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THE PRESIDENTS CUPOctober 1, 2013Jason DufnerDUBLIN, OHIO Q. Have you played the Memorial? JASON DUFNER: Haven't played in three or four years. I played a lot from August through the U.S. Open, played really well in some of those events. Haven't played as well here at Memorial. So just one of those things, I like the golf course. Just haven't had good results on it in the past. But this week, the score doesn't really matter. Every hole is a new match. Q. What do you think about The Presidents Cup and you possibly being a good pairing for Tiger? What is a good pairing for Tiger? JASON DUFNER: I don't know. That's a good question. You know, I've never paired with him, so it would be interesting to play with him. We get along pretty well. We played a lot here in the last couple years. I think our temperaments are pretty similar. We're pretty casual out on the golf course. I think it could be a good pairing and we'll see if it checks out. Q. Do you think it's more important for him to have a personality that meshes or a game that complements? JASON DUFNER: That's hard to say, too. I think it could go either way. You see guys that you think are going to be great partners in these events and they turn out not doing well. And you see other guys, you think, well, maybe that's a little iffy pairing and then they kind of play well. I don't read too much into the partnerships. I think it's all dependent on each match. Guys can play great and you can lose a match; you can play terrible and win a match. I think it's just finding some guys that you like being around and then playing with and competing. Q. Did you play with‑‑ JASON DUFNER: I played with him and Kuchar and Zach came in a little bit later today because that's who I was supposed to play with, so that was our group. I have a feeling we'll probably be playing with him a little bit from our success at Ryder Cup, also. Q. How has life changed for you? JASON DUFNER: Not too much. Put one leg in each pant leg every morning, and you know, I've gotten a lot more fanfare you could say, but me personally, not too much has changed after the PGA. It's been pretty normal. Q. What was that weekend like? You were locked in for a long stretch there? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I had a great week. I was fortunate to be at a place like Oak Hill that played to my strengths, ball‑striking. If you look at the history of champions there, it's been pretty good ball‑strikers in the history of the game. But that being said, you have to go out and play well that week. You never know what's going to show up in a major or each week we are out here. It was just a perfect situation and things kind of fell into place. I played good golf, too, at the time. Q. Is there any type of golf hangover? JASON DUFNER: I had a week off and then went to Barclays, so usually a week off you get everything cleared out, so that was pretty nice to actually have a week off after a major win, get everything kind of sorted and together and played decent golf in the Playoffs. So I don't think there was too much of a hangover, no. Q. Foursomes, before The Ryder Cup, when is the last time you had played that format? JASON DUFNER: Maybe a couple times in college with our buddies. We used to go out there and have some best‑ball matches and some alternate‑shot matches to change it up but nothing competitively. Q. Do you have a fondness for it? JASON DUFNER: You know, I like the team events. We don't get to play any team events as professionals, other than these international matches, so it's different. It's nice. We are out here, the other times we are out here just playing for ourselves, which is what we have become used to, but I like the team events. I like playing the four‑ball and the foursomes. It puts a lot of pressure on you in the foursomes. You don't want to let your partner down with poor shots or missed putts, but I played with Zach both of those Ryder Cup and I think we meshed out pretty good. Q. You would have teed it up in foursomes right now, you just look ahead and say, I want the tee shot on 18‑‑ JASON DUFNER: The tee shot's fine. I played it yesterday and today. I have no problems with that tee shot. You'd like to not get to that hole in these matches to be honest with you. Q. How much longer is the hole than last time‑‑ do you remember this place? JASON DUFNER: That's a good question. I don't remember this placefrom the last time I was here, I think it was '09. I don't remember what I was hitting off the tee but today a driver and an 8‑iron. Q. Do you have friends and family coming down from Cleveland? JASON DUFNER: Got some family coming tomorrow for practice rounds, but they mostly stay at home and watch on TV. You can see a lot more on TV than being out here trouncing around with all the fans. Q. That almost anyone on the U.S. Team would want to play with Jason Dufner‑‑ why do you think you're such a desirable person to be partnered‑‑ JASON DUFNER: You hit it on the head. I didn't play hit a lot of the holes; I can keep the ball in the fairways; I can get the ball on the greens. It gives the guy who is aggressive more of a green light. I think my demeanor kind of plays into it a lot. I don't get too emotional out there. I don't get too high or too low. And I think if you talk to a lot of the guys, they realize I'm a pretty good teammate. I support all the guys out here and I want us to do our best, whether that means me being other things to help the team be better, whatever needs to be done this week, it's about the team here. Q. Do you see any of the European teams, Charl and Louis with the haircuts? JASON DUFNER: No, they are on the international team, not The European Team. I didn't see any Euros today. No, I haven't see any of those guys today. I saw Jason Day for a minute yesterday and that's it. Q. They all got haircuts‑‑ they don't look very good. JASON DUFNER: Bad haircuts on purpose, or did they just get bad haircuts? (Laughs). Q. Wondering, would you let a strange barber‑‑ JASON DUFNER: No, no, I've only let one person cut my hair for like the last six years. So I only have one person that cuts my hair. Q. But you do get a haircut? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, about five times a year. I think I had one right before the PGA is the last time I had my hair cut. Q. Sounds like you're probably playing with Tiger, what's the excitement level? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, that's great. It's a little bit selfish on my part, if you ask me, who would I want to play with, I would want to play with Tiger. How could you not? He's the best in the world right now, arguably the best in the history of the game. Just something for me to selfishly look back on my career and say I've partnered with him in The Ryder Cup, The Presidents Cup, whatever it might have been. You know, if it does roll that way and we get paired together, I'm going to have a lot of fun out there. It's going to be exciting. Obviously this crowd is going to be really strong, and usually when he plays, the other team wants to beat him pretty bad so we'll be in for a good test if it goes that way. Q. When is the first time you played together; do you remember? JASON DUFNER: First time I played with him was 2009, the Aussie Masters in the third round. It was okay then. Gotten a little bit better‑‑ (Inaudible.) Q. How did you get hooked up with Vijay, you guys play a lot of games in tournaments, how did that first come together? JASON DUFNER: My rookie year 2004, I was practicing before the season, probably end of 2003, I was practicing at Jacksonville. I had my card for 04, he was out there, I just went up to him, I said, hey, my name is Jason Dufner, I'm going to be playing the TOUR next year, and if I could play some practice rounds, with you, that would be great; and if not, I understand. And I was there for four or five days pretty much practicing the same schedule he was, so maybe he took notice and respected that I was working and trying to get better. I hooked up with him for a lot of practice rounds this year. I think he won ten times that year and $10million. Every event that he won except for the PGA, I played a practice round with him that year. So I got a lot of valuable experience, a little bit lighter on the wallet from all of that, and you know, took my lumps. But I'd like to think that some of the things he shared with me and some of the knowledge he gave me helped me to where I am now. Q. Did he help you with attitude at all? JASON DUFNER: Not really. Q. Or did you always have that? JASON DUFNER: No, my attitude has always been pretty good. We are pretty similar in demeanor out there on the course. Q. Did you beat him at all, any practice rounds? JASON DUFNER: I beat him at the 84 Lumber actually, I shot 63, I beat him 1‑up, and he shot 64 I think. I had nine birdies and no bogeys, he had eight birdies, no bogeys. He was playing pretty good on Tuesdays that year, too. Q. Do you think you'll have your share of fans‑‑ you're from Ohio? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I think so. Like I said the fanfare has increased a little bit since the PGA. A lot of people have identified with me, just kind of being out here. And I'm from Ohio, I think I have a lot of support and there's not many guys that play the TOUR that are from Ohio. Hopefully the fans will be supportive of me, too. Q. Do you have an example of a place you used to be able to go‑‑ JASON DUFNER: People notice me everywhere, airport, hotels, restaurants. It's pretty constant. You walk the lines at the airport going through security and people just snap every time they walk by you and stuff like that. It's an adjustment. I'm getting used to it. Obviously it's not normal for a lot of people but starting to become normal for me. Q. Going back a couple months, you played well at Akron, nobody was catching Tiger but did you come out of there thinking you were heading in the right direction? JASON DUFNER: Yeah, definitely. I love Firestone, love that event. Coming back to home city to play is great, and that week I played pretty well. I did a lot of things better than I had been doing previously in the year. So maybe that gave me a little bit of confidence going forward for Oak Hill. Q. What do you think about the Browns winning two in a row? JASON DUFNER: That's great. Browns are like a roller coaster, man. You know, the season start out 0‑2 and they trade their star player, and you're thinking, oh, geez, here we go, and I'm off the bandwagon and then they win two in a row and so now I'm on the bandwagon. We'll see how it goes. I know the guys around the front office, I met them this summer and they have a plan for the organization and they will probably take some lumps here with some decisions they make and some win/losses and we'll see how it goes. I hope they can get it going, because football is probably my favorite sport to watch. Probably disappointing to not really care how the season is going after about five or six games. Indians are doing great, 15 of the last 17. Hopefully they can get it done on Wednesday. It's exciting, hopefully be able to catch a little bit of it on Wednesday. Q. (Inaudible.) JASON DUFNER: I did not play 14 today. So I don't have an answer for that question. Q. Knowing guys with other sports, do you ever talk to them about handling success in the spotlight? There are some things you have in common with pro football players. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, you know, I haven't had any conversations‑‑ I've been around guys, I used to play golf a lot with Dan Marino when I was in high school and Bernie Kosar was down there, so you could kind of see what they deal with on a day‑to‑day basis. Being around guys like Phil and Tiger, now that we are playing in these events and being paired with them a lot more you understand what they are going through, so you pick up little things from them to kind of make it easier. Q. (Inaudible.) JASON DUFNER: No, that's ongoing, but I'm trying to take it easy on them. I don't want to bruise his confidence this week. We need him to play well. Q. What would you say you beat him this year, like 5 & 4? JASON DUFNER: Oh, way more than that, like 6‑1,7‑2, maybe. I've got a lot of ammo in there but you have to be careful with him, you don't want to break his confidence too much. We've got a big event this week, and we need to get points and we don't want to bury them in the sand. I got them pretty good in Atlanta. We had a good little match there and he was Dufnering and all that. Made that putt on the last hole to beat him. That's all I care about. Q. He won the hole‑outs? JASON DUFNER: He did win the hole‑outs but I got 27, 2000 more than he did at East Lake so that's all I care about. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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