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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 9, 2005

Robert Damron

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Robert, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media cent

ROBERT DAMRON: Then it's over, I'm very glad. It was a tough day. The course played tougher, and I made it play tougher by hitting it in the wrong spots a lot of times, but I escaped with a pretty good score for the way I hit it, so hopefully I can hit it a little better tomorrow and do even better.

Q. This has got to give you a lot of confidence as you get ready for Sunday?

ROBERT DAMRON: It's nice, but not really because honestly if I do tomorrow what I did today, it probably won't pan out as well. I've got to figure out a way to get it in the fairway a little better and hit my irons a little more solid, but I like the way I'm chipping and putting, so it's all right.

Q. How is the course holding up as the afternoon rolls on?

ROBERT DAMRON: The greens are getting firmer and the short putts are kind of tough. They're getting crunchy late in the day, so I'll have to see how that plays in. Everybody is putting on the same greens, so it's all right.

Q. What are the head games like on a Sunday afternoon? I can't imagine what you guys must go through when you're in contention for a Tour championship here.

ROBERT DAMRON: The main head game is trying not to get caught up in a head game. The main trick is to take the round like any other round of golf.

All of us out here have played thousands and thousands of rounds of golf, the only thing different is you've got a chance to win a tournament. But it's still just you, your clubs and the hole. You've got to try to get the ball in the hole as fast as you can and not put any extra pressure on yourself.

End of FastScripts.

er at the Funai Classic. Great start to the week, close to home, sleeping in your own bed. Does that make a difference?

ROBERT DAMRON: No, I'd like to think it does, but I've had a little success here and the same at Bay Hill, but I've also messed up a bunch here and Bay Hill. So I'd like to say that that's true, but no, not really.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Talk about how you played today, what you did well.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, I've been hitting it well, so I still hit it well for the most part today until towards the end. I stopped sweating on about 14, and I just kind of limped in from there. Unlike the last few weeks, I made quite a few putts today. I made a ten footer on 1 and then I had a ten footer for par on 2, and when I made that, it almost kind of got me going because I haven't made a good par putt in I don't even remember the last time.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Go through the rest of that round.

ROBERT DAMRON: I hit it close on 3 with a 7 iron maybe five feet.

Then I had to lay up on the par 5 and hit 9 iron maybe two feet. So a really good start there.

7, 7 iron, I think. That sounds right. 7 iron, and I hit a really good shot right at it and it almost went in, I thought, and rolled about five feet by and I made that.

Eagle on 10, best drive I've hit in a long time, almost drove it up with Hank Kuehne. He said I caught the downslope, but I know better than that. 2 iron on the back cut to the fringe there, but the pin was in the back. It was only maybe 12 feet from the hole, made that. I putted it.

Then 14, another par 5, I laid up just in the first cut, which isn't that good out here. It's Bermuda rough. But I hit a good shot, sand wedge, say 14 feet, made that, surprisingly.

Q. You're the only guy so far up at the top of the early leaderboard that played the Mag. Could you address the conditions over there? Was it a little easier than you thought? I know they gave you a break on some of the tees because they didn't know hat weather was going to do.

ROBERT DAMRON: Some they gave us a break but some they didn't. I had to hit 3 wood into 5, which is a par 4. You know, I didn't catch my drive great, but a Rescue club would have been if I would have hit the best drive of my life, I would have still had well over 200 yards.

And then they gave us a break on 9, but that still played pretty long. I hit a 6 iron in for second shot.

17, I mean, that's brutal, all the water. You can't a guy like me, I can't cut any off left, so I have to go up that right side and just play every bit of that hole.

Q. Are you happy with your round today?

ROBERT DAMRON: Oh, yeah, I'm very happy with it. I thought when I played a practice round, I thought that, you know, 1 under, even par would be a pretty good round because I played them all back. It was very wet, and the course played so long. Yeah, I thought that if you shoot even or 1 under, you've done okay because it was driver, 2 iron; driver, 3 wood; driver, 3 iron to every hole it seemed like.

Q. (Inaudible).

ROBERT DAMRON: Big disappointment. For the most part, I played very well tee to green. I'm hitting my irons as good as I've hit them in a long, long time, and not doing anything, missing putts. If I miss a green, I make bogey.

So it's just extra pressure I've put on myself. You know, high expectations, and if you don't live up to them early, then you get a little ticked off, and that's kind of what's been happening. I'm working hard this week on just kind of letting it go, not caring as much. If I just get out of my own way and make the swings I've been making, things should work out.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 22 putts today.

ROBERT DAMRON: That's awesome. My putting stunk. It's really been bad. Again, I know that it's inside my mind because I'm putting well in practice, I'm putting well at home, and it's just that little extra pressure I'm putting on myself that causes you to look up a little early or hit it a little too soft, or if you happen to miss a couple putts which are going to happen on any day to anybody, even if you're putting your best, then you're pushing too hard from there on in.

I have been putting poorly, that is to say I'm not making them on the course, but mechanically, physically I've felt fine. I've had some good practice sessions and warming up to go to the course and not taking that with me.

Q. Is it too early to assess the changes to the Magnolia?

ROBERT DAMRON: No, I mean, it's the same course, just much, much longer. I mean, I played with Hank Kuehne today. He didn't play a practice round at Magnolia, and I said it's not any trickier, but it's just much longer. You can still see right in front of you where to hit it, but you've just got to hit it hard.

Q. Getting back to that notion of being at home and whether or not sleeping in your own bed helps or not, are there any specific things that do help? Is there anything specific that are there distractions that you have here that maybe you don't have on the road or other things?

ROBERT DAMRON: No, not really. Not really. I make an excuse to leave the house when I start smelling the dirty diapers; yeah, I've got to go do something.

The one good thing about it is, for me, the way I've been going, is I can try to treat it like I'm playing with my friends. I'm paired with Hank is a close friend, and I'm staying at home and I'm just relaxing and trying to play and having fun playing golf rather than going out and competing, how much money am I making, going back to the hotel, eating McDonald's or whatever. I don't eat much McDonald's, Subway maybe, and then sulking in my room. I can find distractions here to get away from it.

Q. (Inaudible).

ROBERT DAMRON: No, that's not theirs. They sold it and the people that bought it tore it down and rebuilt. Actually the guy that bought it is high up in Disney. I don't know his rank. Yeah, it's not theirs anymore.

Q. Among the guys here in town that do live here, is there much play, casual play with each other or practice with each other?

ROBERT DAMRON: Some, not a whole lot because we all play so much golf on the road that you're not looking to go home and, oh, boy, let's go home and play golf for free and not get paid for it. There is some. You know, at Isleworth there's so many guys out there that you play a little bit with them, but I think when we do get our off weeks, we're not running around looking for games too much.

End of FastScripts.

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