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BUICK INVITATIONALJanuary 23, 2007Chris RileyLA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA JOE CHEMYCZ: Thank you all for coming. We appreciate Chris Riley spending a couple of minutes with us. Chris, start us off, talk a little bit about how you're playing right now. CHRIS RILEY: I haven't played since Q-School, and Q-School was a little bit of a disaster for me. I've been practicing pretty hard in Vegas for the last couple of weeks. It's kind of tough, I'm not exempt this year, it's tough to watch it on TV and not be there. Maybe a little bit more hungry. I've been calling around asking for some sponsors exemptions for some tournaments, but it's pretty hard to get them. I'm very thankful for this entry club this week to get me in here, and hopefully that will be a good thing. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Hopefully I'll win this week, and it will take care of itself. I have none. But everybody on the West Coast and it's tough, a lot of guys are in my category this year. So a lot of guys more deserving of it than me. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Well, a couple of -- Mark O'Meara is in -- he's got a couple. And Lee Janzen. Those guys are major champions so I understand. But -- what's that? Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Nobody even knows what it is. No, it's -- it is what it is, and I just haven't played well over the last couple of years. And like I said, anything I get into is a bonus. The (inaudible) hooked me up this week. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Well, I play a lot of golf with Charley back home in Vegas. And to be honest with you, he kicks my butt all the way around the golf course, mainly because he hits his driver so far. When we're playing up at the canyons, I'm hitting it 280 and he's hitting it 340. So he really plays from a different golf course. A little disappointed in not seeing rough this week, because -- just because. But I was hoping -- I got down here on Sunday night and I was watching the sportscast and they said that there's no rough at Torrey, and I kind of -- I was like, oh, no. Because I want the rough to be as high as it can, because I'm -- not short, but I hit it pretty straight. But obviously the course is so long on the south, long hitters this week are going to have a pretty good advantage. But, you know what, the great equalizer is the putter. So I've got to putt exceptionally well. So we'll see what happens. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I'm not working with anybody right now, but I'm just working on -- I've been in the gym lifting weights, trying to hit the ball farther, but it just doesn't work for me. I've been working out a lot in the off-season. But I just -- the ball just doesn't go any farther for me. I don't know why. I've just been putting a lot and chipping a lot. For me when I was playing any best golf and '02 and '03, I was making so many putts. I wouldn't miss a 4-footer for 72 holes. And lately I've been missing one or two a round, and that's been the difference, really, for me. I've come to the conclusion that I'm never going to hit it like Charley Hoffman or Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. But if I can get my putter going I can compete a little bit. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I don't think you have to be longer. The golf course -- like in Hawaii, you really don't have to be long. 25 percent of the courses out here you don't have to be long. Harbour Town is one I can think. There's a couple of other ones. But length is definitely an advantage. That's where the game started going two or three years ago. I look at guys like Scott Verplank, and just shake my head and can't figure out how he does it. But he does it, and those are one of the guys I look up to. You don't have to be long, but like I said, it's like a huge -- not advantage, but -- I guess an advantage. Anything over 300 -- I've never hit it 300. But there's like 30 guys out here that average that. It's the same thing, length is huge. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Probably like 346 downwind downhill (laughter). Seriously, I think I hit one like that at the Colonial, going straight downhill. I average 280, I think that's pretty short out here now. I was playing with someone yesterday in a practice round and -- no, I played in the Pro Am yesterday. But Charley Hoffman, it's just incredible how far he hits it. It's unbelievable, it really is. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, it's tough -- yeah, it's tough for like Torrey South they've added so many yards on it. That's why I was hoping they'd have rough this year. But I guess they're changing the grass. I'm just happy to be in the field this week. If I just make some putts and see what happens. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Right now I'm like five spots out. I've been talking to guys, and I think I'm going to get in. Some guys are going to withdraw. I should get in the AT&T in Mexico. I'm going to play a couple of Nationwide Tours this year just to stay fresh and keep going. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, there's another guy I didn't even think of. There's another guy who -- Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, I've been calling tournament directors all the time. They know who I am. But they say their selection process, they don't do it until like a month before. But Daly has got spots, that's all right, though. I'm not -- if I get -- like I said, if I get in the tournament that's great, but if I don't, I understand. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: In my mind I think I'm going to get into probably, after the West Coast, I think I'll get in three on the West Coast and probably into eight or nine more off my number, which is not very good. But that whole fall series thing, I don't think I'll get into too many of those. Hopefully Las Vegas might give me a spot because I live there, but you never know. I'm looking at maybe a dozen events this year, and maybe eight or nine Nationwide Tours and 21, 22 events. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: What's my goal? My mindset is I have a great opportunity this week to play really good, to finish in the top 10 or even win, and play next week. It's hard to do, but that's my mindset. I'm going to play like it's my last tournament. They're coming down to my last tournament. I've maybe got a dozen shots this year, and if I don't do it, back to Q-School. