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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 21, 2007

Chris DiMarco

CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Chris DiMarco, 66, total of 3-under par and the leader in the clubhouse.
Chris, at Hoylake last year you were in 2nd position, tied for 2nd after three rounds. How are things going to go from now on in the Championship?
CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't know. Hopefully the weather gets worse (laughter). That would be fine with me. You know, it's a different golf course than Hoylake. Obviously with just the weather, it's so much softer. It's still firm out there but so much softer around the greens.
There was a couple of times today where my ball stopped within a couple of yards of bunkers. Normally if it was dry and hard, it would probably have rolled in them.
I felt like I learned the strategy of the course the last couple of days. I think yesterday's round gave me a lot of confidence for today. I hit the ball the best all year, with the exception of one or two shots, one or two drives. But other than that, I hit it really good.
Today I went right with it again, and hit the ball really solid. Pretty much where I'm aiming it. I told my caddie I have to stop aiming it 20 feet right, because I hit it 20 feet right. Better aim it right at the hole.
I'm going to go out aggressive, play the course like I've been playing the course. There's holes you can be aggressive on and holes you don't want to, and that's all I'm trying to do tomorrow.

Q. Going back to last year, it was an emotional time for you. You had said in this press conference last year that you felt someone up there was with you and was helping you. Has it brought back any emotions for you, and how do you feel about that?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Obviously my mom is always with me. So that part is the same.
I think the difference this week, believe it or not, from the rest of my year is I made a change with my caddie. I went back to my old caddie, the one I used before this championship, the one I used for seven. We were seven years in the top-20, the Money List.
After this tournament last year I fired him and stuck with the guy I played well with here. And I just went back to him three weeks ago. My thinking on the golf course is so much better. We are together so much better than I was before this. I just think that I'm just a different player with him on the bag. I'm just a much more confident player and just -- he helps me out there a lot.

Q. What's his name?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Pat O'Bryan. Good Scottish name.

Q. How much did the weather change from the time you teed off to the time you walked off the 18th?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Pretty lucky, to tell you the truth. It drizzled a little bit out there, but nothing bad. It just -- then coming up 18 it started raining again. I was over the putt saying, okay, you can start getting bad now, I'm done. It looks like it's going to do nothing but get worse.
It really wasn't terrible out there. It was a different wind, that was the hardest thing. The course played differently than it has in the past couple of days.

Q. Did the wind shift during the course of the round?
CHRIS DiMARCO: It did not shift during the course of the round. 8 and 9 played into the wind today. 8 was straight in, 4-iron. It's been a 6-iron or 7-iron. 9 I hit driver, 3-iron. I hit 3-wood, 5-iron yesterday. Not necessarily harder, but just a different strategy.
15 has been playing so brutal. I hit 3-wood off the tee and 3-wood, 4-iron. I smoked a driver and 2-iron in there yesterday.
You just have to know -- again, we talked real well out there, my caddie and I thought where we wanted to hit it and thought about the club to get it in the right place with.

Q. What is it that Pat offers you?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Ryan who caddied for me last year, it was the first tournament he ever caddied. Pat for seven years was a top-20 -- I was top-20 in the world, he was a top-20 caddie in the world, without a doubt.
And I went to a guy I had to teach everything to. To be honest, it got to be a burden. I don't have to do that with Pat. He knows his job, he knows what he's doing. And we go out there and we play golf and we're a really good team. I've had a lot of guys come up to me and say, what took you so long. They could see it.
It's been nice. We have a lot of camaraderie together, and it's a really good business relationship without a doubt and he's a really good friend.

Q. Can you talk about why you parted company with Pat?
CHRIS DiMARCO: I struggled coming into this tournament last year. I was not up to par. I was injured. My confidence was low. I came here and played great. I finished 2nd.
I thought, maybe this is something new, make a change and do something different. And I did; unfortunately for me instead of just going on with Pat I tried Ryan, and good guy, he worked real hard, but he just didn't have, for me, what it took to get me to the next level, keep me at the level I was accustomed to being at.

