|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT SCOTTISH OPENJuly 10, 2013Brooks KoepkaINVERNESS, SCOTLAND PAUL SYMES: Many thanks for joining us, your first European Tour event as a full member, how excited are you about teeing off this week. BROOKS KOEPKA: I'm really excited. It will be a good week, a good experience. My caddie is Scottish, too. Good week and looking forward to it. PAUL SYMES: Your year on The Challenge Tour was nothing short of remarkable. Your confidence must be high coming into the week. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, playing well and things are going really well. Made a bunch of changes in the off‑season, and you know, starting to see the results now, so it's good to see them. PAUL SYMES: At the start of the year, I guess you couldn't have expected it to go as well as it has. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, you know, I went in with the expectations, obviously to win a couple times, but to win and got back to the States for a break was nice. It's special, winning three times, I think was unbelievable. I don't think I really expected it. Q. You said you were a bit tired and weary because you had been living in a suitcase for a couple of months and you were looking forward to going home for a break; do you feel recharged again? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I feel good now. Taking a few days off to relax and spend some time with family and things like that, and do a bunch of laundry. It was good. Got some work done with my coach, strength coach, and it was nice. Good, relaxing break. Q. I noticed you had a haircut back home during your break. BROOKS KOEPKA: I did. Q. Samson lost his strength; are you worried you might lose your winning touch? BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I hope not. I needed a haircut, and it was drying me nuts in that South Florida heat. It's a lot better, I'll say that. Q.  How far do you think you can go in terms of your own expectations? Is this the beginning for you? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I think it's just the beginning. I've been playing well. Did I expect this all of a sudden? Not really. But, you know, keep playing well, keep grinding, good things will happen. Hopefully get a win, maybe this week, but hopefully get a win here before the end of the year. Q. (Inaudible.) BROOKS KOEPKA: Not really. I don't see it as expectations. I think I put more pressure on myself than anybody. But at the end of the day, it's just golf. You just have to go out and do your thing. Hopefully it works out with the. Q. What's the reaction been back home to your successes on The Challenge Tour? Have you had much exposure in the U.S.? BROOKS KOEPKA: Oh, my family loves it. They are excited. It's nice for my brother, too, to see how things are going. But as far as people noticing, I think they have noticed now, especially after the three wins. Maybe not after the first one or two, but now people are starting to notice. It's good, too, for The Challenge Tour, for them to get exposure over in the States. Some guys now are coming over, some Americans, are coming over to The Challenge Tour to play to start their careers, so it's good for everyone. Q. Who is your caddie? Where is he from and how did you get ahold of him? BROOKS KOEPKA: Mike Thompson is his name. He's from St. Andrews, I think Leven, he's from there. I got in touch with him early on in the year. I think right after Challenge Tour in Kenya, I was looking for one. Actually Peter Uihlein's caddie, Sam Haywood, hooked me up with that, talked to a few people and his name kept popping up. It's worked out, worked out really well. Q. You work well together? BROOKS KOEPKA: We work great together. It's been a good combination. Q. Is it too much to expect to win this week? BROOKS KOEPKA: I don't think so. Obviously every time you enter an event, you want to win. No one comes to play for second place. But you know, especially after being recharged, it helps a lot. I feel a little bit better this week than I did last time I was in Scotland on The Challenge Tour. Q. Do you think Sunningdale really made people sit up and take notice, given what a tremendous performance that was? BROOKS KOEPKA: It might have. I hope it does. I've been playing well. It's good for everyone to notice, because you want guys on The Challenge Tour to get exposure, especially when they are coming out here. So, yeah, I hope people took notice that I've been playing well. Q. You seem to have a nice balance between confidence‑‑ it's not arrogance at all. It's almost as if you just made a statement of fact that you believe you can do X, Y and Z. Have you always had that confidence and self‑belief, which is not arrogant. BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I have always‑‑I bordered line every once in a while, especially when I was younger, but I think as long as you believe in yourself, that's key. If you believe you can do it‑‑ you've really got to believe you can do it to do it. If there's my self‑doubt or anything like that, I think you get in trouble and are not able to actually accomplish some of the things you want to accomplish. So, I believe I can do it, so I just try to do it every week. Q. Have you thought about when you're actually going to go to the States permanently or how long do you plan to stay in Europe? BROOKS KOEPKA: I actually want to stay in Europe for a little bit. I've learned so much in the last year just from playing Challenge Tour and playing the one European Tour event in Joburg this year, just learned a lot. I can only imagine what I'll learn in another year or two years or whatever it may be. I think the experience of playing over near different conditions, it's taught me so much and helped my career. Q. What is it about Scotland you enjoy so much? BROOKS KOEPKA: It almost feels like a second home to me. I came, I want to say, ten or 11 years ago on a family trip. My mom took us over, me and my mother. We played St. Andrews, Carnoustie, North Berwick. We did a whole trip and it was really cool. I enjoyed that. It was just a place, special just for me and obviously now with my caddie being here, it's cool to see him. It's great to come back. It's a beautiful country, too. Just looking out over the first and 10th tee, you look out over the water and that's a cool view. But it's a beautiful place, especially to be here for the next two weeks, is nice. Q. You seem to be fearless everywhere you've been, you've taken it in stride. Some of the guys, similar age in America, seem to be in a comfort zone and not taken the risks you've taken. Is this a route would you recommend to anyone? BROOKS KOEPKA: It's worked for me but I don't know if it's for everyone. I don't mind being alone. I know obviously I've had Peter over here and a couple other buddies that were playing Challenge Tour and stuff like that, but it might not be for everyone. It's tough, leaving home for months at a time. It's difficult. I struggle with it, too, a little bit at times. You've just got to battle through it. But I've enjoyed it and it's helped me a lot to grow as a person, too. Q. The week before The Open Championship, are you surprised to be only one of four Americans here this week? BROOKS KOEPKA: I didn't know there were just four but it doesn't surprise me. I think some guys like to take a little bit of time off, too, right before and other guys, I know Phil likes to play a bunch before majors and things like that. It all depends on who you are. But some of these guys, I like to play and to get rolling but it all depends on your personality and things like that. Q. Do you feel you're educating American players on what's available in the world in terms of golf opportunities? BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I think so. A lot of times Americans, I wouldn't say get stuck, but they just focus on what's going on in the States and playing over there, especially younger guys, they only see one way to get to whether it be the PGA TOUR or playing on a big tour like The European Tour. They get stuck and a lot of times just on one way, one path. But there's multiple roads to get to where you need to be and to be successful. PAUL SYMES: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|