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WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP


April 29, 2008


Boo Weekley


CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

DOUG MILNE: Boo, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at the Wachovia Championship. Obviously the past couple weeks have been awfully busy for you, 2007 and now 2008 champion at the Verizon Heritage. Just a couple comments on how life has been for you since then.
BOO WEEKLEY: It's been pretty hectic. I've gotten more phone calls than I did the first time I won, just people calling everywhere. But it's been fun. I went home and chilled out last week, did some fishing and relaxation with my little boy, so it was great having that week off.
DOUG MILNE: You obviously needed it to recharge your batteries. How do you feel coming into the week here at the Wachovia Championship?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'm still tired. I didn't do no sleeping the week at home; we did too much playing. I do sleeping when I'm on the road.

Q. What did you do this morning?
BOO WEEKLEY: I went and drove them NASCARs, them speed cars over there at the Motor Speedway here in Charlotte. It was awesome. If you ain't ever done it, you need to try.

Q. How fast did you get?
BOO WEEKLEY: The first session I went, I went like 138, 134, something like that, and then the second session I think I got it up around close to 150. It is very exciting and very tense. I've got a new perspective of how them guys go about the driving.

Q. Is it just the speed or the bend?
BOO WEEKLEY: It's the whole thing. You get a vehicle that's probably more expensive than what I own at the house, everything (laughter), you know, if you pile that thing up in the wall, you can't just say, hey, I'm sorry (laughter). It was kind of nerve-wracking, you know?

Q. Nobody else on the track, though?
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, no, there was other cars out there. You was chasing the guy; one of the actual drivers was out there, and you had to stay with him, I think three to five car lengths from him. If he ran off and left you, you'd better get up and go.

Q. Do you know what kind of car it was?
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, it was Dale, Jr.'s, car. Well, it was one of them NASCARs, you know, but it was the #8, which was even better, because he's my favorite race car driver.

Q. What other golfers went out there?
BOO WEEKLEY: Woody Austin, Rory Sabbatini, Stuart Appleby, one of my agents, Mac Bernhart. I think that was all of us. Woody and Stuart Appleby, they looked like pros in it.

Q. Stuart has done that before.
BOO WEEKLEY: Yes, sir. Him and Woody both can go. I told him if his golf don't pan out for him, they might have a career in that.

Q. So is the plan still -- the baby is due July 4th, and the British Open is not too far after that. I think your wife said you guys might induce before you go over there?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, we're going to try to have it I think the 28th, somewhere right in there maybe. You know, if he comes a little early --

Q. June 28th?
BOO WEEKLEY: Yeah, around June, yes, sir. We're hoping that nothing happens between here and the U.S. Open because I'd like to play in the U.S. Open and then maybe have the baby and then have a week and a half at the house and then fly over there and play in that and then come back home for a week and a half or two weeks, three weeks, whatever it takes, till we get settled in and everything in the new house.

Q. Is your mom a good-luck charm now as far as playing in the Pro-Am?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I don't know. You know, it was great having her there. I don't know if she's a good-luck charm. If you asked her, she'd say she is. She's very, very superstitious.

Q. No plans to play with her again any time soon?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'd love to do it again with her next year, you know? That would be great for me and a great honor if the tournament would allow it. We'd have to talk to some of the people that was on the Hole 19 or whatever show they do on The Golf Channel and kind of fix it up a little bit and tell them she ain't a sandbagger. She tried to turn in her correct scorecard, but you can't help what the tournament gives you.

Q. Can what you did this morning in any way help you out on the golf course?
BOO WEEKLEY: I don't think so. I don't know (laughing). It might help -- I think some of the guys need to go out there that are slower players; maybe they'd learn to speed up a little bit (laughter).

Q. I asked you about this way earlier before you won. The Ryder Cup thing now is becoming not just a possibility but a very real possibility. You played on the World Cup team and wore the stars and stripes and all that. I am wondering whether you've spent any time reflecting on that or whether you can really allow yourself to think about it?
BOO WEEKLEY: I mean, like I said before, it would be an honor to do it, but it ain't going to make or break who I am as a person or as a golfer if I made it or not. I'd love to do it. I'd love to represent my country. I believe I'd be good at it because I believe so much in the way I was raised. You believe in everything that's in front of you and our forefathers and everything that gave it to me. It would be great to honor my state and my country and my hometown.

Q. We figured we could just send you out with Sergio and it would drive him crazy.
BOO WEEKLEY: Why is that, though? Why do y'all think I drive him crazy, just because we made one mistake? It ain't the first time it's ever happened.

Q. I know, but he tends to let stuff like that sit in his head for the rest of his life. Little things like that bother that guy.
BOO WEEKLEY: Really?

Q. He's sensitive.
BOO WEEKLEY: So am I (laughter). I just don't show it.

Q. What's the fastest you've ever driven in a regular car on the street?
BOO WEEKLEY: I'd say close to about 130, 140. I did it on the interstate over there.

