A lot of my buddies also played golf, but when it came to going to the beach or on the boat and chasing girls, they usually went that way and I went to the golf course.
As for my country, I don't live there, but obviously I'm very proud to be Canadian.
Canada is hockey.
Canada's a great sports country, for sure, and known for a lot of hockey, but it's also very passionate about golf.
Every tournament is different. Every Masters Tournament is different. Sometimes you feel very calm. Other times I don't.
Everything I did, I could feel people watching me.
For me, my ball flight, I can't hit it high enough to keep it on there. It's tough for me.
I actually had a Bobby Orr action figure. You could put the pads on him and skates and all that. I was 7, and he was still playing.
I can wish for A Presidents Cup in Canada. That would be great, and I think it's going to happen.
I can't wait to try to hit a shot on 15 and a drive on 18. That's why I get excited about it.
I carried my own bag in Perth, where it was 106 degrees.
I didn't play very well at The Players Championship; I missed the cut. I didn't play very well in Atlanta. I didn't have the preparation I needed. I was a little irritated.
I had a few rumbles. We had the one brawl in high school hockey.
I had been struggling with my game since the British Open. Including the British Open, I was awful. I managed to get in contention just by patching it together.
I had two older brothers, so I was always competing with them.
I had won the Canadian Tour Order of Merit, and a couple tournaments. So I was encouraged, and by winning about $80,000 on the Canadian Tour, we were able to keep an apartment.
I have a lot of offers to play for appearance fees. It's nice gravy, but it's not a big motivating factor for me, to go here and there just for money.
I know that my game is versatile enough to compete in all of the majors.
I made one on the very first hole, No. 10, from a very tough spot in the back. I made some nice ones today.
I missed a hockey practice. My parents were away, so my buddy and I decided to skip it. My dad found out from the coach.
I never did really break down or choke up. I got emotional, but it was more a feeling of being happy when it was over. Those few minutes on the 10th green, those were actually the best.
I punch left-handed.
I remember as a kid just being out here and watching, in particular, Jack in '86 win this tournament and how many great champions have won.
I still think firm and fast probably plays a little bit better for me because I think I can control my irons.
I stopped doing that waggle before my swing, but I had been doing it so long, since 1998, that it almost became part of my swing.
I tried for my card six times, starting in 1992. I finally got it in 1997.
I was not great behind the counter. I had a week off without asking for it. Another time, we had a cart go up in flames, and we went out on another cart, which we wrecked by running it into the cart that was on fire.
I won $18,000 Canadian, and I thought I was loaded. Considering what I'd been making, I was.
I won the Tour Championship late in 2001, but it only made me wonder why I hadn't been in contention more often.
I'm a pretty low-key guy. I'm at the age now that I'm able to feel comfortable with it, where maybe five, six, 10 years ago, it might have been a little overwhelming.
I'm not a big drinker. I love Mexican food and Atlantic salmon. Coffee and doughnuts. That's huge in Canada.
I'm not paying attention to all of the talk about the long guys.
I'm trying to collect every tournament that I won; I try to collect a golf ball and mark it on there and keep track of it.
I've been putting a little too much pressure on myself, maybe trying to swing too good and make everything too perfect.
If I can raise more money for charities, or get more Canadian kids to play golf, the green jacket will mean even more.
If I thought I had hurt my chances of winning another major just because I was chasing money around, I'd wind up kicking myself.
In Jakarta, walking through the mud carrying this big, red Wilson golf bag, I stood out more than I wanted to.
It's important to get off to a good start in major championships.
Jakarta, in 1995, on the Asian tour, the tournament organizers had us staying an hour and a half from the course. They sent a bus for us every so often, but I took a cab.
Last year the tournament committee did a great job bringing some excitement back to the tournament with some accessible pins.
My game plan is pretty much set, and I try to stick to that.
My goals are just to become a more complete player, more consistent player and a more consistent contender in big championships.
My wife and I did take a little vacation to Vegas for a few days after the Masters stuff died down. We needed to get away on a date.
People give you a nice applause when you get on to the range, which they do for all of the former champions when they walk onto the range. It's a nice touch.
Playing hockey, there were a lot of guys bigger than me, so I knew I was going to get hit and have to deal with it. Gotta hit back.
Some guy showed up at my front door at home in Utah, carrying three Masters flags the Tuesday after I won. I asked him how he found my house. He said he had been following me.
That was one of the few times my dad ever got mad at me, when I threw a bat or kicked something. Dad gave me some grief about it.
That's what I did in the summer: hang out at the golf course, working and practicing there.
The beauty of golf, you're in charge out here.
The coolest thing about Wayne and other hockey players I know, like Adam Oates, is that they're so down to earth. And so many of them love golf.
The course is going to make you look silly sometimes. You have to be able to accept that and move on.
The fame aspect of winning the Masters... besides being married and becoming a father, that's a strong third there.
The history and knowing the holes and seeing them for so long, I think that makes this tournament so personal.
The only thing I miss about team sports is the camaraderie, the togetherness. Out here, it's just you and the ball.
The purses are so good now, if you play well you're going to do fine.
There's a heightened sense of pressure on every shot, and there's no sense denying it. Recognize it, and deal with it.
There's just such tradition at this place, at Augusta National. I've watched Jack Nicklaus come through and shoot 30 on the back nine.
There's still a big emphasis on hitting the fairway, and maybe more so than I've ever seen here, actually.
Things are churning inside for sure, and you have to slow yourself down sometimes because things speed up.
This golf course, you miss a shot a little bit off-line, it's going to bite you.
To be in the room with all of those great champions and get to rub elbows with them and trade a few stories, it's going to be a special night.
Today, the wind was really swirling around quite a bit. You couldn't pick up what direction it was going, and the fairways are starting to run out, so it played tricky.
Usually when I'm playing very well, I can control my irons and control the distance, and that's very important when the greens are firm and fast. You have to be very precise.
We went through a lot of apartments and a lot of storage lockers, but it was all worth it. I kept half my clothes in the car. That helped.
When I go back to my hometown, my old friends are still my old friends. It's not like we feel inferior. But maybe we're more tightly knit because we're smaller.
When I wasn't a left-handed pitcher, I was a left-handed catcher. I had a special catcher's glove for my right hand, because you won't find many left-handed catchers.
When I'm on with my putting, I'm as good a putter as there is, probably.
When it starts to get sunny, that does a lot to the golf course. It dries it out, it makes the greens a lot more difficult to putt.
When you're the only guy kind of left on the golf course, you can feel that.
Whenever we left our apartment to go play in Canada or Australia, we couldn't afford to keep the apartment. So every year we had to get our stuff and pile it in a storage locker for $50 a month. Then we'd find another apartment.
You can be six behind on the back nine and still win the tournament.
You never know who is going to come out of the pack and do well.
You're going to go through some patches on this golf course where you're not going to hit every fairway. You're going to miss some greens.
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