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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22, 2010

Dustin Garza

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

DOUG MILNE: All right. We'd like to welcome Dustin Garza to the interview room here at the Travelers Championship. Pro debut this week, playing on a sponsor's exemption. If you could just give us a few quick thoughts on your first tournament as a professional and we'll open it up to questions here.
DUSTIN GARZA: It's just a very, very good experience for me. It's been a lifelong dream for me to be out here playing alongside some of the best players in the world.
And to have it come to life already this early, right out of college is something that, you know, it's remarkable. A lot of players don't get this chance; and you know, I've been working hard the last couple years to get this chance, and for it to come to life is something very special.
DOUG MILNE: All-American career at Wichita State. If you could just give us maybe a quick recap on what you've been up to the last couple of years and then we'll open it up.
DUSTIN GARZA: My last two years in college golf were pretty amazing for me. It all started my sophomore year. I had one win in college and I went to the U. S. Am at Pinehurst and missed the cut, and I was really frustrated and knew I could play a lot better than I had been playing. So I went home, got to work a lot with my swing coach, kind of figured out some things; and it just took off by itself. Played really well my junior and played really well my senior year, and that led to some good accomplishments.
DOUG MILNE: Great. Questions?

Q. How old are you?
DUSTIN GARZA: 22.

Q. Did you get a degree from Wichita?
DUSTIN GARZA: No. I'm 15 hours short. So I'll probably finish here pretty soon.

Q. What was your major?
DUSTIN GARZA: Criminal justice.

Q. Have you thought about what that first tee shot may be right?
DUSTIN GARZA: It's going to be nerve-wracking for sure. But I've worked with my golf psychologist for about -- since I was 12 years old, so we've gone over a lot of things and just making my routine to kind of get settled in and get focused, and just going to try to do everything I can to go out there and not be nervous and kind of get things going. So hopefully it works out.

Q. Anything that's hard about the college experience, playing college golf?
DUSTIN GARZA: You know, just traveling a lot and playing a lot of good golf courses that are in really good shape, just having a team there, very supportive.
And college golf is more fun than anything. So it's just -- now it's just a different life. It's more of a job and you've gotta go out there and play some good golf, and you're not out there to have fun really anymore. You just gotta go out there and play. So college golf was fun, but at the end I kind of got tired and I was ready for something new, and this is the new thing for me, so we'll see how it goes.

Q. There are some pretty good names that have had sponsor exemptions here for their first tournament, people like Duval, Justin Leonard and Stewart Cink. How did you end up getting the exemption? Did you apply?
DUSTIN GARZA: My agent pretty much did everything for me. I guess they kind of got my resume and looked at what I've done in the past. And I called Nathan, just kind of let him know that it would be special for me to get the sponsor exemption and make my debut here at the Travelers. And got the call about a week and a half later that I got the spot. So I was excited and ready to come out here.
DOUG MILNE: Dustin, I think I heard you say in the media center just now, moving forward, are you playing here in the field at John Deere in a couple of weeks or are you Monday qualifying?
DUSTIN GARZA: It's like a 99 percent for sure thing. I actually talked to Clair two days ago. He called me when I was on the range hitting some balls, and he said he needed some spots to clear, but the spot he had or couple spots he had, one he had in his pocket for me for sure. Apparently he was going to put me in Monday Pro Am, that's how for sure he felt that I was going to get the spot. So things are looking really good there and hopefully I'll get the call in a week or so that I'm in it. So just gotta sit and wait.
DOUG MILNE: Could you talk about potentially your schedule moving forward, what type of things you're going to be doing after your debut here from a playing standpoint?
DUSTIN GARZA: John Deere is a big one for me. Hopefully I get into that one. The Reno-Tahoe Open looks really good as well, got into the Nationwide in Columbus for finishing first team.
So there's a lot of other tournaments that I'd like to play in. Hopefully I can go out there and play well with the starts I get this early and hopefully make it a little easier for me to get some spots.
DOUG MILNE: Anything else? Any other questions? All right. Dustin, thanks for your time. Play well this week.
DUSTIN GARZA: All right. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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