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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2007

Bobby Wadkins

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

DOUG MILNE: Bobby, thank you for joining us. It's nice to have you here. Just a couple comments. Obviously you won two Champions Tour majors last year, one of which got you here. Just a couple comments on what it means to be back.
BOBBY WADKINS: I think that's very special. I think now that I understand that the Senior PGA gets you in the PGA, the Senior British Open gets you back in the British Open, and now winning our PLAYERS Championship gets you in this one. I think all the guys on the Champions Tour who have been here before kind of look at it like it's a great big perk, gives us a chance if we play well to get back and see some people that we haven't seen in a while.
So we're all tickled that it's turned out that way. I get to be the first to kind of represent the Champions Tour, and hopefully we'll have a good week and make a good showing.
DOUG MILNE: You're playing well right now. You won actually what Lanny first won.
BOBBY WADKINS: I think that was about six weeks ago or two months ago. Got off to a pretty good start this year, playing decent, had a couple Top 10s the last couple weeks.
I played 18 holes this morning, though this golf course is going to be all you can handle. They've got it -- it's in just perfect shape, and obviously the wind today is -- hopefully this stuff keeps on going somewhere further south. We don't care where it goes, but it's got to get the hell out of here (laughter).

Q. Can you tell any differences at this point in what you've been able to play, and can you tell that the fairways and the greens have been redone and the drainage has improved and it's running a little bit firmer than maybe the last time you played here?
BOBBY WADKINS: It's been a long time, and I can use old age as an excuse that I forgot what it was like to be here, but you can tell just by what I've saw on TV the last couple years and remembering the last time that I did play, the greens are going to be -- they're going to be the hard part this week. They're going to be firm and they're going to be -- I don't think extremely fast, but they're going to be tough to get the ball close to the hole. You've got your work cut out this week.

Q. Is there anybody that -- you said you're looking forward to seeing some of the guys. Anybody you're looking forward to needling a little bit?
BOBBY WADKINS: Well, I played early this morning with Bill Haas. Jay and I flew over together last night, and Bill had called him and said that he needed a little lesson, could his father come over, and he's playing in the tournament. I said, well, hell, I'm two years older than your dad. I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I really haven't seen anybody yet, but it's -- I can't wait to see anybody that I played with and stuff. The few people that I have seen have said they've been keeping up with me, and I've been keeping up with them. I just saw Stricker and Tim Herron and stuff, and they all said you've been playing well. Steve had a great week last week, and same thing.
So we keep up with the regular TOUR all the time and checking on those guys, and hopefully they check on us.

Q. They added a little bit of length here, but with the firmer fairways they figure it's going to be a wash --
BOBBY WADKINS: No, it won't be a wash.

Q. Really?
BOBBY WADKINS: No.

Q. Do you have enough length to contend here if the other parts of your game are going well?
BOBBY WADKINS: Yeah, you know what, this -- out there today, you know, Bill was hitting some 5-irons where I had to hit 3-irons and stuff like that, so it is going to make a difference. But if it warms up a little bit where the back can kind of get loose and where I'm swinging good, I think I can compete, yeah.
I mean, I wouldn't be here -- I didn't come here to play bad. That's just not -- Lanny and I grew up giving it 100 percent, and that's what we're here for to do. My 100 percent might not be what it used to be, but we'll give it the best. I came here to have a good week. I can shake hands with people later.

Q. What are some of your favorite moments and memories of playing this course?
BOBBY WADKINS: I don't have too many good ones quite frankly. I think I did have one Top 10, and for a long time -- I think I made 50 grand or something like that, and it was one of the biggest checks I ever made. My best memories here are catching some eight-, nine-pound bass alongside 18. Bruce Lietzke and Bill Rogers, we used to come in here and make sure we could fish before anybody got here. Now everybody is bringing their trainers and their swing doctors and everything and doing that stuff. But that's also why they're shooting 25 under par every week.

Q. Between the changes and the time gap since you've been here, do you feel like you have to re-learn this course?
BOBBY WADKINS: You know what, not really because you play off your yardage. So basically once you've really played one round and see where you can drive the golf ball, then your caddie is going to have the yardage. You just need to know where to go off the tee.
I think all these guys will tell you, once you learn which corners you can cut and which corners you can't cut and what bunkers are in play and what bunkers are not in play, then everything else is yardage to the green. Once you learn where to go off the tee, then you're fine.
So the few holes that they've changed I need to -- the second hole I used to be able to drive it through the fairway. With the new tee back there, unless it gets really humping downwind, I don't have to worry about that. You have to learn some of that, but that's about it.

Q. What's your opinion of the new clubhouse as opposed to what you remember of the old one?
BOBBY WADKINS: It's fantastic. If you don't like this, you just don't like what money can do for you.

Q. How much do amenities like comfortable spaces, clubhouse with all the bells and whistles, how much does that mean to you guys, or is it the golf course that attracts you?
BOBBY WADKINS: I think now from what I've heard and stuff, I think everything adds into the equation. Jay and I were talking last night, we remember hitting practice balls at Westchester, the first place to serve you food in the locker room and that kind of stuff, and paying for your range balls.
Now, what, everybody gets a courtesy car. They have meals for you not only on this Tour but our Tour. We eat breakfast and lunch at the clubhouse. They bend over backwards to make the pros happy.
I think the golf course means more than that. Everybody is doing that. Everybody is giving you the perks. So I think most of your good players are going to go where the good golf courses are.

Q. Historically how are you on Pete Dye courses? Did you have a good record at Hilton Head?
BOBBY WADKINS: Yeah, I got beat in a playoff by Bernhard Langer in '85 right after he won The Masters. He came the next week and beat me. I played well there a couple times and stuff.
You know what, I really don't get into who built it, I just try to get into how I'm playing it. I know that doesn't -- that's not what you're looking for, but just like my fishing rods and my rifles, I don't know anything about them except they shoot straight and they catch fish.

Q. Are you going to fish this week?
BOBBY WADKINS: I had some friends drive down from Richmond and stuff that we're staying with; they brought some tackle down so we might slip out there and catch a few if this front gets out of here.
DOUG MILNE: Bobby Wadkins, thanks for your time and coming in.
BOBBY WADKINS: My pleasure.

End of FastScripts

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