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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA DAYJanuary 28, 2013Gary BecknerJim BerwickGerald GoodmanHunter MahanCHRIS REIMER: I'm Chris Reimer, I'm the communications manager for the PGA TOUR and it's my pleasure to officially welcome you to the 2013 World Golf Championships‑Accenture Match Play Championship Media Day. Before we get to our introductions of our dignitaries and special guests in attendance, we are going to immediately to start our day with our defending champion, Hunter Mahan, who unfortunately couldn't be here today. He has a little unfinished business to attend to at Torrey Pines and the Farmers Insurance Open. Just want to think back to last year here at the Golf Club at Dove Mountain when Hunter capped off his victory to win against Rory McIlroy in the final match. Last year's win here a the Accenture Match Play Championship made Hunter the only two‑time winner of a World Golf Championships in his 20s other than Tiger Woods. And if you want a sign of how dominant last year's win was for Hunter, how about the fact that he didn't trail in a match after the third hole in the second round in a span of 74 holes; he made 35 birdies and 96 holes that week and led the field. Proud to have him, such an accomplished player as our defending champion, and even more honored that he took time two hours before his tee time today to be on the line. But don't mind, maybe start off with some comments about what you remember most from last year's win here at the Accenture Match Play Championship. HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah, thanks, Chris. It really just came down to, I was playing some of the best golf I ever played, really in my life. To make that many birdies, one bird on every almost three holes on the golf course and beat the competition that I did; to beat major champions; guys in the Top‑10 in the world, Matt Kuchar Steve Stricker, Rory McIlroy, Y.E. Yang, Zach Johnson, all are accomplished, great players and all are very tough competitors; and to get through them like I did, I thought that it was really incredible. I don't know, if you told me I was going to do that, I wouldn't have believed you. My game from the driver to the putter, every part of it was, strong and like I say, it was some of the best golfer that I ever played. That's really what stood out for me. I felt like I was playing some of the best golf of my life. It was a really cool tournament to win. Obviously any WGC tournament you participate in, you know you're playing against the best players in the world, and to have won two of those now is a great feeling. Q. I was wondering, you've played in this before and not won; what did you learn about playing this type of golf that helped you last year? It's a different mind‑set, you have to win a tournament almost every day. Wondering how you did in previous years and sort of how that factored into last year. HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah, well, there's to the going to be any easy matches, so you immediately to be mentally focused and into each match very quickly. There's not going to be any really free rides. You have to put pressure on your opponent right away. You have to hit ‑‑ the fairways are pretty wide there, but you have to put pressure on your opponent as much as you can and put the ball on the green and put the ball‑‑ give yourself opportunities and give them something to think about. You know, I just tried to stay, for the first couple matches, with my fifth tournament in a row, I needed to really stay mentally in there and stay mentally tough and just take it one shot at a time and hit the best shot I could and then move on. In match play, you can't think about things in the past. You can't think about holes you messed up on. You have to really move forward and you always have to keep thinking what's in front of you, and you never know when you're going to turn around like I did. I didn't have great‑‑ my first match, I didn't play great against Zach. We both kind of just chopped it around and I just kept plugging away and kept trying to get better and better and find my rhythm. My game was getting better and better. You just never know when your game is going to click during a week, any tournament. Always feeling like you're going to turn around and be positive and keep working and keep working, and it turns around just that fast, and that's what it kind of did that week. I just kind of believed that it would turn around, and it did, and I played great. Q. You mentioned the first match, it seems like there's always a match in these things for the guy who wins it, that he can kind of look back and say, oh, geez, I was lucky to get through that one. Was there a moment where you were sort of on the ropes in that first match, or a turning point in that first match? HUNTER MAHAN: It's kind of hard to remember, we were going into 18 and kind of all‑square and I think he hit a good shot into there and I hit a poor approach, and I was just short of the green. I hit a pretty good chip but I left myself, it was a downhill, like left‑to‑right, 6‑footer, I was kind of feeling tired, and kind of, you know, I was just kind of like beat up. I felt beat up a little bit and I didn't play great, and it's one of those putts where you were kind of like, oh, if I miss it, who cares. I feel like I dug deep on that putt. I said, let's focus while we can and I hit a good putt and rolled it right in the middle. Then, you know, Zach hit a poor tee shot on the first hole, which is kind of an awkward tee shot and I got lucky, finished the hole. Definitely that was the match that kind of propelled me and kind of made me believe