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FBR OPEN

January 29, 2009

David Berganio, Jr.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome David Berganio in. David, bogey-free round today, I guess a continuation of solid play last week at the Bob Hope. Talk a little bit about your round today and your play, and we'll open it up for some questions.
DAVID BERGANIO: Well, you know, I've been playing really well. I've been driving it real well. That's one of my strengths. The short game has been coming along. I've been off for five and a half years. I've worked really hard on the short game as well as my physical -- my body and stuff. I'm playing well, I really am playing well, and I don't mean to sound cocky or anything, but I'm playing with a lot of confidence. I feel like I can hit all the fairways and I don't always make all the putts, but I'm hitting a lot of fairways and greens right now.

Q. Has it been kind of a long journey for you? It seems like you were kind of pretty much a college star and everything and came out on the TOUR and kind of bounced around amongst all these tours. Do you feel like this is kind of maybe possibly a defining moment in your career this year?
DAVID BERGANIO: You know what, I don't look at it that way. I finally have my health, and I've always had a little -- aches and pains through my amateur and my professional career, and the last probably three months I haven't felt any pain at all. Like I was telling Scott earlier, I had a lot of potential coming out of college, and I never really fulfilled it due to the fact that I was always hurt.
When Paul in the physical fitness trailer told me he couldn't ultrasound me or couldn't electric stim me enough, where he says I need to take a break, I knew it was time to walk away from the game.

Q. What's specifically been the parts of your body that have bothered you?
DAVID BERGANIO: I had three bulging disks and then everything else was super tight around it trying to protect the back.

Q. Could you describe what you've gone through, what a really bad day was like with that?
DAVID BERGANIO: Getting out of bed was a bad day. Standing upright was a bad day. It wasn't like a sharp pain, it wasn't like I had anything shooting down my legs, it was just a very deep ache. It was more of a mental thing. Was I ever going to play again, I didn't know that. A lot of sleepless nights, anxiety, grinding teeth. You know, the uncertainty was always there.

Q. Would you stay in bed all day sometimes?
DAVID BERGANIO: No, not really, but a lot of 800-milligram ibuprofen. I turned over every rock in those five and a half years to figure out what was the problem, from different exercises, different trainers, pilates, yoga, I spin now, and I even went to the point where I lost 20 pounds just to alleviate the pressure off my back. It was definitely -- I learned a lot about myself.

Q. Was there one thing that you did that all of a sudden kind of helped?
DAVID BERGANIO: You know, just being dedicated to my workout.

Q. During the last three or four years when you weren't able to play very many competitive rounds, how much were you able to do with your golf game?
DAVID BERGANIO: You know, that was one of the big things. In the last five and a half years, because I grew up, as everyone knows my story, and my golf coach, one time I was horsing around in the pro shop at the little public golf course I grew up at and whatever I was doing there was still some sunlight out, and he said what are you doing, there's still sun outside, you should be out practicing. So I was one to think, fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
It took over five years to get into my head the fact that I don't have to pound balls for eight hours. I'm good now. I mean, I'm not going to lose my swing overnight. You know what I'm saying? Instead of hitting balls for five or six hours it's okay to hit balls for 45 minutes. I feel it. I'd push it before to see how far I could push myself. It's okay now to do other things while the sun is still up, you know what I mean?
I've learned to get through my head that it's okay just to practice for two, three hours and still feel like I'm ready.

Q. Watching you last week at the Hope, and you really had it going there for a couple days and everything, you're working with Pete Jordan on the bag. There's a guy who's got seven years or eight years out here on TOUR, and Pete seemed to think that the relationship was very good, that you guys really work well together. I was just wondering what your opinions are.
DAVID BERGANIO: You know, Pete is a great guy, and it's hard for me -- I mean, if Pete were to commit to me that he wanted my bag, it would be his bag. But it's hard for me because it's like hiring your father. I mean, I have that much respect for Pete. We've been friends when I was out here and we did dinners and a couple concerts while we were on the road, and it's like you don't really want to get on him. I have that respect for him because I still look at him like a player. It's hard for me to call him my caddie. The relationship is really strong, and he knows what to say and when to say it to me. I just don't think he's figured out who's boss yet (laughter). He's a good guy, and I have all the respect for Pete.

