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MISSISSIPPI GULF RESORT CLASSIC

May 2, 2010

David Eger

BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI

PHIL STAMBAUGH: David Eger, you shoot a final round 69, 11-under, 205, and win the inaugural Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic by one shot over Tommy Armour.
You're the only player in the field with three rounds if the 60s. Led the field in greens in regulation. Just an overall solid effort. Congratulations on your third Champions Tour victory.
DAVID EGER: Thank you very much. It's been a long time coming. After a year or two go by after your previous win, you don't know -- as birthdays continue to fly by -- if you're ever gonna do this again.
I knew I could. We knew we could. I've had a lot of really good help from -- starting with Tricia and certainly my caddie Kirk Rothrock has been with me, David Leadbetter and Jim Hardy, and then some putting and short game instructors from Stan Utley to Howard Twitty.
It's been a project that's involved a lot of people. I've just been the fortunate one that gets to hold the club and hit the ball.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: David gets 240 Charles Schwab Cup points and $240,000.
DAVID EGER: Wow.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: And probably more importantly to Trish, two years back at Hualalai in Hawaii.
DAVID EGER: (Laughter.) That was the pressure right there. It wasn't the money, it's the Hualalai trip at the beginning of the year.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: If you could, David, just sort of take us through the start of the day. Obviously we didn't know probably when we left last night if we were gonna play, and then it wasn't raining when we got out here. It was another day like the other days, and then it started raining. Just sort of take us through the round, if you could.
DAVID EGER: Well, when I left the course last night about 5:00, I had the mindset that we were gonna play, and we were gonna play in crappy weather again.
So when I woke up this morning and drove out here and saw the wind blowing even stronger probably than it did yesterday. And then about the, I don't know, about the 7th hole you had to put on your rain suit. It was not a Chamber of Commerce day.
But fortunately, you know, I held it together. I did -- I bogeyed -- I birdied 2, which is a par-5 really to me, but somehow eked it in there from about 15 feet.
Then I bogeyed 5.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: What did you hit into 2?
DAVID EGER: I hit a driver, 5-iron on 2 and made about a 12 to 15 feet. But then I missed the green and had a mediocre chip and missed about a six-footer on 5.
But then actually hit it close, about 12 feet on 6, the par-5, but wasn't able to make the eagle. Got birdie.
Then totally screwed up the 7th hole and made a bogey.
But then, you know, as things have kind of gone this week, I've followed up a bad hole with a good hole and hit a 7-iron about eight inches or so on the 8th.
Get through 10, 11 with pars.
And then on 12 I hit a nice drive and pitching wedge from about 110 yards to about, oh, 18 feet and made that.
Then in the pouring rain on 13, I hit my second shot in the front bunkers. The bunkers are not where you want to be on this course in particular, but had a relatively simple shot and was able to blast out about three feet there and make another birdie.
Then, you know, on the green; missed a 10-footer at 14.
On the green; missed a 15-footer on 15.
Then had a pitching wedge from about 130 yards on 16 to about three feet.
I was watching. Tommy was obviously getting better and better as the day progressed. About the same time I made birdie he must have made bogey at 17.
Then hit a good 5-iron at 17 about 15 or so feet.
You know, as windy as it has been all week, there were some putts that you just could not get aggressive from even from ten or twelve feet. Because if you hit them a little bit too hard, then you've got yourself a three- or four-footer coming back; it's not what you want.
So I lagged it up certainly on 17 for par, which gave me a two-stroke margin there.
Then on 18, after I got my tee shot in the fairway and decided how to hit my second shot and confirmed that it was a two-stroke lead, I wasn't gonna putt it off the green.
Unfortunately I didn't end in glory, but good enough.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: At what point did you know that Tommy had bogeyed at 17?
DAVID EGER: I think, you know, when I walked off 16 green it was posted. So I didn't look at the board until after I putted at 16, and then it went from 12 to 10.
I'm not an horrific scoreboard watcher anyway, because you're 110% certain they're accurate all the time and things like that.
But coming on the last four holes I was watching.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Questions.

Q. Just watching your round on the back nine there, really seemed like your play on that sand trap where you got the birdie, I don't know whether you realized it at the time, but as you were making that birdie he was missing a birdie attempt. That was really key there.
DAVID EGER: Well, you know, you feel on this course the way the wind blew hard from the southeast that you had to play 6 through 13 or 6 through 14 pretty well. That's where you could get on the course. That's where the birdies were.
You were just holding on the into-the-wind holes. Two-shot swings, when they're in your favor, are wonderful. Tommy played exceptionally well, and I'm sure he's earned enough money to be exempt next year. His time certainly will come. Probably sooner than later.

