Interview: Mike Weir

MORE INTERVIEWS: Humana Challenge transcript archive

Q.  Talk to me about the round today.  What was working for you out there?  5‑under?
MIKE WEIR:  5‑under.  A little bit of everything.  I drove it well and putted well and everything was pretty good.
We always feel like we left a few out there, which I felt like I did, but still made some nice putts and played nice.  It was a nice solid round to get off to a good start.
We're in a tournament that you got to get off to a nice start, because it's a sprint, even though it's four rounds, it's a sprint, everybody is making birdies, so.

Q.  Obviously you know you need to go super low here over the next four days.  How encouraging is it to get off to a start, 5‑under, on this course that typically yields probably the highest scores of the three?
MIKE WEIR:  Typically it does.  It's good.  I've done it before here, I know how ‑‑ I've won here, so I know that if you play a good round here you set yourself up for a good position.  So we're only on three golf courses this year, so you get a little feel for the Nicklaus and then the Palmer Course.  So, yeah, I feel like I got off to great start and will keep building on it.

Q.  Does winning‑‑ is that overrated or underrated, when you've won this tournament before?
MIKE WEIR:  I don't know if it's underrated.  I think it's an advantage.  I think that you know how the golf course plays.  I think the Palmer Course plays a little different Sunday than it does say Thursday.  I've played it in strong winds.  When I won on Sunday in 2003, it was very, very windy.  And other days I shot a 62 there one year on the first round when it was calm.
So you need to ‑‑ you play the course differently in the different conditions.  So maybe a little experience can help.

Q.  How long have you been practicing leading up to the start of the season to get ready?
MIKE WEIR:  Quite a bit, actually.  I haven't even made it to the slopes once this year.  And it's right in my backyard, so that just tells you.
I went to Hawaii almost two weeks before the Sony Open to just keep working and keep practicing.  And so I had some mixed results there, played okay, shot even par.  But this was a much better start, so hopefully I can keep building on it.

Q.  Based on that practice you've given yourself in the off season where would you rate your form right now?
MIKE WEIR:  I think it's pretty good.  My form feels pretty good.  Obviously, I've had a couple tough years and I feel healthy, I've been able to practice as much as I need to now and so that's another benefit that I don't have to think about my elbow injury and limiting my practice and limiting my tournaments, really.

Q.  How healthy do you consider yourself?  A hundred percent?
MIKE WEIR:  Yeah, I would say pretty close, I would say 90 percent.  So I'm almost there.

Q.  Can you talk about the frustrations of the last couple years?
MIKE WEIR:  I talked about it a lot.  It's just a difficult thing.  It's tough to play poorly when you know that you can still compete and that.  But it just shows you, you can't compete 50 percent out here, especially a player of my length.  I have to be more of a precision player and when you're playing 50 percent, you just, it's nearly impossible.  So I tried to do it, but I'm glad that I'm over that hump and ready to play some good golf now.

Q.  Is Grant your coach?
MIKE WEIR:  Yeah.

Q.  Has he changed anything for you?
MIKE WEIR:  I think we worked on some tendencies to improve some things and, yeah, I think any time in this game you're always working, looking to improve, and work on things.  But I like the flow to my game now.  It's not very mechanical, it's ‑‑ I'm playing the game, which I am having fun doing.

Q.  Coming off the last year or two that you probably want to forget, what are sort of your expectations or goals for this year short‑term?
MIKE WEIR:  I don't really have any.  I'm just trying to make each day better, really.  That's kind of my focus is to get out here and play good golf and just try to stay ‑‑ it's cliche, but just really try to stay in the present moment.  I don't care if I make a bogey or anything with a bad swing, it's just the next shot, I'm just trying to have that be my attention.
I made one bad swing today, hit it in the water on the third hole, the par‑3, I over cut one.  But I was able to hit a nice wedge in there and save bogey.  And those were the kind of things that, if you're in that mindset, you can do.  If you're not, you're going to make a triple bogey.  So really the mindset is kind of my goal this year, really.

Q.  Is there a sort of like a new, a feeling of like a clean slate or new sort of whole confidence when you change coaches and work on different things?
MIKE WEIR:  You're working on something maybe a little bit new and yet, but at the same time I'm the guy driving the ship and I kind of, Grant gives great input, what I need, but I have to take what he gives me and take that and make what's applicable to me right at the time.
So, yeah, I think it's just a fresh slate more that I'm healthy and I'm going to be playing a full season.  Last year I didn't want to use one of my exemptions, because I didn't know when I was going to be playing.  This year I'm using one, so I know I'm going to be playing a lot.
So that was a lot of uncertainty last year, not knowing when I was going to play.  I would play a week, be off a month.  Play two weeks, be off another month.  Things like that.  So it was tough to get any flow and rhythm to the season at all.
So this year I'm going play a lot and looking forward to playing a lot.

Q.  How about the hockey season?  Are you glad to see those boys back?  Who is going this year?
MIKE WEIR:  Let's see.  Could be anybody.  Could be one of those years where somebody gets hot, gets rolling, so it will be interesting to see.