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JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN OPENOctober 2, 2012Casey MartinLAS VEGAS, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Casey Martin into the interview room here at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Casey, thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Maybe just talk about your summer. You obviously played in the U.S. Open. Talk about how playing in this event came about. CASEY MARTIN: Yeah, I think me playing in the event came about because of that. Kind of miraculously got a spot in the Open after not playing whole lot of golf and played well. Didn't make the cut but really felt good about my game. Out of that, Peter Jacobson's crew, they invited me to play in their Umpqua Challenge. Si I played in that, and kind of through that got a spot into Boise and a spot into here as well. I'm thrilled to be playing. This is not really a comeback, it's just I am taking advantage of some opportunities and I'm thrilled about it. THE MODERATOR: You mentioned three or four events there. As a coach, do you get time to work on your game? CASEY MARTIN: Certainly being a coach I'm around the game. I don't practice hours on end, but I have certainly have an opportunity before and after practice and mess around myself. So I try stay close to it, but it's not like a tour player would be. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Casey, realistically then you had no expectations obviously when you went to play at the Open. Do you approach it a little differently here because it's not a major? CASEY MARTIN: It's a major to me. Q. How do you approach this? CASEY MARTIN: I'm approaching this week like I'm a player, I guess, which I am. I'm going about it and trying to get my game ready and hit the shots that I'll need and trying to get my mind right so that I can play to the best of my abilities. I played professionally for a long time, and so it's pretty much just what you do. It doesn't feel really any different. Certainly the pressure isn't what it used to be. I'm not trying to keep my card. It's just a week of golf in the dessert. So I think from that standpoint it's a little different. But as a player and always kind of viewing yourself as a player, I will feel pressure and really want to do well. Q. Is it re‑energizing being out there? CASEY MARTIN: It is. I love the game of golf. I love learning about it. I learned a lot this summer. I started working with Grant Waite and Joseph Mayo. I learned a ton from those guys, and so I am anxious to put some of that into practice. I think that's just a neat thing about golf. I'm 40 years old and I've been coaching. I'm supposed to know a lot, and yet I'm learning all the time. The stuff, I'm going to challenge myself to do it, and I'll take it back my team and share with them and try to make us better at Oregon and hopefully have some success here. Q. Casey, this event strikes an emotional event with people because of the charity and the work the Shriners do for these kids. As someone who is dealing with physical issues himself and has been for most of his life, do you have a different a perspective about this than maybe any other players playing this week? CASEY MARTIN: You know, that's hard to say. I really appreciate what the Shriners are doing. I was at a function last night with some kids and will be again today. It's always good for me to‑‑ it makes your perspective correct because you see what kids are dealing with and you realize this four‑footer is not the end of the world. Is it's always good to have those reality checks, because as a golfer you get tied up in your life being what you shoot, and it's rally not. From that standpoint it's important and big. But when you get out there playing golf, you kind of forget about all that and focus on golf. It's what you do. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: I think so. At times definitely. Some opportunities will arise for that to happen, but basically as a coach I'm just trying to share with them every little tidbit I can pass along to make them better at golf. Coaching golf is definitely different than other sports. You're not passing the ball to one another. You're just kind of evaluating kids and trying to shepherd them in the right way. That's kind of what I'm doing. But certainly opportunities arise where you can sit down and talk real life with them. Q. How much of a residual effect is there with Phil Knight's largesse to what you're trying to do in building Oregon's golf program. They've had a good program for years, but it seems like football certainly over the last two decades and now basketball with the Matthew Knight Center, it looks like Oregon Athletics is on a much different level than it was certainly 10, 15, 20 years ago. CASEY MARTIN: No debate about that. What Phil Knight and Nike have done for our athletic department you just can't quantify it. Q. Can you talk about how specifically it's impacted the golf program? CASEY MARTIN: Yeah. Specifically, first of all, when football is successful there is money in the athletic departments. If football is not, I don't know how you survive. So when football has gone to three straight BCS games and the TV and all the buzz about it, ticket sales, there is money. That trickles down to a program like Oregon golf where we don't generate revenue, but our budgets are large because of what football is able to do. So talk about trickle‑down economics, it really is that in big‑time athletic departments. It's football first because that generates all the revenue. So in Oregon in my program, we're huge beneficiaries of that. But the other side part, which is just as large, is Oregon is kind of hip and cool. Because of the uniforms, because of the way we play football, because of the success, kids watch those games and have a positive impression of Oregon. They want to come to the games and see the campus. There is a buzz about it, which really helps the program. If football was horrible and all the sports were horrible, it's hard to get people excited. They kind of want to go where winners are. So whatever investment has been made, it's paid huge dividends to the small sports just incredibly. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: It's much different in person. Once you're there in person you barely see it anymore. On TV it's much more pronounced. When you're there you just kind of forget about it. Yeah, it's there, but you kind of appreciate it for what it is. When I've gone back and seen games on TV when I'm away, it's pretty loud. When you're there is doesn't feel that way. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: Football and basketball. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: Yeah. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: You know, we're trying compete for a national championship every year. That's what expected of us. I don't think that was expected of us 20 years ago. Now with where we're at with our athletic department, that's the expectation. Now, it's still golf in Oregon, which we're not Texas or Arizona in a way like from a weather standpoint in the wintertime, but it actually works to our advantage what we deal with. So we can field a great program every year, and we're trying to do that. Last few years have shown what's capable. The conference, the Pac‑12 conference is really strong in golf so it's not going to probably happen every year, but we're gunning for it. Q. You have an advantage over, let's say, UNLV which gets to play year‑round and can play Shadow Creek, can play Southern Highlands, a number of world‑class courses. You only have a couple up in Oregon. CASEY MARTIN: Yeah. I think it's significant. Our advantage is significant in that way. You look at the greatest players in the world, where they came from, and they came from heavy air climates. There's not one great player in the world that I know of that came from a desert climate with thin air and the ball going straight and forever. You play in Oregon, Ireland, Europe, the air is heavy and the ball curves. You're used to controlling your spin. Everything is harder. You go play a tournament and you're better. Dessert golf does not, in my opinion, prepare you for the rigors of high‑level professional golf. Q. (No microphone.) CASEY MARTIN: Probably. You bet. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think it is an advantage. Now, granted, it's a challenge. It's adversity. Team you also have to deal with adversity, which is great for the kids to get up there and learn how to deal with. It it's not hard to learn how to play golf in a dome when it's nice and 75 and not a lot of winds or elements. The challenge is if the weather gets too bad and you can't play and you miss opportunities. Fortunately, our weather is good enough where we play. The air, it's foggy, it's heavy, and it's tough. If you go look at where the greatest players in the world are from, I believe they're from heavy‑air kind of climates. I think that's why we have an advantage. Q. Are you fully funded scholarship‑wise, and do you have an endowment program for golf in Oregon or are you building toward one? CASEY MARTIN: All of the above. We get our money from the athletic department. We do you have a fund raiser, and that money go towards solidifying the golf program long‑term. We have been very blessed that way for sure. Q. Because a lot of programs need to be self‑sustaining in order to survive in this title nine era. CASEY MARTIN: Very true. Very true. So like I said, I don't know if we're fully endowed, our entire program, but we're doing great. And financially and fortunately by virtue of what you brought up and football and the success that Nike has helped create, we're in good shape. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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