MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 5, 2000

Robert Damron

ROBERT DAMRON: Pretty good practice round. I didn't play any practice rounds, so today was my first round since last year on Sunday. I am pretty pleased with it. I just -- traditionally I have had trouble reading putts here. Two years ago I withdrew after Saturday's round because I was so frustrated. I made the cut but I was so frustrated I knew I wasn't going to play good, I knew I wasn't into it, and I felt like I had somewhere better to go. But today I made a lot of putts and I hit -- every putt seemed to do what I thought it was going to do. Maybe a little older, little wiser, maybe.

ROBERT DAMRON: No, Mike Hulbert gave me a tip last year about leading here. Didn't he win here?

ROBERT DAMRON: And he told me that he thinks everything seems to break towards the middle of the green and last year I did putt a lot better. But I really didn't keep that in mind today. It just kind of -- I just kind of saw it and went with it; maybe it is in the back of my head somewhere there.

ROBERT DAMRON: I did an outing on Monday in Paducah, Kentucky; then drove to Lexington, Kentucky because my dad and brother were playing a tournament, just to watch them. I was first in the Pro-Am yesterday and didn't get in. That is all right by me. I have limited energy so I shouldn't waste it on Wednesday.

ROBERT DAMRON: I think my younger brother finished third or so. My dad, I don't know, finished around 1-over, won a little money.

ROBERT DAMRON: I have no idea. It is just a friend of mine who I used to play junior golf with in Kentucky set up a pro tournament and I think they were paying like 7, 8,000 for the first and it was just something first year of the tournament they got it started and, you know, trying just to get a tournament in Kentucky, I guess mini-tour, maybe up there.

ROBERT DAMRON: I don't think I have putted as well as I would like to. Traditionally the stats show that I make a lot of putts and I feel like I make a lot of putts. I just haven't been seeing the line so well this year. Also, my irons haven't been that great, but they really never are. So I have usually had to play around that. But making putts today helped, gives me a little, you know, a little confidence maybe for the next three days.

ROBERT DAMRON: I never allow myself not to think I didn't belong, or to -- did I say that right? I never allowed myself to think that I did not belong. Because after making Q-School four years ago you know, you have got a month or month and a half before your first tournament starts and the first week or two, it is hard to believe and you are excited and I remember telling myself January 1 I am going to stop, stop thinking like that and just think that I am going to step out there and do my job and you know, I am not going to look around at everybody. I am not going to watch the crowds or and just I am just going to take care of my business and have fun, and step out and you know, with my chest out just like I am supposed to be there. So I have never felt like you know, I didn't belong. But you know, I don't know, winning is something I have seen a lot of my friends do this year. There have been a lot of first-time winners, and I don't know if you are ever ready or not, seems to step up when you least expect it and your week happens, but I am sure my game is good enough to do it. It is just a matter of getting the right timing.

ROBERT DAMRON: I think that is part of it. I have met a few guys and I'd also seen the players that at the tournament at the Bay Hill Invitational so never was intimidated by them because I was reasonably comfortable around guys that I knew, Arnold Palmer and Scott Hoch and Payne Stewart used to be out there. Even Greg Norman lived there when I was younger too.

ROBERT DAMRON: I think sometimes you wonder -- you look at a guy like Bobby Watkins who has been out here his whole career or had been out here his whole career never won, certainly was good enough player to win. Sometimes you think you know, will I ever do it, you know, sometimes you can play great and somebody just beats you. It a matter of timing as well as playing well. I am just 27. I shouldn't think about that. I have got a long way to go.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. 3, par 5, hit it in the right bunker just outside side of it, chipped it across the green, actually into the fringe, made about a 12-footer coming back from the fringe. 5, par 3 I hit 6-iron about five, six feet. Made that one. 7, hit a par 5 went for the green in two; missed it just right, hit kind of a funny chip not very good, 15 feet, made that. And then 8 -- last year, my caddie and I figured that I would have won this tournament by, I think 3 or 2 if I would have played 8 and 9 even par. So when I stood up to 8 I said: I have got to, you know, I have got to just make a good swing, couple of good swings here and get past them. I hit a perfect 3-wood down the middle, hit a 7-iron about six feet above the hole made it. So I was pretty pleased with that. I think I played those holes 8 over par -- 8 and 9 last year. So that was -- if I can get past 8 and 9 this week maybe I will be all right. And 12, I hit a wedge about 9 feet, ten feet right of the hole, made that one. 13, I made a 20-footer for par. 14, I made a 20-footer for birdie. 18, yeah, I hit a 9-iron twelve feet left of the hole and I had that exact putt on the final round last year and, you know, I just knew if I make it, it is going to be worth quite bit of money. I hit it right where I was looking. It just held high, so even though my caddie -- I said, I had this exact putt last year; didn't break as much, so I am going to play it an inch less than I thought. I still just made it barely to the top side but I made it.

ROBERT DAMRON: (laughs) Who knows. Probably not. I probably keep playing them, but you know, I have had a few good tournaments where I didn't play practice rounds, especially now that my -- you know, if my fourth year out. I have seen all the courses a few times, and I don't think it is that necessary anymore. As long as you get the speed of the greens you feel comfortable with those, and texture of the sand and thickness of the rough, you can see that off the first hole, you know, so as long as you get that down, plus yardage book's pretty good.

ROBERT DAMRON: No.

ROBERT DAMRON: I don't think so. I really don't have many expectations at the beginning of the week. I just kind of try to take care of my business that is in front of me as best as I can and -- but no, I can't say that I have much anxiety or thought much about, you know, if I don't play well I could just say I didn't play a practice round, so, no, I wouldn't think so.

ROBERT DAMRON: Fred Sanders. He is from Paducah, Kentucky.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, it is pretty long for one, generally plays into the wind as much as I can remember. And if you can get the ball in the fairway it is really -- it is not that hard of a hole. I just hit a lot of bad shots there last year, but because the greens are wide, if you are in the fairway, all you have to do is get the right number because it is reasonably shallow. But I didn't do that at all last year some.

ROBERT DAMRON: It is?

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, the pin was tucked close today, so if you are up front -- so if you were going for it, got a little cute with it, you could miss it short right and really shortside yourself. But that was one of my good drives and so just had -- I had 68 into the wind or something like that, I just hit a little 6-iron. I knew it was the right club. As long as I kept it anywhere left of the pin, I knew I was going to hit the green: But I am not sure. Now last year I would have told you why it was the hardest hole on the course because I bogeyed it everyday. Hopefully I can avoid that for the next three days.