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NORTHERN TRUST OPENFebruary 15, 2011Mark WilsonPACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA CHRIS REIMER: We're joined here by one of the hottest golfers on the planet, Mark Wilson, two victories to start the season. Maybe just talk us through what it's been like over the course of the last month or so. MARK WILSON: Yeah, it hasn't been as much a whirlwind as I was expecting to be honest with you. It's been a lot of fun, though. I use all my free time to respond to emails and texts from friends, family, people I haven't heard from in a long time and do random radio interviews, TV interviews, all that kind of stuff. I've always felt like I've managed my time really well but it's even been more of a challenge. But I'm loving playing golf. Just teeing it up last week at Pebble Beach, just was really excited about the challenge of a new golf course and new set of circumstances, and same thing this week at Riviera. I'm excited to go out there and test my game against the course and not content with where I stand in the standings. It's just fun to be playing golf and playing competitive golf again. Q. At the Sony you mentioned working really hard with your trainer over the off-season. I wondered if there was anything in your mind coming into this year that gave you a clue this could be something special? MARK WILSON: The only thing that stands out is that I was really excited to get started for the year, and that's very rare for me. I really like being home and was enjoying -- really enjoyed November and December, and maybe it was because I didn't have a banner year last year, that I finished 123rd on the Money List, and I was just really anxious to do better. It was the first year since 2007 really, or since 2008, where I felt like I could easily beat my performances from the year before. The other years, 2007, '8, '9, I had good years it felt like, so to have to back those up was always a challenge, whereas this year I could blow 2010 out easily. So I was really anxious to get going. I had all my gear all packed up a couple days after Christmas and we weren't leaving for Palm Springs until January 10th. So I think that was the thing, that I was anxious to get going, to play golf, and when it's fun, your scores, for me, seem to be better. Q. You said you had a lot of different messages and texts and stuff. What's been the most out-of-the-blue one and what's been the most gratifying one? MARK WILSON: I think it was fun, especially Phoenix, being coupled with the Packers winning the Super Bowl. I had a lot of texts, my Wisconsin friends and family were saying they had two TVs on at the Super Bowl parties, one with the golf on and one with the Super Bowl. I think Matt Kuchar's text stands out the best to me, that when I won I should have done the little championship belt thing that Aaron Rodgers did when the Packers won. That would have been really cool. So that text stands out. And it was funny because J.J. Henry actually had that idea for me on the range as we were warming up on Monday morning before -- we still had five holes to go but he said go finish this off and give us the little Aaron Rodgers championship belt. It's fun to have your peers congratulating you and in your corner. Q. Having won two tournaments this year, before this year, that did not get you into the Masters, when did it sort of come into your mind, maybe at Sony, hey, if I get this done I'm going there? Did it creep into your back nine? MARK WILSON: No, it didn't. It kept -- it didn't take long, though. It was after I had signed my card and was in the trailer there and was able to sit back and realize we won this tournament, I looked at my caddie and said, "Hey, we get to play at Augusta." So that's the first time. So it took me three minutes since I holed that last putt, so not very long. But it did not cross my mind while I was playing. Q. Will you go there before the tournament week? MARK WILSON: Yes, yeah. I'm going to go there -- my plan right now is to go there maybe two or three different times in the month of March while I'm down there for the Florida Swing. Q. Why did you not do the championship belt thing? MARK WILSON: You know, it's one of those things where I will say that when I was on that 10th green and I had that birdie putt that I was really confident with and Jason Dufner had a long putt, didn't think he was going to make that birdie putt, my mind started to wander, thinking, what should I do to celebrate, and I stopped myself really quick because usually if you're thinking about celebrating, you're not going to have a reason to celebrate. Right at that point I said let's focus on what we need to do. It was really just a spur-of-the-moment thing and it just didn't creep in my mind at that moment. Q. Second part, there may be a lot of people that don't know a lot about you except the whole Cheesehead Packer thing because obviously that was a big deal that weekend, but what's something interesting that people probably don't know about you? MARK WILSON: I think mainly that I was really hoping to be a pro basketball player, and I stopped growing at 5'8", and my dad is 5'4", my mom is 5'1", and I kept asking my dad, "Is there anyone in our family that's over six foot tall?" When I was 10 or 11 years old