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FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

January 29, 2016

Gary Woodland

San Diego, California

ALEX URBAN: We're pleased to welcome Gary Woodland to the interview room here at the Farmers Insurance Open. 9-under par after two rounds here at Torrey Pines.

You hold the lead as it stands currently. Talk about your play today which was a fantastic round on the South Course and where you stand through two rounds.

GARY WOODLAND: I'm very excited about where I stand. Very comfortable with my game right now. I drove the ball exceptionally well today, especially early in the round. Gave myself a lot of chances. When I drive the ball in the fairway out here I'm having some short irons into play I'm having mid irons into some of these par-5s, so I drive the ball like I did today, good things are happening right now.

ALEX URBAN: Open it up for some questions.

Q. Can you revisit a few years ago where you felt like maybe you should have won here and what the by-product of that was, what the follow-up, did it make you better, more resolved, anything?
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I had a very good chance to win two years ago. I played exceptionally well all week. Made a bad swing there on 17 on Sunday and made double and it was unfortunate.

But I like this golf course. This golf course suits me really well. A lot of holes go left-to-right. So I can sit like I can just hit driver and hit as hard as I want and keep the ball in play. When a golf course like that, I don't hit my drivers on a lot of courses, but this golf course allows me to hit a lot of drivers, so I feel I have a huge advantage out here.

Q. Is that because you have a fade?
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, I like to hit the driver left-to-right. And the holes really that go left-to-right are the short holes that allow me to hit iron off the tee. So it's a golf course that suits me very well off the tee box, it gives me a chance to be aggressive.

Q. Interesting you having said that, because like people talking to Dustin after the round today, guys like you and Dustin, who bomb it, there's this assumption that Torrey Pines is just made for you guys. But there's a lot more to it than length, right?
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, you got to drive the ball in the fairway. The greens are very firm, the rough is definitely thick and up. If you miss fairways you're going to give your self a tough chance to make par. So, it's nice to have the length, because I'm able to hit irons into some of these par-5s that guys aren't getting home to. That gives a huge advantage. I'm able to hit iron off some of these shorter holes. Which gives me a chance to get the ball in the fairway a lot easier than a lot of guys.

Q. How does this rough compare to Regular Tour events?
GARY WOODLAND: This is as thick as we see. Since we changed the grooves a couple years ago, the rough's been pretty cut down most weeks. There are the occasional week, Memorial is usually up. This is another week that usually, especially with the weather that's been out here, it's been cool, rainy, we expected it to be thick. I think they may even have cut it down because earlier in the week you were losing golf balls out there.

Q. I know it's a small sample, but your driving distance for the year is 323. I think last year it was 309 or 300. Still good, but what's gone into that?
GARY WOODLAND: A lot. I'm healthy. As healthy as I've been since I've been on TOUR. So I've had a lot of injuries in the last seven years and I put a lot of work in this off season. I took a lot of time off. I moved down to Miami, hired some trainers down there. That also gave me time to be around Jim McLean. He's Miami. I spent a lot of time with him.

I did make an equipment change, switched back to Titleist throughout the bag, besides the driver and 3-wood, hitting the TaylorMade 3-wood right now, and driver. I'm hitting it a long way. My speed numbers are up, swing speed, ball speed, and the driver, I'm hitting it as long as I've ever hit it. So I'm very comfortable with equipment.

Q. Someone who hits it as hard as you do, as far as you do with all that speed, how more injure prone is that player than others?
GARY WOODLAND: The body's not made to hit golf balls, especially as many as we hit and probably as hard as I hit it. So I've dealt with a lot of injuries, more than I had ever dealt with in any other sport that I played. So that's been frustrating. But I've took a lot of work this off season, met with some biomechanic trainers down in Miami, figured out what we needed to do to change my body and I'm as healthy and feel as good as I've ever felt.

Q. What did they tell you and can you kind of go into detail about what you did?
GARY WOODLAND: They broke my body down. I feel like I've worked hard, I feel like I've trained the right way for a long time, did a lot of golf-specific stuff, but it probably wasn't the best stuff for me. It wasn't the best stuff for my body.

So we found out what the weaknesses were, I was a little weaker in the upper than lower body. We changed that. I put on some muscle. We added more weight -- I've never been a big weight lifter -- we lifted some pretty good weights, but more to get my body in sync, get my body healthy, not trying to get my more power, but trying to get in the right position better I can where I can come out here and play as much as I want. I haven't played as much the last couple years because of that, but I feel like I can play week in week out right now.

Q. What clubs did you hit in on the par-5s, two of them were over 600, right?
GARY WOODLAND: I hit 6-iron into 6. I hit 3-wood into 9. I hit 3-wood into 13. And I hit 2-iron into 18.