a little bit that I could keep going and digging deep. That first match kept my attention up there and made me realize how determined and I have to stay focussed and I have to put everything into it, and I can't give into being a little bit tired or not being as focused as I need to be; and that propelled me in the following match against Y.E. and from there, I played great. Q. What impact did winning here have on the rest of your year last year and do you feel you got some momentum from winning here? HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah, I gained some confidence, because I felt like I played against the best players, from Rory McIlroy to Steve Stricker to Matt Kuchar; I felt like I went head‑to‑head with the game's best and I was able to beat the game's best. I know within myself and within my game, I have the potential to be a great player and to win tournaments and to win majors, and maybe be the best player in the world, be the No. 1 player in the world, and that's kind of what it showed me. I know I can always go back to that and know that that I beat the best and it just gives me confidence in my own ability and I have that within me to compete against anybody. Q. When you come into a match‑play situation, are you scanning the ratings and where people are seeded and go: I really would not want to play that guy? Is there someone on that list that you go, man, I hope I stay away from him? HUNTER MAHAN: You know, not really. I mean, I think that puts‑‑ obvious thing to do when you look at the board but when you're playing against 64 of the best players in the world, you just never know who is going to‑‑ everybody there is a great player. What separates everybody is razor thin. You never know who you're going to play that week, and they could go out there and smoke you and shoot 7‑ or 8‑under. To focus on anything other than the opponent in front of you would be a dangerous mistake. And we've seen it in the past with guys who have beat Tiger and Tiger has just walked over. When it comes to match play, you can't overlook anybody, and you have to worry about yourself. I think we all become victim to that; if we see somebody in our bracket that is a great player, but at the end of the day, anybody could beat you. This is not game where size or strength matter. It's a game where poise and shot‑making is going to make the difference. Q. When you come to Arizona, do you look to pull a double? Do you look to come to Waste Management and win and come to Accenture and win, and would that be one of your goals? HUNTER MAHAN: I try to win every tournament I play in, so the goals are always there to play‑‑ each tournament play your best. I love playing in Arizona. I've had a lot of success there from being a junior to a college player, and I know I can win, and I feel like I can win anywhere and that would be great to win the double, to win kind of both back‑to‑back in Phoenix and Tucson. I think every player out here is trying to win every single week, and to do it in a calendar year, that would be pretty sweet, as well. Q. I wanted to get your thoughts on the short season this year, does it really affect the upper echelon players? And also, how will the restart this fall to 2014, how will you handle that? HUNTER MAHAN: Well, that's a great question. I don't have an answer for you, because I don't‑‑ it's hard to say how it's going to affect anybody or what you're going to play. We don't know. I don't know what to tell you because I don't know how it's going to‑‑ I think it's interesting for the calendar to restart right after THE TOUR Championship, but I know that the season is going to start early and there's going to be points available. But you know, I just don't‑‑ it's hard to think that far into the future and what's going to happen. So I don't really know. I think I'm going to play it by ear and see how that affects the rest of the year. It's very difficult to think that we have to play from January all the way through to December. So planning out our end of the year is going to be crucial to getting rest, time to prepare for the next year, and spend time with our families and doing the important things in life and kind of figuring out where golf fits in at that kind of juncture. CHRIS REIMER: I can't thank you enough for taking the time to call us. Before heading back out to the golf course, it's been a long week for you, but I have one last question: You are in the Top 10, but when you head back out to the golf course today, you're on the 6th hole, your 15th of the week, and you're ten strokes behind Tiger. Wonder if you have a strategy for pulling off the greatest comeback in PGA TOUR history today. HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah, I do, I actually already called and told him‑‑ no, I have no idea what to do. When a guy has such a comfort level at a golf course like this, and he came out‑‑ after last week, I think he was irritated and I think he was a little upset at how he played. I think he wanted to, you know, make a statement, and there's not many guys in golf who can go to a tournament and make a statement, but he is. I think he's making one this week, and I think he's going to do everything he can to make this a double‑digit win for himself and just kind of reclaim his dominance on the TOUR. CHRIS REIMER: Well, you certainly made a statement here last year with your victory. Wish you all the best and can't wait to see you back this year at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Thanks again for taking the time. We have the Top‑64 players in the world in match play, a rare form of competition on TOUR, and it's very thrilling and you can feel the buzz in the air, each and every year. With