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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 22, 2012John ElwayMark RypienSTATELINE, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: John Elway, Mark Rypien. It was a battle out there, Mark. Total of 60 points. Started the day with 43. Let's go through your round. Tell us the highs and the lows. MARK RYPIEN: There's not a lot of highs. The first hole was‑‑ birdied the first hole. That was kind of a high. Tried to hit a ball out of hazard on No. 3. And I'm glad Dan won the way he did, because if he would have won by a stroke, there was a little bit of a ruling violation‑‑ not a ruling violation, but I took my second shot out of the hazard. Slid my club under the ball and it landed back in my hole. And I couldn't play it. So I called unplayable, just picked my ball up. But I needed a ruling on it. They said no, not only do you have to take relief from there, you also have to take relief out of the bunker. So I whacked my6, went up by the green and almost chipped in for a 7, and knocked it about four or feet short. But I didn't putt out. But then they came back and said technically you should have dropped and only been hitting four instead of five. So I lost two points there. So I'm glad Dan won by more than two. Then I birdied the next hole. That was kind of the highlights. I think I almost parred in from there. So it was kind of an up‑and‑down day. THE MODERATOR: John, your round. Started a little bit hesitant then started picking it up. What was going on? JOHN ELWAY: I didn't hit a good drive on 1. Left it in the right rough. It was kind of sitting down. I was in between clubs. And I took one extra and kind of decelled it, grabbed a club, pulled it left into the water. I made double on 1. But 3 and 4 I was on the front edge on 3 and 2 and couldn't get up‑and‑down, the same thing with 4. I parred both of those. Then I bogeyed 5. And then I really played well from then on. From that point on I played 4‑under from then on. I birdied 7 and 10 and 11 and 18. And really I had a lot of birdie chances from 10, 15, 20feet. Especially on the backside. Hit every green on the backside. I had some chances but couldn't‑‑ I needed more putts to go in than went in. THE MODERATOR: We talked about it a little bit yesterday, Rip, been a while since you've been in the cat bird seat going into the final round. Did you feel extra pressure? How did you feel the whole day? MARK RYPIEN: I'm probably totally out of my element as far as coming down the stretch there and thinking, still thinking I had a chance. And I just didn't feel comfortable, even with it. And I made a couple of bad swings. Second shot at 16 and just not a very good chip. And Dan kind of opened the door there. He hit his ball in the bunker, made a really good bunker shot for a second shot and his approach was 30feet off the fringe. I had a chance to sneak it in there, get a couple of points coming into 17, and I kind of hit a high flopper and it rolled. So I'm 20feet off the fringe. He rolls his in, and just kind of somewhat over‑‑ anything can still happen on 18. Still had a chance to, if I make eagle and he bogeys we have a tie. And I shanked myself an iron at 18. It was fun. I had a great time. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. John, is this the best you've played in this tournament? And how much would it mean to you to win this some day? JOHN ELWAY: I think consistently‑‑ I think I've had more points before, maybe once or twice, but I think that my expectations really coming in were lower, because I had been playing but not practicing a lot. So the expectations were a little bit low. I've got to keep that in mind, next year, keep the expectations lower and I played better. But I played well other than the start I had today. So hopefully next year eventually get it done. I'm going to keep trying until I do, I know that. Q. Mark, I was just curious if you could talk a little bit about Dan Quinn in these situations? He's won this now five times. Did you get a sense that you knew that if you were going to get pushed it was going to be maybe by him? MARK RYPIEN: No, actually playing with John and John yesterday. I felt they played well. They'll be right there and sure enough John was. Dan just, he's just very consistent. Looks very simple to him. I struggle just to make pars and he makes it look very easy to work his way around a golf course. And he's not long, but he can roll the ball and he has a pretty good short game. Hats off to him. He played great and deserves to be his fifth title. Q. John, I understand there's a football season starting pretty soon? JOHN ELWAY: We're in the office tomorrow. Players report on Wednesday and we start practice Thursday morning. We're excited to get started and looking forward to this season. Had a good offseason. Not only with Peyton but on the defensive side, picked up some good football players. Jack Del Rio is the new defensive coordinator. We're excited, anxious to get going. Looking forward to getting back. Q. Rip, what do you have coming up? MARK RYPIEN: My foundation golf event next week in Spokane. And then it's just kind of‑‑ I'm actually going to go to a charitable thing in Honduras, which sounds like a little fun, just go live out in the bush for a while and help some young kids out. And then my granddaughter and both my kids are now in Baltimore. So spend some time out with them. And after this you kind of get mostly drained with golf. It's like, gosh, there's member guests coming up, and that's probably the only thing that keeps you going and someone says you want to go play, I don't know, maybe, sure. And then right around January, yeah, I want to go play now. I got my invite. Q. What's the feeling like? Your guys' game was football. If you didn't come out on the top end of a big game, it had to feel a little bit different than this, or does it? JOHN ELWAY: As far as how you play this game? Q. As far as how you feel, you come this close and don't quite get it. Is the disappointment a different disappointment? JOHN ELWAY: I think for me it was the‑‑ I actually kind of enjoyed these three rounds. I kind of kept my expectations in check and said I'm going to come out here and play the best I can. So many years you come out here and you start thinking you're Jack Nicklaus and it's one tournament you play in a year and you're supposed to make these great shots and make every three‑footer you look at. I enjoyed it more because my expectations were I'm going to hit the best golf shots I can. And I think that's why I enjoyed playing more. Like Mark said, you get exhausted because we put so much pressure on ourselves because we're competitors and we want to win. And with the comrades, the guys we not only played with but have been in the same sports world we have been in as well. But we put so much pressure on ourselves, and I don't know about Mark, but I know I play one round or three rounds of competitive golf, and it's a totally different situation. Finally after 23 years, today, I actually, once I got off to that slow start, I actually enjoyed it after that, even though I was close to the top. Q. Good day for Quinn here and obviously Ernie Els won the British Open. MARK RYPIEN: Big day, he gets a big chunk of that check as well. It wasn't like we totally gave it to him and some guys played‑‑ John played good. Billy Joe I think 25 points. And so anytime you're in the 20s here it's very respectable. And so you average 20 and 60 points, it's a good tournament, and you can go in the off season and feel good with playing your buddies and knowing what happened in Tahoe. They'll probably ask that now, what happened in Tahoe. JOHN ELWAY: The thing about this year's tournament, I think where they put some of the pins, they kind of kept the field a little closer. So it was a little more even though Dan played well early, it wasn't a runaway after the first two days, like we've had before. It was kind of fun. MARK RYPIEN: Probably lowest scoring ever for a winner, isn't it? Or highest, I don't know if you say lowest or highest. JOHN ELWAY: Billy Joe won with 84 a couple of years ago and Jack had 80 or something last year. It's kind of fun when those guys don't run away with it and give us a chance. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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