CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 26, 2005

Dana Quigley

JEFF ADAMS: Dana, thanks for joining us. Maybe just get us started, you've said it many times, this has been a special year for you. You come in to this event as the leading-money winner, you went over $2 million for the first time in your career and also lead the Charles Schwab Cup race right now. Maybe just reflect on that, get started and reflect on your year and maybe looking ahead to this week.

DANA QUIGLEY: Just to put it in perspective, the 2 million I went over was more than my first 50 years cumulative, and that's including all of the prize money I won in all of the tournaments and everything. So obviously when the season has started, for me to think that I would be sitting here as the leading-money winner and the leader in the Charles Schwab Cup at my age of 58 is something, I really -- I set goals at the beginning of the year. Rotella and I talk a little bit about what goals I set and what we should think about and try to do. You know, where I'm sitting right now was not in any of our discussions, I can tell you that. It's a total surprise and shock to me that I would be where I am. I don't know to what to attribute -- I'm trying not to dangle the preposition, I don't know how to phrase it, I don't know what to say about it. I didn't change anything this year. I got a putter in Austin that kind of made the summer swing relatively easy. It all went by before I realized I couldn't miss a putt with the thing. Between the putter and the driver I got from Adams, and it wasn't Jeff Adams, by the way, but between the putter and the driver, that's what carried me through all of the majors this summer. I had a tremendous major season. I lost in two playoffs for two of them, I finished fifth, I'm trying to think the fifth was Detroit and the ninth was the U.S. Senior Open. I had four Top-10s in the four majors and I think that's probably why I'm sitting here right now as the leading money winner I would think.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, I read in the press this morning that it's still 13 guys that statistically have a chance to win the Charles Schwab Cup. To be honest with you, I kind of dreaded this tournament all season when I was leading. We all knew it was going to come to this. The triple points makes it -- in one respect, it makes you feel like you have to play well here, obviously. It makes me kind of feel like it's too important with the triple points. It certainly gives everyone a chance, it's going to give everyone a tremendous motive to play well here. It kind of sends a message that really, if you don't play well here, you're not going to win the Charles Schwab Cup, period. It's as simple as that. I've had a good lead, I've had a nice year all year long and I'm very proud of that. But it's not going to go for anything if I don't play well here, so I know the pressure is on. I feel it and I think all of the players will have a little extra bit of focus going into this week knowing that they can, you know, you can basically win $1 million if you play well. You had to have played pretty well coming to here, but you can actually win $1 million in this golf tournament by winning it. So there's going to be a lot of heat on it, no question about it. I think when they dreamed up this triple points and all of that, I think that's what they had in mind and it's come to fruition the fact that this is what it's for.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, I think it's a great system. Everything in life is relative to where you stand with it. You know, I think maybe in the future, we might should go to double points, put it as the same value in the majors. But that's the guys who make the rules, that's their call, obviously. We're just out here, we play by the rules, whatever is presented to us, we'll go for it. So the guy -- when you interview the guy Sunday night who wins the Charles Schwab Cup trophy, you'll say if he passed me, it was a great deal, and I'll be crying. But I'm just going to try to play well and put that out of my mind. I'm going to play with Hale tomorrow. He's obviously the closest guy. He's been my kind of -- he's kind of been the standard I've tried to achieve all of the eight years I've been out here. I think he sets the standard for all of us out here, and the fact that he's 60 and he's still in this position, you know, just speaks unbelievably well for him. He's a fabulous player and a great competitor. I think it should be a little bit of fun this week.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, I still say that Allen Doyle's donation of his million, and what was it, 2001, I still say it's the greatest act of generosity in professional sports I've seen. This is a guy that had nothing when he came out here. It was only two years into his Senior Tour career, he really didn't have that much and didn't know how long he would be making it. So him giving that million away was an unbelievable gesture. I've always looked up to that gift that he did. I kind of thought if I ever got any kind of money in this that I would give it away, but it will make it even more important if I can give away the million. So I'm going to give it all away, I have some charities pricked out, there was an article in the Providence Journal this morning that I haven't seen yet and it even named some of the charities. I'd like to see that. I know a church called me, a church called me, I'm going to give it to Great Harvest, our chaplain here, John, and Angie and I have a couple of churches in the Philippines right now and we have something to do with some orphanages. So we're going to continue to give to that where we can help out some kids. There's going to be churches and my university is going to get some if I win. I've got great plans for it and I hope it works out.

DANA QUIGLEY: I played the golf course yesterday. It was the best I have ever seen it. It's magnificent out there. They have done a tremendous job here. The rough is not as high as it was last year. Last year, if you hit it in the rough, you were gone. This year, you can play shots out of it. You're probably not going to hit it real close unless you get lucky, but you can get it out of the rough here. Fairways are absolutely magnificent. Weather yesterday was really nice. Today, obviously bad, and maybe tomorrow, but I think we've got good weather for the weekend, so you should see some good scoring with the strength of the field here. You've got all of those new rookies out here, you have Haas in here; of course, I helped Haas get here. I hope I'm remembered on his Christmas card here. But Haas is here, Loren Roberts is here. Stadler is about ready to break out I would think. Gil Morgan has not won yet this year. You know that he's going to be really focused for this. And Hale, we don't need to give any kind of edge to. Great venue, really, really nice golf course, and hopefully the weather holds up so you can really see some good play out there.

DANA QUIGLEY: It favors guys that can putt fast greens well, because these babies are quick. I thought I heard someone say they were 12s yesterday, which is faster than we normally play. Matter of fact, it probably might be the fastest we play all year. Soft iron shots; Hale is perfect, a guy like Jim Thorpe is really good on these kind of greens. My ball flight is not great, so I'm going to have to figure out some kind of bounce into them a little bit. You set up all of these game plans and you get up on the first tee on Friday and you see something different happening and then you've got to kind of adjust to that and play it that way. It's hard, obviously there's 30 good players that are here this week. Again, I'll say Jay Haas is really on a good roll right now. Played with him Sunday last week and he's really, really good around the greens, really good. Loren Roberts obviously hits the ball very softly, so those are the kind of guys you need to look at to possibly be favorites here I would think.

DANA QUIGLEY: What won it last year, 11-under for four rounds? I would say if the weather is okay, I would say at least that this year because the course is that much better and the rough is not at penal. So I would say we've been averaging 13 to 16 on three-day tournaments every week this year almost with the talent that's out there now. So you've got to think it will go to 15 in good weather I would think. If it's much lower than that, I'm playing for second. (Laughing).