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117TH WESTERN AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA DAY

June 26, 2019

Chris DiMarco

Benton Harbor, Michigan

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Let's bring Chris DiMarco up. (Applause.)

Vince, thank you so much for inviting me to this, and on behalf of my fellow media members, thanks for setting up this day. I mean, how good is it to be on the golf beat when we have days like this. This is pretty spectacular.

I've been covering golf for the Trib since '09, so unfortunately I just missed the last Western Am here. So I'm thrilled to be back - thrilled to be here for the first time. Chris DiMarco meanwhile is back for first time since 1989. He played two Western Ams.

CHRIS DIMARCO: Shhh.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: The first one was rather successful. So tell us, first of all, what was it like driving in here today?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was pretty nostalgic, to tell you the truth. I was 19 years old, so it was 31 years ago that I won. I can remember the holes. I remember seeing -- obviously everything is different, but just remember a lot about that week. I remember first and foremost that it almost didn't even happen.

I was traveling with Dudley Hart, teammate of mine at the University of Florida, and we had and gone through the Southern Amateur and then on up to the Porter Cup, and Dudley was playing poorly and wasn't most gracious loser, so to speak.

He said, I'm going back home. This is before cell phones and everything else. He was my ride. I was 19. I couldn't rent a car.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: And you're driving up from Florida, right.

CHRIS DiMARCO: We drove up from Florida, so we went up all the east coast. I called my parents and my mom said, No, you stay there. I'm going to come up there. My mom flew to Buffalo and drove me here. If it wasn't for my mom doing that I probably wouldn't have played this tournament.

I just remember how grueling it was. God rest her soul. I thank her all time about it. She actually drove me around Lake Michigan up to Milwaukee to qualify for the U.S. Am the next day. We had a lot of golf in four, five days for sure.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Did this essentially launch your are career.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I think winning this gave me the belief. I was always pretty good at golf and I kind of just always got better. I played football and golf up until ninth grade. Once I decided? To go strictly golf I just got continually better year after year.

I went to college on a book scholarship. It wasn't much. Get me into school, which was great, University of Florida. I just kind of worked my way up. All-American my second year; third team my junior year; and then first team my senior year.

Obviously between my junior and senior year winning this and also the Monroe Invitational, which are both match play events that same summer. Beating some of best golfers, my peers -- and especially some of the old guys. Jay Sigel was still playing back then; Allen Doyle. For me to go out and win tournaments was like, Wow, maybe I can do this as a career.

So without a doubt winning this tournament, by far the most prestigious event that ever won as an amateur. In all honesty, there are a couple that rival it: the U.S. Am and the British Am and this Am, the Western Am. Those are the three tournaments I think that as an amateur player that you strive to win. It's the three majors of amateur golf.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Let's test your memory. Let's go back to 1988. What do you remember about the event? What future pros did you meet, et cetera, et cetera.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I just remember I didn't realize how grueling it was, and he said it perfectly, Vince said it perfectly, where you play 18 holes and you're like, Okay, an easy; and then 18 holes, and then they cut to 44; next thing you know you got 36 holes.

I think I finished 14 out of 16 if my memory serves me right to get into the match play, and then you go right out and you play your first round of 16 then round of 8 the first day. I remember in the semis being 4 down with 6 to go and was not doing anything. Ended up winning four holes in a row to get back to even.

I told you the story back there. I forget who I was playing, but I had about a three-and-a-half-footer for par and he had like a two-footer for par of he goes, Good good. I went, Sure, okay. I have a three-and-a-half-footer; you have a two-footer. Okay, I can do that. I remember hitting a good drive on 18 and I remember him shaking as he put his tee in the ground. I said, Okay, I think I got him now.

I think I beat Bill Lundeen in the finals. It was just the memory of -- you know, when you play that much golf it's kind of nice because you really don't have time to think. You don't have time to let the nerves sink in.

