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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK CLASSIC PRESENTED BY WAL-MARTNovember 2, 2007Tag RidingsLAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA STEWART MOORE: Tag Ridings, thanks for spending a few moments with us here at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Great playing today, a second round today 66. Kind of familiar position to where you were last year. I believe through 36 holes you were solo second. Didn't play as well as you'd like on the weekend. But you come into the same kind of position, trying to keep your card for next year. Talk a little bit about that feeling coming into this week? TAG RIDINGS: Well, it's nice to be in second place or be near the lead at least and have a chance on the weekend. But I'm not really thinking of anything besides just playing this tournament alone. STEWART MOORE: You were one of the alternates coming in, and had some draws and got in. And through 36 holes, you're Cinderella so far. This is the big story of the tournament the way you've played to this point. TAG RIDINGS: I'm too happy to oblige (laughing). Q. What number alternate were you? TAG RIDINGS: The way I saw the list, I think I was 12th after all the commitments were done on Friday. I may have been 15th. I thought it was 15th, but I might not have looked at it at the same time it was over. Way down there. Q. When did you get a call like that or when did you know you were heading over here? TAG RIDINGS: I got a call Tuesday afternoon telling me that I was second alternate. So that kind of really gave me a hint that there was a chance. So I started looking at flights and what not. But I don't think I got the call that said I was actually in the field until later on Tuesday night. So I flew on out, and you know, teed it up. Q. Did you get in Wednesday? TAG RIDINGS: I flew out Wednesday morning, got here around 1:00 p.m. Q. Are you getting used to being in this spot or are you getting sick of it? TAG RIDINGS: I'm not quite in the same position as I have been in the last couple of years. That's why I'm just focused on one tournament. I'm not worried about any of that other stuff. I played good on the weekend, I'll get paid for it, and I'll be glad to take a check. Q. It sounds like you're resigned to head off to Q-school? TAG RIDINGS: I have second stage of Q-school in a week after this. Q. Warming up for that this week? TAG RIDINGS: I'm sorry? Q. Warming up for that this week? TAG RIDINGS: Hopefully, I'll warm up real good. Q. What's your year been like? TAG RIDINGS: It's been a lot of travel. Played a lot of tournaments on the Nationwide Tour as well. I played ten times out there. And so it's been back and forth, maybe playing a practice round on the Nationwide Tour event on Tuesday. Then finding out on I'm a PGA TOUR event the next day. Then flying out and playing some of them without a practice round. Just some last-minute getting in with late withdrawals Thursday mornings and situations like that. So golf-wise, it's gotten better as the year's gone on. I've putted a lot better than I did early in the year. And really straightened some things out throughout the year. Q. What is your status after last year? TAG RIDINGS: I was 149th on the money list. Q. Conditional status? TAG RIDINGS: Conditional, uh-huh. Q. How many did you think you would get in and how did the year go in terms of this new schedule? Did it pan out the way you thought it would in terms of opportunity? TAG RIDINGS: I was trying to be really positive and think that I would get 17, 18 starts. But at the same time I went and played Nationwide just to be sure I had position for next year at some point. But it ended up being, I think, this is my 17th start, but I didn't play last week. I played on the Nationwide Tournament in Miccosukee in Miami to try to get into the Nationwide Tour Championship. So I would have probably gotten 18 starts total. Q. Has the year been difficult for you with some of the uncertainty and the travel and back and forth? TAG RIDINGS: Probably more so that I wasn't playing very good than it was the travel. The travel didn't mess me up as much as the bad play. STEWART MOORE: Tag, go through your eagle and your birdies. TAG RIDINGS: I started on 10, so I got off to a quick start. Made a nice 4 there. Made a 15-footer from behind the hole. Q. You were on the Palm, right? TAG RIDINGS: I was on the Magnolia. I hit it in the level rough off the tee. So I hit 3-wood out of a funky lie 40 yards short of the green and pitched it a little past and made a good putt. Then 11, I hit it in the left rough and hit a pretty good shot out of there and made about a 20-footer from beneath the hole. Which is exactly where you have to be on that hole. That hole's vicious if you're beyond the flag. Made a good par on 12. 