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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSICJanuary 15, 2008George LopezLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOHN BUSH: We'll get started. We would like to welcome George Lopez to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic hosted by George Lopez. GEORGE LOPEZ: Don't let the pipes fool you, the fact that there's asbestos -- that's asbestos, this will be a short press conference. So we don't breathe all of this in. JOHN BUSH: George, your second here as the host. Can you talk a little bit what you learned from the first year? GEORGE LOPEZ: I learned that guys don't like it when it's windy. They're good, but they're not as good in the wind. No, I learned to pace myself. And if I keep my blood alcohol level a little bit under Lindsay Lohan's, I'll have a great week. But what I learned is that it's a lot of fun, it goes by really fast, and to enjoy myself. I think I've strengthened the celebrity field this year, added some nice guys. I think that the pro, the professional field is incredibly stronger, and I think that because there's a million dollars at stake, and you see some guys there's a lot of drama are, it's very dramatic, the TOUR, there's not a lot of opportunity now with some invitationals and so many other players for the younger guys, but there's also some older guys who have a lot to prove. And you see that. So you see a great mixture of, DiMarco was hurt, he's not a guy who had been here a lot. He's playing. Freddie really hasn't played much since February. John's here, John is exciting to watch. I could watch John try to three point park his bus and have a great time doing that. And you see young guys that are out there and they're trying to make a mark, and with the FedExCup points, those are one thing, but toward the end you don't want to feel that pinch of having to make a big check to keep your card. Because it might be 125 spots, but those 155 guys, are all really, really good. JOHN BUSH: How is your game? GEORGE LOPEZ: I spent the weekend with Lee Trevino, he was out here, and I had him finally put lotion on his legs. I was tired of seeing the ashy legs on Sunday. I said, man, I can't watch you use your lower body if your legs are going to be that ashy, so I got him to use some Lubriderm and then I finally understood how to drive through the ball. I'm hitting it pretty good. And usually when a Latino has a club in his hand, we're usually going to get the hundred dollars that somebody owes us, so I managed to keep it together. JOHN BUSH: We'll open it up to questions now. GEORGE LOPEZ: You guys better have some questions, man, I left the The Classic Club and In and Out Burger to come here. Even if you really don't use it, just ask it anyway. Q. How much money did you win from pals on the golf course? Did you cheat this year? GEORGE LOPEZ: I always cheat, sir. Not this year. I always find a way to -- if I get to the ball first, I have a perfect lie every time. And I carry a pocket of Lifesavers, so when I get in the trap, I drop a lifesaver under the ball like a little tee, and when you hit it it explodes, no evidence. Remember that one. Lifesavers. Fresh breath, lower handicap. (Laughter. Q. Have you played over at SilverRock yet? GEORGE LOPEZ: SilverRock is the greatest course. You understand what I'm saying? Forget St. Andrews. It's played out. SilverRock is the greatest course on the TOUR. It's deafening silence. No, no, SilverRock is a great course. I thought it was -- wine, I thought we were playing in a vineyard, I thought it was wine. SilverRock is a very nice course. But I'm a traditionalist. I love this tournament for what it was when it was at Indian Wells and Bermuda Dunes and even Tamarisk where there is homes and you see a lot of Botox, a lot of old white ladies in a wind tunnel with blue eye shadow, you don't really see that much out here, unless you go to The Nest on Highway 111, that's been there since 1965, apparently and there's a same old white lady still trying to get picked up on the corner bar. The average age -- if you like 76 -- and the thing that's great about that, if you take her home, the next morning a van will come and get her and take her back to the home. (Laughter.) Q. Could you speak to some of the charities that are beneficiaries this week and in particular the First Tee program? GEORGE LOPEZ: Yes, sir. I was at the opening of the First Tee at Coachella Valley, fantastic area right there on Cook right off Cook. By a car wash, which is always important, to be by the car wash. The First Tee program is an amazing program. It's a national program. And I learned the hard way and I learned through golf, golf helped me with a lot of the problems that I had as a kid, but I learned in my 20, so the First Tee teaches nine core values to young kids and they may not all be great golfers, but they will be great people. And it's programs like the First Tee -- as a matter of fact, tomorrow we're going to sell a T-shirt that says, I saw, and it's going to have my picture and Luke's and Sam's and I think we're selling it for like five dollars, and all the proceeds all of the proceeds will go to the first tee of Coachella Valley and also I donated yesterday $5,000 to the First Tee of Coachella Valley and I'm going to have a party with bouncy houses, do you understand? In the next month. And I might not be able to get a clown on short notice, I'm going to use my aunt. She's going to come down with