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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2011

Jamie Lovemark

HONOLULU, HAWAII

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome 2010 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year, Jamie Lovemark into the interview room.
Jamie thanks for coming by the media center here at The Sony Open in Hawaii. First of all we'll get you to look back on what was a tremendous year for you last year.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, it was fun. My goal starting the year was to finish first and I accomplished that. I'm definitely looking forward to this year.
JOHN BUSH: Talk a little about you've had some success on the PGA TOUR, almost won in Phoenix, but talk about how you think a full season on the Nationwide Tour is going to prepare you for this season.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: It was huge, playing an entire year on the Nationwide Tour was great for my confidence, taught me how to compete, how to live life on the TOUR week-by-week and all of the ins and outs of travelling and building a routine throughout the week, and it was huge.
JOHN BUSH: Talk about your expectations for this week.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, you know, I'll come into every event hoping to win, to compete, to play well. I don't see why I can't do that. There's a lot of guys in the field that want to win too. It will take a good week obviously and hopefully the course can dry out a little bit and it will be a good time for all of us.

Q. We had a lot of kids here today that would have loved to come again today, and they wanted to know who inspired you?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: To play golf? I don't know, I played a bunch of sports growing up. I played football and basketball and baseball and I got to a point where I had to choose between all of the sports. The game of golf is great, because it's all on you. You don't have to rely on coaches or other players to make decisions for you. Golf, it can take you as far as you want to go and as far as you push yourself.

Q. Given what you were able to do last year, do you feel like maybe coming into this season, you have higher expectations or maybe more confidence than most TOUR rookies?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I'm not sure. I'm confident the way I'm playing, the things I'm working on with my swing coach, with Foley, it's great. I'm progressing to a place I want to go. I'm not there yet with my swing. Hopefully by the end of this year I can get to a point where I can be a better-ball striker. But I know the things we are working on, it's giving me a lot of confidence that I can play week-in and week-out.

Q. The kids also wanted to know, how do you keep your focus? What tips can you give them as upcoming kids trying to determine if this is what they want to do.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Just the main thing is have fun. You know, they are young and you're young for a long time. You've got to have a way to play golf that's fun. After a while, sometimes it gets to a grind where you lose the sense of passion.
It's good to have a buddy to go practice with, maybe a few buddies to have a game with and chip-and-putting contest and stuff like that. It's huge growing up in San Diego. I had a good group of junior golfers, whenever we went out and played for six hours a day and had contests and stuff. That was huge for me. I probably would tell them to find a friend to go practice with.

Q. What exactly are your expectations for this year? It's obviously hard to win on TOUR in any event. Is that something that at the end of the year you'll be disappointed if you don't win, or are you looking for Top-10s or consistency?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: One of my goals is to win an event. If I don't win and I have a really bad season, not a lot of top 5s or Top-10s, I'll be disappointed.
Obviously if I have a good year, a lot of good finishes; but if I don't win, I'll be upset with myself but not disappointed I guess you would say. My main goal is to finish Top-30 in the FedExCup points, play in Atlanta for THE TOUR Championship. I figure if I play well, I'll get there. And if I win, I might get there. So I have those two goals in mind.

Q. Will you be leaning on anybody this week, or do you feel you don't need to lean on somebody given that you went through the Nationwide Tour?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I'm fine. I was lucky enough to think 14 or 15 events growing up. I had a lot of great sponsor exemptions, a lot of great tournaments and that's helped me a lot, on the Nationwide Tour and then coming in this year. I'm as prepared as I can be.

Q. What do you think of the course?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: It's good. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow. They got a lot of rain, I'm not sure how much, one or two inches probably. Yesterday was nice and firm. It was good.
JOHN BUSH: Joe Bramlett was in a few minutes ago talking up Stanford and the rivalry there.
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, they had a great couple seasons in football. USC has a lot of history. We'll be back. Obviously not next year but a couple of years down the road we'll be fine.

Q. How does golf help you in other areas of your life?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: That's a good question. Golf is a very social sport. It's taught me how to build friendships and relationships and companies and people here and there. It's good to learn, to grow as a person, the things you learn on the golf course about controlling your temper, being honest with yourself and competitors and that's helped me a lot. That's helped me as a person.

Q. What do you know of Joe Bramlett --
JAMIE LOVEMARK: Yeah, I think we played a lot growing up in college, not a ton. Obviously he had a great Q-School and he should play well this year. He's a great player and I think he hits it pretty hard.

Q. Do you feel like he has some expectation level on his shoulders that nobody else really has to shoulder?
JAMIE LOVEMARK: I mean, everyone has different expectations for themselves. People put pressure on himself for that reason, but people put expectations on different players for different reasons, whether it be self-pressure, pressure from friends or family. But he should deal with it fine. He's a good competitor.
JOHN BUSH: Jamie, thanks for coming by and play well this week.

End of FastScripts

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