An interview on Tom Lehman

LAURY LIVSEY: Let's take some questions.

Q. You don't tinker with your clubs?

TOM LEHMAN: I don't tinker with my swing. I've been working on the same things with my swing since I was college. It really hasn't changed at all. And I think my swing as a result, if you look at my swing when I was 20, versus 30, versus 40, versus 50, it looks nearly identical. Very, very, minor changes.

Q. Tom, a few weeks ago Webb Simpson lost a stroke in the New Orleans Classic, and he showed a lot of class. Integrity is a big part of the game. He showed a lot of respect for integrity of the game. Why is it important for young guys like him, for a guy that's been through it, and wants to see guys respect that integrity, how are you encouraged to see a guy like Webb and other guys respect the game and the integrity of the rules of the game?

TOM LEHMAN: Two comments. First of all, the integrity, to me, that's what separates golf from other sports. Other sports they're not required to call penalties on themselves. In golf, you aren't either. But it's been part of the tradition of the game to, when you break a rule, and nobody has seen it, that you need to be man enough to do that.. When you see Webb do that, and I think it was Brian Davis, a couple of years ago at Hilton Head when his club touched the grass. Calling penalties on yourself, when you're in such a position where it could cost him a tournament just shows the class of the individual, the integrity, the character. And also the beauty of golf.

Now with that said, that rule, where the wind blows your ball, is a terrible rule. I felt like watching Padraig Harrington get penalized at Augusta a few years ago when the wind gusted and blew his ball after he already backed away. It's time to change that rule, when it's obviously to everyone that the wind is the cause of the ball moving, you shouldn't penalize the player.

So I just feel like that rule needs to go. It needs to be amended. When it can be proven obviously by video replay, or whatever, that the wind has caused the ball to move, the player is not penalized. Webb paid the penalty. But you know what, I think in the end, when you do that, what goes around, comes around. He will be rewarded in some way. Something is going to happen throughout the course of his career, where you're going to say that was a turning point, playing by the rules and making the right decision and it's benefited me for the rest of my life.

Q. Was their decision to go to TCU based on your love for Fort Worth?

TOM LEHMAN: I think they wanted to get away from home. I think they like the Texas mentality, the independent spirit. They wanted to go to a school with a great football program. They certainly have that here.

And to a school that's big enough, yet small enough, where they cannot be overwhelmed, and not small enough where it feels like high school. It's a great size campus. It's pretty. They have everything they want. They looked at going other places. There was always something missing. They seemed to look at this school and this was everything they were looking for and I couldn't be happier with their choice.

Q. Tom, can you talk about your ball striking this year? Your green and reg numbers are phenomenal on both tours. Anything you changed or has it just been a great year for you so far?

TOM LEHMAN: You know, I haven't changed a thing. I haven't really changed anything in my swing since I was about 18. I think that's part of the reason why I'm playing well, consistently well is that my swing is really kind of simple and it's repetitive. I'm not trying to hit heroic shots. I'm just trying to play to my strengths, which means to me, when a pin isn't very accessible from my draw, I don't try to force it in there. I'm happy with a par and move on. I haven't really felt like I've changed my game at all. Maybe a little smarter as I get older.

Q. Did you go to the Rose Bowl?

TOM LEHMAN: Yes.

Q. A little unique this week, you've got two daughters that attend TCU, they are in school right now, is that correct?

TOM LEHMAN: Yes, they are in summer school. They finished a couple of weeks ago. They love it here. We've always loved it here starting in '92 when I first start coming here to play, I just kind of fell in love with Fort Worth, with the community, with the folks that live here, the whole attitude of the town. They really enjoy it. They've threatened that they are never going to come back to Arizona, and I kind of believe them. They are pretty much hooked.

Q. Would you like to see fewer bomb and gouge courses on the regular TOUR in more places like this that test other aspects of the game?

TOM LEHMAN: Well, yes, I certainly feel like we have whole bunch of great golf courses that are not being used, or get bypassed by the bombers; courses like Hilton Head, Harbortown, like this place here. They are great old golf courses.

You see a lot of the guys, the big bombers skipping them, which is too bad. So personally I feel there needs to be a blend. I think you need to play all style of courses.

On the schedule there ought to be a real balance of courses where you have to hit it straight. Courses where you have to really, really putt well. Courses that are driving courses. Courses that are second shot courses. Courses where it pays to be long and straight. Courses where it doesn't. But golf, in general terms, it always benefits you to hit it long. It rarely benefits you to hit it long and crooked. So the courses that punish the long and crooked, is something that most players who aren't real long are in favor of.

Q. When you switched or when you did the belly putter the first time was it a tough decision for you at the time?

TOM LEHMAN: No, it was easy because I couldn't make a 3 footer. I learned a big lesson with putting. I've never messed with my swing. But I decided at one point to start messing with my putting.

With the strengths of my putting throughout my career, I was a really good lag putter, and always very, very good inside of five feet.

The effort to improve my putting, making more 15 footers and 20 footers, and things like that, making changes to my stroke, I end up losing my stroke completely. So I couldn't make it inside of five feet.

So I went to the long putter, and I decided I could never be great with the long putter. So I figured I would have to find a way to putt well with the short putter again. So that's what I've been doing the last four or five years. I found a putting aid that I think really helps me, and works for me, and just trying to find that repetitive stroke again. I feel like my putting is bit by bit by bit improving every month.

Getting back to that, that's always the real catch 22 to trying to get better. One of my mottos of my golf swing has always been, don't ever takeaway your strength. With my coach, Jim Flick, do not ever take me in a direction where my strength becomes a weakness.

If I hit the wall right to left, I need to always hit it right to left, and if I ever lose that, we are both sunk. He has been smart enough to always take me down the road where I can improve my draw but not change it. To do that with putting, it went against my own code, so to speak, and I paid a penalty for five or six years there.