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INSPERITY CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 9, 2011Brad FaxonTHE WOODLANDS, TEXAS PHIL STAMBAUGH: Brad, you win your first career title on the Champions Tour in sort of a different kind of way, but Bernhard Langer did this in 2007, as well, so won his first time here, first win in Houston. Nobody had won a rain-shortened event for the first time on the Champions Tour since Leonard Thompson in the 1998 Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic in Minnesota. Congratulations, and we have now had four straight first-time winners on the Champions Tour, something that has not happened since 2001. So take us back to your birdie yesterday, because that birdie at 17 proved to be the winning stroke. BRAD FAXON: Yeah, there were a couple of things that happened late in the round that were pretty dramatic. Especially on 17, Eduardo, he played fantastic golf all day long, and he hit his first wayward shot of the day on 17 with a hybrid. I was trying to decide whether to hit 3-wood or hybrid off the tee, and he pushed it out to the right and I thought it was starting right and I said, I'm not going to watch it, I'm going to keep my eyes on where I want my ball to go. I knew it was -- I thought it would be just right in the hazard there, and that's a tough tee shot any time. But when it's into a 20-mile-an-hour wind and you're tied for the lead, it becomes tough. I have a 72-degree hybrid I just put in the bag this week. Titleist makes these adjustable hybrids and I had not hit the spin high enough in the ground. There were a few holes to use it on and that was one, and I hit a beautiful tight draw down the left center of the fairway. From there, took a wayward way to play the hole and he was looking at bogey or double-bogey, bogey at best and that shot over the water was blowing 20 miles an hour, 142 yards into a very shallow part of green. My caddie, first of all said, "Hey, how about an 8-iron?" And I was close to 6. I was like, I don't think it's 6. Why don't we split the difference and I'll just hit this 7 and I'll hammer it. You know the timing of when you hit these shots is very important and there's a lot of holes like No. 3, like where Michael Allen had some trouble yesterday where the depth of the green is only six or seven paces, and if you hit it past, the shot coming back is equally as tough as the first shot you had. I hit this 7-iron and it was one of those it's going at the flag, but you don't know whether it's going to stay up or get down, and I didn't say anything. Putt wasn't particularly short, but was close enough to straight up. I pumped my fist after that shot because it was a great shot at the right time. I wasn't too emotional during the day but that one I was pretty emotional. It turned out to be a three-shot swing, right. I don't know if he was -- he must have been 10-under, made double; 8. I went from 9 to 10, because I was a shot behind. On the last hole, pushed my drive just a hair to the right. Wasn't a bad tee shot but I was stymied a little behind the tree and hit a beautiful 6-iron shot from a distance. But then had a 4-footer, that now that I think about it, that was the winning putt for the tournament. And you know, making those things normally, you don't put too much pressure on yourself, but when it gets something like winning or playing in the last group, they mean a lot. I drew on some good memories from my win at The INTERNATIONAL, I had a putt very similar to that, an outside, left-edge putt about four feet. You don't know it at the time that it's to win the tournament, but I'm glad it went in. PHIL STAMBAUGH: So fast forward to today, you come out here. BRAD FAXON: I got out of bed and never really -- I'm staying at a friend's house and I looked outside and really hard to tell that if it was dark because it was cloudy or dark because it's just early; a lot of trees around. I went to get a coffee at Starbuck's this morning at quarter to eight and I said, man, it's darker than I thought it would be. I never looked at the forecast or not smart enough to figure if it's got a chance to come this way. Plus, there's a 120-day drought here. I was not prepared at all for a rain delay. I never had my mind in that thought process, which I think is important. You know, when you're going out and you want to play, you don't ever want to think, oh, this is going to be rained out. I mean, I've had times in my career when I've been told it's going to rain, you get to the course and you're not prepared and as I was on the way to the course, I got the text -- I think I heard thunder getting into the car and I got the text saying, "play had been suspended." When I got here, you know, everybody was: Oh, you're going to win your first tournament. I thought, I've got to get out of here. I left the clubhouse and went straight to the fitness van where I was hoping there would be no players because that's the last thing you want to do is start listening to all of this stuff. You know, can't say that I wasn't hoping for a rain delay, too. I would love to have my first win because it means an awful lot but at the same time, hey, I want to go play. I'm playing pretty good. I want to see what I can do. I honestly feel like I can win tournaments out here, and I wasn't really worried if I didn't win this week that I wouldn't have a chance ever to win again. You know, it was one of those where I really felt like I passed all of my goals this week prior to today. And then this was a bonus day for me. I think we all look forward to that. So when I came back in and I was just getting ready to go hit balls an hour before my new tee time at 1:50, and it was raining hard. Guys were still playing, guys were teeing off and I'm like, this is going to be a lousy warm-up here. You know, Corey Pavin, John Cook, Sluman, they all have their radar thing on their iPad and looking at these things. It started to rain, and I was like, this is not what I expected. And then people started coming out and congratulating me and I was standing out in the back of the clubhouse not wanting to be near anybody, and then finally heard -- when they pulled the players off the course, I kind of knew it was going to be hard to finish the round and I kind of know the history of the Champions Tour is we don't play on Monday. But I even think -- I wasn't even thinking, you know, what we are not going too far away, we could play on Monday. Maybe they will make an exception. So I was doing everything I could to keep my head in the game. Q. Did you want to elaborate on the ceremony afterwards? BRAD FAXON: Golf Channel obviously is trying to tape stuff for the show tonight and Dave Marr and I were doing a very serious tip on iron play or something. He was