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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 8, 2004

Greg Chalmers

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Greg, for joining us for a few minutes. A great start to the beginning of the week here at the John Deere. Why don't you talk about the conditions this morning and how you played.

GREG CHALMERS: Sure. The conditions this morning were absolutely fantastic. I mean, there wasn't a breath of wind. The golf course is close to perfect as you're ever going to get it. The greens were just fantastic to putt on. I think if you drive the ball in play this morning, and being a TPC, there are some good driving areas, at least you have the opportunity to hit some good iron shots, and putting was a pleasure.

Q. How did the course play today? Is it firming up a little bit, getting a little faster or is it soft?

GREG CHALMERS: It's still kind of soft, to be honest. Did we have any rain yesterday? It was giving up some birdies. It wasn't like your shots were going to bounce forward. They were all pretty much going to stop on the spot. It certainly gives you a lot of opportunities when the course sets up that way.

Q. Were you at all surprised that the scores were relatively low this morning?

GREG CHALMERS: No. I think this course needs wind, and without a breath of wind, these guys are good, as they say. Someone is going to figure out a way to shoot low. Looks like Jose is playing well, and Ted and I played well this morning, and if the wind doesn't pick up, I'm sure some other guys will take it deep, as well. It really needs wind a little bit, and usually you get wind here, to make it a little more defense for it.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Any changes in the conditions as your round went on? Did it look like the wind was picking up or not at all?

GREG CHALMERS: Just barely. I played nine into what I thought was maybe a three or four miles an hour wind. It was nothing really worth mentioning.

Q. The British Open spot that's up for grabs here --

GREG CHALMERS: Is there one this week? Oh, okay, I didn't know that.

Q. I guess that doesn't really play into your thinking, but if that's you --

GREG CHALMERS: I'm going, yeah (laughter). I'd crawl over broken glass to go play the British Open, and if I don't do that I'll be at the BC Open. I'll do anything to play golf at the moment, but certainly the British Open, I wouldn't turn my nose up at that. I had no idea that was the case this week. That's probably not worth thinking about given the situation at the moment, the first round, but if there are a few holes to play on Sunday maybe it might affect a few things.

Q. What part of your game was working for you today?

GREG CHALMERS: My driver today was my biggest weakness in my game, and today I changed shafts in my drive and drove it straight. These fairways, they're certainly not the narrowest fairways. My iron play has been quite solid and it left me some birdie opportunities.

There are some key fairways where you have to hit it in the fairway. 13, I believe, it's a fairly forgiving fairway and it's fairly wide and there are a few others, but there are some dangerous holes out there, I think.

No. 5, the dogleg right is a fairly --

Q. Are you feeling confident about your game right now?

GREG CHALMERS: Look, I'm taking it day by day. To be honest with you, my game over the last year and a half or two years hasn't been anything to write home about. This is the best I've played in that period of time and certainly the lowest number I've thrown up in that period of time. I'm trying to attack it as level-headed as I can. By the time I get here tomorrow there's a chance I'll be three or four shots behind. I think it's going to take some low scoring if the weather stays this way.

As much as I'm excited about playing well, it's a long way to go.

Q. Talk about the logistics of if you find out on Sunday that you're in the British Open. That's a pretty quick turnaround.

GREG CHALMERS: Oh, getting over there and doing all that stuff? For me, I'm from Australia, so I'm kind of sitting on a plane for nine hours and then playing the next day or something like that. I know it's not perfect, but it's an opportunity you wouldn't otherwise have, and it has been done before. I've done it before. I'd jump at the chance. Jet lag is just something you get used to.

Q. Can you talk about your string of five birdies in a row and how that got you going and also, have you played Troon before if you go?

GREG CHALMERS: No, I haven't played Troon before to answer the second part first.

Five in a row, I hit a 9-iron on 13 to about two feet right behind the hole.

I hit a gap wedge on the next hole to about 18 feet behind it, made a good putt there, on 18.

Hit a 9-iron about four feet on the next hole.

8-iron 30 feet right of the hole on the next one.

Then I drove a 3-wood to about 40 feet and two-putted. It was a good stretch for me.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Can you finish out that round here? First of all, you skipped 10.