13, pitched it two feet beneath the hole from 60 yards, and then didn't play all that well. I played 14 really well, and then 15, 16, 17, 18, and number 1, I kind of was struggling off the tee, not getting on the fairway. I made bogey on 18 by hitting it in the tree pretty well, right up against the tree trunk. And took an unplayable and made a good bogey. Pretty much after that I hit every fairway finishing up, so that really loosened it up. I made the eagle on four, I hit 3-wood from 265 just on the back fringe, maybe 10, 12 feet past the pin. Had a good putt, finally. And 7 made a nice putt of about 12 feet after hitting the 9-iron in there. And 9, I made a really nice putt, 25-footer, sliding left to right. Q. You said a minute ago, unless I misheard you, that you didn't plan very good and you're more upset by that than the way you played. What did you mean by the planning? TAG RIDINGS: I wasn't playing very good. Q. Oh, strike the question. STEWART MOORE: Strike the question. TAG RIDINGS: Lack of good play was the problem there more than anything (laughing). Q. I was curious when you talk about trying to mix up Nationwide Tour just to get some starts up and what not - what was the longest or craziest trip you had to make due to a call? TAG RIDINGS: I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, going to play the Nationwide event Wednesday. The deadline for, obviously, you don't withdraw by Wednesday and if you're not on site, then you have to stay committed to the site you're at if you're committed to both tour events. And I got a call actually right at 5:00 o'clock, which is the deadline time, that said that I was in the field in Hartford. Then she called me back two minutes later and said, Oh, I forgot to tell you, by the way, your tee time is 6:50 a.m., are you sure you still want to come? And I had already researched a couple of flights and I said, yeah, I'll do it, you know. Because I'm really pushing to try to get 15 starts out here, and that is minimum for membership, so. I drove into Hartford about 1:00 a.m. STEWART MOORE: Drove from Knoxville? TAG RIDINGS: Actually I flew into Hartford, and my flight arrived about 12:20, and I'm driving into town. I get off the highway a mile early because my hotel's right in downtown. There is a little accident on the highway, so I figured I'll just get off one mile early and I'll go right around the accident. Didn't realize I was in like the seedy part of town. So we're going through these, like, 50-year-old homes right on the edge of the roads, and there's this Lexus parked in the middle of the street and flashers going. And, you know, it's pimped out, it's got some serious rims on it, it's nice. Then I see this guy walking down the hill towards this car with his grill shining. He's got the diamonds in his teeth and the big chain, and he's counting a wad like this big full of cash. And he's got something on his hip, and I'm not sure what was on his hip, because it was real dark, and I didn't stop. I kept going, but, it was a little sketchy there for a mile (laughing). Q. What happened there? TAG RIDINGS: I missed the cut. Q. I'm curious more than anything how you get from Knoxville to Hartford flying. How much connections do you have to make, just one? TAG RIDINGS: I made one connection through D.C. but I was lucky, because my flight took off at 7:00. There was a 7:20 I could have taken that went through Charlotte. That flight never made it. So the Charlotte flight never came to Hartford, actually. So I was lucky to even catch a flight to get there. Q. Was it cancelled? TAG RIDINGS: The second part got delayed to get into Charlotte and finally got cancelled. Q. This is part of your lifestyle now. You could be raking the leaves and you expect a call and you have to leave like that, huh? TAG RIDINGS: Not anymore. It's going to be better after this week. I won't be in that category, most likely. Q. Is that pretty nice to know? TAG RIDINGS: What's that. Q. Is Q-school all paid up and ready to go? TAG RIDINGS: Oh, yeah. Q. Where is the second stage? TAG RIDINGS: In McKinney, Texas at TPC Craig Ranch. Q. Has that been open long? TAG RIDINGS: Year and a half, two years. STEWART MOORE: Tag, good luck this weekend. TAG RIDINGS: Thank you, guys. End of FastScripts |
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