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BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 10, 2005

Mark Calcavecchia

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center. Not exactly what you wanted to do but you're still in the lead and you have to be very excited about tomorrow.

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I am excited about tomorrow. I didn't hit my driver quite as well today, but I made no birdies and that's just I'm in half a state of shock about that. That just never happens to me. I can usually scrape one or two in somewhere.

The good news is, is I hit a lot of good putts. I just didn't read them right or my speed wasn't right or a combination of both. But on the other hand I made a nice 7 footer on the last hole for par and hit a great putt, so that's going to give me a good feeling for tomorrow. So I'm excited for tomorrow.

Q. On 13 today you made a fun par save, you looked almost sheepish after you made that putt. Can you tell us about what went wrong and then right there?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, I hit a couple I hit three drives left on the back nine and I haven't hit one left all week, including the Pro Am. Not real sure why. At any rate, I hit one dead left. I had no shot. Chipped it down the other fairway and I made that putt. I had a feeling I was going to make it after making nothing all day. It was probably close to an 18 to 20 footer. That makes up for one or two of those birdies that didn't go in, that's for sure.

I don't know, you can never be embarrassed about a par like that. That's one of my better pars of the year, so I was actually pretty happy about that.

Q. It's only one stroke, but making that putt at the last to keep a lead instead of dropping into a tie and everything, how did you inaudible that one putt?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I didn't know if somebody got to 6 or in the. Not. I saw Barlow was at 5 and Parnevik. I didn't know if anybody got to 6. I really wasn't real worried if anybody else was 6. It never crossed my mind that that was actually to keep the lead by one. I just told myself, just trust your read and hit a good putt like you've been doing and maybe you'll make one.

Granted it was only seven feet, but it felt really good. Like I said, if I keep stroking it like this all day tomorrow and the rest of the year, I'm going to make a boatload of putts, eventually. I've stroked it great all week, so I'm happy about that.

Q. Talked the other day about being a morning guy and the fact, I don't know if you were up at 4:30, but if this was an East Coast event you would be teeing off at two o'clock, does it help that you guys are off and going at ten o'clock tomorrow morning?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I don't think it really matters or helps me, but I do like playing it's better than sitting around all day. It's convenient. I have plenty of time to get home to Phoenix tomorrow night for a day and a half before I head out to Pittsburgh. It's nice to sleep until I guess today I got up at 6:00. Of course, I went to bed at 9:15. That's my normal schedule. You know, that's great for me. Just wait around for a little bit, read the paper, hit the shower, and boom, you're on your way to the course. It's great not to have to sit around all day but it doesn't really help and/or matter.

Q. When you came out here the first time this week, what did you think might win, as far as a number?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, if you'd listen to Craig Bowden and Glen Day talk to me at lunch Wednesday before the Pro Am, I would have said about 6 over. I think they were intentionally trying to terrify me to death; the fairways are 18 yards wide, the rough is a foot deep, the trees are 150 feet tall, greens are slopey and you can't hit them. After playing Wednesday, I think I shot even par in the Pro Am, you know, I knew at that point after my first look that anything under par was a good score on this course.

I actually talked to Andy North on my last hole and he said what do you think and I said I think it's great. I think there might be a 63 or a couple 64s or 65s for the week, but you're not going to be able to do it every day. And what's kind of the way it's panned out. There have been some good rounds and there's been some 74s and 75s, also. I thought 5 , or 6 under would be a real good score by the end of the week, and it still might be.

Q. The guys needed to you come back to them and you did that a little bit; can you look ahead to tomorrow, eight or ten guys within three strokes of the lead?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I missed the point of the question there.

Q. Tomorrow with so many guys in contention because you were able to come back to them today.

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, well, got news is I hung in there and only shot 2 over without making any birdies. But the bad news is, is I was in a position to get it up there around 9 or 10 under and put some space in between me and the rest of the guys.

But the way I look at it, it makes it more interesting for everyone else involved if I just kind of loiter around there with the rest of the guys. (Laughter).

Q. Do you play tomorrow any differently knowing that those guys are right behind you?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: No. The good news about making no birdies today is it can't possibly happen two days in a row. Maybe I'm saving them all up tomorrow. Maybe I'll bust out with six or seven of them tomorrow and that will be the end of the story. I guarantee you, I'll make some birdies tomorrow. Just going to be patient, try to get off to a good start, two good shots on the first hole and see if I can get it going from there.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can you go through those two bogeys you had just real quickly?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, 9, I hit a great 3 wood. I really didn't hit a bad shot the whole front nine. A great 3 wood off the tee and a 6 iron I thought was right at it, thought it was going to be good and misjudged the wind. Left it 40 feet short. I hit a good putt and blew it by four feet and missed it. That was truly the only bad putt I hit all day.

10 is a tough driving hole for me with the trees on the left. So what I tried to do on that tee is just kind of hang back a little bit and throw my hands at it to try to that's how I try to hit a draw and I just pulled it. It was a shot I wanted to hit. I just started it 20 yards left of where I wanted to, hit a tree and dropped down in the rough. Laid up, wedged on, 2 putt, bogey.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Any real good par saves, other than you mentioned 18?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Absolutely nothing on the front. Only other par putt I had on the front, No. 9 was the longest one I had and I missed it. The rest of them were tap ins.

Easy bunker shot on 12 after a bad 7 iron, but I blasted out to a foot. Really only other than 13, 13 and 18 were the only holes that I really struggled for par on, to make good pars on those two holes. Rest of them, I was looking at birdies.

Q. Once the tournament gets underway, at the end of a day, do you keep a diary? Do you go back and make notes of what you did and didn't like and what you'd like to improve upon, and will you go back and look at those notes as to what you did yesterday?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: That's a good question. A lot of guys do do that. A lot of guys have their wives chart their play out there, fairways, greens, all that other stuff. We can look at our statistics in the book and kind of get an idea of what we're doing and what's not working and what is. But in my case, about as deep as I get is I'll go back and count how many fairways I hit, how many greens I hit and how many putts I had, and then I'll kind of evaluate my game from that point. Like I may have only hit eight fairways today, but I only hit four bad drives, which is four more than I've been hitting. But that's kind of what I mean.

Statistics are a little bit misleading, but in my case, I don't go back and rehash too hard. I usually pretty much leave it here and head back to the hotel and forget about it.

Q. Did you have a yardage on 14 back to 13?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: No, my caddie had to walk all the way up to the green. I told him when I chipped it down 14 fairway, I said walk it all the way to the pin and then run back. (Laughter) and. He actually runs a lot, he was barely moving. I had to give him a hard time about his pace on his jog back; he was barely moving. He might have been a little off because he told me I had 121 to the hole, and it looked further under the trees. And I hit that thing and thought I hit it plenty for and I was still 20 feet short. I think he gave me a bad yardage. He's a friend, I've got to rough him up a little bit.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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