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MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 4, 2006Chris DiMarcoAUGUSTA, GEORGIA
CLAUDE NIELSEN: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a real pleasure to welcome Chris DiMarco back for his sixth appearance in the Masters Tournament this year. Very glad to have him back. Of course you all remember the outstanding competition in the 2005 Masters in which Chris led the tournament after 18 holes and after 36 holes, and in the end, of course, lost the first hole of a sudden death playoff. But superb competition. It was the second consecutive year that he led and was actually part of the final pairing on Sunday. In 2004, Chris was a member of the Ryder Cup Team and he finished in the Top 10 in three of four majors this year. In 2005, he clinched the 2005 Presidents Cup for the U.S. squad. And this year, 2006, he scored a final round 5 under 67 to win the inaugural Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by a stroke.
Chris, glad to have you with us. Would you like to begin with a few comments? CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, it's obviously always good to come back here for me. It's one of those courses that just fits my eye. Although, it's getting harder to see as far as the pins are getting away from me. But it is certainly one of these places where I have great memories. Even as a spectator, watching on TV, great memories. Every green you walk on, you know a great thing that's happened there. It's just always nice to come back. CLAUDE NIELSEN: Good to have you. Q. Get this out of the way first: What's your reaction on the events of last night and how did you celebrate? CHRIS DiMARCO: Not as hard as I would have liked to have celebrated, I can promise you that. I wish I was in Gainesville, but obviously there's a very important event going on this week here. I took it pretty easy, actually. I went to bed probably about 12:30 just because I couldn't sleep because I was excited. Other than that, normal. It's nice for Billy Donovan to get that monkey off his back and show that he's the real deal. Q. Did you think it would be that easy? CHRIS DiMARCO: The way we played as a team throughout the tournament, we dominated everybody, and they ran through it. They caught a hot streak at the right time. That's what you hope for in golf. You hope that you're peaking at the right time and they were peaking at the right time. Q. Wonder if you could size up your year to date. Mostly curious on the accident that kept you out of THE PLAYERS, and how this year coming into The Masters stacks up to the previous two, in other words, where were you at this time? CHRIS DiMARCO: TPC last year, I missed the cut at TPC and I didn't even play Atlanta because of the rain delay. I was afraid we were going to play 36 on Monday. The only difference being I'm a little bit more rusty here obviously with my injury, not playing golf for about 17 days. I don't think I've done that in ten years. So it was very, very rusty last week, and the only reason I went to Atlanta was just to try to get a couple of rounds in competitively because I haven't played in so long. I felt like we accomplished a lot, even though my scores were not indicative. I felt like I still got out there and got my feet wet and got myself going again. I played golf and it feels good, the swing is getting better. The rib is a lot better, it's really a non issue now. And really, the biggest problem last week was my foot. My foot started hurting because I was not putting much pressure on that side of my body and I just kind of got tendonitis in my foot a little bit and since then, I've got rid of that. I feel like I'm 90, 95 percent, and hopefully by Thursday I'll be 100%. CHRIS DiMARCO: I was skiing down the last run, last day, going to pick the kids up and that's how it always happens, I had a backpack on and my sunglass case or my phone. There was some guys that came out of the trees and I tried to avoid them and the only way I could avoid them was to go down myself and when I rolled on my back, one of the things in my backpack gave me a kidney punch. I tried to swing on Monday of TPC week and it just spasmed on me and I just could barely walk. So I gave Camilo a call on Monday and said, "Get up there and let's not tell anybody about anything," and he knew that on Monday that he was probably in. Q. What did you learn over the past year since finishing second here, and, did Coach Donovan's win last night inspire you to hopefully make the most of your next shot at a title? CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely. Any time your team wins it's been a good year for me, the Steelers, I'm a Steelers fan, and now the Gators win in basketball and if we can win the National Championship in football, we'll be right where we need to be. Absolutely. If you can play in this tournament and have a chance to compete and have a chance to win this golf tournament with the amount of media and the amount of viewers that you have here, you can do it anywhere. So the confidence that I get out of this tournament is unbelievable. Like I said, there's no greater arena we have in our sport than this arena right here. If you can do it right here, obviously playing against Tiger Woods, I've done that two or three times here; Phil, trying to get his first major two years ago; then you can do it. You've got to believe in yourself. You've got to