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84 LUMBER CLASSIC

September 13, 2006

Chris DiMarco

FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Chris DiMarco to the 2006 84 Lumber Classic. Chris, past champion back when it was played in Waynesboro, I think. Also a place and a tournament you've played very well, including here. Why don't you talk about your success in Pennsylvania.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, I've played here well. Obviously got my first Tour win ever in Pennsylvania at Waynesboro, so it's always a nice thing.

This course has always I've really always enjoyed it. It's playing really long right now. Hopefully they'll move some of those tees up because it's really playing hard. It's a great layout and you have to drive it pretty straight and you have to putt good. It's still raining so the greens are going to be phenomenal this week.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about your season so far and what you have to do to get yourself into the TOUR Championship.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, it's been a very awkward year. I started out great, won in Abu Dhabi overseas and played very solidly the first four or five tournaments and then hurt myself and it set me back 10 or 12 week, and then I lost my mother. I played well at the British, which got me back to the Ryder Cup, and then the last couple weeks have been very good. I played very well at the PGA, 10th or 11th or 12th, and then the next week at Akron 24th or 25th. It's starting to come around and I'm hitting the ball good.

TODD BUDNICK: Looking ahead to next week, it's your second Ryder Cup team.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, it'll be my second Ryder Cup team, fourth team event, and that's what you play for. That's why you play the game is to get on those things because it is the most fun. It's such an individual sport, 364 days a year, or 51 weeks a year, and then that one week a year we get to be teammates with 11 other guys. It's a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. For the most part we've been the same nucleus, have almost the exact same guys, one or two different guys every time. A lot of good camaraderie and a lot of good friends on the team.

Q. You and Phil paired so well together at the Presidents Cup last time. Has Tom let you know if you will be

CHRIS DiMARCO: I have a really good feeling that we're going to be playing together, at least for the first couple matches.

Q. What advice would you give to the rookies?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I don't like that word. I know obviously they are rookies, but everybody has to play their first Ryder Cup. Tiger had to play his first, Phil had to play his first. If you've made the team, you've proven yourself. You've either won tournaments or done some good stuff to get yourself on that team. The only thing I tell them is that there's no sorries, there's no don't feel like you're letting anybody down. You just go out and play your best, do your best. If it doesn't happen to be good enough that day, that's fine. As long as you go out and give it your best and don't get angry and frustrated, just go out and play golf, you're going to have some bad shots, you're going to have some good shots.

There are going to be people over there that are cheering against you and you're going to have a few people to cheer for you. My advice to them is to go out and play golf. Forget what it is, just go out and try to play golf.

Q. What is it about this place, Chris, that you always seem to fare pretty well here?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know. It's one of those courses that kind of suits my eye. For the most part, the really tough tee balls were really tough today. No. 2 and No. 9 were brutally tough today. Hopefully they'll move those tees up a little bit. The greens are always fast, undulating, and I tend to putt well on fast, undulating greens.

Q. Was it a shock to you when they decided to end the sponsorship?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, it was, just because I felt like they did everything they could to get it to here, and then the changes they made to it every year and the amount of money they spent on the golf course, it was a shock that we're not going to be playing. Hopefully some things will turn around and we'll be back here.

Q. Is this course a good preparation for the Ryder Cup, or is nothing a good preparation for the Ryder Cup?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, the weather is. The weather is perfect, drizzly and cold, perfect. You know, it is because when we played there three weeks ago it was soft, it was raining, and that's what this is. Any time you're playing, it's good preparation because at least it gets you swinging a club in competition.

Q. Where do you weigh in on the Michelle Wie deal, and how tough will it be for her the way it is out here to even make the cut?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Let's see if I even want to go there. The only thing, obviously there are sponsor exemptions and things like that, but I think there's a few guys here that are trying to maintain their cards and probably have tried out here for a long time. I know a good friend of mine, Donnie Hammond, is second alternate. That's where I draw the line. Does she deserve to be out here or does somebody who's put in time and effort more deserve that?

Obviously she's a great player. The way she handles herself at 16 years old is amazing. I think she's going to have a tough go around with the way it's playing. The rough is up, it's going to be thick and gnarly. The greens are probably faster than she's used to putting on the LPGA Tour.

I don't know, I mean, she's a great player. I've always felt like be a kid now, do what you can do, go out and enjoy being a kid. I know I would never trade those four years I had in college for anything, although I was never as good as she was at 18 or 17 anyway, so it didn't matter. Golf is always going to be there.

I think it's amazing that she can even think about competing here. I think it's amazing.

Q. She finished last in Europe last week. If she was to finish down the bottom again this week, do you think it might start to do her harm as far as just affecting her confidence long term, not being a good idea?

CHRIS DiMARCO: One thing is as good as Tiger was growing up, he still played in college. The one thing you can't teach is how to win. That's the one thing you have to know how to do. I'd like to see her play maybe some more events her age, girls her age, and not only win but whip them by a lot. That's what breeds confidence and that's what Tiger did and that's why Tiger is so good.

Winning the reason he is so good when it's on the line is because he knows how to win and he won so much, and that's why he's where he is. I'd like to have seen her win more than she has. I think at whatever level it is, winning breeds winning.

Q. Back to Ryder Cup, not to change the subject, but David Toms a few minutes ago talked about first shot, first match, first experience, that that was once he got past that, he was okay. Do you remember

CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely I remember. Jay Haas and I played two practice rounds, we knew we were going out together and we figured out the holes and we hit balls and I was walking up to the first tee and I said, "Jay, I can't hit the tee ball." We switched our whole thing we did because there was no way. He hits it in the fairway, I hit it on the green and he runs it by four feet and I had to make a four footer, and I did. But that was probably the best thing that could have happened is I did make the putt, and I was like, okay, we can do this. But it was without a doubt the most nervous hole I've ever played in my life.

Q. More than last year's last hole?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I was playing well, and it was obviously the only thing that made me really nervous was the significance of it. It wasn't necessarily the first hole, first Ryder Cup in America with everybody there. I mean, it definitely was about as nervous as I could be. I was nervous at Presidents Cup last year, but it was a different type of nervous. It was an in the heat nervous.

Q. In the short history that this tournament has been here, there's always been a number of things that have brought attention to it, the plane ride to Ireland and even with David last year. Was it a tournament that for a number of reasons it was talked about amongst the players for just a short period of time?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I think that what they do here with all the concerts and the hotel is phenomenal, I think that's why you see people playing in it. I really do. Look at the timing of this tournament, and the timing is terrible as far as Ryder Cup and other things with the amount of big tournaments that we just had. It's amazing that they get the kind of field they get here. It just shows the effort that they put in, and the Hardies do a phenomenal job.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you for your time, Chris. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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