MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2002

Chris DiMarco

RON TOWNSEND: Good afternoon. It's our pleasure to have Chris DiMarco here who shot a 2-under 70 today.

Would you like to make a few comments?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It obviously played a little tougher out there. I got off to a poor start, bogeying No. 2. But I hung in there and made three really good putts in a row on 4, 5 and 6 for pars, all of about somewhere between six and eight feet, all three of them and that kind of kept me going.

Hit some good shots. Made a good up-and-down on 9. Made a great up-and-down on 10. I had mud on my ball on 9 and 10 and both of them took it left. 10 I was in the pine straw with a pine cone next to my ball about 70 feet from the hole and I chipped it just over and made about a 12-, 15-footer just down the hill for par.

Then I knew that if I kept staying patient and hitting good shots, that I was going to make some birdies. And I hit a great 4-iron into No. 14 from about -- I think I had 194 and I hit in there about two and a half, three feet.

15 I hit a good 4-iron on the green and 2-putted.

16, I hit an 8-iron about a foot and was able to make a great up-and-down on 18. I hit it in the right bunker played the slope, hit it way right and made it come down and made a good little 7-, 8-footer for par.

Q. Can you go over the instances where you had mud on the ball and where they may have affected your shots?

CHRIS DiMARCO: 9, you're coming down from the fairway there and you're hitting the ball high as it is and it's higher because it's going downhill, and that one had mud; that's a hard shot to have mud on your ball.

10, same thing. 3-wood right around the corner, perfect and I get up there and three quarters of my ball was covered. And I'm hitting a 4-iron from 200 yards with mud all over your ball, you have no idea where it's going to go. That's where.

That was pretty much it. I started aiming for first cuts so they wouldn't plug. The fairways are softer than the first cuts.

Q. How did the rookie caddie work out?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I'm very, very fortunate. Both of my brothers who have caddied for me. My one brother for me caddied for me at Callaway, and I have my brother-in-law here, also, who caddied for me a year and a half, '94 and '95. So I have three guys that can go and I can feel very comfortable with.

So it was nice out there. My caddy is sick, but I'm going to stick with my brother the rest of the week, I'm not going to change in the middle.

Q. What's the cash arrangement?

CHRIS DiMARCO: He gets the exact same thing my other caddie gets. I'm going to do the exact same thing. Salary, 6, 8, 10.

Q. What's wrong with your caddy, is he sick?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Some time of stomach flu. The guy he was staying with last week had the same thing. He's doing pretty good. I think he might start staying by himself. I certainly pay him enough. It's a big week. It was a little chaotic this morning. We had to rush back to the house two or three times and had to rush around a little bit, so, you know, to credit him, I told him if he didn't feel good this morning to not even try, and he called me up and said he didn't want to try to be a hero because he knew he was bad. To not caddie in this tournament, you have to be pretty bad.

Q. Which brother was it?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was my brother, Rick.

Q. Overall conditions today compared to earlier in the week prior to the rain how much difference did it make?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It made a big difference on the greens. The greens were a lot more receptive today. Fairways in spots you are still going to get some roll and spots you are not and that was pretty much the same all week. They were wet, even on Tuesday they were watering them pretty good. But the greens were a lot more receptive, not quite as fast but they started getting fast near the end of the round.

Q. I guess there have been some stories about guys experimenting with 7-woods and 9-woods, especially this week, did you do any of that?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I took my 2-iron out and put a 5-wood in today. I didn't have to hit it. Only hole I could have used it on was probably 13 and at that point I had 220 to the hole and it was almost too much club. And I just felt like, you know, with the pin there I should just lay up and I made a par. At that point fighting and clawing to stay 1-over and make a bogey, just wasn't the right time.

Q. Feel at all bad for Pat, just missing this?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, I mean in a way, sure, he deserves to be here. He's helped me. He was there in Phoenix when I won, so he's been pretty good for the last two and a half years. I do feel bad, but I don't like to switch. When somebody starts I like to stay with them, just for my psyche. And my brother and I work really good out there. He helps me read some putts where Pat doesn't necessarily do that, just to give me a little bit of extra confidence on the greens, which was good.

Q. How did you feel overall, first round, and the position you're in at this point, getting through 11 straight pars and making something happen?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I feel good. You'd like to just be here on Sunday with a chance. You can't win the tournament today, but you can certainly shoot yourself out of it today. I played really solid, not any different than I have been. I totally expected to be up there. I'm playing really well right now. I'm driving the ball a lot better this year than I was last year, so I am putting it in the fairway.

Q. What do you think of the scoring in the first round? Is it about what you expected?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah. With the changes, with the course you're probably adding two or three shots tougher to the course. Last year, I played excellent. I think I shot 65 and there was a couple 66s, so you might see a couple 68s today, a couple 69s, but I don't think you're going to see anybody shoot 65 on this course.

Q. Is Rick a pretty good golfer?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Both my brothers and myself are all pretty good athletes. He doesn't play enough because he has a real job. (Laughter.)

He's probably about an 8 handicap. I'd say he could shoot anywhere from 76 to 82 or 83, but he knows the feel of the game, which is good.

RON TOWNSEND: Thank you all very much and good luck tomorrow.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Thank you.

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