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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2008

D.J. Trahan

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: Thank you, D.J. for joining us by phone. Great playing once again today. If we can get some opening commence from you, please.
D.J. TRAHAN: Sure. Yeah, not quite as good as the first few day, but I feel like it was still a pretty good day. And unfortunately I had a few, I made three bogeys, but overall another pretty good round of golf.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through the round starting with the birdie on No. 1.
D.J. TRAHAN: Yeah, No. 1, I had a little lob wedge in there about eight or eight feet below the hole. I made that for a good start.
6, par-5, we were, I was pin high right from the fringe and had about 45 feet and brought it down there about four or five feet and made that for birdie.
7, par-3, knocked it up there about 10 feet, right below the hole, right up the hill and made that. That was a good hole today. It was tucked on the right near the water.
8, that hole gives me grief every other year. I never parred it, let alone birdie it. So I bogeyed it again this year. I hit a drive right and unfortunately wasn't able to recover, got behind some trees and had to try and pull out some magic and it wasn't quite there.
Next birdie was on 11, oh, 9, sorry. I turned around and birdied 9. I almost holed it. I had a little 7-iron in there, playing back into the wind. Hit a great little cut shot to the back right pin and tapped in from about a foot for birdie.
Then 11, driver, 5-wood on the green. And I had about 90 feet, it hit real soft and didn't release like I was hoping and run to the back. So I made a really great 2-putt there. Lagged it up there about four and a half feet and I made it. That was real nice.
Turned and on the No. 12, I had a bad stance in the bunker. And I actually almost holed it out and made par there. The putt didn't quite want to go in and that was unfortunate.
And the next hole, par-5, green side bunker in two, and hit a good bunker shot out to about eight feet and made it down the hill for birdie. Made a that was nice off making bogey.
And then I birdied 16. 16 was good. I pulled my tee shot left rough and hit a 6-iron up there and it came up about actually about 40 feet short and I made a real long putt there. Definitely by far my longest putt of the week. It was a big, swinging, left-to-right putt. So that was nice.
Then unfortunately hit a bad tee ball on 17 and that put me behind the tree on the right side. And I had to try and hit it over a tree and caught a big gust and came up short of the green. And just couldn't get my pitch close enough to make par. And that's about it.

Q. Given the scoring conditions today it looks like at all of the golf courses, are you surprise that had 68 was enough to keep you tied for the lead today?
D.J. TRAHAN: Obviously it's always hard to tell. I don't exactly know what the conditions are at the other golf courses. Obviously it didn't blow as hard today as it did yesterday. But I have been saying it for awhile, that La Quinta is the last of the courses that have been in the rotation for a long time and it's still in the rotation because it is a good golf course. You come here and expect to shoot 6 or 7-under, but you got to golf your ball if you're here to do that.
And fortunately I did make several birdies, but I had some bogeys too. It's tough to play great golf five days in a row. Joe did it in 2000 and guys have done it in the past. But you feel like at least one if not two of those days you know it's going to be tough to shoot that 6 or 7-under that you feel like you need to shoot every day. So although I didn't shoot a low number today, I definitely didn't feel like I shot myself out of the tournament by shooting 4-under par.

Q. Can you talk about how many rounds in your young PGA TOUR career that you've had the lead and do you feel comfortable playing with the lead?
D.J. TRAHAN: Well, unfortunately I haven't had the lead as much as I would like to have. But I feel comfortable. I think that you just have to find a mindset and I think that it's obviously not an everyday thing for everybody, except for maybe Tiger, but when you get in that position, you just have to feel like that you're there for a reason, you're playing well, so why not continue it. You're obviously doing the right thing, just try to keep doing what you've been doing.
And that's kind of the mindset I face. Which for me leads to a pretty comfortable state of mind and I feel very relaxed out there. And this week it's just a crazy week that you're playing with the amateurs and you're playing four different courses, but none the less, when you walk around any course you know exactly where you stand, if you are near the lead, and I don't have any problem with that. Obviously I'm out there trying to make birdies to help myself out.

