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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 20, 2012Martin LairdORLANDO, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: We'll go ahead and get started, Martin Laird, thanks for joining us for a few minutes, defending champion of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Appreciate you coming by. Start us off by telling us about how your year has been so far and how you're feeling heading into to defend your title here this week. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, also very happy to be back here. I've been looking forward to this tournament ever since obviously last year. But you know, I'd say my year so far has been up‑and‑down. I had a couple of really good weeks starting out the year in Hawai'i. I had a great week there. And then you know, played really well at the Match Play down in Tucson. In between that, I would say, it was average for what I'm expecting. Last week, a missed the cut, Transitions. Played pretty poorly on Thursday, but played really good on Friday just didn't make any putts. Even though I had the weekend off, I feel like it helped me a little this week, having a couple of days away from golf, just kind of relaxing and put in a lot of hard work yesterday and then doing it today and just played nine holes there and feeling like my game is coming back around really nicely. You know, looking forward to this week. Q. How much attention to players pay to their World Rankings, and of all the goals that a player has, No. 1, where does that fit into the big picture? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, I can only talk about what I personally do with the World Rankings. I watch them. I actually don't know what I am right now in terms of‑‑ I know what I was last week. I don't know if I moved or where I moved. It's not like every Monday morning I'm waking up and seeing where I am. It's definitely something, especially when I was kind of lurking in the mid‑40s range, because that Top‑50 in the World Rankings is huge, you get in all the majors and World Golf Championships events. That's where you want to be. But now, I'm not watching them so much as going that direction. If I have a good week here, I'll be watching them Monday to see how far I go in the other direction. Obviously to get to No. 1, everyone that's out here, they want to get to No. 1, but for me personally, I'm kind of going steppingstones. I don't go out thinking I want to get to No. 1 in the world. I'm thinking just try to get better every year. Obviously Top‑10 in the world would be great. And then you know, once I get there, start kind of focusing on kind of working my way up the Top‑10. But you know, as far as how much I watch it, it's something I pay attention to, but I wouldn't say I study it. Q. How well did you know Arnold Palmer before winning, and what's it been like getting to know him? MARTIN LAIRD: I had never met him before I won. So that was, you know, made it a little more special coming off the last green. Never even shook his hand before and all of a sudden he's there awarding me the trophy for winning his tournament. Since then, I've actually not really had much contact with him. I was hoping this week, if I see him around, maybe sit and have a chat with him for a little bit; but I know he's a very busy man this week. But you know, even the fact that I've now got to know him, it's been a great year kind of representing his tournament in terms of being the champion here. It definitely adds a little extra to it when people ask what tournament I won or whatever, and you throw Arnold Palmer's name in there, it's definitely something I'm proud of. Q. What did he say to you after you won? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, it's all a little blurry. I remember he congratulated me and I told him I was honored to win his tournament. I said he had a very tough golf course out there, which last year in the final round was very much the case. He kind of smiled and said, "That's the way like it."  But after that, I can't really remember to be honest. It's kind of mayhem once you win and obviously my emotions were kind of going everywhere. Q. What's it like being back after winning the event, and what kind of feelings do you get walking back on the golf course or memories of the win last year? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, it's a great feeling. Obviously I don't really have too many bad memories of last year.  I went and played the back nine today, obviously my caddie was there and my coach, and on almost every hole, we were talking about putts I made, especially coming down the last few holes. We kind of talked about last year's finish, coming down the last few holes, putts I made on 15 and 16 and things like that. So it's kind of fun to be out there and remembering those good shots. You know, I don't think we actually talked about anything on 11. I think with just kind of quickly played that hole and moved on. I think after that, as I said, especially the last three holes, we were talking about obviously what happened last year. Yeah, it's kind of cool being out there, and I still remember every shot as if I hit it yesterday. I could tell you what club I hit on probably every shot those last few holes. It's something I'll probably remember for a long time. Q. I was going to ask you, did you just remember mostly the last four holes, or the first 14 have a few memories, as well. