Q. Great playing today, 65; both a strong start and finish. Tell us about your round.
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, strong start. Tell you what, offseason was long and didn't play a whole lot of golf. Revamped my swing. Spent most the time in the gym.
Came in here really rusty, and if you ask my pro-am partners the last three days, I think I made two birdies in three days. It was nice to see a few putts go in, and things started feeling pretty good from the start.
When you make putts, score seems to go lower, so, yeah, very encouraged by the start. A couple wayward shots in the middle there. Yeah, made some nice putts and hit some good shots down the stretch.
Q. Can you give us some insight into the swing adjustment you made in the offseason?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, so I hadn't worked out in six years and that you older you get you don't -- like your testosterone is not growing. It's going the other way. Your strength is not growing, it's going the other way if you don't work at it.
And so I was beat up at the end the last year in my low back and hips, and I was frustrated by what I was seeing on video with my swing. I think a lot of it stemmed from the body not working right, and so compensating. Consequently, the last couple years I was flattening my clubs to accommodate a fade that I've seen my entire life.
Hitting clubs and a little over six foot, I was playing three flat and my divots were skinny and left I had to swing left. It was ugly. I got tired of that. Called my old teacher, Mike Wilson. Even prior to that I started trying to zero out my path. Consequently, I'm back to standard lies. The ball actually falls left now, so that's different. I've been playing my entire career with a fade.
New equipment. I ditched the 22 year old graphite shafts I've been playing forever and put a new driver in the bag. So it's like everything is different. New starting lines, new clubs, same old me, just a year older.
So I'm encouraged by the start. I'm a little surprised based on how -- like I say, I hadn't played a lot. I came out to Florida on Wednesday last week and played a couple rounds golf at OC, played Kinsale, went and saw my mom for a couple days, and then came here and played Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday. So i played six rounds in eight days. This was the seventh in eight days.
But those six rounds, you know, made a couple birdies and that's about it. Definitely encouraged. It's a process. There is a lot of shots I haven't hit. I've been playing professionally for 30 years, whatever, even longer, but because my shape is now a little right to left with my irons, I threw shots at lies I haven't hit. I got to relearn all that stuff.
Today was great. It was a good start. Hit some really good shots. I'm looking forward to seeing -- I've got a lot more to go to get honed in with this process. 60 whatever I shot today, that's pretty good, so I'm happy.
Q. What were the new workouts that you're doing now and what have they done for you?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, so my chiro that I've worked with for 20 years, Troy Van Biezen, he has a place in Dallas and has worked with Scottie and all these guys. He worked with me first, Scottie.
And so I went there and just said, hey, look, I'm old. I don't have much time left. I want to see what I can do to kind of stop the bleed, the downward spiral of my body and see if I can buy myself another couple years out here.
He plugged me in with one of his trainers, Shannon, and worked with one of his chiros, Corey, and they put me back together. My body feels better than it has in 20 years. Maybe not 20 years, but 12 to 15 years.
I'm encouraged. I finally have my legs under me again and a little bit more stability, which has enabled me to do the things I want to do in my swing.
I'm stupid for not doing it earlier, but I'm lazy. You know, so I'm glad I did, and thankful for the team that -- helped my body get back on track, and working on the little things I need to do to make golf simpler again.
Today was fun. Best round of golf I played in months, going back to the last three months of the season which I played terribly. So, yeah, I'm excited about that.
Q. You mentioned you're having to get used to your shots kind of changing shape. Is that mental or something you have to get used to?
PAUL STANKOWSKI: It's trust. You know, when there is a right pin the wind is off the right, you know, I used to love hitting those just hold cut shot into there.
Hold cut is not really in my bag right now because I'm working on trying to get the ball to fall a little bit left. And so trusting that I can aim it a little bit right of the hole in that situation and know it's going to come back.
Getting the ball below my feet, one of those things with the wind off the left. Like those are shots that I haven't -- it's hard to practice those on the driving range. I hadn't spent a whole lot time in the offseason on of the golf course. I was on a ball count, like 30-40 balls a day at the Max. So I wasn't grinding. I was just trying to move.
In the gym we worked a lot of stability in my lower body and thoracic stability just trying to create movement. Over the years I've gotten real stiff in my mid-back and my hips aren't great. I've got all the typical things that older guys have out here with labrum tears and disks that are bulging.
So it is what it is. If I didn't put the work in in the gym I wasn't going to be able to do this. I would love to play a couple more years out here, if not more. Thankful for, like I said what we've done, and looking forward, Lord willing the body holds up and I continue to get stronger as I do more workouts.
It's fun. I wish I would've done this a long time ago.
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