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

SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 22, 2005

John Daly

Redstone Golf Club, Houston, Texas

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: John Daly, thank you for joining us for a couple minutes. Great round today, 67, puts you in position right at the top of the leaderboard with a lot of players yet to complete their second round.

This is your 12th start in Houston, and you played well the last few years. Looks like you're well on your way to another good finish. Let's start with some opening comments.

JOHN DALY: Yeah, I hope so. I hope I get a good finish. I just love the golf course. We don't get too many golf courses that we can just go out and hit driver on a lot of the holes, and this one you have to. That's nice when you're hitting it straight, too.

It's been nice to make a few putts, especially today. All in all, it just felt really good, and it's nice to hit the ball solid. It just feels great to make some putts finally.

Q. You had a struggle with the putter this year. Is there anything different you're trying this week?

JOHN DALY: I've been working with a buddy of mine in Danville at Chamberlyne Country Club, Steve Holden. We used to play a lot of amateur golf together. He's a teacher now, him and Rick Ross. Steve Holden, he knows my game. He said, you used to putt real well and you had a 35-inch putter and you had about 70 on your lie. You've been 34 and a half and about 65, 66 on my lie. He said, "just go out and try it. That's when you putted your best." We did, and the ball is rolling a lot better than it has.

Q. What is it about Houston just in general, whether it's this course or the Woodlands? It almost feels like a home game, I guess, to you sometimes; is that fair?

JOHN DALY: Yeah. I mean, they welcome a Razorback here for some reason. It's nice. I just love the Woodlands, but I love this golf course. It's kind of like St. Andrews. When you step foot on St. Andrews, I feel like I'm going to play decent because I've got a pretty good game plan. I know I can hit driver, and a lot of the holes out here, more than 90 percent of them, set up for me.

Going into it, whether you're playing real good golf or not, at least you'll get some confidence on a course you feel like you should play good at, and that's kind of the way I feel on this one.

Q. How different was the course today from yesterday; did it change any?

JOHN DALY: Yeah, it played a little longer. Yesterday the fairways dried up, and the greens are pretty consistent. They're a little softer this morning, but yesterday some of got firmer but not too bad. This morning the ball just wasn't rolling as far as it did yesterday. The whole course stays pretty consistent, and that's all you can ask for.

Q. You said at the beginning "I hope I can keep it going," and the last two rounds haven't been as good for you over the previous two this year. Is that something that you think about going into these last two, or are you on a roll now and dismiss it?

JOHN DALY: Like I said, I feel like I'm going to play pretty good. Like I said, every hole sets up for me out here, and all I've got to do is execute and make some putts. It's just every hole is a hole that I feel like I can make birdie on, and there's not too many golf courses I feel that way.

Q. Did you feel like you had to go out and throw out a good number after what Vijay did yesterday to get yourself into it?

JOHN DALY: Yeah. I mean, I took a chance on 17. It was a shot that was in the rough, a little against me. I had 153 to the front. I felt like I could hit the 8-iron on, but I know Vijay, the way he's been playing, the worst I think he'll shoot today is 4 or 5. You've got to think about that a little bit, plus there's some guys up there that are -- a couple 7s and 6s that could go really low today, too.

But luckily I made the bogey and got lucky on 18, got a good drop, good lie and hit a 7-iron close and made birdie.

You've got to press a little bit with Ernie or Tiger or Vijay anywhere in the field.

Q. How would you assess your year to this point? Where was your mind coming into this week?

JOHN DALY: It's just been a year I haven't scored real well. I've hit it great. Like I said, the putter has let me down. My ball-striking, the first two days of the Masters, I think I was in the top two or three, and I think I was last in putting. It's just been the putter all year.

Q. When did you start to feel it on the greens today? I know you rolled in a few early.

JOHN DALY: Kind of during the practice round on Tuesday. It's so weird, it's been -- geez, I can't remember, maybe '91, '92, that I've had my putter that much upright. It's been a long time, and it feels different, but maybe change is good, I don't know.

Q. Is this the first week you've used that putter or did you have that in play at The Masters?

JOHN DALY: No, I was still 66 lie and about 2 or 3 degrees at The Masters, and this is the first week that I've tried it.

Q. Did y'all just talk over the weekend then and decided to pull it out on Tuesday?

JOHN DALY: Yeah, I went home to see Steve when I was at home last week, and he said "That's what we need to do. It can't hurt because you're putting like crap" (laughter). I said, "that's confident." He's right. My caddie, Peter, he's honest with me, too. He says, "you're putting so bad you need to try something," so we did. I looked at some footage of the '91 PGA, and I know I had a putter that was at least 70 and it was 35 inches long. The ball is rolling better than I've rolled it in a long, long time.

Q. Have you been doing anything interesting this week? Last year you threw out a first pitch and kind of had a pretty full plate during the week. Have you been doing anything interesting here this week?

JOHN DALY: I don't think so. It's been a pretty relaxing week. It's kind of nice, just enjoy the kids.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round. You started on the front side, birdies on 4 and 5.

JOHN DALY: 4, I hit 3-wood, L-wedge, made about an eight-footer.

5, I hit 7-iron, made about a 12-footer.

8, I hit 7-iron to about 14 feet, made it.

9, I hit driver, 6-iron, L-wedge to about eight feet, made it.

10, I hit driver, L-wedge just over the green on the left and missed about a two-footer after I chipped it.

14, I hit driver, L-wedge to about a foot.

15, I hit driver, 3-iron, two-putted from about 25 feet.

17, a nice recovery, hit the recovery shot to about two feet.

Then 18, hit 7-iron to about a foot.

Q. Could you walk us through that shot on 18? It didn't look like there was much there. You obviously found there was something there.

JOHN DALY: I got a good break. I kind of caught a decent lie in the rough when I dropped it. I just had to get over that little tree. The tree was right in line with the flag, and it was a perfect number, 172, a nice smooth 7-iron, and it came out the way I wanted it to.

Q. So that wasn't a particularly high degree of difficulty?

JOHN DALY: Not too bad, no. If it had been a 4 or 3-iron to get over the tree, it would have been, but the tree never really was in play with the lie I had anyway.

Q. When you put yourself in position to win, you've got a pretty good conversion rate, and I know it's kind of early, but do you like your chances of being around on Sunday, or how do you look at the rest of the week?

JOHN DALY: It's nice to be there. You look at Tiger and Vijay and Phil and Ernie, every week they're in this position, and I haven't been, and that's something that I'm trying to work on. It would be nice to get out on a Thursday and Friday and Saturday and be close to winning like those guys are. I think a lot of the guys out here can probably say that, just to be in contention, have a chance. As long as Vijay doesn't go too low today, it'll be nice.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: John, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297