AMERICAN CENTURY CELEBRITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

July 18, 2004

Dan Quinn

Rick Rhoden

Q. Is this favorite place?

DAN QUINN: No question. I got to come here in '91, very first time, and I've likened I've always said, and I think I played eight or nine years in the NHL and this was one thing, as soon as training camp started I looked forward to every summer. And especially now that I'm retired, I've said it earlier in the week but just to reiterate, the lake's beautiful, the golf course is spectacular, but the people here over the years have really embraced the event, embraced us. The volunteers have been here for 10, 12, six, eight it's just a great community to have this event. I just look for the envelope every January and hope I get invited back.

Q. Is the Masters of the Celebrity Players?

DAN QUINN: This is the Masters, British, U.S. Open, PGA and Ryder Cup, all in one, everything. This is celebrity golf at its best. And this is the one that everybody originally got invited to and got to play in once or twice, and personally for me 14 times now and for me to be able to win is great.

Q. How does it feel to win with a bent 9 iron?

DAN QUINN: Bent 9 iron cost me, the three bad ones, I got up and down on 5 and 8. But it was a 9 iron on 17 and I said well, try and hit it, it's got a little bit of upshoot on it. It's got loft and I hit them all left, same shots every time but I got away with it. Thank God I didn't run out on 18 and plugged and had a 6 iron 9 iron, I'd be swinging in Lake Laimbeer.

Q. Does it make a difference having your whole family here and renting a house?

DAN QUINN: I'm full time in Florida now for about three years. And to have the opportunity to play in John's tournament last week and my kids are 4 and 5 and finally old enough to travel, they went to Denver, I spent four days there and came in Sunday night and rented a house. Sort of decided in January that's what we were going to do, my mom, sister, my brother brought his oldest son. We filled out the house good. It's a treat. It's tough to describe to Canadians how beautiful this place is. Canada is gorgeous and has gorgeous lakes, but not with the mountains and the vistas, the sun all the time. They have a ball. Now I covered at least some of the cost of it.

Q. What were you thinking headed to 18 after the bogey there at 17?

DAN QUINN: I thought that I bogeyed 17 in the final round in two of the last three years and I won. I said I bogeyed it three years ago two years ago and three years ago. I just felt that when I hit the shot the 9 iron, if it didn't go anywhere ugly and I didn't make a double, that I already had it in my head from the time I woke up this morning at six o'clock that I was going to hit it on 18 and if I to try to make a 6 footer I would have an eagle and I feel, you know I hit two really good shots dead square and just lagged my putter. I knew that if I made birdie, Rick would still have to make eagle. I'm surprised he left it short, but I'm sure probably in the back of his mind, he's thinking, well, I can 2 putt this by because it was a pretty slippery pin.

Q. Talk about Rhoden's start and then your beginning of the back nine.

DAN QUINN: Well, Rick stood up on the first tee, we both did, and hit really good drives, and he hit it in there close I hit it in there 15, 18 feet and didn't make my putt.

We stood on the next hole, hit two good drives and I hit it in there about two and a half feet, and he hit it about 18 feet and then made the putt. So pressure is back on me.

Then I made a putt on 4 and I said, well, to sort of tell you what I was thinking was generally my feeling is to get a chance on Sunday, just go play well. That's how I've been lucky enough to win three of the last four years I've played very well, especially starting out on Sunday; and that's the first year Rick's done it. Honestly the two years that I won, 2001 and 2002, he didn't play well. I kind of got off to good starts and this year he started out, put the heat right on me and we both played pretty well all day.

Q. Talk about 10 and 11.

DAN QUINN: 10, I hit the tree on the right. It was just sort of when I got through nine, when you hit those 30 yard fades off the tee you're trying to get by 10 and they are all straight shots from here. What do I do? I blocked it right in the tree. The tee was up, too. I felt if I killed a 3 wood straight I might hit it in the water. But, didn't hit a good chip and then I hit a great drive on 11, best drive I've hit in 14 years and hit a really bad sand wedge and 3 putt from about 35 feet.

Q. What were you thinking at that time when you were falling behind?

DAN QUINN: It's the Stableford. I didn't think a point here, a point there, I knew I was going to have to make birdies. From there, I hit a great shot on 12 and almost had birdie I birdied 13, and so it just felt like I knew what we were going to be down there. He birdied 13, I birdied 14, I stood up on 15, knew I had to make birdie because I didn't want to give him a chance to run the tables. And then he bogeyed 15 and we stood on 16 tee dead even and it worked out.

