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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 20, 2007

John Rollins

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOE CHEMCYZ: We have John Rollins with us, a 67 today over at PGA West.
John, a couple of comments about your round and then we'll open it up for questions.
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I played good. I came out, started off pretty good. I felt very comfortable all day, and we kind of hit a little wait on the par 3, No. 5, the long par 3. We had a couple of groups on the tee that kind of killed the momentum. But ended up making a bogey on the following hole on a par 5 that was reachable and that kind of deflated me for a little bit, but bounced back with a birdie on the next hole and followed that up with another poor bogey on 8, the short par 4, but managed to par the last.
Played good up until then, limped in and luckily made it home and managed to stay where we are.

Q. You're one of the few guys near the top of the leaderboard that has actually won on Tour. Do you think that gives you a big advantage going into tomorrow?
JOHN ROLLINS: Well, I'd like to think it does. You know, out here you've just got to make birdie. You know the scores are going to be low, and you've just got to keep going.
But I think that it definitely helps knowing that tomorrow, if I can get -- hopefully be in that position coming down the back nine, that I have a chance to win, you know, that I have done it before a couple of times and know, you know, what it takes to do that, you know, versus guys that haven't done that. They may get a little bit more nervous than I will or whatever, but it definitely is an advantage.
You know, we've still just got to go out and hit good quality golf shots and try to make as many putts as you can.

Q. You finished well at the Sony, I think you shot 67 on the final day to get you tied for 20th. Did that get you going there, shaking off the off-season rust or what?
JOHN ROLLINS: You know, I worked pretty good this off-season, more than I have in the past. I wanted to come out this year and be ready to play.
My teacher, Todd Henderson and I, and my mental coach, we sat down and put out a strategy on how to play this golf season. Unfortunately Hawaii was windy. Mercedes, you really couldn't tell how your game was. Felt like I was playing good but just wasn't showing up. The same thing at Waialae, next week at Sony, I was hitting the ball good, but the fairways were narrow and there were a lot of cross-winds and different variables that were coming into play. Sunday I got the good round over there.
And I think this week, the weather has been fantastic. It's been very light wind, a little cold yesterday, but you can kind of really feel where your game is, and I feel like it's pretty good.
I'm not real surprised that I'm playing well, but at the same time, I have one more day to go and we'll work on fine-tuning the mistakes I made coming down the stretch and get ready for tomorrow.

Q. You were five back of Rose at one point. Were you aware of that?
JOHN ROLLINS: The leaderboards over here, they are few and far between. They are kind of one every, you know, so many holes and you never really know how much they have been updated. Because I've noticed a couple of times, they had me maybe through three holes or something and I was on like No. 7. So you never really know based on the leaderboards where you really stand until you're near the end.
But I did notice coming down that I was one behind of Justin at 20, and I assumed it was correct. I'm at 18 now, so I saw that Lucas was playing pretty good over at La Quinta. I've got some work to do tomorrow, but we'll give it a go.

Q. It looked like you almost holed out on the 16th hole; do you recall that shot coming in?
JOHN ROLLINS: It was my 16th, No. 7?

Q. Yeah.
JOHN ROLLINS: We had about 157 yards a little bit into the breeze, I just kind of choked up on a 7-iron and choked it into the wind. We could not tell how close it was to the fairway, but we heard somebody say it was near the hole. Where the divot was and the where the ball was, it definitely had to take a peak, but unfortunately we couldn't get it to go down.

Q. Looking at the leaderboard, the top four or five guys, you're the oldest guy up there at 31. Is this maybe a testament to the fact that there are long waits out there and guys get cold and maybe younger guys are able to stay a little looser?
JOHN ROLLINS: Maybe. I don't know. I just think it just shows how deep the TOUR is. I know that Vijay, he's playing great, he's over 40. The TOUR is so deep with guys in their 20s and 30s, I don't think it really matters. I think guys are so well conditioned now that they know how to handle long waits and how to stay relaxed and how to stay loose.
I just kept trying to swing and stretch and do some things like that while I waited to keep myself loose and it worked out.
I think that most guys have a pretty good idea on how to keep themselves ready to play.

Q. You mentioned a new strategy, revamping your strategy coming into the season; can you elaborate on some things you're going to do differently?
JOHN ROLLINS: I think what we've worked on is just trying to plan out my time better and how to, you know, figure out a way to prepare better. I'm doing a few more drills now with my short game and my putting than I have in the past. I tried to pay attention more during practice rounds. I felt like I was one of these players that just kind of clocked in on Tuesday just because I had to play a practice round and really wasn't getting much out of them.
Now I've started to maybe play some games with myself, challenge myself on Tuesday to make it a little bit more meaningful so that when Sunday afternoon rolls around, you know, I can just think about what I've done on Tuesday or the challenges that I've made myself go through on Tuesday, or even on Wednesday, and know that I did it when I needed to then, and I can do it again.
You know, it's really just focusing more on what I'm doing when I'm practicing and using my time wisely.
JOE CHEMCYZ: If you could just take us through the score card real quick, we'll let you go. You started on the back, eagle on 11.
JOHN ROLLINS: Eagle on 11, I hit a 3-iron, I don't even recall how far I had in. I hit a 3-iron and probably made -- I'd say it was probably a 35- or close to 40-foot putt. It was just a little double-breaker, made that one for eagle.
Then 14, the other par 5, I wedged a shot in there from 95 just below the hole to six feet and made that one.
Came into 18, hit a 3-wood on the back edge of the green and 2-putted that.
Then got to No. 2, the other par 5, hit it just short of the green chipped it up to four or five feet and made that.
Next I hit it to like two feet, foot and a half, something like that.
And then the par 5, making bogey, I hit a poor drive, poor second shot, pulled a third shot left of the green into the bunker. Hit a pretty good bunker shot and missed about a 5-footer for par and made bogey there.
Then as I said earlier, No. 7, hit a little 7-iron in there to about two feet, made birdie.
Then 8, pulled my tee shot left in the rough, hit it just short of the green and hit a mediocre chip to about seven feet.

Q. You did very well last year at Torrey Pines; are you going to play there again this year?
JOHN ROLLINS: Absolutely. Torrey Pines is one of my favorite golf courses to play.

Q. I think you shot 68 the last day, right?
JOHN ROLLINS: I think, yeah, 68, 69, something like that. I missed the playoff by one.
I like the golf course. I've played well there in the past and I'm looking forward to going there.

Q. That was part of your good start last year, I think that was part of your good start of the year, wasn't it?
JOHN ROLLINS: Yeah, I played good on the West Coast. And this was my first tournament last year. Fortunately this year I got to go to the Mercedes. Last year, this was my first week and San Diego was my second week. So, you know, it was nice to get off to a quick start like that, and I also played well in L.A. and THE PLAYERS Championship. I got off to a pretty good start last year and hopefully do the same tomorrow.
JOE CHEMCYZ: Thank you, see you tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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