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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPMay 20, 2012Dicky PrideIRVING, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Dicky Pride into the interview room, our runner‑up here at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Dicky, not much to say other than "Wow, what a finish!" Came up short, but what a show you guys put on. DICKY PRIDE: Yeah, it was fun. Apparently that was not a very difficult putt on 18, from the long right! (Chuckles.) It was downhill about a cup and a half out, and I made it, and I was pretty happy about that. Jason made a great putt. He's a really good player. I think we're all seeing that, we've known that, now he's just winning tournaments, but I have a lot of respect for Jason. When we had our Pro‑Am in Tuscaloosa for tornado relief, he was the first guy. He said, "I'm coming, I'm bringing a team and how can I help," and that says a lot about him. For a guy that doesn't say much, that says a lot about him. I'm happy for Jason. He went to Auburn, everyone is making a big deal about that, but he married a woman from Alabama to show him around, guys, someone has to do it! Q. Can you talk about your play down the stretch and what you were thinking the last four holes? DICKY PRIDE: Well, I mutilated the 14th hole, hit a terrible rescue, had to chip out. Got basically lucky that wedge didn't go in the water, can't believe the chip didn't go in, quarter of the ball sittin' over the hole. I'm trying to put my shadow and say, "Come on, you gotta go!" and Jason Day is like, "You ought to spot it and put it back and see if it will fall." I'm like, "Yeah, right, Jason." I could at least finish the hole at that point! (Chuckles.) I said I'm going to hit the shots I need to hit and shoot at the pins and it worked! It doesn't all the time; that's apparent by my playing record. On 15 I hit a 5‑iron in there, poured it. 16 I tried to get on a drive to get up there so I could reach it in 2, laid it up, it didn't kick over, it stayed in the rough. I did not hit a very good wedge shot and it kicked down, but I poured the putt. Had a great 7‑iron on 17, and 18 was difficult because my right foot slipped, and it came out and I tried to get it back to the right, but apparently my hand‑eye coordination is not that good. It was an honest effort. Very proud of the fact that I regrouped myself, dropped a ball and gave myself a putt. At the time I didn't know where I stood. The last thing I saw, J.J. was at 11, so apparently he had trouble coming in so I‑‑ when I got up to the green to see the putt I saw where I stood, and I knew I needed to make it. I really wanted to make it, but again that doesn't always work out. I had a great putt, went in, Jason had a great putt, and it went in, and HP Byron Nelson Championship has a wonderful champion they should be proud of. Q. Three top‑7s this year. DICKY PRIDE: Whew‑hew! Q. The climb back, what do you attribute it to, being healthy again? What's kicked in with your game that you're playing some of your best golf? DICKY PRIDE: I've always said if I couldn't putt I would have a great job somewhere not playing golf. My putter has always saved me; that's the way my game has always been, as apparent by today. I made a lot of putts. Dan Snyder, my teacher, we started working together three years ago, and we have basically worked on the same thing for three years, and he has kept me on the straight and narrow about what I need to do, and I understand it a lot better. I'm hitting the ball more solid, giving myself more chances to make birdie, as you saw yesterday and today. I scramble a lot, and I can scramble. Now I'm scrambling on four holes versus eight holes, and that's a big difference. I'm a good putter so I will make putts if I give myself birdie putts, so I will attribute it to better iron play and better ball striking. By the way, if y'all didn't notice, I can ramble. Q. Dicky, what's kept you going through the years? Food on the table, love the of the game, what's been keeping you fightin'? DICKY PRIDE: I don't know anything else. I mean, I have had the discussion. I've looked at not playing golf for a living. It's tough to be 42 years old and go, okay, you've never done anything except chase a little while golf ball around. You have a degree but you haven't used it in 20 years. I really do enjoy being in competition. It really is fun! I enjoy getting myself prepared and getting better. That's just what I do. It's my job, I'm fortunately married to a wonderful woman, and I've got two great kids and she puts up with me. She takes care of everything so I can chase this dream or job or whatever else you want to call it. I'm very fortunate. Q. Dicky, today and the weeks before this, what does it tell you about where you are and where you're headed this summer and in the fall? DICKY PRIDE: Oh, easy question, huh? (Laughter.) Yeah, I like the way my game is. I like where my game is. The whole idea is to put myself into position as many times as I can, and I have done a solid job about that. After the two top‑10s earlier this year, I saw Kirk Triplett in Puerto Rico. He was a top‑10 machine his entire career, and I asked him how do you do this top‑10 stuff every week, and we had a nice discussion about it. I keep trying to do what I do, accept the fact that I'm never going to hit it 300 yards, accept the fact that I have to have a good wedge game, or I've got no chance, and accept the fact that I'm a great putter, and I have to rely on that putting to have a chance to win. Q. What was the worst injury you had, and was there one in there that you thought, okay, I may not have a long career? DICKY PRIDE: The worst injury I had was actually a gallstone pancreatitis, and that was in 2002, and I went into surgery and they told me‑‑ "Hi, mom. Ladies and gentlemen, Sandra, my mom." I was fed through a tube for three months. I was in the hospital for over a month. I went into surgery, and before they put me under they explained I had a 50/50 shot of living through the surgery. It definitely came back with a different perspective, at the time my son was five months old. You know that 5‑footer didn't look so bad anymore, didn't look real tough. That was the worst one. The stuff I'm dealing with now, everyone is injured to some degree out here, just a matter of what hurts for each person and how bad. A lot of times it switches, I've gone back and forth on my left side with my elbow and my shoulder. If my elbow starts hurting my shoulder compensates and if my shoulder starts hurting, my elbow compensates. You do the best you can and you go on. The gallstone pancreatitis; that wasn't fun. I've got a nice scar from it right across my mid‑section‑‑ actually they went through my oblique so I could swing a club, and that was interesting. Q. Dicky, was there ever a point either today or sometime this week where you stepped back and thought, oh, man, I have a chance to end this drought and look at it that way as opposed to what you're doing in the week? DICKY PRIDE: No, I don't look at it that way. The easiest way to not win a golf tournament is to think about how to win a golf tournament. It's like the whole thing with Jason. Jason didn't take anything from me; he won the golf tournament. He won it by playing his game. I played my game, and I did the best I could. I tried on every shot. That's the way it is. Now, I would have loved to sit here and look at you and say I didn't slip on 18, but if I didn't slip, it may have gone in the water even worse, so who knows what would have happened. I did the best I could, and I'm going to try to feed off the positives here. There are a couple of things I want to work on. I hit shots I'm not happy with, but I'm going to continue to build on it. Trying to take the positives and build up on it. I'm going to take 30 minutes, go break something because of a couple of shots I hit and go from there (Chuckles.) Q. Soft spikes. In simple terms what did Danny Snyder give you with the swing and how is it different than your former motion? DICKY PRIDE: Soft spikes, because if I wear long ones I have plantar fasciitis, and if I wear long spikes, if they have mental spikes, I can't walk the next day. I generally like walking. My footwork needs to get better, apparently. Simply put, we went back to the fundamentals. The biggest thing for me is I have a tendency to lean into the ball and come out and have my left shoulder come out, and when I do that I get the club stuck behind me. So I try to turn, stay in my posture, spine angle, turn on the ball and keep my left shoulder down instead of letting it come up. Simply put. I could go into a long discussion of that, but let's not do that. THE MODERATOR: Dicky, we appreciate your time. Great playing this week and keep it going the rest of the year. DICKY PRIDE: I don't believe you didn't say anything about the Alabama golf team! Regionals by 23. Are you kidding me? Guys, I couldn't even make my college golf team now! FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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