GREG CHALMERS: 10, I drove it in the rough, and the rough is quite thick on that left side, a little wet this morning, and it kind of left me with about 140 yards on my third shot over the back of the green and I hit a poor chip and didn't get it up-and-down.

2, I hit driver, 4-iron right in the middle of the green and two-putted from about 40 feet.

6, I hit gap wedge again to about four feet under the hole.

7, par 3, probably my best birdie of the day. I hit a 2-iron right behind the hole about 15 feet, made that.

Q. There's a pretty significant Australian contingent on Tour these days, young guys. It used to be they'd get themselves together and then come over. Looks like now a lot of guys are getting their start over here, pretty young. Talk about that, the Australian's choice to be playing here and what it's like to be that far from home.

GREG CHALMERS: Growing up in Australia, you understand you're not going to make a living play golf in Australia, at least a good one. You get used to the concept. I played in Europe and Asia prior to coming here for the last five or six years. I think one leads to the other in terms of if a bunch of young guys come over and then all of a sudden the guys at home are seeing that I'm having success, I know I can play as good as whoever, Stuart Appleby or Robert Allenby or Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, I can do that, so they all of a sudden -- there's always that -- I don't know what you'd call it, that theory that America is too hard. It is that next level up, at least from home, but at some point at home you've got to jump into the deep end and get over here or Europe or Japan and get going.

I think we have like 17 guys maybe on the Tour or something like that, second highest amount behind Americans. For a country about the size of 20 million people, I think it actually helps us we haven't got that many people because we have to get it right. We don't have an abundant amount of money like the golf seems to have over here for programs and things like that, so we learn hopefully very quickly, very good junior programs in every state, great institution of sport involvement and the coaching is at a very good level, and they have to be good because they've only got a small amount of pool of players to pick from. That's why there's quite a lot of young guys who are coming out here with a good pedigree and technically a good background.

Q. What's the state of the Australian Tour right now?

GREG CHALMERS: Well, we've gotten events at the moment, I believe, and four of them are co-sanctioned, two with Europe and two with the Nationwide. They're looking at -- they're in the development stage. They're at a point where they're looking to -- it's the second highest participation sport in our country behind fishing, yet it probably doesn't have that profile, so there's plenty of support there in terms of fans, it's just we're a football and cricket country, and it needs to be marketed well and sold well in Australia to appeal to the fans.

Q. You almost went down? Wasn't there some trouble a couple years ago?

GREG CHALMERS: You'd have to ask the people in charge. As a player I hear stories, but I can't confirm yea or nay. I don't think that's the case. I think there's a battle at home amongst promoters and the organizers as to who wants to run an event, and now with this Tour, the PGA TOUR and Europe extending their season so much, it's tough to get the players to come back. I mean, financially it's a very easy decision to make when you're playing for $5 million a week in America or a million dollars Australian as a player who's trying to make money to make a list. You want to play the main events here and a lot of guys are doing that.

Q. Do the Australians bond when they're on Tour? Do you guys hang out?

GREG CHALMERS: Definitely. I've stayed with guys in Europe particularly, Kiwis, New Zealanders, South Africans, because the southern hemisphere there seems to be an unwritten rule that we understand each other better. There's so many of us now that you don't bump into them, but certainly we have Australian barbecues every now and then depending on what city we're in. We're a pretty good bunch of guys.

Q. Does anybody actually say put another shrimp on the barbie?

GREG CHALMERS: No, and we don't drink Fosters, but we put prawns on the barbie.

Q. Last week looking at Greg Norman's bag it looks like the Foster lager can, but a lot of players that have come over talked about Greg being an influence having followed in his footsteps. Has that figured into your career at all?

GREG CHALMERS: As a kid growing up I watched Greg Norman play in 86 through the 90s when he was the No. 1 player in the world. He was someone that had an aura about him that you wanted to -- I know I can't beat him, but it was something you aspired to. He was an inspiring man in terms of the way he played the game and captured people's imaginations, and he made you want to go watch him play. He owned golf in Australia there for a long time. If you had Greg Norman in the field, you had a good field. It certainly was something that was a key growing up. That's the freaky thing I think about this game is you play against those guys. Nick Price, you see him in the locker room and say hello, yet when I was a 15 year old kid I was watching him on TV. Golf kind of transcends different generations. It's kind of crazy like that.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Greg, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

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