By the time you play the first 36-hole day you're just eating something and falling asleep. You're getting up bright and early and you're playing another 36. You're eating something and falling asleep.

By the time that Monday came around where I had to play 36 again for the U.S. Am, I mean, I think Tuesday morning I woke up and went, I don't even know where I'm at, what day it is.

So just the venue here, like I've always associated the Western Am with Point O' Woods, so I think it's pretty special to have it back.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Other than exhaustion, what was the key to not being nervous even though you wanted to win so badly.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think that there is ever a situation where you're not nervous. I think that's the dense between like a really good amateur player at your club to a professional or even a really good amateur player, like one of that's going to win this tournament.

I think it's controlling the nerves, understanding that the nerves are going to be there and knowing that the only chance you have to get by them is to kind of embrace them and deal with them.

So it took a lot for me. These kids nowadays I see come out, they're so much more mature and ready to play on the PGA Tour and to be in the limelight of events like this than I ever was for sure. It took me a while. Took me until the age of 25, 26 to really feel mature enough to feel like I could control my own nerves. I knew how to I guess visually understand them, know they were coming on, and then how to get through them.

Nerves are a tough thing. My deal is the time I walk on the first tee and I don't have nerves, that's the time I'm hanging it up. It doesn't mean anything to me anymore. The fact that I have nerves means it means something.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: You made it up to No. 6 in the world; won three times on the PGA Tour. Which was the most memorable? Was it Scottsdale.

CHRIS DiMARCO: All three of my wins were pretty special because the first win it was just my time and I won by six. So to have a five-shot lead coming up 18...

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Where was that?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was Waynesboro Country Club in Paoli, Pennsylvania. So winning that and being able to actually enjoy winning it was fantastic.

And then about the time when I won my second, that's when I really started playing my best golf. I birdied 18 to get into a playoff with David Duval and won in a playoff. That was pretty special, too. I remember watching the telecast later. He was up in the booth. I think he had already counted his chickens and didn't expect me to make birdie on 18. So I made birdie and then I won the playoff.

And then in Phoenix I think I shot 31 on the front. I think I had the lead going in and shot 31 on the front, and then I think I bogeyed 10, bogeyed 11, and doubled 12 to lose the lead. No, I bogeyed 11, doubled 12, and bogeyed 13 to lose the lead to Kenny Perry, and then I birdied three or four coming in.

So to lose it and come back and regain it was a pretty special one. All of them been fortunate. When I won my second event my brother caddied for me, so that was pretty special. When I won over in Abu Dhabi in '06 over on the European Tour my wife caddied for me, so that was pretty special.

I've had some great moments. The Presidents Cup, being on two Ryder Cups and two Presidents Cups, those are special. I loved college golf because it was team. I was always brought up with football so always had the team atmosphere in me. The Italian passion I had inside me for sure.

So to get on those teams, you know, golf is such an individual sport that when you get to play on a team with your peers it's pretty special.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Keeping the caddie money within the family. That's a veteran move.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, kept it within my wife. Believe me, I still lost on that one. I got to keep 15%; she got to keep everything else.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: You got the 10%. (Laughter.)

CHRIS DiMARCO: Funny story about when my brother caddied for me. I think I wrote him a check for $64,000 and he called me up like two months later and said, Can I borrow 20 grand? He paid off his American Express and he does, you put me in a new tax bracket. My taxes are up.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: So rude of you.

CHRIS DiMARCO: So I lent him another $20,000 so he could pay his taxes after writing him a $64,000 check. (Laughter.)

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: That was funny. Since we're on this subject, there were so many debates about this with Matt Kuchar and how he dealt with that caddie. Was that in Mexico?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yep.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Where do you fall on that, on the side of that?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, knowing Matt, from what I understood, they had come to like a $5,000 agreement on whether -- no matter how he played. So if he would've missed the cut, still would've been probably two and a half times more than he would've paid his own caddie. So I understand.

