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VERIZON HERITAGE

April 16, 2008

Tom Gainey

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Tommy Gainey into the interview room here at Verizon Heritage. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
TOMMY GAINEY: Thank you for having me. I'm all open now, so just ask away.
JOHN BUSH: Obviously an important week for you. You were born and raised in Bishopville, South Carolina, making your first appearance at the Verizon Heritage. Give us some comments on how it feels.
TOMMY GAINEY: It feels wonderful, man. This is the best job ever. You get to play for almost a million a week. Not anybody else besides any other PGA TOUR player has got it this good. So I'm happy to be here.
I'm here in South Carolina, which is home. At Harbour Town, which is a great golf course, and unbelievable shape. If you stray it, you're won't be here long.
JOHN BUSH: Talk about your rookie season on Tour.
TOMMY GAINEY: So far, you know, it's been kind of a struggle, because so many adjustments need to be made when you go from playing on the mini tours and a few Nationwide tournaments and you get out here, there's a person for every job. Anything that you need, there's a specific person that you need to get in contact with to figure out what's the next step, where you need to go, what time you need to be there and things like that. So, you know, it's a big adjustment because I'm used to doing everything myself. So now, you know, I've got to use the help that's there for me.

Q. How big has the adjustment been for you? Jumping straight from Tar Heel Tour and Hooters stuff to coming up here?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, it's a very big adjustment, because you look at the golf courses that the mini tours play, Tar Heel and Hooters and Grey Goose, Gateway and all the rest of them, they play pretty good golf courses.
On the PGA TOUR, there's nothing pretty good about PGA TOUR; everything is in perfect shape. If it's not, then trust me, they know. But normally, I'd say 99 percent of every golf course we play, everything is in perfect shape. So that's one of the biggest adjustments, the golf course, because they're a lot tougher and they're in so much better shape that you've got no excuse to play bad. You did it yourself. You can't complain about the greens don't have any grass on them, if you play bad. Out here, everything is perfect, everything is perfect.

Q. How about Harbour Town, how much time have you spent on Harbour Town?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, Monday was the first day I ever set foot on Harbour Town. And I have to tell you, the scenery is very good. It's unbelievable with the ocean and the lighthouse in the back on 18. The wind is always blowing. And the golf course, itself, is in great shape, and it's tight. You could hit it in the fairway and still have no shot. I'm going to tell you, that tells me that if you're not putting it where you need to hit it, putting it in the right spots, it's going to be a long week.
So it's going to be a tough week for every player. Every player has got to hit it in the right positions, because if you don't, you won't have a shot. And you know, even though we are the best players in the world, you don't hit every shot the way you want to hit it.

Q. When you were on "The Big Break" and trying to kind of get your name out there, I guess, get your golf game out there, in your wildest dreams did you think you'd be here as quickly as you got here?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, I never thought I'd get here at the age of 32. I knew that getting to the PGA TOUR is one of the hardest things to accomplish because when you have to go through three stages of Q-School and final stage with all the horror stories that you hear every player talk about and some of their friends talk about, I mean that's pretty scary.
But "The Big Break," I owe The Golf Channel a lot of credit because they got me on the show. I got used to the cameras. See, the camera is not a factor for me anymore. You get out there, you hit one bad shot on "The Big Break" series, you're off the show. There's no question about it. You're off. Out here, if you hit a bad shot playing a round of golf out here on the PGA TOUR or any other tour, you've got holes to make it up. And that's one of the advantages that I've learned as much as the experience of being on that show with the camera being on you, because it's definitely provided me with experience now that the camera is really not a factor.

Q. I know our current champion here is Boo Weekley, is a kindred spirit to you. Have you gotten a chance to talk to him and get to know him?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, I really haven't had a chance to spend some time with him and talk about his whole life and everything, but you've got to accept the fact, I mean you look at him, when he first came on to the scene, I bet there was nobody in this world that didn't say, well, who is this guy? I mean he's from the country. He's had it rough. He grew up hard. He was in a factory, working his tail off, trying to get out here. And look, he's out here, he's won on the PGA TOUR. So now he's set. He has nothing else to prove. The only thing he has to prove now is prove that he's -- he's already proven he's not a fluke. So he's won. So now he's going to come out here and try to win every tournament he plays in. That's the mindset you've got to have on the PGA TOUR.
Every tournament you play in, you're not trying to make the cut, you're not trying to make the weekend, you're trying to win the golf tournament. You're trying to win the tournament. And the money is sweeter.

Q. Do you see him as inspiration, having followed the same path?
TOMMY GAINEY: No doubt. He was on the same path I was, he grew up kind of hard. He didn't have anything given to him. He's worked for everything he has. And you've got to respect that. So that just tells you what kind of person he is. He's worked for everything he has, and you've got to respect him for that. I'm trying to kind of follow in his same footsteps in a way. I'm looking to be here Sunday afternoon talking to all you guys or whoever else gets to be invited.

