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GINN SUR MER CLASSIC AT TESORO

October 27, 2007

Daniel Chopra

PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: 3 under today.
DANIEL CHOPRA: So far, yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Talk about the round.
DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, well, still pretty much the same as all the other rounds. I maybe missed a few fairways today; that's about the only thing. Maybe not quite. There were a few awkward tee shots out there with the wind. Missed a few fairways.
Made my first bogey. On 5 today had two horrendous lies in the rough. A bad lie off the tee shot, actually to the left green, which trickled off the edge in what looks like a bird's nest. I'm standing in the sand in the bunker with the ball above my feet, and it was a horrible lie. Made my bogey there.
I birdied the next so, I was able to get it right back. That's what I was hoping. If I did make a bogey this week, I'd make a birdie quickly coming back.
I left a few out there today. I missed a few short putts. I could have been quite low today, but that's to be expected. You can't make all of them. It always comes in streaks. You start making a few and they'll all go in.

Q. You guys were on pace for a six-hour round today. Just talk about that and how tough it is to try to concentrate when you're in that situation?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, it's tough. I'll admit it. I mean, I'm always looking forward to playing in twosomes on the weekend, especially when you're in contention because you want the momentum to keep flowing. You don't want to stand around. The idle mind is the devil's playground. I've worked very hard over the years to control my thoughts when you do get in those quiet moments. So I've been handling it quite well.
We did fall behind a little bit today, so that speeds it up for us. You don't feel like you're waiting all the time. You wait for the two guys you play with, and that's it.

Q. (Indiscernible).
DANIEL CHOPRA: We didn't get on the clock. But I think -- I don't know why, but I think they realized look, we're not going to get finished no matter what. And we'll probably get it all done tomorrow no matter what, so either way we'll get it done.
They weren't that strict on us. I think they realized we were the last group, and we were in contention in tough conditions.

Q. You've always been a guy who has played a lot. I think you had a funny line a couple years ago about playing 35 a year still gives you three months off or whatever it is. When this new season format came out and the Fall Series rolled around, were you pretty much committed to playing in those all the way through no matter what?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, yeah. You know, it's a shame because great events, every one of them. The Texas Open is one of the oldest events in the country. Some fantastic history and people that have won that event. It's a shame. It's a slap in the face to some of those events to almost label them B-class events.
Disney's been around for years. Vegas has great history at that event. Two new events that have come up, and both of them great golf courses, you know. I missed Grayhawk only because of the fact that I was a little tired. I had a stressful couple of months and then getting it over the line with the card. I just felt like I just want to enjoy a week off at home. But I would have played that one as well.
You know, great events. We were talking about it today that we need to do something, because these sponsors are putting up a lot of money, and the tournaments are not getting the respect that they deserve.
I think what we need to do is have a split season, and start the FedEx Cup points the week after the Tour Championship for the next season. Start the FedEx Cup straightaway and have a split season. Europe has a split season, Australia has a split season. There is nothing wrong with it. Guys getting a head start on next year.
Guy gets a couple of wins at the beginning of the year, and has a bit of a lead with the FedEx Cup, and there is media that goes along with that. I think that's the way to go. We don't want to get into a situation where the sponsors decide that we don't want to pay $5 million to have the leading player on the field be Joe Smith, you know? Where they could take their money elsewhere and get a high-tier senior event or ladies event for much less money.
The Tour's got to be careful, you know. And I hate to see it going this way, but there's getting more and more elite events. There is such a big discrepancy now in the events the way they're going. There are more and more limited field events. We've already lost Doral. We've lost the Western pretty much. The majority of the field will not play Cog Hill anymore.
That Western Open, people will still call it the Western. It's now become a limited field event which was never the case in the past. I think it's dangerous to see the game, the Tour going in this direction. You know, more and more limited events is not good.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
DANIEL CHOPRA: In the locker room. In the locker room. It's something we've been talking about a lot. Everybody that I speak with about it. The FedEx Cup is good, but it's bad for these fall finish events.
That was the main issue I had at the beginning of the season was you can't not feel a little bit insulted to be stuck and labeled no matter which way you put it.
The fall finish, no matter how you spin it, it's not exciting. It doesn't feel good for the sponsors. And $5 million or $4.5 million they're putting out for this week is a lot of money. When you consider it, that's 11 Nationwide Tour events or 10 Nationwide Tour events, so. I think the Tour needs to look after those guys a little bit better.