Q. So it sounds like maybe you feel like you won this one, as opposed to people helping you out.

DAN QUINN: Yeah, it's the first time, I don't know what I shot on the back, 35 with three bogeys, I guess, but two of them, well I think in 2001 and 2002, I had a nice cushion, maybe medal play, three shot lead. Didn't play great but I basically got to 16, 17, 18 where I just doesn't have to trip on myself and I was going to win. Although I think I eagled in 2001 on 18 because I 3 putted 17.

But I think that with Rick shooting a good score and me shooting a good score, breaking 70, it definitely is maybe the most rewarding one of all.

Q. It seems like the field is getting stronger in general.

DAN QUINN: The format lends that. Bogeys, if you have a medal golf tournament, birdies and bogies are the same. An event like this, birdies and bogeys are not the same. You can go and make two bogeys and make two birdies and you're right back in it.

I think it lends itself, maybe not for Rick and I and a couple of the good solid players that can shoot good rounds under 70, but I think it lends itself to a few other guys, and that shows up in the bunching of the leaderboard.

Q. Jimmy Roberts asked you, but what was it like or what did you learn more from being on Jesper's bag on the Florida swing?

DAN QUINN: That the bags are heavy, that it's a lot of work and that he's crazy. (Laughter.) No what did I learn? Well, they kind of get the same emotions that we have, the dry mouth on the first tee, as I said and the nerve, they play a lot harder golf course. The ones I did, Doral, Honda, one of them is Doral was a pretty low score, but TPC and Honda were hard courses.

I just sort of enjoyed it. I was nervous on the first tee with him and he was nervous and felt that kind of thing, and it's a good experience to be inside the ropes with good players.

We were fortunate at TPC, I saw Rick on the range, it's a treat to be inside watching the best players hitting shots. We played with Vijay and Darren Clarke and Sergio in practice rounds and Thomas Bjorn, and that was a treat, as well.

I don't know if I learned a lot. Just maybe hungry, made me really want to learn to play golf, practice.

Q. You guys have won ten of the 15 of these now between the two of you, does this tournament need a little more competition do you think, or I'm sure you're happy winning, but from the tournament standpoint, from a fan standpoint?

DAN QUINN: Well, I like the way it is. I'm sure Rick does, too. (Laughter.)

Truthfully, I think celebrity golf was started in 1990, I think there's a good Mark Rypien played pretty well, everybody wanted to get in, Rick and I played the second year. We're in a unique time where you have the Michael Jordans, John Elways and Mario Lemieuxes and Dan Marinos, at the time Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt, they are all very good players. And Rick and I were lucky enough to have played professional sports and get invited to this. Jack Wagner; there's a lot of good players.

I don't know that those athletes or the modern guys, because the money is so big, it's a 12 month a year season, I don't know, I don't hear of too many good players that are currently playing that could definitely, you're probably right, 100%. It would be nice to get another two or three players that could come in that are like Rick and I. I think I was 26 when I first came here, a current player that could play a little bit.

But, like I say, we were in a unique era, the longevity of this is a testimony to the celebrities that have played from day one and are still playing.

Q. Rick, what was going through your mind on 18?

RICK RHODEN: Same thing going on there when I teed off; that I probably needed an eagle.

I want to congratulate Danny. He played good. It was fun playing. I'd make a birdie, he'd make an a birdie, we'd both make a birdie. I don't think it got to more than two or three points all day.

You knew it was going to come down to the last hole probably or last couple of holes. And he made a nice putt on 16. I thought I hit a good putt and I guess I misread it. And then 18, I hit a bad drive and I hit probably one of best shots I had hit in four or five months, like 245 and hit a 4 iron up there and gave myself a chance for eagle; that's all I could ask for. And give Danny credit, he hit two good shots, he'd probably think if I get birdie I win. You get two nice shots he might have made if I had made mine. It was a lot more fun playing today.

We both played a lot better. We both got a lot of chances for birdies today. I started off great. I probably could have birdied the first four holes, which would have really been nice, but I didn't. We were just nip and tuck the whole way and it was fun playing.

