|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIPJune 21, 2011Patrick CantlayCROMWELL, CONNECTICUT MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome Patrick Cantlay. Patrick finished T21 last week at the U.S. Open. Impressive finish, and now you're doing back-to-back stops on the TOUR. If you kind of want to talk about your thoughts coming into this week at The Travelers Championship, and then we'll take some questions. PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah. Well, I got the call to play right after NCAA, and I was really excited to play. That was before I had qualified for the U.S. Open, so I didn't know I was going to go two weeks in a row. And the golf course looks great. I've heard a lot of great things, and really looking forward to getting out there and having a good week. MARK STEVENS: Okay. A few questions. Q. Patrick, I've been reading some things from Sunday, you said you were just totally pretty much spent there. Could you just talk about how tired you were, and if you got sleep and how it all went? And can you talk about the grind that made you that tired? PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah. I was really tired. Obviously I guess U.S. Opens do that to you. This is my fourth week in a row. I came from NCAAs and then to the Palmer Cup, and I squeezed U.S. Open sectional qualifying in there in between there and Columbus. NCAAs were in Oklahoma; Palmer Cup was in Connecticut, and Columbus in between. And then obviously last week was in D.C. and then back up to here. But yeah, I was really tired on Sunday, and I was -- I'm still tired today a little bit. I slept maybe 10, 11 hours last night. And yesterday I just traveled and hit a couple pitches and putts yesterday. But yeah, I'm going to get really fresh these next couple days and really prepare my mind and my body for this week. Q. Youth had a lot of success at this U.S. Open. Does that encourage you for your future in golf? PATRICK CANTLAY: It does. It gives me a lot of confidence going forward. Seeing Rory win, he's, what, three years older than me. That just shows me that I can compete right now pretty quickly. As long as I stick to my game plan and play my game, I can have a good week. Q. Patrick, can you talk about after this week, what's your plans for the summer? How much golf are you going to play on sponsors' exemptions and what are your plans before you go back to school? PATRICK CANTLAY: Right. So after this I'm going to take a couple weeks off, two weeks off, and then I'm going to play the Southern California Amateur, St. Gabriel Country Club in LA, so I can stay at my house for that. That's only maybe 45 minutes or an hour drive. And then I'm going to take another couple weeks off, and I got into the Nationwide Children's Hospital at Ohio State, so I'm going to play that. And then a week off, and then I'm going to play the Western Amateur and a couple weeks off and then the U. S. Amateur and then hopefully the Walker Cup, if I'm fortunate enough to make the team. And then back to school. So the rest of the -- this is the craziest part of my summer these last four weeks, and then the rest of the summer will be pretty relaxed and spaced out. Q. Can you talk about the decision process that goes into when and whether -- or obviously you will, but when you'll turn pro. How is that all working in your mind? PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah. I've been getting that question a lot these last couple weeks, but I just think that it's important to get a degree, because you never know what's going to happen. And I think that turning pro is always going to be there. I can play on the TOUR for 25 years if I wait six years to turn pro. So you know, playing amateur golf is really fun, and I'd love to play on a couple Walker Cup teams. I've heard that's just fantastic. I'd like to play well in the U. S. Amateur and try and win that one. That would mean a lot to me. But there's really just -- there's no rush for me to turn pro. You can play a lot of great amateur golf, and I can still mature my game while I'm at college, and I can get better and get physically better, mentally better and at the same time earn a degree. Q. What did you learn last week playing the U.S. Open, just mentally? I mean the course is one thing, but having the fans there, and you know, seeing your name on the leaderboard like that. What did you learn about yourself and your game? PATRICK CANTLAY: I learned that I really like playing in that atmosphere. It was a lot of fun, probably the most fun I've ever had playing golf. So it just gives me a lot of confidence going forward that I can compete every week I tee it up no matter what tournament I'm playing in. That's obviously one of the toughest tournament to play in in the world, and I had a good week. I didn't play amazing; I played good, and I finished tied for 20th. So it just gives me a lot of confidence going forward that no matter where I play, I can compete. Q. Do you think about how much money you left on the table, what that would have meant? PATRICK CANTLAY: I saw it, but it wasn't a factor going in at the beginning of the week to make money or anything, so it wasn't a factor at the end of the week when I saw what I could have made. Q. Is it interesting to you, you weren't allowed to take a flight up here. I preface this by saying University of Connecticut sports is so big here and we're always like looking at NCAA's rules and regulations and all that. You couldn't take a flight up here. Just talk about -- did you fly up on your own or -- PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah. Q. Is it interesting to you that you can't get on that plane that would have taken you? PATRICK CANTLAY: A little bit, but I mean I can't really control all the rules that the NCAA makes. Some are crazy, and a lot make sense, though. I think they're just trying to protect the integrity of being an amateur and the integrity of being a college athlete. Q. Have you seen this course? Have you played this course? PATRICK CANTLAY: I played nine this morning. I played the front nine. Q. I was going to ask you about a couple holes on the back. PATRICK CANTLAY: Yeah. I'm going to play early, early tomorrow morning before the Pro Am. MARK STEVENS: Okay. Anything else? Okay, Patrick, thank you very much and good luck this week. PATRICK CANTLAY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|