An Interview With s1

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An Interview With s1

April 16, 2010

holed I think an eight- or ten-foot putt for the double bogey. Then I made some pars. I think a couple of them were up-and-down pars. And then I got An interview with: my first birdie on 7 with a wedge from around 100 yards to six feet. MIKE REID Then I birdied 8, which I didn't expect. I hit a good drive and 6-iron pole high about 20 feet. That went in and gave my quite a lift. But it was equally, I think, as much of a lift PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay, Mike, you start to par 9, because it was right into the wind. I hit a the 2010 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am with double drive and a 5-wood and 2-putted from the front bogey, but you come back and shoot 31 on the fringe, which was probably about 50 feet. back nine for 5-under 66 and you're one off the Then 10 I hit a drive and a pitching lead. wedge -- or a 9-iron that almost went in the hole. Few general comments about your overall Left me about a one-inch putt. round, how you played, and then go through your 12, it was a good drive and a 6-iron up to card, if you could. within a foot and a half. Made that for an eagle. MIKE REID: I think, you know, I tried to The next hole was a 3-wood, 52-degree put the double bogey on the first hole behind me wedge that I hit about 12 feet and made that. as soon as I could. But you always know in golf it's 14 was a drive, hybrid, and a sand wedge hard to recover from a double bogey, much less that I tried to push a little too far. It hit near the get many shots back beyond that. front of the green and backed off the green, and I I just kept reminding myself for the next ten made a putt. I was really just hoping to two-putt minutes that that hole was just 1/54th of my score from about 25 feet over the fringe and onto the and tried to put it behind me. I felt like I was hitting green, and then that went in the hole. some good shots on the driving range and in The last four holes I parred. 18 I was in practice, in the Pro-Am yesterday, and I just said, the fairway bunker and then left of the green, and you know, it's just a matter of being patient. You pitched it to six feet and made that. know, with a little luck, maybe some of those shots So it was a good day after an inauspicious will come back. beginning. So I wish that formula worked every time, PHIL STAMBAUGH: Maybe talk about the you know. But it was a day -- I think the last 17 early part of this year, how you've been playing. holes I hit a lot of good shots. I think you're MIKE REID: I think owing it partly to the probably gonna hear the same thing from most kind of start and stop of our schedule. That's the fellas that have a good round here that you invite in way my game seems to have been: a little bit here to talk about their rounds. inconsistent. This is a good golf course, and you've got But I'm looking forward to playing a few to play some good shots and hole some putts. weeks in a row so I can get into a little bit better That's what I did the last 17 holes. rhythm. Seems I find my game and things are in PHIL STAMBAUGH: Let's run through the pretty good order like they were at -- was it Allianz card, what happened at 1 and go through the or -- somewhere I finished in the top fifth or so. birdies. Just seemed to hit my rhythm there. Then other MIKE REID: You know, the drive I hit weeks I'm searching for it all week. wasn't too bad at 1. In fact, Lon Nielsen, my So I hope to have found it this week and playing partner said, Good drive, and then it kind of can build on it a little bit. But my game's been a took a right kick and went into that bunker. little bit spotty starting out. I bladed it out of the bunker into a bush over the green. I had to take an unplayable lie drop. I pitched it on a little bit short and actually

