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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALJuly 31, 2013Brandt SnedekerAKRON, OHIO KELLY BARNES: Please welcome Brandt Snedeker to the interview room. Brandt, you're coming off your second PGA TOUR victory this season at last week's RBC Canadian Open. Talk about how you're feeling going into this week and A World Golf Championship event. BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, obviously feeling pretty good right now after last week to play the way I did, especially that being a sponsored event for me being affiliated with RBC was putting a little more pressure on myself, to be able to rise to the occasion and play great golf on the weekend. And the big thing is now to maintain that momentum coming into this week. It's a huge week for me with Bridgestone and obviously PGA next week. I've got a big stretch of golf coming up, and this is a great time of year to be playing your best golf. Q. Have you been to Oak Hill yet? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I have not. I've talked to some guys that went yesterday, I guess, and they said it's great shape, going to be really tough. Judging by past winners there and guys that have played well there before, it's going to be a fairway and green kind of golf course. I don't think power is going to be a huge overwhelming factor, so that kind of suits into my game a little bit. It's going to be a tough test. Q. Are you a guy who prefers to play the week before or would you rather rest, relax and practice? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Doesn't really matter. I've done both. I just feel like going into a major you need to have good momentum whether it's from practicing or playing. I'm playing good right now, so I'm more than happy to keep playing. Q. What is your schedule going forward and is there any concern that you might put too much stress on‑‑ BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, PGA TOUR has a tournament, I'm going to play the rest of the year pretty much. I'm playing the rest, and no concern at all. I'm being really smart about practice and taking time away. I didn't touch a club since Sunday, two days off with the family, which was nice. Being real smart about how much I'm hitting balls and practicing, and should be fine. Q. It is a long stretch, the British and then Canadian, here and then PGA. Do you prepare differently? Do you like to play and build that momentum? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I think it goes both ways. I think if you're playing poorly, sometimes you need a break. And sometimes if you're playing well, you don't want to take a break. I feel like I'm playing‑‑ I knew this stretch was coming at the beginning of the year. I took a lot of time off in the middle of the summer, so now I'm kind of in my big part of my schedule, important part of my schedule, and I feel like I'm rested, I'm ready to go. Golf game feels as good as it's felt in a long time, and I'm excited to keep playing. I did the exact same schedule last year, and it worked out pretty well. So hopefully I can do it again this year. Q. You're familiar with this course. What does it take to win here? What kind of a player is it who plays well here, or is there such a thing? BRANDT SNEDEKER: You've got to drive the ball fantastic here. To win the golf tournament, you've got to put the ball in the fairway off the tee. There's no way you can win here hitting it crooked off the tee, so that's first and foremost. And then obviously these green complexes are really demanding. They're really fast. They've got a lot of undulation to them, so they put a lot of stress on your game. So putting the ball in the fairway and being able to make those to 6‑ and 8‑footers for pars are going to be really key this week. Q. Not to suggest you didn't win last week, but have you decided what you're going to get the Mahans for a baby present? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I have not, but it's going to be a nice gift, I'll tell you that. Q. Have you had enough success in the last couple of years now that we have to give you that backhanded compliment of putting you in the group of best players to never have won a major? BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, no, no. I'm still relatively new at this, 32. There's still a bunch of guys that have had way better careers than I've had that are lacking that one thing. Whether I get one or not, I'm going to keep trying. It's going to be a lot of fun trying. I've still got a long way to go. Everybody tries to lavish praise on guys so quickly out here. Still only won six times. I think Tiger has done that in one year a couple times, so I've got a long way to go. Q. Do you feel any pressure to start winning majors sooner rather than later? BRANDT SNEDEKER: No, I feel like I'm in the prime of my career right now. I feel like the next three or four years are going to be really important for me and you want to be contending. I've done a great job this year even though I kind of ‑‑ the U.S. Open, I wasn't really contending. But British Open I had a chance, Masters I had a chance. If I keep doing that, I think good things are going to happen. As long as I keep giving myself chances, I'll be satisfied with that. Q. Just to get back to what I asked you, you said you took some time off and made sure you prepared for this stretch. Can you talk a little bit more about that? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Well, I didn't play‑‑ I took four out of five weeks off right during THE PLAYERS and then I took another four weeks off in between the U.S. Open and British Open, so I'm well‑rested. Made sure I was working on the right stuff, that we had a clear game plan of what we were going to do these last nine events, eight events, and start to execute it, which is nice. Any time you put a lot of hard work in to execute your game plan and what you want to do, you start feeling like you're doing the right stuff. Q. When you say you get away, is that completely away, no golf whatsoever? What do you do during that time? BRANDT SNEDEKER: We went to Akron Zoo yesterday, got to see the penguins, that kind of stuff. Just spend time with my family. I hadn't seen my kids in two and a half weeks, and they're at the age where they change it seems like every week. I've got a nine‑month‑old and two‑and‑a‑half‑year old, so spending two days with them was a great release, a great way to get away from golf and get ready to get back into it. Q. Same thing when you take those four weeks off? