Quotes From Last Week
Jim out-dueled Vijay for the big prize.
A selection of quotes from last week’s Canadian Open Championship.
Jim Furyk on his first win of 2007 and holding off Vijay,
Q. What were you thinking while Vijay was getting ready for that putt on the 18th there; can you say?
JIM FURYK: Well, I was hoping that — what I was really trying to prepare myself, after I missed the putt, I was walking off the green, I told my caddie, “Let’s just prepare for a playoff. Let’s be ready to go.” Obviously I didn’t want to go out and play anymore. I wanted to win it out right. I was standing on the stairs and couldn’t see his shot from the air, and knew where it landed behind the pin; and I knew he had a pretty tough putt because the hole was sitting on the front side of a crown and he had to go over the crown and down to the hole. It was not a putt that was going to funnel towards the hole or feed into it. You know, I was just hoping that my 3-putt and my bogey on the last wasn’t going to cost me. I really played my heart out today, and had it to 8-under through 15. So, you know, coming down the stretch, I went out there with a pretty aggressive mind frame and you kind of flip; you get out ahead two or three, and you try not to — my goal was to keep making birdies. When I got to the back nine — my goal was actually to go out on the back nine and shoot 4-under and I made three and bogeyed 18. I felt like I was a shot or two off at the turn. I felt like if I go shoot 4-under on the back, no one will catch me and I’ll run away from them a little bit. That was the goal, but everyone else made a bunch of birdies on the back side, too; a lot of places where you have short iron in your hand.
Q. Being the defending champion and just being here, did you sense out there today and this week that you did have an affinity with the crowd and the people and you feel that sort of growing when you come up here now?
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I really did. Like I said, I had hundreds of people cheering the repeat; I had hundreds of people thanking me for coming, which again, I don’t really think was necessary but I appreciate it. And yeah, I really — in places that I’ve won in the past, I really have felt a good connection with some of the fans, and that’s happened for me in South Africa. A lot of the Americans don’t go over and play Nedbank, and I feel like I’m adopted over there for that event. I had that feeling this week with the Canadian fans. It’s a big sport in this country, and there’s so many wonderful golf courses in this country; it’s understandable why. Yeah, I really felt a lot of support out there, which is always fun.
Q. You said coming into the week that if you had not been defending champion, you might have thought twice about coming back. You obviously haven’t learned your lesson; will you be back next year?
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I’ll be here. Wasn’t the first question this year, but still got asked. (Laughter). I never said that I wouldn’t be. I said it would have been a difficult spot on the schedule. I think a lot of times where this event falls on the schedule, it would be, again, how my body was feeling; if we’re going to Royal Montreal or Hamilton or one of those classic courses, it would be — that its reputation precedes itself that you know is going to be fantastic — (looking at son, T.J.) aahh, that was me about 30 years ago, that’s the problem. If it’s one of those courses, I would do all I could to be there unless for some reason I felt horrible and my body wasn’t feeling good. I really feel like you should always come back and defend your championship. And I had a lot of people thank me for coming back this week, which to me is kind of like, I appreciate it, but I feel like it’s thanking me for something that you should do, if that makes sense. So I will come back and I look forward to — I haven’t been to Glen Abbey in quite a few years, so I look forward to going back.
Stephen Ames on a future course change,
Q. But the date doesn’t change for a while.
STEPHEN AMES: Not for a while. I think their focus has to be towards picking proper golf courses. I think on the whole, if you look at the guys or ask 90 percent of the guys on the PGA TOUR, their first answer towards what makes their schedule is it’s always the golf course. 90 percent of us want to play the old-style kind of golf course; you’ve got to move your golf ball and that kind of stuff, and I think we have a few of them here in Canada that definitely fit that criteria. I think those are the things more than anything other than — I don’t even look at the purses anymore. I look at the schedule of the golf courses that I pick and I enjoy playing, because all of the purses are matched to one another, other than the majors and World Golf Championships. I think it’s the direction the RCGA has to go towards, picking some proper golf courses for everybody to enjoy.
Q. What is it about this golf course —
STEPHEN AMES: It’s difficult. It wasn’t — at the beginning it wasn’t designed for a major championship or a National Championship altogether. And condition-wise everything and else, it hosted the event wonderfully. But other than the fact that 90 percent — well, all of us basically didn’t enjoy the fact of what it had to offer, just because of the nature of the golf course, the way it’s designed. But no offense to Doug or even to Angus Klein, but just what they were asked to do four or five years ago after the golf course was designed. It’s like, whoa, wait a minute, you’ve missed the picture here, haven’t you. So that’s the unfortunate thing about it. Like I said it’s a different approach that the RCGA have to take, which I think hopefully Scott Simmons is hopefully going to adapt and go towards that direction by finding five or six really good golf courses that all of us enjoy playing and being at, and you can boost the Canadian Open back to what it used to be.
Mike Weir on being the hometown boy,
Q. Busy week for you?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it is a busy week. Today wasn’t what I expected. I thought I was going to play — I thought I was going to shoot a good score today. I felt good on the range and everything was going well, and I hit some good shots at the opening start of the day and to be 2-over through four with hitting some good shots was kind of a shock really to tell you the truth. Just made two birdies on the way in and the rest of the day was kind of just steal. Couldn’t get anything going. When I was in between clubs, I picked the wrong one. When I thought the wind was doing something, it did the other. It was just one of those days.
Q. Other than the tradition, what is it about the old courses that the players like?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think that it’s just more shot-making and knowing that more guys involved in the tournament, there’s the different types of players that can win tournaments, not just bombers when you play real long courses that are open and you can just let it rip all day long. A course like Hamilton, the driver has to stay in the bag a little bit and you have to maneuver it around and make a little bit more and the greens might have a little more subtlety. That has a big influence.
Canadian Open, Jim Furyk, Stephen Ames, Mike Weir
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