Q. Did you go to college anywhere?
TOMMY GAINEY: You know, I didn't. I didn't have the luxury, so to speak, to go to college. Once I got out of high school, man, I went to work. I went straight to work. I was working at Bishopville Country Club, after I got out of school. I was working part-time when I got out of high school, then after that I started working full-time. I went to Central Carolina Technical College. I got a certificate in industrial maintenance. That deals with electricity, hydraulics, things of that nature. And that was pretty much just a backup plan to what I really wanted to do, which was to be here one day.

Q. So how many years have you been on the mini tours? And can you run through the names of a few tours you played on.
TOMMY GAINEY: I turned pro in -- I was 21 when I won my first ever pro tournament. And that was the TearDrop Tour, and it was an event at Wood Creek Farms in Columbia, South Carolina. And I want to say I was 21. When I graduated I was 17, '93, so '97 was when I won that tournament. And I've been pro ever since. And between '97 and today there was a couple of years where I had to stop playing because of health problems due to my mother and father. So I had to kind of step away from playing on the golf scene to going back to work and trying to stay close to mom and dad and trying to help make sure they're okay and everything works out.

Q. Has anybody on Tour befriended you or has there been anybody that's helped you learn?
TOMMY GAINEY: No question. You know, when I first got out here and I went to the Sony Open, which was a perfect example, some of the first players that I've seen was Jonathan Byrd, Zach Johnson, Chris DiMarco, names like that, I talked to them and they said, "It's good to see you out here."
One of the best quotes that I could quote Zach Johnson on, I asked him, "What kind of advice would you give me?" And I asked him last year at the Wachovia on Monday qualifying. He said, "It's just golf." He said, "It's just golf." Now, coming from The Masters champion I think that says a lot.

Q. How frustrating has this season been for you as far as your golf is concerned?
TOMMY GAINEY: It's been very frustrating. I've hit it pretty well the start of this year. This is my 7th tournament; I played in six tournaments, I made three cuts. I made the cut in Sony Open, but didn't get to play on the weekend because of that cut rule, that's fine, that's in the past. But really played well all year. There's like one round I didn't hit it good when I shot 77 at the Bob Hope. I hit it bad that day. That's the only day I've really hit bad. But every other round, I've been striking it. I've been hitting it so good, I just haven't gotten it in the hole yet. That's what's so frustrating. Everybody out here are the best players in the world. They're great ball strikers, everybody hits it the same. But it's just those players that get it up and down and get it in the hole. And so far that's been the biggest struggle for me, is just getting it in the hole.

Q. I'm sure you've told it a thousand times, but how did you start wearing two gloves?
TOMMY GAINEY: I started wearing two gloves playing baseball. It just came from there because, you know, the comfort feeling. Everybody's got their own comfort feeling or their zone they call it, and wearing two gloves is my zone. It's just so comfortable for me that I know I could pull off any shot at any given time. And that's what it's all about, being comfortable in your own place, knowing you can accomplish anything you set your mind to do. And that's the way I feel when I have those on.
But I've tried it with none on at all. I've tried it with one on, and let me tell you, I couldn't break 80 if I tried it with no gloves or even one. It's just the sound of the ball off the club face is just so bad.

Q. Who is your caddie and how did you go about selecting him? And has the caddie been a help or a hindrance to you?
TOMMY GAINEY: Okay, first of all my caddie's name is Scott Feaster. I've known him for like four or five years now.

Q. What's the last name?
TOMMY GAINEY: Feaster.

Q. He's the long drive guy, isn't he?
TOMMY GAINEY: My caddie is name is Feaster, as in "feast," with an -er at the end. I've known him for like five years. We played a lot of golf together. He's a good player. He hits it way by me. Anybody that says I hit it long, he hits it 15, 20 by me, just to give you an analogy of how far he hits it. He hits it that long.
But he's such a great putter and reads the greens well. Being great putters, all of them read the greens well. And that's one of my biggest weaknesses. I don't really read the greens that well. And I'm trying to learn from him. He's taught me a lot about reading the greens, and it's good to have him on the bag, because he's such a good friend and caddie, also, just comfortable with him. We have a lot of chemistry on the bag.

Q. Was he a fellow mini tour player? And did you consider getting somebody that had been seasoned on the Tour, that had been at all the Tour stops and knew the courses?
TOMMY GAINEY: Right. I thought about that. That's a good question, and what I want to say to that is that the smart thing would be get a seasoned vet off the PGA TOUR, being a rookie, coming out for the first time. But you know what, I'll give you a little insight on that, why get somebody that's been out here 20 years that you can't stand? That he just comes across as not so nice, when you can get someone that you know that knows a lot about the game, is such a good player, but not only being a good friend, but the chemistry. The chemistry is there. And everybody knows in golf that if you don't have that chemistry between that player and that caddie, let me tell you, you think it's tough now, that makes it even tougher.
JOHN BUSH: Tommy, thanks for coming by, and play well this week.

End of FastScripts

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