHEN AMES: There is a handful on TOUR. Q. Does that bring more players like you who are not the longest players in the field into the event more? STEPHEN AMES: To some extent, yeah. But then again, it still comes down to the guy who's hitting it the straightest and closest to the hole. The guy who's hitting wedge compared to not an hitting an 8-iron or vice versa, either way, still gotta hit it close. Q. And finally, are there holes within this -- obviously 3 and 12 have really steep greens -- STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. Q. -- that are going to be more potentially an issue within this? STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. When the greens, I mean the golf course was built so many years ago, you never had the equipment to get the greens speed up to what they are today, and they have to watch that. You know, so I mean overall the golf course has been a couple changes here and a couple changes left here in the front or the back of the greens, then the whole green will be able to be used. That's all basically they have to do. Overall there's probably only about five or six things you can really change on this golf course to make it even sharper or tougher -- I wouldn't say tougher, but yeah, more inches to pins that we can use. Overall I think it's a great layout. I mean they're doing the right things, Golf Canada, picking the right golf courses. There's Old Montreal, Shaughnessy, Hamilton. These are courses that a lot of players are requesting to play our national open on. Q. Do you see what I'm talking about? You have guys asking -- STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. I'd say it was probably one of the best that we play, or will be one of the best that we play. I mean this is their national, isn't it, on the left? Canadian golf. Q. (Indiscernible). STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. So. Q. In that vein, Scott Simmons confirmed this morning that you're going back to Hamilton. STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. Q. What's your reaction to that? STEPHEN AMES: It's great. I don't think -- Hamilton is a great golf course. We have three great golf courses to play; we go here, Shaughnessy and then back to Hamilton. It's fantastic. Q. I was going to ask you, what are you doing -- I mean you said the other day you don't know how your game is. What have you been doing since the U.S. Open? STEPHEN AMES: Relaxing, drinking wine, soaking up some of the sun, what we have in Calgary, which hasn't been very much. Playing golf with my son. My 11-year-old is very keen on the game, so we've played a lot of golf. We've gone up to Invermere, BC to the cabin. I usually take this time of the year off, between the U.S. Open and the British Open. If I'm not in the British, this year I have an extra week off. But overall this is always my break that I take. Q. (Indiscernible)? STEPHEN AMES: Copper Point and Eagle Ranch are the two that I play there. It would've been a short summer. Gotta take advantage of it, so that's why I take it off. I don't live in Toronto. (Laughs). Q. Stephen, you were talking earlier about all the swails in the slopes on the green, and one of the things that people will hear when they're watching a golf broadcast, the announcer will say he's pin high, he's pin high, he's pin high. Is pin high necessarily a good thing here or would you much rather be say 20 feet below the hole than 10 feet pin high? STEPHEN AMES: I hit a great one today on 7, pin high. My putt I thought was only three feet left to right. It was actually five. But that was pin high. It was only 18 feet from the hole. Yeah, pin high is good, but then sometimes you gotta take -- if the pins are in the front, you gotta take behind the flag. If they're short, you're putting -- you're chipping from 30 yards short of the green back up there. So in some circumstances you gotta look at certain places you'll want to be past the hole, take your two-putts and get out of there. And that's the beauty of this golf course, puts a big premium on placing your ball in the right spot on the green where you have an easier attempt in going for birdie. It's not going to be a birdie fest out here. Hopefully it's not. I don't think it will be, though. Q. Any hole in particular that you think will be key, maybe on the back nine, the 15th, the par-5? STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. 15, I think. You get your drive off, fine. It's a good three-shotter. If you miss your drive, then your second shot layup is going to be tough. 16, hell of a par-3. I mean I hit 3-iron in there this afternoon. It was 210 into the wind, I ripped a 3-iron. 17 was a driver, 8-iron, 9-iron. And then 18 I hit driver and 3-iron again. It's going to be a great test, and I'm looking forward to it. Q. Any tough holes on the course? You mentioned a couple there. Does one stand out as being a good hole? STEPHEN AMES: No. One that stands out. Oh, that's a good question. 4, 5, 6, 7. 7 because of the green maybe. 16 for sure, and 18. There's almost two or three that are really good holes, but you gotta watch your numbers. And we got, what, four -- five par-4s that are over 480, uphill, into the wind. Oh, yeah. Q. I was watching you on 16, and I saw you coach a little girl. She was 11 years old, I guess the same age as your son. What was your advice to her? STEPHEN AMES: Didn't have to give her advice. She had a great putting stroke. I saw the swing, too, that she had a picture of herself. 11, high five. That's how you can give advice to that age. You don't know where they're going to go. Not everybody is built like a Tiger. It's funny, too, to be No. 1 in the world, he was thinking that at 11, I'm sure. NELSON SILVERIO: Any more questions? All right, Stephen. Thank you very much. STEPHEN AMES: Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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