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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 8, 2013Joe DaleyPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA Q. When did you arrive at THE PLAYERS Championship? JOE DALEY: On Monday. Q. Did you play on Monday? JOE DALEY: I played four holes, five holes. Q. Spend a bit of time on the range? JOE DALEY: No, not much. Just went over, had the club tended to and teed off on No. 4 and played. Q. What did you do on Tuesday? JOE DALEY: I played early an early practice round and got a bite to eat, got a little practice in, and went back, had a workout, ironed some clothes and just the regular tournament week. Q. Did you learn anything about the golf course? I mean, you've played it once before, right? JOE DALEY: Uh‑huh. Q. Did you learn anything about it that you couldn't remember from last time? JOE DALEY: Oh, I could, you know, I had some memories. But not that much. Some of the greens looked smaller, others looked bigger. Well, I just remembered how nice it was and another fun golf course to play. Q. What do you feel like your chances are this week? How do you anticipate your performance here? JOE DALEY: Well, it really just comes down to me handling my own emotions and expectations and instead just staying the process of what I've been working on for decades. Having the patience and peace of mind of just go out and do what I can do and not carry any of the emotion of it or whatever forward and just go do what I can do and enjoy being here. Q. Do you feel like you're a pretty emotional guy? Is this a big moment for you? JOE DALEY: Oh, yeah. This is a milestone for me. No doubt about it. I always wanted to play in this tournament. But, yeah, at times I do. And then when I get playing well, too, the adrenaline gets going in me too and I get excited. So I'll just stick with drinking the decaf coffee this week and go out and just try to make my share and move on to the next one. Q. Having played the Web.com TOUR or whatever it was called when you played, Nationwide, Nike, whatever? JOE DALEY: All of those. Q. And the PGA TOUR for a couple of years and primarily Champions Tour now for a couple of years, coming back here, have you seen a lot of familiar places? JOE DALEY: Oh, yeah. Geez, I've been talking to one guy one of the times I played with Bubba, and I hit a good drive. I mean, one of my best. This guy rips it, and I told my caddie, I've got to see how far this cat passes us. He was 65 by my best. Okay. But, no, I do know a lot of the guys out here because I played with them on the Nationwide and the Buy.com and the Nike, and yeah, it's pretty cool. Q. When you played your practice round yesterday, who did you play with? JOE DALEY: I played with Aaron Baddeley, and then I played with Sean O'Hair and Nicholas Thompson. Q. Before coming here, as you said, you played it once, had you talked to any of the other players and asked them has it changed much, did you seek any advice from anyone who played in this tournament before? JOE DALEY: Yeah, just a little bit. Just think your way around and keep the ball in play. Just like many of the hard golf courses that we play, that's what you try to do. Q. There have been a lot of winners here that have had a variety of different styles of games, long hitters, short hitters, straight drivers. Does that give you encouragement? I imagine being past 50, everybody loses a little distance. Do you feel like the course is long for you? Having seen all those winners, does it feel like you might be able to contend? JOE DALEY: I think so. As length goes, it all depends on how fast they get the golf course playing for them to get the greens. It really just comes down to the number, shooting the number. Doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, it's what you shoot. Q. I saw the tee times and you're playing with David Matthews. JOE DALEY: Yes, I know David. Q. You played with him on the Nationwide Tour? JOE DALEY: Yeah, the Nationwide. I qualified with him, too. Q. Were you excited to see that tee time and playing with someone that you know? JOE DALEY: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, he's such a great guy. I can remember us playing together numerous times. Q. He won on the other course a couple years ago, the Valley Course when we played the Winn‑Dixie tournament here, so he's got some good karma around here, I guess. So just looking forward to the Constellation Senior Players at Fox Chapel and going back there again, you've obviously got to be excited going in as defending champion. But winning that tournament must have changed your life. What things are different for Joe Daley after winning? JOE DALEY: Just getting in all the tournaments like I did last year instead of having to Monday qualify. But I should say Monday qualifying made me better, too, so just so you learn to maintain the attitude I was maintaining. Then just getting in and having the opportunity to go out and play all these different places I haven't played before. Q. What did you like about Fox Chapel that really suited your game? Why do you think you performed well there? Was it something about the golf course? JOE DALEY: Very familiar with‑‑ it was very similar to courses I grew up on, and I played across the street at the Field Club and across the river at Oakmont, and it was very similar to what I grew up with on the other side of the state outside of Philly. It had a similar look, and then, of course, the greens got super hard and fast. It took me a couple decades to go by to learn how to approach that, so I learned how to approach it from my experience previously when I played in the Pennsylvania Amateur at the Field Club and Oakmont when I just threw my stuff in the car and had to drive all the way back across the state because I missed the cut and I was thinking, what happened? But I learned from it, though. Q. Going back as a Pennsylvania guy, going back there to defend, you must have a lot of fans from when you won, but are you anticipating even more? Like he's a Pennsylvania guy and we've got to go out and support him? JOE DALEY:  Oh, it's all great. Everybody was great. I had family and friends there, it couldn't have been better. Q. Now having said that, you've got the Regions Tradition coming up, you've never played at Shoal Creek, I would think. What have you heard about that, and you must be looking forward to another major. JOE DALEY: It's a golf course. That's the way I approach it. That's the way I approached the qualifiers and I had my share of success there. Go out and play it a time or two and go play. I've learned how to adjust quickly because that's what it was. That's what was required when I was Monday qualified. I showed up places I'd never seen. It didn't matter I was like okay, come on, let's go. That's how I got better. It changed the way I approached how I played. I had to rely on my own game and my own ability to just look, hit the shot, instead of analyze, analyze, analyze. Q. We're going to have some new players in the field. Rocco of course is here and he's won, and Elkington, as well. But Colin Montgomerie's going to be there at Fox Chapel. Have you met Colin before and have you played with him? JOE DALEY: I haven't ever met Colin Montgomerie. Q. Maybe you can play with him. JOE DALEY: I'm sure I will. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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