home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS


April 23, 2015


Boo Weekley


AVONDALE, LOUISIANA

DOUG MILNE:  Really, a man that needs no introduction.  Boo Weekley, thank you for joining us.  Great start to your week here with an 8‑under, 64 today.  Just a couple comments on the round and we'll take a few questions.
BOO WEEKLEY:  Thank you for having me.  I played well today.  I mean, I changed some shafts this week, changed the driver last week, and it's starting to come together.  I mean, it's just amazing the True Temper.  You go to tinkering around with clubs and you finally find a shaft, and they finally stepped up and built me a set of clubs and they worked.
DOUG MILNE:  I heard you mention in jest yesterday that you had all kinds of stress going around in your head.  Was that tinkering the stuff?
BOO WEEKLEY:  Yeah, I mean, last month, month‑and‑a‑half we played the golf courses I really like.  I played one good tournament in that one span, but it was where there wasn't a whole‑‑ there was wind, but it wasn't a whole lot of wind.  We had to play in the last five tournaments there had been a little bit of breeze blowing, and I hadn't been able to control my irons in it.  I think I hit a good shot, and I look up and it's 20 yards long or 15 yards long or 10 or 15 yards short.  It just kind of starts messing with you mentally.
I had to come to a change, and that's why I was kind of like you overheard me.  I was stressed out a lot just trying to figure out what's going on with my clubs.  Finally my coach and my caddie, David and them got together and Scott Hamilton, and we all talked to the True Temper guys, and they got it worked out, and we figured something out, I think.

Q.  I think you missed the last three cuts.  Did you feel you were close and just needed a little something extra to get over the hump, or did it just come out of the blue?
BOO WEEKLEY:  No, it was just something that, like I said, I've been missing something in my game, and it was because I ain't been able to control my irons.  I've always been, I feel like, a top 15 player in the world when it comes to iron play and hitting the shots.  I've always hit a lot of greens.  If you look at my stats this year, it ain't been very good.  I think I'm like 40th or 50th, and that, for me, that's unacceptable, and it can't be but one thing.  If you're swinging at it good, and then come to find out it's the shaft.  Not knocking the shaft that I was using, but it's just that shaft didn't fit me the way I play.

Q.  You talked about changing your driver.  What were you using and what did you change to?
BOO WEEKLEY:  I'm still hitting a Taylor Made driver, just they've been trying to find some different shafts.  Some of the shafts load different, of course, and I think we finally found one that bent the driver a little flatter, and I think a Fubuki, some kind of Fubuki shaft on it.
I don't know nothing about shafts.  The companies do all of that, and you find the right one.  It just takes you a while to find one, and when you find it, you just go with it, and that's what I did.

Q.  How much time with the shafts this week, practice round Monday?
BOO WEEKLEY:  No, they put them in, and I put them in play yesterday in the Pro‑Am.

Q.  So 18 holes?
BOO WEEKLEY:  I played 18 holes, and I hit a lot of good shots out there, I think.  I don't remember exactly what I shot, but I played really well yesterday too, and then it kind of showed today too.  Finally hitting the shots, hitting my distance, that makes a difference for us out here.  All of us hit it the same.  It's just who is hitting it the closest that week, and that's what makes the difference.

Q.  You've battled injuries the last several years and been coming back and getting hurt.  Where are you right now?
BOO WEEKLEY:  I'm pretty healthy.  I mean, I feel good.  I've got a little thumb problem, but that ain't nothing major.  It's just something you've got to massage every now and then, it gets cramped up in there.  A little tendon problem, I think.  But other than that, it's all good.

Q.  Did the injuries motivate you?  Did you think it's great playing golf, and I've made a bunch of money, I've had enough.  I'll go Fish the rest of my life?  Do injuries motivate you like I'm not going to finish this way?
BOO WEEKLEY:  No, I just play the game, man.  You play hurt or you don't play.  And that's the thing.  It didn't motivate me.  I felt like, once I got healed up, I felt like I could play again and win again.  I feel like I'm getting close to it now.  I've got a guy that's caddying for me that understands the practice side of it, and what my weaknesses are.  Him and my coach, they kind of go through it and look at what we need to work on in the following weeks or months coming into what we need to do.  That's kind of what we've done this year.
We've played it pretty good early in the year.  But we ain't played really well the last month and a half, two months.  We're out there practicing, and that's what we're working on is where I've been messing up the most at.  You know, I feel good.  I feel like‑‑ I ain't saying I can win this tournament or any other tournament this year, but I feel like I'm getting closer.

Q.  You talk about the shafts, how long have you been playing those shafts before you changed?  And you mentioned you were playing pretty good earlier in the year, were those still the same shafts that you just changed out?
BOO WEEKLEY:  Yes, sir.  Because earlier in the year we didn't have any wind.  I mean, all the courses that I played good at, Mississippi, out in the desert in Palm Springs, there ain't no wind there.  So the ball just flies the normal distance.  But every golf course that we got into the wind, I missed the cuts at except for Puerto Rico.  Which I like Puerto Rico because it's short and tight, and you ain't got to hit a whole lot of hard shots.

