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TOSHIBA CLASSIC

March 8, 2009

Eduardo Romero

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Eduardo Romero, congratulations on winning your fifth Champions Tour title and your fourth victory in the last ten starts on the Champions Tour to become the fourth International winner of this event.
You own 255 Charles Schwab Cup points, which puts you in fourth place.
EDUARDO ROMERO: Oh, that's good.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Just talk about the win. Obviously four birdies in the first six holes on the back nine sort of helped you a little bit.
EDUARDO ROMERO: Yeah, I think in the tournament it was on the back nine, I win the tournament on the back nine. I play good on the front nine, but I'm lost the concentration sometimes. I'm working hard.
I'm talking to my caddie after the nine hole and say, We have to wake up. We can win the tournament, the but no like this. Then started with three birdies in the row. And then I watching Mark O'Meara and the other guys on the front, but I played very solid all week long. I putting good. Especially the driver. Driving is fantastic. It's my best club in the bag.
Then also my putter, I used the belly putter for two, three years now. Callaway give me a good service. They working a lot with me. It's time to say to Callaway, Thank you very much, because they was working beside me all the time.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Take us through the round. You got off to a quick start with two birdies early and took the lead.
EDUARDO ROMERO: Yeah, yeah. Well, very I'm start very relaxing and very focus and make some birdies. Then I start very good first hole, and then hit 2-iron and lob wedge, 52 wedge, and put the ball two felt from the hole and then make good birdie.
And the second one was a driver and lob wedge again, and then one putter from seven feet for birdie.
And then hit a fantastic shot and make bogey on the 6th. Yeah, I go into the bunker and it was a bad lie, a bad position there, and just layup to the fairway and then just chip to the green and then putt from par ten feet.
Then it's another bogey on No. 9. No. 9 I miss the driver and then just layup again and chip and miss a putt for par from five feet.
And then I say, Come on, wake up. We have to start to playing. Then it was birdie, birdie, birdie, fantastic birdie No. 10. It was a driver and then lob wedge again. Putted from three feet.
11, it was driver again and one putt from five feet for birdie.
The other one, it was 3-iron and lob wedge -- sorry, lob wedges, yes, 52-degrees.
And then it was nothing. A few very close to the hole, very close.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: You had wedge on 11?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Wedge on 11, yes. Lob wedge, 52-degree. And then it was I'm try to make pars and pars and pars. The only difficult hole on the back nine in my mind was it was 17. I watch 17, because I make bogey, bogey, double bogey over there.
I hit a 6-iron to 17 and hit fantastic putt for par. And then I very relaxing. I make a bogey on the last hole, a stupid bogey. But, you know, already it was over now. Just I don't concentrate. Just want to finish. Come on.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Your birdie at 12, how long was the putt?
EDUARDO ROMERO: I birdie 12, 11 -- 10, 11, 12. I don't know, it was one feet.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: And then 15?
EDUARDO ROMERO: 15, it was -- yes, driver, hook it with 3-wood into the bunker. Fantastic bunker shot, and then two feet.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Questions.

Q. You made the three birdies on the back nine, but on a couple of those holes O'Meara also missed short putts. Those were big swings, weren't they?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Yeah, poor Mark. He putting terrible today, and yesterday also he has a problem with the putter. On this green is very difficult to read the line, and then -- he putted bad today, but he played good. He played good. I'm very happy to see Mark come into the top position, because he's a nice man, good player. He's a good player, you know. He had some problems with the putter.

Q. So you had three victories last year. Starting off '09 pretty well. Do you think it's the putting that's kind of propelled you into this streak?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Oh, yes. The putter is change my life. It was -- I'm play like this all my life, but my putting is cost me a lot money and a lot of strokes.
But no, no now. Three years ago I'm starting with the belly putter, and it's completely different game.

Q. You think you won it on the back nine, but those two birdies right off the bat seemed pretty important too, because Langer got off to a bad start and O'Meara just made par those first two holes when you got the lead.
EDUARDO ROMERO: Well, yes, yes. And then, well, I'm start to make strong in the first holes. The first three hole is very important, you know. I'm start birdie, birdie, and then par. I'm thinking make birdie on the par-5, No. 3, but can't do it. Just only make one birdie in three days.
But after that, well, be a little bit relaxing, you know, after making birdie, birdie, birdie, or two birdie in a row and then take the position. But I have to very careful, because there's good players behind me, Fred Funk and them.
But anyway, I think the tournament was in the back nine. I make the birdies in the back nine.

Q. Is this a course that you looked at in the past like maybe heading into the year that you would really like to win? What were your goals for this year? Was this part of your goals?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Yeah, well, this tournament -- win a tournament in the beginning of a season is very good for my mind, you know. Then is a lot tournament coming.
But I focus in the major. I play the major. It's my favorite tournament. And then this year I'm playing the U.S. Open, the regular US Open. I thinking about that. I'm training, because I love finish in the top 5 in that tournament. I'm working for that.
But also I have -- I like to win the British Open. British Open I lost two years in a row by one stroke. Well, I win the U.S. Open last year, it was great. Fantastic.

Q. Who gave you the nickname?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Because coming from younger. My grandmother. Because I'm still in the top of the tree when I was younger, and she said, This kid like a cat. Then everybody call my cat, cat, and then stay with cat so far.

Q. How did you explain responding from the bogey on nine?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Well, the bogeys isn't the score. You have to thinking make bogey, of course. You know, every week before the start of the round, we say, Okay one bogey is okay. Two, then three, no. And then when I make one bogey, I say, Well, it's okay. It's okay. I didn't make one bogey before that. But two bogeys, no. Then I make one bogey on 18, it was -- tournaments over.

Q. The past two champs here have gone on to win Player of the Year. What do you have to say about that?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Oh, well, also, you know, when you play with a player like Bernhard Langer, he's very concentrate. And then I do not concentrate like that. I put the ball and then come and hit it. You know, I try to be patient. I think you have to be patient, because the guy is a good player, but too concentrate. I say, Hello, how are you, because it's my creation like that.

Q. Could you talk about playing here in Southern California and your experience here, how much you like playing here?
EDUARDO ROMERO: Well, the course is very similar to Argentina. Very similar. Very similar. Fairways go to the left or the right and then it's the big trees. The green is a little more difficult here than in Argentina. We have glossy grass, and over here it's a little bumpy. But it's okay. It's the same for everybody. It's okay. I love playing here, yeah.

Q. Talk about going from this course to Valencia and the transition, because it's a longer and a windier course.
EDUARDO ROMERO: Yeah, well I like the windy course. I'm playing in Europe for more than 25 years. I'm playing in Ireland, in England, Scotland, and it's windy cold. Well, I win tournaments over there with the bad weather, so I like the wind. I'm playing the wind. My swing is for win.
Where I live in Cordoba is lots of wind every day, and play in the mountains is wind. You know, this course, it's fantastic. Always in California it's beautiful golf course.

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