some red shoes and a sequined tube top. 65 years old with a belly ring. It looks like a valve to put air. But we're trying not to scare the kids away. JOHN BUSH: She should be at The Nest. GEORGE LOPEZ: What do you mean should be at The Nest? She's a hostess, brother. Q. George, none of the Top-20 players in the world are here, does that make you the marquee player in the field? GEORGE LOPEZ: I hope not. You know, the thing with the way the tournament starts, with the Mercedes, and for the winners and then with Chopra, he's here, he won. Weirsy is here, I think Justin Leonard, Chad Campbell. So you got a lot of guys that won at the end of the year and they're here. But the Top-20 players are, you know, I'm a big fan of the Westminster Dog Show and I know that the Top-20 players are like those pets that you see that are very pampered and very taken care of and they choose very specifically where they will be. And they have handlers and they do the whole thing. They got logos and they are very pressed and they run around and they have somebody that runs around with them, follows them with a video camera. Like in real life. But with Dubai and with all of that, and with the Buick being so close, a lot of guys choose to start their season in San Diego. But this one is, when you got a million dollars at stake, and you're trying to set yourself up for the year, I don't think that there's a better place to start than the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. JOHN BUSH: Your thoughts on our defending champion, Charley Hoffman? GEORGE LOPEZ: You know what I thought would have been the greatest? And I only thought it have right now. I hope he repeats. That cardboard cutout of him on the tent? I'm going to get hair, hair that flows in the wind and attach it to his cardboard cutout. Charley's exactly what this tournament is great, what's great about it. Him and Jeff Quinney battled it out last year in the wind, Charley went birdie, eagle, birdie, to win, played some amazing golf. And it was fun. This year it may be another young guy. It may be a guy who is further on in his career. I think that's what's going to make it exciting. The weather is supposed to be fantastic. I think the guys will like SilverRock and I expect it to be just another great, great tournament. Q. Have you talked to Tiger at all or anybody in his camp and have you tried to get him to come here and what do you think it would take to get him here? GEORGE LOPEZ: You know, I tried to entice him with the outlet mall. And he, it wasn't -- maybe if we built a dock or a yacht, a marina where he could park Privacy, I think that -- you know, golf gives all of these players so much that at some point you really would like them to give a little back. I mean it's hard, it's harder because there's so much of it, but their whole lives revolve around this game that's going to continue beyond their careers. And I don't think they do it enough, and in any sport, is really give back to what they, to what they get so much from the game. A lot of the older guys are still around and I think the Champions Tour is a great -- they don't have that in the NBA, don't see Doctor J out there at 55 playing on Sundays during the day. So the Champions Tour, these guys still have game and you like to see the cycle continue from the First Tee to the Champions Tour and through the PGA TOUR. I'm drunk, so I don't know what that really what I said there. Just kidding. Q. Can you talk a little bit about your special with Lee Trevino tonight? GEORGE LOPEZ: Yes, Lee Trevino and I did a special for the Golf Channel, which is on tonight at 6 o'clock, and it really is about how golf saved our lives and made us different people. And I mean he's 20 years older than I am, and I admired him as a kid. And our lives are so much, so parallel. And it's because of golf that he succeeded and I think it's because of golf that I have excelled in my profession as an actor and comedian. And that's why it's an honor to be a host of the tournament. And you want these guys to have fun. We had an In and Out Burger truck at SilverRock today for four hours feeding these guys. And it's those touches that are just, they're small, but that means a lot to them, to be able to do that for guys. And all that. Q. Just a follow-up on the comment you made about guys giving back. It wasn't your intent to say that some of the guys who are not here are not as intent on giving back as others, is that? Could you just kind of speak a little bit more to what you were saying there? GEORGE LOPEZ: Well they all have, they all have foundation and charities, which I think is great. But there should be some things that you do for the game because your attendance helps the tournament. You know what I'm saying? It can't always -- you have the ropes up and sometimes they might as well be iron curtains, really. I mean this has always been a game that no one can master and it's so precise. But in all of that I think there's an ability once or twice a year to go someplace where people wouldn't expect you to be. I think that would be nice. You know what I mean? A Top-20 player here, starting his year here, getting his game together, coming out in the sun. It's a fantastic tournament. And even if you play with amateurs, it is okay. Just reminds you how much better you are than people who suck. (Laughter.) You want to feel good about yourself? Look, if you have low self esteem, you go to a state fair, you walk around you see the people