that, I just want to thank Hunter Mahan again for taking the time before his round today and going to turn over the duties to a familiar face to everyone in the room, next up, we have Gerald Goodman, Executive Director of the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play championship. Thank you. GERALD GOODMAN: Thanks, Chris. Thank everybody for coming. That was kind of unusual, where everybody was flexible and we appreciate that very much. Hunter did a pretty good job. Seemed a little nervous on some of those questions. Uncle Buck, the one you asked about winning both tournaments, of course they think they are going to go out and win every event that they go play. It's like a football coach, every play is supposed to be a touchdown, too, so that doesn't quite work out. Want to introduce some of our speakers and other guests today, from Accenture, the senior director of global event marketing, Gary Beckner. Also, from the PGA TOUR, our senior director of World Golf Championships, Matt Kamienski. Thanks for coming, Matt. And just want to recognize some other folks here in the room. One of the guys that got it all started here, David Mehl, the president of Cottonwood Properties. And I thought I saw the general manager of the Ritz‑Carlton, Liam Doyle here, thanks to Liam for having us. And then our new partner, Escalante Golf, Dave Matheson is here. Thanks, Dave, for coming. Having a first‑rate sponsor like Accenture allows us to be a part of giving money locally to charity, and I get kind of choked up when I think about all the hard work that goes in. I want to introduce some of the key players there that really make it happen for us.       This year's tournament chairman, Jim Berwick; and the president of the Conquistadores, Ted Hastings; and they would tell you the heart and soul that makes it all work is their Executive Director, the lovely Miss Judy McDermott at the back. I want to thank Ritz‑Carlton, we are in our second year of having cell phones at our tournament. We were the last tournament; last year was our first time getting to do that. That was a pretty big deal. We had a few bumps in the road. One of Diane's big sponsors got her phone taken away from her, and we have to calm down some of that; there are some people that we don't want their phones taken away. But we feel our golf fans here are sophisticated golf fans and do a good job with cell phones at our event. We widened the parking lot, general parking at the bottom of the hill at Dove Mountain Boulevard to accommodate on Wednesday where we had a little back up from our friends from Memphis coming up Tangerine. We widened that and I would suggest that you get off at Twin peaks as you come up and not tangerine. We are going to institute "Follow the Leaders" again on Sunday afternoon with the championship match. What a hit that was. It gave it a Ryder Cup feel. We got a lot of great comments. And we have a lot of synergy on those Sunday tickets right now. We are pacing well ahead of Sunday tickets that are out there for people that come to 'Follow the Leaders' on that Sunday. We got tickets on sale at 53 different bashes around the State of Arizona. Hunter Mahan with a radio announcement in the store, "Come Buy Your Tickets." We have tickets on sale at ten different Costcos from Tucson and Phoenix. We have tickets on sale at U of A bookstore and online at www.WorldGolfChampionships.com. We anticipate having our crowds grow as we have in the past and we appreciate you guys recognizing that. I want to recognize again to come up to say a few words, Gary Beckner with Accenture, global events and marketing. GARY BECKNER: Thank you, and for the record, that applause was for you, not for me. Thank you all for coming in today. It's my pleasure to be here representing Accenture and the 259,000 people that work around the world for Accenture, a global management and technology services outsourcing company. Our people deliver technology and management innovation to some of the world's best known companies and we collaborate with our clients to help them become high‑performance businesses. We are a global company and we are proud to sponsor any event to showcase the power of high performance. Our sponsorship in the World Golf Championships‑Accenture Match Play Championship is our highest‑profile sponsorship, and it's an exciting event to our people and to our clients around the world. Some may not know this but Accenture's association with professional golf dates back to 1995 when Accenture joined International Federation of PGA TOURs in 1999 to establish the International Federation of PGA TOURs in the World Golf Championships to create the first series of umbrella sponsorship and at the same time title sponsorship of the Accenture Match Play Championship. In addition to our sponsorship support, Accenture has provided technology and consulting services to the PGA TOUR to help them keep performing at their highest possible level. Now as we enter 2013, Accenture's 19th year of association with professional golf, 15th year as sponsor of the World Golf Championships, we are thrilled to be working with our many partners. The International Federation of PGA TOURs, the Golf Club At Dove Mountain, the Tucson Conquistadores, the Ritz‑Carlton at Dove Mountain and communities from around Tucson to bring the highest performance of golf to this area, and of course, our director, Gerald Goodman. We are very excited Hunter Mahan was with us today, albeit on the phone, because he did have other work, a little bit more important. But to take the time for many of you golfers, two hours before a professional tournament to sit there and talk and answer questions to the press shows what type of individual