BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 8, 2002

John Rollins

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Congratulations on your first victory on the PGA TOUR.

JOHN ROLLINS: Thank you, yes. What can I say? It's a dream come true. You always -- growing up, you always dream of winning -- trying to be part of the champions that have won this tournament is incredible.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: I'm sure you went through a lot of emotions there at the end, keeping it ahead of both of those groups of Leonard and Lancaster, why don't you kind of go through maybe some of your thoughts at that point.

JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I played well all day, and just kind of got up-and-down the last three holes. And it was just kind of one of those deals where I felt like I was trying to choke my guts (ph) out, but at the same time I just kept putting the ball and making great putts and getting up-and-down. To finish before them, I guess it turned out to be a bonus and an advantage.

But they both played great all week. And you never want to wish any misfortune on anybody, but to watch those guys make a bogey and a double -- to get in a playoff, I feet like, well, we've do the a chance, let's see if we can take care of business, and lucky enough we did.

Q. Would it be safe to say that the 18th hole could be one of your favorites in all of golf, not just for the birdie on the playoff, but for that big par save?

JOHN ROLLINS: Absolutely. Best hole for me on this golf course. I think I've actually bogeyed it twice before. You know, to make the putt on regulation or whatever was really to give me a chance. I knew if I missed that I would have absolutely no chance, but to take -- I guess it was maybe ten feet or so for par, that really was just an awesome feeling. Even then, I didn't think I had a chance to win, but I knew I was just going to have a good, solid finish and probably finish around second or third and we managed to do a little bit better.

Q. Did you get a chance to talk to Neal Lancaster, and if so, what did you say to him?

JOHN ROLLINS: I did not. He just came up on the tee in the playoff and just shook everybody's hand and said "good playing" and that was about it, but I didn't get a chance to speak to him, no.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I went in the locker room and I called my wife and just basically check in and tell her what was going on. Even again, like I said, I had really no idea I was ever going to be in a playoff and just told her I'd call her back and let her know. I was standing out on the 18th green to watch Neal finish. I could not believe it when he ran his first putt by, I don't know how far it was, two and a half feet, three, I'm not sure. When I saw that, I kind of headed up the stairs and was just going to wait for the crowd's reaction; and when I heard that, I was amazed.

Q. What was going through your mind, when you heard the roar -- or the groan, rather, and knew you were going to be in a playoff and you knew you had the chance to win it?

JOHN ROLLINS: Shock. Even where he hit it left of the bunker there, get it on the green, you figure he's at least going to 2-putt and make a bogey and win by one. But when I heard them oohing and aahhing that he missed, I'm thinking like, wow, we're going to play more golf. And I had not hit a ball or had not hit a putt or anything in about 35, 40 minutes, and here we are in a playoff, which these guys are just coming off the golf courses. Luckily, I'm young enough that I stayed loose and we managed to survive it.

Q. Did this happen a lot sooner for you than you ever would have expected?

JOHN ROLLINS: I would say yes. I really worked hard on my game. My teacher, Todd Andersen, he's worked great for me, and we've been together for about five years and we've put a lot of time and effort and everything. We knew it was going to happen eventually but it was just a matter of when, but it was definitely earlier than I thought.

I was playing well coming in. It was just a matter of making some putts and saving a few shots every round, just to be there at the end and lucky enough this week, we played great on the weekend and we made enough putts to get through it.

Q. Inaudible?

JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I don't wish anything bad on anybody. We're all friends out here. We root just as much for each other as we do for ourselves. I feel bad for him because he played great all week, and then to finish like that, it's got to be a bad feeling and leave a bad taste in his mouth, but I'm just -- I'm fortunate enough that I was there and I played well enough to put myself in position, and I'm just -- I'm more excited for myself that I was able to handle the pressure and everything and do what I needed to do to win. It's just unbelievable.

Q. Can you tell us what happened between last week in Vancouver where you didn't play very well, and do you think -- I would never suggest it was easy, but do you think this is a better way to do it, to come from off the pace and surprise everyone, rather than have to grind it out with a lead for three days like Neal did?

JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, it's definitely easier -- well, it's never easy. But when you're four or five -- I mean, I was seven shots back to come from behind and you can free yourself up so much more, you can take more chances, be more aggressive. Guys with the lead kind of -- they are constantly making sure that they don't mess up and they don't do anything stupid out there. We just went out and played our game the way we've been playing every day. I don't really know what happened, but I just played well and they gave me opportunities and --

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, last week, Vancouver, I played well. I didn't putt that well. I changed putters for the first time this year, and needless to say, I changed back to the one I had been using. But I changed just as an experiment to see what happened. I putted okay, but not as well -- as well as I would like. I've been hitting the ball great and finally my putter bailed me out a few times this week.

Q. How are you going to celebrate?

JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I'll probably drink a few Canadians and I really don't know. I've got a few friends that are out here that came to watch, and I'm sure they are probably excited to maybe do something. I think there's another friend of mine that plays out here, as well, that was trying to change his flight to stick around tonight, which I hope that works out for him and we can celebrate a little bit at the hotel.

You know, I'll probably just do what everybody does, just have a few drinks and hopefully go to sleep.

Q. When you hit that playoff putt, how confident were you that it was going in?

JOHN ROLLINS: It's probably bad to say but I wasn't very confident at all. I was shaking. I had no idea -- I was just trying to put a good stroke on it and make sure I got it on line and really was just trying to have good speed. That was the main thing I was thinking. I was a little downhill, and I didn't want to run it three feet by and are to make a putt -- I had never been in that position. And here I'm playing Justin Leonard, who has won a major championship and many other tournaments, and Neal has won out here before so these guys have obviously been there and I haven't. I was shaking in my boots and luckily enough I held onto it and it went in the hole.

Q. How far was it?

JOHN ROLLINS: Maybe 20 feet. I'm not too sure it. Was too long for me -- I think it was around 20 feet.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: I guess so. People say winning out here will. Remains to be seen. I'm sure it will change some. I just found out that I think I qualified for a trip to Ireland for that, and I was scheduled to play in Tampa. We may have some scheduling issues now and we'll see what happens.

Q. How did you end up playing in Canada, at this particular event? How did this fall on your schedule and how long will it be before it's not on your schedule?

JOHN ROLLINS: I always planned on coming here. I played here two years ago and played okay at Glen Abbey, but, you know, I had always scheduled to come to make the Canada swing, Vancouver and here. I mean, I'm sure I'll be back for who knows how long now. Considering it's my first win, you feel bad not to ever come back. So I'm sure I'll be here for many years to come.

Q. Tell us a little bit about John Rollins. Who are you? What drives you? How did you get into golf?

JOHN ROLLINS: I got into golf at about 13, my father, he played golf, and I just started through him and my cousin, we just went out, played on weekends, didn't really -- didn't really have that big of an interest in it. Played baseball, basketball in school growing up.

Then went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. And Jack Bell, the head coach there, he was kind of my teacher for the four years there and just saw my game progress and really just felt like I had a chance to pursue something professionally.

After my four years of college, I decided to give it a chance to turn pro. Had to play the Hooters Tour in 1998 and really had no success out there. Made it to the finals of Q-School, played the Nike Tour in '99. Again, had no success out there.

Kept trying and finally got my PGA TOUR card 2000 from the Q-School. You know, fell into the typical things rookies fall into, with all of the demand and all of the distractions and all. Didn't play that well, but learned a lot from it. Had to unfortunately go back to the BUY.COM TOUR and won the Hershey Open, which was my first big professional win at that time.

And got back out here by finishing sixth on the Money List last year. So I really felt that playing out there taught me a lot about myself and my game to take it to this level. So here we are now winning the Bell Canadian Open.

Q. Have you had a chance yet to talk to your wife since the playoff?

JOHN ROLLINS: Yes, I called on the way here, just to tell her that it's crazy out here right now, I've got to do a bunch of interviews and I'll call her as soon as I get a chance.

