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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 3, 2015

Norton, Massachusetts

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Jimmy Walker into the interview room, fresh off today's Pro Am. And we're joined by Mark Kelly, it's great having him here with us, as well, here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Captain Kelly is the husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. And he is a retired United States Navy combat veteran, test pilot and NASA astronaut.

That's quite a rÃ©sumÃ©, there. If we can just get your comments.

JIMMY WALKER: Why am I here? It was very cool when I got the call that this was happening. This is cool, anything to promote science and space, which is my passion. To be able to hang out for five hours with a guy that actually did it for a living is very cool and served our country, it's a very cool day.

JOHN BUSH: Captain Kelly, if we can get some comments from you how did went out there today and getting the chance to play with Jimmy.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: First of all, it was an honor to play with Jimmy, great guy, I really enjoyed it. I did find out that all that stuff you said that was on my rÃ©sumÃ©, does not translate to the golf course, in any way whatsoever. And I've got to be honest with you, I've never stood next to somebody who hit a driver from the fairway 300 yards and put it almost on the green. It's quite impressive.

JOHN BUSH: Before we open it up to questions, as you can see we have a special golf club that's up here on the podium. On February 6th, 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, for which he was serving as Commander, Alan Shepard used a 6-iron to hit two shots on the surface of the moon.

We're lucky enough today to have one of only two replicas of that club. It's on loan from the World Golf Hall of Fame museum in St. Augustine.

Jimmy, what do you think about that golf club?

JIMMY WALKER: I think it's very cool. I always thought it was kind of folklore from my home course. One of my good friends at home, his dad actually made it, he was the head pro at River Oaks. He made the club for him to take up. I just confirmed that, so I don't sound like a complete knuckle head up here. It's very cool. It's in pristine shape and it's very cool. It's our sport. It's the first one played off the planet, why not?

JOHN BUSH: Captain Kelly, special day, your brother is currently in space, he tweeted out some photos today wishing you guys well in the Pro Am. Just comment a little bit about your relationship with him.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: So he sent me an email earlier today, he was trying to get a picture of TPC Boston, he's been struggling over the last couple of days. He said this place is very well camouflaged by all the trees. He's going to get the picture today and send it down hopefully.

Being around this club is pretty special to me. Alan Shepherd was certainly one of my heroes, big golfer. I'd met him a couple of times, unfortunately he died a couple of years into my work at the astronaut office. I'm curious with Jimmy, how far he thinks he can hit a golf club.

JIMMY WALKER: It actually feels like it's the proper length. I bet I could give it a pretty good rip.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: Can we try that today?

JOHN BUSH: The World Golf Hall of Fame would probably appreciate if you would not try that.

Q. For both of you guys, actually obviously Jimmy, you've got a very strong interest and passion in space photography. And it looked like maybe you were sharing some of are photos with Mr. Kelly, I don't know if that was the case. But if that was the case, Mr. Kelly, what did you think of Jimmy's photos, if you had not seen them before? And for someone who has actually been to space and seen it, did you see any different angles that he was providing you?
CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: I didn't his photos on the golf course. Jimmy was showing me some photos, but it was of an airplane, a Navy F-18, which I used to fly, but it wasn't the same squadron. But I have looked at his photos on line, and they're remarkable. It's hard to take a good photo in space or of things in space. I've taken a lot of pictures from the Space Shuttle, mostly of the earth. But it's hard to capture stuff that is in some cases millions of light years away with a good image. The pictures that he takes are pretty incredible. It's hard to do.

Q. You were talking, just respectfully, how impressive it was to see Jimmy hit the driver off the deck. Were there conversations out of the course of the day, being in awe of each other's careers, being in envy, I'd love to have done what you've done and vice versa?
JIMMY WALKER: I picked his brain quite a bit, I hope I didn't overwhelm them but I tried to keep it to a minimum, you know. It's not every day you get to pick the brain of somebody that was top of their field. And he definitely is and was.

Some of them were probably dumb questions. Some of them I thought were pretty good questions. Mostly just about the stuff he went through and what it's like. It's just stuff we'll never get to experience. To be able to get down and spend five hours with somebody, and get to ask him cool questions. And vice versa, he asked some great questions of how to play golf and what I think about. He's obviously trying to learn and get better.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: At one point we were going back and forth between talking about launching in the rocket ship, what that feels like, going uphill, and the merits of putting a line on the golf ball to help line up your putt. And that's what I was more interested in.

