|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALJuly 31, 2008Chris DiMarcoAKRON, OHIO Q. Just your impressions of the first day of the tournament. CHRIS DiMARCO: Course is playing really long, I mean, really long. I hit a bunch of 3- and 4-irons into greens. The ball is not rolling out there, even on the last couple -- 8 barely got to the fairway almost. I still had 217 yards into that hole. Very good ball-striking day. I hit the ball about as solid as I've hit it in a really long time. Q. You've played well here in the past. Does that work in your favor? CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely. It's always nice to go back to a course you enjoy playing. I can honestly say that coming in, my form has not been great for a while now, so I've really got to thank Rick Smith. I worked with him on Sunday and again on Wednesday, and some really good things happened and really kind of got me on the right track, got me hitting the ball solid again. That's what it's about. I told him I don't care if I'm a little right or a little left, as long as I hit the ball solid. We got back to hitting the ball really crisp. When I do that I can score low, and that gives me a lot of confidence. Q. Where did this take place? CHRIS DiMARCO: I saw him in Toledo. I drove from Toronto to Toledo and saw him, spent three or four hours with him on Sunday, yesterday he came up and followed me nine holes and we worked after the round and hit some balls on the range. He's just a very, very smart guy and knows the golf swing very well, and I got it -- today was really all him, to tell you the truth. I went out and did what he told me to do, and obviously I had to go pull it off. But certainly wouldn't have shot the round I shot today if I didn't see him on Sunday and yesterday. Q. What was it in particular? CHRIS DiMARCO: I just wasn't getting a shoulder turn at all. My right shoulder was just kind of lifting straight up. My right logo you could still see from here, so we basically were trying to get my right shoulder turned back, and all of a sudden it got me in a better position and through the ball was a lot more confident and a lot more aggressive and all of a sudden I started hitting shots where they're supposed to go, and solid. Q. Can you fully measure the impact of injury? CHRIS DiMARCO: I would say the original injury I had to my ribs back in '05, I think that started it, and I think that went to my shoulder, and just basically got me doing the wrong things in the golf swing. You Band-Aid your swing to avoid pain, and I think that the two spots that I had a lot of pain, that was the reason why. I just had to kind of get back to basics, and I really feel that now my shoulder is in the right spot and not hurting I feel I can get back into that position. I've always had a real simple swing and it just wasn't there, and I was hitting the ball really unsolid. Today was extremely solid with the irons, which is what my strength has always been in my game. Q. Did you have any idea that you weren't getting your full shoulder turn? CHRIS DiMARCO: I had friends at home tell me what to do. Rick is not a technique teacher, he's a feel teacher, so he gave me the feel and I got it. Very easy, it was the third swing into the lesson, and we just kind of worked on it and hit different shots and did different things. It was pretty simple, to tell you the truth. But it was nice to hear it from him. I obviously respect him a lot, and it's nice to have him on my team, to tell you the truth. Q. Have you worked with him for a long time? CHRIS DiMARCO: Sunday, first day. Q. It's been a good four days then. CHRIS DiMARCO: Absolutely, without a doubt. We worked pretty hard and talked a lot. I think that really helps. He understood. He did some -- obviously some work in the past looking at my swing and where it was, and he definitely dialed it down to the injury. I mean, it definitely changed after I hurt myself. Q. When did you call him? CHRIS DiMARCO: I called him on Thursday after my round in Toronto. Q. What made you call him? CHRIS DiMARCO: My round in Toronto on Thursday (laughing). Just really basically what it is, is I've been really struggling hitting the ball solid. I just called him up and said, listen, I'm tired of not hitting the ball solid. It's no fun coming out here and hitting unsolid 6-irons and fat 9-irons and just not hitting good shots. Today was probably the most solid iron ball-striking day I've had in two and a half years, to tell you the truth. Q. Why him versus someone else? CHRIS DiMARCO: I think for that reason. I think for the fact that he's not really a technique guy, he's more of a feel guy. I'm a feel guy. I've always played with a feel, and it's always nice to just kind of get a feeling. Q. Last real golf coach you had was Buddy Alexander maybe? CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, without a doubt. I had a stint where I saw a guy like Carl Rabito for a couple times, but he's very techniquey. He's into biomechanics and positions and I'm not like that. I can't think about my swing. I want to think about maybe one move to get me back. He helped me a little bit, but Rick really got me over the edge. Again, I've never had a teacher -- I'm certainly man enough to know that -- we're certainly stubborn out here, and I definitely need somebody on my side, especially with the eye he's got. It makes me feel good to know that even if I hit a bad shot I go to the next shot trying to do the exact same thing, not searching for something. I was telling my caddie today, I missed a shot right on No. 11, my second hole. I said, if that was last week we would have tried something different on 12. I stuck to my game plan. It was nice to hit good, solid shots and have chances for birdie. Q. I haven't looked at the points, but are you in the FedEx 144? CHRIS DiMARCO: No, I need to go. I'm just outside. If I hit it like I hit it today the next couple weeks, that's not going to be a problem. Q. Is it depressing to kind of go through this in a Ryder Cup year? CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think it's so much depressing as demoralizing, to tell you the truth. The fight is still there and the drive is still there and the will is still there, and then to not be able to pull it off, that's the depressing part. I've been trying so hard, I've been working at it. I've probably been working harder than I've ever worked on the range. I never hit balls. And for me to hit as many balls as I've hit this last year and a half and not find anything is very demoralizing. And I just wish I could have found this a little earlier. But you never know, my shoulder might not have been ready four or five months ago, but it's ready now. Q. With the course playing the way it is with the shorter rough and conditions as they are, would it surprise you to see the winning score be 16, 17-under? CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't think 16-under, I don't think it'll get that far. I think all you're going to see is the course drying out. As many long irons as I hit into greens today and stopped, if these greens get a little bit firmer, it's going to be difficult out there. They're only going to get faster. The rough gives you the ability to think that you can get it up around the green, but you're not going to stop it out of the rough on these greens maybe come Saturday. I think you're seeing the best of the scoring today and maybe tomorrow, and I think you're going to see some tough scoring on the weekend. Q. Are you in the new house yet? CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah, thankfully. That's off the mind, too. The pressures of that is gone. Q. What unique things did you put into it other than the bowling alley? CHRIS DiMARCO: It's nice to have a yard. We have three acres. We have a couple putting greens back there. It's got a lot of room, which is nice. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|