Q. Where is she?

JOHN ROLLINS: She's in Richmond.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: Probably. I don't think so. It's a great feeling. I don't really know what to say. I mean, I really knew that I could win out here. It was just a matter of doing it and really knowing and believing in myself enough to actually do it when the time was right. You know, I just went out and let things happen and they happened for the good.

I feel okay, but I'm sure tomorrow or the next day, I don't really know when it will hit me, but I'm sure it will hit me and it will just blow me away.

Q. Neal pretty much said he gave the tournament away, and I don't think anyone would argue with him. I'd be curious if you had ever done that in all your years of playing, be it college, junior, BUY.COM or whatever?

JOHN ROLLINS: Actually last year on the BUY.COM, I felt like I gave one away in Washington. I had a three-shot lead making the turn, and played good for the last -- for about 14 holes, and then I saw a leaderboard and I saw that I was only one shot up. You know, it was a very strange feeling and I just kind of stumbled in, made some bogeys, ended up finishing third when I was playing so great, the whole week and that day especially, all of a sudden it just kind of caught me. You never want to say you choke, but that's really what I felt like I did that week. That would be the only time college or anything that I felt like I really just kind of gave one away.

Q. Your swing off the tee on the playoff hole and into the green, looked very good, very relaxed, and you would think otherwise from a guy who has never won on TOUR. I wonder if you could speak to that?

JOHN ROLLINS: I really think that just speaks volumes of Todd and what we have done to being. He's really put me at a point where I trust my golf swing enough that I -- under this kind of pressure, I can just stand up and hit the shot I'm trying to hit. That's really what I did in the playoff. We had a great number. I took the club and that was a 7-iron, and we just trusted it and just went ahead and took dead aim at the flag and believed in ourselves and we pulled it off.

I was a little nervous, and everybody is nervous in that situation. We're humans. If you're not nervous, something is probably wrong, or I guess you could be tight or something; you've won so many times that it doesn't matter. But I think everybody gets nervous and I was a little nervous, especially over the putt, more so than the tee shot and the approach shot, but the putt I felt more nerves.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: I'm not shocked to be nervous, no.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, it kind of caught me off-guard. Again I never thought I was going to be in that position. We found ourselves in a playoff, and, I don't know, maybe it's one of those things that it was just meant to be. The playoff hole, I drew No. 1 out of the hat and so maybe that was the omen there in itself.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN ROLLINS: That's fine. It's not the British Open, but it's an official event. It's a great tournament. I'm just -- like I said, I'm proud to be a part of the tournament and proud to be the champion.

Q. Comparisons to Lancaster and Van de Velde -- (inaudible)?

JOHN ROLLINS: I'm sure somebody will go out and figure out, that, hey, he shot 66-65 on the weekend. I played the best golf of the whole week on the weekend. I'm sure somebody will look back and figure out, hey, he shot 65 on Sunday. No bogeys for 19 holes, actually. So I hope somebody looks back at that and sees really how well I played.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can you take us through your birdies?

JOHN ROLLINS: I birdied No. 5. I hit an 8-iron from about 140 yards just behind the hole, probably about 12 or 15 feet and made that for birdie.

Then I birdied No. 7, knocked a 5-iron on the green in two and 2-putted.

No. 8, my 2-putt was about 30 feet maybe.

Then No. 8, I hit wedge into the green to about 12 feet there and made that.

9, I hit a terrible drive in the right fairway bunker, laid it up and then hit a great 6-iron probably to about 20 feet and made that for birdie.

Then I birdied 14, the par 5. Knocked it just off the back edge in two. Probably was only about maybe 15 feet from the hole, 2-putted that and made birdie there.

15, I hit a sand wedge to about 10 or 12 feet again and made that putt for birdie.

And 16, I hit it in the right green side bunker and got it up-and-down and made a putt of about three feet for birdie.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts....