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ABU DHABI GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 22, 2006Chris DiMarcoABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SCOTT CROCKETT: Chris, many, many congratulations, inaugural victor in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. We spoke the other day about your great year last year, we all know what was missing, this must make it even sweeter. CHRIS DiMARCO: This is four years to the month that I have not been in the winner's circle. Like I said on Wednesday, a win, anywhere this is an unbelievable field this week. I think we had four guys in the top 11 in the world here, so we had a very good field. Henrik played great. Obviously Sergio played real good today. I just played good, solid golf all week. The first day was really, really difficult, the wind, and then it was a little bit less. And then I got off to a great start today, which really helped obviously calm everything down and put me up in front where I didn't have to feel like I had to make birdies and I could put it in the middle of the green. That's the key in the wind is just giving yourself opportunities and just trying to take advantage of some when you have a chance. SCOTT CROCKETT: You birdied 1. What did you do there? CHRIS DiMARCO: I did. I hit a perfect drive and I held a 9 iron, I think I had 126 yards and I hit it to about six feet behind the hole, made that. 2, I hit a perfect drive, just tried to hit a 3 wood up the gap and it got a great kick and rolled up on the green to, I would say, 20 feet behind it and had a pretty easy putt. Just a little outside the right edge, hit a firm putt and went right in the middle. 4, I held a 5 iron against the wind to about three or four feet behind the hole and made that. 7, I hit it, it was straight into the wind. It was a 3 iron all week, except for yesterday where there was not much wind and I hit a perfect 3 iron. I actually picked up my tee because I thought it was going to be all over the hole and it just flew the green. Knocked it by about 12, 15 feet and just missed. 11, I hit a perfect drive and I had 150 yards and put a 7 iron back in my stance and hit a really good, low, rip shot to about 15 feet short of the green and made that. 16 was a great birdie. I hit a driver actually go back to 14. 14 was a great save, it was a huge, huge save. I hit it in the right bunker and blasted out to about five feet. Had a really tricky downhill with the wind blowing, and made it, which really calmed me down a lot. Then 16, I hit a good drive, 188 yards straight against the wind and hit a 3 iron that just never left the pin, middle of the hole and rolled up there about 12, 15 feet and made that putt. Obviously to have a two shot lead with two to go is better than a one shot lead. To be able to par 17 and walk to 18 and knowing Henrik could get there in two, my goal was to not hit it right at all and just hit a really solid golf shot up the left side. I knew that if I got in the left rough, I could get it over and get on the green in 3 and make par. I hit a perfect drive almost where I aimed it, just smoked it. Then I hit a good 3 iron, good wedge. I wish my wedge shot was a little closer, I didn't want to have to 2 putt from 25 feet, but thankfully I holed it up to where it wasn't too much trouble, eight or nine inches and just tapped it in. SCOTT CROCKETT: Can you describe that feeling when the putt went in? CHRIS DiMARCO: Just like a weight had been dropped. I haven't started on our tour yet, PGA TOUR. But it's a nice feeling to go ahead and start with a win, first week out. I did a lot of practicing the last couple of weeks, even like I said on Wednesday, I felt like my game was in really good form coming in. I putted very, very good this week, and obviously you can't win tournaments without putting. Probably my putter deserves the win. Q. With all due respect to Amy, how hard was it for to you do your own yardages? CHRIS DiMARCO: You know what, it was actually phenomenal for me, because my one problem I have is I get really, really quick. I get way ahead of myself. There was at least four or five times and I hit my shot and started walking off and I forgot; I'm trying to help her, cleaning the clubs off and handing them back to her so she doesn't have to do all of that. It was great for me. Kept me in a good rhythm all week, I never got ahead of myself. And just to talk to her because she is I've really got to thank her because she's so there's no sugarcoating with her. She tells it how it is. I've been with her for 20 years; she's not going to start now. She said all the right things. It was great to be able to walk up 18 with a chance to win with her on the bag. I think for some reason, this happened for a reason that we had this one last chance. And on a whim, a month ago, I said, "Well, why don't you go ahead and caddie," and we just kind of did it. To have her be on the bag when I win a golf tournament, I think that's unbelievable. I think it's great for us, I think it's great for us as a couple to be able to experience that is great. I certainly owe a lot of this week to her. Q. December you made the decision? CHRIS DiMARCO: Usually one of my brothers caddies and they couldn't do it so we just said, you know what, instead of asking somebody, why don't you just do it. Q. Was there a moment when you thought to yourself: "I'd quite like to have a professional caddie here to help me"? CHRIS DiMARCO: Not once, not once. The only time I would say that maybe was maybe on the 7th hole where my normal caddie might have talked me off a club today. He certainly has that right. I always tell him: "You need to be assertive and you need to tell me if you don't like it and think it's too much, you need to tell me." That was the only one where I misjudged the wind and having him there might have helped. But again, I know one thing about myself. I'm a better player when I'm not having no disregard to my caddie, no disrespect, but I know my game better than anybody and I know what I'm feeling. I know the shots I want to hit. And sometimes