he is, and more importantly, what type of champion he is. We are all excited that the event is coming here. And we said many, many years ago, why Tucson, why Dove Mountain? Well, again, after experiencing the once‑a‑month leap year rain three out of the last four years in San Diego, we needed to find a place that and make sure that we find a date on the TOUR calendar, third week in February, that we can have appropriate weather for this type of tournament and the players that would compete. We did extensive research throughout the United States looking for the right type of place that would have all the ingredients that would be the perfect host site for this event. We looked at the weather and I think if you look at the weather, anywhere in the world at that time of year, certainly in the United States, there's no better place to be. We looked at the facilities, although when we initially looked at it, I was standing with Dave Mehl and one of his cohorts, Tim, and we were standing at what he said at that time was the entrance to the Ritz‑Carlton Hotel. It was August 5; it was 104 degrees, 1:30 in the afternoon, and I was surrounded by desert and I saw no hotel anywhere. But as you know, it's there now, as is the golf course, and we knew the property and the golf course would be the appropriate place for our many guests to come and stay for the golf event. And then lastly, but certainly not least important, is that we needed an organization that we could partner with that not only would help this event run and make it successful, but make it viable and important for the community in selling the tickets and then using the funds in the process to do good in the community and we found the Conquistadores. I've been with golf clubs associated with the TOUR for close to 40 years, and I've worked with many organizations around the world, and I have to tell you that the Conquistadores are among the very top organizations, and so again we thank you all very much. To the press, media, we thank you for joining us here today. We thank you for your coverage throughout the year and throughout the tournament. We hope it's an exciting tournament for you and the fans and the global audience around the world and thank you so much for coming here today. GERALD GOODMAN: The Conquistadores in 2012 celebrated their 50th year, pretty amazing, I would like to introduce my friend, tournament chairman, Jim Berwick. JIM BERWICK: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming.  I'm honored to be here representing the Tucson Conquistadores. First I want to give a sincere thank you to the PGA TOUR and Accenture for their generous contribution. They make this event possible. This championship tournament is a world‑class event right here in our own backyard, and it's a huge economic impact in our community. So we thank you and we would do everything that we can to keep this tournament coming back year after year. The Accenture Match Play tournament is one of the most unique tournaments in the world and the Tucson Conquistadores are proud to be involved with an event of this calibre. Our members are responsible for selling tickets and hospitality packages and coordinating with over a thousand volunteers at this event. 50 years ago the Tucson Conquistadores were founded on the idea of being a working organization, and I'm proud to say, we are upholding that tradition. For the past six years with this tournament, we have raised nearly $9 million and in our history we have raised over $26 million for the children in our community. The money we raised goes towards youth athletic charities throughout southern Arizona, such as the Southern Arizona Indoor Sports Center, The First Tee of Tucson Program, the YMCA and the Pima County Special Olympics, just to name a few. We are also excited today that Rory McIlroy has chosen one of our charities, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson for his charity for the Six Bags Project. The Boys & Girls Clubs logo will be displayed on his bag and will be auctioned off during the Accenture Match Play Championship online at RoryFoundation.com. Please help us support this worthy charity and bid on Rory's bag. It's not too late to get tickets to the Accenture Match Play Championship, with the community support, we can expect huge crowds this year. Last year we had great weather and we are anticipating that to be the same, as well. So come on out to the Golf Club at Dove Mountain located at Marana, Arizona and see the Top‑64 golfers in the world battle it out for the prestigious Walter Hagen Cup. For ticket information, contact the Tucson Conquistadores at 520‑571‑0400. Thank you very much and I appreciate it. GERALD GOODMAN: So we are winding down and want to thank‑‑ he's not here for me to hear it, but Hunter Mahan for calling it, look forward to seeing him compete next week at the Waste Management Open. I have a quick stat about our champion, looking up different things about him, and all of the golfers, the PGA TOUR golfers ever, all‑time money, he's Top‑30. Failed to recognize a professional player we have in the audience with us, a Champions Tour player in Dan Pohl. Thank you for coming out, you support this event very much and we appreciate you coming down from Phoenix to do that. Also I want to thank some of our guests from the town of Marana: Mayor Ed Honea, Roxanne Ziegler, David Bowen, Gilbert Davidson, the town manager, I saw him here today, Herb Kai, Carol McGorray and Jon Post, very, very intricate to us, the town of Marana, the services, they provide us putting this golf tournament on, we appreciate it very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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