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, I still take some time off and spend time with family, but I'm also practicing, trying to get ready, working on stuff that I feel like is lacking or I need to put some more time in on. Q. So the penguins was the highlight? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Penguins and the otters for my daughter. She's still a little depressed they didn't have a giraffe, but we can go to Cleveland Zoo, I guess, and get that covered next time. Q. You made a spectacular start to the season before you had those injury problems. How does your game match up now to the form you had at the beginning of the year? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I don't still think I'm quite back to where I was the beginning of the year. I think I'm close. Beginning of the year, I was driving the ball fantastic and I was hitting a lot of greens and hitting my irons fantastic. I felt like I haven't been able to piece that together like I was early in the year. Last week my iron play was phenomenal, but I didn't drive the ball particularly well. I got really lucky last week a lot, and then to do that this week is not going to be successful. I've got to hit fairways this week. There's no way around it. If I can just kind of get that mentality of my driver that I've had with my irons the last couple weeks, everything should be pretty good. Q. Has your oldest reached a point where she knows what daddy is doing? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, she told me no golf today when I left this morning. She understands when I play golf I'm working, I'm gone. She's starting to realize it. She's really funny; she's really cute about it. She sees daddy on TV and stuff like that. I can't wait to get to the age where she really does clearly understand what I do and what's going on. Q. You talked about the stretch that you're in form, and I'm going to ask you about the tournament at the end of that stretch with the Presidents Cup. Number one, what did you learn about playing match play from the Ryder Cup last year? And when you were at Memorial this year, did you look at Muirfield at all as a match play course, and were you already thinking about where some of the big holes might be? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Yeah, match play is completely different than stroke play. You have a different mentality, a different set of pressure when you're playing on a team atmosphere like you're going to be at the Presidents Cup. I had a blast last year at the Ryder Cup. Still depressed about the way it ended. So I'm looking forward to getting back into a team competition and trying to reverse that outcome, so it should be a lot of fun. Muirfield is going to be a great match play golf course. There's a lot of par‑3s that are going to be very pivotal, par‑5s that are reachable, short par‑4s coming in. A lot can happen over the last five, six, seven holes. It's going to be a good test. A lot of fun for the fans. Going to be stressful on us, but it'll be fun for the fans, and should be a pretty good competition. Q. What in particular about the course stood out to you? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Well, it's a golf course if you're playing well, you can make a lot of birdies. So a lot can happen. The fairways there are relatively generous, so guys are going to be hitting a lot of fairways. The par‑5s are reachable, a lot of low numbers can be had. But if you're off, there can be a lot of bogeys, too. So match play can go either way really quickly. Q. As you approach this Presidents Cup, the Ryder Cup has such a fevered pitch, it seems like, every other year. Do you have a feeling for the Presidents Cup? Do you approach it the same way? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Bubba and I were talking about it last week. He's wanting to make that team. Kuch and I were talking about it last week. It's something we're talking about already and we're excited about. I've talked to a lot of bunch of guys and they all say the same thing: Once you get on one team, doesn't matter which one it is, you never want to miss another one. I was on my first Ryder Cup team and had a great experience. It was awesome. And I don't want to miss another team competition because they're so much fun to get to spend time with the guys and get to see how you can handle some different kind of pressure. Q. You have a reputation as being one of the better putters out here on TOUR, but as you mentioned your iron play was really good last week. How much pride do you take in being able to win golf tournaments sort of two different ways, either great ball‑striking or great putting? BRANDT SNEDEKER: It's something I haven't done before this year, so it's nice. The last two years I've been kind of relying on my putter and waiting for those weeks where I did hit it good enough where I could take advantage of it. Seems like I've been getting more and more consistent with my long game and just cleaning up everything. The way I think, the way I try to execute shots now has all led to me being a better ball striker and a better driver of the golf ball and all that kind of stuff. It's kind of nice to know if my putting is not 100 percent on, I can still play good golf and have a chance to win. Q. You're building a very good career resumé, TOUR Championship, FedExCup honors. What would winning a WGC title mean to you? BRANDT SNEDEKER: I think it's the next step in a progression. You win tournaments and then you start winning bigger tournaments. And obviously the WGCs, especially Bridgestone, has one of the best fields in golf. You're playing against 70 guys that are probably the top 50 in the world and 20 guys that are playing great golf. Winning these tournaments is kind of the next step on the rung for me and then winning a major would be a next step after that. These are where you really find out where your game stacks up against the best in the world. Q. Can you tell us your oldest daughter's first name? BRANDT SNEDEKER: Lily, L‑i‑l‑y. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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