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Yeah. It's been a bad year. Last year I started playing decent towards the last half of the year. But it's tough to watch guys that you know you could beat play on TV and do well. But I've done all that, too. I'm very thankful for what I've done and what I've got. But, yeah, I'm still competitive and like to play against them. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Oh, yeah. It was tough. I shot 83 the first round. It was blowing on PGA West, it was tough. But I think par that day was 77. But I hit rock bottom. 83 at Q-School, and I walked back out on to the range and they were like, geez, this guy played on the Ryder Cup and now he is shooting 83 at Q-School. It shows you what the game is all about. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Embarrassing? Yeah, it's a little embarrassing. But in athletics everybody gets to see what you do. I just go with it. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I withdrew after three rounds, and I was like 20 over through three rounds and I was like, wow. But I didn't feel too bad about my game. It was really windy. It was kind of ridiculous. It's tough. Like any other sport, there's going to be a rotation of players. You play for the Chargers, and you play for the Padres, the same athletes don't -- there's a rotation, and I understand that. It is what it is. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: He's going to be -- I'm sure he's going to be a great dad. He's a fun loving guy. I don't think he's going to be standing in the TSA lines like I do with carriages and bags. I think he's going to be able to walk right up to the tarmack and take off and I'll still be at the airport four hours behind. He's getting into his hotel wherever he's going. No, I think that's going to be great for Tiger. I haven't seen him yet this week to congratulate him. It's going to be awesome. There's definitely -- like Phil has his own plane, I've talked about that at the PGA. It's tough traveling with a family out here. We don't have nannies or anything, I don't have anybody taking care of my kids. Me and my wife do it. It's definitely interesting. But, you know what, we're getting better at it. And golf, fortunately, you can have a long career. I'm 33 years old and going through a valley right now, but I've been to the peaks. Hopefully I'll get back there some day. I'd like to get about 20 yards on my game and I'd feel really good about it. It is what it is. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: That's a funny question, because someone told me to take steroids. But I don't know -- yeah, I tried that one. No, I'm just kidding. No, not that I know of. THE COURT: (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: No, no, I've never -- I've never really -- I've always been just mediocre length. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: He's a great guy, fun loving, just kind of free spirit. He's a funny guy. I played about -- about two weeks ago we went out, a night out on the town at the Palms, and we checked out the Playboy Club up there at the palms. And we were just having a good old time. And the Malouf Brothers, they have that Playboy Club like they had in Chicago. We went up and had a couple of drinks. Just a really good time. A really fun guy. I've known him since -- well, probably since he was 13. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Very competitive. So he's going to do really well. I've got a little bet with him right now. He says he's going to be top 10 in the world in the next three years and I told him he couldn't. He showed me he can. That's the kind of guy he is. If you tell him he can't do something, he's going to do it. Just a little friendly bet. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: For Charley? No. I was a senior when he was a freshman. I don't remember. I didn't take him out or anything. There's a lot of guys that -- I guess I started, but then Charley came up there, Bill Lunde, there's some guys from San Diego that coach recruited that have gone up to UNLV. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I mean definitely my confidence has been shaken from not playing well the last couple of years. But, no, it's not like I can't play like I used to. I've got to chip and putt my butt off to compete out here. That's a given. I've got to make a couple of 30 footers. And I was doing that for quite a while. Now they seem to just bend over the edges a little bit. My confidence can come back. I was starting to get it back last year. And then I had Q-School and that was a bump in the road. Thankfully I'm in this tournament this week, and hopefully I can play well. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: Yeah, that was incredible. That's funny, I was just out there hitting that putt that lipped out. Yeah, that would have changed things a little bit, I think. But, no, I guess there are golf gods out there, they give you the right bounces, they give you the wrong bounces. And if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. It wasn't meant to be. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I got a whole Ryder Cup room. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I've got the signed flag. Somebody -- I've got a bunch of pictures of me and Tiger when we played singles. And I've got -- they gave us knives at the Ryder Cup, these dinner knives. I've got the little replica Ryder Cup. I got this painting they gave us that makes everybody look like they're aliens. The paintings aren't very good. Ask somebody about it if you ever get someone that played on that team. What else do I have in there? I've got a bunch of stuff. It's a pretty school room. The one that doesn't look so good is Furyk. It doesn't look like him at all. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I've got my bags in there, my uniforms. It's a pretty cool room. My wife kind of put it together. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: I've got another hallway for that stuff. I've got a little bit of some golf memorabilia, but it's pretty cool. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS RILEY: That was my World Series, yeah. That was my Super Bowl. It was the best golf experience ever. JOE CHEMYCZ: Chris, thanks. End of FastScripts |
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