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FBR OPEN

January 31, 2008

Charles Warren

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome Charles Warren to the media center. Congratulations on a bogey-free 6-under par 65 here in the first round of the FBR Open. Why don't you just start off with a couple general comments on how you're feeling after round one.
CHARLES WARREN: You know, obviously you want to get off to a good start, and this is the kind of golf course where the scores are going to be low. I knew going into the week that you've got to make a lot of birdies and you've got to give yourself a lot of chances, but there's plenty of holes out there where you can make bogey pretty easily. I did a good job of navigating the golf course today and putting the ball in the right positions without giving myself a lot of chances for mistakes.
All in all, I feel really comfortable. I love coming here. This is a great golf course for me. I always seem to start to hit it well here. My instructor Todd Anderson and I have been working on some stuff the last two or three days here that are really starting to click and felt good today. My driving wasn't as crisp as I would have liked it to be today, but my iron play was pretty solid.
You know, all in all, very pleased and looking forward to the next three days.

Q. Camilo said he enjoyed playing with you today, that you guys have a good chemistry.
CHARLES WARREN: Absolutely. He's a great draw. Camilo is such a nice guy and very complimentary. He's just another one of our great up-and-coming young players that is just such a great asset to the TOUR and an asset to the brand that we're very proud of. I think he's a good guy carrying the flag, that's for sure, for the TOUR.

Q. Does his enthusiastic following kind of --
CHARLES WARREN: Oh, yeah, as soon as I knew that I had drawn him, I definitely knew that we were going to have -- we would probably have a decent sized gallery following us. He seems to bring all the young people out, that's for sure.

Q. Can you talk about playing in the cold early this morning?
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, it was -- I think we kind of got a break. Being second-to-last off was definitely an advantage. Those first guys, when we were finishing up our warm-up on the range, the wind started blowing and it was really, really cold. Once the sun got up it was fine, but early going it was definitely a challenge to kind of get your body to feel right.
Yeah, and I think that's something we're going to encounter pretty much all mornings, and I think they probably won't finish today and we probably won't finish tomorrow afternoon. That's one of the things you know going into it, with the daylight hours here and the frost delays. If you get a time like we did, we definitely benefited today and I think will benefit some tomorrow just with the course playing hard and fast and a little bit shorter.
You just deal with it. I made the comment, it's kind of funny on this West Coast, the Hope and San Diego, I think I've hit maybe 15 golf shots in short sleeves since we've been out here. We're blowing the whole global warming thing right out of the water this year, at least the TOUR is.

Q. Can you speak specifically about what you've been working on the last two, three days?
CHARLES WARREN: It's kind of a continuation of the stuff we've been working on all year, really kind of working on the timing of my backswing, getting the club to swing more going back to waist high and then kind of finishing my backswing with my shoulders instead of setting it with my arms and wrists at the top. Just kind of working on my timing, that's really it. Just trying to get the ball started a little bit right of the target and drawing it a little bit.
I definitely didn't drive it as well as I would have liked to have today, but I definitely hit my irons very well, and I think that's kind of an indication to me that it's on the right track.

Q. Talk a little bit about the kind of wild atmosphere of 16.
CHARLES WARREN: I think it's awesome. We really don't get the opportunity to play on a stage like this very often. Obviously as golfers we're unlike baseball players and football players because they get the crowds and they get to experience that on a daily or weekly basis, whatever the sport may be. I think it's cool. There is no other situation anywhere in the world where you're going to get to hit a shot like you do on 16 and get the reaction you do. I mean, it really is cool, it really is.
I think at the end of the day it's great for the TOUR. Hopefully this week we'll be able to kind of link up some of the Super Bowl hype and get a lot of people out here this weekend. I look for it to be a great weekend with the number of people that are coming to town. I think it's going to be great for the TOUR. Like I said, it's a stage that we don't get to see very often.

Q. Was the crowd on 16 kind to you today?
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, they were good. As long as you hit a good shot, you're fine. Yeah, they were good.

Q. Camilo said it was a little too mellow.
CHARLES WARREN: You know, they weren't really cranked up yet. I don't know if it's the cold or what, but when we go through there -- I haven't done the math, but tomorrow afternoon it's going to be like 4:00 o'clock when we go through there, so they'll be ready to go tomorrow afternoon. It's fun. It's something that I would say 95 percent of the players look forward to every year. Like I said, you get to hit four shots hopefully there every year, and it's something that you look forward to every year.

Q. How much more comfortable are you this time around on the TOUR than you were the first time?
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, you know, the fifth year, it's definitely a lot easier. After you've played the golf courses, it's my third year here, I think there's a lot of comfort factor involved, knowing the golf course, kind of going into the practice round knowing that you're not going to have to try to learn everything about the golf course in one day.
It definitely helps. I mean, that's what I tell all these younger players that are rookies, play with guys that have been out here for a while and ask questions. I'm playing against guys that have played these golf courses 15 times, and if you've never played them at all, it's challenging and it's hard to get comfortable. Being my fifth year, I'm definitely a lot more comfortable than I have been the previous four.

Q. I read at the end of the season last year you were leading a stat. Was it driving distance and accuracy?
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, Total Driving probably would be the one.

Q. It must make you feel good having something like that where your game was finishing up last season.
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, you know, that's one of the things you do, I think, every off-season is analyze your stats, or that's one thing that Todd Anderson likes to do with me when I go down to Sea Island to work on some stuff. Obviously I think my ball-striking is where it needs to be and it has been the last ten years, on the Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR, and I think it's just a matter of me getting to where I'm more consistent around the greens and putting.
You hear it all the time, but for me -- I've proven to myself that -- even when I don't hit it as well as I'd like to, I hit it well enough to shoot the good scores if my short game is there, and that was definitely the focus of this off-season.
DOUG MILNE: If you would just run us through your birdies real quick and give us some clubs.
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, 1, like I said, it was cold so I hit driver there. I can remember hitting irons there off that tee to try and not run it out in the fairway. I hit driver there today, 9-iron in there about six feet and made it.
3, I hit a drive in the right rough, punched it down there and hit a sand wedge in there about a foot and a half, which was nice.
Then made a long putt on 4, the par-3. I don't know how long it was. 38 feet I think I'm reading here.
So that was good. I obviously got off to a hot start. 5 through 9 -- 5 through 10, really, the putter got kind of cold. I hit it close several times and didn't make it.
But then hit a great shot on 12 in there about seven, eight feet, made that -- 11 feet they're saying.
15, hit a good drive and a 3-iron on the front of the green, made a good two-putt there.
Hit a good drive on 17 that got up to the top, stayed there for a while and rolled back down and hit an average chip to six or seven feet and made that.
You know, it was a good, solid day. Like I said, I really didn't give myself that many chances to get in trouble and took advantage of obviously six birdies. If I can just, like I said, continue -- that's the thing you've got to do in a tournament like this when you know the scores are going to be low is come out here with the same mindset and continue to fire and try to make birdies.
I really think you're going to see the temperature warm up this afternoon. Somebody is going to shoot a really low score this afternoon. These greens are perfect and there's no reason somebody wouldn't unless the wind kicks up, which I don't think is supposed to happen.

Q. Was that your son you grabbed?
CHARLES WARREN: Yeah, that was cool. It's great because day care is right here in the parking lot, so it's perfect for the moms. Yeah, that's cool. 16 months old, he makes it a great day to come home, whether you shoot 65 or 75.

Q. What's his name?
CHARLES WARREN: Charlie. He's the fourth.

End of FastScripts

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