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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 9, 2015Tom WatsonAUGUSTA, GEORGIA Q. Nice round of golf today. TOM WATSON: Thank you. Q. Talk about it just briefly. TOM WATSON: Briefly? Q. Well, maybe not briefly. Talk about it for awhile. TOM WATSON: No, perfect conditions. No wind. Greens are very soft. It was there for the taking, the golf course. There's a lot of good scores early and the wind is maybe going to come up and maybe throw some elements of weather and wind into this golf course, which always makes it a little bit more difficult. My game is pretty good. I was happy with the way I played. I hit the first green, I hit two really good shots and then a 3‑putt. Then I almost holed it at No. 2. My third shot there. I played some pretty good golf after that. I couldn't reach 7 and get the ball on the green at 7. 9's awfully tough for me to get the pin at 9. The kids are hitting 8‑irons to 7, and 9‑irons to 9, and I'm back there hitting 3‑irons off the down slope to both 7 and 9. It's a hard shot for an old guy like me. Q. Birdie at 10? TOM WATSON: Yeah, I got lucky at 10. I hit a very good drive, pushed my second shot, probably no more than about four or five feet, really. I hit‑‑ I was hitting it just left of the hole and just trying to hold it up and I just pushed it a little bit. The bunker shot, got lucky. It landed about six feet short and then it was a slam dunk into it for a birdie, rather than rolling by about 10 feet or eight feet. So it was just a normal birdie at number 10. Then I got ‑‑ I made a good up‑and‑down at 11 to the right there. Didn't want to take much of a chance there, from where I have to hit it from on a second shot, I have to hit it from way back. Then played, 13, 14 ‑‑ 13, 12 and 13 well. 14, I tried to run it up the slope and it came back. Then I hit a really good pitch over the mound there, over the Bob Jones mound there, the MacKenzie mound and knocked it to about a foot for a par. Hit a good birdie at 15. Hit a really good shot at 16 to about three feet. Made that par. Parred 17. Hard shot for me, trying to hit that green with a 4‑iron. That green is not conducive to holding a 4‑iron shot. Then 18, I didn't hit a very good drive, hit off a tree in the fairway and I'm back there and I hit a 3‑wood, knowing if I hit it on green, it would probably go over. Which it did. And I got it on from over the green and made about an 8‑footer to make par and break par. So I was hoping I was going to break par. I was concentrating on that putt. I really wanted to make that. Q. How far back do you have to go to remember the conditions being this benign? TOM WATSON: We have had conditions this benign here.  It's a little softer than I remember it. The course is playing or the greens are a little bit softer than I remember for quite a number of years. Q. Have you been playing well in your practice and preparation leading up to this? TOM WATSON: No. (Laughter.) No. Well, old age and treachery. Treachery and just‑‑ I played the golf course enough times to know where I'm supposed to hit it and where I'm not supposed to hit it. I struggled the last few years hitting it, trying to hit shots like I used to, when I know that I had to hit my best shot, and the ego gets involved. My ego got involved too much the last few years. And today I just kind of, I played within myself today. Q. Does your ego want to make the cut and play some more? TOM WATSON: Yeah, I want to make the cut. Yeah. I haven't done that for a few years. Q. Are you more relaxed this year than you were before? You can just worry about your own game and not everybody else's? TOM WATSON: I don't ever worry about anybody else's game. Never do that. Q. Your other responsibilities as Ryder Cup captain. TOM WATSON: Oh, that? No. No. Not ‑‑ last year it didn't have any affect on the way I played last year. Not at all. Q. (No Microphone.) TOM WATSON: No. No, I saw him before that. Q. How is your relationship with him now? Is it awkward? TOM WATSON: No, we just said hello and that was it. Q. How much fun was it to, not just competing against the kids, but successfully today. Does that get the juices flowing a little bit more? TOM WATSON: Yeah, it does. It's fun to be able to at least be in red figures at Augusta National. At my age, that's, it's a minor miracle. Q. (No Microphone.) TOM WATSON: I did. I wanted to have Doug Ford talk about the great shot that he hit, that the kids didn't know about, that he told me a couple years ago. I asked him, how did you, how did you come down to the wire winning the Masters. And the kids love that. They love stories like that. How did you win the Masters? Everyone in that room has won the Masters, so they know how they did it. But it's always fun to listen to other players describe how they did it. And that shot that he hit there was‑‑ Q. Out of the bunker? TOM WATSON: There was a bunker to the left of the 18th green, which is not there any more. He buried the ball in that bunker. The flag was front right of the green. And he couldn't go at the flag. And he had a two shot cushion. And if he goes at the flag, he goes off the green and goes down the hill and is struggling to make bogey, probably make double bogey and a playoff. So he looked at that slope and the bunker setup there and he looked at that slope up to the left there and he takes it and comes out sideways, kind of like Tiger Woods did at 16, rolls up the hill like that, comes down. Jarred it. He went on to win by three. It was a hell of a shot. Nobody knows that shot. So I got up and said, "Doug, tell us about that shot." It's very true. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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