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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 23, 2006

Chris Riley

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Another round of 64.

CHRIS RILEY: Yeah.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Pretty nice. Just talk about, I mean, obviously, you haven't played that great this year.

CHRIS RILEY: No, I haven't played that great.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: What happened?

CHRIS RILEY: I guess Q School is in the back of my mind. Really the last year and a half I haven't really been giving myself the chances when I was out here before. We got two little kids now and my interests have changed a little bit.

They're geared more towards my children so I've been playing well the last couple months, I just haven't been finishing.

It's time to play golf now.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Alright. Questions?

Q. The last two winners, Bart Bryant, Robert Gamez were in similar situations looking to go to Q School and came in with wins.

That's got to be a pretty good motivation to not have to go to Q School.

CHRIS RILEY: It would be nice if I didn't have to go to Q School. Like I said, I mean out here if you don't play good enough then you don't deserve to play so I'm not really worried about going to Q School. I know I got a pretty good game.

Obviously I don't want to go but I think except for ten percent of the PGA Tour, I think I don't know if this is a good way to think but I think Q School is inevitable.

You can't finish in the Top 125 every year out here. There's too many great players, too many things that go on.

I'm not worried about it, really. I've done really well and if I would have looked in the crystal ball eight, nine years ago and seen what I've done, I would have been very pleased.

So, you know, I'm just taking it as it comes.

Q. You were on the Ryder Cup team two years ago. Is there motivation to get back on that team?

CHRIS RILEY: You know what? There really isn't. I know that's sad to say, too. I guess I'm look at I'm not that it was great and I was watching it and I mean I had a great time. That was the best thing I've ever done in golf, but if I never made another one it's not the end of the world to me.

I'm very content with what I got and what's going on. I know to some people it's not a good thing but to other people you know, I'm really focused on my family right now so that's where all my focus is and I'm doing the best I can. All I can do is have a good attitude.

Q. The PGA Tour, if you play well you have a good living and time with your family.

CHRIS RILEY: Yeah. Yeah. It's been tough. You know, I went a month without seeing my family this summer and that was really hard and, you know, sometimes I ask myself is it really worth it? Well, I mean that's just where I'm at right now in my life.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: I didn't say anything.

CHRIS RILEY: You're looking at me. I see the young guns that are really hungry. I guess it's true if you do well, you do get soft, at least I do, and I'm just being honest.

Q. Finishing 80th on the money list and

CHRIS RILEY: That's really hard to do. People don't realize how hard it is to finish 80th on the money list. You've played some great golf to finish 80th on the money list.

Top 125, I think that you played pretty good. I mean I haven't had any Top 10s this year. I haven't had any Top 10s for two years.

I'm just looking forward to tomorrow. I'm really playing well and, you know, it's been a great learning experience over the last year and a half but I'm at a place where I'm real happy with what's going on in my life and I'm not 26, 27 single and just trying to play as great as I can every week.

I guess I'm just at a different stage in my life.

Q. You withdrew I think twice early in the year at the Hope and Honda. Was that for like family reasons?

CHRIS RILEY: The Honda was because I wanted to get back home to see my kids. Yeah. The Honda was. I shot 77 the first round and I mean it was playing tough but I was in Florida for a couple weeks and I hadn't seen my kids so like I said, it's nothing like I'm not injured, I'm not going through a swing change or anything like that.

It's my desire. And, like I said, the last couple months I've been feeling like I have when I first got out here so it's all going in the right direction.

Q. You putted fine.

CHRIS RILEY: I'm putting really good right now. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I got a chance.

Q. The stretch on 9 and 10, you missed like a short one for birdie there.

CHRIS RILEY: I kind of goosed it. I made some 35 footers there. I think it all evens out out there.

Q. As far as just I guess what did happen on 10?

CHRIS RILEY: On 10 I hit it short, had a bad lied, chipped it to 7 feet and missed the putt. There's a lot of birdies out there right now. There should be some low scores.

Q. What about your position for tomorrow, couple strokes behind?

CHRIS RILEY: I'm going to go out there and try to play my game and, obviously, I don't know what's leading, what's leading 15?

I'm going to try to I've got to shoot another 64 probably to have another chance. I'm going to go out there and try to make putts.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Alright. Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Feeling pretty good?

ANTHONY KIM: I am. It was just. I was just excited to get the opportunity to play here and Tony Piazzi, thankfully, gave me a spot and I did pretty well with it.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Must be pretty comfortable out here?