Now, there are rumors where he didn't read putts for him the first couple days and didn't really help him, but from what I heard he did. I think the right thing to do is for Matt to say, Here is 50. Way less than he would've paid his other caddie anyway. His other caddie would've made $130,000, so he would've came out looking fantastic.

I think that the problem was that when it came to fruition he didn't really like -- he could've? Made it right away, but it kind of went on and on. Finally he ended up paying more than he probably would've paid in the first place. I think it probably could have been handled better.

Matt is one of the greatest guys out there. I think that's why he's getting a pretty good pass on it. Everyone deserves a second chance, especially a guy like Matt Kuchar who is so great for the game.

But I think that his manager, I think Mark Steinberg probably had a little bit to do with the fact that he got a little stubborn with it.

Again, the great thing about the PGA Tour is he wins that $1.2 million as the purse money, but I guarantee you he probably won another half a million dollar in his sponsor's in bonuses. So really wouldn't have been that much more to pay him and, again, another write off, which he would've needed after winning 1.2. So I think it could have been handled better and I think he was miss managed is I what I think.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Yeah, spread the wealth a little bit. Is it true that when you were in Scottsdale I think one of the final holes, final greens you were on, did somebody yell Noonan?

CHRIS DiMARCO: So this was 16 and everyone knows how the infamous 16th hole at Phoenix. This was in '02, so before it became a football stadium. It was still a stadium. There were still thousands of people around. I was one back of Kenny Perry playing that hole and hit an 8-iron in about three and a half, four feet right behind the hole. Hit a really good shot.

If you've never played that golf course, that hole is, one, a really good short par-3. The green is very undulated and it's tough to get it on the right level and get it close to the hole.

Two, now you add 20,000 people screaming while you're hitting. It becomes even more nerve wracking. Then top the fact that you have a chance to win the golf tournament on top of it? So I'm over my putt and just getting ready to take it back, and the last thing you want to do is if somebody does yell something is step back and look at them. Now they got you. Now they're all in your head.

So I was over the putt. Amazingly it was quiet, and some guy yelled Noonan from the movie Caddy Shack. Instead of stepping back I just kind of looked at the hole one more time. In all honesty, kind of gave me an out, so to speak. If knew if I missed the putt I could, Oh, really?

So I kind of nervous obviously trying to win the golf tournament. Calmly rolled it in and I turned around and I just kind of went, Get that bleeping guy out of here. I guess they threw him out.

Now if you go there it's brutal. Really is. It's brutal. They're not there to watch golf. They're there to boo and everything else. It's a shame. Everybody says, What's 16 like? I say, If Mr. Nicklaus decided to play one more golf tournament and he was going to go there and he missed the greens, they would boo him. That's how these crowds are unfortunately.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: It's probably fun for everybody but the actual golfers.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, especially if they're not on your side. If they're against you at all it's no fun. You've got to embrace them and get them involved. But it's tough. It's a tough atmosphere for sure.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: I'm wondering if you had an experience like that down the stretch at the Masters in '05. As popular as you were, you were going against Tiger. To prepare for this I re-watched on YouTube the three holes of the final round. I don't know how many people remember that of course Tiger's famous chip-in on 16 didn't exactly help you. Do you mind going through the final three holes of that? Let's start on 16.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah. I remember I was 1-up and he hit just a -- and if he was sitting here he would say it was just an awful golf shot. Just a pole hook. The only reason it didn't go in the water is because he pole hooked it. He turned his 8-iron into like a 6-iron he hooked it so much. He got it over the green and I hit the shot we had both -- I had birdied 14 and 15 to get to within one.

Then, again, I hit like a driver and I laid up on 15 and he hit like driver, 9-iron into 15. I wedge it in there just inside his and I made it.

But I hit about a 15-footer up the hill and he was down there to the left of the green. Could have sat there and thrown balls all day. Again, it's Tiger woods. I had been working with a sports psychologist and we had really been working hard. The previous year I had lost to Vijay in a playoff at Whistling Straits. Tom Watson and I are the only two players to ever lose majors back to back in playoffs. Unfortunately, he's got other majors to go with him but I have none.