Q. You had a putt on the back nine that was a curling putt I think and you just kind of when it went in you just kind of rolled your eyes. Are you surprised how well you're putting, given your past or is it indicative of the work you've put in?
D.J. TRAHAN: Well you roll your eyes on that one because it's 40 feet obviously you never expect to make a 40-footer. They're wonderful when they go in. But I'm very pleased with the way I'm putting. I've never -- I mean I could putt better than I do, unfortunately, I just haven't been as successful on the greens as I would like to be. But I'm determined to work hard and that's what I told myself, there's guys -- I know there's a good putter in me somewhere and I just have to find him.
And this week the hard work is paying off. And I've really been grinding it out each week and trying to work on it. And I'm hoping that, obviously, this is just the first of many good weeks with the putter. Obviously it's very disappointing to go out and hit the ball well and a not putt well. Play even par when you feel like you should be 4 or 5-under.
But that's what the great players do, they go out and they do shoot that 4 or 5-under, they do make those putts and that's certainly what I need to do. And that's most of what I work on and try to improve.

Q. What was your reaction to, I don't know if you've seen the cover of Golfweek that was out this week and the noose that was on the cover. What is your reaction to that and I don't know if you heard, but the editor was fired over that.
D.J. TRAHAN: Yeah, I did not know that -- I hadn't heard the editor was fired. I saw the comment that Commissioner Finchem made about it and I couldn't have agreed with it more.
Obviously she made a mistake and she's certainly regretting it. And Tiger and his camp came out and said that it was a moot issue, it was a nonissue. And for Golfweek to do something drastic like that, and put that on the cover, it's ridiculous, there's no need for it. And for Tiger to come out and say what he said and, you know, he should have put that to sleep. That should have been put to bed and it shouldn't even be in, nobody should be talking about it any more. She made an unfortunate mistake and obviously she regrets it 100 percent. And Tiger understands, understood that and understands that and I think it's ridiculous that they did it.

Q. You talked about improving your putting, what specifically did you start working with a short game coach or with your own coach more specifically on your putting or how have you strategized in making your putting better?
D.J. TRAHAN: Well I feel like I'm just trying to get down to the basics. I've got a putting coach, and we just talk a lot about trying to be as repetitive as possible. I think that the thing that makes good putters is not just confidence, but they feel like they can repeat a stroke. And obviously being able to repeat the stroke will lead to more confidence.
And I just kind of feel like I never really had a direction that I was going, I just kind of got up and tried to feel, feel putt. And granted at the level we're playing you can do that to a certain extent, but I think I just needed to, I told myself, I said, you can't be a good or great putter by trying to feel things, you have to have an idea of what you're trying to do with the stroke.
So I really tried to focus more on the stroke and it has got better. Obviously I didn't putt well last week at Sony, but sometimes Bermuda greens can be a little dodgey and I didn't make a putt there. But I played well last week. Had I made some of those putts I could have been in there.
But this week is a different story. I kept working hard and that's why I said I see no reason why I shouldn't continue the way I'm going and hopefully my putting will continue to improve and get where it needs to be.

Q. Do you find that you have to put yourself into a different kind of mindset when you play in an event as long as this one with as many pro-am partners as you have during the week?
D.J. TRAHAN: Absolutely. Today was -- actually the first two days the pace of play was actually not bad. Today we waited for -- at least on average five minutes on every shot on the back nine.
You talk about trying to find a rhythm, I mean there is no such thing as rhythm when you're playing that slow. You just have to try and stay as focused as you can and make the best of it. And it's a tough week. It's a lot different when you're out here playing with a bunch of amateurs than when you're teeing it up with your fellow professionals.
So this week certainly takes much different mindset from everybody and it takes a lot more patience and a lot more grinding, because it's five days, not four. And guys grind for four days to win golf tournaments and it wears you out. So another extra day certainly will take that much more out of the guys.
JOHN BUSH: D.J., thank you. Play well tomorrow at PGA West.
D.J. TRAHAN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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