Q. Go over 18. I know you needed that and that was a nice putt you made.
GARY WOODLAND: Coming off back to back bogeys, it was nice to drive that ball in the fairway. I wanted to hit 3-iron, but the wind felt like it was picking up a little bit so we tried to hit an easy 2-iron and it came off just a little left.

The bunker shot fooled me it was a pretty easy bunker shot, it just felt very firm under there and it came out a little soft.

So it was nice to make that putt. Nice to finish that way, especially coming off back to back bogeys and driving the ball in the fairway, just felt like I would have gave one away that one.

Q. Are you in Miami?
GARY WOODLAND: I'm not in Miami.

Q. How is the house hunting going?
GARY WOODLAND: It's going. Gabby is busy. She's enjoying it. So, yeah, the house is on the market in Orlando and we'll be down there by end of the year in Miami full-time.

Q. Talking about what the golf swing does to the body and when you see a guy for instance like Justin Thomas who weighs about 150 and hits it 300 or so, do you feel like -- what will a guy like that have to guard against to not get hurt?
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, he's got the luxury of being very young right now. He's got unbelievable speed. So, everybody's body's different. Everybody can handle different things. So, he's just got to stay on top of the physical side off the golf course, the wear and tear of traveling out here, the wear and tear of hitting golf ball after golf ball trying to get to perfection, it wears on you. But you got guys like Vijay, who have done it forever, and hit more balls than anybody and he's been healthy, so there is ways to do it.

Q. Do you not hit as many balls after rounds before as you did?
GARY WOODLAND: I'm able to now. I didn't used to. Last year I very rarely hit a golf ball after I played golf a round of golf.

Q. From where you stand and look how do you see the South Course different from the North Course?
GARY WOODLAND: I think the North Course is a lot harder than it used to be. It's a little bit more demanding. I thought that three, four years ago you were trying to shoot 8- or 9-under par over there. It felt like you could go really low. The rough is definitely up over there the pins are tighter than they used to be, the greens firmer over there, but the South Course is just more demanding. But you see guys shorter hitters doing okay on the South Course because the fairways will run out, you just got to hit it in the fairway.

I think the North Course actually is a little trickier, the South Course is just more demanding on ball striking.

Q. Which one do you feel more comfortable on?
GARY WOODLAND: I feel more comfortable on the South Course for sure of the every hole just seems like I had hit driver, just seems like it fades left-to-right so for me the South Course sets up extremely well for me.

Q. Do you like the fact that it's a public course and the fact that the public can identify with this a little bit?
GARY WOODLAND: A hundred percent. It just adds to it. This golf course is as beautiful as we see. Standing on the cliffs, seeing people hang glide over, you got the fighter jets taking off, which I think is the coolest thing ever. This golf course just springs to life. The crowds are great. They always are here. Especially when the weather is like it is right now. It's just pretty cool week.

Q. You said you had more injuries playing golf than any other sport. How surprised would you have been if somebody told you that was going to happen?
GARY WOODLAND: I wouldn't have believed it at all. I played a lot of baseball, a little bit of football and a lot of basketball growing up and stayed pretty healthy. Seven years out here, I've been beat up every year. So hopefully we can change that right now.

Q. What's the worst injury you had in baseball?
GARY WOODLAND: I broke my leg. I was turning a double play, a kid slid in and broke my leg.

Q. That hasn't happened out here.
GARY WOODLAND: Luckily, that hasn't happened out here.

Q. What's the worst injury out here?
GARY WOODLAND: I blew out my shoulder, my rookie year, 2009, had surgery. Missed a year. But I've dealt with wrist injuries, hip injuries, neck injury. I had to withdraw from the PGA last year, it was unfortunate. So I had to deal with a lot. But I took off almost three months this off season, I moved down to Miami I been with these guys six days a week for the last three months and down there David Alexander has got me in as good shape as I've been in.

Q. It takes a different kind of dedication to do what you're doing with that, right?
GARY WOODLAND: Yeah, it changes everything. It changed my mental outlook, I'm a lot more confident, I feel like I put in the work, I feel like I trained as hard as I've ever trained. That gives you confidence coming out here, knowing that I put the work in at home now I can come out here and just relax and play golf.

Q. How did you find them?
GARY WOODLAND: Through Ray Allen. I was looking for somewhere to go, Mark Steinberg we were looking everywhere. He looked a lot of places, I ended up calling Ray and talking to Ray. David works with LeBron, Dwayne Wade, Ray Allen, he works with a bunch of people. Ray told me to check it out. I went down for the month of October and loved it and now I put my house on the market and I'm moving down there fall time.

Q. Did you know Ray before?
GARY WOODLAND: I met him a little over a year ago. He plays more golf than I do. Just being a basketball fan I always been a Ray fan, so it was nice to meet him and nice to play a little golf with him.

ALEX URBAN: All right, good luck. Good playing this week.

GARY WOODLAND: All right. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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