Q. Long question here; I'll just turn it over to you when I'm done. A, could you just go through some of the injuries you've had in the last 18 months or so and what the status is now?
The second part is where you are right now with some things coming up at the end of the year. You're way down on the FedEx thing and The Presidents Cup coming up, which is noted for your putt last year, and likely being left off unless you get something going?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, the injury that I hurt myself skiing is gone. No longer. No problem there. My shoulder injury is still kind of there. I've been rehabbing it really hard. Eventually I'm going to have some scoping and have a bone spur shaved down. But other than that --

Q. Shoulder came from what?
CHRIS DiMARCO: My left shoulder, just hereditary. I had an MRI, I have tendonitis in my rotator cuff, I have arthritis in my AC joint and a bone spur. Eventually I'm going to have to have it scoped.
My year has been weird; I think I missed three or four cuts out of 20 or 21. I've been playing really solid, I just haven't been putting it together. I've had a lot of 40th place, which is not real fun.
And then third part is Presidents Cup is obviously very important to me. And I even told my caddie last week at Congressional that I wasn't going to think about it. I was going to go out and if I played good and solid and had some good finishes coming down the stretch, I didn't feel like I needed to get into the top-10, basically, but I felt like as long as I showed them I had a heartbeat and I could get back in the top 15 or around 15 somewhere, that I probably would have a pretty good chance of being selected.
This is a big step towards that. Obviously another good round, like I did last year. I played great Sunday here at Hoylake and that got me in the Ryder Cup. I'm not going to think about the Presidents Cup tomorrow; there are a lot of things out here that are way more important. I'm going to go out and play good golf and see what happens.
And obviously FedExCup, I can take care of a lot of that this week.

Q. Was there a sense of desperation?
CHRIS DiMARCO: No, the hardest thing was I've been working with Gio Valiante. And the hardest thing is I've been feeling like I've been doing pretty good. I haven't been putting it together.
Golf is like that. I haven't been scoring. Things haven't gone my way. The last couple of weeks bounces have gone my way a little bit.
I kept telling them, everybody is more concerned about me than me. I feel fine. And it's -- it wears on you when everybody goes what's up, everything good? After a while you go, God, maybe there is something wrong with me. Obviously I haven't had as great a year as I'd like to.
I made a bunch of cuts and put myself in contention. I made a triple at TPC, I had a good week there. I played the last four holes at the Open 4-over and finished 40th, could have finished 20th there. I had some spurts, but I haven't put it all together for -- I've done two good days.
This is a really good step in the right direction here for three days to put myself in position. I had a good week at Congressional, I had a good week there. 77 on that golf course was good, solid golf.

Q. How many strokes realistically do you think you can make up tomorrow? There's obviously a lot of golf to be played tomorrow. The guy who won here in '99 may have ten strokes.
CHRIS DiMARCO: It all depends. You could have somebody go out, like I did today, go out and shoot 65, 66, post a number and the weather could get crappy and he could win without even having to do anything. It all depends on that. I don't know what the forecast is tomorrow; I think it's supposed to be a little chillier, but not as bad.
STEWART McDOUGALL: Improving.
CHRIS DiMARCO: So, you never know what you're going to get here. You never know. It could -- I think it's raining a little harder out, which is a shame (laughter).

Q. Just to go back to the caddie question, you said Ryan, what is his full name, please?
CHRIS DiMARCO: Ryan Rue, R-u-e, is his last name.

Q. Have you ever thought about taking up membership on the European Tour?
CHRIS DiMARCO: You're right. My best finishes here in the last year and a half have been there. I won over in Abu Dhabi, 4th at Abu Dhabi, played good in Qatar. The way my year was going so far this year, I was thinking about it next year. So --

Q. So there was a sense of desperation?
CHRIS DiMARCO: No, no desperation. Like I said, I feel like my game is where it needs to be and I feel like -- I really feel like I putted the last two weeks about as good as I've putted in a long time. And I think that's the whole key for me.
STEWART McDOUGALL: Chris, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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