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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

August 12, 2016

Tom Gillis

Silvis, Illinois

Q. You look like you've got some unfinished business from last year.
TOM GILLIS: Well, I don't think I fully -- it bothered me all year. I think it'll always bother me when you're a journeyman player and you don't get a lot of chances like that and you get that close, it stings. It's not like I came in here saying I'm going to make amends for it because I haven't shown any form since then, to be quite honest with you. So I didn't have a lot of expectations, but for some reason when I get here, I'm quiet in the mind and my mind is clear, I can see everything I want to do, and it just sets up well.

Q. Do you feel like this is a special place? It seems to be for you?
TOM GILLIS: Well, it could have been really special last year, but it is special, yeah. I like playing in the Midwest, and it's a golf course that is not so much based around distance, which a lot of the TOUR is now, so it's more shot making, wedge play and putting, and at 48, at my age, that kind of is appealing to me.

Q. You were so impressive last year in defeat, really impressive. It sounds like that really stung more than maybe we even realized.
TOM GILLIS: It stung. You know, it stung, just because I never won out here. Like I said, I'm that journeyman type player. I've done it for 26 years and played in 28 countries, and I never won on the European Tour. I've won on the Web, never won out here. That's all I wanted was one of them. Maybe we'll get another shot this weekend, who knows. It's a long way to go, but -- I think what stung is a lot has to happen right, and you get to close, you'd like to close the deal.

Q. What's working for you this week beyond what we've seen on TV?
TOM GILLIS: Well, I think it just goes back to what I was saying. It's a clear and calm mind. I haven't done anything different at all this week. I haven't changed my swing or anything like that. I just showed up. It must just be a nice little energy feel around here that appeals to me, I don't know.

Q. How much do you still think about that from last year?
TOM GILLIS: Probably think about it every day. For a moment or two it comes up. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It was great play, but when you get that close, you'd just like to do it. I've been thinking about it more of late because I'm outside the 200 -- I'm outside the 75 on the Web and I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do with the rest of my life, even for the next two years until I turn 50. It's really been on my mind the last two months.

Q. You used the term yourself journeyman. What was the reaction in the locker room and maybe from fans on the road for how well you did last year facing --
TOM GILLIS: Oh, I think the locker room -- not to sound arrogant, I think the locker room -- we would always be pulling for a journeyman guy in the locker room. I mean, they wanted me to do it. When I got on the plane, they wanted me to do it. Who wouldn't? If there was a guy 46, 47, been grinding all those years and has a chance to beat the No. 1 player in the world, because he's going to get his share, you know, but he was -- the game is in good hands with guys like him. It was a special moment. I just wish it would have been different, that's for sure. But it is what it is. Maybe we'll get another look here this weekend.

Q. You mentioned your future. Have you thought about what happens if you don't --
TOM GILLIS: I think about it all night when I wake up and think about it. You know, this is the side people don't see. They just see you standing there and making your 500 grand for that one week, and they don't see that other stuff, you know, where you've got two kids at home, an eight and a ten-year old, and you're like, what am I qualified to do, and when you really think about it, you're like, not a whole lot other than something around golf or maybe start some sort of a business, and that's always a crap shoot.

I kind of came to grips with it this week, that everybody is like, you've got to be excited to get back, and I was like, well, we'll see how I feel when I get there. I was excited to get here, but when you play that practice round and you go through and you see that bogey you made on 16 from just behind the green and not getting it up-and-down on 17 from 37 yards, you know, those are the things that sting. I never realized when I went back and watched the video after the British Open that I was in command all day. I didn't look at the board until late in the round, so I didn't really -- about two months later actually I watched the video of it, and it really hurt. I wish I wouldn't have watched it, because I was like, boy, that was really mine.

Q. What's your routine now? Are you doing anything else on the range?
TOM GILLIS: No, I don't do anything else, not at 48. I go up there into that physio trailer and we do some damage control on stuff and see if we can get up and feel good tomorrow. The good thing is we're not going to get rolling until probably 3:00, 3:30 tomorrow, so I'll have some time off my feet.

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