Q.  You got off to a good start with an eagle at 2.  What were the course conditions like?  How receptive were the greens?
BOO WEEKLEY:  The greens are good considering all the rain and everything they've had.  They're going to get spiked up because of as much rain as they've had and as the day goes on.  They were starting to get spiked up pretty good on the back side, so the guys in the afternoon it's going to be a little bumpier.  But if you hit it close, you still can make the putts.

Q.  (Indiscernible).
BOO WEEKLEY:  Yeah, I mean one way if I made eagle or made birdie I still feel like I accomplished and missed the short one‑on‑one.  I made that one on two.  Got it up and down on 3.  And then missed a short one on 4 and then hit it to, I don't know, an inch, two inches on the next hole.  I mean, it built confidence with what I did yesterday, now I've got to go out and play with the confidence that I've built, and that's where I'm at right now.

Q.  Is there any advantage to when the weather turns like it did the last two holes?  It's dead calm, it's humid.  Most people can't breathe, but this is what you grew up in.
BOO WEEKLEY:  I don't think it's an advantage.  It's just something that the people that live in the south, we're used to it.  The guys that live up north‑‑ we all travel around.  We all play the game.  We're all going to have to play in it, so they kind of know.  NorthCarolina's just like the same thing as this right here.  You go over to Jacksonville two weeks from now it's the same thing.  So everybody can adapt to it pretty easily.  It's just heat.

Q.  For a first round, this is your lowest first round since 2012.  Do you look at it like well, it's just a first round, and there is a lot of golf left, or do you feel like this is a really good start and I can build off of this?
BOO WEEKLEY:  You can't win a tournament today.  I mean, it's just another round of golf.  I'm grateful that I shot 8‑under, but if it had been a 4‑under, I'd still be just as grateful.

Q.  Would you walk us through your round?
BOO WEEKLEY:  Oh, birdies?

Q.  The eagle on 2?
BOO WEEKLEY:  It was a driver.  I hit driver, 3‑wood to about 12, 15 feet, made it.  Where else did I birdie at?  No. 5 I hit it, I think, a couple inches there.  Let's see, 7, the par‑5, I hit driver, 3‑wood there over the green, and then chipped it up there to about five feet and made it.  Then number 8, I hit hybrid, I hit wedge in there 10 or 12 feet there and made it.
DOUG MILNE:  Bogey at 9.
BOO WEEKLEY:  Then 9, we thought the wind was in off the right, and all three of us hit it over thinking the wind was going to push it.  Mine kind of kicked and rolled down to the bottom a little further on the crown.  It was just a tough up and down.  On 11, I hit driver, 3‑wood to the green, and two‑putted it from about 30 feet.
DOUG MILNE:  12, par‑4.
BOO WEEKLEY:  That the short one, dogleg left?  I don't even remember.  Let's see, 10, 11.  Yeah, 12, I hit driver, 5‑iron in there, right behind the hole.  Made it.  Then the next hole was driver, lob wedge, I think, to about 10 feet, rolled it in.  Then the par‑3, made par.  Next hole got it up and down.  Next hole got it up and down.
Then 18, yeah, I think 18 was the driver.  It was just in between clubs.  Really, I wanted to go for it, but my caddie was like, No, we don't need to go for it.  I was like, We're hitting it good right now.  He said, No, I don't think so.  Let's just hit the 7‑iron out there and we'll wedge it in close and make birdie.  I was like, Are you sure?  And he's all, No, man.  Here's the 7‑iron, so I hit the 7‑iron.

Q.  How close did you get on that one?
BOO WEEKLEY:  I hit it about 11 feet, and he read it right.

Q.  On No. 1 you said you missed a short one there.  How long was it?  How close was it to being a really good‑‑ not a really good round, but an even better round?
BOO WEEKLEY:  Let's see.  I felt like if the putts would have fell that I hit, I felt like it could have been a 59, easy.  I mean, I missed it on 1, made it on 2.  Missed it on 4, and then let's see.  That was on the front and made bogey on 9.  I felt like I should have easily shot 8‑under on the front side, you know?

Q.  When did 59 come into your mind?
BOO WEEKLEY:  It didn't.

Q.  It never did?
BOO WEEKLEY:  Just until he brought it up.  Hey, look, 59 don't cross your mind very often, man.  That number doesn't cross your mind.  Maybe after 9 or a par‑3 course.

Q.  When was the last time you felt this good about your iron game, and what happens from a mental standpoint?  Say you go out and you don't hit it as well tomorrow, do you give up on it?
BOO WEEKLEY:  No.

Q.  What happens?
BOO WEEKLEY:  No, I saw the good in it today.  Last two days I saw the good in it.  It doesn't matter what happens from here out.  I saw the good in it.  So if we don't hit it good tomorrow, we don't hit it good tomorrow.  That's why it's a 4‑letter word, golf.
DOUG MILNE:  We always appreciate your time.
BOO WEEKLEY:  Yes, sir, thank you all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297