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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AMFebruary 7, 2008Brad AdamonisPEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA NELSON SILVERIO: 67 today. Why don't you get us started by taking us through your round. BRAD ADAMONIS: I got off to a really great start on the first hole. I made birdie, hit a good shot from the rough about five feet, made a nice putt. Then I birdied 2, hit it probably about ten feet, got a good read from my caddie Tim Duffy, and I got to 2-under. Then I almost birdied 3, left it hanging on the lip. Half of it was in the cup. Then I birdied 4, which was really good. When I was thinking about the golf course and the first four holes, I figured if I could be even par or 1-under, that would be pretty good, and there I was 3-under. I didn't hit a very good shot on 5, and I three-putted. But then I just basically hung in there all day, took advantage of some birdie opportunities on 7, 15 and 17, and just played pretty solid. Q. It was mentioned the year you took off to go coach the golf team. I'm sure you've probably been asked a million times about it, but maybe you could talk a little bit about that and where you've been since and how hard it's been or how easy it's been or whatever. BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, my dad is a coach down at Johnson & Wales University, and I got a job teaching, actually golf, as a class at the University. I got it -- I didn't have status on the Nationwide or the PGA TOUR, and then I -- they let me go to the qualifying school. I said I would take the job as long as you let me go to the qualifying school. So my dad ended up getting really sick, and I had to take over the whole program with 60 kids for two months. My brother helped out a little bit, but then I was going to Q-school at the same time. Two days after my father gets sick, we had our first child, my wife and I Stacey, we had Grace. So it was a really hectic time for me. And then I qualified for the Q-school. I just missed my PGA TOUR card and I was still working for the University until basically May. Q. Did all this kind of happen in the last year or two? BRAD ADAMONIS: No, that was 2005. I played on the Nationwide Tour in 2004, lost my card. 2005 I was still trying to play. I took a job in September 2005, right when I had my first child. My father gets sick like two days after I get the job, and nobody can communicate with him so I was left with the whole responsibility of the program, the golf team. It was kind of a mess. This was in September and October and November. And then I went to Q-school in late October, and luckily I qualified, got on the Nationwide Tour, played the last two years on the Nationwide Tour and here I am on the PGA TOUR. Q. I didn't check this, but you've got your status here through -- BRAD ADAMONIS: Qualifying school. I finished 9th. Q. What kind of program is that? BRAD ADAMONIS: It's an NAI program. They have a golf management program. It's a regular University. My dad is the coach, and basically there's like 50 guys on the team in the program under the golf management program, and I was helping out with that, a little coaching with the team. And they have a great team. They won the NAI Championship in 2004, I think. Q. What's the name of the school? BRAD ADAMONIS: Johnson & Wales University. It's in north Miami. They have four schools around the country. Q. Is your dad back coaching now? BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, he's coaching, luckily, after being out of the loop for about nine months. He had leukemia, throat cancer and also prostate cancer, also staph infections, you name it. He's a survivor. Q. What's his name? BRAD ADAMONIS: Dave Adamonis. Q. That had to be a pretty emotional time for you. BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, it was crazy. Thank God I have a good wife and I have good support from my mother-in-law and also my mother. But my mother was basically taking care of my dad at the same time. Because when we were in the hospital there was numerous things going on, and my mom is a nurse luckily, otherwise he would have died because none of the nurses could really keep up with all the stuff that was going on. She had to keep everybody abreast on their 12-hour shifts of what was going on. Q. That's a pretty big jump in position from two years ago to today -- BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, who would have thought, huh, here I am at Pebble Beach, playing the two best golf courses I've ever played in my life. Q. Spyglass, right? BRAD ADAMONIS: Spyglass. Q. Generally that's considered the toughest, but I don't know if that's helped through the last few years. You haven't played here before. Is this the first time? BRAD ADAMONIS: I played it yesterday, and I played it actually in 2002 with my dad. He came out and we played 18 holes. But I really didn't remember much of it besides the first four holes. Q. We've had a lot of rain here recently. A lot has been made and being said of wetness on the courses. Pebble apparently wasn't too bad. How was it, Spyglass? BRAD ADAMONIS: Spyglass was pretty good. You know, there was a little mud on the ball on some of the tee shots or higher shots, but all in all, I think they made the right decision to play it down. There's no casual water anywhere, just -- it's just a little soft. Which makes it tough to score at the same time. Q. You can't get much roll on the ball, do you? BRAD ADAMONIS: No roll. Q. What do you think when you look at the leaderboard today? Not many of those guys have won on this TOUR here, like yourself trying to make your name. Do you say, hey, there's an opportunity here to do something? BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, you know, I'm not really thinking about the leaderboard. I'm thinking about trying to play the best I can tomorrow. I think Spyglass Hill is probably the second best course I ever played in my life. Pebble is the best course I ever played in my life. So my goal is to go out tomorrow and try to play great at Pebble Beach, then Poppy Hills. That's the way I really want to approach it. I'm not really worried about the leaderboard. Q. You never played any of these courses until this week? BRAD ADAMONIS: I played Spyglass five years ago, but the golf course was -- they actually aerated the fairways, so it was in terrible -- it was a great course, don't get me wrong, but it was in terrible condition at that point. Q. (Inaudible.) BRAD ADAMONIS: Yeah, I don't really remember that, but a couple of the holes. I thought it was pretty tough back then. Q. (Inaudible.) BRAD ADAMONIS: I played Pebble Tuesday morning, 7:00 a.m. in frost. That course was pretty tough, too. But apparently it's scorable if the wind is not blowing, so we'll see. Q. Pebble has such a mystique, and for someone like you who's been chasing a career in golf, to watch it on TV and now you play it and you're at the top of the leaderboard, is there sort of a mental barrier you've got to get through? BRAD ADAMONIS: Not really. Hopefully not. The last couple -- the first couple tournaments I played in this year I've been in the Top 5 after two rounds, so I'm very kind of established through that area. So now I need to play a little better on the weekend. That's kind of what I need to overcome. End of FastScripts |
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