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WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2005

D.J. Trahan

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: Welcome Clemson grad D.J. Trahan to the interview tent here. D.J., your first Top 10 last week and now you're playing pretty well this week. Just talk about your game and the state of your game and how you're playing with it.

D.J. TRAHAN: Well, last week -- well, actually a couple weeks ago I made a little setup change and it's really made all the difference in the world for me. My ball-striking has gotten better, and that's been the first thing. But most importantly, I'm starting to make some putts. Especially a week like this when you're playing on greens as difficult as these are, it's really a big boost to be able to roll in a few putts. It's going to be hard to get a lot of straight putts.

With that in mind, I've been rolling the ball really well, and hopefully I can do it one more day.

CHRIS REIMER: You're in Mount Pleasant now; is that right?

D.J. TRAHAN: Mount Pleasant, Charleston.

CHRIS REIMER: Do you have a good number of people out here watching you?

D.J. TRAHAN: It's amazing how many people have come out to watch this week. Yeah, I've seen a lot of support from Clemson, Charleston, Spartanburg, where I went to high school, so it's been great. A lot of folks screaming and yelling out there.

Q. You talk about a setup change. I'm sure it's more complicated than we can understand, or is it just something simple?

D.J. TRAHAN: It's real simple. I made a little weight shift change. I felt like I was leaning too far on the left-hand side which was getting me too far over the ball from the get-go, and I adjusted my weight slightly more towards the back, that way it would help me get through the ball. When your left is starting you have to come back to get through the ball.

I was wondering why I felt like I was making good swings and pulling one and pushing another one. It was just because I was already ahead of the game before I needed to be, so I just kind of moved myself back a little bit. I think it's been a big help. It's gotten me in a better position to start off from.

Q. Is that something that you say, "Why didn't I do that six weeks ago?"

D.J. TRAHAN: Absolutely. The putter is the one I want to say "Why didn't you do that six weeks ago" more than anything else. I haven't been hitting the ball that poorly. I really feel like I'm hitting the ball that much better now.

Q. How do you make up six shots in this golf tournament?

D.J. TRAHAN: I've just got to get off to a really quick start. I think for somebody to get up on Sergio, I mean, you never know with a golf course like this because it can certainly jump up and bite you real quick, but as well as he's playing, you've got to think that you're going to have to go out and shoot at least 7- or 8-under tomorrow, and on this golf course that's saying a lot. I mean, look at the scores. The guy has got a six-shot lead. You would definitely have to get some heat on him early. Unless he runs into some troubles, it's going to be hard to catch him.

Q. If you look at the leaderboard, at the turn you're neck-and-neck.

D.J. TRAHAN: Absolutely. I didn't see him on the back nine or see what he was doing, but he obviously was making birdies, and I unfortunately made the birdie on 10 and then hit a wedge over the green on 11, really thought it was the right club when I pulled it and it went long, and that was so good. I just couldn't get anything going the rest of the way.

I hit a terrible tee ball on that drivable par 4, 14, but other than that I didn't hit a poor shot coming down the stretch.

17 is just brutally hard. I landed that ball 40 feet -- in the middle of the green and it rolled into the water. I hit that 5-iron straight up in the air. If you're going to have a green like that, I just wish there were some more rough back there or something to stop it. It just seems a little bit unfair that that ball went in the water. It's not like I pulled it left over there where it's short in distance. I was ten feet left of the hole and it went in the water with 40 feet of green to work with. That stung a little bit because really when I hit that shot, I thought, "Great, maybe I have a chance at an uphill birdie putt here," and I got up there and I'm struggling to make bogey.

It's unfortunate, but this golf course is playing firm and fast, and when it's playing that way, those things can happen out there.

Q. You were neck-and-neck for a while but one shot apart. As you were watching the scoreboard were you surprised at how rapidly he just kind of scooted ahead?

D.J. TRAHAN: I certainly helped him with that making bogeys, but yeah, it's obvious the guy is hitting the ball well. He's got to be making putts. A lot of those pins out there, especially on the back nine, are very difficult to get close to. They're right over ridges and snuggled up against the back edge or the front edge of the green, and that makes it difficult to get close. Unless he's hitting really, really great shots, he's having to make some putts. I didn't see it, but 12-under is a good score, especially 5-under today. That's great playing out of Sergio.

Q. What are you learning about yourself today being in the hunt?

D.J. TRAHAN: I've always told myself just look back and try to remember what it was like before. I always try to look back on past experiences, and granted, I've never been in this position on the PGA TOUR, but throughout my amateur career and my collegiate career, I put myself in this position enough to say, "Hey, this isn't the first time you've been here, just go out and do what you know how to do." I really felt that way all day. I went out there and tried to manage my game and play my game, and I think I did that very well. Unfortunately the back nine got a little bit testy there, but I really stuck to my game plan and really felt like I executed good shots. It just wasn't meant to be, to keep it going there on the back.

