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THE MCGLADREY CLASSICOctober 16, 2011Ben CraneSEA ISLAND, GEORGIA DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the 2011 McGladrey Classic champion Ben Crane. I know that's still probably -- BEN CRANE: What the heck am I doing here? DOUG MILNE: It's not like you haven't had a lot else on your mind. We'll jump right into the tournament. You make the turn today and you're six shots behind. Did you ever think you'd be sitting here at the end of the day? BEN CRANE: I wasn't even considering looking at a leaderboard. I just didn't even feel like I had that privilege, I was so far behind. I was just plugging away and made a great birdie at 9, 10, and then a great birdie at 11, and at that point, I thought, hey, I'm not out of the tournament yet. Made bogey at 13, and then some great par -- 14 and I think it's -- great par at 13 and then a great birdie at 14, 15, 16, 17. Is that right? What the heck? Wow. That's as good as I can play. I was just riding a hot putter, and no, I had no -- I looked at the leaderboard really for the first time on 16 green. I had a 20-footer for birdie, and I saw the guys were at 15-under, and I thought, well, I need to make two birdies in three holes. Do you guys have any idea how many times we say that to ourselves? We say that to ourselves every day we play. Oh, I've got to make -- I've got to birdie the last three or birdie two of the last three or whatever, and how many times does it actually happen? Well, I guess that's why you say it to yourself. So you're saying there's a chance. More like one in a million... "Dumb and Dumber," my favorite movie, sorry. Yeah, so here I am. This really reminds me of Jonathan Byrd last year, one of my best friends. He and I were sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas this year, and he's just like, Man, how you doing? I'm like, you know -- I think he expected me to say I was really struggling because the golf wasn't all that good, and I just said, you know, I'm doing great, because the rough season of golf has brought me closer to God. And my pastor friend said, look, you can take golf away, you can take anything in your life that you love away, and if you have God, you have enough. So that's just -- I just feel I've got a little bit of idolatry in my life. I don't mean to go too spiritual on you guys, but golf was becoming too important to me, and then these last few weeks I've just said, you know what, golf is not everything. I can go on without it. It's amazing how when you let it go, it's amazing how things free up. So these last few weeks have been really fun. Q. How did you occupy yourself in between the end of your round and the end of regulation for the other competitors? BEN CRANE: Yeah, so I've never been in a situation before where I've been waiting around. I was just hungry and starving, so I went to the range, and my caddie had some stuff in the bag, so I started eating a sandwich, drank some water and hung out, hit about 20 balls. I didn't really watch anything or hear anything about the tournament. Brett from XM was giving me a little bit of a play by play. I figured it was either a playoff or someone was going to win. And so I just kind of counted on a playoff, so I kind of started -- we call it imprinting, just kind of getting myself ready for a playoff, and then sure enough, yeah, it was a playoff. Q. When did you think you might have had a chance? BEN CRANE: I looked at the leaderboard on 16 green. I saw the guys were two ahead, and I had a 20- or 22-footer for birdie, and I just said, well, if I'm going to have a chance, I'm going to have to birdie two of the last three holes. Newsflash: If you don't birdie the first one and you're dormie and you've got two holes to play and you've got to make two birdies, it gets harder. So I was like, I'd better give this one a run. I figured I'd just give the putt on 16 good pace, and I read it perfectly and the ball went right in the middle, and I was just thrilled. I was so pumped. Threw a little fist in there, just -- and I knew at that point I had a chance. And then I made a great birdie on -- about a 20-footer that broke about a foot on 17, just downgrain left to right there. Just felt so good over that putt and was able to make that one. And so at that point I thought, I've got a chance, and then it was all about 18. Q. Were you surprised you had a chance? BEN CRANE: I have no idea what anyone was doing or did. I don't even know what the lead was going into today. But my host, J.T., was saying -- we kind of figured I think something -- like an 8-under or 7-under or something might have an outside chance or whatever. But we talk like that as golfers all the time, and it's ridiculous because it doesn't happen, you know? Anyway, I just -- yeah, I'm in a little bit of shock, a lot of shock, disbelief. I don't know how those guys played, but I know I played just about as good as I can play. Q. Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl tomorrow? BEN CRANE: I'm having a baby, and I do not know the answer, and my wife and I were kind of going over some names last night, and there was a few little change-ups. I'm like, yeah, I like that. So we've got some different stuff going on. But then I was driving, bringing the car down after the playoff was over, and someone said, well, you've got to name the baby -- the baby's middle name has got to be McGladrey or Frederica, Sea Island (laughter). Q. Yellow room? BEN CRANE: You know, the first baby you get all ready and the paint the room. The second baby you don't do much, and the third baby -- we have a little gym next to -- the baby will be in the gym. He'll be working out. Yeah, third baby, not much chance. Q. What time is the operation? BEN CRANE: Noon delivery. She had the opportunity to take the 7:00 C-section slot, and she said, I'm just going to give you a little more time to get home and take a shower. Thank you very much, mama, so we're scheduled for noon. Q. Is that noon Pacific or noon eastern? BEN CRANE: Noon central. Q. This is the first victory for anybody in the "Golf Boys" video since it came out. That's a good response to the critics who say you can't have all