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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 23, 2011

D.A. Points

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome D.A. Points into the interview room here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by MasterCard.
D.A., it's been quite a year for you with your win out at Pebble Beach and now your home here at a tournament that means an awful lot to you making your fifth start here. Just come on the year and on this week.
D.A. POINTS: Well, it's obviously been the greatest start to a year I've ever had, and winning my first PGA TOUR event was huge for myself and my family. It was also nice to know that I could play in this tournament without writing Mr. Palmer a letter and begging for a spot. That was nice, too.
And being able to sleep in my own bed and have my wife and parents and family and her family and my daughter and everybody around, makes it really nice, as well.
JOHN BUSH: Making your fifth start here, as I mentioned a tournament that means a lot to you, talk a little about what Mr. Palmer means to you personally.
D.A. POINTS: Well, Mr. Palmer is an idol of mine, for sure. What he has been able to do in the community and in the area, not just for the game of golf but for the Orlando community, has directly affected me, mainly because of his hospitals. My daughter was born at Winnie Palmer and my nephew, who is now ten, was diagnosed with cancer at age five, and he is recovered and cancer-free at this moment because of Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital.
And without being able to have that hospital in the area, he would have maybe had to go someplace else for tournament, and he has a younger sister and an older sister; so the fact that the hospital is here, and has such great care, he could receive his treatment here and be healthy today without my sister and their family having to up and move.

Q. I was kind of curious, having won at Pebble Beach and winning with the partner that you had, are you recognized more for your win at Pebble Beach or are you now Bill Murray's partner?
D.A. POINTS: I would say just, it's close, but just barely my win at Pebble Beach. Everybody I hear from the gallery a lot, "Where is Bill Murray?"
And I respond most of the time, "He's probably at home."
Playing with Bill was great and we had a great time, and you know, I hope to get to play with him again.

Q. Had you had conversations with defending?
D.A. POINTS: We have kicked it around but it has not been 100 percent solidified, because obviously he's a busy guy and you never know what he may have going on.

Q. Also wanted to ask you a quick question about this talk about the revamping of the qualifying process, you're a Nationwide Tour grad, and came through twice, in fact. Your thoughts on that type of change?
D.A. POINTS: I think it's great. I think the Nationwide Tour is such a strong tour already, and I always kind of felt like, you know, to get the best players out here, the Q-School obviously has had some success, and I'm not knocking that.
But when you can get guys over a whole year to determine the Top-50 cards, that makes more sense than if you can play good for a month during Q-School and then get your card that way; I think the Nationwide Tour model has been proven, tested and proven for over 20 years, or about 20 years, and I think it it's definitely the right move to make.

Q. It's been kind of an interesting year on TOUR, a lot of guys like yourself have broken through. Can you talk a little about the way things have shaped up that way, and reasons why you might think? Are there more opportunities?
D.A. POINTS: Because why?

Q. Because some of the bigger names are not necessarily winning. Do you have more --
D.A. POINTS: It's a hard sport. And we are all good, but there's so many things that go into winning a golf tournament.
You know, to be honest, when I won Pebble, I didn't know that it was my time. I was out there grinding and doing my very best. I had some great things happen, I would hole a great wedge shot or holed a long putt and to win those things have to happen. I certainly did not hit every shot right where I was looking and perfect all week.
I think now the reason why some guys are breaking through is just because we have put in our time and we have stayed with it and we have worked hard to try to get better and understand our game and our abilities and what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are to make them better, and that's what I've been working on. I feel like it's translated into better golf. I was playing good golf even before I won, and now, you know, it's still going all right.

Q. We are streaming live the back nine par 3s this week, so I'd like to ask you about the par 3, 14th hole; is that a good scoring opportunity?
D.A. POINTS: That's not a good birdie hole. It's a great par 3 because it's 200-some yards and it's a little uphill. And the green has a diabolical front half, but my strategy on that one is to just get it somewhere on the front third and try to take my 2-putt and get out of there, because it's a good, anywhere from a 5-, 4-, or 3-iron shot depending on the wind.