look inside and go, "Wow, maybe there is something inside me that I can do it." So you have a lot of confidence. Q. What did last year teach you, the second place finish? CHRIS DiMARCO: Actually it was really the year before that that taught me. Last year, I still contend I did not hit a bad shot that Sunday morning and shot 41. I'm telling you, I did not hit a bad shot, not one shot I looked up and went, "Wow, that's not good." It just taught me on Sunday, instead of just fading back, I remember how mad I was not being part of the mix with Ernie and Phil and being in the last group kind of watching; I did, I took a seat back and I watched, I watched how Phil played and he played aggressive. That's what I tried to do last year. I learned, you know that you have to be aggressive in a major on Sunday to win it. They are not going to come back to you, especially here. You have to be aggressive and that's what I took out of it. Q. In that vein, last year after the showing that you had, at what point did the transition go from, wow, I had a chance to win this tournament, and too bad I didn't, to I really put forth a really gritty effort and I learned a lot about myself, like you just mentioned? What was that evening like for you? CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, there was a lot of disappointment. But, it's a lot harder to be disappointed when somebody beat you, rather than you beat yourself. I made birdies down the stretch. I did everything I could to win the tournament and I just got outchipped, so to speak. You know, you can't take anything away from Tiger Woods. He's a great champion. He wins a lot of tournaments and you expect to win a lot of tournaments. I'm just proud of myself I made some key putts. Really the thing I'm most impressed about is the putts I made on 17 and 18. Those were good, 4 , 5 , 6 footers with a little bit of break on them, on these greens with everything on the line and I put them right in the middle of the hole, both of them. When you do that, it really gives you a lot of confidence. Q. Can you just take us through the 16th hole, your swing, you hit a terrific shot in there; he didn't. He walks away. CHRIS DiMARCO: I felt when we walked off the 15th hole, even though we both made birdie, the momentum was in my favor. I kept the honors, I was already on two birdies in a row. He just had wedge on the No. 15 and made par. I had to get up and down from 90 yards. I hit it exactly where you're supposed to hit it. If my ball is maybe a yard or two further it's probably within three feet of the hole. Instead of rolling sideways, it rolled backwards. It was on him, and he hit an uncharacteristic shot for him, which is a poor pull, and when I looked at it, I was like, wow, he's got a really tough lie. He's up there against the fringe cut. But, you know, you expect things from him, and I certainly didn't expect him to make it, but I expected him to hit a good shot. When he made it, it was almost better that there was that much crowd noise and everybody was going crazy for a good, two, three minutes, which was good. It helped me kind of get over the fact that he did it, and move on and say, okay, we've still got to make our putt and concentrate on my own thing. Q. Were there any words exchanged? CHRIS DiMARCO: I said, "Great shot." (Laughter). CHRIS DiMARCO: He said thanks. Q. Let me ask you something about this year's tournament. You joked in your opening remark about having it be hard to set pins now and I know that's got nothing to do with your age, as opposed to the lengthening of the golf course. Just your general thoughts on the lengthening of the golf course and is it the most significant of the changes, this time around, as opposed to how they did it five years ago? CHRIS DiMARCO: I've only played I haven't played 11, 12, 13 or 14 yet. So the biggest changes I see so far are No. 4. Obviously, hitting a 5 wood into that green is going to be really, really hard. And No. 15, 15 for me, I hit a really good drive and still had 255 yards to the front. That goes from a potential go for the green hole to a lay up shot now. And personally, I think that that's taking the excitement out of the hole. I think that's what made that hole so great was the fact that everybody in the field could pretty much go for it, and it didn't matter if you were hitting 6 iron into the green or you were hitting 3 wood or you were hitting 4 iron. It was still a very, very hard golf shot and you saw more balls go in the water there than just about anywhere else. CHRIS DiMARCO: I got 7 downwind yesterday and hit a wedge in there. If you get the right bounce 7, to me, the only way it's going to play really, really difficult and unfair is if it's into the wind. If it's into the wind, it's going to be impossible. Q. You played quite well head to head against Tiger Woods here last year; not everybody does that, how did you do that and why don't we see that more often? CHRIS DiMARCO: I think that guys in the past have opened up that avenue for everybody. I think that maybe seven, eight years ago, he had that intimidation factor on everybody and I think that you saw guys take him down the stretch and beat him now. I know David Howell did it last year. There are some guys that are doing it. You've just got to not watch what he does, because he's going to hit shots that you just don't have. That's the way it is. I can't hit a 2 iron 270 as high as a hundred yards in the