this fun and still play at a high level. BEN CRANE: I didn't know they were saying that. I'll tell you what, the Golf Boys are actually some really good players, last I checked. World Rankings were a little higher than mine. No, Rickie won last week. Q. First on TOUR, sorry. BEN CRANE: Oh, PGA TOUR. So yeah, I'm in good company hanging with those guys. Those guys all have played great this year and all that. What was your question? Q. Is this a response for -- BEN CRANE: Oh, I guess. I guess this is a good response. I'm not responding to anyone that I don't know what they said, but yeah, I wasn't thinking about winning out there really until the last couple holes because it was so far removed from -- I was just so far behind. Q. She may be so excited, she may go into labor. BEN CRANE: I know. Billy Andrade was hilarious. I'm driving up to 18 fairway getting ready for the playoff, and he goes, "If the phone rings, don't answer. Just finish." I'm like, that's a good point. Q. With it being so close to the birth, was there any thought of not playing, and what tipped you over the edge if there was? BEN CRANE: Oddly enough, on Wednesday afternoon, I told my trainer, I've been having some issues with my left hip, and I said, I just don't think I should play this week. I feel like I've got something going on with my labrum, and so I was about five minutes away from withdrawing from the tournament on Wednesday. He said, well, let me try to do a couple stretches on your hip and let's just see what it does. So he did a couple stretches and we went back out to the range after the pro-am, and I swung really without much pain, and I thought, okay, I'll just keep going. So I decided to play. But there was definitely -- and then on top of that, I told my wife, I don't even know if I should -- what am I doing here? You're about to go into labor, and I'm like, should I even be playing this week? I'm like, this feels weird being away from you guys. It was a really challenging week just being away from the family. My parents are in town in Dallas. They traveled from Oregon to get ready for the birth. Yeah, it was kind of touch and go whether I was going to play. Q. What were you doing here? BEN CRANE: What was I doing here? Graeme McDowell and I were talking before the tournament started, and I looked at him, he walked in, and I go, what are you doing here? We both just kind of said, you know what, it's kind of been a down year on our golf, and we're both just trying to find a little form. I just thought -- yeah, I'd just like to put some rounds together. I've been working with my coach out in San Diego, Greg Rose at Titleist, and we kind of came across some things that really helped, and so we thought, you know what, let's just get some rounds in and just see if it is, in fact, better or if it's more of the same. Q. You mentioned kind of the concept of letting go and keeping golf in its proper perspective with the successful results that you've had with that type of approach. What takeaways do you get from today and that you can use the rest of the year? BEN CRANE: Well, I've got one tournament left this year. I'm going to go back to Malaysia, which I love, Kuala Lumpur was great last year, CIMB tournament. They've got a good field again, and so I'm excited to go back there the week after the baby. But the takeaway for me is simply to let golf be golf. I absolutely love it, and days like today make me love it sometimes too much. But it's amazing how the peace God gives me when I put my priorities in place and put God first and my family next and then golf, and everything else -- and make my decisions through that filter. So it's an easy thing to say, but for me it's been a really hard thing to do this year, and so that's been something that's been on my heart for the last three weeks, just trying to get my heart back to -- life is rigged. It's absolutely rigged, and we can try it any way we want, but the only way it works is the way God's put it together. I'm trying to be obedient to that. DOUG MILNE: Would you mind just running us through your birdies and giving us clubs and yardages? BEN CRANE: Okay. 8 is a par-4. I hit a pitching wedge from 127 yards to seven feet. Do you want me to describe it or just say it? Seven feet, made the putt. No. 9, great drive, 9-iron to six feet, made that. 10, driver and a pitching wedge to 11 feet, left to right. 11, driver and a sand wedge to about 22 feet, just short. 14, I hit a great drive, first time I had hit that fairway all week, and Scott walked off -- he hit first, I hit that drive on 14, and I hit it in the fairway. I'd been in the right bushes for basically three days, and I turned around and I started fist pumping to my caddie because I hit the fairway for the first time in a week, and then I hit a 7-iron to a foot, so that was helpful. Driver, 3-wood to 60 feet on 15 for -- I think I had three feet for birdie. 16, driver, right rough, pitching wedge -- no, 8-iron to 20 feet left of the hole. 17 was a 6-iron to let's call it 18 feet, and that's it. Q. (Inaudible.) BEN CRANE: It was a 6-iron. I figured it was playing 170 -- I think it's a 178 shot, so like seven yards off a 6-iron, little downhill lie there, and I tried to run through my routine there, and I looked up, and I was like, I just hit that exactly how I was trying to, so it was fun. Q. The putt on 18, did you look at it too long? BEN CRANE: No, I think if I had to do it over again, I was playing ballish outside the right. The grain was straight across there, and I hit it about let's call it six inches to a foot easier than I wanted to, just came off a little bit softer, but I hit the proper line. So the read was good. Probably just -- my heart might have been beating more than 55 beats a minute there. Yeah, I was nervous. I actually hit a pretty good putt, just a little softer than I wanted to. Q. Is that your resting heart rate? BEN CRANE: I think it's actually less. I might have been amped up to 56. Honestly, my pulse at that point, 125? Do you think? I don't know. 130? It's not max, but it's getting up there. DOUG MILNE: Ben, congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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