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SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 21, 2005

Chris Smith

HOUSTON, TEXAS

Q. Do you like going out so early?

CHRIS SMITH: No, actually I hate it. I don't know anybody that likes getting up at 4:15, which I did this morning.

I felt good and it's nice to -- the nice thing about it, once you get on the course it's nice because you can get out and you don't wait every shot, which is kind of what happened to me on the last hole. You stand on that 18th tee and you look at it for 20 minutes. Two guys in the group in front of us hit it in the water, and I'm thinking, okay, there's plenty of room to the right, and I just blocked it out there to the right.

That part of it is good playing early when you can get out and you can play and not have to stand around and wait and get done, and I have a baseball game I wanted to watch today, so it's perfect.

Q. Is your buddy Carr pitching?

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, he's pitching today for the Cardinals and they start at 12:10, so it's perfect.

Q. How do you know him?

CHRIS SMITH: I've known a bunch of the guys that played for the Cardinals over the last 10 or 15 years, and I just got to know him when he came to the Cardinals and he's turned out to be one of my best friends.

Q. You birdied three of the first four, got off to a real good start.

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, I did. I birdied 1, and I birdied 3 and 4, and then I made a birdie and made one or birdie on the front. I birdied 7.

I hit the ball good a day. I hit kind of a screwy tee shot on 17 that got me in the left rough, and I three-putted 9 for par, which was a bit of a downer. I really didn't miss a shot until 17. I got it in the left rough and I had to lay up and save par, made a good par there.

Then on 18 I stood there and figured right wasn't bad, and kind of blocked it out to the right.

Other than that, I feel like I only missed two shots.

Q. When you finish like that, like you did on 18, will you more think about what happened the first 17 holes for 6-under?

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, it's a hard hole anyway. I hadn't miscued all day and I hit a bad shot. It's already done. My golf game is finally pretty good, and it's been a long time since I felt like I was hitting the ball good and I knew where it was going and I had control of it. I've felt like it's kind of been coming for the last couple of weeks, and I've worked pretty hard at it and I had control of it today, so yeah, I won't even think twice about that last hole.

Q. I'm not sure this course is any different from most you play, but it looks like it's going to take a pretty low score. When you go out every day do you feel like you have to shoot pretty low to stay in the hunt?

CHRIS SMITH: I try just to do my thing and see what happens, but every week with the exception of a couple weeks throughout the year, you've got to shoot a bunch of low scores.

This course sets up really well for me. It's a long golf course. I drove the ball really well today, and I can hit the ball fairly far, so it sets up good for me. It's a comfortable-looking golf course. There's nothing quirky on the golf course. It's a really straightforward golf course, and I like it. I'm going to try to come out and do the best I can. I'm sure it'll take a fairly low score.

Q. A lot of rain last year.

CHRIS SMITH: This is the first time I've been here.

Q. (Inaudible).

CHRIS SMITH: I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I looked a little bit. It was fun to see my name on there. It's been a little while. Sure, I glanced at it a couple times on the front nine just to enjoy it a little bit, but other than that I quit looking at it. It really does not matter today. You just try to go -- the whole thing is to try and play good the first three rounds without doing anything really bad and hopefully make some birdies, and you play three solid rounds and then you start paying attention to it on Sunday.

Q. Through 17 you were the sole leader. Were you aware of that at all?

CHRIS SMITH: After I had my fun on the front nine I quit looking. It doesn't matter. I felt good about things because I finally hit the ball pretty good. I was just pleased with the round. It was a very easy round. I putted pretty good. I think I only missed three greens and two or three fairways. I hit the ball good and played good and hit the ball close quite a few times.

Q. Was there one tournament this year you can point to that sort of turned it around where you hit the ball well but maybe didn't score?

CHRIS SMITH: It's a good question. I would say maybe actually last week was the first time that -- the tournaments I've played decent this year I've kind of been getting by, it hasn't been good. Last week I missed the cut by two shots. I actually started controlling the ball pretty good last week, and I hit some really good shots and I knew what I was doing with my golf swing and I knew what the ball was doing.

I missed the cut and I went home for three days and a practiced a bunch while I was home and I felt really good while I was practicing at home. It's just been a slowly building process but I feel like I'm getting better.

Q. You had some confidence coming out here today?

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, I said last night, it's the first time in about a year and a half that I can honestly tell you that I think we're going to play good. Three years I felt like every time I came to the golf course -- I lost that little bit in 2003 and last year really struggled and played good a couple times at the end of the year to keep my job, but it didn't feel like I was playing that good. I feel like I'm playing good now.

Q. Did you get frustrated early in the season at all?

CHRIS SMITH: Not bad. I know that I've had a long way to go to get back to where I want to be, and so, sure, it's frustrating to get to the end of April and haven't played any good at all. It really hasn't bothered me all that much because I felt like I've been moving in the right direction.

Now, if you're playing bad and you feel like you're not improving, then that starts bothering you. I really feel like I was going in the right direction and I felt like it's just a matter of time, whether it's this week or next week or whenever it is, I truly believe that I'm going to start playing well again and I think I'm going to enjoy it a lot more.

I had a couple of years where I played really well and I kind of took it for granted, but I won't do that again.

End of FastScripts.

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