home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2004

Brad Faxon

NORTON, MASSACHUSETTS

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Brad Faxon who just finished his Pro-Am. He finished T-24 last year. I know you took part in a number of the changes that occurred between last year and this year and had some input for those. Why don't you talk about your feelings on how the course is looking today.

BRAD FAXON: Well, I would say that most of the players are going to agree with me that the changes that were made are significant enough to make them feel like the Tour did a good job in doing what they could in such a short period of time.

There were a significant amount of changes on the greens, 13 out of 18 that needed more pin placements. I think a little gentler approach into greens rather than maybe a lot of the mounding that we saw.

I think everybody forgets that the course is only two years old, and last year it was in pretty good shape for one year. It's too bad that the comments were more negative than positive. I think you'll see a big difference in the reactions this year of the players; that fairways have been recontoured so that the mandatory carries over bunkers, it doesn't do you any good now. If you're a 280-yard hitter hitting over the traps, it just gets you in the rough now and not the 50 yards of roll that you got last year.

I also think this course is hard. I don't think that, you know, Adam Scott did an unbelievable job last year. I don't know how many shots he won by, but I don't think you're going to see a 20-under score win this week. I'd be very surprised. Everything would have to go very well for somebody to shoot that low. We have a great field. I think we should focus more on the field of players that are here. You know, you've got a battle for No. 1 in the world with Vijay and Tiger, and a great sponsor in Deutsche Bank.

TODD BUDNICK: You've made all but two cuts, are you happy with the consistency this year?

BRAD FAXON: No, I feel like most of the year was just playing to make cuts. And there's a lot of reasons why, but my game has been better the last few weeks. I've actually been in contention at a couple of tournaments which has been nice. I could not be happier to be in better form this week than any other time of the year because this is a big tournament for me.

Q. Is there a concern, if any, upon the golfers reaction to this course that it may change venues, are you concerned about that at all?

BRAD FAXON: A little bit of a concern. I don't think there's going to be too many players that are going to be able to say this course, you know, is terrible or stinks. It's too nice of a place to say that. There are there are some things that could be done to make it better maybe. But I don't -- you know, I'm not really worried that there's going to be one player that could actually influence whether this tournament comes back here or not. I don't think that's going to happen.

Q. Inaudible?

BRAD FAXON: Are you talking about Tiger or Vijay? (Laughter.)

Yeah, I mean, I don't think Tiger could possibly come in here and say: This is terrible, I don't want this tournament here to benefit the Foundation with the million dollars it's going to get. I don't think he's -- he's not built that way. If he did, could it have an effect? Yes. Will he say that? No. Unless he already said it. (Laughter.) Did he come in and say that?

TODD BUDNICK: I haven't heard it. (Laughter.)

BRAD FAXON: I didn't listen to his press conference.

Q. As professional golfers, how soon do you try to shut everything off outside and put focus and concentration into a day's work?

BRAD FAXON: So you're talking about on tournament day or tournament week?

Q. When does all of that take place?

BRAD FAXON: That's a good question because I don't think there's a definitive answer there that would be correct for every player. There are some players that have to be in a focus maybe two weeks prior to, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus for a major. It would be interesting to talk to them now and afterwards to see if they actually did it.

Or, you know, do guys like Peter Jacobsen, do they have it wrong when they go out there and shoot the breeze with the gallery, Fuzzy Zoeller, is that wrong? I think's an individual answer that you need to ask each player.

I've never been able to figure out quite how to decide that I'm going to make my game better next week, you know, because it's a more important tournament. I don't know if you understand that or not, but I just think that's something players can fool you by saying, you know, I'm just going to decide to play good next week. Well, why wouldn't you play good this week then? I don't quite get it.

Q. You have the tools and the ability and everything, I often wonder, if at the end of the tournament if you were to take the players as they finished and you formed a pyramid, the people on the Top-10, were they the more focused over the week or generally speaking?

BRAD FAXON: I don't think you'll ever come up with an answer that's going to be the same for that every week. There are some players that quite honestly probably start the week not sure how they are going to play. They get a couple putts to go in early, they attitude gets better and, "I've got it."

There are some players that are playing good all the time that just seem to be able to get in the right state of mind on Thursday morning, or in this case Friday morning where you're in the right mindset.

You know, there's some guys that need to prepare differently than other guys and there's just no way to say that one way is right or wrong or better. It's like, do you visualize your ball going to a tree, to the horizon, to a spot on the fairway; do you not visualize? I think there's so much personal preference there.

Q. The other thing, superstition runs rampant among all players; do you have any particular superstitions?

BRAD FAXON: If I say no, then you have to change your question from "all" to "many." Because I don't really -- superstitions, I would say there are a lot of players that have superstitions but I really don't.

Q. You're obviously not on the team that's going to the Ryder Cup. Can you talk about what it was like to be on a Ryder Cup Team, and can you talk about the desire and the focus of the players? It seems like a lot of times, we don't have as much desire as some of the European players, can you just talk about that?

BRAD FAXON: It would be interesting to have a nice conversation about that with them. I don't know, do you think that the Olympic basketball team didn't have a team concept to it? Why did they lose to Argentina or Slovakia or whoever they lost to.

