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ISPS HANDA PERTH INTERNATIONALOctober 17, 2012Bo Van PeltPERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA STEVE TODD: Many thanks for joining us. Pleasure always to have the American players coming across, and your first time in Australia for a while, just your thoughts so far on Perth and being here this week. BO VAN PELT: Well, you know, obviously it's been nine years since I was here on the Nationwide Tour, on the Web.com I had a great time last time I was here, just fell in love with the country and the people were so friendly, been anxious to get back and some day when my kids get old, I want to bring them, as well. It was a great opportunity for me coming over to Malaysia next week anyways, to come over to this part of the world and have a chance to work on my game. I talked to Adam Scott and some of the boys and they had nothing but great things to say. So I was looking forward to get over and so far just very impressed with everything I've seen. STEVE TODD: In terms of your game, pretty good season overall, ten Top‑10s, so you must come into the week confident. BO VAN PELT: Yeah, I had a few weeks off since THE TOUR Championship, but obviously finished the season on a pretty high note and felt like I was pretty consistent. Been practicing the last couple weeks, had my coach in town last week in Tulsa, just to make sure my game was in pretty good shape before I came over. Want to try to play well this week and next week. My caddie came out and saw the golf course yesterday, and I was planning on coming out, my clubs didn't quite arrive but they got here last night. I didn't have a chance to play any holes yesterday, but I know the golf course is in great shape and came out and practiced for a couple hours this morning and things feel good. I'm excited for tomorrow. Q. Where have you played before? BO VAN PELT: Adelaide, played there in 2003, and played in New Zealand the following week and went back. Q. How did you do? BO VAN PELT: I didn't play very well. I remember I had switched club companies and ball companies, got off to kind of a rough start to that year but ended up playing well. Just took me a couple weeks to get used to the change and I ended up I think finishing fifth on the Money List that year and I've been on Tour ever since. The first couple weeks, it was just getting used to some new equipment and didn't play my best but I love the two weeks I was here, and like I said I was looking forward to getting back. Q. (What happened to your clubs)? BO VAN PELT: I had a tight connection in Brisbane to Perth, and it's a little bit of a trek from the domestic to the international terminal. I barely made it; so I knew there was probably a pretty good chance my clubs weren't going to arrive. I was just thankful there was another flight a few years later and they got my clubs to me no problem last night at the hotel. Q. (Have you had a chance to practice)? BO VAN PELT: You mean this week? Well, I didn't practice at all yesterday. I just kind of hung out, got a workout in yesterday at the hotel and had some lunch and just kind of relaxed before the get‑together last night. Q. (Thoughts on the course). BO VAN PELT: I know the greens have a lot of undulation in them. I know that you've got to put the ball in play off the tee and just try to putt the ball below the hole and get it on the right level. I know it's in great shape from what I can see, so just looking forward to getting out there today and having a look for myself. Q. Inaudible. BO VAN PELT: Last year was a pretty neat experience for me when I went to Malaysia, pretty similar, I flew basically all night for 12 hours, got there Tuesday morning and it was nine in the morning so really I was on their schedule. I feel like the same thing happened to me yesterday. I was from L.A. to Brisbane was 13 and a half hours and I think I slept probably at least 12 of those. So going out to Brisbane at 6:45 in the morning, I felt like I was pretty much on this time zone. You know, with three kids, I haven't slept 12 hours in a long time. So I felt pretty good all day yesterday and had a good rest last night. So far, so good. I feel like I've adjusted well to the time. For me it feels like it should be in the afternoon. Doesn't feel like it should be going to bed time. That's always a good way to start off your week. Last year played Malaysia and China, and had a rough couple days once I got home but the two weeks I was over here in this part of the world, I felt great. Q. (Highlights of the season for you)? BO VAN PELT: I would say there were probably two‑‑ shooting 64 on Sunday at Augusta was a lot of fun, making a hole‑in‑one on 16 was a highlight, was something I'll never forget. Growing up, watching that tournament on TV and seeing other guys make a hole‑in‑one there, got to do it with one of my mentors, Scott Verplank. My family was there watching. So that was a great highlight for me. And then obviously AT&T, when I finished second to Tiger, it was disappointing to lose the golf tournament when you felt like you had a good chance to win, but it was the highlight from the standpoint of how I played. I felt like I played well in that kind of situation on a golf course that was playing very difficult for 36 holes, playing with him, and you know, I took a lot from that and I think it helped me the rest of the summer, you know, to build on that confidence that I got from that week even though it was a disappointing finish. Q. (Thoughts on The Ryder Cup)? BO VAN PELT: I have not. I felt like I had a pretty good opportunity the last few years to make the team but unfortunately came up a little bit short and was not selected. And so it's obviously motivation to work hard and try to make that team in another two years. Q. (Did you think you would be selected to the team)? BO VAN PELT: I felt like I might have had an outside chance from how consistently I played this year. But I also know that it's very hard to get selected your first time. History tells you that those selections usually go to guys that have played on teams at least once or twice and maybe were just off a little bit. I knew it was probably a long shot, but I felt like I gave myself a chance this summer and just a couple final rounds or a couple holes here or there that were the