Q. What was the last few years like in terms of hanging in there? It wasn't like you played horrible, but didn't have that great week. What's it been like?
DAVID EGER: Well, it had been putting more than anything else. It had been -- you know, a quick synopsis would be: Okay, hit it on the first hole eight feet and miss it for birdie.
The next hole, hit it 40 feet and three-putt. So instead of being 1-under on those two I'm 1-over. I have always made a real effort to try to practice my short game and putting. I just haven't been able to get many results.
Now this week, I think that my tee-to-green game was strong enough that as long as I hit it -- I only three-putted twice. I don't know how many greens I missed through the week, eight or so.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: Got you for nine.
DAVID EGER: Nine greens. But that's where the scoring is. It's within 60 or 70 yards of the hole. I worked with several guys on my putting, and one guy last summer particularly helping with my wedge game.
Then I worked with a former player, Howard Twitty, and that seemed to -- you know, you can go to the greatest instructors in the world, but if there's something that doesn't click or you're unable to figure it out and implement it, you just can't do it.
But something that Howard told me, and that was to get my eyes over the ball, has really seemed to help. It hasn't played dividends until now, but progressively I've gotten a little bit better every week putting.
I really need to thank Howard and all the others that I've thanked. But Howard especially seemed to -- and then spent no more than maybe 20 minutes with me out at Newport Beach earlier this year.

Q. You mentioned you played in the Hattiesburg tournament way back in the day. How many times did you play in that? How were your finishes, if you remember?
DAVID EGER: I had as many poor finishes as a played probably. I think I made the cut over there once or twice.
But I worked for the PGA Tour and was assigned to work there. I can remember there being -- I remember Russ Cochran won one year when I was there. It was what's called a Tournament Player series event I think the last couple years they played.
But Robert Morgan, and who was it? Lois? I can't recall her last name. But they ran that tournament. Just good people. Good Mississippi people. It's nice to see that professional golf has two stops in Mississippi now.

Q. Talk about what you feel like the wind can do for your confidence and for moving forward into the season. Like you said, it's been a while since you've been here.
DAVID EGER: I think it's a good thing that we have a week off next week. I'll get to kind of reflect, come down to earth, bounce around and whatnot, and figure it out.
My particular situation, because I have no regular tour earnings, is I have to finish in the top 30 every year. So this is a big kick in the butt to get myself a top 30 finish.
58 now, and, you know, I know the window is closing. I think I play better now. I think I know more and know what to cull out of golf swings and understand ball flight better now to do things like that.
But that's not to say that next week I'll be able to break -- next time we play I'll be able to break 80. But it does give me certainly a big giant leap forward.
I hadn't played bad this year, but I think I made $110,000. That's a lot of money, but in this league out here, you got to finish amongst the top 30. At least I do.

Q. You mentioned the window closing. Do you feel like you're one of the old guys out here now?
DAVID EGER: I don't, but I know I am. When you see Fred Couples and Jodie Mudd just turned 50. And every week -- Mark Calcavecchia will turn 50 sometime this summer. And I talked to Billy Andrade on the practice tee this morning, and I said, Well, how old are you? He said, 46 and one half. I said, Oh, you're going by half years? Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, Hale Irwin is an icon. He's, what, 64? Unbelievable. He doesn't play as well as he did a couple three years ago, but still, the record he has out here of 45 or 46 wins, it's unbelievable. I've got three.
But, yeah, the window is closing. When I first came out here, I said, Well, give me five, six years. Now I'm getting greedy. I would like to play until I'm 60 at least. In order for me to do that, because of my lack of regular tour earnings, I've got to continue to play well and somehow finish in the top 30.

Q. Given your modest regular tour resume, what's this ride been like?
DAVID EGER: Oh, it's been unbelievable. I've been very, very fortunate. I never would have -- I didn't want to think about failing, but the fact of the matter is, yeah, to have some guy come out of the tour office and play golf and play reasonably well, I've been very lucky and very fortunate.
You know, it's been a great ride. I would like to continue to ride the bus a while longer.

Q. Talk about reflecting on the first tournament we've had here on the coast. You're the champion. How does that strike you?
DAVID EGER: Well, I don't know that I could win a tournament that's been around a while. I've won three times, and each of those were inaugural events: Mexico City, Seattle, and here. Should say MasterCard, Boeing, and Mississippi Gulf Coast.
But as soon as we drove in here, found our way from the airport and drove through here -- and I had read some things on the Internet about Fallen Oak and having some experience with the Fazio Design Group, I expected it to be pretty top drawer. I certainly wasn't disappointed when I get here.
I just said to myself, and I think I'm just repeating myself from the other day, you want to say out of bunkers here. They're so penal. I think I only hit it in about three or four bunkers all week.
But it's a beautiful piece of property. Beautiful golf course. The bunkers are pretty severe and the green complexes are pretty severe. They moved some tees up for us because of the wind conditions.
Overall, it's like this event has been around for several years. This isn't inaugural except that it's the first time it's being played. Everything else behind the scenes, including the golf course and the sponsor, they're top drawer.
PHIL STAMBAUGH: David, congratulations again.

End of FastScripts

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