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84 LUMBER CLASSIC

September 13, 2005

Chris DiMarco

FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Chris DiMarco, thank you for joining us. You've had great success here at the 94 Lumber Classic, played in every one of them, and I believe you've had three Top 10s and your first PGA TOUR win at this event. If you could start with some opening comments about coming back to the 94 Lumber Classic.

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's always nice coming back here. Obviously with what Mr. Hardy has done the past couple of years with the facilities around here, it's pretty amazing. It is an awesome thing.

Obviously they're trying to make changes to the course which is making it better, and I just want to play the week before The Presidents Cup, so I'm not looking ahead. Obviously I'd like to win this week and I came close last year. I think I finished 3rd. It's playing harder and faster out there, which is good, so the changes that they made with the length isn't really going to affect us that much, or me at least.

So it's just hopefully it'll play hard and fast and the rain will stay away and we'll get four good days of golf in.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about your season. You've had a couple near misses, so you have to look at that mostly as a positive I would think, that you're playing some good golf and putting yourself in position to win.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I am. I've had four really good chances to win. I lost to David Toms at the Match Play, and he played about as good as anybody can play. Tiger and I beat the field by seven at The Masters, so unfortunately I was betting against Tiger Woods. And then last week at NEC I posted a number, was tied for the lead, and the course was playing as hard as it could play, and Tiger made birdie on 16 and beat me by a shot.

I've had some chances. I've got five more this year, and hopefully we can get one and get back to Kapalua.

Q. This year going into The Presidents Cup and last year coming off the Ryder Cup, how is that different for you?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, coming off the Ryder Cup it kind of sucked because we got killed (laughter). This year going into The Presidents Cup, you know, obviously with neither team winning the last one, there's some unfinished business there. I think it was good for golf that we did tie as far as there's no way we could have completed that day. I know even the PGA, as great as the PGA was on Sunday, if they would have finished that Sunday the strains would have been through the roof, greater than they were, and I don't want to say it was less the next morning, but it certainly took a lot away from what was going on that evening.

I know if that would have happened at the Presidents Cup, same thing. If we would have had to go back the next morning, it would have one on one, two guys playing off, it wouldn't have been as big as it was. It was the right thing to do.

I'm looking forward to it. We basically have the same team. There's only one or two guys that weren't there from the 03 team, so it's definitely a the most fun I've had on Tour ever is the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup weeks, so I'm looking forward to next week.

Q. Does this Presidents Cup seem like a continuation of the last Presidents Cup?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think it's necessarily a continuation. It's going to be nice to play on our soil, I can promise you that. It's just a matter of, you know, again, there's going to be some different guys. We're starting back at zero. They could start right at 17 again if they wanted to because that's where we both were. I think that there will be a winner this time for sure.

Q. Not to look ahead even further, but I'm from San Francisco, and the American Express is a few weeks away. How difficult is that to play a course you're not familiar with and how do you prepare for an unfamiliar course? Is it just a matter of getting out there and seeing the slopes of the greens?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's just a matter of playing a couple rounds, that's it.

The one thing that we do have here that we're very fortunate and spoiled with is that basically our speed of greens is always about the same. That's one thing we don't have to get used to. Surfaces are different, but at least the speed is the same.

And then you just basically for me it's chipping and putting and how the bull is reacting when it's hitting the green. I know the greens are very firm here, so that's about like last week was, so that's a good an easy transformation for me from last week.

But as far as just play a couple rounds, that's it. Seeing what holes might be 3 woods off the tee or drivers off the tee, what the rough is like and laying up to the right area and stuff like that.

Q. Do you enjoy playing new courses?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I do. I like playing new courses because basically nobody has an advantage. I know when we first came here it was great because nobody had an advantage. Nobody new the course, nobody new the intricacies of it and how to play it. Little things here and there, I'm still finding them today. Today I hit 3 wood off 18 and I said, man, why am I trying to hit driver up the left side where you can hit 3 wood and not get to the bunker and the fairway is 90 yards wide. I just found that out today and I've played here three years. You're always learning.

That's the thing about new courses. The hard thing is we're not going to go back there, so it's just a one and done.

Q. So does it also it's about 7,000 yards, almost 7,100, but obviously their defense is the rough and maybe small greens. There's so much talk about the Masters and all these longer courses, shrinking the pool of players that can win. Does a course like that make it bigger? Do Tiger's advantages get negated?

CHRIS DiMARCO: There's a few things they're doing. One, they're making the courses longer. I don't necessarily think that's the right thing to do because you are, it makes separation between the shorter guys and longer guys greater. If the bunker is 280, throw another bunker over it, make it 300, and then you've got the same thing you wanted without going back 25 yards.

