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U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEEJuly 17, 2008Deane PappasMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Deane Pappas, thanks for joining us. Great round today, 6-under, 64, and currently the clubhouse leader. A lot of golfers still have yet to complete their rounds, but you have to be happy with how your day started. DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. I got off to a good start, probably made a couple of 10-footers on the first two holes. That was 10, 11. And then 13 I hit a bad tee shot, got it up around the green with the second shot and hit the chip a little hard, but luckily the hole got in the way, and it went in. Q. How long was the chip? DEANE PAPPAS: It had to be 80, 90 feet probably. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 75 feet, 11 inches. DEANE PAPPAS: Oh, okay. Yeah. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: And then as far as your front side, birdies and bogeys. No. 2. DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. No. 2, I hit a sand wedge up there about six, seven feet maybe, made that. And I made a bomb on the next hole, pulled my tee shot left on the green, and had to be a good 45 feet maybe, I don't know. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Only bogey of the day came on No. 4. DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. I hit a good tee shot right down the middle of the fairway, had 5-iron in there. Just caught it a little heavy, and it came up on the front of the green, ran down on the fringe. And I hit what I thought was a good chip, but it was a little slower than I thought, came out 10 feet short and missed the putt. Par-5, got it up around the green, chipped it to about 5 feet and made that. No. 8, yeah, I hit it on the green, probably 18 feet, and made a good putt there. And then 9 was a bad tee shot, in the trees with a 3-iron. It was just terrible. I got it in the front bunker and hit a great bunker shot to probably a couple of feet and made par there. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions? Q. Deane, you took the hard way to get to the top of the leaderboard today, going through the one-day qualifier and the playoff and everything. DEANE PAPPAS: (Laughs). Q. Can you just talk about how that happened? I mean I know you've been pretty much a regular here over the years. DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. You know, I've been playing on the Nationwide the last couple of years, and I have a conditional status this year, and I've only gotten into three events. So I haven't played much. You know, I've been playing pretty decent of late, just practicing and playing at home. So I wasn't going to get in till the last couple of weeks, and I decided -- I went to John Deere and four-spotted there, played pretty decent, just bogeyed two the last three holes to miss the cut by a shot, so I was kind of disappointed there. So I was up in this part of the country and figured I'd come up here and four-spot again. Q. Have you been playing mostly Nationwide or have you done a lot of Monday qualifiers? DEANE PAPPAS: I've done Monday qualifiers out there, and I haven't made them. And the three events I got in I didn't play that well, so I hadn't made any money out there. So I've reshuffled to the back of the field, and I just haven't been getting in at all. Q. Can you talk about what happened Monday? I think you made a bogey on 17 or something like that that would have got you in without the playoff. DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. I got it to 4-under, and on the 17th hole I hit a terrible tee shot. It's a par-3, and it hit the cart path, and you should never even be close to the cart path. It was such a bad shot. And I went over in the thick stuff, and we were just lucky to find it, you know. I had a pretty good lie, and I got it out just short of the bunker and got it up-and-down. And I honestly thought if I birdied the last hole, I thought maybe I'd have a chance to get in the playoff or something. And I got on the last green, hit a good putt, and it didn't go in. I thought I had missed at that point. I had no idea. And I saw it was in, and I still thought I had no chance, and then somebody said, well, there's only two guys left on the golf course, so you're probably going to be in the playoffs. So I was actually fired up to be in the playoff. Q. You shot a 69; right? DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. Q. And what happened in the playoff then? DEANE PAPPAS: I made par. Par, par got me in. One guy bogeyed the first hole, and then the other two guys bogeyed the second hole, so that got me in. And apparently they went on for another 11 holes. Q. After struggling just to get into the tournament, what does it mean to shoot a round like this? DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah, it's nice. I mean, you know, I know I can play with these guys. I've been out here. I've played with them before a number of times, you know. And I know I can be competitive. It's just nice to be out playing competitive golf, you know. I've been sitting at home for so long. So hopefully we can keep it going for the week. Q. Deane, what's the real reason that -- I mean is there a reason that you've been out here for so long, and then there was a stretch here that now you're relegated to Monday qualifiers and stuff? Is it just there's so much more talent now out there or is it something specifically with your game that's just kind of struggled along the way? DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. You know, I went through a few years there where I wasn't putting that well. And a couple of years ago I changed to a long putter, and the putting has been a lot better over the last few months. You know, I feel like from day to day I'm putting a lot better than I used to. And if you can't putt out here, you just have no chance. So you can hit it good all day and not make any putts, you're just banging your head up against the wall. Q. You said you sat it out for a while. Maybe I missed something, but were you hurt or were you injured? DEANE PAPPAS: No. Just I haven't been getting into tournaments, so I've been sitting at home, practicing, just trying to be ready when I get my chance. Q. You've been playing the Nationwide, though, pretty regularly; right? DEANE PAPPAS: Well, I've only played three events this year is all I've gotten in, so pretty much been sitting at home. Q. What's been wrong with your game? Is it mostly the putting? DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. Like I say, you know, your ball striking comes and goes. And you know, I would have a good day ball striking and shoot 71, and I'd have a bad day ball striking and shoot 72. So you know, my scores were always around par. And you know, if you're not making putts, it doesn't matter whether you hit it good or bad, you're not going to score. Q. Well, obviously you've been playing well in your last two competitive rounds, so what has changed? DEANE PAPPAS: Like I said, I went to a longer putter a couple of years ago. And over the last five or six months my putting has definitely improved, so day to day I make a lot more putts than I used to. Q. Do you have any communication with your brother? That's kind of unusual to see two brothers at the top of -- DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah. I know. I teed off -- I was off the 10th. He was off the first, so we were on opposite nines, but I saw when I got to the par-5, No. 6, I looked up and I saw him on the scoreboard there, so you know, I figured I needed to make a couple more birdies trying to stay ahead of him. Q. Do you guys run into each other much? DEANE PAPPAS: Oh, yeah. We're staying together this week sharing a hotel room. We don't have our families out this week, so we have a close relationship. We're just rooting each other on all the time. There's enough guys out here that want to beat us up. We don't need to do it ourselves. Q. Is it kind of rare to run into him out on the circuit? DEANE PAPPAS: Well, yeah, you know, he's been out here all year, and I've played on the Nationwide and been home most of the year, so I haven't seen him much this year, but the last couple of weeks we've been together. Q. So maybe how many tournaments have you played together? In maybe three or something like that? DEANE PAPPAS: This year, only last week and this week. Yeah. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: All right, guys. End of FastScripts |
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