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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 25, 2014Peter UihleinPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Peter Uihlein into the interview room, making his first start here at the Honda Classic. Peter, welcome to Palm Beach Gardens. If we can get your thoughts on being here at the Honda. PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, it's great. Fortunate enough to get an invite this week. It's been great, and I'm excited to be here. It's right down the road from where I'm renting a place, and it's definitely where I'll be calling home, I think, for a long time, so it's nice to play a home game this week. JOHN BUSH: Talk about your membership on the European Tour and some of the success you've had out there. PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, last year was a nice year. I played very well. I had a win early in the year, and then a couple runner‑ups and some top 10s, so it was nice. I had a nice, solid year. It's nice to be back here, playing in the States for a nice little stretch. We have a nice break over there in Europe, and it just fits perfectly in the schedule. There's so many great events here in the States that you can play in, and I was fortunate enough to get an invite for this week. Q. This is a home game. How much have you played here? PETER UIHLEIN: I played last week, and I played nine holes on Sunday, and then Monday and today. I watch this one on TV all the time. The Bear Trap is cool to watch on TV. Q. Kind of hard to get out here when you're across the ocean? PETER UIHLEIN: It's tough, yeah. Spend a lot of time over there. Q. You're sharing a place with Brooks? PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah. Q. How long have you guys done that? PETER UIHLEIN: A little over a year, I think. Q. Where do you play out of down here? PETER UIHLEIN: I play at the Floridian up in Palm City. I'm a member at Medalist, and I actually have a great deal out at Old Palm, and I spend some time there, as well. I have three great places to play around here. Q. When Brooks got the exemption to play here, were you thinking, boy, that would be great if we could both go, or were you like, man, what a lucky dog? PETER UIHLEIN: No, he earned it. He's been playing great. We're boast very fortunate to be here this week. I know there's a lot of great players that were asking for a spot, as well. We were fortunate to get one this week, and it's nice to play in the States with him. We spend so much time overseas, it's nice to play a home game this week. Q. Just talk about you and Brooks are such an interesting and unique situation, living together and going over to Europe and all the things you guys have shared. It certainly wasn't a traditional route to take. PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, it's very rare for American to see do it, but if you look at a lot of guys, Adam Scott, Ernie Els, even Rory, they all started their careers over in Europe, and there's a lot of top players in the world who have done that. It's just very unique us being American going over there and starting our careers. On my behalf I think it's been a great decision. I've enjoyed every minute of it, and I'm looking forward to playing a global schedule and sticking to it playing and doing that for the next however many years. You know, it's definitely been a great year and a great experience. Q. Do you guys have a wager on this week? Have to do dishes or anything? PETER UIHLEIN: No, we don't even cook in our house. So no, we have nothing like that. Q. Getting back to why you went over to Europe and played, what appealed to you most about doing it that way as opposed to staying home where obviously there's better courses, food, friends around, etcetera. What was the feeling about doing that? PETER UIHLEIN: Well, it's like I said, when you look at a lot of top players, and a lot of them started their careers over there and had success and then play a global schedule, and I've always wanted to travel the world, and when you tell a‑‑ I was 22 when I left school, and I feel like, hey, 22, you're single, you can travel the world and have a good time doing it and play some golf, it's a pretty easy sell I'd say. It's not a terrible choice. I think you'll see more and more young Americans doing it now, I think, since‑‑ there were always guys beforehand. I think Payne Stewart did it and Todd Hamilton played in Japan for a year, so there's a lot of guys who have gone over there and had success. I think with me and Brooks having some success, it seems to be taking off a little bit more and more, and I think you're going to see more young Americans do it. Q. Are you and Brooks kind of the odd couple, or how do your personalities mix, and then how much has it helped your golf? PETER UIHLEIN: I think, yeah, we both have traits, I think, that appreciate some of his, and I'm sure he appreciates some of mine. We're both different but we're both very competitive. We both like to win, regardless of what we're doing, whether golf or really just anything. We kind of rub off on each other that way. We kind of push each other to be better. It's been great living with him and traveling with him, and we've both, I think, improved, or we've had success doing it, living together and pushing each other to be better. Q. Can you give an example of how you guys have pushed each other? PETER UIHLEIN:  Yeah, I think when he was playing the Challenge Tour, he had his two wins and he was playing over in Stoke, I believe, in England ‑‑ maybe not Stoke, maybe somewhere in Scotland, and right before he started playing he texted me because he was pretty frustrated with the way his game was. I guess shooting 27‑under par is frustrating every now and then. He was running away with it, playing great, but he said he was just very frustrated with everything. I just tried to calm him down, keep his head on straight and go get a win, and I think he shot 62 or something the next day and was able to begin, get his third win and his battlefield promotion, so it was good. Q. What are some of the souvenirs you've collected from your travels? PETER UIHLEIN: I got a tee shirt that says "I swam with great white sharks." I've got one of those. That's pretty cool. He's got a lot more trophies than I do. I don't know, we haven't‑‑ I guess I'm not really a big collector in that kind of form, I guess. I probably should be. Q. Is your overall game plan to become a dual member, PGA TOUR here and European Tour? PETER UIHLEIN: Ideally I'd love to play a global schedule and put together a schedule where I can play all around the world. I think there's so many great events all around the world now that it's just really hard to pass up some events. The way it seems to be shaping up is we have a break right now and then you have so many great events here, and then you can go back over and play some over there. It's just set up very well. There's so many great events, even on the Asian Tour and Japanese Tour. There's so many world‑class events with great fields. That would be something I'd like to do for a very long time. Q. What is your plan on how to get PGA TOUR membership then, and how do sponsor invites fit into that? PETER UIHLEIN: Well, I think it's like if you can get, I think‑‑ I'm not really quite sure how it's set up to be perfectly honest with you, but I think if you get top 50 in the world you're allowed a certain number of invites or a certain amount more, and then the majors, as well, and then the WGCs, and then hopefully you earn enough money to finish inside of that top 120 on the PGA TOUR and earn your card the following year, so I think that's how it works. I'm not quite sure. That would be always a nice goal to have. Q. What kind of roommate is Brooks Koepka? Does he drink out of the milk carton? PETER UIHLEIN: I do that. Q. You do? PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, I do. No, he's fine.  Me, Brooks, and our other roommate, Matt Broome, I think we all do things‑‑ we're all pretty good. We're all pretty clean for the most part, I guess. When you have three young guys I guess you're never really that clean. Yeah, we're okay. We have a good time. We're hardly ever home, especially the three of us together. It's rare that‑‑ we're all there this week, but it's going to be a while, I think, before the three of us are all together again. But we do okay. I think we do all right. JOHN BUSH: Peter, we appreciate your time. Play well this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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