BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 1, 2001

Chris Smith

CHRIS SMITH: Well, really I felt like I hit the ball good all week, really struggled putting the first two days. Somehow I was able to keep the confidence in my ball striking and hit it good today, made a couple putts, started to feel like I was going to be able to make a couple putts coming down the stretch. Everything started working. I ran out of holes. If we could have maybe played 45 or something today, I was just starting to feel good by the end (laughter). Just I played solid, hung in there, didn't let the weather get to me too bad today, tried to enjoy it. Instead of looking at it as a bad thing, I enjoyed it. Felt like I could pass some guys with the weather like this, and it worked out.

CHRIS SMITH: Any time you grow up in Indiana, I think you have to be somewhat of a bad-weather guy. I don't play in it so much anymore, but when I was growing up, this is all we played in. Going to school at Ohio State, we played it in all the time. Today I felt like it was the only chance I had to have a good finish, if the weather was bad, and pars were good scores - and they were. It really didn't bother me all day. It was cold and windy. It was hard to putt. But for the most part, it didn't bother me at all really.

CHRIS SMITH: Well, yeah. I told my caddie last night, "This 36-hole thing is good because if I do get hot early, we can just keep going." That's definitely how I looked at it. I didn't necessarily feel like I had it going too good on the first 18. Managed to survive. Really, I didn't feel like I kind of got it kicked in until the middle of the third 9. That's kind of when I felt like things were going right and I could tell where the ball was going to go. That's when I really started feeling good. I never got tired. You know, I just felt good out there. I had a good time with my caddie. Things went well. You do, you just (inaudible) on the positives. That's definitely what happened with me today.

CHRIS SMITH: Whenever I can peel myself out of bed tomorrow morning, I'm going to Hilton Head with my family. It's my daughter's spring break next week. We're going to go to Hilton Head a week early. I don't know. At this point I think I might have to do a little practicing next week. I planned on not playing any golf. I feel like I'm doing some good stuff, so I'll probably do a little practicing. We'll probably do a lot of beach time. We get a week a year where we get to go and spend and actual family vacation. That's our week next week. This will probably just make it a little bit more fun.

CHRIS SMITH: No question. One of my main goals this year was to try to move up in the rankings so you can get into some of the other events that everybody wants to play in. You know, I feel like as long as I keep going in the right direction, hopefully next year I'll have an opportunity to play in some of the tournaments I really want to be playing in.

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, really on about 15 I started feeling like I knew where the ball was going. I hit a couple good shots. I had a good shot on 16. Hit two good shots on 17. Hit a 3-iron into 18. It was as good a shot as I hit all week. I was able to make the putt. That's the first time I really felt like I could make some birdies. You know, that kind of got me going. Then I birdied the 1st hole after eagling 18. From that point on, I was looking at -- really the only mistake I made, I three-putt No. 4 for par. Hit a driver, 3-wood on the green on 4. I had a 30-footer straight uphill and 3-putted. Other than that, from that point on, I was looking to make birdies on every hole.

CHRIS SMITH: I was probably eight or nine feet behind the hole.

CHRIS SMITH: You ought to have my daughters here. You ought to have her up here telling the Divot the Clown story (laughter). Somehow, guys got word of this story. I have a feeling it's going to stick with me the rest of my career. To make a long story short, I was playing in the Skins Game in the Buy.com event in '97. There's a guy by the name of Divot the Clown. They were all there. He was in full clown garb, shoes and everything. He was a trick-shot artist, playing in the Skins Game. He was winning all the skins. He was making putts from across the green. He was one of those clowns that just honked his horn, wouldn't talk. He was honking his horn. It was a dark day. For me, it was a dark day. The story is, Jimmy Roberts at the turn, after I made eagle, "You're getting beat by a clown today." I thought, "Oh, my gosh." He knows about the clown story. It was a low point of my career at this point probably being beat by a trick-shot artist clown that didn't talk. But I recovered.

CHRIS SMITH: He's a great guy. No problem with Scott. Divot the Clown, that was an issue.

CHRIS SMITH: Thank you.