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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSICJanuary 18, 2008Robert GamezLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Nice round today. ROBERT GAMEZ: Thank you. Didn't quite putt as well as I had the last couple days. I missed a few too many short ones. But overall I played pretty well and it was nice. JOAN vT ALEXANDER: You having fun out there? ROBERT GAMEZ: Absolutely. How can you not? JOAN vT ALEXANDER: All right. ROBERT GAMEZ: It's a great time. JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please? Q. Given the conditions out there, are you kind of surprised your 67 was good enough to hold on to actually solo lead? ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, the wind didn't blow very much and I didn't think the golf course played that difficult. So I don't know what the weather was like at the other courses, but I am a little shocked to shoot 5-under and be leading. Because I left at least four out there. I missed a couple little, short birdie putts, a 3-footer and a 4-footer, two holes in a row on the back. And then I had a 3-putt on the back, the par-5, and missed a short par putt on 7. So the courses were out there, you could go low for sure. They were out there for the taking with the wind being down, the weather being warmer, and I thought there would be a lot lower scores. Q. Could you explain again how you found out about your sponsor's exemption? Were you headed somewhere? ROBERT GAMEZ: Actually, I was getting ready to leave for Sony. I left for Sony on the 4th, which is a Friday, I believe. And I got the call on Wednesday, I believe it was, from Mike Milthorpe. And he told me I had gotten the exemption and which it was just great to hear. So I had to repack and get ready for two weeks instead of just one. Q. You went 15 years in between victories, that probably was a period where you were, your patience was tested a little bit, wasn't it? Did you ever consider that maybe things weren't working out the way you wanted to? ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, it was tough to stay positive, for sure. I had my car accident in that time, back in '98. And didn't know if I was ever going to recover from that. It took me about four years to get to feel like I could actually hit the ball again from my injuries, to my hand and my back and my neck, you know, it was just hard to really to go ahead and make the swings that I was making beforehand. So through all that, I just kind of hung in, had a lot of support and from all my friends and family and it just was 2005 was just a great break through, even though going into the Valero I was playing well, just not scoring very well, and it just all seemed to fall in a place in San Antonio. Q. Your round today, I think you bogeyed your 16th hole? ROBERT GAMEZ: I bogeyed my 16, number 7. I also bogeyed the second, which was my 11. But, yeah, I had a shot just in the first cut of the rough and I thought it might jump a little bit so I hit a 9-iron, I had 164, 150 to the front edge and it felt like the wind was downwind. When I hit it, the ball didn't jump out, but then the wind turned around in my face. And I hit a really good chip to about three and a half feet and I missed it. I hit what I thought was a pretty good putt and it just kind of dove hard left. It's weird that I've been coming here for so long and they have they usually have the pins in similar spots. And they had a lot of different pins out here today. And so we were putting to areas that you're not used to putting to. And I did my best to read them as well as I could and I just, I misread that one and again I misread, I had a little one on 16 I misread and then the 3-putt on No. 2. Q. You bounced right back. You birdied the next two? ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, yeah. No, I'm playing well. That's what you do when you play well. And I didn't let it get me down, I didn't let it affect my game any. I made a bogey. So, it happens. Granted, you don't want too many during this event, but it happens and I knew I was playing well and I could make a couple birdies coming in. Q. You take all that time to get that next win and in Texas there, and then you do, and then it's been a couple more years of just kind of being on the cusp of keeping your card, did you think after you won that, hey, my game's going to go to the next level now and how has it been frustrating or what has been the process these last couple years of being back just kind of struggling to make the card? ROBERT GAMEZ: Well, you know, after the win I kind of worked on a few things, I was working really hard on my short game, but wasn't making any progress. My chipping just wasn't all that great. Last two years ago and I struggled with my chipping and my putting and last year I struggled with my chipping and putting and during the FedExCup I had a month off, so I made a trip out to see Stan Utley and we worked on my chipping and my chipping's come around, it's unbelievable. Last year at the Sony Open I was having trouble getting the ball in the green from 10 feet off the green. So I chipped one in today, so that has been the best biggest change. Then my putting, I worked with a bunch of different people and worked with Mike Shannon to figure out my reads and then I finally went back to see Adrian Wady, after the tournament in Scottsdale, the one at Grayhawk. I missed the cut there, I hit it great and putted horribly. So I called him up because he lives out there in the winter time, and we spent, oh, about a couple hours on the putting green and he straightened me out. So a couple things he saw in my setup just got me to make some putts at the end of the year last year, you know. And even then I didn't putt as well as I could have. At Disney I had 35 putts I think the first day or something, and I shot 2-under. So that's how well I was hitting the ball. Same thing at the Ginn. The first couple days I struggled a little bit with the putting and finally I had a couple good putting rounds. So it's coming around and I'm putting extremely well. I just, I missed a few today, mostly misreads. But that happens. I think everybody struggled a little bit out here. Some of the pins were different spots today like I said and hard to see sometimes. Q. Just to follow-up, how hard is it living life on that cut line of 125 on the Money List and all that? What is that like week in and week out? ROBERT GAMEZ: It sucks. I mean, it's brutal because you're always -- you change your schedule a lot. I didn't want to play all seven events at the end of the year, but I had to. It's tough when you're struggling a little bit and you're just -- it's almost worse when you keep playing. Sometimes you think that you're just going to play your way out of it. But then you get scared of taking a couple weeks off. And then I was a little disappointed in my performance last year, especially because I hit the ball so well. I had a little bit of a bad start to the year because I changed irons and tried the new Titleist ball, the new Pro V-1 X and it was spinning a little bit too much so I finally went back to the one I was playing in 2005. And that seemed to bring my ball striking back. I just, it was frustrating not getting more out of my game. And a lot of it had to do with my chipping. Because when I did make greens I was making bogeys. Q. What's it like to go into the weekend with the lead and not see Tiger and Phil and those guys chasing you? ROBERT GAMEZ: Doesn't matter if they were here or not. As well as I'm playing, you know, I know people want to say that having those guys in the field or whatever makes things different, but as long as I play my own game, play the way I know how, I can beat anybody. It's not, it doesn't matter who is here. And we have so many good players on the PGA TOUR it doesn't matter. The No. 125 guy is just as good as Tiger Woods. I mean he -- not that -- I'm not saying that -- Tiger is unbelievable, I mean he really is. He's got a great short game, he gets the job done a lot. But when I'm playing my best and when, say No. 125 or 150's playing their best, there's always a chance to beat anybody. So it really wouldn't matter if they were here or not. Q. Where did you shoot your 60 here? ROBERT GAMEZ: Indian Wells. That was fun. That was a fun day. I turned in 3-under. I started on the back and turned in 3-under, really wasn't getting much out of my game and then all of a sudden I started hitting it really close and made a couple putts. So that was a fun day. Q. How does it feel to have played three days already and you just barely are halfway through? ROBERT GAMEZ: I'm fine. It's been a long break. I had a long off season. So I'm pretty happy with everything the way my game's going and I'm just looking forward to the last two days of The Classic Club and shooting some really, really good scores. JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Robert, for your time and play well tomorrow. ROBERT GAMEZ: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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