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FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

March 5, 2004

Chris DiMarco

DORAL, FLORIDA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Chris DiMarco, 2 under par 70 today, 6 under par, total 138.

Maybe just talk about your round and how you played today and first two days.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, I mean, you get up at 6:30 this morning you walk outside you expect the wind not to be blowing you over. It was blowing harder out there than it was for us yesterday afternoon. I thought it blew pretty hard yesterday but it was really blowing hard out there today.

Yesterday, I at 3:00 I hit driver, 6 iron to No. 1. Today I hit driver, 8 iron, and that's 7:45. So it was definitely playing with more wind.

I drove the ball extremely well. I think I hit 13 fairways today. Missed maybe a handful of greens, four or five greens. Just hit it really solid which is, in the wind, you have to do. I'm controlling the trajectory on my ball real well. Playing the wind real well and not trying to fight the wind. I'm just trying to use the wind when I have to.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Is that a tendency to try to fight it a lot of times?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Well, you hit into the wind and the harder you hit the ball, the more spin you're going to put on it, and the more spin you put on it, the higher it's going to go, which is obviously going to bat it down more.

Perfect example, on 8 today I hit driver, 2 iron and I had 101 yards and hit an 8 iron. Just took a lot off it and just chipped it up there to about three or four feet.

Just trying to keep it under the wind and playing controlled shots.

Q. Going from the West Coast to here, is it a real big adjustment for golfers?

CHRIS DiMARCO: The biggest adjustment is the different grass. You go from ryegrass out there to bermuda. The greens are a lot different. I'm just glad I'm not on poa annua greens. That's the best thing. You go to the Hope, which is perfect greens, you go to Phoenix, perfect greens and then you go to L.A. and the Match Play where I putted good, and they were very good this year. But poa annua greens will make you pull your hair out.

Q. Where are you in Ryder Cup points right now; do you know?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know. I want to say I'm like nine or ten, which is a huge by the way, a huge, that, is No. 1 priority right now. Obviously, actually, to tell you the truth, winning is No. 1 priority. And if I win that, will just kind of take care of Ryder Cup on top of it. But there is certainly incentive to play well to get on that Ryder Cup.

So I've had a few guys that are already in come up and say, tell me to "go play hard, we need you on that team." So if anything, that's really a lot of incentive.

Q. What did you get out of the Presidents Cup?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, I just found that everybody wants to know if you have it inside you, if that putt that matters, you can make.

The putt I made on 17 to go 1 up to win my match, basically, proved it to me and it helped a lot this year at The Match Play. Just knowing that you have it in you. You might not always have your best day, but knowing that it's there and the potential is there, it really gives you a lot of confidence.

I really didn't hit the ball that great on West Coast and was able to have a pretty good West Coast. So I'm hitting the ball about as solid as I've hit it in eight, nine months so I'm pretty excited about the weekend.

Q. Ryder Cup, do you approach it where you want to make sure you're in the Top 10 and not leave it out to the wild card pick?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yes, I would certainly I want to finish in the Top 10 so there in no discussion. Then you have the whole, you know, if you do get picked, if you don't play well; "Well, what's he picking him for?" The pressure is I know for a Presidents Cup, making the team on my own merit certainly took a lot of the pressure off on playing. I knew that I was there because I performed the best over three years. I performed Top 10 over three years and I deserved to be there. That's what my goal is for Ryder Cup this year.

Q. You said guys have been coming up to you saying, "play hard, we really need you on the team," are you talking about friends or other players?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, other players that are already on the team, just saying, you know they know that I'm up there, nine or ten. And obviously, I played well at the Presidents Cup and I feel like I would certainly be an attribute to the Ryder Cup team.

Q. What do you bring to that team?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Emotion. I can promise you that, especially in the States.

Q. Can you speak to the last Ryder Cup race, just how that affected you and afterward?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, it was weird. I played I was 15 or 18th on the Ryder Cup points and all of a sudden it was just I had three or four Top 5s in a row and I was right there. You know, just, it was weird. You never really I never really thought Ryder Cup until I got really close. And then by not making it, it kind of lit a fire in me saying, wow, it's there, it's attainable, let's go get it.

Presidents Cup, obviously, was a big goal last year, and to attain that and make that team certainly gave me a lot of confidence. You know, until you make a couple of times, you don't know if that's ever attainable. Now that it's there and it was Ryder Cup was that close, within three or four shots three years ago, of me making it, probably at the PGA. I'm going to be very aggressive and playing a lot of tournaments coming up to Ryder Cup and hopefully make that team.

Q. To the point of adding tournaments maybe, or if you're like in a Vijay situation last year with the Money List?

CHRIS DiMARCO: If I feel I need points and I'm playing well, I will play a lot leading up to the PGA for sure.