air; I just can't do it and he can do it. So you've just got to play the golf course. Try to play your game. I know one thing for me that I'm a really good iron player, and it's got to be frustrating to him when I'm hitting it inside him every time and I'm hitting 6 irons and he's hitting wedges. That's what I try to do, you hit an iron shot inside him, even though they have a wedge in there, you put pressure on him. And I normally hit first on every hole because he outdrives me. Q. It's been said that only a handful can win, and I'm sure you don't feel that way; is too much being made of these changes? CHRIS DiMARCO: Until you get on these greens and you put a flagstick in your hand and you have to putt a putt on these greens, that's what keeps everybody in this tournament, bottom line. The year Tiger won by 12, he didn't have a 3 putt the whole week. That's why he won the tournament. It wasn't because of how great he hit it. He did not have a 3 putt. He made every putt from eight feet and in and that's why he won the tournament. Putting is still the key here. If you can hit your driver in play, it's all the components, but putting is the key still. Q. Being so close the last two years and being in position to win, do you have to balance kind of thinking, I'm good enough, I'm right there, I'm almost winning and my chance is going to come, versus, I'm so close, I missed my opportunity and my chance may not come again? CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, there's so many people you can look back, like Greg Norman, he should have won it four or five times, too. All you can try to do and my goal this week is to try to put myself in position on Sunday going into the back nine, that's it. I can't win it on Thursday, I can't win it on Friday, I can't win it on Saturday. I can only win it on Sunday. All I'm going to try to do is play the strategic golf that I know on this golf course. One of the keys here is patience. You can get a spring of bogeys in a row, but you can get a spring of birdies in a row, too, and you have to stay really, really patient here. You can't fire at pins. No matter how frustrated you get, you have to stay disciplined and that's the key thing out here is staying disciplined. Q. So you don't think about missed opportunities of the past? CHRIS DiMARCO: No, I can't control the past. Q. Yesterday you played with one of the five amateurs, Clay Ogden; would you mind sizing up his game a little bit? CHRIS DiMARCO: All of these kids are good. The kids are so much better than I ever was at their age. Mentally, they are a lot stronger, and he hits it great. It's a nice little draw out there. He hits it a little bit further than me, he's not as long as a lot of the younger kids now, but it seems like he's got a very good iron game, good driver and he's a good putter. I see him doing well here. Q. You talked a few minutes ago about the 41 that you had on that back nine, we all hear that you're going to have bad holes in majors; how do you prevent it from steamrolling and getting out of control? CHRIS DiMARCO: There was one instance that morning that was key to the whole tournament. When they stopped play, Tiger was in the 10th fairway with three quarters of his ball covered in mud and I was on the 10th tee. Well, that's when they called it. So the next morning he got to put a brand new, clean ball down and they didn't cut the fairways. I hit a 3 wood like I've been hitting the whole week and it stopped on the downslope. If he would have hit his second shot, I don't think he would have hit the green with that much mud, and I would have hit my 3 wood down to the bottom of the hill. I made double, he made birdie; there's three shots right there. That was a key thing. Unfortunately the weather got us last year, but, you know, they didn't cut the fairways that morning, which was odd to me. The dew was still on the ground, they were still long from the wetness the day before, it was colder and the ball was to the going as far. I hit some good shots but came up short. Why I play for the coldness. You're right, I shot 41, I came off there and I don't know who was there, some people interviewed me and I said I didn't feel like I hit a bad shot. That just happens. Q. Is that the nature of a major? CHRIS DiMARCO: It's the nature of this golf course. I was in total control playing that Saturday afternoon, that front nine, I think I made three birdies, I think I had a birdie putt on every hole. So I was in total control of my game and going the right way. Unfortunately, I stopped. Q. Finished up on the front side, what are you hitting into No. 1 and what's your mind set on that first tee shot now? CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I can't get to the bunker so that's good. I hit driver, 5 iron yesterday. I was talking with my caddie yesterday and I just hit it to a spot on the green, just trying to put it in middle of the green. If I put it in the middle of the green, I'll have a 20 footer for every putt. It's a par hole now. Q. What did you hit last year? CHRIS DiMARCO: On Sunday I hit 8 iron. Q. Will you think back to last year and think back to the shot you hit last year, or do you just think back to, I'm a good player and I've hit a lot of shots, or do you think, well, this will probably be the last year CHRIS DiMARCO: It's hard not to, it's hard not to think that. The great thing about golf is that no two days are of the same. It's nice to