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RBC HERITAGEApril 11, 2012Kyle StanleyHILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Kyle Stanley into the interview room here at the RBC Heritage. He's currently No. 6 in the FedExCup standings. Making your second start here at the RBC Heritage, missed the cut last year. Talk a little bit about being back. KYLE STANLEY: It's nice. I'm excited to be here. It's a home game for me; I live about 20 minutes from here. It's nice to sleep in my own bed. I love the golf course, too. JOHN BUSH: Won the 2005 Junior Heritage here quite a while ago. Talk a little bit about what it is about this tournament that's so special for the players. KYLE STANLEY: I think the atmosphere is great. You get a lot of support from the local community here, which is nice. This one is particularly special to me ‑ my grandparents were buried about a mile from here in Sea Pines. Like I said, I live here now, and we've been vacationing down here for quite a while, since I've been growing up. So it's nice to play at home. JOHN BUSH: Just recap your season. Top‑10 FedExCup, you won the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It's been a great year. KYLE STANLEY: Yes, it's been a pretty good year so far. The past months have been a little bit of a struggle, but I'm trying to recommitment myself to my game and get refocused, and I feel like I'm on the right track. Q. Is that from just trying to deal with success more or less, after you have success, trying to deal with the aftermath of that? KYLE STANLEY: I don't know about that. I've had a lot going on off the golf course, a lot of clutter that's been‑‑ it's been a little bit hard for me to focus on what I'm doing. But we're making some changes, making some adjustments. Like I said, I'm in a pretty good spot right now. Q. Being a local now, you were at the clinic this morning, can you talk about your move to the area and the world class facilities they have at Berkeley Hall, and did that at all play a part in your moving down here? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, when I was in college I spent a lot of time down here on the weekends. It was kind of a local deal for me. When I turned pro and was trying to find a place to live, it was an easy spot. I practiced at Berkeley all the time when I was in college. The facilities are great. It was a place where I was comfortable. Q. You mentioned you vacationed here a lot. Weren't you from Washington State? If that's so, how did you get down here all the time? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I group up in a town called Gig Harbor, but my grandparents retired down here on my dad's side. When I was younger, we spent a lot of time down here vacationing. Q. This tournament along with the Phoenix Open, more of a festive atmosphere surrounds the course itself, rather than the laid back. Is that a nice change for you and the other golfers or how does that affect your play on a week‑to‑week basis? KYLE STANLEY: I don't know if it affects the play. I guess it's a nice change of pace. The atmosphere is probably a little bit different. It is laid back. But I'd say most of the guys come here just for the golf course. The course is great. It's a lot of fun to play. Q. What do you remember about winning that Junior Heritage, did you hole a putt to win or have the winning shot? KYLE STANLEY: Not really. I won by a few. It was nice. That tournament actually kind of put me on the map, for junior golf at least. That kind of paved the way for me to go to Clemson and here I am now. Q. Were you able to keep it out of the trees that week? KYLE STANLEY: A lot of 2‑irons, yes. Q. (Inaudible) What did you learn from your experience earlier this year, have you had a chance to reflect on what you took away from that? KYLE STANLEY: Yes, you just have to be prepared for whatever the game throws at you. You can't really teach somebody how to deal with that. You just have to do it. I was pretty‑‑ I was happy with the mental toughness I showed to come back and rebound that next week. Just being able to execute shots when you need to, just being there. I think the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. Q. Did that make it that much more satisfying after what happened, coming back and winning the next week? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, obviously. Looking back on it, like I wouldn't change a thing about those two weeks. I think it made me a stronger person, a stronger golfer. And I learned a lot about myself. It definitely made the win in Phoenix more satisfying. Q. What one thing, if you can point to, did you learn about yourself over those two weeks? KYLE STANLEY: Probably just the ability to have a short memory. I knew the biggest thing from that was I kind of looked at it as an opportunity to challenge myself to put it behind me. Like I said, I was playing good golf, and you can't let one shot dictate the rest of your season or the next couple of weeks. Q. Talk about the Masters last week, probably a little frustrated, you were not totally on top of your game. But talk about how the week was for you. And was there maybe one highlight from the week for you? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I don't think you'll ever forget your first Masters, driving down Magnolia Lane, and just the whole experience of it. It was pretty neat. But like I said, mentally I wasn't in a very good spot. That made it difficult to play good golf, especially on that golf course, as tough as it is. But hopefully it will be the first of many for me. But yeah, it was a good week. I had my family down and it was nice to share that. Q. Did you Tour the clubhouse, the Crow's Nest, anything impress you about the grounds? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I was there a couple of weeks, I guess, before Houston. I had breakfast with Phil in the Champions' locker room area; it was cool to see that. And nice to see the Crow's Nest and that whole part of the clubhouse. Q. Did you spend some money in the gift shop, pro shops, buy some shirts? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I bought some shirts and hats and some stuff for buddies. Q. Mine is probably in the mail then? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I bought you a lot of stuff. Q. You mentioned some off‑the‑course stuff that slowed you down a bit. Anything you can enlighten us on regarding that? KYLE STANLEY: Not really. More of a personal thing. Q. Along those lines, you said mentally you weren't there last week. Could you elaborate as much as you can. KYLE STANLEY: I'm not going to elaborate on it too much. I just had a lot going on off the course. Just tried to get things off the golf course organized. Like I said, a lot of clutter. A lot of things going on, it was just hard to focus. But making some changes, and like I said I'm in a good spot this week. Q. You're playing Quail Hollow next month, can you talk about the excitement of looking forward going there and what you like about that course? KYLE STANLEY: Not just Quail, I'm really excited for upcoming events. That's a very good golf course for me. It's actually one of my favorites. It's long. You have to drive it well. The greens are firm. Looking forward to that. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off after this event. I'm going to relax and get prepared. Q. Looking back to that clutter one more time, are you confident that won't be a factor this week, and that you've got it behind you? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah. Things don't happen overnight. But I'm happy again. I think I went a month or so there where I just wasn't having a lot of fun playing golf. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is I just had to get back to the basics. I had to get back to just doing the things that got me here. Maybe got a little distracted. But I'm happy with where I am. I'm starting to do the right things again. I'm refocused, recommitted and ready to go. Q. I'm assuming most courses on Tour you're not that familiar with. How often have you played here over the years and how big an advantage is it for you to know this course, if you do know it very well? KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, I think the first time I played here was in '05. I've probably gotten maybe 15 reps around here. But this golf course right now is playing a lot differently than what I remember. They made some changes to the course, which I think are good, some different tee placements, some of the bunkers, and the greens are very firm.  I spin the golf ball a lot and I'm having a hard time bringing it back. Different conditions, but I think they're all good. Q. Did your swing get off a little bit after Phoenix and you tweaked it to get back on track or did you make some changes to try to get better? Just technically what happened to your swing after Phoenix? KYLE STANLEY: Actually nothing happened to my swing. Probably the only tournament where I didn't hit it as well as I would have liked probably would have been Doral. But I hit it great at the match play in Tucson. I hit it pretty good at Riviera. Drove it probably as good as I have all year at Houston. But haven't been getting the putts to fall. My short game has been a little bit inconsistent. I just haven't been very comfortable on the greens. I'm probably thinking a little bit too much, overanalyzing some things, just need to kind of get back to my instincts a bit. JOHN BUSH: Well, Kyle, thank you and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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