I don't know. I told the PGA of America, if you are interested in winning the Ryder Cup, would you have the selection process the way you have it now, and would you have the captain every year change?

I mean, if you were really interested in keeping the Ryder Cup in America, I think you would do things differently. If you were going to build the team, you would do things differently. It's amazing how the European team, which on paper should be getting slaughtered every year, if they don't win, they are half a point away. If you look at the last few years since 1983, no team has scored more than 15 1/2 points, 14 to win, if you look at it, it's 15 1/2.

You know, why are the Red Sox better without Nomar Garciaparra? Shouldn't on paper make sense. I don't think we have done what we need to do to build the team the best way as possible.

That being said, these 10, 12 guys now can certainly win and certainly put everything together. And if I had to go down and make a wager, I would bet on the U.S. Team and I would probably bet that most of the Europeans would bet on the U.S. Team.

But when it comes down to the thick of it and you put those guys together, they have performed stronger as a unit. Now we don't see golf as a unit, as a team, other than the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

So I would say that I think it's very hard for us to prepare as a team, every two years, when 99 percent of the tournaments we play are individual tournaments where 25 percent of our team members play in less than a third of the events on the Tour; don't socialize together. I don't think the answer is hard to come up with, is it? Don't look at me like that. (laughter) -- I'm just going to get in trouble if I say more.

The PGA of America has everything they want. They have a close event every year. Does it matter whether they win or not? I don't know. If it did, would they change it? I don't know. Because there's no business in the world that would run the way they do it. There would be no, why do you have to finish in the Top-10; that's just something they have done. Has anybody ever studied to see if that's the right way to do it? Is that right? You should know that, you're the reporter, find out.

The best thing about it is that everybody knows the process before you start, so you know you've got to finish in the Top-10. But is a guy that finishes 11th every single week worse than a player that finishes third five times or never makes a cut? I don't know. If a guy finishes -- I don't know, last week in Hartford, I finished 12th or 13th place, I can't remember. But I was one shot out of the Top-10, does that mean I'm a better player because I finished by one shot? I don't know. But you know going into it that's what's important.

Should it be money earned? I don't know. Then it becomes how much you play sometimes; Vijay versus Tiger battling for Player of the Year. Or would it be more like Herb Brooks and just pick the guys who want to play on the team?

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I don't know, he doesn't look happy. (Laughter.)

You know what, nobody has answered is like I have, have they? (Laughter.)

Q. To a lot of people, a view of the season, what gets you going and motivates you going into the rest of the year?

BRAD FAXON: Well, the biggest motivation is how poorly I played early and things I wanted to do at the start of the year that I'm not even close to. That's a big motivation. Winning a tournament is always a big, important thing to do. Winning at home would be one of the greatest things to do.

I really want to get back to playing the way I know I can play, and I'm getting there. I'd like to finish out the last, one, two, three, four, five, six events that I play, at least with some confidence going into next year. There would be no better place to turn that around than right here.

Q. With how many people have really made a splash from Rhode Island, is it improved junior play, is it the area or courses?

BRAD FAXON: I don't know. I think there's a little bit of luck. I think there's -- I got asked this yesterday. I keep telling them, I saw Dana Quigley play the PGA TOUR when I was a little kid and that said to me, "Boy, a kid from Barrington made the Tour, I can do it."

I was too close to Billy Andrade's age to have an influence maybe on his way of thought, but I think we have all kind of helped each other on the way. You know, Rhode Island is a small place, but why are there more Rhode Islanders than Massachusetts' golfers? It doesn't make sense.

I always think adverse conditions help somebody play better. Look at the best players in the world came from adverse conditions, most of the time, but that's starting to change. But Jack Nicklaus from Ohio; Tom Watson was from Kansas City. I don't mean adverse, meaning they don't have money or a place to play. Cold weather play fits good. If you go to the European guys, Ballesteros grew up poor not having equipment, Trevino, that kind of stuff, Sam Snead. I think those things help somebody in their maturity.

Now things have changed where kids are going to the Leadbetter academy when they are six years old. I don't know how that's going to have a long-term effect. Will guys be able to play into his 40s? Will Tiger Woods be able to sustain this level when he's 45 years old? I don't know. When will we find out? When he's 45. It's interesting to see.

But going back to Rhode Island, I don't know why, just lucky, we had a lot of great Donald Ross golf courses with small greens if you had a short game. I remember playing golf in high school when it was colder than this room, believe it or not. (Laughter.) Maybe not as windy. April 1, I was on the golf course and it was 45 degrees and it was raining; I thought it was nice out. So that's another answer.

Q. Inaudible?

BRAD FAXON: I never really sit there and think, boy I'm from Rhode Island, this is -- it's great because I was the first guy out here, I don't think like that.

The adverse conditions, I always thought I like to play more than I like to stand out and hit a thousand balls. You learn to score better that way. We had small greens. See, I never hit 18 greens in my life, still probably haven't hit 18 greens in my life in a round. So you had to chip-and-putt. You know, Billy and Brett grew up at Rhode Island Country Club, learning to play on small greens that were in perfect shape; so short game was important and learning to score was important. I can't speak for Pat Sheehan, he was behind me, but I know had to have some positive influence on them.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297