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June 26, 2008

Daniel Chopra

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Daniel Chopra in. He's 7-under par, 65 today. Talk about your round, what you did to do it. And we'll open it up for questions.
DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, starting off, anyway, I putted beautifully. Probably the best putting round I've had since Mercedes anyway.
Made just about everything I had an opportunity to make. Birdied the first two holes straight out of the gate. And a little overly aggressive in my tee shot, No. 3, made a bogey there. Calmed down after that. Didn't push it too hard.
Every time I missed a green I managed to get it up and down. I was fortunate enough to miss it in the bunkers, which is a lot of easier to get it up and down, on this golf course anyway, and kept it going. Birdied the last.

Q. Did you say this is the best tournament since Mercedes?
DANIEL CHOPRA: It's been the best start I've had since then. Probably the lowest round I've had on tour since then.
Keep in mind, though, the golf courses I have played on since then have been extremely difficult. I've kind of picked my events a little bit more this year and chosen some of the more elite events. And in doing that you're playing on extremely difficult golf courses. And it's been a fun year that way.
When we've got to a golf course that's been a little easier, we've played in tough conditions, either windy, cold, rainy, whatever. So this is kind of the first tournament we've gone to where the golf course is a little bit more civil to us and it's nice.
It takes a little of that pressure off. You don't feel like you're grinding awfully hard.

Q. Talk about the season so far. Obviously I'm sure you're hoping for more after the win at Mercedes. It's been up and down for you. Do you feel like this round is the best round you've played in a while?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, I've actually had really good round in quite a number of tournaments. Haven't been able to put in consistently sub par rounds around it. And, like I said, tough golf courses we've been playing. And the game hasn't been that far off really. I've been finishing around 30th place a lot this year, the most I ever have in my life. Seems like almost every week I'm finishing between 30th and 35th; which, if you look at it, you're not that far away from good play.
But just kind of hovering on the borderline, just treading water. It's nice to get off to a good start, now be in the thick of things and hopefully a few more good rounds and have a chance come Sunday.

Q. I want to ask about 18, despite a pretty good head wind, you hit a good tee shot in the middle of the fairway, birdie. Talk about how you were able to overcome that head wind and get that birdie on 18?
DANIEL CHOPRA: I tested myself a little bit. It's been a while since I've been up in contention. So I was playing games with me a little bit on the back nine today and envisioning that I was actually up there near close to the lead, but on Sunday, just to give myself a little bit of practice. Because who knows, I might not be there by Sunday because the scores are so low, if I play decent but come Sunday be nowhere.
So I guess I just wanted to reacquaint myself with the feeling of having a lead. And so I got up on that 18th tee. I was feeling a little bit excited. I had a good round going. I'm up there for the first time in a while. I stood up there and said, okay, this is Sunday, you've got one shot off the lead, you're right up there. Go out there, trust your swing and see how you perform under the pressure. You haven't had it for a while.
I was happy with how I performed. Beautiful drive down the middle. Trusted it. Hit a 7-iron. I got the new Ping S57, put them in the bags. And I've been hitting fantastic, actually. Probably the best irons that I've seen Ping come out with in a long time. Very forgiving. They look just like a Blade.
So I felt very comfortable. Hit it right near the hole, dead straight. Made that. Hopefully I can draw on that come Sunday if I'm in the same kind of position.

Q. Before you even go out, you see a ton of scores in the 60s, is that something you think about at all or do you just expect that you're going to have that here and you just deal with it?
DANIEL CHOPRA: I made a conscious effort to not look at the board too much in the morning. Sorry, in the afternoon. When I teed off, the morning guys were just about done. I knew there were going to be some low numbers out there.
The experienced players will try not to look at the board because they know deep down inside there will be the 7-under and 8-under, 9-under, maybe 10-under par out there. But towards the end of the week it will be close to between 18 and 20 somewhere. So you don't really have to do it all in the first day.
So I made a conscious effort of that. And I birdied the first two holes. Made it easier to not have to look because I had a pretty decent start going.
And that's pretty much what you have to do all week, not lead a board watch, because you're going to get trampled. As soon as you sit down in the clubhouse for a few hours, guys will pass.

Q. With that kind of a role playing in your mind on 18 tee, like you were there on Sunday in contention, what do you do now tonight in getting ready for tomorrow's round in preparing for Friday?
DANIEL CHOPRA: Well, I mean it's like I said, now what you do is you try to keep it as easy as you possibly can. You do the things that are best for you. I felt today the best thing for me was to practice playing under a bit of pressure, so put a little on myself and I managed to perform. So I was happy with that.
And so now tonight you just go and downplay it as much as you can. Go out there and act like you shot an even par 72 and you have a long way to catch up and go out tomorrow and hopefully the wind will be down a little bit and we can get another good round in early and just build on it from there.
But you try to downplay it as much as you can in your mind when you feel like you don't need that pressure.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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