Q. Have there been any informal meetings with Hal?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Every once in awhile, which I think is unbelievable, there's a little he'll write a little note to some guys. I got a note this week saying, you know, "Great West Coast, keep playing well." That is just, to me, if the Ryder Cup Captain putts a note in your locker and that's not incentive for you, I don't know what is. I think that's great that he's doing that. Because I mean if there's anybody that's more emotional than me, it's Hal.

I tell you what, we're going to have a pretty I think he's an unbelievable captain and he's going to be phenomenal. He has got a lot of fire and drive in him, for sure.

Q. Then again, he could have put that note in 63 guys' locker, you never know.

CHRIS DiMARCO: You never know. Exactly. (Laughter.) If there were 63, I'm just glad that I was one of the 63.

Q. Could you peak to getting back in the winning circle, so to speak?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's been a while to tell you the truth. 2002 Phoenix was my last win. That's the beginning of the 2002 season. I went all of 2003 without a win. Really, thought I was going to get one early this year alternate Phoenix again. Played well enough to do it.

Jonathan, you have to take your hat off to him. Every time I made a birdie, he hopped me and put me in a position where I had to be aggressive.

Again, winning is very difficult out here. You need everything to go your way, and the ball bounced the wrong way for me coming in and the right way for him. But you have to take your hat off to him. He played phenomenal.

Q. As that streak or whatever builds up, does it become more in your mind or because you were so close at Phoenix, you know you're right there?

CHRIS DiMARCO: If I never win another tournament, I'm happy with that. And I want to win ten more tournaments. I know if I keep going out and playing well and putting myself in position, I'm going to win some more tournaments.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Let's go through your scorecard.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Driver, 8 iron on 1. 2 putt, birdie, probably 40 feet.

8, driver, 2 iron, 8 iron to No. 8 to about four feet. Made birdie.

Then I actually hit a perfect iron off No. 10 and I hit a 3 iron into the water just left of the green and got up and down for par. That was a good little par save to keep the round going.

Then I birdied 14, hit a 3 wood and an 8 iron to about eight feet maybe. Made a really good putt there.

Then 17, I hit a good drive and just got on the upslope and I was trying to take a little bit more of a 3 iron than I had to and got up and down.

18, I took it down the middle, split the middle with a driver, had 170, hit a 4 iron right over the top of the flag and almost made it. It lipped out, caught the edge.

Q. They moved up 18 today

CHRIS DiMARCO: It was better today. Still, the tees were up and the pin was up and I still hit 4 iron in there. So, I mean, how much harder do you want it? I can see if the wind doesn't blow, put the tee all the way back, I'm fine with that.

But when the wind is blowing like this, I mean, there's no reason it needs to be playing where you're hitting 3 wood into that green.

Q. Let me be devil's advocate, for us guys that hit 4 irons on par 4s all the time

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, but you're bad. (Laughter.)

Q. That's sort of my point. Where are you expecting to only hit 4 iron on medium long par 4s?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's the fact that it's 4 iron against a 40 mile an hour wind. That's the difference.

If there was no wind out, I don't mind hitting 3 wood into that green but when the wind is blowing 40 and you've got ten feet left of the hole, if you get it going a little left of the hole it goes in the water, there isn't that much room. And then if you hit it in the right bunker, now all of a sudden you have a downwind bunker shot that you can hit in the water.

So conditions wise, I agree, I think everybody should hit more 3 and 4 irons into some of these par 4s we are playing. But when the wind is blowing 40 and 50 or 20 and 30, it doesn't need to be hitting 3 woods and 2 irons into that green for sure.

Q. What's your take on the Davis thing?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I think that the guy, what's his name, who wrote it, Ian O'Connor? I think he's an idiot. I think that he did not he wasn't even there and he wrote a story like that, he wasn't even there.

I saw the interview. Tiger said in the interview, saying, you know, after a while it does wear on you where you have to say something and that was not in the quotes in the article.

Davis, again, you're talking about one guy that was following them around, who on more than one occasion was trying to get under Davis he was not there just to root for Tiger. He was there to try to get under Davis's skin. Once, twice, three you can let it go. But after a while, as a competitor and a person, you feel you should say something to should be like that.

Again, he was the only one that everybody heard. It wasn't just Davis who heard him. Everybody heard him.

I said it earlier, 99.9 percent of our fans are the best in the world, but every tournament, you're going to have 15 to 20 inebriated people who want to get boisterous and loud. And then if we say something, we seem like we're saying it about all of the fans where it's not all of the fans; it's a few people per week that really, we are not a basketball game, we are not a football game. There is a certain amount of respect that I feel, especially Davis, the guy has won how many tournaments, majors. Obviously he's a great family guy and he does a tremendous amount for charity. He doesn't deserve that out there. He deserves a little more respect than that, I think.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Chris, thank you. Play well this week.

End of FastScripts.

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