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BUICK INVITATIONALJanuary 20, 2005Craig BarlowCarl PetterssonLA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA Q. Talk about making your debut, 6-under par round, you have to be happy. CARL PETTERSSON: It was incredible. I didn't know what to expect today. I got off to a good start made some birdies which helped, settled in and I kept going. I played good, but you know, the first tournament back, I didn't have any expectations really and maybe that's how I should play. Q. Sometimes that works in your favor, you come in not really expecting a lot and getting a lot. CARL PETTERSSON: Yeah, exactly. My attitude was good, it's always good when you've had a break, and it was just fun to be back competing and playing and I was looking forward to it this morning. Q. You know, Carl, it seems like you've been out here a while and you're comfortable with the surroundings, you're certainly the not in awe of playing with any of these guys; with your talent, it just seems like a breakthrough. CARL PETTERSSON: I hope so. I hope you're right. I'll be trying my best and hopefully I can maybe sneak a win this year. I'm going to have 30 shots at it, so you never know. Q. Pretty ambitious schedule, 30 times out here. CARL PETTERSSON: Well, I like to play 29, 30 tournaments, is what I usually play and we'll see what happens. Q. How do you think the course was today with all of the rain and everything? CARL PETTERSSON: I thought it was superb, really. The fairways are drying up. Obviously the rough is pretty thick. The greens are always soft on the North Course. But it's dried up. I think we might have some firm fairways by the end of the week. Q. Do you think it will get more competitive towards the end of the week? CARL PETTERSSON: It always does. Especially in the greens firm up on the South Course, it will be playing very tough. Q. And what do you contribute today to your round, is it your putting? CARL PETTERSSON: My iron play, I hit it close a lot. Obviously I made some putts but I didn't make any long ones. I managed to hit the ball close to the pin on a few occasions and managed to make the putt.
Q. What was working for you out there today? PAT PEREZ: Well, same stuff as I have the last month or so practicing. Just hitting well. Finally getting putts to go in. That's been the struggle is the putting. You know, pretty happy with it. PAT PEREZ: Yeah, I had to get my hands a little higher. You take a month and a half off, you kind of lose a few things with your putting. Working with my coach, Mike, he said, "your hands are getting a little low" and we got them up a little higher. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but them going in, it's making it a little easier. Q. It's well documented how you grew up here and would love to win here, does it mean a lot to you? PAT PEREZ: Yeah, it would be nice, but I don't think about it because I think about -- there's too many good guys out here. I'm just going to play one shot at a time and stay patient like I did the other day and whatever happens, happens. I'm just glad to be home anyway. Q. People make it a lot about being your home course or whatever and is that overstated? PAT PEREZ: No, I had a couple of shots to help me today being here. But the South, obviously, tomorrow, no one -- I had ten years of experience and now I've got nothing. It kind of screwed me up a little bit but it's new to everyone, so it's pretty fair. PAT PEREZ: I couldn't be any happier. I got out here early just so I could see him on the putting green and see if he was calm. He's always calm. Nothing gets him going. So it was great, though, great to walk around and see him. It's basically inspiring just to watch somebody, especially your friend. He tells you that you've got to have it next year. It's pretty cool. Q. How did you guys establish that? PAT PEREZ: After Q-School, I met him at the Hope and we have a mutual friend, Bud, and I asked Bud -- inaudible -- played with him at the Hope and played with him at Phoenix and we played a practice round and we've got a lot of things in common. So we just kind of, you know, we kind of hit it off and he's been like my big brother since I got here, so he's been great. He's awesome. He's one of the greatest guys out here. Q. You still have a lot of people that follow you and you've brought people a long with you to tournaments; talk about being portrayed wrong and misunderstood. PAT PEREZ: I do, but I bring a lot of it on myself. I think, you know, people think I just love to walk around and get angry and it's so far from the truth. You know, I'm learning how to deal with it better. This round could have been 2-under instead of 6 today, but I had a couple of things that went south. Usually if I don't hit the fairway on the par 5, I won't birdie it. I missed the one on the first and I missed the 14 and I birdied them both. I said, you know, just be patient, you know how to chip-and-putt. I'm just trying to take whatever comes at me and go with it. You're not going to hit every fairway and you're not going to hit every green and make every putt. It's apparent. You watch some of the guys on TV week-in and week-out, you see them missing 3-footers and 6-footers and it happens all the time. I'm trying to change the whole thing, not for really the public or the media eye, but it's for myself to help myself calm down and help myself play better and just be happier overall. Q. Does that come with maturity or -- PAT PEREZ: It just comes with doing it -- not shining it off and listening to it. You know, it takes a day where you could shoot 73 and you turn it into a 69 because of it. PAT PEREZ: Yeah, and that was last week in Hawaii, you see that. That's exactly what it takes and I know that's right, especially today -- inaudible -- when I think about getting mad I just have to bide my time. Q. What about the public and the media's perception of you? PAT PEREZ: Well, everyone's going to have an opinion, doesn't matter what it is. You can't judge -- inaudible -- whatever you guys write or someone says, he doesn't care, it's not going to affect him, he makes $20 million a year, he's No. 1 in the world he's going to be happy -- (Inaudible.) I'm not there, obviously so I need to change some things but it's not it's just basically being happier and shooting better as a whole. It's not just out here, it's everything. It's everything as a whole. Q. Daly has grown in those roles -- PAT PEREZ: Yeah, he gave me the same speech. He gave me the "I quit doing the hit and walk type thing" and play nine holes and leaving those kind of things. There's just too much at stake, there's too much to lose. Q. Do it in terms of buying into everything? PAT PEREZ: Just like the quitting and the get-going mad and all that stuff, it costs yourself shots because of stupidity. He's done the same thing and I'm trying to do the same thing. We're kind of on the same road there.
CRAIG BARLOW: Four hours and ten minutes, I'll take that every time, but being first group, we are kind of the pace-setters. Q. Talk about your day today out there. CRAIG BARLOW: Obviously incredible weather. First off always means good greens. The wind was very, very low. I'm pleased to death to shoot 4-under on this course. You don't feel like you really are going to shoot low on this course, you just kind of try to play solid golf and I got off, I shot even par on the back nine which was my front, didn't do much and I started -- I made -- I birdied 1, 3, 4, 5. So I just got on a nice little stretch and played solid coming in. I made 4-under very pleased. Q. Did you make any long putts? CRAIG BARLOW: I made a long one on 3, the par 3 down the hill. I probably made about a 45-footer, but besides that, I progressively got better as the day went on, a little jittery, first tournament of the year for me. So understandable, and got comfortable and you know got on a nice rhythm and just played good golf today. Q. Different mindset going into tomorrow with that course? CRAIG BARLOW: You know you can shoot lower over there, but I've learned that you can't course low rounds. I would hope that I'm going to be patient. Obviously if I get on a little run, you can shoot low. So, you know, I would hope that I can take advantage of that golf course, but I'm going to try not to take it for granted either. |
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