|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 16, 2014Charlie WiLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: Like to welcome Charlie Wi to the interview room. You got to 7‑under on the Palmer Course today. Do you want to talk a little bit about your round, what was the strong points, and conditions out there and then we'll have a few questions. CHARLIE WI: I got off to a little shaky start. I bogeyed the first hole. And I was able to settle down ‑‑ I missed the first three greens today, and I was able to settle down with a birdie on 4 and kind of get on the ball from there. But I played pretty well today. A little breezy out there and normally scores are lower than it is now, so I think the wind has kept the scores down a little bit and the conditions of the golf course are just perfect and there are definitely birdies to be made out there. MARK STEVENS: Okay. Questions? Q. When I walked in this morning, the security guard up here was looking for your tag to make sure you're supposed to be here. I guess you're glad he let you in. CHARLIE WI: Yeah, I'm glad I got a chance to play today. But, yeah, I think they're so over the top. Q. The President is here or former President. CHARLIE WI: Oh, is that right? Q. It seems weird that we look at all the golf courses and suddenly one course is hot, one of the other courses is hot. Do you look at the courses any differently or do you say well Palmer today is not a whole lot different or is different than La Quinta? CHARLIE WI: Well, I know that you could other score on all three golf courses. But because scores are lower on one course that doesn't mean we're going to go out there and shoot a low number. I've been out here long enough to know that you got to play good golf every day to shoot low scores and because I don't know what the scores are going to be tomorrow ‑‑ I don't know what the scores are going to be today at La Quinta, that's where I'm playing tomorrow. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to be able to shoot low like they did today. You go out there and do your best and see how low you can go. Q. You've been around long enough have you a pretty good idea about all three of the courses, no surprises out there for you? CHARLIE WI: Yeah, definitely. I was down here during Christmas, got to play Palmer a couple times, so I think that really helped. And I played Nicklaus several times as well, so I know the golf courses fairly well. Q. Can you describe your birdie on 18. CHARLIE WI: I hit a great drive, I had 192 yards to the hole and hit a 6‑iron to about 30 feet and lipped out. So, played the hole pretty solid. Q. Your thoughts after missing the first three greens of what's going on, did you expect this kind of round to break out? CHARLIE WI: Definitely not. I had a very good preparation, but I was surprised that I got off to ‑‑ maybe there was some nerves. Knowing that I'm playing so well and maybe there was a little pressure, but I told myself to calm down, hit a great tee shot on 4, and able to hit a 7‑iron to about three feet. And I think that really settled me down for the rest of the round. Q. Do results like this early season and around like this make you tend to adjust your season outlook into ‑‑ say I'm going to go and try to qualify for the U.S. Open or do you always do that or do you change your goals? CHARLIE WI: I don't think so. I mean, to win this golf tournament you have to go low every day. If I shoot even par tomorrow, I might be 20th. And might not be talking to anybody. So, you don't think that far ahead. You know as a player you have to play really good every day to be in contention. So my goal tomorrow is to go low again. Q. How is your finger? Was it a dislocation? CHARLIE WI: No, I had a ‑‑ just before the Fry's, about five days before Fry's in the fall, I was at Sherwood, my home club, and I was walking up No. 9 and I slipped and fell. And I guess I had a complete tear, but I played first two tournaments with a torn ligament, and I went and got a MRI and I decided that or the doctor decided that I need to get the surgery done right away. But it was nice time off. I had three months off, got to spend a lot of time with the kids and my family and that. Q. Surgery to repair a torn ligament, is that right? CHARLIE WI: Yeah. Q. And which finger? CHARLIE WI: Right ring finger. It's still swollen. Q. Is it in the knuckle? CHARLIE WI: Just in the side right here. Q. How did you fall? CHARLIE WI: Oh, it was a ‑‑ I was going for a golf ball that was on the ground on a dirt slope and there is a cover for where they get the seeds, the caddies get the seeds out. And I shouldn't have stepped on it, but I said oh that can't be slippery, I stepped on it and I slipped and I just went right down. And my friend watched it and he goes, you'll be all right. (Laughter.) MARK STEVENS: Good friend. CHARLIE WI: Yeah. Q. With the reputation this tournament has and the fact that scores usually are low, does that affect your approach? Does it affect any player's approach coming into this tournament? CHARLIE WI: Well, certainly after a 7‑under round at Honda classic at PGA National, per se, you know that if you shoot around even par the rest of the way you're going to have a pretty good chance of winning or being near the lead. But here 7‑under today and 2‑under tomorrow, that's just not good enough. And having the mentality to go low here every day is how we should approach it if you want to contend on Sunday. Q. You mentioned getting to spend time with the family. Are you now looking back on that time as seeing something of a maybe a mental break and that you possibly needed or how are you looking at that right now? CHARLIE WI: I thought it was great. I wasn't able to touch a golf club for seven weeks. So I felt, after playing professionally for about 18 years, that my body felt really good and I felt like I'm a lot stronger because of that break. I see why guys take so much time off at the end of the year, the top players. It gives them time to rest and come out really fresh. Q. What's the longest period of time you had taken off before that? CHARLIE WI: Probably six seven weeks completely. Because TOUR ends middle of November and you don't start until Hawaii, so that's about seven weeks. But you put up the clubs for a couple weeks, but you start going and playing games with your friends, but this time I couldn't play golf, so I didn't have a choice and I thought that was really good. MARK STEVENS: Thank you, Charlie. Best of luck tomorrow. CHARLIE WI: All right. Thanks. 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
|