who are there, you leave feeling good about yourself. Right? (Laughter.) If you're a fantastic golfer, but you are, in your head you don't think you're hitting it as welcome and hang out with three of us for four days. You'll leave thinking you're Walter Hagen. (Laughter.) JOHN BUSH: Not struggling as a result of the writers strike, are you? GEORGE LOPEZ: No, no, I got out before. I feel sorry for the cast of Cavemen. (Laughter.) They got prosthetics and nowhere to go. (Laughter.) But Celebrity Rehab, my favorite show. (Laughter.) Q. Two questions, George. One, some of what I'm going to use from today is going to be before Pebble. I know you love Pebble and just describe Pebble and what fun you can have up there. GEORGE LOPEZ: Well, there's a, the minute you have a cut, you, it takes everything, it takes everything, it's like trying to score before the last call. The minute you have a cut, all the pressure increases. So here there isn't a cut. Here you can lay up on a par-4 if you don't think you can hit it 185 over sand. Not a problem. Over there you got three days, there's a cut, very few of us make the cut. But there isn't a better place and a better walk than Poppy, Spyglass and Pebble Beach. And it's very selective. Of the pro-am, other than the Dunhill, which is fantastic, Pebble Beach is the, is, that is the Dunhill -- although Dunhill I think is above and beyond because of the courses that they play. Pebble Beach is that in America. It is an amazing invitation, it isn't, it isn't bestowed on a lot of people, and there's also a history there. And one day I'm going to finish painting Clint Eastwood's house as a thank you for inviting me four years ago. One day I'm going to finish that house. But it's fantastic, it's great and I have a house in that area. In the forest. Q. I have to switch a battery, but if somebody else -- GEORGE LOPEZ: What the? What the? Bro, it's a major thing here, man, what are you doing? This dude's got a battery that ran out? You ask your question and it just goes dead? (Laughter.) Tell The Classic Club they can turn on the air any time down here. Anne Frank's in the other room waiting for us to finish. (Laughter.) Does that sweater come in XL because I will wear it tomorrow if it does. Beautiful argyle. With these socks. This is from the Witcheepoo. Q. This is a little -- GEORGE LOPEZ: I got dressed in the dark here. Q. A little off course, but I'm wondering if you have a take on the Tiger/Rory situation on why Rory might have left his tournament early. What would your take be on that? GEORGE LOPEZ: Well, I think he had shin splints. Do you know that Sabbatini and I are actually very good friends. We had dinner -- here's how good a friend Sabbatini and I, we are. I played in the Mercedes pro-am, I saw Rory there, I have a house in Lanai and I was going to have dinner with him on Saturday. I rented a boat to go from there to Maui to have dinner with Sabbatini and then took the boat back. I brought back eight kilos of marijuana, but unbeknownst to me, unbeknownst. Allegedly. (Laughter.) But I took a boat to have dinner with Sabbatini. Do you know that's a very tumultuous relationship between those guys. And Sabbatini's not a guy that's going to pull any punches, which is unusual in this thing where everything is, everybody's so guarded. I've been with Sabbatini, I know tiger a little bit, it's unfortunate, because they're both great people. And I think Rodney King said it best, can't we all get along. No, but I hope that it just makes great drama for the TOUR. If they're paired together, it's great. And they're both competitors. And I think that they both compete in different ways. Tiger let's his clubs do the talking, Rory talks and then uses the clubs. Q. My battery is back. GEORGE LOPEZ: Oh, hey. All right. Q. There's a golf contest going on that was three celebrities and an amateur are going to play at Torrey Pines a week before the U.S. Open. Imagine yourself as one of the celebrities out there. GEORGE LOPEZ: I would rather watch Rock of Love with Brett Michaels. That is going to be a train wreck like you cannot believe. To turn one of us fools loose in Torrey Pines to try to break a hundred is not going to happen. Not going to happen. From the back tees? Will not happen. Do you understand what I'm saying? Terrance Trent Darby will make a comeback and win a Grammy before that happens. (Laughter.) Gary Coleman will be added to the cast of Lost before that happens. (Laughter.) Q. No Lifesavers or tees in the rough? GEORGE LOPEZ: You can't, you can't -- no, you can't. That's -- no. It's not going to happen. I would take those tapes and put Bay Watch Nights over it. Something people can enjoy. (Laughter.) JOHN BUSH: Final thoughts. GEORGE LOPEZ: Final thoughts? You ever want to have a good time, go on You Tube and see David Hasselhoff try to eat the cheese burger. Funniest thing ever. Final thoughts? No. No. Final thoughts. Final thoughts. I love this tournament. This tournament's a lot of fun. The weather is going to be great of the there's great celebrities, every guy is on board with this tournament is all about. The pros are fan friendly, completely accessible and all good guys. And that's what he's going to make this week a great week of golf. JOHN BUSH: George, thank you for your association with the tournament and have a great week. GEORGE LOPEZ: Absolutely. And I love the TOUR. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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