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MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 6, 2008Daniel ChopraKAPALUA, HAWAII DOUG MILNE: Daniel Chopra, congratulations on win No. 2 in three starts, winner of the 2008 Mercedes-Benz Championship. With the win you pick up 4500 FedExCup points. An early lead right out of the gate, just a couple of general comments. It was obviously a long day but you hung in there and pulled it out. DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, it was an unbelievable day, really. I felt very comfortable all week, really. I guess the win made me more comfortable. I felt like I did belong now and I was a winner. I felt very comfortable out there. The golf course was designed by me, I'm guessing. There's not a golf course out there that suits me more. I just loved it from the moment I saw it, and I've obviously been familiar with it from on TV, but when I played it the first time, I thought, wow, I love it. I love it, and of course I managed to take advantage of it. I felt like I knew how to play the holes, and I got it done. Q. This is apropos of nothing, but any particular reason for wearing all white? DANIEL CHOPRA: I wore all black yesterday, so I thought I'd balance it out, yin and yang. Q. Did you reach a point where you figured Steve would make the putt on 9, the way the blade of grass kept catching the ball at the edge of the cup, seemingly? DANIEL CHOPRA: I was nearly positive it was going to make it. Those putts, the first one in the playoff, I thought I hit a beauty. I hit the ball to the left. We were positive mine was going to go that way, too. And it just hung up on that high side. And then the one on the first hole, which I guess was the second playoff hole, I don't know how that hung on the lip. And then when the eagle putt hung on the lip, which I was positive, 100 percent, it has to go, especially when the whole green goes that way, the grain goes that way, the sun is that way, the wind is that way, and then it toppled -- I think it almost looked like it backed up. Half the ball was hanging over the hole. Q. A couple of bizarre moments out there. I wonder if you could talk about you got a bad break when your ball tumbled off the green on 15, but how fortunate was that -- DANIEL CHOPRA: Oh, very fortunate. I walked off that green thinking, you know what, that was a bad -- quite a bad break because I hit a brilliant second shot with a 3-wood, left-to-right wind on a left-to-right hanging slope, to hold it up against that wind was just a peach of a shot. I spoke to Mitch, and we drew it up in our head, okay, I'm just going to hit that shot, and that's exactly how I hit it. Then to see the ball trickle off there and into the grain -- that shot is so hard when you're trying to hit a soft one straight into the grain, and I only maybe caught a blade of grass heavy and then just chunked it, then caught that little sprinkler head which was bad break, good break, so it evened itself out. Q. What kind of ball mark do you use? And could you talk about that happening on the 18th green with Stricker's putt? DANIEL CHOPRA: I use a ball mark that I bought at the Dunhill Links Championship in Japan. I've used it for a few years now. It's the ball mark I normally use. Q. Is it big? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, it's flat. It actually propelled his ball forward (laughing). Q. Is there a significance to that ball mark, or do you just like it? DANIEL CHOPRA: It has a little Japanese saying on it. Q. Which is? DANIEL CHOPRA: It's hard to describe, but it's good fortune or somebody that is really brave and goes out and gets -- I guess the Japanese version of fortune favors the brave. Q. When you played 18 in regulation, I'm not sure what club you picked, but it looked like you used a little different club coming in on the playoff hole. DANIEL CHOPRA: On 18? Q. Right. DANIEL CHOPRA: No, it was the same club. Well, I was right in between clubs, and both times it was such a severe downhill lie and it wasn't the best, it was a little bit tight, so I didn't want to hit a 2-iron only because of that fact, and I felt if I hit my Rescue, the rescue was a little too much club. So I was trying to hit as softly as I possibly could, trying to keep control on it and turn it at the same time. The second time around my ball must have been a few feet of where it was in regulation, and I went ahead and hit a better version of the first regulation shot. So it was still a Rescue club. Q. There was a lot of talk obviously in the Fall Series about the depth and strength and quality of field. Does this win feel any more significant than just sort of a general -- DANIEL CHOPRA: You know, I guess there might have been a few more better players in the field this week, and it's deemed as a more