I just remember we worked on it he said, Expect the unexpected. So in my mind I played almost every scenario. Maybe he's going to skull it in the back bunker, maybe makes double, maybe I have the lead going into 17.

Just kind of prepared myself for every situation. Did I think he was going to make it? No. He made it and I said, Great putt, Tiger. So loud. It was probably the loudest I've ever been on a golf course.

So I just missed my putt. Caught the low lip and missed it. He hit another really bad shot on No. 17. He hit it in 15 fairway, that far right. I hit a good drive and a good 7-iron on the green about 25 feet. He hit it -- just had to get it over the trees and chipped it on the green and actually rolled off. Then he chipped it up and down just to make a bogey and then I made a good little four-and-a-half-footer.

Which, when you're one or two back at August on the 71st hole, four-and-a-half-footer to get within one is pretty nerve wracking. I'm not going to lie to you.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: It was nerve wracking for me watching it on YouTube so may years later. That was a long...

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was nice to go do it. And then on 18, again, he hit a bad 3-wood left and he really bad 8-iron. I guess he didn't want to hit the same one he hit on 16, but he hit it almost right of the bunker and it trickled in. I hit a really good 5-iron, 6-iron.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: 5 I think they said.

CHRIS DiMARCO: 5 in regulation, 6 in the playoff. 5-iron just rolled up. I've always watched Augusta so many times, and you always want to hit when the pin is that front left, you just want to put it up in the middle of the right part of the green. We always know that putt breaks about a cup left. We've seen Vijay make it. Mark O'Meara made it. My ball just creeps up and then creeps all the way back down.

He hits a pretty good bunker shot. Uses the slope. Hits it about 12 feet to the right. If you're looking at the hole to the left, but past the hole where he was. I hit a really good chip. I still don't know how that chip didn't go in.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Yeah, Jim Nance said, How did that not go in? And then you slumped down to your knees.

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was one of those ones where you see it and it looks like it's going to hit dead center and just go in. Somehow it rattled -- not only did it rattle out, but it went by five feet. It almost picked up speed as it hit the pin, and then Tiger actually missed his putt. I was kind of shocked.

When you dream of -- being a kid you practice on the putting green. I got goose bumps thinking about it. How many times you're like, Okay, this is to win the U.S. Open, to win the Masters or whatever it is. So I had that 5-footer. Thankfully we had separated ourselves from the field. We were seven shots ahead of third place. It was basically him and I.

I made it. I remember like going into the scorers tent and signing my card and going right toward the 10th hole. They were like, No, no, we're going to 18. First year they played 18 first in the playoff instead of 10. 10 had been giving him fits all week because he did not have his draw.

So 18 he finally played two really good shots into 18, good driver, good 8-iron, and does what Tiger does and made it. I hit a really good chip again that was about two inches left of the hole that almost went in again.

I had never got so much notoriety for finishing second in my life. I can promise you that. I think back then when Tiger was at his prime a lot of people finished second to him.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: When you're standing over the putts on 17 and 18, what did you tell yourself? What advice would you give to hacks like you us or really good ams that are going to be playing in this event?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I can't say this too often in my career. That was probably one of the only times where I really wasn't even nervous. I know that sounds so crazy and so out of line because I am a nervous person, so to speak. For me to say that, I had so much confidence in every part of my game. We beat the field by seven.

You know, if he would've been caught with what he was doing in '09 back in '05, I would have a couple majors. Unfortunately, I was five years early. But, Tiger Woods, I mean, I got to play a lot of golf with him and had played a lot of golf with him. To get to witness some of things he could do, he just had shots nobody else had.

What I always tell people, the thing that made him so great and what separates him from everybody else is that he had a focus to be able to play the 1st hole of the tournament like it's the 72nd hole and he needs a birdie to win the tournament. And he can do that for 72 holes. My brain would blow up.

