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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 3, 2008Daniel ChopraKAPALUA, HAWAII STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome the 2007 Ginn Sur Mer Classic Champion into the interview room here at the Mercedes Benz Championship. Great round out there today, 69, one bogey on the par 4, 14th, but other than that, a pretty solid round. DANIEL CHOPRA: I played very well. I managed to make a few putts. You know, I hit the ball, didn't really hit it in the hay. I hit it in the hay once, lost that ball, made bogey. But other than that, I hit some pretty decent drives and managed to shape the ball nicely into the wind and onto the greens. Like I said, holed a few good putts, which basically got my score to where it is right now, and then a couple of shortish birdie putts, as well. STEWART MOORE: Two top-three finishes in the last four events. Did you feel any momentum coming into this week? DANIEL CHOPRA: I felt good about my game in the entire off-season I was at home in Orlando for about three weeks, and I didn't really play. I felt good about my game. I was able to -- just when you mentally feel good about everything you're not hitting any bad shots, and then when you start up again everything feels great. It took me a few days just to get the rust and get the club head speed back up to normal again. Today I managed to -- finally, it felt like I hit a few drives out there where I was rotating everything and the timing was good and I was back again. STEWART MOORE: One last thing, you played a practice round with Vijay, and he said he's played here so much that he knows the shots and he watched you having to pinpoint various shots where to hit it. DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, I'm a huge golf fan. I'm just like every old hack that sits back at home and loves watching golf on TV, and I do, too. I pay attention. I watched -- it's one of the tournaments that I love watching on TV, and I see guys, how they play the hole. Obviously you don't get the full scope of the lines that they're taking but you still get a very good idea of what's going on. So I come out here and I'm fairly familiar with most of the holes and the shots. I've played it on Play Station a bunch, too. It's still not the same thing, but then Vijay helping me, and Mitch Knox, my caddie, he's won here with Duval. I had some good help and trying to pay attention as much as I possibly can, as well, looking at the shapes of tee shots that I need to hit off the tees to make myself feel more comfortable. Q. How much was the weather a factor today? Seemed like one hole the sun could be shining and two holes later it could be pretty strong rain? DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, the wind was fairly strong. I came out here, it was blowing 30 miles per hour the first day, Tuesday, and it was 40 with rain yesterday, so it was probably only about 25 today, so it was probably the calmest it's been, so it seemed pretty easy in comparison. But it was definitely a factor. You really had to control the trajectory. I don't think I hit a single shot all day long that was, except for maybe with a driver, that was a normal up-in-the-air shot. Every iron shot I hit I knocked down, took loft off of it, cut or drew it in there. I manufactured pretty much every single shot I had to hit today, other than my normal standard stock which you just hit on the driving range. And then when the rain started coming in the last four, five holes you really had to pay attention and make sure you focused because you get one up in the air and it starts moving with the wind it'll be a while before it lands somewhere in a canyon. Q. You expect when you come here obviously nice weather. When you go some other places, say Pebble Beach or something, you get your rain. When you come here and get rain, is it disturbing, unnerving at all? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, I mean, it's an island out in the middle of the Pacific. You're going to get some rain showers. I was fully prepared. You come here being prepared to play in the worst of possible conditions, especially with the wind, and a little bit of rain along with it just adds to it. But you're preparing for bad conditions so it doesn't really matter how bad they get. Q. Guess it'll be great at Pebble this year then? DANIEL CHOPRA: Everybody keeps telling me how bad the weather is but I've played there the last four years and it's been fantastic. It could be snowing and sleeting over there and I'd still think it was fantastic. Q. I know it's been written about. Could you discuss hitting the ball off the Great Wall? How did that come about? I know it was 12, 13 years ago, but why were you there, and was it an exhibition or had you planned it? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, it was towards the end of the Asian Tour, and actually the last event on the Asian Tour for the year, and Brandt Jobe had already locked up the Money List so he didn't play. And I was second on the Money List, so I was the highest ranked player on Tour in the field at the Volvo China Open. Sandy Lyle was the No. 1 player in the world at the time and he was playing. We played together the first two rounds, and they organized a photo shoot for us to go up to the Great Wall of China for us to hit a ball off the Great Wall. I teed up a ball in between the cracks, hit a 5-iron from the top and it sailed back over to the other side. Yeah, it was a fun thing. Q. Did they take pictures? DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, I think it might have been -- I don't remember if it was on the cover of Swedish Golf Digest, but I think Swedish Golf Digest was the one that came up with the idea to do it. I definitely know there was a big article, and I do have the pictures. I have one framed on the wall. Q. You have two different ethnic parents. You were raised in two different places. Was that at all a problem? And what passport do you carry and how do people look at you in these countries? DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, I love the fact that I have two different heritages. When I first moved to -- anyway, growing up, my first six years in Sweden and then a couple years in England, they thought it would be nice for me to go and see the Indian side of my family. I was only supposed to be there a couple years. I moved there when I was seven, and on my eighth birthday, I started playing golf, started playing cricket, started going to school, and by the time it was time for me to move back I didn't want to. I loved it over there, and the first maybe month or the first couple weeks might have been a little bit difficult to adjust. The only real differences for me in my mind were they didn't have all my favorite sweets or my favorite drinks, but other than that I thought it was really great. And I'm very proud to be half and half. And people say, do you feel more Swedish or Indian? And I see myself as Swedish when I'm in Sweden and Indian when I'm in India. The fact that I grew up in India might make me think a little bit more -- my thinking might be a little bit more Indian, but then I don't look as much -- I think the physical side of me might be a little more Swedish. Again, I feel right down the middle. It's hard to explain to somebody that doesn't share that type of upbringing. But then when I go to Sweden, people see me as Swedish, and when I go to India they see me as a foreigner, but the people who know me see me as Indian. It's kind of neat when you walk around the streets and somebody says something about you and they don't realize you actually understand, even more so when you're actually away from the country. Q. What is your language? DANIEL CHOPRA: Language? I speak Swedish, English and Indian, all three. Q. Just like that? DANIEL CHOPRA: Just like that. Q. Haven't lost a touch of it? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, just like that. It's funny, when I was playing the European Tour, and even out here we'd play a practice round with Arjun or Jeev and we'll have a Swedish guy playing in the same group or whatever, and I'll speak Swedish to him and Indian to him and English to my caddie. And I remember we had some American guy playing with us, and he was like, what the hell just happened? Q. You need to get Boo Weekley in your group. DANIEL CHOPRA: Nobody can understand what he says (laughter). Q. What's thinking Indian? When you say that -- DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, it's hard to explain. Indians are -- Q. Take a second. DANIEL CHOPRA: I don't know, thinking Indian. I think it's easier to explain the differences between Swedes and Indians. I think Indians are -- Swedes are very intense, very methodical, but when it comes to very theoretical and analytical, all those goals. The Indians are a lot more laid-back, more touchy-feely, I guess louder, like to have fun. I know when we play the Asian Tour, the Indian table is always the loudest table. Although having said that, the Swedish table always used to be pretty loud. It's slightly different. I mean, again, it's hard to explain. I can explain the differences more so than I can actually explain what Indian thinking is. Q. When you're between the ropes are you more Indian or more Swedish? DANIEL CHOPRA: Then I'm just me. Between the ropes you're just playing golf. You're trying to do the best thing you can. I don't think your heritage has anything to do with how you think. You think in golf, the language of golf. Q. Which Cup is a greater priority for you this year? DANIEL CHOPRA: Which Cup? Q. FedEx or Ryder, or has the Ryder Cup even crossed your mind? DANIEL CHOPRA: Honestly, I would say Ryder Cup would probably be bigger. FedExCup is something that still is a new thing, and obviously there's growing pains. I'm a traditionalist -- that's an Indian thing, very traditional thinking. I'm a traditionalist in that ever since the fact that -- I believe Paul Runyan won the first Money List, it was $43,000 in '34, whatever it was, but the No. 1 player on Tour every year has always been the guy that won the Money List. When we get out on Tour at the beginning of the year -- I'm sure next week I'll play with somebody, hey, how did you go last year, I finished 30th on the Money List, 70th on the Money List, 80th on the Money List. That's how you judge how you played last year. That's how we've always thought. I believe the Money List isn't something that should be just discarded just offhandedly like that, and I believe maybe the TOUR is going a little bit that way. Again, like I said, I like the traditional part, and I understand maybe the TOUR needs to feel like they had to do something to keep up with the other sports, but I think you've got to really -- golf has a huge history. There's a lot of stuff that's been in the past and people have achieved a lot of things, and to just almost make it irrelevant, what they've done in the past, like getting rid of the Money List and not having that as your judge of who played the best -- obviously the most wins and the most majors is, as well. So I personally wasn't a huge fan. Q. You've never really been in a position to think about the Ryder Cup, have you? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, never. I've thought about it a lot, thought about it plenty. There were times when I got off to a good start, say, in Europe, had a couple Top 10s early, saw my name on that list and then I cooled off and fell away. But you know, it's hard. You have to play really well. There's only the top five guys off the World Rankings list, and those are the first five guys that get in. So the next five come from the European Money List, so that means I have to be one of the -- basically one of the top five ranked European players by the end of the year. I'm going to have to play very well to do that, because you think of guys like Harrington, Sergio, Stenson, I mean, it's -- Monty. You're going to have to play better than them all year long. Q. Can you? DANIEL CHOPRA: If I play well, of course, but anybody can. But it's a tough one. I think it's something I'll think about -- if I win another and have a few more top finishes closer towards that date, I'll think about it more, but right now I'm just excited to get back on TOUR and be playing as a tournament winner for the first time. Q. Could you technically play in the Ryder one year and play in the Presidents Cup the next for India? DANIEL CHOPRA: I don't think I could. I don't know if they'd allow it, but I don't think I could. I'd love to have a dual citizenship, but India doesn't allow dual citizenship with Sweden, only the United States, Canada and the UK. Q. You talked about your caddie today. How important was he out there in this first round in these kind of weather conditions? DANIEL CHOPRA: He's great. I mean, he's fantastic. He has lots of experience. He knows what wind does. It's a comfortable feeling to know the fact that I know the numbers he's going to give me are going to be accurate, and he's never going to really make a mental mistake. If he tells me to hit a 7-iron I know I can trust that. The fact that he knows these greens fairly well, he's been here, obviously he's won here with Duval in the past, so he kind of has a feel for the place. Q. He's harder to understand than Boo, isn't he? DANIEL CHOPRA: (Laughing) Yeah, I watched Larry the Cable Guy for about a month before trying to figure it out. STEWART MOORE: Do you mind briefly going through your card, your birdies and bogeys? DANIEL CHOPRA: The 2nd hole, par 3, I hit a little cut 5-iron in there about 30 feet left of the hole, this beautiful little putt just down the grain and just dropped right in the middle. 3, I had about another 30-footer, this one much more difficult with about eight or ten feet of break. Again, that one just dropped in on its last roll, so it was a perfect putt. Then I pitched it stiff on 9, tapped that in. On 11, I holed about a 20-footer. Good tee shot, I hit a dead-straight putt, straight uphill. I hit it in the bushes on 14 and lost my ball and made about a 20-footer there for bogey. That was good. And then knocked it tight on 16 about three, four feet and made that. Q. Right on 14? DANIEL CHOPRA: I hit it right, yeah. It was one of those where I was going to hit 3-wood and then Mitch said, no, we don't really need to hit 3-wood, let's just hit the rescue. When you hit the rescue it's too easy a shot. I think I just lost a little bit of focus and I tried to maybe hit it a little bit harder, it was such an easy shot. Then I got a little quick. It just got up in the air and the wind took it and off it went. Q. By the time you walk off the green, that's got to feel bigger than any of the putts you holed on 2 or 3? DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, I did. Making bogey there, because I felt like I had just gotten to 4 and I felt like a couple par 5s, I'd get to 5 maybe and get to 6. I had a good run going. It was a windy day and it was tough to make birdies out there. I figured making a double on an easy hole, that really hurt throwing two away. Walking off with bogey made me feel pretty good. Q. If you had to guess, what do you think it'll take to win? DANIEL CHOPRA: Who knows? I mean, it just depends on the weather. If it stays like this, exactly the way it is right now, and we get a little bit of rain every now and again and it keeps the course soft and it doesn't firm up -- I think this golf course plays tougher when it's soft obviously because it plays so long. I would say maybe 12-under, 3-under par a day would probably be a good winning score. That would be close. I think Vijay was around 12 last year, wasn't he? Q. The Indian in you says 12-under, the Swede says the lowest score? DANIEL CHOPRA: Right. End of FastScripts |
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