Like Danny says, as far as the players out here, I think Danny can attest to this, too. We have three or four guys that could really be good golfers if they spent as much time working at it probably as we did do, or playing as much as we do. Mario Lemieux could be really good. John Elway could be a really good golfer, I think but they don't

DAN QUINN: Wagner.

RICK RHODEN: They don't have the time to spend to get out there and do it, and I don't think they really are trying to do it, you know trying to really work better. They like to play with their buddies and play good, but they are not out there practicing and doing stuff because they don't have the time.

DAN QUINN: The other school of thought, too. I think next year, a similar situation, what Rick's alluding to, with Elway's tournament the week before, it's going to you'll see a lot of guys that play that week and play this week play very well. It's tough to play three or four tournaments a year well, that and the courses and the altitude, but more to the point they get to hole out and play golf competitively and come here and play. I think that happened in 2001 when we played in Denver and that was the year Rick and Jack and I played pretty well, and I think that I sort of anticipated that this year, but it didn't turn out in the first two rounds but today was pretty good golf.

RICK RHODEN: And you hope guys like Mark McGwire get the bug. We would like to see him playing in more of our events. Obviously if he plays in seven or eight a year, he would probably become a much better player. I don't care what they tell you, it's hard for guys like him to come here and play an event like this once a year. It's hard for a guy that doesn't play.

DAN QUINN: It's hard for us.

RICK RHODEN: It's hard for us, we've been doing it now for like 15 years and finally, we feel more comfortable but the first couple years was a nightmare, I'm telling you.

Q. You have a long way till you're 50 to get to the Senior Tour, Rick is playing some now on the Senior Tour, any hopes and aspirations for you for the PGA TOUR?

DAN QUINN: You know, it would be, I'd say three years ago, maybe when I retired, but I'm not good enough. Those guys are and I don't know that I want to. I have my a young family. The time that we put in to play at this level, the time you have to put in to play well at that level, there's 500, 600 great players in the world now, not just the Tour guys, but the Nationwide and the European Tour. It would just be unrealistic for me to think I could play with them.

Q. Rick, your hopes?

RICK RHODEN: Well, just the Senior Tour is just a hard thing to get on. I mean, they had seven spots last year, and then eight more. Those guys aren't getting really any tournaments, so seven spots out of 3,000, 2,500 people that apply to try to get those seven spots. So, you know, when you start figuring out those numbers it's not an easy thing to do.

DAN QUINN: If you're not in the Top 30, you have to go back to school.

RICK RHODEN: I think if you can get out, if you're a good player and you can somehow get out there, get through there playing it's just hard to get out there and it's a hard thing.

I'm getting operated on probably in the next ten days. So I'm going to try, it's a three month thing. So hopefully I'll be health enough in November to try it I might not be. I'll still try to play whenever they let me play. If I get an exemption or qualify for a U.S. Open or something like that, I'm going to try to do it.

It's really hard. I think I could play out there if I get in 25 events, but that just didn't happen.

Q. How much did the neck bother you this week?

RICK RHODEN: My neck's been bothering me since March. I just hit a lot of really errant shots during every round. I'll hit some good ones, but then it seemed like I hit more bad tee balls than anything. And driving the ball has usually been my strength, and now three or four a round just kind of go and I don't know where they are going. I don't feel it hurting me and stuff, but I think it's because I've had it for so long my swing has changed a lot, I'm not getting through the ball good. I'm putting a lot better than I normally do, and maybe that's why, because I have to.

Q. You said it's a three month process. What exactly will they do during the surgery and how much is the rehab?

RICK RHODEN: Everyone I've talked to, about four or five doctors, they go through the front and I need to get a disk fused in the back, clean it out, fuse it, put a little titanium plate over it. And after about six weeks, I supposedly can start chipping and putting just kind of go as you feel. Hopefully in three months, I'll be playing.

Q. But if you can't play, you will try to qualify?

RICK RHODEN: Sure. Sure.

Q. How long were the putts on 18?

RICK RHODEN: 20 feet maybe.

DAN QUINN: Mine was about 16 feet maybe.

Q. 25, Rick, you said?

RICK RHODEN: It was 24 and a half and I hit it 24. (Laughter.) I thought so long, I looked at the board, I could have 3 or 4 putted and came in second. I kept saying don't be short, don't be short, but we waited so damn long when it finally came, I got so hung up on the lie, I forgot to hit the ball.

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