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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSApril 24, 2013Jason DufnerAVONDALE, LOUISIANA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome our defending champion here at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Jason Dufner, making his seventh start at this event. Jason, quite a record you have here. You missed your cut in your first start, but you enter this week with four straight top 10s, and obviously the win here last year. Talk about how great it is to be back, and what it is about this tournament that you love so much? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, it's always exciting this time of year for me to come back to New Orleans and play. Like you said, I've had some really good results here. I feel very comfortable on the golf course. Last year I picked up my first win here, so there are a lot of good memories with the TPC Louisiana and New Orleans, and the Zurich Classic. So I'm looking forward to the week getting started tomorrow, and that's about it. JOHN BUSH: Just recap your year a little bit. I think four top 25 finishes, probably not all of the results you've been looking for. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I played pretty decent golf. I haven't had a realistic chance to win in any of the events I played this year. Just one round kind of slips away shooting 74, 75, that kind of gets you behind the eight ball here. But I've had a lot of good play. I feel like my game's coming around. I got into some bad habits early in the season, but the last month or so it's progressively gotten a little bit better, and I'm just trying to figure out how to put four good rounds together to score a good score for the week. Q. When you were here for media day, and you were coming off a missed cut, I believe. You didn't like the way your game was. Since then (Indiscernible). The bad habits you're talking about, have you gotten rid of them? What are you talking about? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think they're slowly coming around. We played in a lot of wind earlier this year. I got into a position with my golf swing where my club face was a little bit shut on the back swing, which didn't allow me to do what I wanted to do on my down swing. So just trying to clean that up a little bit. Played reasonably well at Augusta. Had some poor drives that really cost me for the week. You can't drive it poor there. Last week, I thought I played well, just had a bad third round. I think the game's coming around. I never feel like I'm too far away from playing well. It really takes a hot putter any given week out here and you'll be scoring pretty well. Q. What is it about this course that you like? JASON DUFNER: It's hard for me to say. I like the results that I have. It's not ‑‑ when I step out on the tees and hit shots, it's not my favorite course that I play out here on the PGA TOUR. There is nothing that I absolutely love about the golf course, but I really do seem to play it well. I think it's weird. Sometimes you talk to guys out here and they absolutely love certain courses and they play poorly for the week, and then there are some courses that they absolutely hate and they can't finish out of the top 10. So I enjoy coming here. I know that I feel like I'm going to play good and I've got a lot of good experience here, so it's very comfortable for me. Q. What sets this tournament apart from maybe some other tournaments? What really stands out for the whole week for you? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think you have a couple of things. The atmosphere of the tournament seems to be very New Orleans in style. You've got a lot of great fans out here. You've got a lot of great food. People seem to be having a good time, enjoying themselves not only watching the golf but socializing, maybe a little bit of partying. It's great to stay downtown. The history of the city is enjoyable. The food down there is great. Then in the last three or four years it seems like this has kind of become a great spot for premier players to come. You guys have a very strong field here at Zurich last year and again this year. So I think this event is becoming more and more of a place that guys enjoy coming to play and one of the premier events other than the majors and the World Golf events on the PGA TOUR. Q. From your experiences, what is it about following up a breakout year the next year that makes it so difficult to do? Some guys will have two or three wins one year, and then for the next year or whatever reason they don't get a win or they struggle a little bit. Is it pressure, expectations? JASON DUFNER: I'm not sure. I'm kind of going through it right now. Not much experience with it. I don't know. I don't feel like I've added any pressure on myself. I've had some opportunities to play overseas. That put me a little bit behind because that cut my schedule here on the PGA TOUR. Like I said, I played in a lot of bad weather, wind. Got into a position where I wasn't really happy with where my golf swing was. But I think I've turned the page and kind of going in the right direction right now. I've got a great schedule from The Masters through the U.S. Open where I've had a lot of success. So I'm pretty excited about the couple of months through the U.S. Open. Q. When you win once or twice, is it easier to look at yourself differently and say I should win one or two or three times? JASON DUFNER: I don't ever feel that way. It's tough to win out here. No matter how many wins you have, I think you hear it from all the guys out here, Tiger, Rory, all the guys realize it's tough going out here. There are a lot of great players. Only one guy can win every week. So I don't take‑‑ I feel like I can win events, but I don't feel like I should win events out here on a regular basis. You can play a lot of great golf and not win events out here. Q. Are you concentrating more on major championships this year? JASON DUFNER: I think there is a little bit more of a focus on it. I think it started last year, but I'm still focused on trying to win events out here. I feel like I want to put my best foot forward when I show up to each event and try to give it a go to win. But I am focusing on trying to be competitive in the majors. I did it last year with my scheduling. My scheduling is built a little more around being rested going into majors and being able to get practice the week before majors. I'll start thinking about some things that I might need to do for the U.S. Open to try to be competitive there, because every major is a little bit different in what you need out of your game. Q. There is a lot of talk about the slow play penalty at The Masters. What is your opinion of that and the efforts to speed up the golf game? JASON DUFNER: I think if you're going to speed up the golf game, penalties would probably be the way to go. Guys aren't going to like it too much when they're put on the clock at a bad time and all of a sudden they get a shot penalty. I'm kind of indifferent on it. There is a lot at stake out here that we're playing for. In certain situations, the play gets slow just because you're trying to make a decision that could be the difference between winning the tournament or making the cut or all of these variables. Guys get frustrated with it. It doesn't really bother me the pace of play. Last week was pretty slow on Saturday. We had 91 guys playing, but I didn't feel too much different the next day when we played in three hours and 45 minutes. I think it's a difficult situation. But at the same time, you have a lot at stake out here, and I can understand why the pace of play gets slow at times. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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