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I could probably tell you exactly where I hit it on every hole for that last round. But the last four, I really remember, I think it's because I tried to block out the first ten or 11 holes which weren't so good. But playing the last four 2‑under, the way it was set up last year‑‑ my caddie and I have talked about it a bunch last year. That's what I took out most out of the whole tournament last year was I pretty much lost my game, kind of finishing the round Saturday, and then the first 11, 12 holes on Sunday; and to come out and hit‑‑ I really didn't hit a bad shot the last four holes, and birdied two of them. The way the course was set up, that took a lot out of that, and we were talking about it's almost more satisfying winning that way rather than playing great and cruising around and winning by two or three. It's a little nicer to know I can dig it out when I didn't have my game. Q. And wanted to see what you thought of the course conditions; last year, the sand was really soft, and seemed like a lot of players had problems there. Is it much different this year? MARTIN LAIRD: Sand seems the same. That's just what you know‑‑ you've got to expect it here. You know, for example, on 17, if you come up short, it's going to plug in that face. You just can't come up short. Pretty much every hole out here, the chances are, I mean, three out of four balls are probably going to plug, a lot of the shots here. So that's just to be expected. The bunkers are a true penalty around this golf course. It's not like you just‑‑ some courses, you almost aim for bunkers sometimes as a good spot to get up‑and‑down. But rest of the course is absolutely immaculate. The greens, we were talking today, it's only a Tuesday and the course is already set up like it's the weekend. It's already firm and fast. More grass on the greens than I think we have ever seen here. They were rolling just perfect this morning. I played early. So as far as course conditions, it's the best I've ever seen the course‑‑ it's only my third year, so I haven't played that much so it's definitely in fantastic shape. I imagine by the weekend, it will be very firm and fast. Q. Are you at all conversant on the proposal with Q‑School and the wrap‑around season and all that stuff? Do you know the details of that? I can't remember whether you're on the PAC or not. MARTIN LAIRD: No, I'm not on the PAC. I don't know the details‑‑ Q. It looks like it's going to get green‑lighted. Wonder from your perspective what you see as the pros and cons of that. MARTIN LAIRD: I definitely see‑‑ talking about the wrap‑around season. I definitely see the pros in that. Golf's become an all‑year round sport now. There's tournaments all over the world all year. I mean, if you want, you could play 50 events a year. So the guys that are talking about no off‑season, well, they don't have to play all the events. You can take an off‑season if you want. I think it's good. The tournaments are in the fall, I know the sponsors are struggling a little bit and TV ratings are not great‑‑ Q. You won one of those. MARTIN LAIRD: I won one. I obviously played the fall events and won one and like playing those events. But I definitely see‑‑ they are good tournaments. It's not that they are not good tournaments. It's just that there's not enough room in the schedule to get every event in the normal season, what is a normal season right now. I'm all for that. I think getting stuck in the calendar year is something that, I think if it does change, ten years' time, people won't really talk about it. It will be just kind of the norm. And any time we can add more tournaments to the schedule and make them stronger fields and get guys excited to play those tournaments, is a good thing. As far as the Q‑School, you know, I'll be honest, I've not studied totally all the details, but I know the kind of general idea. On that one, I don't really know how I feel about that one. I guess I can see why it's happened; again, I think it will definitely add a little bit of excitement, those three‑‑ is it three or four tournaments they are going to play. If that's one of the reasons they are doing it is to add a bit of excitement in those events, it's one I guess I feel like I could go either way. It's the one thing like everyone is talking about, now a guy coming out of college that's a star can't go through Q‑School and get his card. But if he's that good, I'm thinking that he's just going to be one year delayed; if he's that good, he's going to go on the Nationwide Tour and make it anyway. I guess that's kind of my thinking behind that. Q. I'm not sure how often you get back home, but when you go back and get back to the mother land, do you hear much about the issue of the long putter and do you catch much about that? And back here, have you found that that's kind of quieted down at all? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, you know, when I go back, I've never‑‑ it's not like I get back there and they don't let me in the clubhouse because I have a belly putter. Obviously there's a lot of talk about it here. There was that little craze where everyone seemed to be trying the belly putter. I thought that's what it was, a little craze and everyone would kind of go away from it. I'm guessing there's probably‑‑ the numbers are higher now than they were last year at this time. But I've used it now for, oh, since I think 2006. So I've used it for a while. I mean, I can see why some people would be against it, but personally I don't think there's a huge issue until maybe you look at the Top‑10 guys in the putting stats and seven of them are using belly putters. I bet if you look in the top 5, there might not be one of the guys using a belly putter right now. I'm not under the belief that some people think that you take a belly putter, and you automatically become a good putter because if that was the case, everyone would use one. So it's not that huge an advantage. Q. You don't have a son, do you? MARTIN LAIRD: No. Q. If you had a son, would you start him with a belly putter? Could you see junior golfers one day starting with belly putters? MARTIN LAIRD: No, I wouldn't start him with a belly putter. Because I feel like if you started a kid with a belly putter, he'd probably never be able to go the other way, go back. It would be tough to go back to a short putter; whereas you start a kid with a short putter and he's a good putter, then you can leave him. You really don't have to think about having‑‑ it's not like when you're 12 years old, you're concerned about your kid missing six‑foot putts for par. It's something that you know when they get older, they are going to either go one way or the other, and I would definitely start with a short putter for sure. DOUG MILNE: Martin, thanks for your time and best of luck this week par far. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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