So it's amazing to me how he was able to focus that hard. You even watch him now. With people screaming and yelling, just nothing on him. All business. He's definitely a little more gracious to the fans now and humbled. Back then, it was business only.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: So when Rocco Mediate lost to him in the playoff at Torrey Pines and Rocco gave him I think a flag to sign and asked him had personalize it and Tiger refused to, and Rocco's like feeling were hurt. Did you have any interaction with Tiger or just like playing a robot?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I can make that story better because what happened was that there was a really cool picture of them shaking hands or doing whatever, and Rocco put it in his locker. Rocco had signed the other part and was going to put it up in his thing, and Tiger just signed "Tiger Woods" instead of saying, Hey, what a great day it was. Oh, my gosh, you played great. Rocco, as he was walking out of the locker room went (ripping noise, and threw it in the garbage. That was the story I heard from it.

Tiger was always -- he was great to play with because he was -- you would get to talk to him, but he was very business. The most nervous I ever was for my charity I would ask him to sign flags. You go up there with -- you know, some years he won three majors so you go up there with nine flags, three of each.

You'd feel bad for asking him, but every time he signs one there is five grand for my charity, there is five grand for my charity. So you take an extra ten seconds, ten more grand for my charity. After a while I said, You're doing it to yourself. You keep winning all these majors. Too bad. You have to sign these. Just the way it is. Too bad. Comes with the territory.

Yeah, so it's good. I think there is nobody other than take away Mr. Palmer and Nicklaus, Player, who kind of made the game go to a new level, but Tiger Woods has made the game what it is for sure. The game is in a better place with him in it and him contending for sure.

Look at Eastlake last year. When you have Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth and these guys coming down the stretch saying I've never seen crowds like this in their lives, and these are the guys that have been holding down the No. 1 spot for years, it's pretty cool to so what Tiger can bring. It's a Beatles atmosphere. It really is.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: I got a couple more and then we're going to open it up the crowd here. So you're in town this week. Going to be playing at U.S. Senior Open. Got in a couple nine-hole practice rounds with some friends.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Played 18 holes yesterday in the wind. It was really windy yesterday. It is a very, very fair golf course, but there are some long holes out there for us old guys. I mean, I think there are two or three par-4s that are over 490. We're all in the locker room hoping they're going to move the tees up a little bit. Those are par-5s. Those aren't par-4s. But the course is fantastic. The USGA is very generous off the tee. The rough is playable. It's not like what we saw at Pebble where if you hit it in there it was really hard to get it out.

I think the USGA -- I don't want to say bad rep, have put themselves in some bad situations in the last couple years. I think they're trying to make it right. I thought the U.S. Open two weeks ago was fantastic. I thought finally it was about the golf course and the players and not necessarily about the USGA and setup.

So I think that they're prepared to kind of put it on the golfers and the golf course again, not necessarily them. The course is fantastic. Tell you what, I'm not a Notre Dame football fan, but when I walked in that locker room I got goose bumps. It was pretty cool to be in there and know what's happened in that locker room and on that field. It was pretty special.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Well belated congrats to your Gators kicking some Michigan Wolverine ass last year in the bowl game.

CHRIS DiMARCO: We seem to play each other a lot. They got us a couple years and we got them a couple years. Yeah, it's always great to play against Michigan and Coach Harbaugh.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Who's got some questions here?

Q. It's been quite sometime since you played here. Considering the clubs you played and the distances you hit it, how much shorter is this golf course for the modern amateur today?
CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't even know what the distance it. What's the distance of this course? (Indiscernible.) So that's not short. That's about what we play on the Champions Tour. Somewhere between that and between 7150, in that area. If you ask Fred Funk what it's like it's long. I'm about right in the middle there in distance.