Q. On the Turnpike or I-95?
BOO WEEKLEY: On the Interstate 10.

Q. You talked about something wouldn't make or break you as a person. For people in Charlotte and some others that will see you this week for the first time, can you talk about who you are as a person, who's important to you?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I have to say the good Lord starts everything, and then my family. That to me is my whole world. If I ain't got them with me or in my heart or around me where I can't talk to them, I might as well quit doing what I'm doing. I'd much rather be home with them, whether I am taking care of them or just seeing them, sitting down and having a pecan pie with them or something, you know? But I have to say it's all about the family. That's just about everybody growing up, you know?

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your interaction with fans on the course and just sort of what you get out of that and what you try to give them back?
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, you think -- a lot of the players out here, I mean, I know they realize it and they take it for granted, I think, some of them do, but the fans is what pays the bills, a lot of it, you know? I mean, I think in respect of you ought to just smile, wave, whether you don't want to or not.
But for me it's fun because I like to go and talk to people. I'm an outgoing person and my personality fits in just either on the other side of the rope or inside the rope. It really don't matter to me. Lately the way I've been driving it, I've been outside the ropes, so I've been able to talk to a lot of people (laughter).

Q. Did you play with Trevor the first two days at Augusta?
BOO WEEKLEY: I did indeed, sir. I talked to his caddie Neil a while ago, and it was kind of amazing. I saw a little bit of it as we were playing because very rarely -- when you get into a zone or when you get into where you're actually feeling comfortable over what you're doing, but Trevor, the first two days I played with him, he looked so just focused, confident, the whole nine yards, and it's amazing that you very rarely see that as a player. But when you look at it and you see another player doing that, you're like, man, I wish I could get where he's at, in that comfort zone. I think a lot of it had to do with what happened for me the following week at Hilton Head is because I actually was focusing on a lot of the stuff I saw him doing. I kind of tried to get myself in that position, and it was neat.

Q. Anything specifically with your pre-shot routine?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, it was just he was just focused on a spot. It was kind of like -- I don't know, it has a lot to do with how you're swinging, too, but it was just he got in a zone and he made a lot of good swings, didn't get upset when he hit some good putts and the putts didn't fall, stuff like that. It was just the little stuff that makes the difference, him being patient.
DOUG MILNE: What have you seen of the course this week?
BOO WEEKLEY: I haven't, putting green, driving range and chipping green. That's about all I've seen.

Q. Did you play here last year?
BOO WEEKLEY: I did, sir.

Q. Do you know the story on those last three holes? It's supposed to be the toughest statistically on the entire PGA TOUR. Just sort of talk about what makes them that way and whether you've had any experiences on them that were memorable for good or bad reasons.
BOO WEEKLEY: Well, I think 16 is a good hole because you've got to hit a decent drive there because of that bunker on the right side, and I think the fairway kind of slopes to the right there, and that's not a real easy green to hit. The wind is kind of swirling off that lake there. You know, I mean, you've got to literally hit it in the right spot, especially if they've got the pin tucked left of that bunker on the other side of it or if they've got it tucked on the front right there. If you miss it a little right, it's going to kick down. And the green, it sits kind of funny.
And the same thing on 17 there; that's a long iron shot coming into there and that wind swirling off that lake. You've got to know where the wind is.
And then the same thing on 18; you've got to hit a real good tee shot there because you've got that creek going down the left side, and if you hit it too far right up in the trees, you're blocked out, and you have to hit a low punch, and I think the fairway kind of slopes as it goes up toward the green, kind of slopes back toward that creek there.
So those are three good finishing holes.

Q. You mentioned Ryder Cup. People talk about the Ryder Cup and how boisterous it's become and the support from the crowd. You've become a crowd favorite for a variety of reasons. How much do you think that sort of emotion from outside the ropes and the crowd support helps in golf and gets players into the tournament and into the Ryder Cup, for example?
BOO WEEKLEY: I believe it helps a little bit, but I mean, I can't speak for everybody out there, but 90 percent of the time for me actually when I'm playing good or something, I really can't hear the crowd. You can't really -- every now and then like in between the shots, you'll hear a little bit of this and that, but just mostly -- like last week or week before last when I was playing and I was walking down 18, I actually was taking in everything that people were saying, you know, and as the week went on starting Thursday, I really didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what people were saying and what was going on around me.

Q. But in a Ryder Cup sort of environment, can that --
BOO WEEKLEY: Oh, that can help, yes. I believe it can fuel all the players. You know, you can get a little excited, you can get pumped knowing that you've got people pulling for you.

Q. Do you see yourself as a ringleader in that at all?
BOO WEEKLEY: I ain't going to be no leader now. I don't mind leading, but if they need me to lead it, I'll take the jump. This dog can hunt; he ain't afraid.

Q. Do you get two tartan sports coats or do they just put the same one back on you like at Augusta?
BOO WEEKLEY: No, I think you get two.

Q. Do you take those home?
BOO WEEKLEY: I took the first one home. I'll get the next one next year, I think, is how they do it. We're working on getting like Davis Love; if you get about five of them you could make one hell of a curtain or a table cloth (laughter), or you could make something.
DOUG MILNE: Boo, as always, we appreciate your time, enjoy chatting with you, and best of luck this week.

End of FastScripts




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