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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 10, 2010

Charlie Wi

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charlie Wi, thanks for joining us here after your second round at the BMW Championship. You followed up a 67 yesterday with a 69 today and are currently in good position heading into the weekend. Maybe a few opening comments, please.
CHARLIE WI: You know, coming into this tournament, I just really told myself to be patient and play one hole at a time. I've been in tournaments where you play 72 holes and there's no cut, and I've caught myself being really impatient and looking ahead too far. So this week I know I was close to top 30, and for me to play well, I was going to -- for me to play well, I knew that I had to stay present and just play one hole at a time. Actually I wrote that down on my pin sheet every day so I look at it if I were to get ahead of myself.
You know, other than 16 today, I've been playing beautifully, and I've been playing very well leading up to this tournament. The weekend coming up, I'm really looking forward to it.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Heading into the final round last week you were tied for 6th so you obviously have a good stretch of playing. What's working for you?
CHARLIE WI: Well, I think I've been working hard with my coaches, Andy and Mike, the guys from Stack & Tilt, and I think that more importantly I believe in myself and I play my game. I just tell myself when I'm out there, just play Charlie Wi's game and nobody else. And I think that being comfortable and being out here for five years now, I think it really helps to understand myself and understand the pressure.

Q. Maybe you've already answered this, but does part of that patience thing have to do with you really have two tournaments going on at once; you have this event and you have the overall FedEx? Does the FedEx make it a little harder for you to stay patient, or do you think about that at all?
CHARLIE WI: Well, of course, top 30 is our goal when we start the year. And when you make top 30 you get into all the majors and all the World Golf Championships. It's a big tier for us to get to.
I know I've been close the last few years, so I might have been more anxious the last couple years, but this year I'm pretty relaxed, and I know that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen, but it's not going to happen if I keep being impatient and keep pressuring myself to do stupid things.

Q. What happened on 16 then?
CHARLIE WI: Well, yesterday I hit a driver. It was into the wind from the left yesterday, and today it was -- the wind was off the right, a little bit helping, so I told my caddie, I think 3-wood should be plenty, and I just overdrew it, and it bounced in the hazard, and I hit my 9-iron short of the green, hit it up there 12 feet and three-putted. And that's just being impatient and a little bit anxious.

Q. This patience thing, did that help you come back on 17 with a birdie?
CHARLIE WI: Yeah, you know, on my pin sheet, what I wrote was, "it's a marathon," and "play one hole at a time." So when I walked off the 16th green, I told myself 17 is a new challenge and see what we can do. I was really proud of myself to make a birdie there. Hit a great drive, great wedge to about 12 feet and made the putt, and I was really pleased with that.

Q. Do you put messages on your pin sheet regularly?
CHARLIE WI: I have done it in the past. I don't do that every week. But I do have it in my yardage book, like an affirmation I read to myself when I'm nervous or something.

Q. What's your all-time favorite?
CHARLIE WI: What's my all-time favorite? I have so many. What would be my -- I'll get back to you on that one.

Q. Right now you're tied for the lead, and if that holds up and you're in the last group or next to it tomorrow, how much will it test your patience program that you're employing here?
CHARLIE WI: Well, luckily I've been in the last group a few times on TOUR. If it was my first time, I'm sure I would be very nervous and very anxious, but having done that, I don't think -- and knowing the guys, I don't think I'll be nervous. I know to just play my game and understand that my game is good enough.

Q. Are you writing the same message in your pin sheet each day, or is it a different message with the same kind of patience thing?
CHARLIE WI: No, it's the same thing. It stays the same, yeah.

Q. For the week?
CHARLIE WI: For the week. I might not even write it tomorrow.

Q. You said you were working with your Stack & Tilt guys. Some people have started with that and then left it, but it still is working for you. How many years have you been working the system, and --
CHARLIE WI: My first year on TOUR was 2005, and I was working with one of the guys at Leadbetter. You know, my question was, I really wanted to know the moment of truth, which is impact, and he wasn't able to answer that.
I used to play a lot of practice rounds with Steve Elkington, and he was working with the Stack & Tilt guys, and he was doing really well. And he told me to go see these guys because they know what they're talking about, and they really understand the fundamentals of the game. You know, I started working with them at Hartford, and I told them, you know what, I'm going to empty my cup; tell me everything.
And I know that you're probably referring to Aaron Baddeley and Mike Weir, but Aaron Baddeley was the worst ball striker on the PGA TOUR before -- well, you should laugh because it's a fact. It's a stat that we -- and Andy and Mike, to their credit, took him -- he won three times with Andy and Mike, and also took him to inside top 20 in the world. And if that's not good enough for Aaron, well, it is what it is.
And also Mike Weir, he was also one of the worst ball strikers on TOUR, and it took him to -- he won two times with Andy and Mike and make $6 million in two seasons with Andy and Mike, and he thought that wasn't good enough. If you look at -- they're not here this week, so maybe they should be working with Andy and Mike.
And they're good friends of mine, too.

Q. I might be reading too much into it, but just the way you introduced them early in the press conference, you're working with them and they're the Stack & Tilt guys, do you feel they've been under an unnecessary attack lately?
CHARLIE WI: Well, yeah. All the players know and all the caddies know who all the best teachers are out here. They're really quiet. They don't go around looking for press or anything. But I think that because it is different, other teachers have a tendency to bash them. Maybe they might be one generation ahead of them, but in the end they're not teaching something that is new. They're teaching geometry, and geometry works for everybody. If you're 200 pounds, if you're 6'3", 5'5", everybody, geometry is the same with everybody.
You know, if you guys had a chance to sit down with them and talk to them about golf, you know, you would see that they know what they're talking about, and they have a huge following. I'm not going to say the person's name, whoever Tiger is working with, you know, he's got Andy and Mike's DVD, his book, and he always calls them asking questions. They know what -- they definitely know what they're talking about.

Q. When you're talking about geometry, are you talking about how to arrange the club face at impact so that you can control --
CHARLIE WI: Well, geometry means swing it in an arc, in a circle. If I'm 6'4", my swing plane is going to be different than if I'm 5'5", and that's geometry, and that does not change.

Q. Does it bother you at all that if there's any criticism of Andy and Mike that the guy that Tiger is working with is getting a lot of praise?
CHARLIE WI: Well, I'm sorry, say that again.

Q. I don't remember it. Do you take it personally, I guess, because you're still working with Andy and Mike, and they seem to be criticized in various publications, and the guy that Tiger is working with is getting a lot of attention?
CHARLIE WI: Yeah, and I think that there's an article coming out in Golf Digest, and there was a big problem with Andy and Mike and the person that's working with Tiger because the pictures that are in the Golf Digest is pretty much straight out of their golf book that they have released.
Andy approached him and said, hey, I don't think it's fair that you're using our material. But he goes, well, you know, they asked me a question and said who do you look up to as teachers, and he said that my first teacher is Andy and Mike, the Stack & Tilt guys, so we'll see when the publication comes out if he did say that or not.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Charlie Wi, thanks, and good luck this weekend.

End of FastScripts

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