difference. Like I said, motivation to make The Presidents Cup next year and The Ryder Cup in two years. Q. Inaudible. BO VAN PELT: I definitely think this that's a possibility. I think it's new and the fact that so many great international players, when you throw in all the great players from Australia, South Africa, Japan, other places like that, South America, that have won majors, that have really become forces in the world of golf, I think it helps. I think The Ryder Cup just has a head start. It has a lot of history before The Presidents Cup was even around. So I think it will take a little time. Q. (Thoughts on the U.S. Team's performance in The Ryder Cup). BO VAN PELT: You know, nobody wanted to perform better than what they did. I'm sure if I would have been a pick, I would have felt a lot of pressure to play well being that I was chosen that I didn't make that top eight. You feel bad for those guys. I feel like of the four guys that got selected, Davis Love even said it, there were eight or nine guys playing well that he could have picked from, and all those guys had great years and all deserved to have a chance to be on that team. That just shows you how tough a tournament it is to get points; guys that have had a great year and are great players, everybody is trying to win and do their best. It's just you saw how tough it was to get a point that last day, and so many matches can go either way. So many matches come down to the last hole or two, and that can really go one of two ways and your record can go from 0‑2 to 2‑0 with simply one shot, and that's tough. Q. (Thoughts on playing internationally). BO VAN PELT: For me, I look at golf, I've been so fortunate, I grew up in a small town in Indiana and golf has taken me places I never would have dreamed of: Last year to get to play‑‑ at the end of last year, I was tired. I've got three kids at home and they want me to be at home and I want to be at home; I had an opportunity to go see Malaysia and China, two places I had never been, and I just thought, one of these days my career is going to be over. I'm not going to have these opportunities anymore. I don't want to look back and say, I didn't take advantage of them. I looked at this week, coming back from Malaysia the same way; we are fortunate to get to do what we do for a living, and you know, I still am home probably almost half the year, so you know, fortunate to spend a lot of time with my family when I am home, but this is still what I do to make a living. The opportunity to come to a great place like Perth, a place that I told my kids about coming to Australia, that you know, was a great opportunity, and I think it's just important to find that right balance. You want to play enough to where you stay sharp going into 2013, but you don't want to play too much to where you feel dull at the start of the year. That's always the feeling I'm looking for; I want to feel sharp, but I want to feel like I miss it and that's the balance I tried to find the last couple of years during my off‑season is play enough to where my game feels pretty sharp but also feel really hungry come January when the PGA TOUR season starts. Q. (How important is it for players to play globally) ‑‑ BO VAN PELT: I think that it's important to try to grow the game of golf just in general. All of us, the game has given us so much that, you know, it's important to try to find that balance between playing too much to where you're not playing well, because when you show up at a place, you want to play your best and you want to feel like I'm putting the best product on the course that I can. But at the same time, I think it's neat to just test your game in other parts of the world. I think it makes you a better player I think to be able to go to The Open Championship and play well or to come over here, to come to China or come to South Africa and play on different types of grasses. To me, I feel like it makes me a better player when I go play the PGA TOUR season ‑‑ and you know, if I want to sneak home for a night and then fly back out to a tournament, I'm not really tired because I've taken long trips and still played well. So to me, it's just a personal choice to where‑‑ while I have the opportunity to see different places around the world and play golf, I want to take advantage of it. It stretches my comfort zone and it pushes me to try to become a better player and so for me personally, I'm always trying to find that right balance between going and seeing other parts of the world and playing, and then also trying to play well and be rested enough to play the PGA TOUR. Q. (What is your schedule now)? BO VAN PELT: Last year I played Tiger's event and the Shark Shootout, and I had just roughly like a month off. It was a pretty good number. I took kind of the first two weeks off and then didn't do a whole lot and then the next two weeks, I practiced really hard to get ready for the start of the year. That's pretty much my schedule this year. I'm not going to play the Shark Shootout but I am going to play Tiger's event. So I'll have right along that four or five weeks, a nice, solid break before the year starts, and so I'll feel like that's going to be a pretty good number. Q. (Do you think you have a good chance of winning this week)? BO VAN PELT: I would hope so. I think there's a lot of great players here this week, so I would think 144 players with a realistic chance. I mean, you can't win if you're not here, so I think everybody‑‑ I would never take any tournament for granted. I think the game is so strong right now top to bottom, there's deeper fields everywhere you play. So I would think that this week would be no less to where there's a lot of guys that have an opportunity to play well and win. So I know it's going to take a great effort and it's going to be a great champion at the end of the week. I'm looking ready to ‑‑ I haven't played a tournament in a few weeks so I'm looking forward to, you know, playing with the flag up, that's kind of how I say it. Anybody can play hit‑and‑giggle golf. When they hand you that scorecard and the flag goes up on the Thursday, that's when my juices get flowing and it's fun to compete. STEVE TODD: We hope you enjoy your stay here in Perth, best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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