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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2007

Chad Campbell

HONOLULU, HAWAII

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Chad Campbell for stopping by after round two of the Sony Open in Hawaii a 5-under 65 following up a 66 yesterday, T-2 last year here. You've had a lot of success lately here at the course.
CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's one of my favourites courses I play all year. I just like the way it's kind of an old-style, traditional golf course. Those really fit my eye. There's some more we play on TOUR, but this is definitely one of the top ones I enjoy playing.
TODD BUDNICK: You got off to a good start with birdies on 2 and 3 and just rolled in from there.
CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, actually chipped in for birdie on 2. Kind of got me going and made a good putt on 3. Just played really pretty solid all day. Made some putts. Actually had another chip-in, so that always helps.
You know, when I did miss a fairway, I always had a shot at the green and was able to get the ball up around the green. The rough is a little bit shorter this year but it's trickier because you can get a lot of flyers out of the rough so it's tough to judge the distance.

Q. Where were the chip-ins and what was the distance?
CHAD CAMPBELL: 2, probably 25 feet. It was just off the green. The other one was on 12. It was probably 15 feet.

Q. Short of the green?
CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, short left of the green.

Q. That's not that big of a deal then.
CHAD CAMPBELL: No. Anybody can do that. (Laughter).

Q. Do you think you're swinging it as well this year as you were at the same time last year?
CHAD CAMPBELL: I would say so. I would say it's pretty comparable. Obviously last week wasn't very impressive for me, but I took some time off and I was really -- I think I played two or three times during the break.
Last week was kind of a warm-up. I thought I could come out there and play decent, but it's tough to fake it whenever there's 30-mile-an-hour winds. You kind of need to feel comfortable in what you're doing.

Q. When you look back at last year's Sony, later in the year, was it a lot of frustration there? You looked frustrated the last day you came in.
CHAD CAMPBELL: Well, obviously, you always want to win. I didn't feel like I played real well on Sunday last year. I can't remember exactly hole-by-hole or anything like that. I just know I didn't play very well. Didn't make many putts. And, you know, that's the way golf is. You don't play good every day.

Q. Is it hard when you know there's just not a ton of opportunities like that going into Sunday?
CHAD CAMPBELL: No, there's not. You would always like to take advantage of them, but David Toms played great. I don't know what he shot, 6-under maybe, 65, he played really solid all day.
You know, nobody ever really gave him a run, so he kind of cruised around.

Q. Did you win the following week?
CHAD CAMPBELL: Yes.

Q. This idea of this being one of your favourites golf courses on TOUR, I would be curious when the kid from west Texas first made it to Hawaii and what were the circumstances? Was it for a Sony Open, family vacation?
CHAD CAMPBELL: No, at UNLV we came over here in February, middle of February we played two tournaments over here. We played at Kaneohe and played I believe on the big island, Waikoloa. Kaneohe is the military base, north side of the island. So I came over here twice in college.

Q. How did you do?
CHAD CAMPBELL: Oh, gosh, that's way back. I'm sure I did all right. Nothing stands out, so I didn't play great, that's for sure.

Q. This is just more of a tight, tees-next-to-the-green type course that you like?
CHAD CAMPBELL: It is. It's a lot like Colonial, Riviera, Hilton Head. Those are some of the ones I kind of relate this one to and those are also my favourites as well.

Q. You came here for quite a few years and had some mediocre finishes; what got into you last year?
CHAD CAMPBELL: I don't know to be honest with you. I know the greens a lot better. There's quite a bit of grain on these greens and some putts that go ways that they look like they shouldn't. There's a little local knowledge that you need to learn around here.
I had two or three putts today that if it would have been my first year here I would have missed them by a foot. Just knowing the way the grain goes and where putts break, you need to know where to miss it as well. Just that local knowledge helps a lot.

Q. What's the difference in your words of a win here, which was probably, what, today, 15, 20 and Kapalua? If it did happen to blow like 25, what would be the difference?
CHAD CAMPBELL: I don't think -- well, it's kind of hard to say. Kapalua is so exposed, and you get down in the -- I don't know if you call them valleys or what you would actually call them like say No. 6 green. For some reason it's just ripping through there and it's real gusty. 9 green is just island, 10 green, 11 green, 12 green, 13 green. (Laughter) It's just blowing so hard, there's nothing to block it. And out here you have some trees to block it. There's a few holes like 11 and 17 are pretty exposed to the wind. Makes a lot of difference when it's flat as well, and a little bit easier to judge shots.

Q. Is your wife with you this week or did she go home?
CHAD CAMPBELL: She went home.

Q. Last year she showed up on Sunday. That was a surprise.
CHAD CAMPBELL: That was a surprise.

Q. Probably bogeyed the next hole.
CHAD CAMPBELL: Probably did. She'd would be the first to tell you that, too. (Laughter).

Q. You ought to see what happens when his wife shows up.
CHAD CAMPBELL: That's right. (Laughter).
TODD BUDNICK: The chip-in for 25 on 2, and next?
CHAD CAMPBELL: 3, I hit 2-iron, 9-iron to 15 feet, 12, feet 15.
9, I hit driver, 3-wood to about 20 feet for eagle and 2-putted.
12, chipped in from just short of the green. Hit driver, wedge there.
13, I hit a good drive and a 5-iron to probably ten, 12 feet.
18, drove it through the fairway and I had kind of a weird lie, and then kind of hit it over to the left and hit a bad shot just left of the green, chipped up and made par. Pretty unexciting. Could have been a disaster.

Q. You now I think have done two PGA TOUR commercials, one in which you were limited to like two words in it and it took like 12 takes. How many takes did it take to walk down the fairway on the latest one?
CHAD CAMPBELL: Actually that was all -- alls I had to do was talk. So that was nice. Took a while, though. (Laughter) took a while for me to get it right, or the way they wanted it. I thought it was fine the first time but they didn't like it though.

Q. What did you have like one sentence or two sentences?
CHAD CAMPBELL: As far as with the new one? Yeah, they probably did about four or five different things. I don't know how many different ones are it in it. It probably took ten minutes or so, ten or 15.

Q. Did they pay you for it?
CHAD CAMPBELL: Huge money. (Laughter).
TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Chad.

End of FastScripts

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