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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 12, 2017

Chad Pfeifer

Stateline, Nevada

Q. This is, what, the third time you've played in this event, correct?
CHAD PFEIFER: Third in four years.

Q. Third in four years. First time you played here, the first day you played you were the leader after the first round.
CHAD PFEIFER: Yes.

Q. You made quite a name for yourself, an impression. Take us through that event and the last four years since you got here. You won the George W. Bush Wounded Warrior tournament to qualify to play here four years ago. How has your life changed, I guess, is my question since you played here?
CHAD PFEIFER: It's been a crazy ride for sure. The exposure I got from this tournament really led to a lot of great things. One being The Big Break which aired two years ago on the Golf Channel. The exposure has kind of built up and my name's got out there.

Not a ton of recognition, when I'm out on the streets, but every once in a while people come up and, say, I watched you on TV and either on Big Break or a lot of people said in Tahoe.

And so it's just cool. And the really cool part about that is people are seeing wounded veterans do great things. And that's kind of been my main goal since I started playing golf, competitively, is to just get the exposure out there for other veterans.

If other veterans can pick up golf and enjoy it like I have, hopefully they'll get some opportunities like I have. But it's just great to get my story out there and to help other wounded veterans. It's been a crazy journey.

Q. To that end, how involved are you -- are you visiting a lot of veterans that have been wounded in various programs or what's been your schedule?
CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah. So I do a lot of stuff with Feherty's Troops First Foundation and really get to be around and kind of hang out with a lot of other wounded veterans.

Some haven't golfed and are just getting into it and others are more experienced golfers, and we can have a nice competition.

And but, yeah, we're doing that. And then my caddie here this week, his name is Adam Benza. Him and I, as well as two other amputee golfers, have started up a nonprofit called Moving Foreword, F-o-r-e-w-o-r-d. And it's to help anybody with a disability get into the game of golf. And so I'm kind of the, I guess the military liaison in that aspect.

But I love helping out wounded vets. But I've also had people with disabilities come up to me and tell me that I've inspired them. And so it made sense to help everybody not just wounded vets, which there's a couple prosthetics out there this week I've seen in the crowd, and they come up and one of the gals -- I didn't catch her name -- but she just told me how much I've inspired her and she picked up the game of golf and is playing more often now.

And so that was just -- that's really cool. That's one of the great things about this tournament is just having people come up to me and want to thank me for my service. But to seeing the people that I've affected and touched their lives is really cool.

It's something the first year I wasn't used to -- I'm still not used to it because it still touches me knowing that I'm affecting people in a positive way. But especially like that first year I was out here, I had a couple of different instances when people with prosthetics and amputations have come up to me and told me how cool it was to see me out there. So it's been a life-changer for me.

Obviously, I've turned something tragic in my life and kind of made, put a positive spin on it, and I've used the game of golf to grow that awareness for people and to use it to my advantage.

So I've had a lot of cool opportunities, and this will always be up there as one of the things that started that. And it will always be a special event for me.

Q. When you're away from the golf course, what are you doing now? We know you're a spokesperson for Diamond Resorts.
CHAD PFEIFER: In fact, it was here the second and third rounds of that first year when I was playing with Mark Rypien, also a brand ambassador, Mike Flaskey, who at the time was like the CEO of marketing, and now he's the main man in charge for Diamond, he was walking and following Rypien, and we got to talking a little bit.

And we had dinner one night. And he said we want to bring you on board. So that was another great thing that came from that.

And so I do a lot of speaking events with Diamond. There are events of a lifetime. Some of the bigger ones I do is Branson, Missouri has a big veterans week over the Veterans Day there in November. And so I just kind of tell my story. But it's been a great partnership with them. But off the course, I mean, we've got -- my wife and I just had our third baby boy in March. And so we've got three boys. And they keep us busy.

So it's events like these, because our third one is so little, my wife, Summer, didn't want to bring all the boys. It's tough to keep track of all of them now and try to keep them quiet on the golf course.