have good memories here. It's nice to know that you've done well here, played well here. I will definitely draw from that for sure. But I don't think I'll do any specific shots from last year. Q. There was a magazine article one or two years ago that raised an interesting question, asking whether you were an overachiever, maxed out and got the most out of your ability, or were an underachiever having won only three times in ten years on TOUR. Where do you see yourself? CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I remember giving Tiger some grief last year at THE TOUR Championship saying, how come you can't make bogeys when I'm playing you coming down the stretch? (Laughter). Last year I felt like I played good enough to win probably three tournaments. I ran into David Toms at The Match Play, who was unbelievable. Obviously Tiger and I beat the field by seven here. And at NEC I posted a number and he made a great birdie on 16 coming down the stretch. CHRIS DiMARCO: And New Orleans is probably the only one I regret because I feel I gave that one away. That one is probably one that I just didn't win. I hit a bad shot on 10 and took me out of my rhythm and carried over to not winning the tournament. You know, you just have to keep persevering. I won this year already in Abu Dhabi. That was good to get that off my shoulders a little bit and knowing I could get back in the winner's circle. I putted great that week and I haven't putted great this year over here. I'm looking forward to coming back to where I know the green speeds and know the breaks and hopefully get the putter going again. Q. What do you take out of Jack's nice words that he said about you at the Presidents Cup? He predicted great things for you? CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, obviously it's great he has confidence in you, but you should have confidence in yourself. I look at him going, if he believes in me, I should believe in myself, too. Q. You said earlier a couple years ago you learned to be aggressive watching Phil winning a major and a couple of times you've said you can't fire at pins here. So where and how are you aggressive here? CHRIS DiMARCO: You don't fire at pins here. You fire at spots on the greens. Everything funnels. If you can hit the ball there's not really any pins that you can't get close to here. If you hit it in the right spot on the green, the undulations in the green will take you to the hole. And that's what I mean by not going at pins. You just have to be disciplined enough to when the pin is back left on 14, if you miss it left of the green, you're making bogey or double. So you've got to be content with maybe a 30 footer right of the hole that day, no matter what your score; and that's the hardest thing to do. If you're 2 or 3 over and not playing well, you feel like you have to get something going, that's when you're in trouble on this golf course is when you try to overpower this golf course or try to be too aggressive here, try to make birdies. Trying to make birdies here is not a good thing. You just let birdies happen. Q. How important is it to your chances that it stay dry this week? CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, dry is good because the ball is going to roll and the long hitters are not going to have that much of an advantage on us. So I hope it stays dry. The course is playing good. One thing they do here, they like to cut the fairways against you, so you're always hitting into the grain, so you're really not getting as much roll as you normally would get. That alone makes the course playing longer and you don't get a good lie because the ball is always into the grain, so it's hard to control your spin. Q. You had your injury skiing and could have been worse, Len Mattiace has never gotten it back in the last couple of years, Ernie got hurt last year; where do you balance out your desire to have activities like any normal person against what it might cost your career? CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I have three kids and a wife and golf is my job, I love it, but I'm going to live my life. I'm going to go out and I'm going to have fun. It's an unfortunate thing, it was a very flukey thing but that happens. I could have walked out of my garage and tripped over my kids' baseball helmet and banged up my knee. That's just the way it works. I'm not going to change. I'm going to keep going skiing, keep having a good time. Obviously it was very frustrating not playing TPC, but, I think in 11 years on TOUR, that was the first tournament I've ever missed to an injury. You know, that's pretty good odds. Q. Just talking about Dubai, I believe your wife caddied for you? CHRIS DiMARCO: She did. Q. Will that ever happen at The Masters or a major tournament? CHRIS DiMARCO: The way I putted that week, I want to put her on the bag right now. It was great, it really was. It was fun because it was the first time in a long time that just the two of us went anywhere together with no family, no friends, just the two of us. To be that many days in a row together and her on the bag, spending that much time was great. We haven't done that in a long time, so, it was good. She caddied for me early in my career, so it was justice that she got to win on the bag, too.
CLAUDE NIELSEN: Chris, thank you for being with us and good luck in the competition.
End of FastScripts. |
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