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UBS HONG KONG OPEN

November 20, 2008

John Daly

FANLING, HONG KONG

RODDY WILLIAMS: Thank you for coming in and joining us. Great seeing you here at the 50th anniversary of the UBS Hong Kong Open. You seemed to get it going out there, but just a shame to finish with a couple of dropped shots.
JOHN DALY: Yeah, came off a 7-iron on 8, and a bit hung up there and caught kind of a bad lie. Thought I hit a pretty good chip, but just kind of bounced a little fast.
9 is what it is. It's a tough, tough par 4. Sort of got out of myself way right on the 4-iron. Think if I had been in the bunker might have had an easier shot.
Overall I felt like I putted good. I know I had 31 putts, but the good sign is, I had five or six 1-putts, which means I hit a lot of greens.
You know, I'm not too disappointed, being a little rusty, had not played in a month. I think under par on the first round here is pretty good; I'll take it.
RODDY WILLIAMS: And the fact that, like you say you haven't played for a month and you're still right in it really, aren't you, a good first-round performance.
JOHN DALY: Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

Q. Do you like these old, traditional-style courses like this one?
JOHN DALY: Yes, I think there would probably be a little more drivers if it was wetter in the fairways, but the fairways are rolling pretty good. It's a lot of -- you've got to shape it a little bit. I've been hitting a lot of 1-iron and 2-iron rescue clubs this week, which kind of suits it, and I think there's three or four holes I hit driver on.
I do; I like old, traditional golf courses like this. They are just obsolete it seems like, especially on our tour. We don't get to see too many anymore.

Q. Would you say this is the best you've been playing in a while or how would you rank today's performance?
JOHN DALY: I think middle of August when I played Greensboro -- I had my rib surgery done first week of August, and the last week of August played Greensboro and I started getting my swing back.
So I feel like I've been playing decent. The putter has let me down pretty much all year, but ball-striking-wise, I feel like I've been hitting pretty good.
But it's just been tough, because getting an exemption into one tournament, I need to play three or four weeks in a row to get anything out of my game and I haven't really been able to do that in two years. The exemptions didn't come in a row, just one or two, a week or two off, and then another one or two, and never was three or four in a row.
When I look at my past when I won the PGA and British, I was playing eight, nine tournaments in a row, you get a rhythm and I just haven't been able to do that.
RODDY WILLIAMS: What are you coming up to now? Are you going to be able to get a rhythm going the next few weeks?
JOHN DALY: I'm going to play the Australian Masters in Melbourne and hopefully the Australian PGA.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Been a while since you've gone Down Under.
JOHN DALY: Yeah, I like it down there.

Q. Today you had some bad holes and good holes, will you change your game plan tomorrow morning?
JOHN DALY: No, you really can't on this course. That's what I like about it. I know pretty much what I'm going to hit off of each tee, and the par 3s may change a little bit, but it's one of those courses now, I know exactly what to hit off each tee, and it makes it a lot easier than having to worry about.
No, I won't change it too much.

Q. Do you think these next few weeks could be the start for sort of a resurgence, if you put some good form together over the next few weeks?
JOHN DALY: It would be nice. My drought has not been quite as bad as Australia and the water situation, but it's been close.
You just keep fighting and keep working on it. You know, the thing for me is not being able to play, my wedge game is not as sharp as it should be, and if you don't have that, it's tough to win out here. There's two or three wedge shots that I was a little disappointed with myself today, but I've just got to keep working on it.
But it would be nice. I just want to play. Whatever happens, happens, but it's just nice to play.

Q. And how nice is it, too, when you come to Hong Kong and everywhere you go, you attract so much spectator interest, is that an inspiration for you as well that people are keen to see you play?
JOHN DALY: It's great. It's great to see the people come out and watch me play. It makes you try harder and it makes you want to play better. Sometimes might force it a little bit more than I should, but it's always -- kind of like you have a home crowd everywhere you go, and I've been very fortunate.
If I could just, like I say, get in a rhythm and play a few weeks in a row, I might be able to do something for them.

Q. Do you have any memories from ten years ago when you came?
JOHN DALY: I don't remember, I think the course might have been a little different. I thought it was shorter, but I think 1 and 9 might have been par 5s at that time. But I don't even know if it's the same -- if we played the same holes in '97 or not.
I don't remember too much about it. I know it's in great shape and the greens, I kind of grew up on greens like this, kind of like a Comma Bermuda, postage stamp greens and you have to really hit decent golf shots to play well. It's a great golf course but don't remember too much about them.

Q. Is this your first visit to Asia since then?
JOHN DALY: Is Korea Asia? Yeah, Korea's Asia. I played in Korea about four or five years ago. I think that's been about it. I played Macau; that's about it.

Q. How many times did you use your driver today?
JOHN DALY: I think maybe four, three or four times.

Q. Which holes?
JOHN DALY: 11, 13, 6, it's only three times I think.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks very much for coming in. Good to see you here, and well played today.

End of FastScripts

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