So she stayed back home. But it will be fun. I'm sure they'll be watching at home when they see daddy pop up on the TV, it will be a fun experience.

Q. At 20-to-1 odds, you're among the favorites. Obviously you have Mark Mulder, the two-time defending champion going for the three-peat, the player we talked about earlier, hits the ball a long way. Mardy Fish. How are you looking at your chances this week? You were a surprise the first year you came in here, you blew everybody away that first round capturing the lead. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, this guy can play.
CHAD PFEIFER: I mean, there's a lot of great players. And even I don't want to call them the older guys, but Rypien can still move it. He can still play, and he can make some putts.

And Jack Wagner. You start getting into the contenders. And Smoltz is a really great player. I've played with him a couple times.

But to watch Mulder and Mardy Fish hit the ball, I mean, they're making the sound at impact that the PGA guys are making. They hit the ball that good.

But I'm very confident coming into this week. I've been playing really well. But it's just like any golf tournament. You gotta putt the ball. And whoever gets rolling the rock good and gets a hot putter, they're going to be there and in contention come Saturday and Sunday. But the course is always a fair course.

The par 5s maybe favor the bombers, but there's a lot of target golf out there where you have to put the ball in a certain spot. Especially on the greens you can get in trouble, if you're a little longer, come up short. There's a couple of false runs. But the course is very fair and anybody can score on it.

And so that's why I like my chances. I maybe not have as many eagle opportunities as those guys that bomb it. But hopefully I'll have a couple each day, and I just gotta take advantage of it, roll the rock, and make some putts and I'll be right there.

Q. You were on Feherty's program how long ago?
CHAD PFEIFER: That was two years ago. It was around Super Bowl time in 2015. Two and a half years or so. Yeah, like I said I do a lot of stuff with his organization. And I've gotten to know David very well over the last few years. And that was definitely a fun experience for me being on a live TV show with Feherty busting my balls. But he's such a great guy. As funny and witty as he is, he's a huge patriot, and he's got a great heart that's in the right spot, and he does a lot to help out wounded veterans and the people that fight for our country. So I love Feherty.

Q. You were the subject of being a portrait in president George W. Bush's recent book that came out back, I think it was in January, if I'm not mistaken. January or February. Maybe it was December.
CHAD PFEIFER: Yeah, we found out about it about that time, I think. I think it wasn't released until March or April, maybe. I'm not exactly sure on that.

But, yeah, that was a very cool honor to be a part of that book. Having gotten to know President Bush a little bit. I knew that painting became a hobby of his ever since he was in office.

But when I first found out that, one, he was painting veterans and, then, two, I'd be included, I was blown away. But it just goes to show you how much he cares for the veterans, all veterans, but especially the ones that went over to war under his watch and how much he cares for them, shows compassion for how much they truly mean to him. So that was a very cool honor.

Q. On a scale of 1 to 10 how good was the likeness?
CHAD PFEIFER: I thought it was really good, because at the time that's when I first started shaving my head. And it was white. And he captured that perfectly. It was awesome.

When I saw that, I chuckled because everybody would always give me crap about my head. A few people called me a Q-Tip, which it was not -- I mean it was pretty accurate. It wasn't a lie. But, no, I thought he did a great job on not only mine, but almost everybody's.

There was a couple -- well, there's a few I didn't know the people so I didn't know. But the guys -- all the guys that I did know that he drew or painted, the likeness was very close. I mean, there was a couple that were kind of more -- it's amazing how he can capture a person's character in the painting.

Like it really is. Like I said, some of the guys I knew that I saw their portraits, it's like, it's a goofy picture but at the same time that person's goofy, it's their attitude and their character coming through the portrait.

It's crazy. It's just very cool, especially since he hasn't been painting but for five, six years, however long he's been doing it, to be able to do that and capture people like that, it's pretty crazy. Very fun to see.

Q. It's fun to have you back. Best of luck. Thank you for your service.
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