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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 19, 2008

Robert Gamez

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Robert Gamez into the interview room at 19-under par.
Robert, quite a round for you. Not the best of starts, but you really poured it on there at the end.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, I struggled a little bit early. It was a little bit cold this morning, and we were just talking about it. You kind of -- starting your round sometimes, and I do this when I'm getting ready to start my round, whatever tournament I'm in, I look at the first couple holes and kind of get an idea, and when I'm on the range, I try to hit the shots that you need to play.
I was thinking, the first and second holes were what 3 and 4 are now, so I just never got the mindset to play 1 and 2. And I got out there and hit a pretty good tee shot at 1, and a pretty good second shot and 2-putted. Then I got to 2, and I forgot it was a 470-yard hole, and I had 210 or something to the hole. I was trying to hit it right of the pin, right edge of the green, and the wind was blowing kind of out of the right, and I just got over the top of it. That's the only real bad shot I've hit in four days.
So I made a double there, and then I 3-putted the par-3 8th, I guess it is, and just never really kind of got going after that. I hit it close on 3 and missed it. And then made a good up-and-down on 4 and just never really did anything until the back nine.
JOHN BUSH: Questions, please?

Q. Did you head to the third hole for the first hole?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Well, I'm on the range, and I feel like I've got like 20 minutes or something, and my caddie goes, "No, 1 is over there. We have to take a right over there." And I go, okay. I had to rush my warm-up a little bit, and I've got ADD, so it's a little tough to get started sometimes, too.

Q. You spoke yesterday about your struggles and coming back and Justin Leonard was talking about it, what happens. I know golf is a mysterious game and it drives people crazy, but what happens to guys who win tournaments on TOUR, obviously good golfers, and all of a sudden it isn't there. Does it get into your head where then it becomes more mental than physical?
ROBERT GAMEZ: At our level, the PGA TOUR, it's 95% mental out here anyway. And that's where Jack Nicklaus had it over everybody, and that's what Tiger does so well. He doesn't remember the bad shots or the bad weeks and things like that.
Some of us, me especially, I think about the bad things that happen and I think about all that stuff. And I'm trying to be more positive and not think about the last shot I hit. And it seemed to work this week.
In the pro-am, I do that because I'm reading the amateurs' putts, and so I don't have time to think about the bad stuff that I'm doing, which is why I like these events so much. Here, Vegas, Disney, I love these type of format tournaments. Pebble, Tom Dreesen and I go play and have a blast, and it's just a lot of fun, so I don't have time to think about my bad play so much.

Q. You worried more about your partner, your partners?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Absolutely. I made double and went right over to read their putts, but that's what this is all about. That's what this tournament is, and that's what the PGA TOUR should be all about.

Q. A couple years ago when he won the Accenture the last year it was at La Costa, Geoff Ogilvy was saying he used to say things to himself that he wouldn't say to a normal person and he said that what you were saying, Tiger basically never speaks ill of himself and other guys do. How difficult is that not to think negatively?
ROBERT GAMEZ: It's hard. I think most of us do that out here. I don't know the trick to it; I don't know any of that. I'm just trying to get better with it. And I've been working hard on it the last couple of years and it's a struggle.
I was bad last week. I started talking about how poorly I putted. It's just, you get that way.

Q. When you won the two tournaments back in '90, did you think there's nothing to this game? I mean, did you never have a negative thought?
ROBERT GAMEZ: I was too stupid back then. No, I did. I was coming out with a lot of -- I just had a lot of confidence back then, I guess coming out of college. And I had a ton of confidence then.
But when I was starting in my rookie years and my first five, six years on TOUR, I gave up a lot. If I wasn't in the hunt, I was giving up. I mean, it didn't matter; I didn't care if I missed the cut. I would rather miss it by a hundred if I'm going to miss. I went after it. And when I was in the hunt, I was going to have a chance to win. And when I wasn't, you know, I would finish last probably.
And now I kind of hang in a little bit more. Obviously, it showed that today. I just hung in there and played and thought good things going to the back nine. I felt like if I could shoot a little 30 on the back, I would have a chance, a better chance to win. And I still have a great chance to win here. I don't know what the lead's going to be at the end of the day. If I can be within three or four, five, five even, you never know what happens out here.

