AN INTERVIEW WITH: MARK WILSON

MARK STEVENS: Mark, why don’t you just kind of talk about what you expect, what this delay does. Obviously you’re playing well and what do you expect tomorrow out of a long day that we’ll have.

MARK WILSON: It’s just part of the PGA TOUR. We have delays all the time, but it is what it is.

Q. How far had you gotten into your round and how bad was it when it was called over there?

MARK WILSON: I played eight holes with basically no wind, and then I was on number 18 tee of the La Quinta course when it started blowing. And so I got all the way through No. 6. I was on No. 6, and it was crazy. It was probably the third hole was the wildest, the par 3. I had no idea what club to hit and I was between 4 iron, 3 iron, 2 iron, all different clubs, and I hit a good shot up around the green. It went 30 yards over just because the wind took it.

So, but you just have to be a patient, have to play the wind, and I just was very I went from the mentality of making birdies to just making solid pars when I could.

Q. Was there any sense of fear at all? What was the sensation like when that wind came up?

MARK WILSON: Yeah, it’s amazing how it happened so quickly. But we have seen it here before. We were expecting a windy day and everything, and I think we all were shaking our heads looking at each other, the playing partners and the caddies and everything, going, Wow, this is something else.

It’s done some crazy things, debris all over the place, branches. And if you walked in, it got really even [worse|worst] when we walked in. So it was something else and you don’t want anybody to get hurt in something like that and scoreboards were falling down and trees were falling. You hate for somebody to get hurt.

Q. Actually saw trees down over there?

MARK WILSON: Yes, we did. I saw, when we were playing actually the fifth hole, it was about 30 minutes before they called it, we saw a tree go down. A branch kind of came flying across and then everyone in the clubhouse saw a huge palm tree, I think off the ninth green, come down.

Q. Obviously they’re trying to get this thing finished tomorrow?

MARK WILSON: I doubt it. I’ve done the math. I don’t know how they can get it done tomorrow. But if we do, I would love to get it done. More power to them.

Q. Have you ever played in conditions quite like this before?

MARK WILSON: The Classic Club in 2007, the final round, and they threw the extra tough part about that was it was probably about 50 degrees, so we were all bundled up as well, and that was about the only time I played in wind like this.

Q. How were the fans out on the courses? Were people pretty calm?

MARK WILSON: Seemed like it, yeah. Seemed like everybody was just sort of shaking their heads and going this is crazy and people were not necessarily taking cover. They were still watching golf, and I hope that nobody got hurt.

MARK STEVENS: I think we’re all good, Mark. Thanks for taking your time.

MARK WILSON: You bet. Thank you.