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FRYS.COM OPENOctober 14, 2010Paul GoydosSAN MARTIN, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: Paul, a regular to the media center, whether you play well or not. But it was a 6 under, 65 today. Great first round. Just some comments on the round and the course and how it kind of sets up for your game. PAUL GOYDOS: Well, I don't know. We played second. I played the Pro Am as my first round yesterday and we had a great time. And the course is good. It is right in front of you. It is a golf course you can play once or twice and kind of get an idea of what you need to do. Today I was kind of like the weather. I started out a little cool and just tried to hang in there. And as it warmed up, my game got a little bit better. I made a good birdie on 17 out of the rough, after driving in the rough and that kind of got things going. And good save on 18 for par. Those two things kind of got -- said good things are happening. I shot 30 on the front 9. Played real well. Hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. I kept hitting that distance where your round can go, that ten to -- maybe 8 to 12-footers and to them (indiscernible). That's the difference. Richard Johnson, he probably played better than me. (Indiscernible). But in that range, he hit a lot of lips and things like that. So he shoots 1under and I shoot 6 under. MARK STEVENS: You obviously have had a lot going on with your involvement with the Ryder Cup. Was there an adjustment to just getting back to -- to just playing your game. PAUL GOYDOS: I hadn't touched a club for two weeks. Went to Bandon Dunes Saturday and Sunday with a friend of mine, with a little event he has. And it was 40-mile-an-hour wind the first day and pouring the rain the second day and I thought, What am I doing? I got to go play golf. I actually think the real help was the fact that it's been hot. I like hot weather and made my old body -- after I hit some balls and getting loose and get some timing. Again, like today, once the weather got better, I seem to play better in hot weather. If it would have been a cold, windy week here, I wouldn't be sitting here probably I would still be figuring out how to play in Vegas. MARK STEVENS: With that we will take some questions. Q. You said you hadn't played in two weeks? PAUL GOYDOS: And for me that's a long time. Q. (Indiscernible). PAUL GOYDOS: I couldn't tell you. I like to play. When I go home, I play three or four times a week with this group of guys. That doesn't happen very often. And at 46, it seems like two weeks is like two months. At 26, it was a no big deal. But I'm a guy who generally needs reps (indiscernible). You know, like stay stretched out. So I don't take time off very often. It is just kind of the way it worked. I thought it would be kind of good to get away a little bit. Other than a couple of weeks, I really struggled this year. And I got -- played Deutsche Bank, and then I played some fun golf at home up until the Ryder Cup. I thought this is good. I will get ten days off, kind of regroup. And the Ryder Cup takes an extra day. When I got home from southern California, it is pouring rain for Thursday and Friday. I come home Tuesday night. It rains all day Wednesday. Basically bad weather on Thursday. And then I flew to Bandon on Friday. So I was coming -- using that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as my practice and get game kind of going in my direction. So far it is working out. Q. Bandon was just last weekend? PAUL GOYDOS: Yeah, Saturday and Sunday. Brian Henninger has a charity event up there and I helped him out, me and Brandel Chamblee. Q. I haven't heard the name Brian Henninger for a long time. PAUL GOYDOS: Brian is a good friend. He was at USC when I was at Long Beach State, about the same age. Q. Does the Ryder Cup experience carry over at all? PAUL GOYDOS: I definitely think it is inspiring. I think it is an unbelievable event. I got to see some -- I was fortunate enough for the first three matches and really the singles, too, to follow Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson. I mean, they both played great golf. These are guys that somebody for pgatour.com -- I don't know who writes for these people -- Q. I do. PAUL GOYDOS: Do you? Did a power rankings for the Ryder Cup and had Jeff Overton 24. 24 must mean he is the best because he was the best guy there. I thought you ranked them the other way. And then they had Bubba Watson, I want to say, 20 or 21 and. We put them out together as a team first day and we steamrolled Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington. They played great. They really played great the whole week. I got to watch -- when you draw ultimate shot, which is a much more difficult format and you draw Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, who I can argue is the best alternate shot team on the planet -- Stricker-Woods. Maybe Stricker-Woods, you know. Then they took -- and they took him to the 17th hole and had him scared. That's probably what Corey talked about. Yeah, you are going to be behind in matches, let's take them as far as we can. That's going to be inspiring itself. When you see Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson taking Luke Donald and Ian Poulter to the 17th hole -- Ian Poulter has lost but one teach match in his career at the Ryder Cup. They drew -- and the next day they drew Jimenez who played great all week. Jimenez might have been as good a player for them, too, and they got beat again on the 18th hole. They played great golf. Then singles match, Overton played -- It is really inspiring to be around those guys. I definitely think it helped my mental attitude toward the game. I don't know that it helped my physical ability to play the game, but those guys -- You are sitting in a room, in a sense, around 24 of the best 30 players in the world there, with all due respect to the President's Cup, all International teams. Definitely 24 of the best 36 players in golf. That's going to be good for your game, I got news for you. Q. Obviously, guys get into their late 40s, they are aiming at the Champions Tour. Some are still playing pretty well. You did shoot a 59, which that had to be -- I don't care if you are 12 years old -- that had to be encouraging. Did it persuade you that, Hey, I can still play the game? PAUL GOYDOS: I think I am better now than I have ever been. Unfortunately, so is everybody else. That's the big problem, is I'm getting better and everybody else is getting better. It ain't right, but that's the way it is. And I think I have a little bit of an advantage over a typical 46-year-old sitting -- I haven't accomplished that much. I won a couple times. I really didn't get on TOUR until I was 28 or -9. It's not like I have been doing this since I was 20. Davis has played -- Davis and I are the same age, give or take a month. He has probably played seven years longer on TOUR than I have. That's a totally different issue. I'm in a sense a young 46. So I don't really feel like -- I feel -- I don't have any issues with motivation. I don't have any issues with wanting to be out here. I don't have issues with trying to get better. I'm trying to get better. That's the hard part. I love what I do, and I'm just excited to come out today as I was in Hawaii 18 years ago at Sony doing my first event. I'm lucky. Q. How did you enjoy your role as a captain? Do you see yourself -- PAUL GOYDOS: I would love to -- I mean, I don't know -- it was only one and the same captain, and that was Corey. I can't imagine you will get two captains out of the (indiscernible). Davis has probably got a good shot of being the next captain. I would love to help Davis out. I don't know what help I was, quite frankly. I listened to -- we had these little meetings, then we got (indiscernible) who has been around Nicklaus when he has been a captain which has experience. You have Davis who played six or seven Ryder Cups. You have got Tom Lehman who has been a captain and played in three Ryder Cups. And you got Corey who has played in three and just -- him and Lehman just bleed the Ryder Cup. It's the most important thing in the world. There is a not a lot to contribute, quite frankly. I probably learned more -- 90% of what I got out of the Ryder Cup is what I learned from Tiger, listening to Tiger. He will talk about match play and listen how we do bearings and what they are trying to do and the kind of players and how you want to do this type of format. I didn't contribute. I absorbed, you know, 100 times more than I contributed. Q. (Indiscernible). PAUL GOYDOS: I got to think maybe of all time, yeah. And then that weather -- we needed the help with the weather. I was basically a towel guy and a sandwich guy. Q. (Indiscernible). PAUL GOYDOS: But no. The (indiscernible) were good. The media likes to dwell on the rain suit and the purple sweaters, like you don't have enough to talk about. But I think that's -- being another pair of eyes is really what you do. Your assistant captains, you have to pick somebody you trust. Somebody who is willing to not only be positive about, Hey, this is going great or maybe, Hey, this guy has got something going, you might want to get over here, Corey. So he needed that trust in those four guys when you are watching Masters especially in the team match. The rain messed everything up. But that pair of eyes, we know want to look for in Jeff Overton, what to look for with Bubba. These guys are getting down and they need a pep talk if you can or something along those lines. Q. I am just wondering, have you ever been in a situation where people are cheering against you in golf? Had you been to other Ryder Cups? PAUL GOYDOS: They aren't cheering your bad shot. They are cheering your loss of hole. So you get up and hit a bad shot, they are not cheering. Subsequently, you make a bogey on the hole and you lose the hole, they are cheering the win for their team. It is not like they are anti-American. I thought the fans were very respectful for the Americans. In fact, very few comments I heard. The first tee on Monday of singles was unbelievable. Were you there? And they treated the Americans with great respect. They even let the Americans, before we started chanting "USA," they gave them 10 or 15 seconds before they drowned them out. And they were very respectful to our fans who were there. They were very respectful to the players. I mean, the atmosphere to me -- I have never seen anything like it. I would imagine Chicago would be very similar. But it is not duplicated on the PGA TOUR or on the Championship. I don't know why it's not but it's not. Q. Don't you feel -- Golf is an individual game. And you are not cheering -- they are cheering for somebody and not a group and not a country. PAUL GOYDOS: To an extent, I understand that. Tiger Woods is a pretty popular guy. And I never felt that kind of backing of Tiger Woods. I have played with Tiger in a chance to win tournaments, and I never felt the crowd so behind him that had that intensity. They were happy for him. They were cheering for him, and Tiger is the man. You get down with Phil. I thought (indiscernible). And I did nothing like how the crowd was behind the European team. I would make the argument that they're respectful toward the PGA TOUR players. It was very similar to a PGA TOUR crowd. You don't get booed out of here. They treated us like golfers. They treated them like family, is basically how it was. Q. (Indiscernible). PAUL GOYDOS: I don't know that you could. It is a different deal. We are -- we are going over there as representing