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CHRYSLER CLASSIC OF GREENSBORO

October 17, 2004

Brent Geiberger

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: Well, congratulations, Brent, the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro Champion. Brent, you earlier were presented with the ball from JC from 1976, who was given the ball by your father when he won, talk about how special it is to come here.

BRENT GEIBERGER: It's pretty neat. I just got a chance to be to meet her outside. Was she a scorer?

CHRIS REIMER: She's out by 18.

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah. And my dad won and he gave her the ball. And so I just talked to him on the phone and told him that also. And he thought that was pretty neat. He actually told me like the last three holes back then they used to switch golf balls, like a Top-Flite and a Hogan and it was legal back then. He's telling me, he's so excited, he was rambling on about No. 16 he was hitting a 2-iron in there with a Top-Flite something and he switched balls. I said, dad, I got eight microphones right here, I'll talk to you later. So I was pretty excited about it. It's pretty neat. Especially to be able to put my name on a trophy with my dad.

CHRIS REIMER: You came out and birdied three of the first four holes, that's got to help when your starting here like that.

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah, definitely. I knew how bunched up it was and I knew -- I didn't want to put pressure on myself to try and get a bunch of birdies right off the bat, but I knew, like I was saying before, I was trying to hit the fairways, hit the greens and give myself as many birdie chances as I could, just stick with my routine. But it just so happened I kind of hit a little weak 3-wood on the first hole and my 9-iron just came out perfectly and it went up there about two feet. So that was like a blessing in disguise there. I hit a great shot on 2 too. So to be able to start off 3-under after the first four, that was just what I needed. And it was just the difference, probably.

CHRIS REIMER: Take some questions.

Q. You mentioned yesterday, I believe it was, you thought you might need a 67 today. Was that going through your mind when you made the turn?

BRENT GEIBERGER: I don't know. Maybe a little bit. I just knew I got to 17 already, I think. When I birdied 9, I want to say. But then again like I said, I didn't want to put a score out there because I didn't want to limit myself. Because you start playing defensively or all of a sudden I'm there and now I got to make a bunch of pars. So I didn't want to do that. My mindset was hitting, stick with your routine, hit the shots, because all of a sudden you could start scrambling around here. The greens firmed up and sped up a little bit today. So it was -- you had to be careful on where you hit towards the flags or you had to kind of play away from some flags and take what you could. I think I was trying to stick with what I was going with. I was in a good frame of mind. I was hitting some really good shots, solid shots.

When I made the turn I tried to stick with that then, that game plan and keep going.

Q. On 13 that second shot, when was the last you hit something like that?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Well, it wasn't quite as bad as it looked. It was a pretty tough lie. I was on downslope, but I was a little more on a downslope than my ball was. I was trying to aim at the left bunker there and hit a little slider and sometimes if you get in there a little too much and take a divot I can pull it left. So I was trying to let it slide. And I just got a little lazy with it, just caught it a little thin and it just came off like that, so. I, believe me, I thought about it before I hit the shot, because it wasn't an easy lie. I tried to get back there a couple feet and imitate that shot. It kind of came off that way. Just a little too, got a little too cautious with it, I think. Actually, about six holes before that I hit it off the 7th tee. I just hit it thin. It went about half as high as it should have. It's just a tough tee shot if you don't turn it over.

Q. Did you hit that same club on 17?

BRENT GEIBERGER: 7 tee. Number 7 -- oh 7 and 17. Yeah. I hit a good one on 17.

Q. Is that your --

BRENT GEIBERGER: I was joking with Andrew, Tom's caddy, I said that was a little better than those other ones, huh? And he says, well, you got to use the peg. I said, yeah, and I teed it up a little higher.

Q. Was that the utility club?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah, it's like a 2-iron. 5-wood type thing.

Q. Apart from your hip injury, what else until this week had contributed to your perilous position on the Money List?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Well, I've got a -- my injuries type thing?

Q. Yeah. Why weren't you playing good.

BRENT GEIBERGER: It was some injuries, some equipment. I made a switch at the beginning of the year from one company to another. And I switched balls, I switched from the X ball back to the regular Pro V ball in San Antonio. And I've done pretty well since then. I noticed a difference in my game playing that ball. It's a little better for me off the tee and around the greens and stuff. But I think it's a combination of everything. Especially the injuries. It's just one little thing after another and it seems like I can't do too much about it. I have a nerve thing in here that bothers me every now and then, comes and goes. It's usually pretty good the past couple years. But I can't sleep on my left side or it gets, the nerve gets kind of trapped in there and my arm starts to go a little bit numb. I got a right heel spur in my right heel. And just about the past five or six weeks up in Canada I pulled out there because of the strained hip. And I told you also I got vertigo, I felt it on the putting green actually when I, before I teed off. I went up and hit a couple putts and I think when I get a little plugged up or when I'm sick, the way this thing works is that my balance I have 37 percent less balance nerve in this ear for some reason. I don't know if it was an earache when I was younger or what. But it sometimes sends the wrong message to my brain and I'll get a little dizzy and this morning on the putting green I felt a little funky. And I made sure the last couple days I've taken medication during the day to keep myself feel a little bit better. And after I started feeling a little funky, I said I might as well take my medication, maybe that will clear me up a little better, keep that away. So it's not much fun dealing with all these things, it doesn't seem like there's much I can do about any of them.

Q. How long have you had the vertigo?

BRENT GEIBERGER: I think about I remember '98, '99, I played, I had a couple episodes, but I played through it. It's not something I can just sit down, and it goes away, it stays with me. 20, 30 minutes sometimes.

Q. Is it hard for you to keep a positive attitude when you're kind of struggling with your game and you're having all these injuries?

BRENT GEIBERGER: It can. It gets kind of discouraging. Especially when like my foot and my neck or my shoulder and everything. It kind of keeps me from practicing more. Some guys go, well, he doesn't practice and that. But sometimes I just can't get myself to get out there and do it. It makes some of these things worse. Trying to get through four round of a tournament or trying to play three weeks in a row, and after the first week be done and it hurting really bad. So I got to kind of pace myself. Just feel around it. Do the best I can. Some days I feel a little better and I'll hit a few more balls. Sometimes I don't.

Q. Was there a time during all that that you doubted you might win again. Did you ever get to a point where your confidence was down?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah, I definitely felt like today I said to myself that I belong out here and I felt like, especially in the past couple months I feel like I belonged out here. For awhile there it does get discouraging. Just flirting with the cut number, weeks, week in and week out. And you might have a couple good round here and there but you throw in a 76 in there. And so it gets a little tough at times. It's kind of been thing for me just trying to stick with what I've been doing the past few months and routine wise with being on and off the course with getting stretched out, get myself to where, giving myself the best opportunity to play well.

Q. When did you decide you wanted to become a pro golfer? Was it high school, junior high?

BRENT GEIBERGER: High school. I had some success playing. I played high school basketball and junior college basketball. So after awhile you kind of figure it out. That basketball is not going to work out. It was fun, it was a fun release for me. Because golf is kind of like you can't jump around and you can't exude too much. Although some guys do. But for me it doesn't work. So it was a great release for me to play basketball. I had a good time. But in junior college I had a little more success also and started playing better.

Q. There's some pretty famous golfing families, you and Al are the first guys to do this. What does that mean?

BRENT GEIBERGER: That's pretty neat. I thought it was pretty cool when we played the PGA together. I don't know if that's ever going to happen. The Haas' are good. If Bill makes it out here. But it's tough thing. It's pretty special. It's pretty cool. I look at some of history of golf and this and that, but I don't get into it too deep, but it's, for me personally, it's really cool because I always I still do, look up to my dad. Especially when I was a little kid. I watched him play and run around here and climb out in the trees and stuff when he was playing here in the late '70s. To be able to put my name on the trophy with him, and put myself right up there with him means a lot.