I was a pretty good basketball player I felt like. I even played on the freshman team in high school and I was a starter, and I just -- after that freshman year I played golf all summer. All my fellow basketball players on the team played basketball, and when I came back sophomore year I knew I had to quit. I played one more year but then I focused totally on golf. I think maybe about me, a little small guy out there that I could hold my own on a basketball court when I was say 14 years old. Q. Can you talk a little bit about playing here at Riviera, history here obviously and just getting the chance to play at a course like this? You like this kind of traditional style golf course? MARK WILSON: Yeah, definitely. My teacher growing up David Rasmussen, age 14 through like 25, was a big believer in the way Ben Hogan swung the golf club, as many teachers are. But I guess unique to me is we match up in terms of build, 5'8", 150 pounds, about the same, so it clicked to me that we should try to emulate him the best we can. You can't copy anyone's golf swing; it's like a fingerprint. But we did the best we could and I didn't even come close, but at least I'm having some success on the golf course, and to see the statues up there by the putting green is really cool. It's just neat to walk in his footsteps here. And the golf course is a great challenge. The way it's playing right now, the greens are firm. I know we have a lot of rain in the forecast so who knows what it's going to be like, but hopefully the rain isn't too bad. A lot of interesting golf holes. They're all unique and different, and it's a fun course in the sense that -- fun tournament because you know you can go around and shoot just a couple under par every day and actually make up ground on the field. Q. You were joking around a little bit last week about how you came in the tournament at Pebble, first two-time winner this year, and you didn't have a huge gallery. You kind of indicated it was friends and family. I'm just wondering, are you comfortable with that, the fact that you don't seem to be a very demonstrative guy and calling attention to yourself? Are you comfortable with kind of having two wins and flying under the radar? MARK WILSON: Definitely, you put it right there, flying under the radar. I love it, being under the radar. It makes winning golf tournaments a little bit easier not having people paying attention to you so much. The more I keep winning I'm sure it'll change a little bit, but I'm loving where I'm at right now, and I'm not changing -- I've got to this point playing my game, being who I am. I'm not about to change it to add a little flair to it. This is how I dress, this is how I play my game, and I'm just going to take that as far as I can. Q. The two wins have obviously opened up a lot of doors. It looks like you'll be in all the majors, I guess, this year? MARK WILSON: That's right. Q. Masters for the first time, and I don't think you've ever played in the British. MARK WILSON: No, I haven't. Q. I'm just curious, do you look at all that as a bonus? Do you think you might gear up for those a little bit more? How will you approach those tournaments? MARK WILSON: My mistake in the past was to put those on a pedestal, the major championships. I've never made a cut in one. U.S. Open I played in '98 and then I played two PGAs. I feel like I overprepared for them to be honest with you instead of just looking at them as another golf tournament. Phoenix Open is a great example, where last year I was leading after two rounds and I flew in Tuesday night, played a few holes Wednesday morning and actually felt sick and all of a sudden I'm leading after two days. I find myself doing better in that way where I'm just not overpreparing. With that being said, I'm going to soak all that in. The neat part about it right now is with my position on the Money List looks like it should get me -- no matter what I do the rest of the year, should get me in the majors in 2012, as well, not for the PGA but the other three. But it's not going to be a one-shot thing. That's what I keep telling all my friends and family that are so excited for me to play in these things, that I've always expected to be in them for many years to come. This isn't a one-shot thing. That being said, I'm going to go play Augusta and prepare for it ahead of time, which I certainly don't do for a regular PGA TOUR event, but that's kind of a unique animal. But I'm really excited to go play the British Open. My dad always wanted to take me over there after college as a gift to do a fun trip where we'd play all the British Open rotation courses, and I told him let's just wait on that; I'd like to qualify for a British Open and get myself over that way. It's taken 14 years, but at least I'm finally going to make it over there to play golf where it started. Q. With Tiger Woods not playing this tournament, is the guy to beat Phil Mickelson or the defending champion Stricker, or do you not even think about that? MARK WILSON: No, you don't think about that. I mean, anyone can win, really. You never know. You can't try to beat a player. I mean, there's no defense in golf. You just play the golf course and do the best you can. I mean, I'm trying to birdie every hole I play. That doesn't mean I'm firing at every pin, I'm just