The Bay Golf Club 9, New York Golf Club 2
THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome New York Golf Club into the media here at TGL presented by sew Friday. Xander can you talk about your experience today out on the turf?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: That was as bad as it could have possibly gone for the New York Golf Club today. Bummer to let my boys down here, and it was a rough go. I heard a couple boos in the crowd when I duffed my chip there, so I was definitely motivated to do a little better next time.
Q. Matt, this is obviously a new experience for you all. What did you take away from this and what can you guys improve for your next match?
MATT FITZPATRICK: The list is very long. It was obviously very different. No one has done anything like this. I think getting used to the simulator, the shots, where you've got to hit it, I think I need to figure that out a little bit more. But it was a tough evening.
Q. Rickie, obviously your teammates talked a little bit about the negative side of things, but can you talk about what you took away from this experience and how fun it was?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, other than the fact of we were on the receiving end tonight, yeah, set that aside, but it's really cool walking into an arena and doing what we got to do there. We all wish it would have went a bit differently.
This is something fun for the game of golf, and it's not trying to compete with what we do on the TOUR. This is a supplement to the game. Hopefully, who knows, it can open some people's eyes to what's possible.
I want to come in here with a group of buddies, these guys, and bring some more and just go have some fun, turn some games on the screens. It's a glorified man cave in a way.
Q. You guys have all said that when you're nervous going into a golf tournament, once you start playing, that's what you guys do; you're professional golfers, you lock in. Was there a little bit set of nerves going into this knowing you were going to have to participate and kind of carry the entertainment load?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: In a normal golf tournament, I think the bounce back is something that we've been doing since we were 10 years old, and so tonight was the first of its kind for us, and trying to get that point on the board seemed impossible. They played really well. I don't know what the stats will show, but it felt like every time their ball hit the screen, it was going right at the flag, and every time our ball hit the screen it had a little too much curve or turn on it and we'd end up 30 or 40 feet away on the wrong side of the green.
I think just learning how to bounce back in this game and that sort of Ring Around the Rosy where you've got three of us and try and get a good vibe going and sort of almost maybe slow it down if we could, maybe use a little bit more of that 40 seconds or a time-out just to -- we don't really have a coach to blame. As Fitzy said earlier, usually after a bad game you can blame your coach, but we have no one to blame other than ourselves.
Q. Xander, you mentioned that you got booed. You don't generally hear that in golf --
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: I've been booed before, yes.
Q. How do you deal with that?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: In Rome I got booed, Australia I got booed, Canada I got booed, and Waste Management I've been booed.
Q. I take it back then. But how do you deal with getting booed out on the golf course?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: You just laugh it off. It's the same thing here. They had good reason to boo. I probably would have booed me, too.
Q. How was the shot clock out there? How did you adapt to that? It seemed like a few times you guys were a little rushed because of it. How did you adapt to it?
MATT FITZPATRICK: I didn't feel rushed at all. We play quick as it is, so even yesterday was the first time I played with the shot clock and stuff. It was much faster than I thought, but I didn't feel like -- I felt like I had time to choose my shot.
I just wish that was real golf, as well.
Q. Rickie and Xander, where do you hope to take this thing? Obviously tonight was the first night. It was a lot of curiosity factor. The big question is will it sustain. Obviously Tiger is play next week. Where do you hope this goes?
RICKIE FOWLER: I mean, in a way you have to kind of look at this as -- there's a lot that's been put into it to make this possible, but it's also a little bit of a gamble or an experiment at the same time. This isn't necessarily about it being great golf or -- you want to have the fans have fun here and create a good experience, but I think the biggest driver is how it does on TV and how people view it, and if it does well there, I mean, it's kind of the sky's the limit with what you could do as far as you can put up arenas in different places.
But this is just the start, so we'll have to see how things go over the next handful of matches and how the feedback is and primarily on the side of people viewing at home on ESPN or however they're getting it outside of that.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, unfortunately I think tonight -- I hope on TV everything went really well. I know when it's competitive, TV is better. I'm sure the arena produced really cool images. I've already heard a few people say it showed up pretty nice on TV, which is a great thing.
As far as you can take it I think is as far as you can go. If this thing does really well, then you could do celebrity matches, you could get other athletes in a building like this. The fact that it takes two hours to play, it's quick, it's different. So the idea, of course, is to grow, get more people to play some golf, whether it's in really cold areas or hot areas, like Rick said. If it's popular, you can build other stadiums and you can get people playing more golf.
