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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 17, 2008

Robert Gamez

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: Robert, thanks for joining us by phone today. 7-under par, 65, and our co-leader, if we can just get some opening comments on your day.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Well, it was just a good solid round all together. I played well tee to green and when I did miss a shot I kind of got a couple good breaks. I think a couple tree monkeys threw my ball out a couple times like on No. 2 and number 10.
But other than that I played really well, a good solid round of golf, and made a few putts. And that's how you shoot 65.
JOHN BUSH: No bogeys on the scorecard, if you would take us through your seven birdies real quick and then we'll open it up for questions.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Started on No. 1 today and I birdied the first hole right off the bat, out of the box. And that was kind of nice to start like that. I hit a good drive and a sand wedge in there to about six feet or something like that.
Then No. 2, I pulled my tee shot, hit the tree, back in the fairway, and made a good par there.
Two par-5s, knocked it right next to the green on five, I guess it is, and chipped it to about a foot.
Then the next par-5, hit my second shot in the green side bunker and then blasted out to about eight feet behind the hole and made that.
Then birdied 9. Hit a good 9-iron in there about 15 feet short of the hole and made that.
And then, let's see, I birdied 11, par-5, hit a good drive, good 3-wood in front of the green. I hit a wedge to about four feet.
The other par-5, I hit my tee shot out to the right, just in the rough and had to lay up. And I wedged it in there about 12 feet below the hole and made that.
Then I birdied 16. I hit a good drive up the left side, hit an 8-iron in there just left of the hole to about eight, 10 feet and made that.
So just solid golf. I had some chances the last couple holes, and just didn't capitalize, but overall it was pretty good.
JOHN BUSH: All right. Questions?

Q. Justin Leonard was saying that there was a little wind over there, maybe even more wind than there was over here at The Classic Club today, but La Quinta might be the course you want to play if the wind is up a little bit?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Usually it is, because we're blocked more by the mountain and so if there is wind, this is definitely the place you want to be. And I think we got the good end of the draw. I don't know what the weather was like at the other courses, but I can imagine with the wind we had here at La Quinta, I can imagine what it was like over at The Classic Club. And PGA West, who knows.
But it's just a good golf course. La Quinta has always been a good golf course. The greens are the tricky part of this course. I think that is the thing that's always kept the scores a little bit higher for the most part. I just think that I read them well today.

Q. It was actually dead calm over here for a lot of the day.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Really?

Q. It was strange. But did you feel the conditions were much tougher today for you than over at SilverRock yesterday?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, they were much tougher today. The wind was swirling through the trees, it was hard to really get an idea most of the time. You would feel it going one way and then it would switch a little bit.
So, yeah, that's the problem with playing out here, the only problem, really, is because the trees will block the wind and it's a good thing and a bad thing. It's good when you are trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible, but when you're trying to read it, it's hard to peg where it's coming from.

Q. A little boring out there today without Fallon?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Actually, their group caught us a few times on the tee, so we got to joke around quite a bit out here actually.
It was fun. Those guys are great guys. The group I played with today is very wonderful and Don Felder was great, and basically both all three guys were great. We just had a blast, had some fun, and really had some fun watching Jimmy from behind us.

Q. You got any Jimmy stories for us today just from what you got to see?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Not today. There really wasn't much that I could see him do. Except every time I saw him we were just high fiving and joking around a little the bit. But nothing crazy like yesterday. He looked like he was in a lot better shape today than he was yesterday. I think he got some sleep last night.

Q. I know you shot a 60 at Indian Wells, I think the last year Indian Wells was in the rotation. I seem to recall you might have shot 62 and tied for the round over at the Palmer Course at one point. And obviously 66, 65 here. What is it about these courses that kind of promotes you going low?
ROBERT GAMEZ: I think it's just being out here in the desert. I love Palm Springs, I love La Quinta. I just love being out here. The weather's always pretty decent. I love the pro-am format. Like I said yesterday, I love playing in the celebrity rotation because I like all the hype and all the kind of, I would say, distraction. But more than anything I think that's why guys like to do this is because of the distraction. But I love it and I think that just keeps me loose and I play well.
And I like the Palmer Course, I shot 61 there one year the last round to finish 11th. So I've had some success there.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and looking forward to Sunday. I'm playing really well, driving the ball well, hitting a lot of good iron shots. And I found a little something in my putting Tuesday. Because I played well last week in Hawaii, but I just didn't putt very well, didn't make very many. And I changed my grip a little bit on Tuesday and that seemed to help me get my stroke back on line.

Q. Yesterday you said you didn't know where you stood on the leaderboard. Did you know today and were you watching?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Yesterday I had no idea because my name was never up there. Today it was up there quite a bit. So yeah, I knew where I stood today. Because it was kind of hard not to see the leaderboards on a few of the holes. So I knew I was playing well, I knew I was hitting some good shots, making some birdies, so I did know more about what I was doing today.

Q. What did you find out you were going to play this tournament?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Mike Milthorpe called me last week. I was already in Hawaii or actually, no, I was on my way, it was like the day or two days before I left. So it was first week of January, I guess it was. But I left on the 4th for Sony. And I guess he called me on the 2nd or 3rd maybe. He told me that I had an exemption and I just, I would have hated missing this tournament. It's in my top-5 of the year on TOUR, I just love playing it, and I love being here.
So it's nice to get off to a start like I've had. I played well last week, I made the cut. Didn't score very well on the weekend. But nice to have a couple starts early in the year, especially being in the position I am at 132 on the Money List.
JOHN BUSH: I think that's got it, Robert. Thanks for joining us.
ROBERT GAMEZ: No problem. Talk to you tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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