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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALJuly 29, 2008Chez ReavieAKRON, OHIO CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome RBC Canadian Open winner Chez Reavie to the interview room. How have the last couple days been? CHEZ REAVIE: It's been a blast, you know, talking to everybody I've really ever known since I was ten. I've been getting phone calls from everybody. It's been amazing. CHRIS REIMER: Talk a little bit about getting into this field and what it's like to play in your first World Golf Championships. CHEZ REAVIE: You know, it's exciting. It hadn't even crossed my mind, I was just playing. I didn't even know that it qualified me for the event. I was really excited when I found out, when David Feherty told me on the last green. CHRIS REIMER: You spent a few years on the Nationwide Tour. I spoke with you some last year and you talked about how hard it was to kind of stay patient because you knew you had the game in you to be out on the PGA TOUR, but maybe things didn't happen as fast as you thought they would have. Talk about what it's like now to win on the PGA TOUR and that journey the last three years or so. CHEZ REAVIE: It's been amazing. I was impatient and you want everything right then and there and you're working so hard for it and there's no guarantees. I think this year, I actually won faster than I thought I would. You know, I went from just trying to keep my card and give myself more opportunities to being a champion, and now I have a couple years to play out here. CHRIS REIMER: Talk about the Nationwide Tour and how it kind of prepared you. CHEZ REAVIE: The Nationwide Tour is amazing. I obviously wasn't ready for the PGA TOUR right out of college. And some guys are, the superstars are, but I definitely wasn't. I had to learn how to play tournament golf and play week in and week out against great players and learn how to score before I was ready to play out here. Q. Who's the most unusual person who's called? You said everybody since you were ten, teachers from grade school or -- CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, different people. I had some guys that I used to play golf with at the public golf course when I was 10, 11, 12, 14, they were all calling me and cheering me on. The guy who actually caddied for me in the Pub Links when I won, at The Masters and stuff, he still is a pro at the golf course I grew up at, so he gave me the story on all the guys cheering for me, and he said they were all super-nervous, and it was really a sight to see there at the golf course. Q. This is in Wichita? CHEZ REAVIE: No, this was in Arizona. I was born in Wichita but moved to Arizona when I was five years old. Q. What's the name of the course? CHEZ REAVIE: Dobson Ranch Golf Course. Another unusual guy, Wayne Gretzky actually sent me a text. He plays up at Whisper Rock, but I honestly didn't think he would be paying attention to what I was doing, so that was probably the most shocking. It just said "great playing, nice job, you deserve it, you work hard." Q. Have you played with him there? CHEZ REAVIE: I played nine holes with him once. I see him a lot but we have a lot of mutual friends. That's why I was shocked that he was paying attention and even had my phone number to send me a text. Q. Is he any good? CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, he's pretty good. He has the best hand-eye coordination of anybody I've ever seen in the world. Q. Obviously you said you didn't know until Feherty said something about you being in. What have you heard about this tournament? CHEZ REAVIE: Well, I know all about the tournament. I mean, I didn't realize that that win would get me in. I know it's a very difficult tournament to get into, and it's the best players in the world that are out here. Obviously not Tiger this year. But it's just truly an honor to be able to play against them this week. Q. When did you get here? CHEZ REAVIE: I got here last night. I changed all my flight reservations and everything on Sunday after I got done and left Toronto at 5:45 and got in here at 6:30 last night. Q. Would you have been playing Reno right now? CHEZ REAVIE: I was signed up for Reno, yeah. Q. Have you seen the golf course yet? CHEZ REAVIE: I haven't yet, I'm going to do that as soon as I get out of here. Q. Has anybody told you about Firestone? CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, I've watched the event on TV and I know it's a great course, and I'm looking forward to playing it. Q. Do you change goals now? Is it almost going to be harder to be patient, you want to get out there and win again? You're now 29th in FedExCup so you're in good standing there. CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, definitely have to reassert my goals. I mean, obviously my No. 1 goal is to keep my card and to win and do all that stuff, but the No. 1 priority was to stay out here, and I've done that now. So now hopefully I can go play well for the next couple weeks, and who knows what might happen with the FedExCup and Ryder Cup. Now I've opened up a whole bunch of doors that weren't even in my sights really. Q. It sounded like from the stories after you won, you were kind of surprised at how it all turned out. Is it kind of -- now does it make more sense? CHEZ REAVIE: Surprised about what? Q. Just that you won or -- CHEZ REAVIE: You know, actually I am. I've been playing really well the last two months, and I just haven't been scoring very well. I saw, starting about a month ago, I started really hitting the ball solid and I started making some putts. So I decided instead of going home and taking some time off, I was just going to play my way through it and just keep playing and let it kind of come to me. Fortunately, I mean, I had a good run at the John Deere. I was 12th going into Sunday and had a tough day, and I had a good week the week before that and just kind of lost it on Sunday. I shot a couple over, and you just get passed. I saw it, it was progressively getting better, so I just wanted to keep going and keep playing and wait to see how good it could get. And obviously it paid off and I played really well last week. Q. No offense, but you're like, 160 or something? Do you find -- CHEZ REAVIE: 160 as far as -- Q. Weight. You're kind of a small guy. CHEZ REAVIE: Uh-huh. Q. Sounds like your hitting fairways is just your secret? CHEZ REAVIE: It's not really a secret. It's funny because I'm short, but I don't hit the ball 200 yards. I still get it out there with the best of them. I'm not a long hitter by any means, but I'm definitely average at least. You hit fairways and you hit greens, you make putts, it's tough for people to beat you. Q. Who are you playing with today? CHEZ REAVIE: Today, Paul Casey and I are going to go play, I think, this afternoon. Q. Do you remember how far back you watched this? Was Tiger already winning by the time you came? CHEZ REAVIE: Oh, yeah. Tiger started winning in, what, '99? So I was still in high school, yeah. I was a junior in high school. CHRIS REIMER: Do you have bragging rights now in Arizona with Casey and Matt Jones and some of your guys out there? CHEZ REAVIE: Definitely not Paul. Paul still has me beat by quite a bit. But yeah, those guys, they all called me and said great playing, and Jeff Quinney. Even though they haven't won, they're great players and it's only a matter of time before they do. Q. How did you celebrate the win? Have you thought about -- aside from the stability it gives you on TOUR, but have you done anything fun? CHEZ REAVIE: You know, I haven't had too much time. I got back to my hotel Sunday night at about 9:30 or so and I went to dinner. A few of my friends were still in town, so we went to dinner and just relaxed and had to get up early and figure out how I was going to get here and take care of all that and pack up. So I haven't had too much time to celebrate. The week after the PGA Championship I'm sure we'll have some fun. Q. And that will be, what, eight in a row? CHEZ REAVIE: Yeah, it'll be eight in a row after the PGA. But I'm definitely not going to take the PGA off. Q. One more thing about the Gretzky thing. Did you tell everybody? Were you on the phone after that saying, you won't believe who just texted me? CHEZ REAVIE: Well, all the guys up at Whisper Rock, that's where Wayne is at, so they knew he was going to call me or whatever or send me a text. I don't know, it's special. It's definitely coming from one of the greatest athletes to ever live. So it was nice. Q. Can you save that? CHEZ REAVIE: Oh, yeah. Q. I don't know how that works, but -- CHEZ REAVIE: It's in the phone. It's not going to get deleted. Well, maybe if my phone breaks. End of FastScripts |
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