KEMPER OPEN

June 6, 1998

Chris DiMarco

CHRIS DiMARCO: Obviously it was a lot different day out there than the first two days. The key for me today was just to stay patient. It was -- the greens were a lot faster, a little bit harder. The wind was making it tough to get close. I made a lot of good 3- and 4-footers to kind of keep me in it until I got to, you know, some birdie holes. Which I felt like if I got past 12 at one-over, there's a lot of birdie holes coming in. I actually birdied 13, 16 and 17. But, overall, it was a very good round I think. There was not a bad score today in those conditions. Obviously I'm still right where I need to be. Stuart and I picked one up today on Fred. So we're close enough behind where we can do something. I think tomorrow will be nice.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah. Well, I think he had, like, 21 putts today or something. He -- he's got a fabulous short game. He made some really good up-and-downs. And, you know, he really did hit a lot of greens. And my first putts were -- I couldn't get it close to the hole. I kept knocking it three or four feet, kept running these little testers. It was nice to make them all. That gives you a lot of confidence, making them. Once you make three or four of them, they get easier as they go. So it was -- it was kind of a hang-on round. We didn't do anything early. I think our first birdie in the group was on the 11th hole. I birdied 13; he birdied 14. We didn't make too many birdies. I think we both had three.

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's really simple. I know it really looks really funky, no pun intended to Fred Funk. But it just takes my right hand out of play, I guess is the easiest way to describe it. It's actually like a long-putter grip with a short putter. I just try to use my left hand, my left arm and my left shoulder to just kind of stroke the ball. And there's no right hand involved, so there's no tension. So it's a lot easier to stroke the ball instead of hit the ball.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I've been doing it about two and a half years.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Oh, you could name it. Just about everything. I've tried the long putter. I've tried everything. I just always have -- my hands always kind of worked not with each other. My right hand wanted to go left and my left hand wanted to go right. There was a lot of tension there, so I had to do something to get the tension out. And I've been doing that ever since. So it's really helped.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I'm just a lot more consistent putter day-to-day now. I've always been a good putter. But I really had some bad days, it was really bad. My bad days now aren't so bad. They're good still, so that helps a lot.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I think that -- just the same conditions as today would be perfect for me. I'm hitting the ball really good. I think I hit 13 or 14 or 15 greens, didn't miss too many. I drove it in the fairway and made a lot of good putts. I think the tougher the better for me. You know, you get perfect conditions, someone is going to shoot a 61 or 62 or 63. That lets anybody come from behind. You shoot 68 tomorrow, 13 or 14 under might win it with the same conditions as today.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, that would be pretty nice too. You know, I'm obviously -- I learned not to think about that, you know, just kind of play golf and let that just come with it. I've been out here enough to know that you can't start counting your dollars until you finish the last hole. I'm certainly not going to worry about that in tomorrow's round.

CHRIS DiMARCO: This is my son, Christian. Say hi. Say hi. No, he won't say hi.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Two and a half.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Thank you guys. I appreciate it.