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HUMANA CHALLENGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONJanuary 23, 2015Nick WatneyLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Nick Watney in today. Nick, nice round today. An 8-under 64. Maybe just talk a little bit about the round and we'll open it up for some questions. NICK WATNEY: Yeah, it was a really fun day. It was the kind of course that if you drive it well, it's visually intimidating some of the holes driving, but if you can get the ball in the fairway it really opens up some birdie chances. I was able to roll some in today, so my putter really kept my momentum going today. I'm pleased with the first two rounds. JOE CHEMYCZ: Visually intimidating. NICK WATNEY: Um-hum. JOE CHEMYCZ: Off the tee. NICK WATNEY: Off the tee, yes. So there's some blind fairways, there's some water shots, water hugging the left side of fairways on a few. So, but the fairways are generous at the same time, so if you can get the ball in play, you can shoot a good score. Q. Seems like yesterday the scoring on all three courses was almost identical, within like 1/100th of each other. Today the Nicklaus Course has given up a lot of low scores. When you come into this tournament, do you think that's the course that you've got to go low on or is there really a difference? NICK WATNEY: Well, as a player, there's not really a difference, just a because if you make a few pars on the Nicklaus, you don't want to start pressing things, but, yeah, the, I figure the La Quinta may be the most difficult, just because the fairways are fairly narrow and there's some out of bounds around there, but at the same time, if you play well, the greens are so nice here on every course that none of them are overly long and you can shoot a pretty good score on any golf course. So, I think the things, the thing about the Nicklaus Course, the par-5's are pretty reachable for everyone, so you hope to get three or four birdies. I played Charley Hoffman today, he eagled two of them, so I think that's what makes the Nicklaus Course pretty scorable. Q. He obviously played very well today, you played well today, just feeding off of each other or? NICK WATNEY: Yeah, at one point I made, I think I made three or four birdies out of five holes and I didn't have the tee, because he made an eagle and so, yeah, it was a fun day, we had some good guys, some fun amateurs, and we just kind of were moving along and making some birdies and I wish every day could be like that. Q. I can't help but go back to that visually intimidating line. I mean, is that a function of maybe not having seen the course before or what goes into that? I mean is it familiarity or what? NICK WATNEY: Well, it's just I guess if you come up to a fairway and like the second hole, you hit the ball in the fairway and then there's a big rock in front of the green that you can't really see your ball land. The green's pretty big and it's a 9-iron shot, but at the same time, when you're hitting over a rock, I mean you don't do that very often, so. Q. Can I see where that would be a little tricky. NICK WATNEY: Yeah, so it's -- but like I said there's a lot of room, there's a lot of room, the fairways are pretty big. But when there's a like just off the fairway, even if it's pretty big, it gets in -- you think about it a little bit. So, there's just a few things that get your attention, I guess. Q. In a format of this tournament, going from one course to another to another over the first three day, which you don't usually have to do on the TOUR, what kind of adjustment is involved there and how much does it help to have come out here maybe early or to have been here before and to kind of have a sense of the rhythm and of the differences between courses? NICK WATNEY: Well, it's definitely nice to just to have been around them a couple times and know that where you're going to hit it or know where you're going, so you don't miss your time or something like that. It makes it interesting because everybody's so scattered that somebody could play really good at a different course that all of a sudden you're five shots back and you don't even, you don't see the guy, you don't hear anybody cheering for him or anything like that. So, it makes it a bit of a different feel, just because we're all spread out. So and so is playing good over at La Quinta, but we have no idea, because we are here. So Sunday is kind of look you see guys that you haven't seen all week. So it's definitely a different feel, but at the same time, it's, I mean it's a great tournament, it's fun to be here, the weather is always great, so it's just a different from normal I guess. Q. Are you one of those guys that wants to know what other guys are doing during the round or would you rather, would you rather not know, just worry about yours and then find out the end of the day who else is up there? NICK WATNEY: Well, I think especially here it doesn't really I don't really, I'm trying not to get into it early in the tournament. But hopefully if I have a chance coming down the last few holes on Sunday, I would like to know how I stand, but here, especially with different playing different courses and I teed off early and maybe the wind came up, you just never know what other guys are doing, so it doesn't really make that big a difference this early in the event. Q. You've played well here in the past, a couple of good finishes, these courses just seem to fit your game or do you just like to come out early in the year and fire? NICK WATNEY: I think both. I like it down here. I like being in California. And I think that the greens are so nice that if you're playing well, then you're going to shoot a low score. That's just kind of how it is. So, I'm not sure why I've tended to play well here, but I hope it keeps up. Q. For 36 holes more at least this year? NICK WATNEY: Yes. That's right. Q. How would you characterize the past couple of years? I'm sure it wasn't exactly what you were hoping for. NICK WATNEY: Yeah, last year was definitely not what I wanted on the golf course. Having said that, I had a baby, my wife had a baby last March, so a bit of a just a life adjustment. But, those things happen and so I feel like our lives are evening out now, we're kind of understanding the rhythm of everything, so I'm excited to be back out this year, feel like it's a fresh start, and hopefully there's some good golf out there. Q. You said outside that you almost feel like a TOUR rookie now that you're completely hitting the reset button. What does that feel like? NICK WATNEY: Well, it just feels like a clean slate. As we, as you just said, last year was not really what I have become accustomed to and not how I want to play, so I had a longer break than I normally do in the off season, but I think that was good and my game feels great and I'm really excited just to start fresh this year and see what I can do. Q. What's the biggest adjustment for a TOUR player like yourself who has a newborn when you're dealing with that for the first couple months, what's the biggest thing? NICK WATNEY: Well, I want to be involved, as involved as I can in helping my wife raise her and all that stuff, but there's also, golf, if you don't put in the time, you're not going to get the results. So I think it's just time management and learning sometimes you only have a few hours, but you can make them really good quality hours and that's better than maybe five or six just kind of not so intense or whatever. So, I think just time management with the baby is the biggest thing. JOE CHEMYCZ: Nick, thank you. Play well the rest of the week. NICK WATNEY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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