going to talk about putting and then we talked about a couple iron shots. I sensed the door opening behind me, and then I just -- I haven't had a pie in the face in a long time and that was -- I could tell there was a lot of filling in that pie because it was embedded in there. It kind of felt like one of the things the dentist does when they put a crown on your face, just pushed all over, awful. (Laughing) But he has that cackle laugh that you love from Jeff Sluman. Q. Were you sitting -- and when was the last time you had a pie in your face? BRAD FAXON: Oh, yeah, I was in a director's chair, Golf Channel chair. You know, I'm trying to remember when the last time. Q. It might have been Sluman. BRAD FAXON: It probably was. I don't know. It's been so long since I was -- maybe since I was a kid. I don't think I've had it professionally. Q. So you were standing in the back of the clubhouse and you got the official word. BRAD FAXON: Well, actually, I officially knew when Dana Quigley and his son, Devon, who is caddying for him, Devon was on the phone and he was talking to Hollis, and Hollis is in San Antonio. And Devon is the one that officially congratulated me. Now a bunch of players came up and say, you won, it's already official. And I'm like, you guys don't know. But then I felt the buzz on my cell phone and saw that play had been cancelled. Then I kind of knew. Q. So you've been playing golf a long time, can you just go over how many tournaments you've won without hitting a shot on Sunday? Have you ever won a tournament -- BRAD FAXON: With a rain delay? Q. Without hitting a shot on the final day. BRAD FAXON: No. Absolutely not. I mean, I've had -- I remember the Memorial Tournament one year, I was in second or third place maybe, Greg Norman was leading, I was going to be the last group with Greg Norman, and maybe early to mid 90s, and pretty big point in my career where a big paycheck was going to help. Maybe had not played well up to that point. I was kind of hoping -- the weather was miserable. I remember that was the most similar thing to hoping, I could use the money for the Money List and all that stuff. Q. How does this feeling compare with either you walk up 18 knowing you've won or trying to grind it out on 18? BRAD FAXON: This feels exactly like -- if I had played the 18th hole and had a one-shot lead and I know that -- would be way over tomorrow or today, probably into the wind. I was looking at those spots and thinking about them. But at the same time I know starting in 2012, nobody is going to care that this was a rain delay. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was win a PGA TOUR event. Q. Do you have a routine -- BRAD FAXON: Yeah, I have an hour routine that I do with our trainer. It's a combination of cardio and some move and prep stuff. I hate to say it's quiet, because TV is on, football is on, but it's time to get your head in the game. You know, I usually get a couple of hours, but I still had time to kill but I wasn't in any hurry to get back. I was in that mind-set where I have to prepare to go to the golf course. It's kind of like match play where you're playing in match play and you have a 10-foot and all you have to do is 2-putt. That's what it was like. I'm sure even when Bill Haas swung at that ball and it went 30 feet by -- (Inaudible.) Q. Did you ever hit balls? BRAD FAXON: No, I bring a club back with me to the room most every night to make some swings. I do some swings inside the trailer. Q. I was looking at your results this year, I think your best finish so far has been T-16. Is it harder than you've thought or you've been playing good or not playing good? Some guys go out and think they are going to light it up. BRAD FAXON: Right. I think I said this yesterday, my game wasn't a plus coming in when I turned 50. But I had been seeing a lot of light in different parts of my game. I had driven the ball much better the last year. My game had been very shoddy, especially my strength of my game has been my iron game and my proximity to the hole on numbers has been awful, and just in the last month, I have seen better short game shots and wedge shots. Proved it yesterday. I didn't look at the stats but something about second in greens in regulation. I would bet my career, I've never finished in the Top-10 in greens in regulation, I can almost guarantee that. That's after yesterday's round. I thought it was second in greens in regulation. Now let me ask you a question, I won in San Antonio, do I get in the Charles Schwab Cup? PHIL STAMBAUGH: You have to be in the Top-30 in money. BRAD FAXON: I thought it was points. Oh, it's not the Top-30 point-getters like the FedExCup. PHIL STAMBAUGH: There's a reason why. There's a reason for everything. Q. What do you think now that you've come in and won, is this tougher than you thought it would be, or about what you thought? BRAD FAXON: No, I had no idea. I didn't want to come here with anything preconceived about how hard it was going to be to win. I've seen the John Huston style of player, I've seen Sluman -- inaudible -- he thought it would be easy, and comes out here, says the guys are killing me, lost all of my confidence in 17 or 18 tournaments. I had not even decided what the right amount of tournaments was to play. I just knew if I played my own game. Q. (Tiger question). BRAD FAXON: Yeah, you don't forget how to play. When he gets where he's back in a little bit of a groove, I think he's got a real good chance to play great, and I've said it to everybody that's asked me, I said, yes, he can dominate again, yes, he can win again. Will he win four majors? I don't know. I know he wants to. But as soon as he makes playing great golf more important than making perfect golf swings or making a perfect putt, he'll be fine. Q. (Ben Hogan/Tiger comparison question). BRAD FAXON: First of all, I don't why anybody would say, that he was playing his best golfer ever and he's only 34. And Hogan didn't win a major until he was 30. Q. Your most memorable shots this week? BRAD FAXON: I said on TV, I think the two shots that I'll remember this week the most are the 4-iron into 14 and the 7-iron into 17. Didn't birdie 13 or 15, the two par 5s. But you know, I don't know how many guys hit shots out here that are exactly as planned that come off exactly like you want, but I couldn't have asked for better contact, better shape to the shot, better feel of the swing, and where the balls landed. Those two shots were as good as I've hit in a really long time. And the one on 18 behind the tree, that was more dramatic looking but I didn't think that was as clutch a shot at the time. Especially my goal was to hit better iron shots. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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