Q. How did you get interested in golf and what's your handicap, that kind of thing?
CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: My handicap is golf. I started playing golf when I was 7. But I never -- I've never taken any lessons. I think my golf game is a testament to the value of golf lessons.

So I hit some good shots today. I think I parred a couple of holes. I had some others on there. So it wasn't pretty well. To be honest, I've never hit a golf ball with other people watching, other than the people I've been playing with. And that was okay. It was a lot of fun. I liked talking to the people on the sidelines there, the few that were out there. But it was a good crowd and I really enjoyed it.

Q. Does your brother play?
CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: My brother plays golf, and if Jimmy thinks I'm bad, you want to see a bad golfer, he's in space right now.

JIMMY WALKER: I did not say that.

Q. Captain Kelly, have you ever hit a golf ball without the benefit of gravity?
CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: On my first space flight we took a golf ball into space from St. Andrews, and one of my crew members, Dan Tani, made a little golf club and we did hit it. You've got to be careful, you don't want to break anything, when you hit the golf ball, even though the club is made of cardboard, the ball will keep going. There's no gravity, so it's going to go for a ways, and it can be dangerous in the space station. You're not supposed to take sports memorabilia into space, it's a NASA rule. But sometimes, like something so special, like something from St. Andrews, we were able to get that approved.

Q. Jimmy, you seem fairly critical of yourself for the questions that you asked him. Could you give us an example of a question that you thought was good and one you thought was not so good?
JIMMY WALKER: I don't know, I had jokes lined up, do you guys really eat astronaut space ice cream that you can buy at the gift shop in Houston. I didn't ask that one.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: If we want ice cream, we fly Ben & Jerry's.

JIMMY WALKER: I was just asking questions about his past. And I read about -- I read up on him last night before we came and played and his career in the military and what he's flown.

CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: He asked about risk. What's more risky, the lift off, the landing or in space, because you might think one thing, and then there's statistically might be something different, we talked about that.

JIMMY WALKER: What's dicier, going up or coming down? Technically it's just being in space. It's really dangerous. Going up and coming down, is not mathematically as dangerous. Just interesting questions like that. I thought that was a pretty good one.

Q. Just curious, Jimmy, have you met the golfer, Andy Sullivan, from Europe, he made a hole-in-one and won a trip to space, did you read that story?
JIMMY WALKER: No, I did not.

Q. He made a hole-in-one on some tournament, and part of the deal is there is a trip into space that comes with that.
CAPTAIN MARK KELLY: Like on Virgin Galactic?

JIMMY WALKER: I think if I was going into space it would only be with the boys from NASA. Everybody else seems like they're kind of having a hard time. It's got to be brutally tough, I have no idea.

Q. That was my question, would you like to go?
JIMMY WALKER: Everybody asks me that. Right now in my life, no. I've got two little boys. Ask mark, it's pretty risky stuff. Not right now. I'll sit at home and take pictures of it.

Q. Jimmy, sorry to bore you with a golf question, but to this week and your season, you've got this ability when you get hot you get red hot and we've seen it now with Jason Day. Is there something that you're looking at with your own schedule to try to get the timing right that you're peaking through major season and then at the point at the end of the season with FedExCup?
JIMMY WALKER: It's hard to say, I would love to peak the week of Augusta or the U.S. Open. It's so hard to do. Each year you sit back and look at what happened, why was I so good at this point, what were the factors that contributed to that. And I keep coming to one conclusion, and it's a matter of time and putting in the effort.

But I'm going to try it even more next year, or try to keep -- I think it's more of a working out, staying in better conditioning throughout the year. I'm not saying I'm getting tired. I'm just saying that in the off-season I work out pretty hard. I put on a little bit of muscle.

And then as the year goes on, I don't keep up with it. And it starts to -- I can feel the body just kind of starting to deteriorate. I'm not physically tired, I'm still in great shape, what have you. I am getting older. I always feel nice and solid and put together at the start of the year. I'm really going to try to make an effort next year to keep that momentum and keep that going throughout the year.

These guys will tell you, they go up into space -- that was a question we were talking about. I said how important is exercise up there? You read about the bone loss and all that stuff. He was telling me some crazy stories, you can lose 10 percent of your bone mass in two weeks if you don't do anything about it up there. It's crazy stuff.

Being physically fit, conditioning is huge, and especially in today's age where we're playing more and more and more golf. There is no off-season anymore. It's just run and gun. I have to stay on that next year.

JOHN BUSH: Captain Kelly, Jimmy, we appreciate both of your time. We'll get some photos with both of these guys with the golf club.

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