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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIP

January 4, 2008

Stephen Ames

KAPALUA, HAWAII

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Stephen Ames to the media center here at the Mercedes-Benz Championship after a fantastic second round 67, played your last 11 holes 5-under. Obviously there were a few more birdies out there today than yesterday. Talk about changes in the golf course and the conditions.
STEPHEN AMES: Overall -- well, definitely, one, softer. Balls are not running very much. Then of course the wind was not as high as it was yesterday. But overall I thought it played basically the same. You still had to hit the ball on the right side of the pin to have an easier putt towards the hole.
STEWART MOORE: You just said you've been out here since December 20th. Have you been able to acclimate to the grass, the winds, the conditions a little bit? Were you playing any golf leading into the tournament?
STEPHEN AMES: No, this is a family vacation. It's still a family vacation. Golf is getting in the way (laughter).
STEWART MOORE: If you could, briefly go through your card and we'll turn it over to some questions, birdies and bogeys.
STEPHEN AMES: Sure. 2, I hit 4-iron about pin high, 12, 15 feet right.
4th hole, had about a 15-footer again for birdie there.
7, I three-putted.
8, I hit it about two feet, made that.
9, I got up-and-down from about 50 yards, had about a six-footer.
And then 14, 3-wood off the tee, lob wedge to about four feet below the hole, made that.
15, pin high right and just a little chip up the hill, hit it about five feet past the hole and made that.
And then 18, had about a 25-footer, 20-footer, made birdie.

Q. Did it feel like vacation yesterday when you were playing by yourself?
STEPHEN AMES: Oh, it was, yeah. That was nice, actually, three hours. How long did it take today? It was slow out there today. It was really slow. We waited all day.
I wish we could play at that speed every week, but we can't, unfortunately.

Q. So you're just here on vacation, golf getting in the way, and I think you kind of went with the same attitude at Disney pretty much, didn't you?
STEPHEN AMES: I did, yeah. I was there to work on my game. I'm still working on my game with a little bit more relaxed atmosphere, as you say.

Q. Ever thought about going to Augusta on vacation?
STEPHEN AMES: I'm planning on doing that, yes (laughing). Actually all the majors.

Q. Are you surprised at how well you're striking the ball, given the lack of activity since The Skins Game?
STEPHEN AMES: Yes and no. I don't know, I mean, there are a couple things I know I fall into. Dean has been with me for the whole of last year when we went through the swing changes, and he knows what to look for and I know what to look for and see. Playing in the wind actually has been good for that in some sense. It seems like every day it's gotten better and better and better ball-striking, which is nice. I saw the first opening drive yesterday, I loved the angles that I saw and they were a lot better than they had been in the past, so I'm happy with the progress that it's made.

Q. How much golf did you get in since December 20th?
STEPHEN AMES: 18 holes, nine holes, nine holes, skins game kind of thing (laughter). I was playing with my sons. It was more like play golf, drive the cart kind of round.

Q. A lot of Canadians here this week, as always.
STEPHEN AMES: Yeah.

Q. It will be packed tomorrow, nobody left on the golf course?
STEPHEN AMES: Am I playing with Mike in the last group?

Q. Yeah.
STEPHEN AMES: Then probably, yeah, we'll have the biggest crowd.

Q. I'd be curious how long -- since you moved to Calgary and became a citizen and that whole process, at what point did you not so much feel Canadian as they embrace you as Canadian?
STEPHEN AMES: In Calgary they embraced me as a Canadian.

Q. How long had you been living there?
STEPHEN AMES: '90, '91, so seven years before. When did I become a Canadian, 2003? So seven years before.

Q. Moved there in '91, became a citizen in --
STEPHEN AMES: '98.

Q. Somewhere along the way they embraced you?
STEPHEN AMES: Yes.

Q. What about the rest of Canada, Toronto, Ottawa?
STEPHEN AMES: A couple years after. It took a while.

Q. What allowed it to happen, do you think?
STEPHEN AMES: Becoming Canadian.

Q. I know you became one, but what took a while do you think for you -- for it to set in for the rest of the country?
STEPHEN AMES: I'm not going to speculate. I don't know. That could be anything, any reason.

Q. Daniel Chopra was in here yesterday talking about when he's in Sweden he feels Swedish and when he's in India he feels Indian. Obviously you were not native born to Canada. When did you start, or do you notice the different things in Canada? Do you start feeling Canadian in some way? Do you say "eh" some of the time, do some of the things that they do?
STEPHEN AMES: I wouldn't say I've picked up that lingo in that sense. It is a British Commonwealth, Trinidad was a British Commonwealth. I am British, also. I don't think I've picked up the lingo part of it at all. If anything, I still have my Trinidadian lingo. Jodi notices it obviously a lot more when I talk to my parents or even my brother on the phone. It's like, who's this guy talking. My sons notice it and they've picked it up. They have picked it up, trying to mimic me, and how I talk as well. It's fun listening to how they do it rather than how I do it.

Q. Is there anything Canadian that you've picked up?
STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, hockey, watching hockey. Yes, definitely that one. You know, overall it's a great country to bring up kids and have a family. It has so much to offer, and meeting Jodi was, I'd say, a proverbial blessing in disguise. Moving from Trinidad and coming to Canada, it's been a great step for me and my career and obviously our family.

Q. And the kids growing up there, do you see them as Canadian?
STEPHEN AMES: They've got a bit of both in there now. Jodi is fully Canadian, and I've still got a lot of the Trinidadian lingo in there. They've picked that up, also. You know, I try to give them both sides of both cultures, which is I think a good thing. I think you should see all parts of the world and how everybody else lives and then maybe you'll appreciate what you have.

Q. Can you explain in either lingo you want an idea of the putting fix that you made?
STEPHEN AMES: For me it's more -- I get a little bit too underneath it, too far behind it with my eyes, my head. I noticed that yesterday, especially on -- you could see it in the follow through in the putter head. It kind of goes up too quickly, and that's when I'm too far behind it at address. I noticed that playing yesterday. I knew what direction I was going to go in when I came out here this morning to practice. That was the first thing I did, was move the ball a little farther back and my weight and my eyes got a little bit more on top of the golf ball, and that helped me hit the ball more on the downstroke than the upstroke.

Q. Did you get here a little earlier than usual?
STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, I did, ten minutes.

Q. Vacation, I forgot, my mistake.
STEPHEN AMES: Yeah. Come on (laughter).

Q. All the work you've put in with your swing, is it getting to a point where it's feeling more and more natural?
STEPHEN AMES: Parts of it are, yeah. I'm still confused on certain things. Obviously showing my coach in San Diego, and we'll hit it off there again a little bit more. There are still some things I have to work on for sure, but I think overall I'm happy with the way I'm hitting it.

Q. Why Calgary? It doesn't seem to be as international as Montreal or Toronto or Vancouver?
STEPHEN AMES: When did those become international?

Q. Well, they're a little more international.
STEPHEN AMES: Is it really? We've got all the money in Alberta (laughter).

Q. That's only because you moved there.
STEPHEN AMES: I believe it's over a hundred dollars a round. There's a lot of money in Calgary. It's a booming city right now. And the infrastructure of Calgary itself is just going through the roof. That's where Jodi is from. That's the main reason why we're there. Jodi's parents live five minutes from where she is now and her sisters live ten minutes. You know how the saying goes, happy wife, happy family? She's happy, I'm happy.

End of FastScripts

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