And then the other thing is the rough. For the most part, our rough, if you miss it by a yard, you're chipping out. If you miss it by ten, you've got a shot at the green. I don't understand the philosophy there. I think it should be the other way around. I think if you miss it by a yard you should have a shot. If you miss it by five, it should be tougher. And if you miss by ten, you should have nothing. I think the driver would be put back in the bag by a lot of guys if that's the it was. Like Bethpage Black was tough, and if you missed it by ten yards you were in the hay, and that took driver out of a lot of guys' hands.

Q. Playing before a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup, you obviously want to win this tournament, but how much are you thinking about next week as far as your preparation?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I'm not. I've played there, I played RTJ a couple months ago, and I'm just going to try and get by I have a week and a half to get my game to the level I want it at. Major level is how I want to be going in.

Again, not to diminish anything from this tournament because I would love to hoist that trophy on Sunday, and all I can do is just try to play my best this week, and if I do that, it's going to get me ready for next week.

Q. You say you like the it's fun to play Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups. Explain that to me, why it would be fun, because I couldn't figure that anybody would have had fun at the Ryder Cup last year on the American team.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, the only fun thing I mean, obviously winning is fun. If we would have won, we would have had fun. Just the team comraderie you get, which we don't have out here. One time a year basically you're a team. So that part of it is different, plus the format is different. It's just a fun week, plus, I mean, who wouldn't want to play for their country in their country. That's the greatest honor there is as a golfer, at least in my view. The greatest honor is to play for your country. I look at it like that.

I was pumped up by the Solheim Cup. I was proud of them. Nancy Lopez and I are great friends. I was so happy for her, and the way the women showed their spirit and how they played their hearts out, it was good for golf.

Q. Do you think that maybe mentally you try to not press a little bit more, but know that the team that you talked about, that you don't want to let these guys down? Is it more of a press?

CHRIS DiMARCO: No. When I first went to college, I did that. I pressed because I was like, gosh, I've got to help the team. It took me a good year to figure out if I played well, I was going to help the team. That's all I'm going to do. Individually I'm going to try to play well next week, and if I do what I do normally, I'm going to help the team.

I'm not going to try and do anything different to try to help the team other than just play my game and play the best I can play.

Q. I don't know how well you know John Daly, but I'm curious on your perspective on his evolution. It seems like he's playing good golf the last couple of years and also conquered some of his personal demons. Where do you think he's at?

CHRIS DiMARCO: John is John. I mean, there's not many other guys like him. I think that John is happiest when he's doing what he wants to do and not being told by people what to do and not you know, the problem is he's so much in the spotlight that he can't do some of the things he enjoys doing without being noticed, whether being ridiculed or whatever it is for it.

But I think he's in a good spot right now. I think he's content with where he's at, and I think that's why he's playing good golf. I think that's always been the thing with him. When he's in a good spot on his personal side, then he's a good golfer, and he is a good golfer. Nobody ever denies that, and he is good for the game of golf.

Q. When you say there's not other guys like him, how so?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I think that he's certainly an individual. You know, it's good out here. You can get cast in the same mold as a lot of guys out here and can't distinguish yourself, and any time you can pick yourself out of a group of 156 and people know that, then that's a good thing.

Q. Did you play nine holes today?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I played nine.

Q. Front or back?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I played the back.

Q. What did you think of the changes?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I think 12 is terrible, personally. That's just my opinion, again, not saying anything bad. I just think for that type of shot, it's probably the smallest green on the whole golf course, and with the greens being as hard as they are, it's you're almost being crazy to try to land it on the front of the green and bounce it back to the pin because if you miss it left, you're done. If you miss it right, you're in the water. Really the play is long and just try to chip back.

I liked the hole before. It gave you a whole bunch of different pin positions. This one you don't have now. If anything I think they should play the right green, the right short green and make it a short hole, where left you're in the water, short you're in the water, and you bail it right. That's the problem with the hole; there's no bail out other than long. Any time you see a birdie there, I think it's going to be a chip in, a long putt, but I don't think you're going to see too many six or five footers at that hole.

I think 13 made the hole even a little easier than it used to be by putting it back. Now it's a driver. I can't go through the fairway, where before I had to try to work it around a corner. Now it's just a driver straight away.

I love what they did to 16. 16 is so much better now. 16 before, all you tried to do was hit it ten yards short of the green, and I hit it right and hopefully it kicked on the green somewhere. Now you're bringing the water back into play. Now you can make birdie if you have to, where before you're hitting 3 or 4 iron and bouncing it up somehow and hoping you can get it on there. Now if you want to play a golf shot I hit 7 iron today. I think that's the way that hole needs to be played.

Back to 12, if they move the tee up on 12 where we get an 8 iron in our hand, that's fine, but if you're going to be hitting 5 and 6 iron into that green, it's going to be hard.

Q. I don't recall John Daly playing on a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup, certainly a Presidents Cup. Do you have an explanation for that? I would have thought at some point he would have been a guy who would have been put on a cup.

CHRIS DiMARCO: You've got to qualify. That's one of the reasons he's not on there. He hasn't qualified.

