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FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

March 3, 2005

Marco Dawson

DORAL, FLORIDA

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Marco Dawson for joining us after an 8-under 64 today. Marco, your first round back on TOUR since the 2004 Honda Classic, back surgery of course kept you out most of last year. Great way to start.

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, I did play Nationwide about a month and a half ago, I guess, in Panama. My goal there was to see really what I needed to do, you know, how I compared, what I needed to work on and it gave me a good idea. I missed the cut but I drove the ball poorly and I putted okay. But it was mostly driving.

I recently started putting well, and I felt good coming into today, struggling with the driver again. Found one yesterday afternoon and thought, well, I can't hit any worse than what I've been hitting with, and I drove it, you know, as the day went on, I got more comfortable with it and drove it well.

TODD BUDNICK: No bogeys out there. Talk about your day out there today.

MARCO DAWSON: Actually, I just wanted to hit some good shots, make some good swings. I figured, you know, I'm going to make some mistakes somewhere and I'm not going to be disappointed with a bogey somewhere. I just didn't want to make a dumb mistake, hit a shot that I shouldn't have hit, try to hit not enough club when I should have hit more club. And I can honestly say, I really didn't do that today. The only time I hit a bad shot was just from a bad swing, it was just poor club selection.

TODD BUDNICK: Okay. We'll take some questions.

Q. What does it mean to you to be on the leaderboard at a tournament where you basically grew up down here?

MARCO DAWSON: Well, it just doesn't mean that I have to play as well, come that far back, to win the tournament. I guess that's all that really means.

I'm ahead of -- tied with a couple others and ahead of most, and, you know, I guess it just -- it's easier to go out and think, well, I'm already 8-under, let's see how far I can go instead of being behind and playing catch-up.

Q. Was this a tournament that was special to you? Did you come down from Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs when you were a kid?

MARCO DAWSON: No. I like the course. I always liked the atmosphere, I always liked the golf course. I like the way the wind blows on certain holes out here. I'm not usually that great of a wind player but just everything sets up well out here for me.

Q. Take us through the back surgery and what exactly it was that was repaired?

MARCO DAWSON: It was a ruptured disk. It was blown out pretty good where there were fragments that were pushed up in certain areas where they had to cut a little bit higher. The scar is bigger. So they wanted me to take four months off before doing any rehab, so after four months, we got aggressive with the rehab and you know, two to three hours a day for three days a week since July up until this week.

Q. So that was four months without touching a club?

MARCO DAWSON: Right. So in those four months, you know, after the surgery, I thought, okay, well, the surgery went well, now it's a matter of will I be able to get my game back. Will my back be good enough to withstand practicing the amount that I need. I can only do so much of trying to rehab and get it strong in certain ways, but is it still going to hold up? I don't know, and I still don't really know. You know, I'm still in the learning stages of how much I can practice, how much I should practice, what are the signs of when I start to get fatigued and weak, should I back off or should I do this.

Q. Did you fear maybe it was career-ending?

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, this time around, yeah. First time around, I didn't think so.

Q. Emotionally what was that like to deal with?

MARCO DAWSON: Well, I would have thought, well, it was great to play the number of years that I did and, you know, if the time comes, then I'll really seriously think about doing something else, if I've exhausted every possibility that I could play and I couldn't play anymore.

Q. How does it feel now?

MARCO DAWSON: It feels fine. It feels good. It's the normal wear and tear, soreness that you get from walking all day or twisting or turning.

So, you know, I do a little bit more maintenance because of that, and so I don't get too upset or too worried about if I get a little twinge here or there because I kind of know from the therapist and the doctors what to look for, what's really serious and what's kind of just a temporary or a side effect from taking the wrong step or swinging too hard.

Q. As many players that have back problems out here, when you have back surgery, do you feel like when you're able to come back from it that you have a second lease on something?

MARCO DAWSON: If it's successful and you work at the rehab, sure you do. I don't know of anybody who has had surgery that really wasn't successful out here.

But the doctors, both of them, the two that I had were different and they both said the same thing; that the surgery is easy, that's the easy part. It's 99 percent. The hard part is the rehab, you're going to have to do the work and the first three to six months is critical because that sets the stage for the rest of your career. You only have one chance to rehab or repair that area. So once it heals, if the scar isn't stretched right or the muscles aren't stretched right, you're going to have a heck of a time trying to get them that way after the four months is up. So you've got to start early and get it all in working order.

