	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 3, 2011

Tom Gillis

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Tom Gillis into the interview room here at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. 6-under par 65, great playing and a great start to the round this morning. Just talk a little bit about your day.
TOM GILLIS: Well, I slept in in the morning and got to spend some time with the kids which is kind of nice because I was first off, but came out here, only waited around about an hour before I got going, so that was kind of nice, so I really didn't have to wait the full four hours.
But yeah, got started well on 1 there, I chipped in, and that was kind of a nice start. I think I birdied maybe 3 and 4 and just got off to a quick start and built some momentum and was hitting it very solid and had a real good warmup. I felt pretty good going out. I was real confident when I went out.
Yeah, it was all good. We had a good group, played fast. I like to play fast. Blake Adams plays fast, Chris Riley is probably the fastest guy on TOUR, one of them, and I'm not far behind. So we moved along. I don't think we saw that group behind us all day long. They were a couple holes behind. It would be nice to play like that every week out here, but it's really not possible once you get in the middle of the pack. But I guess that's a whole 'nother story. But it was good. It was a good pace, good fun.
JOHN BUSH: 13 of 14 fairways, 16 of 18 greens in regulation so good, solid ball-striking.
TOM GILLIS: Yeah, I hit it solid all day and missed a little one on 17 from about three feet it seemed like. But I've been missing those so far this year. I think it's just from the time off. I didn't miss many last year at all and I think it's just probably concentration. But overall ball-striking is good.
I played well last week in San Diego. I felt really close there, swinging the club really well for two days and okay on the weekend. So our goal this week is to swing it as good as we possibly can for four days.

Q. How did you keep up with the situation here and what were you doing with the kids, reading to them or --
TOM GILLIS: Well, I keep up through the texts. The TOUR sends you text messages to let you know what time the delays are and all that, how long it's going to be. And then got up, had a cup of coffee, and I think we watched "Dora" with my daughter for about an hour and chatted to them and played a little bit. You know, left probably about 8:30, and that was it. I got up at 7:00 and I think we left at 8:30. By the time you shower and all that, it wasn't a whole lot of time. It was nice.

Q. The birdie came, it was 38 degrees. How bad was it out there?
TOM GILLIS: You know what, we didn't have much wind, so I think if we had even 5 miles an hour of wind -- we got it a little bit on the range warming up and it was cold. When the wind was blowing, it was cold. But overall we were lucky.
You know, I kept thinking, I don't know if it's desert cold or whatever, I was in Michigan for nine days or ten days over Christmas where we live in the summertime, up there for the holidays, and we played hockey every day on the lake and it was 15 degrees with no wind and I had the same -- I was wearing the same stuff. It felt a little colder today. Probably because we weren't moving as much as we were when we were playing hockey. I don't know, it was 32 or 33 it seemed like when we were getting ready to tee off, maybe a little more than that. But it just seemed colder than 15 degrees up there, that's all I know.

Q. I was asking you before, it wasn't that long ago you were thinking about not playing anymore. Is it kind of amazing to look back now where you were and where you are?
TOM GILLIS: Well, it was close. It's as close as I've ever been in '07. I just didn't have any status anywhere in the world, and I've played all over the world, I've played in Europe and played in Asia and all that. So I was just -- I think I was probably 38 years old or 39 years old, whatever. I was pretty much at a crossroads.
I'm glad I stuck with it, definitely. I had some health issues with a bad left wrist and got that sorted out. Dr. Grant in Baltimore did surgery on my hand and I didn't have any pain. So it just slowly came together. You just start thinking maybe it's destiny, and now the goal is that we want to win out here. After we win once we want to win more and more and more and all that. I'd like to at least get into contention and get the first one out of the way.

Q. I talked to your wife a little bit about it, she said she kind of left it up to that point, supported you if you wanted to stay. Was that around the time you were having kids, too?
TOM GILLIS: We were in between our first and our second there.

Q. What kind of made you go to the side of sticking around? Were you starting to just feel like you had unfinished business?
TOM GILLIS: Well, it was more we lived in Detroit at the time, and it just was tough times up there. There just wasn't really any work first of all. There wasn't a whole lot going on. There wasn't a lot of options to be honest with you. Once you started looking around, it was pretty lean.
One of the bigger concerns I had was that I always wanted to leave the game with something, whether it was money or whatever, and I had a little bit of money, not a bunch, but I had enough for two kids to go to college, and I had no confidence. You know, I was not -- I didn't want to lose that money.
And then I had a guy that backed me when I was in Europe, and he said, let's do it again. We'll go about it the same way we did last time, and I started thinking, well, I'm willing to do that, but I knew it was going to be a full commitment with no status; it was going to be Gateway Tour in Florida, and I knew it wasn't going to be easy, especially with a family.
And then it all worked out. I hooked up with Jeff Leishman, who's my coach, in the spring of '07 in Florida, and I think with his direction, he's probably the most vital -- apart from a professional standpoint, he's been the key. I had great support from Jenny and my family. So yeah, I mean, I'm excited. It's funny, when you're involved, right now in the thick of things week in and week out, I don't think about it a whole lot. I think at some time in my life I'll look back and say, wow, that was close.
But I get the question quite a bit. I try not to go there. I don't know why, I just don't want to go back and think about it a whole lot. It wasn't a great time in my life so I just try to think about winning and stuff like that.

Q. Sorry to bring it up.
TOM GILLIS: No, it's fine. It is what it is, but I don't feel it. I can't feel it like I did then. You probably put up a little wall or a shield. It brings fear. I don't want to go there. I just want to think about being out here full-time.
JOHN BUSH: Let's go through the card. The birdie on 3?
TOM GILLIS: I hit it in the front right bunker in two and I splashed it out there about four feet and made it.
Next hole I hit 7-iron seemed like it was about three or four feet, made that.
10, I hit 9-iron about a foot.
14, just made a long putt, made about it seemed like it was about 30 feet. Just an average iron shot in there.
15, I didn't make birdie. I only had 205 in and I tried to cut 5-iron and hit it in the water, then I wedged it about five feet and made it. Those kind of things keep things going.
16, after Blake and Chris had hit the left bunker I got pretty conservative. I thought I don't have to do much here to look good. I hit it about 30 feet and two-putted.
Parred 17, missed a little one.
And then hit a real good shot at 18, hit an 8-iron in there about four feet behind the hole and made it. It was a pretty simple round. There wasn't a lot of scrambling or anything.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297