Q. What about a captain's pick? In each of those Cups there's a captain's pick.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely. For the same reason that I didn't get picked the first time I was right up there. I think that it's very rare when they pick a rookie. Look at Zach Johnson this year. The guy was right there. Why not take a Zach Johnson who's done great the last two years? He's never played in that type of competition before. Not saying that he wouldn't prosper in that type of competition because he might, and he might be great. But I certainly know that it helps me knowing that I have some of that under my belt, knowing what to expect, especially a captain's pick. It's one thing if you play as a rookie and play your way onto the team, then you're there. But as a captain's pick you feel the pressure of being a pick and never being there. It's hard.

John would be a great teammate; I would love to have him on our team.

Q. You mentioned about his individuality earlier. Maybe that's a factor.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think so. I think that I mean, John is a good friend of mine. I mean, he's good for the PGA TOUR and he's good for golf, there's no doubt about it. I mean, he brings a lot of people to the game, and it's a great thing.

Q. We've known for a long time that the people admire him and respect him in spite of his problems. I think maybe they like him for his problems. Why do you think so many people connect to John Daly?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know. I mean, you know, he does his own thing and he's an everyday guy, and in this type of atmosphere out here, he separates himself from everybody else, and I think it's a good thing, I really do.

Some of the things he's done, I'm sure he wishes he hadn't done. But he is genuinely, genuinely a good guy. He's as good as they get. He really is. He'll take his shirt off his back for you, and that's all you can ask from somebody.

Q. Are the trees on 16 on the second shot a factor at all and did you play the left tee on 17?

CHRIS DiMARCO: The tees on 16?

Q. The trees. They put all those trees on the right.

CHRIS DiMARCO: On the right or left?

Q. You didn't even see them?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I didn't see them.

Q. So they don't really come into play.

CHRIS DiMARCO: And then on 17, the change this they did on 17, it's so much better using that left tee. Now I know they're going to use a further left tee that's going to bring the water into play, and I think that's great. That's what they need to do.

Q. For like a Sunday, that hole is not too short for a 17th hole?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You're going to have a lot of grumbling on that hole. If they put the pin back left on that hole with where we're going to be shooting from, if you bail out to the right you're going to have that bunker in your way and it's going to be a really hard chip or bunker shot to that back left pin. It's going to make you stand up and hit a good shot. Plus you feel like you've got a 7 or 8 iron in your hand, you feel like you should be able to shoot at a pin. Where before it was a 4 iron or 3 iron and you could hit it right at it and get a bad kick and go in the water. You had to be defensive. Now you can be aggressive and you're going to see more guys in the water because of it.

At 11 at Augusta, for example, they have that area to the left there, they have it yellow. If they made that red, you'd see a lot more guys in the water. But because it's yellow and you have to go back and chip over it, nobody is going to try and fight it and not try to put it up there. They're going to play away from it.

Q. You've had the same caddie for a while, haven't you?

CHRIS DiMARCO: This is our sixth year.

Q. What do you think the casual player doesn't understand about the player caddie dynamic? What's the key to a good caddie?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, there's the old cliche what caddies are expected to do, and it's show up, keep up and shut up. You know, we don't all use that to say, but a good caddie needs to know when to do all three. My caddie has never missed a tee time in six years, knock on wood, he's always there, he's always ready as far as keeping up, and he knows when he should say things and when he should interject and when he shouldn't. That's what you can ask of your caddie, and we've had great success together. We've been in the Top 20 every year he's caddied for me.

Q. His name is Pat?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Pat O'Bryan.

Q. Any particular memorable moment or anecdote in your interaction with him that maybe illustrates something funny or where you disagreed about a club selection?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Oh, we always disagree. We are both very strong and we both think we're always right. We will get in little arguments on the golf course. Usually it's about Gator football or stats from the night before. He's always good about letting me be the one right about the golf, but if it's something else, if it's a score or something, yeah, we'll go back and forth.

Q. Did he go to Florida, also?

CHRIS DiMARCO: He's a Florida Gator fan. That was part of the job description for him.

Q. Is there any one moment that sticks out in your six years with him?

CHRIS DiMARCO: No, we've had good things happen on the course and bad things happen on the course. There's plenty of times where I've been very upset with him, and that's been the biggest change for us is him asserting himself more in situations when they matter, not being afraid to tell me to switch clubs because he doesn't think it's the right club and maybe hitting a better shot because of it or not hitting a great shot and taking the crap I'm going to give him if I hit that club. That's the sign of a good caddie, when he's not afraid to stand up and say something.

Q. For instance, Sunday at Augusta this year, you obviously lost the lead and came back, and how did he help you in that?

CHRIS DiMARCO: We walked off the morning round on Sunday and we both looked at each other and said we didn't hit a bad shot, and I shot 40. I hit it right to the hole every time and unfortunately it just added up to 40 that side. He said go home and relax and we'll come back out, and we did a really good job of erasing that and going out and playing golf.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Chris DiMarco, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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