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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 16, 2010

Jeremy Roenick

STATELINE, NEVADA

Q. What was going good for you out there today?
JEREMY ROENICK: I think everything was going well for me. I hit every second shot really well. My putter was good. I was a little frustrated with the delay. You know, they had a little weather delay that kind of got me out of the rhythm.
But for the most part I played a great -- I shot 69. I was real happy with that. I had a really short putt that I missed for bogey. Again, I can't expect more than what I had today.
But I shot 27 last year, 26 this year, and I didn't win last year. So that's always a good thing.

Q. You were in here, I believe, last year after the first round, like you mentioned, with Brett sitting next to you. We had a pretty good time with the hockey players. You've been out of the league, retired.
JEREMY ROENICK: That's why I'm here, by the way. Yeah, that's why I'm here because I haven't had the distraction of that goddamned National Hockey League to take away from my golf game. (Laughter).
It's been nice. It's a nice transition to get away from the sport that you kind of create yourself for, and just to get out and enjoy it. I've been fortunate to play a lot of golf this year. And I've been looking forward to this year to have a chance to win, putting myself in position early. But obviously there's a lot of work to be done.

Q. Finished fifth last year, ninth the year before. So you're progressing, obviously. You've got some new guys. Fifth last year, ninth the year before.
JEREMY ROENICK: And I missed a birdie putt on 18 to finish second. But this is one of the -- without a doubt, it's one of the greatest weekends of the year for professional athletes outside of their own sport.
I mean, especially for us who have been retired now. This tournament gives us the opportunity to go out and really fuel that competitive edge that we've had for our entire lives. And we look forward to this weekend. Not to mention the people that we meet, the corporate sponsors that we can entertain, but to play against each other is really one of the greatest things in our lives that we can do.
And American Century allows us to do that and the Celebrity Tour to have this, and you go out there and all the people come here from all over the country to see us and sign autographs. We can't say enough about them, to spend their money, hard earned money to come say hi.
There's nothing better. There really isn't anything better outside of what I did in the National Hockey League. So my thanks to American Century and everybody for giving us this.

Q. Does this kind of make up for the competition that, from playing hockey?
JEREMY ROENICK: Oh, without a doubt. Like I said, my competitive edge is ridiculous. And I retired at 40. But that doesn't mean that I'm retired. I still have a competitive edge in me that wants to win and wants to be as good as you can possibly be.
And this gives us another avenue to continue to get better in the sports world.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit more about what separates this celebrity tournament from other ones?
JEREMY ROENICK: I think this tournament is different because it spotlights the celebrities in general. You can go to the Bob Hope. You can go to the AT&T to where a celebrity plays with a PGA TOUR player.
This event, alone, it really exemplifies the celebrity golfer. The first couple of days we have all the corporate sponsors come out with the players and we're the celebrities. I mean, we're the pros. And then you get Friday, Saturday, Sunday where there's no PGA pros, this is celebrities, and we're critiquing the celebrity players' golf games. This is a different element that we deal with every single day.
It's totally different. This is not PGA. This is not Senior Tour. This is Celebrity Tour and seeing who can be the best. And that's a big deal for us in terms of a celebrity championship.

Q. What does Tolliver mean when he says that you're coachable?
JEREMY ROENICK: Tolliver?

Q. Billy Joe Tolliver.
JEREMY ROENICK: It means I'm coachable -- I'm very coachable.

Q. What did he mean by that?
JEREMY ROENICK: It means that in my 20-year National Hockey League career I wasn't coachable. You tell me to do something, if I didn't think you were right, I thought go screw yourself.
Now that I've retired and I've been able to be humbled by other professional athletes, my wife and other people that I hang out with, to be coachable is, listen, if somebody tells me to do something to enable me to win I'm going to do it. Last night I was in bed at 8:30 asleep. Last thing I wanted to do was be asleep at 8:30. I wanted to be downstairs gambling and playing blackjack with everybody else.
But you want to win, you gotta make sacrifices. And you make sacrifices because you're coachable.

Q. Any competition between the hockey players and the basketball players and the football players in sports?
JEREMY ROENICK: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there's always a big thing that everybody -- when you walk around, everybody says hockey players make sometimes the greatest golfers. And a lot has to do with a lot of the similarities that we have in our sports.
You talk to baseball players, a lot is that hand-eye coordination when you're hitting a baseball, throwing a baseball. Football players, you're a lineman, you're screwed. (Laughter).
If you're a wide receiver, you're pretty much screwed. If you're a quarterback, you're okay. But everything has to do with your eye-hand is a good thing. And hockey players have definitely the best eye-hand coordination Plus we have the biggest asses than anybody out here. That helps, obviously, no question. (Laughter)

Q. How does that help?
JEREMY ROENICK: Obviously you're not a good golfer. (Laughter).

Q. Do you think you have the stamina to last the whole weekend?
JEREMY ROENICK: You know what, yeah. I have a lot of good stamina. Again, I'm going to be asleep again at 8:30 tonight, and I'm going to be ready to go tomorrow and get a massage tonight.
You try to put yourself in position. You take care of yourself after that. So there's no question stamina is there, but the mental capacity is there, too. We just need some putts to drop in and the other stuff you can't control.

Q. 7-to-1 odds going off. If you're going to bed at 8:30, have you had a chance to get to the sportsbook yet?
JEREMY ROENICK: Don't worry, I think 7-to-1 odds was a good bet for me. You better believe I have a little bit of my own money in myself.

Q. You're tied right now, I think, with Jack Wagner. Who is the better looking golfer?
JEREMY ROENICK: Jack's definitely better. Definitely better. I'm definitely more of the stud, though. Yeah, I'm definitely a bigger stud than Jack Wagner.

Q. And you've got a bigger ass.
JEREMY ROENICK: You know what, not to say this is bad. But he has a little bit more of the feminine capacity in him, okay. He sings. I don't sing.

Q. Funky Cold Medina, come on.
JEREMY ROENICK: I don't have a song in like the top 500 of all time. Trust me, if you get me a song, I might be able to. He did have one that was chartered. Did soap operas, which I did also. But he's definitely the better looking guy. I'm definitely the stronger guy. I think you put me up against him, I'm going to kick his ass. (Laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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