I remember this not being an overly long course back in the day. I remember hitting a lot of 4 and 5 irons into par-4s, the way it should be. 70, 75 to some of these kids is going to be really short. I mean, I'm lucky to fly the ball 265 yards; if it's firm and fast I can get it to 290. Some of these kids are flying it 310, 320.

A 430 yard par-4, which back when I played was a driver and 7-iron, 6-iron, is now driver and a gap wedge for most of these kids. So, yeah, technology is kind of making some of these golf courses can be overpowered, so to speak.

I know even this week we're playing at the Warren Club, the fourth hole there is normally a par-5. Probably the most severe around the green of any of the par-5s on that course and they made it a par-4. Just moved the tees up a little bit.

So I'm not a big fan of that. I don't like when they take a par-5 and they don't change the green at all. They just move it up 30 yards and make it a par-4s, because par-5s, good par-5 to me is something that's reachable but if you miss the green you're going to have a really hard time making a birdie. Sometimes you can make a bogey if you go for it. Should be a risk/reward.

Now you're seeing a lot of par 70s because they're just taking par-5s and making them par-4s.

Q. What's the pressure of those two Ryder Cups like? A lot of people say that's the toughest pressure of all.
CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, and I got a funny story about that. So my first Ryder Cup was in Oakland Hills up in Detroit. Jay Haas and I were partners. We knew it the whole week so we practiced. Knew we were going to play alternate shot. I was going to hit it off the odd holes and he was going to hit it off the even holes. We played two or three practice rounds doing that.

We were on the range getting ready to play and we're walking to the tee and I went, Jay, I don't think I can hit this tee ball. So we switched. So he hit the tee ball. So we changed our whole game plan, or he did it for me thankfully. Because I was so nervous my brain didn't think far enough ahead. He hit it in the fairway because he was nervous too.

I hit in it on the green somehow, but left him like 35 feet. Of course he putted it like five feet by. I'm like, Oh, my God. I wish he had this five-footer now. Can we switch back? (Laughter.) Somehow I made it. I don't know how I did. Somehow I made that putt, and I can tell you the adrenaline going to that second tee was amazing.

We won that match 3 and 2. Going back to that Tiger and Rocco Mediate story, I got a picture I have in my house where me and Jay are kind of hugging. You can just see right, like after we won, just a cool thing. To Chris, Partner, Great win. Awesome time. I signed both sides. So we both have one of those pictures. Jay Haas was a great mentor to have in that Ryder Cup. He helped me a lot.

Q. Has college golf changed enough to where why these kids are so prepared when they come out to the tour? Doesn't seem like you just make another trip to play another college at there university course. There are a lot invitationals that are at top 100 courses now or tour courses. Seems like they've seen a lot of these places by the time they turn professional. And if you could add a little on the stretch of holes on the Warren course. Looked at them yesterday, and it looks like you got your work cut out for you.
CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, I mean, 2 is not bad as a par-5, but 3 and 4, 3 is brutal. Usually 18th hole there, and then 4, that's the 3 and 4. 4 is the par-5 they turned into a par-4.

About the kids in college, obviously, yeah, they're playing better conditioned places than we ever played. Budgets are a lot bigger. What you're seeing is I think you're seeing a Tiger Effect. You're seeing that when these kids were four, five, six years old they were watching Tiger Woods win his tournaments and be so dominant.

How did he do it? Well, he worked out. He stayed in shape. He had the right nutrition. He had a swing coach. So you're seeing him basically lay the recipe for how to be a successful golfer through the ages.

Also, he played with his peers up until he was 20, 19 years old. He played in U.S. Juniors, played in the Western Golf Association tournaments and beat the guys that were his age. I always said that was a big knock on Michelle Wie. The people that were pushing her forward were having her play against us, the best guys in the world. Why is she not stepping on the necks of her peers and learning how to win?