Q. I guess one of the secrets of playing this tournament is that you get your mediocre rounds or bad round out of the way. Did you feel like that?
ROBERT GAMEZ: I got my bad round out of the way for sure. If you're going to have a bad round, 71 is not that bad. In this tournament it is. But luckily I had the lead starting, so I could get away with one.

Q. Why is it so difficult to learn how to think positive out there considering you've been out so many years?
ROBERT GAMEZ: I wish I knew. If I knew, I would be better already. But I don't know. I really don't know. It's just something that sports psychologist tell us and books, every book we read, it's everybody tells you the same thing, but it's so hard to do.

Q. Have you worked with some sports psychologists?
ROBERT GAMEZ: I have in the past, and it works for a little while, and then I go back. And now, actually, I've been listening a lot to -- there's a guy named Joel Osteen. He's kind of Tony Robbins with a little spiritual message to him. And I started reading the book, or I listened to the CD's on tape, started in Vegas last year, and that helped me a lot to turn my positive thinking around. He helped me quite a bit. The books helped me quite a bit.

Q. You played like a million times with Dreesen, what's the strongest part of his game?
ROBERT GAMEZ: You know what? It's weird, because some days he drives it well, some days he hits good iron shots. It's different. Different. I don't know one day to the next. But I'm looking forward to Pebble in a couple weeks because he's hitting it well. He shot even par today. So his biggest fault and we talk about it you will it all the time is he doesn't take enough club. And most amateurs don't take enough club when they're playing. So hopefully we got him straightened out. But we'll see. We think that every year we get up to Pebble there, but I think that he thinks he can still hit it as far up there as he does in L.A. or down here in the desert. And the air is so heavy up there you need at least a half a club more to a full club. And he never takes it. So we'll see.

Q. Northern Californians know that.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Yeah, but he's not. No.

Q. Speaking of psychology, do you have to change gears now? Do you have you got the four pro-am days out of the way and tomorrow you're playing with two guys?
ROBERT GAMEZ: No, no, you know what? This event's always been fun for me. It's in my top-5 favorite tournaments of the year. So I like to have a good time. And I'll go out and have some fun and try to stay loose with my caddie and stay with some nice people at the Tradition and go have a nice dinner tonight and go out tomorrow and just shoot as low as I can. I'm there. I've got a chance to win and I'm going to go out and try and take it.

Q. What are the four other tournaments in your top list?
ROBERT GAMEZ: Well, obviously Bay Hill, winning there. Disney that's fun for me. I get to play with Rich Beem and that's another pro-am format there. And then Colonial and Hilton Head are my favorite events. Those because of the golf courses. Those are probably two of the strongest courses we play all year, two of the best ones we play all year. They're shot-maker's courses, they're not the long, drive it anywhere, 340 yards and make birdies. You have to really think around those courses and that's why I enjoy playing them so much.
JOHN BUSH: Take us through the four birdies on the back if you can. No. 11.
ROBERT GAMEZ: I hit a good drive on 11. I hit a 7-iron below the hole about 15 feet and made it. Hit it right in the heart. First putt I really got to the hole. Greens were sticky, I don't know why they were so wet and sticky. They were slow. So I struggled on the front nine with that a little bit.
I had a putt on 12 stop short. Basically hung on the lip for birdie. I hit a good iron shot in there, but I made par because the ball stopped short.
I had 114 yards on number 13 and hit a sand wedge in there about four feet left of the hole, below it. And made that.
The par-5, 14? Yeah, 14. I drove it in the right bunker, fairway bunker and I hit a hybrid up in the front green side bunker. And almost holed the bunker shot. It hit dead center of the pin, I don't know how it didn't go in. It was hopping and going down in the hole. I get up to tap it in and Gary, Tom Dreesen's nephew, they didn't know how it didn't go in, both Tom and Gary didn't know how it didn't go in. And then birdie at the last I hit a good drive and a good hybrid just on the back fringe and my putt again stopped short. It was a little slower than I thought it would be going down the hill.
So a good solid back nine. I had a couple chances, I missed a putt on, the one on 12 that stopped short and missed a putt on 15 and 16 for birdie that could have been a low back nine. But I'm right there.
JOHN BUSH: Robert, play well tomorrow.
ROBERT GAMEZ: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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