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THE McGLADREY CLASSICOctober 23, 2014Will MacKenzieSEA ISLAND, GEORGIA Q. Mac, nice playing. 5‑under par. You must like it this time of the year, huh? WILL MACKENZIE: Yeah, I do. It's been a fantastic off season. I needed that off season after my crazy little year I had last year. Had great weeks off, went surfing in Nicaragua. Thought about what happened last year, put it all together with my golf coach. You know, I've been practicing the last 10 days, and feel pretty good about the game. I mean, you know, you never know what's going to happen. I'm not mid‑season form, but I feel really good right now. Q. You got off to a quick start last season as well, and then come around April it just started to dry up a little bit. You talk about Nicaragua and talking about the season, what did you come up with? What did you need to change? WILL MACKENZIE: A lot. No. 1 was learning how to deal with the kids when they're out of school. You know, I'm a divorced dad right now, so I got the kids full time when I'm home, and man, next thing you know, I'm like, boys, what are we doing today? Oh, yeah, we're going on the boat. So I don't practice. And I just gotta dial that in. You've got to put in the work to compete against these guys. These guys are really good, and I was ready to play golf early in the season, and then as the season went on, I got away from it a little bit, a little bit more and more, and then next thing you know, I'm searching and I'm missing cuts and I'm losing my confidence, and then the season is over. And it's one of those things that I talked to my coach, talked to my wife, ex‑wife, you know. We're figuring it out. You know, I've still gotta go make a living. And I gotta put forth some effort. I might not need to sit on the range all day, but I need to chip and putt a little bit and keep my feel. And I think that's pretty much what we came up with. Q. Well, you must be pretty happy with the way you played today. You made some nice putts coming down, a couple for birdie. Nice finish with that close‑range birdie at the last. Talk about your confidence going into the weekend at the tournament? WILL MACKENZIE: I've got high confidence right now. My coach and I are working on something really good. I'm striking it. I'm really hitting it well, and you know, I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I feel pretty good. It's early in the season, but whatever, man. I've played a lot of golf my whole entire life, so I'm just trying to think that I can play great this week, and I know what you gotta shoot around here, and I'm going to go take it one shot at a time, and you know, try to be in there late on Sunday. Q. Nice round today, mate. WILL MACKENZIE: Thanks, brother. Q. Some people were close, avoiding the mistakes. WILL MACKENZIE: I had the one big hiccup. I have no idea what hole that was. Q. You just said you had had one hiccup on the score card today. It was on 16, and then you turned and you shot a 31. So what was working so well for you today? WILL MACKENZIE: I drove the ball fantastic. I mean I drove it, except for 16. And I didn't even drive it that bad. I selected the wrong club. I decided to hit 3‑wood off that tee, and the whole previous 15, the second shot was really downwind, and it was moving around out there out of the north, northeast, northwest, then all of the sudden it came out of the south a little bit towards the end of the day. And I had it in my mind, oh, it's playing really downwind, and I'm going to hit 3‑wood here; it's 300 yards to that bunker out there, and the wind sort of died, and I just didn't have the courage to go back and get the driver, and I just turned it just a little bit. It's about a 280 carry, and it landed right in the boards there. Then it's a really tough hole. Then you have to hit 3‑wood again from a tight lie on a cut‑down tee. And yeah, so I made double. But after that, I settled down. I knew I was hitting it great. I just made a poor selection mentally. I always just blame that on my caddie. And then I played great. I played great. I missed some putts actually on that front, so I could have shot a low one. But like you said, I made a clutch par on it. So that was nice. Q. I may be wrong, but I believe you shot the same first‑ round score here last year. What is it that agrees with you here and what do you need to do to keep it going for the next three days that you haven't done before? WILL MACKENZIE: I need to not have a major neck carnage in the morning. Last year I got really cold, and I am 40 now, and I am beat up. For some reason I wake up and I mean I sort of shake it out and go, oh, nice, I feel good. Or some of these mornings I wake up and I'm like, oh, no, this is bad, and I'm trying to get a real big digger out of my neck or back. So I woke up last year, shot 79. I should have withdrawn. I just tried to go out there. I love the course. My agent is here. It's near where I grew up. Tricky little course off the tee. You gotta drive it well, and it's gotta Bermuda grass on the greens. I love that. So yeah, I gotta be careful on my dance moves tonight at Davis's house. If Maverick, my son and I, don't go too crazy tonight, limit it to maybe one beer, and nice barbecue, I should be fine for tomorrow, because I don't think it's going to be that cold. Q. Last question, you've gone through a lot of transition in your golf game and in life. You earned your card on the Web.com Tour finals. Then you came out and you played well. How are you carrying that momentum? What is clicking in your golf game? And life? WILL MACKENZIE: Right now it's full swing. Full swing. Yeah, everything is pretty good. I'm very grateful. I'm very lucky in my life, no matter what life throws at you, I'm still very blessed, and I got two wonderful kids, and you know, we're just trucking right along. I got a great golf coach, Jeff Leishman. He's tried to simplify my whole life because I get a little bit crazy, and you know, it just seems like right now I got a little key in my golf swing, feels good. I've been practicing my putting. My putting is a little iffy, but hopefully it shows up this weekend. Q. Do you want to share that key? WILL MACKENZIE: I don't know. I'm just trying to get everything as balanced as possible about this far past impact. If I can be as balanced as I possibly can in my body, just past impact, I'll hit it really good, really well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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