0f9f0249a9eb5506b7e9767d787496 1 visit our archives at www.asapsports.com 4c.doc PHIL STAMBAUGH: Can you maybe brief him. I said, You're still my partner, and we can them on your victory last year at the Jeld-Wen beat most of these guys on three legs. Get in Tradition and where you were. That was a big win shape. I expect you to be playing in April. for you. He texted me about six weeks ago and MIKE REID: Yeah, that was a big win. he's sort of, I don't know if I'm playing that good. That was exciting. It altogether unexpected, I I'm playing a 5 handicap. I don't want to hold you think, based on how I had been playing prior to back. that. I said, Look, it's more about the fellowship I wish there was a formula you could dial in than the championship. It's gonna be great for and say, This is what I do when I win, and then you both of us. It's golf. We're gonna hit some good can attempt to duplicate that. ones and we're gonna hit some bad ones, but Golf resists that kind of approach. I just we're gonna have a great time together. I haven't think you have to take what you have on the range heard anything from him in the last week or so, but that day and see how it feels and how it's going that's what I'm looking forward to next week. I and just go play. think it'll be therapeutic for him. I think at our age, most of us out here, I I think as your question evidences, it might think good play is due almost in larger measurer in have been the story of the tournament. Talk about your state of mind and your attitude than it is your attitude. We text back and forth and I talk to him swing and execution. From what I could see and I've seen him twice since this at a fundraiser among my colleagues out here, their swings we did this summer, and then again just a few haven't changed a great deal over the years. weeks ago in Florida. So I think the Jeld-Wen, to me, will forever He is on a mission, unlike the Ken Green kind of remind me that, you know, there's no that we've known before. I think it's inspirational, substitute for just a good -- just a good attitude. and people need to know that. So I'm looking Just a good positive attitude. Try to picture the forward to it. shot you want to play, and... PHIL STAMBAUGH: Questions. Q. You mentioned that you were hitting it well on the driving range. Is that a good Q. Can you talk a little bit about how indication some weeks of how you're... the partnership with Ken Green came about MIKE REID: Only in a very general sense. and what you're expecting next week in that But, you know, I wish it meant more. Maybe in the event. Olympics if people could flash up style points and MIKE REID: I think a month before that you could somehow carry that to the tee with you tournament last year I was looking for a partner. that would mean something. Because I hadn't had enough wins, I sort of But I think by this time in my career I've resigned myself to playing in the other decision. I been all over the map. I remember a tournament I think it's call the Rafael Division. won on the PGA Tour. My caddie had accidentally I called Mark Hayes and I contacted washed my grips with Gatorade. (Laughter.) another friend of mine or two, and they had already You know, I don't wear a glove so I'm sort gotten partners. of sensitive to what the club feels like. It's Sunday I guess Ken had heard that I was looking and we're in contention, and I said, This feels for a partner, and he had won enough so that we terrible. What's wrong? could play in the upper division if he could find He says, Well, is it the pressure? I said, somebody else to play with. Give me a break, you know. Something's wrong So he called me, and I said, I would be with these grips. Finally, another guy walked by delighted. We just got better as the week went and said, Did you wash your grips in that bucket? along. He'd also been a friend, but not the kind of Me caddie says, Yeah. He says, Well, they put guy you see in the locker room and go out to Gatorade in that bucket. It looks like water, but... dinner with. I hit ten balls, went out there and shot 67 We had been friends for a long time, but it to win the tournament. So I sort of forever put to was great to get to know him better, and his sleep the idea that you got to practice well to play brother, his wife, just the family. My wife was well. It doesn't mean a great deal. there. We just had a great time. We went out to Yeah, I might have my caddie wash them dinner a few times. in Gatorade tomorrow. So after his accident this summer, I texted him. I gave him about two weeks and then I texted

0f9f0249a9eb5506b7e9767d787496 2 visit our archives at www.asapsports.com 4c.doc Q. With as much experience as you guys have had through your career, do you think it's easier, as you get deeper into the rounds, to put a double bogey behind you, to play good final round? MIKE REID: I would like if think so, but golf just -- it's such an in-the-moment challenge. I don't think that that -- I don't think the requirements of, you know, staying in the moment, keeping your mind in the present tense -- if you travel that road often enough, it needs to be repaved. And so every time you tee the ball up you're gonna be repaving something, in spite of the fact that you've been there many times before. You know, if you've read Bobby Jones' classic book Down the Fairway, he discovered patience. The. In the first part of the book it was such a revelation that he came home to his parents and he said, I'll never play a bad round the rest of my life. I've learned the principle of patience. Today I played patient and it worked well. It was just interesting how the entire rest of the book, that requirement was just impressed upon him time after time throughout his entire career. He could look back on that moment and almost laugh at it thinking he had arrived. He had learn that had principle and it was behind him, and he would never again be impatient on a golf course. Again, that's the way golf is. You're gonna be tested, but you just hope that you're of a mind to keep going forward even though you may be stumbling. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Mike, good playing today. MIKE REID: Thank you.

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