the United States of America. That's why the World Cup of soccer is so much bigger deal than maybe the Premiere, the way the fans react. And I would say this is a unique -- very unique to the game of golf, and it is -- the fact that Europe has been allowed 25 years -- some year they won (indiscernible). Q. I think it was '85. PAUL GOYDOS: Since then, I would say Europe probably has probably won two or three more than we've one. And the competitiveness has just gone off the charts. I got to think that considering how messed up the weather was and how it was on at 2:00 in the morning, I got to think the next Ryder Cup is going to be -- the Americans are actually going to get a chance to watch it. It will be on at 2:00 in the afternoon. I actually think you will see ratings you have never seen before when it comes to two years from now at Medinah. Q. They were -- I don't know if you get this feeling, but in America, it is more important, let's say, that the 49 years beat the Cowboys or the Super Bowl. And their sports are external. And the Olympics, the Ryder Cup and the World Cup are like the three biggest events of the year or any time, not matching, even the Premiere League -- PAUL GOYDOS: I think part of sports, though, in Europe though, my understanding, is regional. So you have champions like with Spain. Even when you go down into the league, a lot of times, you have a few players that might be from, let's say, Manchester. Most of the players are from the -- take the Brooklyn Dodgers in the '50s. Our sports aren't like that anymore. They tend to be more -- communities tend to be more linked to their sports teams than we are today. I mean, again, it is more like baseball was in the '40s and '50s, which is every (indiscernible). That's what it was. I think they are more like that. It is more community backed. I'm an Angels fan, but I don't watch them on TV. I'm a Rams fan but they're in St. Louis. And they're awful. L.A. Rams back in the -- the Rams used to have their practices right by my golf course where I grew up. I used to sit there and eat lunch after class and (indiscernible). I was a 13-year-old kid. I think that's part of why they are more passionate about that issue. We tend to be -- Oh, the Yankees are good this year. Half the country is Yankees fans right now. That's kind of the way we do things. They don't have the same regionalness that they have over there, at least that's what I'm guessing. Q. Did it feel like Wales with the rain? Did you get anything out of that golf-wise? PAUL GOYDOS: Tell you what, I hadn't hit a ball in two weeks. I said I'm going to go to the range early. Play at 93:0. I got to go to the range at, like, 7:45. And I hit the balls for an hour and never got loose. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I was tight the whole round. The next day I got better and then I went home and came up here. I played the Institute in 100-degree weather walking, and that really loosened things up. I kind of progressed from there. I think I got a little bit of an advantage of being in that atmosphere, the Ryder Cup, at least for me. I thought it was exciting to go out and play. And they made putts. Making putts always puts you in a good mood. Q. What did you shoot? PAUL GOYDOS: 77. But I was -- again, take away (indiscernible) first round and basically in 17 or 18 days. And for me, that's a long time. And I got their -- Q. You were part of the group in '05? PAUL GOYDOS: No, I never (indiscernible). They are the fastest greens I ever putted. And I guess I played with John Fry yesterday, and he is a math genius. He is moving the Math Institute from Palo Alto to this piece of property. He actually designed and did these mathematic formulas on the greens, the pitch of the greens to maximize speed. You don't want too much slope, but you don't want too little slope. He did this some math equation. And they were the fastest greens I ever putted, but you can play them. It is not like you are putting off greens or any of this crazy stuff. Golf course is playable with greens at 15. That's very rare in today's game. I guess math in a sense works. Q. What do you think of the tournament (indiscernible)? PAUL GOYDOS: The golf course can handle it. I think it is -- again, the conditioning of the golf course is second to none. He can make it as hard as he wants. He softened the greens a little bit for us. Maybe something to do with the weather and something to do with wanting to finish in one day. I think the golf course is really hard. I think they will have a tough time -- We have 132 guys this week. We played at 7900. If you play it at 7900, I don't think we could finish in the daylight we have. They have to make some adjustments to things like that. The golf course is stout. There is not much rough. I mean, the golf course is stout. And it is going to challenge you to the bitter end. You play 16 holes, you got to hit it over your hand for 16 holes. And the last two holes are 270-yard par 3 and 520-yard par 4 after going 16 with Ali. It is a test. Depending on the weather, it depends on what you shoot there and how generous they are in setup. Q. Where you live in the hills of Orange County, very similar dry areas? PAUL GOYDOS: Yes, this is a summer day. This is a great summer day. This is a little different in the sense that. This time of year, as you know, you get a little more northern. This dries everything else. We have more humidity. Right now this is the Santa Ana, very dry and very hot without the wind. But the humidity has got to be in the single -- this is the worst day to get drug tested in the history of the PGA TOUR. It is like getting drug tested in Death Valley. You will be in there the rest of your life trying to go to the bathroom. End of FastScripts |
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