prestigious event. I think the meaning for it to me, I won't really know until maybe the next few days. But every win is extremely special. I'm just as proud of this win as I was of that one. I don't think until maybe you win a major you can really rate one above the other. I felt like I worked just as hard in this one, and having lost a playoff in Australia just a few weeks ago, I think it went four holes, as well, it was special to at least get up -- my first-ever playoff win, as well. It has a few bonus points to it, as well. Q. Did you think about that fact, that you lost that playoff in four holes in Australia? DANIEL CHOPRA: Actually when I was playing 9, I hit my second shot up on the green there, I did think about it then, and I thought, well, maybe having the upper hand there, I thought, well, now maybe it's my turn. I thought it was just kind of poetic justice in a way, the symmetry of it all. Baddeley had me on the ropes that entire playoff. I didn't really necessarily have Stricker on the ropes, but I felt like I always had a putt to win except for on the second hole. It was a bit of a mirror image in a way. Stricker played a lot better than I did in that four-hole playoff, but I managed to hold him off. This time I was very fortunate. Q. You worked so hard in building toward that first win, so many years. Once you got on the other side of winning and looked back, did it seem a little easier than you thought it was going to be? DANIEL CHOPRA: No, it's still always hard. I cannot believe -- yesterday I finished my round off, and I finished at 11, and I get back to the hotel room, and Sam says, "You're only two shots off the lead." I go, "What?" I thought I'd be tied for the lead. At the absolute most, if somebody went crazy I'd be solo second, but not only am I not second, I'm third. That just goes to show how good everybody out here is. Today, I birdied 11, so I'm pretty sure at that point I've definitely got the lead now. And then I birdied 12, okay, for sure I have got the lead now. Then I birdied 13, I thought, wow, I'm going to run away with this thing. I look up on the board, and I'm only ahead by one. I'm going, what the hell do you have to do? This is the final round, it's supposed to be pressure-packed, and it's hard to put a win away. I'm 7-under for the day, two ahead of Stricker for the day, and he's right there behind me. Then he birdies 18, and all of a sudden now I've got to birdie 18 just to win. You know what, definitely by far the best final round I've ever played to win a tournament, actually just to get in a playoff. But seven birdies, no bogeys, I always dreamed of having a bogey-free round to win a golf tournament, and I managed to do it today. Well, I have done it before, but on the Nationwide Tour. Q. Is it hard to stay aggressive after you make that many birdies and to keep thinking you have to keep making them? DANIEL CHOPRA: I think when I birdied that one, I think I might have had a three-shot lead, I thought, because I saw on the board I was two ahead and I birdied that, then I figured I was three ahead and Stricker would have played all the easy holes and would be getting to 16, 17, and I thought, surely he's run out of birdies now, so we'll just go ahead and play middle of the green, middle of the green. So I backed off just a little. Then I hit that beautiful shot on the par 5, on 15, at that moment I'm thinking, it's over now. And then the ball trickled down the hill and I flubbed my chip, and I look on the board and, oops, there he is. Actually, yeah, it was hard work. Q. Why does the course set up so well for you? DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, it's wide off the tee, gives me plenty of room. It's big slopey greens. You have to be a good putter. I am a good putter. I was able to use my imagination to read putts and see -- it just comes naturally to me. I can see the slopes, I can see the grain, I can see where the wind is going, and all my years of playing all over the world on different types of greens helps me, and being able to hit different shots into the greens with the different wind conditions. I love to hit these shots and be able to think, okay, I'm going to hit that little draw in there and the wind is going to bring it and it's going to hit into the slope, and the slope is going to bring it down and it's going to go next to the hole. I love hitting shots like that. And this golf course, almost every hole you had an opportunity to hit a shot like that. And I just enjoy the challenge that the golf course provided on every shot. Q. Did you think that your putt on the third playoff hole, was that a defensive putt, or did you even think it had a chance with the sun in your eyes? DANIEL CHOPRA: It was such -- it was a tough putt to begin with because you come right over the