Q. Did any of the shots, the result of any shots surprise you where you thought it was going to be better than that? Was it as real as you expected it to be in terms of the outcome of shots?
MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I had a lot but probably just didn't play very well because Ludvig didn't seem to have any.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: None of the boys, yeah. It's a little bit deceiving. I think you take it a little bit personally when you see your ball --
MATT FITZPATRICK: I do take it personally.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: As do I. When you see it hit the screen with a little bit of curve, we kind of already know which way it's going, and maybe we feel like it's not that far off, but if it's on the green to 45 feet from 205 yards, that's kind of where it would probably go, to be honest.
It makes it worse, a little bit of salt in the wound when those guys are hitting it to five feet on each and every hole, stacking it on top of us. Yeah, I'd say it was very accurate.
RICKIE FOWLER: They were playing on the same system we were, so...
Q. Xander, do you feel like you get the same feedback like you would on TrackMan or whatever you use in regular golf? Or is there any difference? Is there anything you have to adjust to?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Everything into the screen I think is very accurate. I think everything -- the place where it gets funny -- I heard Tiger talking about it in my ear. When you're hitting these chips into the grain or downgrain, certain areas of the turf bounce a little bit more, and certain areas of the bunker, because the sand is on top of artificial turf, the way the sand compresses when you hit it, it's very different. It's much more dead than a normal bunker or like a wet bunker.
I'd say stuff around the green is where if we had a coach, he would tell us to go straight to. I know we hit some weird shots early, but I'd say if I could have chipped one closer early on, put a little bit more pressure on them -- like at no point did we put enough pressure on them. At no point did we hit -- I think Fitzy hit the only really good chip. Rick did, as well. Then after that we were chipping we were kind of chipping it to nine feet, eight feet, and then felt like I was on the Korn Ferry TOUR all over again.
Q. Matt, you mentioned making adjustments. Can you give me an example of where you felt like you had to make adjustments going forward?
MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, last night Rickie gave me some advice about spot aiming just in front of me. The nice thing is you've got those SoFi logos and the three dots. I tried that, did that last night and felt like it worked pretty well. I kind of probably wasn't as strict with it tonight. I think I hit a couple here and there that I felt were better, so I think probably trying a bit more of that, a bit more match practice, and then the putting side of it, in the warmup it's pretty flat, the putting green, so you're not really learning too much other than speed.
I think playing the holes with the contours, that's going to be way better. You'll get more of a feel for the breaks and the speed. I think there was a few that did funky things that we didn't see, and obviously in golf obviously you've got background of maybe there's a cliff or whatever it may be, you can use it to kind of see and build a read, whereas here you're looking at the crowd, so there's nothing to kind of build anything off.
I'm reluctant to be the first person to lie down and have a look from my front.
Q. In the stuff that we've seen mic'd up, some of the matches, something like this, the banter is always talked about, let's get these guys talking. I'm wondering, were you making an extra effort to be more vocal, to talk through things, knowing it's an entertainment product, or were you just trying to do what you would normally do?
XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Pretty hard to talk smack -- I like talking smack, but pretty hard to talk smack when you're losing by 10 points.
RICKIE FOWLER: We probably talked less than we potentially could have.
MATT FITZPATRICK: The way we were playing, yeah.
RICKIE FOWLER: I would say I did two test matches prior to this. Last night was the only time we'd done with audio and everything going on and people around, and that was a bit more just kind of fun and messing around. We were all throwing the hammer a bunch just because it was just run-through.
But I felt like for the most part on both sides, held pretty well with all the guys kind of speaking up and at least putting a little bit together because it was probably going to be tough to match what we did last night because it wasn't playing seriously and Xander throwing hammers left and right.
Q. Is there a rule in TGL game play that you think could be translated realistically to traditional golf?
RICKIE FOWLER: Shot clock, no question.
Q. You guys are normally teeing off at 9:00 a.m. and not 9:00 p.m. Was there any element of today that was weird or antsy waiting and waiting until primetime to get started?
MATT FITZPATRICK: I mean, it was a bit weird, yeah.
RICKIE FOWLER: As opposed to playing like a British.
MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, it was a little bit weird. Figuring out when to eat and stuff was a little odd.
Q. What did you do all day?
MATT FITZPATRICK: Not a lot. Probably should have practiced more.
RICKIE FOWLER: I packed. We're leaving tomorrow for West Coast. Worked out and I hit some balls, too.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, New York Golf Club. We appreciate your time. The Bay will be up here shortly.
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