CHRYSLER CLASSIC OF GREENSBORO

September 29, 2005

D.J. Trahan

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, D.J., for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. Great start here in Greensboro. A nice finish there with that eagle on No. 9.

Just talk about the day and how comfortable you might have been out there, then we'll take questions.

D.J. TRAHAN: It was a good day. I felt good on the range this morning. The swing felt pretty good all week. That just kind of rolled over for the round. I hit it very solid all day. I hit it where I was looking.

I tried to hit it to spots, and I really did a good job of that today. With the putter rolling very nicely, as well, it was a good day for golf for me. I mean, you can't complain. I couldn't complain about a single shot I hit, I don't think.

A lot of good shots. I did miss a couple of fairways off the tee. I couldn't have been more than five or 10 feet off any fairway. I was pretty pleased with the way I hit the ball today.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions.

Q. Do you have a number in mind of where you want to get your earnings to try to get your card? Do you even worry about that?

D.J. TRAHAN: I honestly don't. I mean, I don't know if I've got enough already to keep it, but I've been told that I do. I haven't really even looked at that. With five tournaments left, I just want to play golf.

I think the less you worry about that, the better you're going to play just because if you're out there trying to count dollars, you're certainly not thinking about playing golf.

I'm just out there trying to hit one shot at a time. Whatever happens happens. I'm just going to focus on trying to hit good shots and worry about that later.

Q. Do you feel like you're ready to win? I know you've been in contention. Wachovia you were real close. Something about Carolina?

D.J. TRAHAN: I don't think it's particularly anything about Carolina. I feel very comfortable here since I grew up just a few hours down the road. But, you know, I think every week I tee it up, I feel like I can win. It's just a matter of going out and playing. You got to believe you can win, otherwise I don't think you can win at this level because the competition's too good and the players are too good to doubt yourself and be able to win.

It's very, very rarely that you see guys fluke winning out here. It just doesn't happen. The level of competition is too high.

Q. You had some doubt maybe in the last rounds?

D.J. TRAHAN: No, I don't think so. I go out you know, it's just a matter of getting it done is really all it comes down to. Going out, hitting the shots, making the putts. I believe that I can do it. I certainly hope that I can become a winner out here on TOUR. So far I've got three top tens, and that's okay, but it's been a pretty mediocre year. I'd like to get a win before the end of the year, absolutely.

Q. Your last win was in college?

D.J. TRAHAN: I won on the Nationwide Tour last year down in Miami.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your round, starting with 12, birdie on 12.

D.J. TRAHAN: 12 was a par there. Pin was kind of back left. Hit it in about 12 feet right, short of the hole, made a little downhiller there to get the first birdie.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Which club?

D.J. TRAHAN: We hit 7 iron in there today. It was playing a little downwind, took a little less club.

The par 5, I hit it right down the fairway, hit a 2 iron on the green, 2 putted from probably 25 feet there for the second birdie.

14, I drove it in the fairway, hit a sand wedge up there on the green about 15 feet, 12 or 15 feet, rolled that in for the third birdie.

18, drive in the fairway, another sand wedge, probably about 15 feet again, made that.

Then 7, actually drove it in the right rough there, hit a good wedge to about nine feet, made that.

Then, of course, I hit it in the fairway off the tee, put a 3 wood just over the back edge in the fringe. I guess they said it was 31 feet, made that for eagle. No bogeys. That was nice. Those are always nice when you don't have bogeys.

Q. You putted from the fringe?

D.J. TRAHAN: I putted on No. 9. I was only maybe eight inches or a foot off the back edge there, so we used the putter.

Q. You think this year has been kind of mediocre. I think a lot of people would look at it as a pretty solid rookie year.

D.J. TRAHAN: I've only made half my cuts I played in. I've missed several cuts by a shot. When you miss a cut, you miss a cut. You can't look at it by, "Darn, I missed it by a shot." You kind of have to look at it, "Well, I didn't play on the weekend."

To only make 12 out of 24, I'm a little disappointed with my consistency. I think I pretty much know why that's happened. I've struggled quite a bit with the putter this year. I'm working hard on that. I think I'm making some improvements. I'm hoping that will come around and become more consistent because everybody knows, I mean, as difficult as the golf courses get out here on TOUR, as tough as the competition is, most of the tournaments are won around the greens and on the greens. That's certainly somewhere that I'd look to improve heavily upon at the end of this year and hopefully for next year, as well.

Q. Have you changed anything?

D.J. TRAHAN: Just worked with some new drills. I haven't really changed anything. I've stuck with the basic fundamentals. My dad actually, we got a new drill that I'm working on. It's feeling good. You know, I think it's giving me a more solid, repeatable stroke. I think that's what you really look for. I mean, there's a lot of different strokes out there, but good putters have confidence in their strokes and they repeat their strokes almost every time. That's kind of what I'm trying to get to.