Q. Those four months off without touching a club, did you drive your wife crazy; what did you do?

MARCO DAWSON: I don't think so. It was nice to stay at home, you know, and just -- I went through pretty much the whole year at home and got to do some things we hadn't been able to do just because of the time issue with playing golf all the time and practicing. We got to go some places and just do different things. It was nice to stay at home, and when it was time to start practicing again, I was ready to start practicing again.

Q. What did you get to do or what places did you see?

MARCO DAWSON: We went up and down the West Coast to Florida looking at property and looking at places we might want to move to. I always wanted to do it, but when am I going to do it? Between this tournament and -- I could never really get the time because it's more than a one or two-day thing. We spent a good month going up and down there.

Q. Did you move or are you moving?

MARCO DAWSON: We haven't yet. Just looking.

Q. Did the time away -- do you have any different perspective coming back because of your time away, are you the same person or player?

MARCO DAWSON: Probably a lot more patient now playing. You know, I noticed on a couple of shots today that I would have hit it, I would have probably tried something different, but I didn't and I went with the safer play. I think I'm just playing smarter, just from playing enough over the years, making enough dumb mistakes that, okay, the percentages are real good here, let's just back off and play this the right way. When the time comes, you'll know to take the chance with a certain shot or hole.

Q. Can you sum up your thoughts about your career and where you're at now and your goals?

MARCO DAWSON: It's been pretty good. You know, I think my shortfall has been my putting in the past. I've had some good times when I've putted well and my scores reflected it. For the most part my putting has really been the killer, and somewhat driving, driving the ball. So I'm driving the ball better now, and, you know, I've watched some players over the years that I watch how they play, and I thought, you know, this guy really plays well, he's scoring well, he's in the Top-50. But yet he doesn't do anything really extra special, but he just doesn't make any mistakes, he goes about his business and, you know, at the end of the year, he's in the Top-50. I thought, you know, there can only be one No. 1 player, so instead of trying to set a goal too high to be Superman, just play and do the best you can and have a good week and try and -- actually, I'm trying to learn more from playing the weeks before and playing my rounds. So I really think, like I said, in Panama I got a lot more out of it than I would have in the past, just going through the two rounds that I played there, I really got an idea of what I needed to work on.

Q. Your ties are still strong out here?

MARCO DAWSON: Yeah, my family is still down here. Although they are starting to move towards central Florida.

Q. Did you have to change your swing at all to accommodate not hurting the back again?

MARCO DAWSON: Mechanically, no. I just had to change the pace of the swing, the pace of the swing had to slow down and that was really a benefit. If you talk to most of the guys, they don't swing a hundred percent. I was out there just flailing away a lot of times. When you get to hitting a lot of balls on the range, you seem to get into that rut where you hit some balls and then you start speeding up and speeding up and you don't pay attention to the pace of the swing. At least for me, I didn't, I was so engrossed in certain shots that I wanted to hit, I wasn't paying attention to it. But I've got to pay attention to it now.

Q. You're talking about the swing speed from the top down or the whole thing?

MARCO DAWSON: The whole thing.

Q. Including the backswing?

MARCO DAWSON: The whole thing, yeah. You know, it surprises me because like on the last hole, I made a nice, easy swing and I hit -- the longest drive I've hit in two years, I guess, just must have hit it in the right spot. But it just shows you, you don't have to really feel like you have to swing that hard to hit it a long ways or hit it real solid. So the more shots I can hit like that, the easier it is for me to be able to go out and say, okay, I'm just going to make a nice, smooth swing and be in control.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your card starting with the birdie on 1.

MARCO DAWSON: 1, driver in the left rough, 7-iron out, wedge, about 15 feet.

6, drive and a wedge. I think it was about 25 feet.

9 was a 7-iron that was about 15 feet.

10, driver, 3-wood -- or 3-wood, 3-wood just in front of the green and chipped up to about four or five feet.

11, 3-wood, 8-iron, to about 15, 18 feet.

15, 7-iron about 12 feet.

16, lob-wedge to about 15 feet.

18, 8-iron about 12 feet.

TODD BUDNICK: So the putter was working today.

MARCO DAWSON: I didn't hit it very close. I mean, close enough where I had a chance.

Q. Six from 15 feet or longer.

MARCO DAWSON: You can get them on the stats now. I'm curious to see myself. We're going to go back and look.

Q. Do you remember the last time you led or were tied for a lead?

MARCO DAWSON: I think it was like two or three years ago in San Diego after two rounds.

Matter of fact, here, I think it was the same year, after 27 holes, I had made the turn, I think I was 10-under par and I was tied for the lead. So I like the place and I've got some good feelings about it whenever I play out here.

End of FastScripts.

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