Q. Did you ever feel any kind of pressure to emulate his success when you started playing?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Probably a little bit. But then after awhile you figure out that you're your on person out there on the golf course. It's not, the name is not going to help you make this putt. It's not going to make you practice more. You got to do it all for yourself. You got to figure out how to get it done. It's definitely an individual sport. Playing wise, because obviously your family and stuff, that helps out. Does a lot for you. But you got to go out and do it yourself.

Q. Is that something your dad told you when you first started?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah, he never put any pressure on me to play. He let me do whatever I wanted. Basketball or any sport. I played all of them. He didn't go, here's some clubs, go practice or something like that. I always went out there when I wanted to. And my brothers, we always, you know, my brothers we always went out there and practiced, we are all pretty competitive and stuff. So it didn't take much for us to get out there.

Q. What was first thing he said to you?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Today? He said, great playing, and a buddy of ours that caddied for my dad when he was younger up at Pleasant Valley was caddieing for him this week in San Antonio. And my dad's played the last two weeks, on the Senior TOUR. He hasn't played in a little while. So it was pretty neat to see him playing out there. But they were both together and I could hear them clapping in the background I heard my dad's voice and stuff. He said they're both sharing some tears and my dad was taking phone calls from everybody, I think. Just very excited.

Q. Did you call him or did he call you?

BRENT GEIBERGER: How did that work?

CHRIS REIMER: I actually --

BRENT GEIBERGER: I got handed a phone with him on there.

CHRIS REIMER: I left a message for Al, he was coming down 16 or 17, saying some of the media might want to talk to him. It was funny, Al said he didn't want to call you back until you actually won.

BRENT GEIBERGER: He probably said, why are you calling me right now?

CHRIS REIMER: He said he didn't want to jinx him.

Q. Now that the Money List issue is no longer an issue, are you going to take some time off or try for top 30?

BRENT GEIBERGER: I don't know. I'm going to see how I feel the next few days. I'm playing, I'll play these next two weeks, but I've just been playing a bunch. And like I said, obviously I've gotten myself to where I need to be. And hopefully I'm not more sick than I think I am right now. I'll try to go on next week and see if I can play. If I play then I'll have fun and play. Not that I don't already, but obviously it's a whole different perspective for me out there right now. I don't know where this puts me right now. I'll have to sit back and see, reassess my goals.

CHRIS REIMER: 52, somewhere around there.

BRENT GEIBERGER: Okay. Well, you never know. It's probably a few hundred thousand from making it to the top 30. But I played in it once and that was fun and you never know. I mean maybe I can keep it going one of these next two weeks and do something special again.

Q. What kind of relief do you kind of feel? I mean all the pressure is off you got a two year exemption so maybe now in the off season you can take some time to heal?

BRENT GEIBERGER: Yeah. I'm really looking forward to November and December. Especially now. It was looking a certain way and now it's this way. So it's pretty cool to be able to go home, relax and relax my body and do some working out. Maybe go somewhere for a week or so and leave the clubs at home. So it's a treat. I'm looking forward to going to Kapalua, that's for sure.

Q. Had you already sent your application in for TOUR school?

BRENT GEIBERGER: I had. I was, I was -- it was a month five weeks ago I think it was due. So I always know you can get your Monday back.

(Laughter.)

Q. Did you talk to Tom out there on the ball moving issue on the second hole at all?

BRENT GEIBERGER: He -- I came aware of it on the 6th tee I think. He mentioned it to me. And he wasn't sure. He thought it moved. And Tom's a very stand up guy and so he had maybe a foot putt or something like that, which something he wasn't taking advantage of it or anything. It's just one of those silly things that happen. The greens get a little crusty out there and it's on a slope and sometimes that happens. It's just kind of a shame. Because he's a very stand up guy and he took it upon himself to give himself a shot.

CHRIS REIMER: More questions? Congratulations and enjoy the rest of your year.

BRENT GEIBERGER: Thank you. I enjoyed spending some time with you.

End of FastScripts.

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