home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 24, 2006

Chad Campbell

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Chad Campbell, congratulations on reaching the quarter finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship. Great win, 1 up over Tiger. Some opening comments on a great exciting day for you and the fans.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Thanks. It was. It was a great day. Started out on the front, I was hitting good shots on the front nine and was able to make a lot of putts. He's a guy you definitely want to get up on. You don't want to be coming from behind. Even when you get up, you know he's going to do something. You know he's I was actually the thing you don't want to do against him or against anybody, really, but especially him is to make bogeys and kind of give him holes. And I did that once on the back nine. And luckily it didn't hurt me.

Q. 14 was probably the 13 was probably the pivotal hole for you?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, I would say 9 and 13. I think saving par on 9, I hit a great iron shot in there and it flew a little bit long. I thought I hit it perfect. But to get that ball up and down and then to win No. 10 and then to come back on 13 and pick one up after losing two holes.

Q. What did you hit on 13 and how critical was it that you went from 3 up to 1 up on two holes?

CHAD CAMPBELL: That was a huge hole. He had it in there probably 20 feet. It's a tough pin to get to, because the greens spin so much. I hit a little 8 iron trying to take the spin off it, and luckily it stayed up on top and had about an eight footer.

Q. Was your putt airborne on 10? It looked like it hopped a little bit.

CHAD CAMPBELL: I honestly didn't see it.

Q. He said it was three feet in the air.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Possible. I'm just glad to win the hole.

Q. The chip on 9 behind the green, can you talk about, taking us through that, it was as you said, that may have been the big turning point?

CHAD CAMPBELL: It was. It's pretty much dead, and you know it when you're out there in the fairway. When you've got a back pin, it's dead if you hit it over. Luckily I had a pretty easy lie but it was trampled down but it was sitting up a bit so I could get underneath it. I hit a decent chip to about eight feet so I could make a putt.

Q. Did you think as much about Henrik Stenson the night before as you did about Tiger last night?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I honestly didn't really think about either one of them that much. I was definitely excited to be playing the No. 1 guy in the world. You want to play the best guys. Obviously I'd probably rather play like a 12 year old or something, you know what I mean? You want to play the best so you can see how good you are and see how you can perform against the best.

Q. Did you perform as expected?

CHAD CAMPBELL: You know, I felt really good coming in there. I felt like I was hitting the ball well, driving it well, hitting my irons pretty good, rolling my putts pretty good. I was confident I could go out there and make it a good match.

Q. Do you feel like your strengths were evident today, the fact that you were pounding fairways and he missed the right on 8, right on 9. Did you think your game could put a little pressure on him?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Match play it's huge if you can hit a lot of fairways. If you hit the ball in the fairway on every hole, it puts a lot of pressure on your partner, especially if he's missing fairways or having to struggle. It's wears you out. So to be in the fairway a lot is just huge in this event, especially with the rough the rough is pretty nasty in spots, too.

Q. We asked him yesterday about freeing up a spot for you in Vegas and he said you never thanked him.

CHAD CAMPBELL: That's right. I do owe him for that. I'm glad he didn't go there, because I wouldn't have had a chance. And you know, that was probably the best decision I made in my younger years as far as my golfing career. The influence the coach had there on me was tremendous, and I still stay in touch with him and talk to him a lot.

Q. You paid him back by making sure he checked out today?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, exactly. No, it's does everybody know the story?

Q. I think so. Unless you've got a good story to tell, we'd love to hear it.

CHAD CAMPBELL: No, I don't have a good story.

Q. Was there a last scholarship deal, one spot was left?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Obviously everybody in the country wanted Tiger. And I guess it came down to UNLV and Stanford, basically, for him. And after everybody had signed, I guess whatever signing day was, I don't remember, it's been a while ago, but he chose Stanford. So Coach pretty much had everything sent to him and he came and called me. I don't think he'd ever gotten a junior college player before. And I was glad he decided to then.

Q. Chad, you seemed to make just about every one of the putts you needed to make today. It seems like putting is usually the thing that holds you back. Do you think of yourself as a streak putter or have you found something this year that makes you feel like you're beyond that now?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I think I'm a good putter, I really do. There's times when I don't putt that good, but in my mind I always feel like I always feel like I putt good. You're right, today I did. I made a lot of putts that I needed to make, especially on the front nine, not long putts but made a lot of solid putts, par save on 9, birdie on 8, and obviously the putt on 10 was a little longer, 25 feet, at least, I'm sure. I think that was huge for today, to be able to make putts. Tiger's ball wasn't quite going in the hole for him today.

Q. You didn't make any serious changes to your putting over the off season, between last year and this year?

CHAD CAMPBELL: No. It's all the same. I'm always working on the same stuff.

