BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2002

Duffy Waldorf

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Duffy Waldorf for joining us, great round of 64. Good position heading into the weekend. Make some comments and we'll go into questions.

DUFFY WALDORF: I've been playing well all week. I really came here kind of just to work on my game. I struggled a bit in Hawaii and hadn't played much before Hawaii, so I wanted to get some good golf in and work on the game.

I really just have gotten a little better all the time. When I've gotten in trouble I've gotten it up-and-down. That's really been a big key to the week. I obviously hit a lot of good shots, but when I've missed the shots I've been able to get the ball up-and-down.

I only made one bogey in 54 holes. That's made a big difference in my scoring. Today's round played really well. I think I hit every fairway. I hit the ball well off the tee. So that set me up for some good approaches.

The greens are pretty target-oriented. It was good to be playing out of the fairway. I pretty much hit enough good shots to make eight birdies and kind of survive the other ten holes.

Q. You committed to this tournament like Friday, right, like at 1:59 p.m. pacific Time?

DUFFY WALDORF: That sounds right. It was after my round in Hawaii. I had lunch, I was hanging out in Hawaii, kind of thinking about going to the beach, and I just wasn't happy with the way I played. And I thought, "Well, I don't really want to play Palm Springs, but " -- well, I didn't play the Tournament of Champions. I made an excuse that I had only played one tournament this year. So I felt like -- I hurt my back in the middle of December, and I felt like I missed a couple of weeks of preparation for the start of the Tour.

So I found a reason to come here. My kids aren't happy about it, but maybe they will be by the end of the week.

Q. What could they possibly not like about this area?

DUFFY WALDORF: My kids are at home, that's what they don't like. I'm here, and they're at home. Two and a half hours a way. But I might as well be all the way across the country.

Q. When is the last time you had one bogey in 54 holes?

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, without having to dig deep in my memory bank, I'd say never (laughter.) I can't remember the last time I had two rounds in a tournament where I didn't have a bogey. Disney in 2000. I remember that tournament I did not have a bogey the last day. And I only made one bogey the first two days in each round, and the third round I might have made two bogeys.

But I think I had about four bogeys that whole week.

Q. Can you just talk about the conditions and just everyone's talking about how perfect the conditions are, the weather has been perfect?

DUFFY WALDORF: The wind pretends a few days out there, it acted like it wanted to blow, but then it calmed down. Being 11 o'clock it was almost nice today, it was kind of a little zephyr for a couple of holes. And the last nine holes it was perfect.

Really the greens are what's important, they're rolling nice. I was last off today and still the ball rolled nice on the greens and I was able to make a lot of good putts.

Q. Are you still doing the marking on the ball, your kids still doing that?

DUFFY WALDORF: I think you would know that.

Q. I thought you might have changed?

DUFFY WALDORF: Actually I have changed, because the kids aren't here, obviously. So I've had to hire K.C. and Robin Freeman's kids.

Q. What do they write?

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, I don't really tell them what to write. All I tell them is leave me half the ball, so I can find it. You can only put markings on half the ball. It looks like a couple of circles with blobs in the middle, and they circled the Titleist. Robin Freeman got in the act and he has some nice messages, actually I don't think we can even print them in the papers. Actually they weren't that bad. I told him he can't put bad words on the ball. He put me a couple of asterisks, to remind me that was going to be a bad word. Good old Robin Freeman, Robin and K.C. Freeman. They're a pretty crazy couple. I love hanging -- I've been hanging out with them this week and their family. It's been a lot of fun.

I'm staying with Robin's in-laws, I've been hanging out a lot with them.

Q. Which set of in-laws?

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, his in-laws, so Jack and Nan, they can write a book on just all the relationships. I'm staying with Jack and Nancy Whittaker. K.C.'s mom and step-dad, Robin's in-laws -- I guess step-in-laws -- one of his set of probably four in-laws that he has.

Q. How important is this, you talk about getting off to a good start and just kind of getting in some competitive rounds. How does this set up for the rest of the year for you, then?

DUFFY WALDORF: I look back at some of my good years, and usually getting some good tournaments in on the West Coast is important. I think it helps the confidence and I've always found that I start slowly and get better throughout the year.

So if I can start -- I feel like if I can start better, and just keep getting better, obviously that would be a great way to go. And the last few years I've kind of started slowly and finished strong. So obviously for me if I can start fast, I think I can really -- it really could be the start of a really good year.

Q. You said you hurt your back in December?

DUFFY WALDORF: Yes.

Q. What happened?

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, I hurt my back. I'm kind of old. It's hard to say. I do a lot of things, so my theory is if I do enough things -- I don't know how I really hurt my back. I was playing broomball with the youth group at church, and that hurt when I fell on the ice. But it wasn't hurt really bad until a couple of days later. I go out and play with the kids. I'll go on the schoolyard and play baseball or football or something. And so it could have been a lot of things. Just overall abuse of my own body.

I haven't found a better way, though, really. If I sit on my butt it still goes bad, so either way I'm in trouble.

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