thinking strategically through the course. That may mean hitting a 5-iron 40 feet from the hole and trying to make the 40-foot putt. It might mean hitting a wedge close and making a putt. I'm out there just trying to shoot the best score I can and seeing how that shapes up with the field at the end of the week. Q. You were just introduced here as the hottest golfer on the planet. You didn't seem to have much of a reaction. When you hear things like that after having won two tournaments this year already, what goes through your mind? MARK WILSON: I mean, I'm happy that I'm focused on the moment because last week at Pebble Beach I was so focused on trying to shoot a good round on Saturday to make the cut, and I was so into that that I kind of forgot, and I looked at a board and it showed my finishes for the year. It was neat to see 1, 1 and 61 for the Bob Hope. It reminded me, hey, I've had some good tournaments this year. Let's remember that. But at the same time I was proud of myself that, hey, I'm focusing on this given event, and you're going to see that this week, as well. So for someone to say I'm the hottest golfer on the planet, I happened to get the job done for a couple of weeks, and I haven't played that much differently the Bob Hope and at Pebble Beach where I missed the cut, just a few putts here and there didn't go in, and I tell people all the time it's such a fine line between getting the job done and winning and even sometimes missing the cut. It's really jam-packed up there. I'm just really thankful and grateful that I got the job done when I had those two opportunities this year, and hopefully there's going to be some more. But if not I'm grateful for those. Q. You mentioned earlier how much you were loving flying under the radar. I guess at the other end of the scale you have Tiger who gets more TV time than any other player. Just curious what you made of the Twitter outburst yesterday about his fine in Dubai. MARK WILSON: I haven't seen the footage of it, I've just heard from fellow players what he did. My only thing about it is, and once again, I haven't seen the footage, so I've done some things that I'm not proud of on the golf course after hitting a bad shot or something like that. I try to be respectful to the game, but there's certain things that I've done and not proud of. And cameras aren't always on me, they're always on him. So I feel for him in that sense. But with all that success comes that. That's just part of being Tiger Woods. CHRIS REIMER: Just talk a little bit about the scheduling you mapped out this stretch early in the year. You won twice and yet you're still committed to this schedule, seven events in a row or six events in a row. MARK WILSON: I'm not totally sure what my schedule is going to be, but at the beginning of the year I wanted to play Hawai'i, Bob Hope, skip San Diego and then I was planning on playing four in a row which would end with the Honda. Now all of a sudden I'm in the Match Play and Doral. For me living in Chicago at the beginning of the year my plan is to just play a lot of tournaments. This year especially I'm excited to play like I mentioned earlier and just let the winter pass up there. I don't need to be up there shoveling my driveway. I'd rather be out playing golf. Come March when it thaws I'll go back home. The plan right now is to play, and we have such great help out here with day care staff that a week on the road, believe me, is actually easier than at home because we don't have the same kind of help at home that we do on the road. I'm planning on playing a bunch more in a row, and we'll see where it takes me. Q. You're a guy that seems to do a lot of stuff for charity. Can you talk about that and why that's been important to you and maybe even for a guy who hasn't won some of the kind of money that these other guys have, you still seem to do a ton. Can you talk about that? MARK WILSON: Yeah, I guess early on my parents instilled that in me, and places I've gone to school, I've learned that you can't outgive God, so I just keep giving back the best I can and he keeps giving me more and more responsibility, more to give. We're excited about many different charities, and my wife and I are trying to figure out where to focus our efforts the best. MACC Fund is a big one up there in Milwaukee that deals with cancer, and then Blessings in a Backpack is a big thing in Chicago. There's a lot of other ones, too, that we work with. I'm blessed to have a wife that's really into that stuff. She's the president of PGA TOUR Wives Association which gives a lot of money back to charity, and it's in her heart to do that. She pulls me along for the ride. She's a lot smarter than me so she knows how to do the best with our resources. Q. Do you feel like you can do more now with these two tournament victories? MARK WILSON: Yeah, it gives us a little more platform. I'm still under the radar, but people do recognize me a little bit more, and right now they want to work with me, me being showing up at an event creates more buzz than it used to so maybe that'll raise more money for charity. So we're using that to our advantage to help out kids or the needy or whoever it might be. CHRIS REIMER: Thanks so much, Mark. Good luck. End of FastScripts |
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