Q. How easy or difficult was it to forget about holes 11 and 12, and talk us through your emotion standing on the 13th tee.

CHAD CAMPBELL: You know what, it's tough to forget about them. Whenever you've got 3 up through 10, that's a pretty good lead. And to give a couple of holes back standing on 13 tee only being 1 up, you're pretty disappointed. But to be able to hit a good iron shot off that tee and hit a solid 8 iron, that got me some confidence back.

Q. Does it that mean you'll take more out of this match from 13 forward or that you could start early and get 3 up on him?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I think all of it, really. I think to be able to come out and get that lead early and also to be able to rebound from things that happened on 11 and 12. I think I can take both things from it, and getting the ball up and down on 17 is pretty huge, too.

Q. Can you walk us through the 18th hole and what your thoughts were after Tiger hit his shot right and then when you hit your drive, how the strategy of that hole played out, where you guys were positioned?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Obviously I never I saw his tee shot go right, obviously. But going down there I don't know what shot he had; I couldn't hardly see him through the gallery and everything. I had no option out of the bunker, just for layup. Even if I hit a good drive, it's borderline my getting there. I tried it a couple of times on the practice rounds; it's pretty questionable if I can actually get it there.

So I was expecting to see something come out of the gallery onto the green on that shot, to be honest with you.

Q. How did you like the position after your second shots? Then what did you think?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I actually liked it. Right there in the middle of the fairway, that's about the same number as I did yesterday. I'd been a little bit further up than where he was, and that rough is really thick down there. I knew he was going to have to hit a good shot. That was a pretty good shot he hit, about 12 feet or so.

Q. Were you very aggressive on your third shot?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I was trying to get it back there. It's amazing how long that shot plays. We only had 115 and I hit wedge and I couldn't believe it was that far short. That was 30 feet, probably. We had the same we had 112 yesterday and felt like I hit it about the same, and I was pin high yesterday.

Q. Your thoughts on Tom Lehman?

CHAD CAMPBELL: You know, Tom's been playing great the last couple of years, really good. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played with him that much, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I think it will be a good match. I don't know how bad he won today, obviously 4 & 3. Playing good. He played David Toms, right? So that's a good win right there.

Q. How big of a day is a day like this today, beating the No. 1 guy when he didn't make a bogey? Is this really a huge day in your career?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's pretty big. But the tournament is not over yet, just because you beat one guy. I wish it was. I wish they give the trophy away today, but they don't. It's definitely an accomplishment and I'm definitely proud of myself for grinding it out and playing so well under the pressure against the No. 1 player in the world. He definitely didn't give me any holes. I don't think he made a bogey, did he?

Q. No.

CHAD CAMPBELL: So it's an accomplishment.

Q. How does this pressure of today compare with other stuff you've been up against?

CHAD CAMPBELL: You know, it's different. Match play is totally different. Each shot there's so much pressure on, because even off the tee, if you don't hit the fairway off the tee, you're already pretty much behind the 8 ball, especially if your opponent is in the fairway. So it's totally different. It's 18 holes of pressure as opposed to in a normal tournament you probably have the last four or five holes.

Q. Yesterday Allenby said he fully expected to make Tiger to make an eight footer to win, and he did. Did you expect him to make that eight footer?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Absolutely. Didn't y'all? You have to. That's the thing in match play; you have to expect him to make putts. I was getting ready to go to No. 1, to be honest with you.

Q. What went through your head when it veers right?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Well, I mean, I don't know, I wasn't really all that disappointed (laughter), but, you know, he makes so many of those, and it's just amazing. You always see it. Like yesterday we were playing right behind him and I saw him make that putt against Allenby. And I saw Allenby in the locker room. I said, "What happened on 18?" I didn't know what went on. And he told me the whole thing, and he said, "He made an eight footer, what else do you think he'd do?" You kind of expect it from a player like that.

Q. Did you feel any different before playing Tiger than you have other matches, more nervous, more adrenalin, more anything?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Not really. I was really calm. I felt really good. I think it was just because I was comfortable with my game right now. I felt like I was hitting irons pretty good and driving it pretty straight and obviously rolling it well. So I felt comfortable and nice and relaxed.

Q. Before the coach called you, getting back to the Vegas, the scholarship thing, before he called you, did you have other offers at that point or did you not have a lot?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yes.

Q. You had others?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Oh, yeah.

Q. What was your top backup position if he hadn't called?

CHAD CAMPBELL: It was probably well, he called before I went on any recruiting trips. So I had all my recruiting trips set up. Vegas was the last recruiting trip. Once I went there, there was no question; none of the other ones were even a consideration.

Q. If he hadn't called, where do you think you might have wound up?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I don't know, TCU, New Mexico, probably one of those, probably New Mexico.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Chad, congratulations.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297