Q. I saw you at Harbour Town and I could have sworn you had a long putter.

D.J. TRAHAN: I did. Actually what I did was I got rid of the belly putter and I added a little bit of length onto a short putter. I'm actually putting with a 38-inch putter right now, which is much longer than normal. I think the longest most guys go is 35 or 36. I'm 6'4" and I like to stand up taller, but I don't like my arms to be really straight. I actually went to it last week and I had a Top 10, and I'm putting with it well this week, too, so hopefully this will be a good change to the permanent for me.

Q. Was it tough going to the belly putter? You were just getting out of college, you were young. Was it a drastic change at the time?

D.J. TRAHAN: It wasn't even a desperate change to be honest with you. I was so mad and feeling like I was playing so much better golf. I had missed four cuts in a row, and every one of them, I was thinking, "My God, if you could just make a putt, you'd be fine." It's really frustrating when you walk off a golf course when you feel like you've played well and putted horrifically. There's nothing worse than going, "How many birdies did I leave out there because I couldn't put a decent stroke on the ball." I just was so frustrated, I just threw the short putter in the garage or the trunk and said, "What the hell, I'll try a belly putter." A couple weeks of that and I just decided it wasn't for me, and then last week I went with the 38-incher, and it worked great, tied for 9th, and this week, so far so good.

Q. Have you lost any confidence from your amateur days until now? You were obviously a dominant player.

D.J. TRAHAN: Not really because the entire time I've been here ultimately it's been the putter. It's amazing, if you go and look back at any tournament week, I mean, the guy that wins the tournament is the guy that's making the putts. He's going to have to play and hit some great shots, but most of the time it's coming down the stretch, it's that clutch putt or those couple of clutch putts that are made, and that's what I've had trouble doing is making putts.

So with that in mind, last week was a good week and this week so far pretty good, and I feel like if I can get the putter worked out, I'll get back to where I feel like I'm supposed to be.

Q. Is there any round you've played over your life that closely compares to being out there today against this field and being at or near the top of the leaderboard?

D.J. TRAHAN: I want to say The Masters when I played as an amateur, but that's only really because of the amount of people. You know, Augusta National, The Masters, there's so many people out there. Today was just phenomenal with the amount of fans out there that were watching.

But no, this is, of course, my first time in this position, second-to-the-last group. I'm a rookie on Tour.

Even when I played in the final groups of amateur events, you've only got a couple hundred people maybe following you in those big amateur events, unless it was the U.S. Amateur, and I was never fortunate enough to make it to the semis or the finals in those events. Today was certainly a new experience for me and I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun with all those people and being in that situation.

Q. Did it help playing alongside last year's winner, Sindelar?

D.J. TRAHAN: He's a great guy. We had a good time out there, good conversation, and he's just a real pleasure to play with, always cheering you on, and that's great, to have a guy out there who really has a good head on his shoulders and is really courteous and really polite. Joey was all of those and then some, so he was a real pleasure to play with today. That certainly made it more enjoyable for me.

Q. The putter has always been kind of the one thing in your game that didn't quite measure up to the rest of it. With this change that you've made now, do you feel confident you can become a good putter with this change?

D.J. TRAHAN: Absolutely. I think it's a work in progress. I think like anything, when you're out there working on something new, it doesn't always click right away, but I'm not going to necessarily say that I've clicked and I'm a good putter now, but I'm building confidence, and I think that's the key with any part of your game, especially when you feel like you've been struggling and working on it to improve it. One day it might be the driver, one day it might be the short irons; you never really know. But for me, like you said, it's always been the putter, and I feel like I'm making a good start to getting things turned around in the right direction.

Q. If you could talk about how important it would be to get off to a really good start and talk about playing with Vijay tomorrow.

D.J. TRAHAN: Is that who I'm playing with?

Q. I think, yeah.

D.J. TRAHAN: Well, I played with Vijay in Hawaii. That was great. He, again, is a pleasure to play with. I like Vijay because he doesn't take a lot of time; he's like me. But unfortunately out there everybody seems to be taking a while. We played twosomes today in five hours. That's horrible. We need to play faster golf than that.

But he's great. You know, we had some good conversations in Hawaii, and he's an easy-going guy. I think the toughest guys to play with are the guys that seem uptight and are very rigid on the golf course. Vijay looks like he's out for a Sunday stroll every day, so he's fun to play with.

Q. What round was that with Vijay?

D.J. TRAHAN: Third round in Hawaii, at Sony.

CHRIS REIMER: Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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