I've struggled in my playing career with just being consistent on the greens I think with the stroke, and therefore leading to sometimes having confidence problems.

Q. Was there anything you didn't expect out here as a full time player?

D.J. TRAHAN: Didn't expect?

Q. Anything surprising to you?

D.J. TRAHAN: No, I don't think so. You know, I mean, it's just amazing to get your career started. I mean, nobody ever realizes it, but when you play college golf, when you play amateur golf, we only played 10 tournaments over a nine month span, 10 or 11 tournaments. You still had to go to school. When you played amateur golf before that, you only played golf during the summers. When you do it every single week, it's an adjustment process.

When you get out here, you find tournaments and courses that you like and courses that you don't like. Fortunately, hopefully I'll keep my card this year and then I can kind of work around that next year a little bit. It's a little bit difficult to do that in your rookie year unless you play really well right off the get go, you don't have to worry about that. It's nice to be able to play a lot and see where you like, see where you don't like. It's definitely an adjustment process.

But I don't think anything out of the norm that I would have expected or would not have expected.

Q. When you say it's an adjustment process, is that something with fatigue?

D.J. TRAHAN: No, it has nothing to do with fatigue. I'm not fatigued at all. You have to get used to the life itself. I played a lot of golf, a lot of golf tournaments before I got out on TOUR. It's never been an issue with fatigue or physical fitness. It's just getting used to the weekly grind and traveling so much more.

When you come to these venues, I mean, every week is a different golf course. I mean, you finally get used to last week's golf course, you're leaving and going to another one. It certainly is a little bit more difficult, I think, on rookies especially because you've never really done it before. These veterans that have been out here for years have seen a lot of these golf courses over and over and over again. I would have to say that's an advantage for them, absolutely.

Q. Does this course meet your eye a little bit?

D.J. TRAHAN: I really think so. When I first went around it on Monday in the ProAm, I thought to myself, I really like the setup of this golf course, the way the holes are shaped and the way everything just visually looked to my eyes. Today was a good day. I mean, like I said, the swing felt really good all day, felt great on the driving range. I was fortunate enough to take that to the golf course.

With the golf course looking good to your eye in the first place, it kind of makes you feel that much better about feeling good about the way you're swinging the club.

Q. Can you talk about that driving range? When you say you felt good, what is it?

D.J. TRAHAN: I don't necessarily think that guys particularly work on their swing before a round. But when you get to the driving range, you'd like the swing to feel somewhat comfortable. I mean, you don't want to be out there skanking 7 irons and drivers in the driving range, then have to go to the first tee. You kind of want to get out there and hopefully get comfortable and know that the swing feel goods for the day. That's the ultimate goal, then of course taking that to the golf course and hitting some good shots.

Nobody wants to go out on the driving range and feel like they're struggling to find their swing or they feel like it's not even there.

Q. Talk about the Clemson teammates on TOUR now. You won a NCAA title. Was that your career highlight?

D.J. TRAHAN: I don't know. I've been fortunate to be a part of a lot good things with a championship team at Clemson. I played on the Walker Cup, the World Amateur, I won the Public Links, I got into the Masters. I've been very fortunate to win some big tournaments and be a part of some really good things that a lot of people don't get the opportunity to do.

Winning the national championship was certainly a highlight. I considered leaving school a year early to turn professional. I went back for that specific reason. I wanted to be part of a championship team. There were certainly no guarantees. But we had a great group of guys. I felt like we were certainly going to be a contender. We did some great things that year. We were the first team ever to win our conference, regional and national championship all in the same year. It was definitely worth it.

I still think it would have been worth it had we not won. I made that decision to go back to school because I enjoyed college that much and I enjoyed playing with the guys and playing college golf that much.

Q. Considering the success in college with the team, it's not a big surprise to see that many on the tour?

D.J. TRAHAN: To see that many? None of the guys out here were part of that team. Lucas is actually the youngest of the four. He was gone two years before that. Charles and Jonathan, of course, were one year and two years before that. They were done. I actually never played with Charles.

Considering we've got four guys out here that are under 30 years old, I think that's impressive. That says a lot about Clemson and South Carolina junior golf. All four of us pretty much born and raised in South Carolina.

Q. Are you a big football fan?

D.J. TRAHAN: A little bit. I've had a hard time the last two weeks. I was on suicide watch for a couple weeks there. I actually went to both those football games. Couple of heartbreakers. I sat in the same seat both weeks. If I could burn that seat, I think I probably would after those two losses.

Q. You'll miss the game Saturday, Wake Forest.

D.J. TRAHAN: I think the game is 3:30. I'd like to be playing at that particular time. But, yeah, it's kind of nice that the game is up here. I'm sure we'll see some Clemson fans running around this week, and that would be great.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

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