Q. How about 17? What are your thoughts on the tee? Strategically comes at a critical portion of the golf course?
D.A. POINTS: Again, 17 is just one of the hardest par 3s that we face. Especially when the greens get firm, and the greens are looking like they are going to be firm and fast.
And so what we try to do is -- what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to land it about three or four steps on the front left side and try to keep it short of that back left bunker and anywhere from there, I can probably 2-putt and get a three and get out of there.

Q. You mentioned your nephew earlier, can you give us some details in terms of what you went through and take us back to that?
D.A. POINTS: He spent 160 days at Arnold Palmer children's hospital, and had neuroblastoma which is one of the worst, but curable cancers for children. He had a grapefruit-sized tumor in his abdomen. He was only five, so he wasn't a very big kid to begin with to have a big mass in his symptom ago.
One day his speech therapist heard him wheezing and asked my sister if he had asthma, and she said, no I don't think so. She took him to the doctor and the doctor felt on his stomach and he was like, we need to go to the ER.
They got him there and took him into surgery, and they were hoping to get in there and just maybe take it out. And when they got in there and saw it was attached to a lot of organs, they basically just took a little sample of what they could without damaging anything, to test it, and to see what kind of tumor it was, and they stitched him back up. And then he went on for chemo and radiation, and they did a stem cell transplant.
They even went up to New York and did like a new way of trying to -- it's called a 3F8 treatment is what it is, and they inject some antibodies into his body. So hopefully if the neuroblastoma tries to come back in is supposed to eat the cancer if it tried to come back.
So they did all of that. And you know, eventually, the tumor got small enough to where he could remove part of the kidney, or they maybe took out one kidney and part of his liver, and they got it all.
And he gets tested, I think every six months, to make sure that he's free and clear, bone scans and all kind of stuff. He's a brave, brave little boy, and he's a lot of fun. He's got a great sense of humor and he's a good kid, and he actually likes golf. I've been trying to convince my sister to get him to come out this weekend. So hopefully they will come out and watch.

Q. What's his name?
D.A. POINTS: Carson Chorney.
JOHN BUSH: Speaking of the hospital, you're taking part in a Travelers sponsor activity this week.
D.A. POINTS: It's going to be Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon at 2:30, I'm going to go to the Travelers chipping into the umbrella deal that they have for the fans, and I'm going to be there and try to hit a few shots and help some of the fans. And it's to help raise money for the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital, and that's -- any time that we can raise money for the hospital, I always try to be involved. I've donated some of my own money, my wife and I have, and you know, it's nice that Travelers is doing this to help raise money for Mr. Palmer's hospital.
JOHN BUSH: Trying to hole a chip on the floating umbrella.
D.A. POINTS: Yeah, it's really cool. I've done it at the Travelers tournament off the 16th tee out to the lake, and it's a lot of fun. So I think the fans will really have a good time trying to chip it on to the umbrella.

Q. What have you found to be the life-changing qualities of being a winner out here now and what are you looking forward to in a couple of weeks up the road in Georgia?
D.A. POINTS: Well, definitely job security is great. The fact that I have two years and I know I have a good job. And that's really important. It's important for my family and it's important for financial decisions as far as investing and doing stuff; knowing that I now have a solid job for the next two years, no questions asked.
And then obviously going to Augusta. I went last week and had two great practice rounds. I got a good feel, a good layoff the land and a good feel for what I'm going to do and what I'm going to hit off the tees and how it might play.
It's also great; I got to play my first World Golf Championships at Doral a couple of weeks ago, and I think I get to play in Akron.
So getting in those events; I want to move up. I want to play on The Presidents Cup and The Ryder Cup, and I want to get my World Ranking up high enough so that I can play in World Golf Championships and play against the best players in the world because I wants to be one of the best players in the world, and the only way you can do that is to play well and get in those events.
JOHN BUSH: D.A. we appreciate your time. Play well this week.

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