when you have a 10 or 12 handicap trying to tell you how to do it, maybe you're better off yourself. We have that relationship, my caddie and myself, and what he does with me is he really helps me yardage wise. He knows how to read greens and keeps me focused, but ability wise it was just me. It's about the same with Amy on the bag. I've won with four different caddies now. Q. Will you come back to Abu Dhabi, and second part of the question, what does it mean to come over here and play in your first European Tour event and did you expect this would be your win? CHRIS DiMARCO: No, I didn't expect that this was going to be next win. Yes, I'm very happy that it is. And you know, there's a lot of great players on this tour, I said it on Wednesday, and this is certainly no second tier tour. This is a great tour and I feel like I accomplished a lot this week. I don't think that I won because it was The European Tour. I think I won because it was my time. Just like the motto on the PGA TOUR, "these guys are good," well, these guys are just as good. Q. Five in the top 14 were here. CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, that's good for me. Good World Ranking points; I like that. Q. Are you going to have to change your schedule for next year to get back here? CHRIS DiMARCO: The only way that I probably won't be back here well, it depends. If I win on the regular tour and get to the Mercedes Championship and go over for Hawaii, that will be a long trip if I do that. But I plan on coming back, absolutely. Not that I expected which is the right way to put it not that I expected; I didn't expect what it is over here. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful country, everybody is extremely nice and we had an absolute wonderful time. Q. Will you be using Amy again? CHRIS DiMARCO: I think she's done. (Laughter). You can ask her. Especially after the first round this week, it was so windy, she said, "Chris, would you be too upset if you had somebody else do it the rest of the week?" I said, "You need to do it at least one more day." The second day was a little bit easier. Obviously,71, she's like, listen someone else can carry for 71, but then I go out and shoot, 67 63 67, the bag gets a lot lighter. She did a great job all week. I'm very happy that we I said it at the trophy presentation, "aren't we glad we kept you on the bag," because it was certainly that much more special walking up the green with her. Q. Worked out a caddie's fee, 50 percent? CHRIS DiMARCO: Oh, god, no way, 50 percent, you kidding me? 100 percent. She gets it all. Q. Any thought of her caddying for you at the Ryder Cup? CHRIS DiMARCO: You know what, I don't think that she should be subjected to that type of atmosphere. I don't think that she would want to. . I think the great thing about the Ryder Cup is that you have that alliance, like for her, she gets the other wives and they all get together and they all have that same thing, and the players the same thing and the caddies the same thing. I certainly would not want her to cross that line there. I think that she is a tour wife and she has her friends out there, and I certainly would not want her to cross over to the caddie lines. She knows what she's doing. She's very good at caddying, she knows her job. She did it for me for a couple of years. She can caddie whenever she wants. I certainly wouldn't think that she would want to caddie in the Ryder Cup. Q. You said you had four wins with four caddies, is this the most special? CHRIS DiMARCO: I think it was the most special win for sure to have her out there with me. I told her that at one point out there today or yesterday, because the last time she caddied was seven or eight years ago. I was a very mediocre player seven or eight years ago. I told her, I said, "I've gotten a lot better since you caddied last, haven't I?" She said, "Yeah, you're a lot better." It was fun to go through the whole thing. Like I said, it was special. It was a special week. One week when I won Buick in '01, I had my brother on the bag, and that was a very special week, too. To have a brother on the bag and my wife on the bag, that's special. Those are things you cherish as well. Q. Expect to see Stenson keep the pressure on you? CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely. He hits the ball long, by the way. He kept the pressure on all day. There was at least five or six times where he had 4 , 5 , 6 footers where he could have let it slip and fallen back and gotten two or three shots back, and he made every single one of them. He made a great putt on No. 16. I just made birdie to go up by two, and he ran it by six or seven feet and made the putt to stay within two. He hit a great putt on 17, I don't know how that one didn't go in. Thankfully it didn't go in. Q. Expect to see him in the Ryder Cup? CHRIS DiMARCO: I expect him to be there. He's certainly in control of his game and certainly in control of his emotions out there. He's a very strong player. Q. Does he have traits of Tiger Woods? CHRIS DiMARCO: There's only one Tiger Woods, that's all I can say. No disrespect to Henrik, but there's only one Tiger Woods and that's it. Q. How far ahead of you was he off the tee? CHRIS DiMARCO: Probably 70, easily 70 probably. My ego will won't allow me to say any more than that. CHRIS DiMARCO: Oh, yeah. I mean, it will if you want it to. He's hitting 3 wood 30 yards by me. I enjoy that and I enjoy it with Tiger because I'm a very good iron player and I love hitting first into the greens, and I love putting my ball next to the pin and having them have to look at it. That's huge. Q. Spoken to your children yet? CHRIS DiMARCO: No, we talked to them last night well, we did, 12:30, so it was this morning, 12:30a.m. today. They were excited. They were like: "Come on dad, you can go do it." So I'm excited for the phone call this afternoon. SCOTT CROCKETT: Chris, it was a pleasure to welcome you here and many congratulations on a fine victory. CHRIS DiMARCO: Thanks very much and thanks everybody here. |
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