Q. Can you tell us about what kind of guy Craig Parry is? And do other guys, are they happy to be -- if they couldn't have been there, that he won this thing today?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I'm a hundred percent sure that most everyone in the field, apart from them not winning, if someone else was to win, it would be Craig Parry. He's never won on the Tour, and he's picked a great tournament to be his first one. I think now it will show that he's as good as we all know he is. He was the best player not to win on Tour. And now he's broken through. And I'm a hundred percent sure there's going to be many more.
I think this is going to be a huge boost to his confidence. And as a fellow Australian, I couldn't be more happy for Pazza to win. I think I'm probably more excited than him. No, I don't think so. Wait until you see him. (Laughter.)
Q. Did you have exchanges, chitchatting, sitting there encouraging each other during the round?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Oh, absolutely. I've known Craig for a lot of years. And we've played a lot of golf together, and he's won tournaments in Australia, coming down the stretch, when we've gone head-to-head. And I've done the same. So we've played a little golf together, winning tournaments and playing in tournaments and practicing together. And I knew he had the game, and I think it was just awesome that he picked today to go out there and shoot a really awesome score.
Q. What's your best Parry story?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I couldn't tell you. He'd kill me. You guys always do things like this (laughter.) I'll have to think about it. Can I come back in three days?
I've got one for you. This is probably not the best, but this sums up Craig Parry. He's got millions of dollars. He's got a boat that's worth two million dollars. And we're in Denver a few years ago and he's staying at the -- I believe it was the Hyatt or somewhere like that, might have been at Sheraton, I'm not sure. And he's on the Internet and he's checking out the rates of the room. And he looks at it and if he checks himself out and rechecks himself back in, he saves $10 a night for Friday and Saturday night. So he's going to save -- I think it was like $15 or something he would save. So he checked himself out on the Internet and then rechecked himself back in. And that's Craig Parry to the tee right there (laughter.) And he even got the same room.
I've got plenty, but I couldn't tell you some of them.
Q. Craig's won all over, except here. Any idea what held him back on Tour, if there was anything you could point to?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Craig's been -- he's had plenty of chances. He's had a lot of chances to win. He had a great chance in the early '90s to win the U.S. masters when Fred Couples won. And he's had a lot of chances. Tom Lehman had an awesome putt to beat him at the Colonial. He's come close a lot of times. He's always been there. And winning is confidence. You've got to have the confidence and belief within yourself to hit the right shots at the right time and make the right putts at the right time. Pressure is a hard thing. Standing over the hole with a 3- or 4- or 5-footer to win a tournament or coming down the stretch, sometimes you've got to grit your teeth and really dig deep.
I've known Pazza for a long time and he's a fighter. And with all the setbacks and all the times guys have made some putts and beaten him over here, it was only a matter of time that he came through with the goods. And this field's got the best players in the world -- at least the top 70 players in the world are here. And if you were going to win a tournament, this would be the one you want to win.
Q. How did he come by that nickname?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, Parry is his last name. And in Australia, it's just common sense that short for Parry is Pazza. (Laughter.)
Q. Sorry.
ROBERT ALLENBY: That question has been asked a lot this week. You don't have to be sorry. I'm explaining it to you. I guess it's an Australian slang, which is understandable that most Americans or Canadians or whatever don't understand that. Parry in Australia. Pazza, that's his nickname.
Q. So that hotel story you told, does that mean when you guys go to dinner, you're more likely to pick up the check than he is?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, when it's his shout, we go to McDonald's. And when it's my shout, we go to the Daniel's steakhouse. If we go to dinner next it's his shout.
Q. Will that million dollar check change him at all?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Might change his wife and the bunch of kids that he's got. You know what? It doesn't matter how much money Craig Parry has or how much he wins or anything, he will always stay the same. And I know the neighborhood where he grew up from and, yeah, he's still the same. He's still the same Pazza. And I guarantee you in the next ten years he'll still be the same, even if he's won five majors or four of these tournaments, he'd still be the same. He's a true Auzzie.
Q. What are you taking out of your performance this week?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously, I should be disappointed a little bit because I was in a position today to really do something. But on the secondhand, I turned a really bad round back into a good round. And I'm not disappointed. I gave it everything I had down the last six holes, and made double bogey on 12, and birdied 13, and 15, 16, 17 and 18. So I did as well as I could do. I couldn't finish any higher than where I finished.
TODD BUDNICK: Can we have your strokes on those birdies.
ROBERT ALLENBY: 3, I hit a little 8-iron in there. That was probably about ten feet.
6, I hit 7-iron to about ten feet.
The bogey on 10, I hit a hook off the tee with the 3-wood, I tried to hit 2-iron, it was a bit silly, and hit my third shot from the middle of the fairway, hit it in the left trap, and slashed it out.
Then a double bogey at 12. I hit my -- I hit a hook off the tee with a 3-wood left and then chipped it down and hit a great third shot in there. And I was just too aggressive. I was too -- I guess I was too positive for the putt and ended up 3-putting.
And then the birdie, hit 6-iron into 13 to about ten feet.
I hit 9-iron into 14, just pulled it a little bit. I was a little bit distracted on my chip, chipped it well past and just wasn't thinking on the putt, missed it.
I hit a lob wedge, a little three-quarter lob wedge into 15 to about six or seven feet.
I hit 9-iron into 16 to about five feet. And then I hit 6-iron into 17. That was about 35, 40 feet.
And then 3-wood up the last. It probably wasn't my best 3-wood in the world. I took a few worms out on the way. But on the top of my swing on the way down, the toilet door slammed and I come up out of the shot and -- I really shouldn't have been listening -- that shouldn't have distracted me, but it did. And I was lucky enough that I got it out of the middle, but it went low and ran up onto the green, like a 12 handicapper would. And I hit a great chip. And then hit a good putt to finish it off. The putt on the last was probably about three feet.
TODD BUDNICK: Thank you very much.
End of FastScripts....
