NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL WORLD CHALLENGE

December 5, 2013

Zach Johnson

DOUG MILNE:  Zach Johnson, 5‑under 67 today in round 1 of the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, off to a great start in an event you\'ve finished runner‑up in two times.  Just some comments on your opening round.

ZACH JOHNSON:  Yeah, it was a good start.  I did everything decent, drove it well for the most part with the exception of probably the last hole.  I wedged it really good.  Any time I had a wedge in my hand, I seemed to be hitting my lines and my yardages, which is certainly key.

I putted it great.  You\'d like to say you left some out there, and maybe I did, but I made a fair amount, as well.  Just a real solid day all around, kept the course in front of me, and I was aggressive when I needed to be aggressive and I was conservative when I needed to be conservative.  It\'s nothing more than a decent start.

Q.  Scores weren\'t very low today.  Talk about conditions and why that is.

ZACH JOHNSON:  You know, first of all, there\'s some tough pins.  Second, it\'s that time of year where we\'re trying‑‑ some guys are trying to shake rust off.  That may be part of it.  It\'s the time of year where guys might be trying some new equipment here and there.  I put new irons in the bag this week, new Titleist irons that worked out great.  So there could be a number of factors there.  That and there\'s only 18 players.  I don\'t know if there\'s any rhyme or reason to it.

I thought the wind was a little difficult to manage today.  It didn\'t seem to be consistent.  That may be because we\'re in, I guess you\'d say, a miniature canyon of a sort where it can swirl.  It wasn\'t exactly easy‑easy.  It\'s not going to be like it is this weekend, that\'s for sure.

Q.  I don\'t know what you did on 15, but can you draw any parallel to that and 12 at Augusta, not architecturally, but in terms of when the ball is in the air all you can do is hope?

ZACH JOHNSON:  Well, the green is small on the 15th hole here, but it\'s actually bigger than 12.  Square footage‑wise it\'s got to be bigger.  Maybe not, I don\'t know.  The similarity is it\'s longer.  That\'s not a similarity.  The similarity is that I\'ve got a number that\'s the middle of the green, and that\'s essentially‑‑ I might change my start line or my finish line by three to five yards left or right, but for the most part it\'s that same yardage regardless of where the pin is.  It\'s 10 yards on the green.  The green is 21 deep, so I\'m trying to land it in the middle of the green.

Today it was playing like 174 hole, I think, with the percentage downhill and into the wind, so I tried to hit a 180 shot, and it went 180.  The wind kind of died.  But that\'s the risk you take.  You miss it long, clearly.

Relative to 12 at Augusta, I think 12, my lines there are pretty much the middle trap, left edge of it to right edge of it.  That\'s the similarity between the two.

Q.  Do you know where the ball is going to land as it\'s up in the air?  Do you have a pretty good idea?

ZACH JOHNSON:  I mean, I\'ve got a decent idea, yeah.  That\'s a good question.  I understand what you\'re saying.  Today I hit a 6‑iron‑‑ I hit my 6‑iron just over 180, and I hit it really good.  I told it to get down, and it landed four or five yards from the back edge of the green and stopped.  A pretty good indication.

You say that, but especially in a canyon like this, and then you\'ve got Amen Corner there with the wind, it\'s close.  There\'s been times I\'ve posed over shots at 12 at Augusta and was struggling to make a 4.  They\'re both very good par‑3s.

I think the hardest part about‑‑ 12 is pretty level.  It might be a yard downhill.  The hardest part about 15 is you\'ve got to play a pretty substantial downhill percentage.

Q.  Having come so close to winning here in the past, do you feel you have unfinished business here, or do you not look at it in that way?

ZACH JOHNSON:  No, I\'ve never looked at it that way.  My outlook on this event is if I get in this event, I\'m going to play.  You can argue it\'s one of the best events of the year for a number of reasons.  The list is long.  I love playing in December.  I like to play one week in December, and this is one to play in because you\'re playing just normal golf.  You\'re playing twosomes against a great field, just like a normal TOUR event with no cut and a great purse.  I guess it\'s the best players in the world.  I guess there\'s World Ranking points involved now, too, so that\'s another advantage.

You know, I don\'t have‑‑ coming into this I just look at it as a great opportunity to get ready for the next year.

Q.  Frost delay this morning, chillier conditions out there.  Any advantage to a guy from Iowa?

ZACH JOHNSON:  No, I don\'t think so.  I mean, you\'d have to ask an individual that\'s from the South and has only been in the South.  I mean, we\'ve played in weather like this a lot, colder even, obviously.  Well, I played with Jason Day in Tucson this year, and on the 11th hole I saw three different types of precipitation.  Fortunately he beat me 7 & 6, which means we got out of there pretty quick.