Q. What would you do?
DANIEL CHOPRA: I would stop the FedEx Cup the week after the Tour Championships. The next season's FedEx Cup would start, and that would provide incentive for everybody to keep going, keep playing.

Q. Like Europe?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, like Europe. Split season. The 2008 season starts the week after at Turning Stone. The money list can continue, but the FedEx Cup for 2008 starts in 2007. Have a split season.
Or even go the other way, and have your card, even the money list, everything finishes with the Tour Championship the way it always was. Have Q-school the following week, and 2008 season starts right there.
The guys get a bit of a seven or eight-week stretch or six-week stretch, then bang, you have two months off or whatever, and the tour starts up again. You know, those are the two different options we can go. But that will save these events.
I think it's imperative that we provide all the sponsors, I think we're still doing that. Start with the Masters, the British Open and the money list so guys have the incentives to keep going, because that provides a little strength to the field. If the U.S. went straight off the FedEx Cup, then nobody would play.

Q. Is there any way you guys could have finished 12th?
DANIEL CHOPRA: We could have finished if we had to, but we didn't need to. It was getting dark. And the greens, it's not just slope you have to read, you have to read grain. And grain is mainly read by light, when it gets dark like that, you know. I'm sure if we're in the 30th spot we would have putted it out, but there's a lot at stake now.

Q. Are you going home tonight?
DANIEL CHOPRA: No, I've got a hotel; I'm prepared.

Q. Can you talk about the number 5 hole? I think that was the only bogey you had on the front. Was it playing toughest today?
DANIEL CHOPRA: I was into the wind. Pin was back. I pulled my driver, pulled it a little in the rough and had a horrible lie. It was funny I hadn't missed any fairways at all, and I finally miss one. The ones I hadn't missed I just barely. I wasn't sure if they were on or off.
And when I finally missed one, I had the worst lie. I was fortunate enough to be strong enough to get the ball on the green and kind of roll to the left side of the green into a lie that was 10 times worse than the one I just hit out of. The ball had been on the side of it, rolled halfway down in the bunker on to the edge of the bunker. And it looked like it had plugged and rolled into a nest.
It was just the worst. The ball was above my feet. It rolled another inch on to the bunker, I would have an easy bunker shot. But that's OK. I played well so far, and I birdied the next, so that's good.

Q. How do you prepare yourself for a situation like tomorrow? You've already got the challenge of contending for the lead, you're tied for the lead. Add to that now you're going to talk about playing 24 holes or so over 10 hours. How do you get prepared for that?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Oh, it's easy. We've done it so many times in the past. There's nothing new to us. I think it's good that it's the final round because it gives us a long final round. We've got a 24-hole final round. It's not just 18.
We have a lot of time to gain momentum, you know. It's one of those days where you feel like I've got a lot of holes to play. I think it will be a little bit easier.

Q. As someone who has played a lot over the years and often plays many weeks in a row, what do you make of all the talk of the FedEx Cup events and guys skipping and not wanting to play four, five straight weeks? Do you sort of chuckle at that as someone who does that often? Or do you understand or sort of sympathize? Is that too much for those events?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, it's not too much for me. But then everybody's different, you know. I can understand Tiger, you know. I spoke to him a little bit. I met with him a little bit and I said if I was you, I mean, it's fun being in contention, you have a chance to win every week. How can you stay away from the game? And he said I love that, but it's all the stuff that goes around it that's tiresome, you know.
Having 10,000 people screaming your name all day long. People dragging on you, pulling on you here, there, they want this, they want that. No matter what you shoot you've got to go do interviews not just in here, but outside. So I can understand that point of view.
I guess being in contention also is draining. So I see their point as well. I'm not totally against it, and I think it's fair enough. You're not forcing anybody to take weeks off. They skip the odd one here and there anyway. But to make them play five or six in a row, almost make them obligated to play five or six in a row might be pushing it a little bit.
That's just one of the few, many, flaws with the FedEx Cup that's come up. And the things that have been problems with it, you know. Which I'm sure they'll get fixed.
THE MODERATOR: Go through the card real quick. Birdie on 2.
DANIEL CHOPRA: Birdie on 2 went for the green in two, missed it to the right. Chipped it up to about five feet.
THE MODERATOR: Birdie on 3?
DANIEL CHOPRA: On 3 I hit a sand wedge to about 8 feet and made that.
Bogey on 4 was all the rough. And I had about a 20-footer on 6. And then birdie on 11, I holed about a 12-foot putt in the dark.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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