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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 14, 2012Arjun AtwalGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA MARK STEVENS: We'd like to welcome Arjun Atwal. Arjun, you won here two years ago, so it's a course you know well and have played well before. I think you're 169‑ish on the FedEx standings right now. What's your thoughts coming into this week? ARJUN ATWAL: I need to win (laughing). No, obviously I haven't played well this year, but I've found a little something in my game the last couple weeks, and I just need to go with that and maybe get the short game a little bit sharper, and I should be good this week. MARK STEVENS: Also you've got an announcement that you want to make. If you want to go ahead and talk about the victims of the shootings in Wisconsin at the temple, if you want to talk about that and we'll take some questions. ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, well, when I saw that, it was really sad to see any‑‑ obviously any incident of people getting killed, but I'm Sikh myself, and just to see that happen in one of our religious temples, it was really‑‑ I would say just saddening to see. My wife and I were watching it, and we just couldn't believe our eyes. So we decided to do something about it. I didn't know exactly what to do because I've never been in a position to do anything about these things, so I just‑‑ we decided to give the victims a little bit something. I know it's not going to take their pain away, but whatever we could do, and then obviously to raise a little bit of awareness about the Sikhs in America. I've heard since 9/11 there's been a few killings of Sikhs around the country, and I just thought it was the wrong thing. So my wife and I decided that it should just be‑‑ if I'm in any position here, which I'm a Sikh myself, so people might just look up and say, okay, well, you should learn a little bit more about the religion and who these people are. That's it. Does that make sense? MARK STEVENS: We'll have information coming on how other people can donate. We'll have a press release on where Arjun is giving to. ARJUN ATWAL: We're trying to get ribbons this week for players to wear, as well. Saffron, that's our color. Q. As a guy who won the whole thing just a couple of years ago, I don't know if you've had much of a chance to play today and particularly these greens, a lot of golfers are saying final score on championship Sunday may be half of what it was a year ago, if 20‑under has been winning in past years that 10‑under might win it this year. Curious to get your take on how different the course is between when you won it and now. ARJUN ATWAL: Well, I haven't played it yet. But looking at the practice green, seeing how smooth and how firm they're going to be on the golf course, I think this is what Donald Ross had originally intended. You know, these greens got‑‑ I don't want to say bigger, because they're softer, but that's what exactly happens. Even if the PGA TOUR puts pins in all corners, if they're soft greens, guys can fire at them. What now it'll bring into play is the back of the greens. But the pitch of these greens, you can't get up‑and‑down, like I did when I won. It was an easy chip for me because it was soft. You could hold the green or whatever. But now it's going to be exactly the way he intended it to play, so it's going to be much tougher. Q. Can you speak of sort of still playing your game but also having to adapt to the course a little bit? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, people will have to respect it a lot more. You can't just fire at flags, especially the longer holes. Guys will have to work the ball in. So it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be more enjoyable for guys to play now. Q. Does it put more of an emphasis on driving accuracy this week? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, absolutely, because even though it's not high, it sits right down, the Bermuda rough. Yeah, guys will have to be really careful about hitting fairways, and then from there be really specific on their second shots. Q. You touched on this at the beginning, but how do you keep the FedExCup out of your mind while you're playing this week? ARJUN ATWAL: Well, I'm going to look at it like the way I did a couple years ago. If I don't finish in the top three I think my caddie was telling me I have no chance. As of right now, I'm not in. I don't want to think about it. I'll just go and try my hardest here and see what happens. Q. The religion is not very mainstream. From your perspective how would you describe the religion? ARJUN ATWAL: Very peace‑loving. We're known as farmers in India, our state, Punjab, we're Sikh. The religion is Sikh, but we're Punjabis from the state of Punjab, and it's the main agricultural state of India. So everyone is basically farming out there. Very peace‑loving people, very religious people. And what else? Very hard‑working. That's the main thing. And Sikhs, wherever they go, they've always been very hospitable, as well, very much like Americans. I'm not saying that the Sikhs aren't Americans here, but just Sikhs in India are always welcoming people to their houses and very hospitable, so that's our general nature. Q. Can you go back to that moment when you heard about that awful thing that happened in Wisconsin? ARJUN ATWAL: Yeah, I was in an airport with my wife. We were transiting to somewhere, and I saw CNN, and I just had to sit down. I almost missed my connecting flight. It was really sad to see. I couldn't figure out exactly why it happened at that time, but then when I got back home, I still don't know why it happened, I mean, how do you explain what happened there? It's just some crazy guy just going nuts. It was just sad to see. I talked to my dad about it, as well, and I was like, I want to do something about it, and I didn't know exactly what to do, so I figured this would be a decent way. SPEAKER: We had talked about the Sikh Council on Religion and Education and the World Sikh Organization are two of the governing bodies of the Sikh religion here in the United States and they're a wonderful place and we'll post that as part of the information with the release. They're going to be providing the vehicle for us to make the donations directly to the victims and also the policeman who was injured in the tragedy and who is alive, shot nine times. But those two websites provide very complete information, background information on the religion. I think that's part of what Arjun wanted to do this, so people could spend a little more time and learn more about the religion and its origins and its differences from others that maybe people have culturally lumped together. MARK STEVENS: Can you talk about any feedback you've received back from India since all this happened? ARJUN ATWAL: You know, I really haven't talked to the press in India about it. It's not like I want to make it seem like I'm doing something special or whatever. It's just this is my‑‑ basically the thing that I'm going to do this week, and then I'm not going to really be talking to‑‑ making a big deal out of it. I just want to help the victims and just make sure that people are just a little more aware of things. That's all. MARK STEVENS: I meant your family reacting to the tragedy after they heard about the shootings. Have you talked to them? ARJUN ATWAL: Oh, yeah. MARK STEVENS: What was the reaction coming back? ARJUN ATWAL: If my grandma was alive, she'd be devastated, because she wouldn't understand any of this, because she was very, very religious. My dad is pretty much the same way. He was kind of upset about it, too. Yeah, we talked quite a bit about it, my father and I. Yeah, it was sad. MARK STEVENS: Thank you for your time, Arjun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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