Tiger learned how to win, and not only win, but win by a lot and just drill people. I think that paid a lot for him to do that. What you're seeing now with these kids is these kids saw that. Nobody out there doesn't have somebody working them out, some type of physical trainer,certainly somebody helping with nutrition. They're on some type of supplement. They all have swing coaches.

And then obviously to me, the technology in golf is a lot better. I really do think that. These drivers nowadays, they go -- is the driver going to make me longer nowadays with the golf ball combo? Absolutely. But the combination of the driver and the ball is making Brooks Koepka 80 yards longer. It's given me 10 yards; it's given him 80 because he can swing his club so hard. No knock to him. He's strong enough to be able to swing it 125 miles an hour.

The combination of those two is what's making the golf ball go so long. But these kids, they're ready. I mean, you don't even see like nervy putts anymore down the stretch of these tournaments. If they miss a putt, they just miss a putt. You used to see nervy strokes back early '90s, 2000.

I don't even like to use the Y word, but you saw some of those because of people and their nerves. You just don't see that anymore. Brooks Koepka looks like he's going on a Sunday stroll to the park. He doesn't even look like he's playing golf. And Dustin Johnson. You see these guys don't even look like the nerves are there.

Now, I can tell that you when I played, if sometimes I didn't look nervous there was always nerves. Just, again, how you can play with those nerves and control them. For me it was always controlling my adrenaline, walking a little slower. If you watch at Augusta that year, I had the golf ball in my left hand. I was squeezing it to relieve the tension.

I had a song in my head. It was Give Me Three Steps by Lynard Skynard that I sang the whole time. When I had a four-footer, instead of letting my mind go somewhere, like how many ways I could miss it, I would think about funny things that my kids would do that day just to get my mind out of it, and snap back in when it was time to play, just to keep my mind out of it.

Nerves are tough.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Fascinating. Couple last random questions. U.S. Open, Pebble Beach. If you're watching it, who would you be rooting for? If you could pick one guy to win, friends or that has a good story, who would you want to win that event?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I think it played out the way it should have played out. Koepka put the pressure on Gary. I think Gary was -- I mean, obviously if you would've said is he going to win before the week I don't think many people would've picked him. I think by the end of the week with him winning, I think was a popular winner all the way around, with the players for one. I think there is not one player that would've said, I didn't want Gary Woodland to win. They were all very happy for him. I think the fans, the people that have been behind him for so long.

Here is a guy in all honestly, with his length and his game and everything has underachieved. Not to say that in a bad way. Just that the expectations for him are right up there with Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. He's an unbelievably long hitter of the golf ball who can make these golf courses seem really short.

So I think this is kind of the opening of the door for Gary Woodland. I think you're going to see bigger and greater things for sure from him. Sometimes it just takes that sense of belief in yourself. I remember my dad always telling me that once you realize how good you are you're going to get good. It happened. One day I realized, I'm pretty fricking good, and I started beating people and got confidence and knew I could do it.

95% of the time the obstacle that's in front of the golfer is himself. Sometimes when you have a lead -- when I did some analyst jobs for the Golf Channel I would take that role. You could tell the guys that were going to go out and do it; you could tell the guys that I would be like, Their record shows they just don't handle the lead well, and they would fall back. You would see the guys that turn a 3-shot lead into a 7-shot lead.

When I did Morning Drive on Sunday mornings, I would always call it whether it was -- I said, It's over. Tournament is over. Well, this isn't good for TV. Well, he's going to win. What do you want me to tell you? It's over. You could just always tell.

A lot of the kids just don't have nerves anymore. It's unreal. Or at least they don't act like they do.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: I love Gary Woodland winning because I think it reminded everybody how hard it is to win a major. To be that talented and to not have won until the age of 35 just goes show how flipping harding it.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Look at Sergio two years ago. Who would've thought that high-kicking 19 year old at Medina was not going to win a major for 20 years after that.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: And I don't think he's made a cut since.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, I think he made a cut at the Open. That was it.

TEDDY GREENSTEIN: Thank you so so much for being here.

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