ANTHONY KIM: I am comfortable. I feel if I play well, I can play with anybody but my problem was maybe my course management wasn't where it needed to be and with the experienced guy like "Bambi" on the bag, it was a lot easier to play golf.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Just your decision to skip your senior year at OU, what went into that?

ANTHONY KIM: I've never been that great at school, to be perfectly honest, but I felt like my game was ready and I had been moving towards that goal for a long time and the right opportunities fell in my lap and so I just went with it.

Q. On 18 obviously you probably knew you were in position to do some really remarkable things out here.

Wailed away with a driver, out drove everybody else by 40 yards on that hole. Lot of guys were playing kind of safe. Can you talk about just going for gusto there at the end?

ANTHONY KIM: I feel like I'm going to go for everything at anytime. I think that's where I'm a little bit different and it hurts me and helps me at the same time, but I felt as if I made a birdie on the last hole that I could make it more interesting and obviously it would have fell short but no matter what, I'm going to try to make a birdie and see where that leaves me.

Q. Are you familiar with this course? Have you played it much?

ANTHONY KIM: No. This is the first time I've been out to San Antonio.

Q. Did you play in three Nationwide event Tours?

ANTHONY KIM: Just two.

Q. Two events and this one, this is it?

ANTHONY KIM: Right.

Q. Where do you go from here, win?

ANTHONY KIM: I hope so. That's what I've been working towards. I've actually started playing a new ball that has helped me a lot. I had been using one kind of ball my whole life and I switched to a new Nike Platinum and it's been working out great.

Q. Course management was an issue. Is there something you learned today that will help you the next time you go out there?

ANTHONY KIM: I learned so much from my caddie this week. He usually caddies for Todd Hamilton and Todd was taking the week off so I obviously got lucky to get paired with him but I learned a ton just where to go at pins and where not to.

Even if you have a lob wedge in your hand doesn't mean it's a green light pin and it was a great learning experience this week.

Q. How important is a caddie when you're on a course that your not familiar with? He's been here before, obviously?

ANTHONY KIM: Right. Whether he had been here or not he would have made a huge difference in my game, just because of the fact that he knows how to play. Doesn't mean that he has to shoot 70 every time he tees it up but he knows how to think his way around the course and that helped me a ton.

Q. How difficult was it making the adjustment with the new guy this week?

ANTHONY KIM: Wasn't hard at all because he's a lot smarter than me.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Anthony, let's go through your birdies and your bogies. We're going to do the club to the green and then how long your putt was. You made a birdie on 1.

ANTHONY KIM: I did. Yes, I did. I hit a hybrid to the bunker and hit it to about three feet and made birdie.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 4.

ANTHONY KIM: Birdie on 4. I hit 7 iron to about 15 feet and made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Bogey on 6.

ANTHONY KIM: 6. I don't even remember. Was it

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Par 3. About 162 yards.

ANTHONY KIM: Yeah. I hit it over the green, then hit my chip back over the green and two putted.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 7?

ANTHONY KIM: 7, I hit sand wedge to about 18 feet, made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 8?

ANTHONY KIM: Hit sand wedge to about nine feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 9, bogey.

ANTHONY KIM: I hit 9 iron out of the rough and 3 putted from just off the front of the green.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 10, bogey.

ANTHONY KIM: 10, hit a 4 iron long left and didn't get up and down.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 12.

ANTHONY KIM: 12, I hit it I hit lob wedge to ten feet and made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 13.

ANTHONY KIM: Hit sand wedge to five feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 16.

ANTHONY KIM: I drove it on the green and 2 putted from 25 feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 17.

ANTHONY KIM: I chipped in from 20 yards.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Couple more questions, guys.

Q. Now going forward from here, you know, really obviously your expectations coming in, may or may not have been this high, I don't know on your first PGA Tour event.

How do you feel about something like this going to next week's event?

ANTHONY KIM: It gives me a lot of confidence, to be honest with you. This whole week it's been a great experience. Everyone has been so helpful, and I'm going to try to build on it next week.

Just using everything I gain this week, whether it means I shoot 65s across the board, that to me doesn't matter because I'm trying to learn and play every week with these guys.

Q. Is it, in the back of your mind, to take advantage of every sponsor exemption so maybe you don't have to worry about Q School because others have followed in those footsteps?

ANTHONY KIM: It is. It's hard to get sponsor exemptions these days but my agent, Blake Smith and with "Hambrick" Sports is doing all he can and he's helped me out tremendously and we're trying to move forward and make every opportunity count.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Everybody all set?

End of FastScripts.

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