THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

November 8, 2003

Chris Riley

TODD BUDNICK: Chris Riley, thanks for joining us. 5-under 66 today. Each round keeps getting better. Will we see something like Chad tomorrow.

CHRIS RILEY: I hope so. If I did, I think I would -- I might run away with it if I shot 10-under tomorrow. No, that was great to see. We lived together for a couple years in college and 61 is pretty impressive out there. I didn't see a 10-under out there. But 5, 6-under, I saw that. But to shoot 10 is pretty remarkable.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's talk about your 5-under today.

CHRIS RILEY: I started on one, I birdied one, I hit a driver, 5-iron in there about 13 feet. Made it.

Then I eagled 5, I think, with a driver, 7-wood in there about 12 feet. Made that.

Then I birdied 9 with a driver, 4-iron to the front. 2-putted for birdie.

I bogeyed 10, I 3-putted. I hit two good shots and 3-putted. I lost my focus and 3-putted. But that's going to happen out there in 72 holes. And I made good pars on the next two holes. I think 10, 11 and 12 are key holes. They're really tough. If you can hold it together there, then you have some birdies coming in.

I birdied 13, I hit a driver, 3-wood in the front bunker. Hit it out there about 10 feet, made it.

I birdied 15, I hit it in the right rough and then hit a great 9-iron out of there about four feet. Made that and then parred the last three.

TODD BUDNICK: 3 behind Chad tomorrow, what's your game plan tomorrow?

CHRIS RILEY: My game plan tomorrow is to play within myself and I feel like if I can get it to 14 or 15-under that if Chad beats 14 or 15, then hat's off to Chad. I'll take 14 or 15 right now. But Sunday's out here are tough. And on the PGA TOUR they're tough. There's a lot of things going on. And it's going to be exciting. I've done all I can do. I've had three solid round and hopefully if I get another one tomorrow I might be able to win this thing.

Q. You lived with him for two years, was he low key then or was he wild man tearing up Las Vegas?

CHRIS RILEY: He's always been low key. I can hardly get a couple words outs of him and I've known him for nine years. That's just the way he is. That's what makes him so good. I think nothing really gets him too high, nothing gets him too low. He has a great attitude towards the game and he has a ton of game. He dominated the Hooter's Tour and then he dominated the Nationwide and now he's out here and he's going to dominate this tour. He is a top-10 player in the world, in my opinion. He's got tons of game and that's pretty much Chad Campbell, he's shown everybody that this year. It's only a matter of time before he gets into the winner's circle.

Q. Not to denigrate your round at all, 66, that would be tournament best and yet you got beat by five today.

CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, that's kind of like throwing a 3-hitter and losing the game, isn't it? What do you do? You just -- you know sometimes -- that's what we do is we compete and if someone beats you and you played well -- I played well. I maybe left one or two shots out there. That would have been 6- or 7-under and Chad shot 10-under. So great for Chad.

Q. Did you guys, when UNLV was traveling around did you think you guys had such dominant touring pros, dominating the world?

CHRIS RILEY: We finished second and Chad was our No. 1 player. We switched off our senior years. He played two years and I played two years and it was back and forth. But Chad is a -- what can I say about Chad? He's a great guy. He's obviously a great player. Just low key, nobody knows who he is really.

Q. You and he were on that team and didn't you guys almost recruit Tiger?

CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, we did. No, actually, no, Tiger, it was either Chad or Tiger. We lost Tiger to Stanford. That opened up a scholarship and we got Chad Campbell. So we look back at it and Coach Knight always jokes, he goes, "We lost Tiger, but we got Chad." I can't say enough good things about Chad. He's a good guy. It's even hard for me to get words out of Chad Campbell. He's so quiet.

Q. I thought it was us.

CHRIS RILEY: No, no, it's just the way he is. I hope, if I don't win this thing, I really hope he wins.

Q. Analyze Chad's strengths and weaknesses as a roommate.

CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, he was always, he couldn't do quite as many sit-ups as I could do at workout. No, just kidding. No.

Q. I suspect that's probably true.

CHRIS RILEY: We used to go work out to the mornings and then eat our chocolate donuts on the way home. But it was kind of funny. But, no, Chad wasn't always a very good putter. He's obviously making a lot of putts now. But he's always been a great ball-striker, great driver of the golf ball. Coach Knight at UNLV really helped him with his putting and I talked to the guys who were out on the Hooter's TOUR when he was dominating and they were saying he makes everything. So it's really no surprise to me. Sports Illustrated knew it wasn't really when they put him on their cover. It was nice to see Shaun Micheel win the PGA, but I was really pulling for Chad and I really thought he had a great shot at it. But he's going to be tough to beat tomorrow because he knows how to win and he's won numerous Hooter's events and Nationwide Tour events and now here he is trying to win his first TOUR event, which will be difficult for him. But like I said, if he doesn't win, I'll be really pulling for him.

Q. I was trying to set you up, I was asking what were his strengths as a roommate. What did he do well as a roommate when you were living together?

CHRIS RILEY: Oh, as a roommate.

Q. Was he a slob?

CHRIS RILEY: Oh, our place was a pigsty.

Q. Now we're getting there.

CHRIS RILEY: No, I mean we -- Chad loves McDonald's and, yeah, we hardly cleaned up our apartment very much. We lived a couple semesters together and when the semester was over it just absolutely stunk in the room. Someone needed to come in and clean it. And we would always get it cleaned before we left and then when we came back we would start over. But we had a good time as roommates.

Q. What year did you guys finish second in NCAA's?

CHRIS RILEY: 1996.

Q. Who beat you that year?

CHRIS RILEY: Arizona State, Pat Perez.

End of FastScripts.