Q. Just curious, are you a West Coast player? And also, what do you remember about your days at Arizona?
DAVID BERGANIO: Am I a West Coast player? You know, I've played well at the Hope, which I never really liked the desert that much, so after I lost a playoff I really have a love-hate relationship with the desert. I finished second or third to Phil in Hartford, and that's as far east as it gets, and I was in the final round in Texas with Tiger in '97. So I just never know what David Berganio is going to show up that day or that week.
I have a lot of great memories of the U of A. I go back for the fundraiser. I did the fundraiser this year with Jim Furyk and I. On the board it says or on all the articles it says I was on Jim Furyk's team in college; he was on my team in college (laughter). That's one great thing about Jimmy. He struggled for the two years we played together, and we never beat him up. I was No. 1, Manny Zimmerman was No. 1, Harry Rudolph came in with No. 1. But we never told Coach to get Jimmy out of the lineup, or Jimmy, you're terrible, or we never made him feel unwanted because we won without him.
Now that he's the man, he's never big-leagued me or anything like that, and that's something you've got to give to Jimmy, what kind of person he really is. He's a great person, great man, and now, like I said, the shoe is on the other foot. He returns my calls that afternoon or that day or that hour or whatever it is or leaves me a note, do you want to play and stuff like that.

Q. Do you stay in touch with the other guys?
DAVID BERGANIO: Yeah, Manny, I go down and see him in Miami; Christian is here; Rob McIver is here; Harry Rudolph is in San Diego. He runs Harry's Coffee Shop and we go down for breakfast. It's a great fraternity. We won the National Championship, and we were No. 1 for three years. How do you forget that?

Q. Everybody always says we should appreciate every day, and none of us ever do. I'm wondering, for you to go out and play like this, can you appreciate each moment sort of better because of what you've been through?
DAVID BERGANIO: You know, I live on the edge, I always have. I grew up on the streets, so I live for right now. And God blesses me to be able to wake up and do it tomorrow. I'm very thankful for it. So believe me, I'm very thankful that I'm able to swing a golf club without having the aches and pains that I used to have, because I used to be a little on the wild side to say the least.
When your career is taken from you, you have to step outside and try to look and reevaluate what direction you're going. I did that at second stage; the tournament started the 12th and I got there on the 3rd. I used to pop up two or three days before and go. I had to go back to Florida. It was a hard golf course, and I get there, and both my drivers were broken. I shot 77 the first round. I wasn't very thankful for that (laughing).
But when I left there and shot 64 the last day in about a 25 mile-an-hour wind on a very difficult golf course, you know, the rest was -- all this is just gravy. I mean, this is my fifth year, fully vested, and things are good for David Berganio right now.
JOE CHEMYCZ: Off to a really good start today, starting on the back with birdies on four of your first five holes. Talk about those.
DAVID BERGANIO: I got up on 10, hit it in there, flew it a little too far, probably 12 feet, made it.
11, tried to get it in the fairway, 470 yards into the wind, hit a nice 5-iron in there, two-putt and then a 7-iron to four feet, birdie.
Knocked it pin high on the par-5, made about an eight-footer for birdie.
And then hit a wedge on the next hole to about 12 feet, birdie.
Missed a short one on the par-5, about ten feet.
Missed about an eight-footer on 16.
Didn't get it up-and-down on 17. Missed about a ten-footer there.
Made a nice two-putt on 18.
Birdied 1, parred 2, then didn't get it up-and-down from the greenside, pin high on the par-5, No. 3.
And then hit some -- I was never out of play, but ran it through the fairway here, ran it through the fairway there. So it was a pretty easy 66 today.
JOE CHEMYCZ: David, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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