Q&A with Scott Verplank
Oak Tree touring pro Scott Verplank is as intense as golfers come, but he also has a wonderful sense of humor.
Verplank is one of the best interviews on tour, and proved it again Wednesday during his pre-tournament interview session at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship at Las Colinas, where he plays this week as the defending champion.
Here are some excerpts:
Q. You had an interesting Pro-Am round today?
VERPLANK: Yeah, it was great. We had a great time. (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Tony (Romo) is a pretty good player, you know?
Q: Who all did you play with?
VERPLANK: Tony Romo and Kyle, one of the BentleyForbes people, and then EDS and someone from American Airlines, but Romo obviously was the big man on campus. We made sure he always got to sign all the autographs. He kept trying to sneak out. No, he didn’t really.
We had a great time, actually. He was a very nice guy. I had never met him. I knew who he was and watched him and all that. But he’s a good player. Obviously when he’s not playing football, he spends a little bit of time playing golf, which is probably good. Better than doing some of the other things a lot of those guys do (laughing).
Q: Who hits it farther?
VERPLANK: You know what, he probably hits it just barely farther than me. He smoked it out there a couple times, but then a couple times I went ahead and hit one — with these fairways I can get it out there okay, and he was kind of looking at me funny. Hey, I’m a professional, man.
Q. You beat him by a shot on the front?
VERPLANK: Yeah, he played good. He wanted to play me. I shot 3-under on the front and he shot 2, and then came — he had to fire his caddie (laughter). His game fell apart once he fired his caddie, and then he actually went through two or three other caddies. We both got a little tired. These rounds drag out over five hours plus, it’s a little hard to be in the deal mentally all that time. But he played good. I was impressed with him. If I’m around and he wants to play again, I’ll go and play with him. He won’t hold me up too much.
Q. When you say he wanted to play –
VERPLANK: Apparently he likes to always test himself when he’s playing, so he wanted to play me for money or whatever. I warned him against it, but we had a good time, put it that way.
Q. Can you tell us what the wager was?
VERPLANK: No, because that’s illegal. That’s illegal here at Bushwood. Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, sir. I will say he didn’t pay off, OK? Put it that way. But I did get — I got all his pertinent information, so I’ll get it.
Q. Have you ridden the motorcycle (presented to the winner)?
VERPLANK: Yeah, one time, burned my leg on it. The very first time I hopped on it, I burned my leg. I went, well, that’s the end of my motorcycle career. But it’s a pretty cool trophy, I can tell you that. But it’s not real — I’m not a motorcycle rider.
Q. So it is now just a trophy?
VERPLANK: It is a trophy, yeah. It’s got a beautiful spot in one of my garages, and it’s all taken care of, get it cleaned up all the time. It’s a pretty cool deal.
Q. Speaking of that, who wants to win more this week, you or your caddie?
VERPLANK: Well, I don’t know, I would think me, but I would think that they would probably have some extra incentive. You might see a caddie choking on the last hole. If a caddie passes out walking up the last hole, it may be that car over there on the left (laughter).