No, I mean, I think everybody is pretty accustomed to different types of weather.  I don\'t mind it.  If there\'s one thing I\'ve learned, my blood is starting to thin out living in the South now.  I prefer a warmer temperature.  However, today was nice.  It wasn\'t that windy.  If we had 15 to 25‑mile‑an‑hour winds, it would have been cold, but today was extremely pleasant.

Q.  You talked about how much you like this tournament for various reasons.  Are you disappointed it\'s moving or still have the same feelings about the event?  And then second, are you sick?

ZACH JOHNSON:  Am I sick?  I am getting over a cold, to answer the second part.  My baby girl is sick, and I think I got it from her, but I\'m feeling a lot better.

It\'s kind of bittersweet.  Bitter just because I do like this golf course.  I love what the membership has done here, allowing us to come here and play year after year, generally what Tiger\'s foundation and Greg have done with just rolling out the red carpet for us.  The hospitality has been fantastic.

I like it also because I come a little bit early and I go down to the northern part of San Diego and work with Titleist and get some good work done there.  It\'s always a good time for me to do that.  I had my whole team here at the beginning of the week.  We had our end‑of‑the‑year summit, which is essentially a day and a half of discussion and formulating and planning and that sort of thing.  I like doing that out here.

I say all that, but I\'m looking forward to going east, too.  I mean, it\'s three hours instead of four‑and‑a‑half‑, five‑hour plane flight.  This tournament is so good and what it does and how it does it, certainly what they\'re doing for the Earl Woods Scholars, it doesn\'t really matter where it is.

We were talking about it on the putting green, I think it\'s going to Isleworth next year and I think there\'s plans of it going somewhere after that.  It doesn\'t matter where you play this because we\'re going to come, we\'re going to play golf, raise some good funds and compete.  I think it probably checks all those boxes off.

Q.  You did a good job with the par‑5s today.  How critical is that on this golf course?

ZACH JOHNSON:  Well, you know, there\'s five of them.  That\'s actually one of my‑‑ I don\'t want to say priorities, but a highlight that we\'re looking into next year is trying to play those holes a little bit better, strategy‑wise.  I don\'t know if that\'s why I did that today.  I hit it close.  I mean, I hit it close on 2.  I hit it close on 11, 13, and I hit it close on 16.  I mean, I had good shots in there with the proper spin, nothing more than that.

But you\'ve got to take advantage of them.  You\'ve got five of them.  The thing is out here there\'s a couple in particular, 16‑‑ well, all of them.  One errant shot you\'re staring a 6 right in the face, if not more.  There\'s a lot of penal areas.  I\'m going to play 16 as a three‑shot hole regardless of where it is, just because it\'s the way it sets up for me.

Q.  If you were asked this already I apologize.  The putt on 14, how long was that?  And I know you were going up the ridge and the ball was moving pretty fast when it hit the cup.  Did you hit it too hard?

ZACH JOHNSON:  Yeah, I hit it too hard.  I mean, it went in, the middle of the hole.  Damon, my caddie, said it would have gone by five feet by.  It wasn\'t an easy putt.  It was a double‑breaker right to left and left to right.  It was probably 25 feet, 30 feet maybe.  I don\'t know, I\'m not good at measuring them.  But yeah, it was one you\'re trying to lag it close, and I did a lot of good lagging, and that one actually went in.

Q.  You mentioned using this tournament to get ready for next year, but technically I guess you\'ve already played, right, in the new season?

ZACH JOHNSON:  Right.

Q.  How do you like how that\'s going, and is it important to keep touch here with a month still to go before the resume?  Or is it the same as it\'s always been for you?

ZACH JOHNSON:  It\'s pretty similar to the way it\'s always been for me.  Now, I like downtime.  However, I know how much downtime is too much.  I added one more tournament in the fall, and that was Vegas for me.  I\'m going to play McGladrey because it\'s my backyard and I like it, and they\'re a sponsor of mine.  But I think it\'s a good thing.  I like the way it\'s set up.  There might be some minor tweaks here and there with everything.  I don\'t want to compare it to the FedEx in \'07, but there\'s some similarities there where there will just be some refining and polishing.  I think it does improve our TOUR.  I think more than anything it gives great opportunities to guys that have a TOUR card, both those that are inside the Top 125 and those that are trying to fight for their card from the Web.com.  So you\'ve got more opportunities is the bottom line.  I think it\'s great for title sponsorships.

There\'s a long list of positives.  There\'s maybe some negatives in there.  You like seeing the stories coming out of Q‑school that you\'re not going to see now.  But I think that\'ll dwindle.  I think it\'s just a minor change of the culture of the TOUR but nothing significant.  All for the most part the better.

To me the Hyundai is still the start of the season.  It\'s not, but it is.  I\'m not going to alter my schedule any more or any less with the exception of one event in the fall.  I mean, it\'s a Ryder Cup year, and that obviously is an emphasis, but nothing more than that.

DOUG MILNE:  Zach, thanks for your time.

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