little crown and then the sun was right in my eyes. I was totally blinded. A putt like that is such a feel putt. You've got to see the line, you've got to see everything. I got over it and it was just a hit-and-hope putt. It was just one of those things that happens. When the sun gets that low in the day there's nothing you can do about it. Q. Any coincidence that Mitch had a Masters hat on today? DANIEL CHOPRA: That's funny, what a great little omen that must have been. I actually did notice that he had it on early in the week, didn't want to say anything. Then today I noticed it on the back nine he had it on. Obviously he had it on all day, but I was thinking, maybe that's just a little something. I don't know if he thought about that consciously, I'm sure, but maybe that was his little key, hey, let's get it done today and this is where we're going. That's the kind of guy Mitch is. He likes that stuff, gives me little side messages. Q. Were you thinking about darkness as the playoff went on? DANIEL CHOPRA: I thought about it, then I was thinking, well, my last win came on a Monday finish, and that was just a few holes I had to play. I figured, well, if we have to come back tomorrow in the morning, maybe I can draw on that experience. It worked out fine for me last time. That was also a par 73 golf course; how about that? Q. I know you talked about it earlier in the week, but we didn't talk about the implications early on. It's a Ryder Cup year, so obviously a win here is pretty crucial. I know it's going to take a couple days to sink in, but unfortunately you have to do it now. What do you think about it now? And obviously it gives you a better opportunity. DANIEL CHOPRA: Absolutely it does. That would be fun. You know, being the fact that the Ryder Cup is here in the United States on an American-style golf course, which I'm used to playing, maybe that's something that might be beneficial to the team. Who knows, we'll see. You know, I mean, it's a long way away still. I've obviously got some Ryder Cup points that will propel me up the rankings, but the European Tour has a lot of tournaments and I still have to be in the Top 5 of the ranked players in the world and then they go to the next five. It's not like in America where I have to be in the Top 10. I have to be in the Top 5. I have to play well, and when you consider guys like Harrington and Stenson and Monty and all those guys, Sergio, they're going to be racking up points. I've got to beat those guys. I have to be amongst the very elite that Europe has in order to make the team, which is a tough road. But I'm in position now. We'll see what happens. Q. Does it help that Nick is doing TV at these events you win? DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, he's watched me play now a little bit. Hopefully he'll have some insight into what I can do to improve or -- I'm sure we'll chat about it soon. I have thought about the fact that he's out there watching, Captain. Q. How do you explain going 130-odd PGA TOUR starts without winning and then you get two of the last three you play? DANIEL CHOPRA: You know, I don't know. Duval did the same thing. It's happened to a lot of players. You just need to get comfortable with the situation. I most certainly felt ten times more comfortable going out there today than I did that final round at Tesoro. Like Mitch said, I was wound up tighter than a drum there getting in that final nine holes before darkness came. I was reasonably relaxed this time, and I felt like I knew what I had to do. Obviously the adrenaline is pumping and you're nervous, but I felt like more in control. I knew I was familiar with those feelings, and I was more comfortable, and I'm sure next time in contention I'll even be more comfortable. Hopefully that is the case and you build on that and then you get in contention more and more. I think that's why Duval when he got in contention he won the first one and then just rattled them off. Q. How does today change your expectations for the rest of the year? DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, you know, I don't know. We'll have to see. Like I said, I was -- I got a golf course today that was just right up my alley. Every other golf course out on TOUR now I'll have to work a little bit harder. This one was just built for me. Tesoro wasn't necessarily a golf course that was built for me. That was very tight and very claustrophobic and I actually went around there, as well. I'm a good putter, and on weeks when I knock it close and start making some of those and give myself opportunities are the weeks I'll perform well. I'm sure I'll contend again and hopefully I'll win a few more. DOUG MILNE: Daniel, congratulations. Thanks for coming in. End of FastScripts |
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