BUICK CLASSIC

June 8, 2002

Chris Smith

TODD BUDNICK: Chris, you're the leader at 11-under. This is your fifth consecutive cut and each time you've improved your finish here. Go ahead and tell us; it's been a long day for you, I know.

CHRIS SMITH: Don't ask about the birdies because I don't remember.

5, the par 5, I hit a 3-wood 5-wood on the green about 40 feet and 2-putted.

8, I dumped in the bunker on the front left. Actually I hit a perfect tee shot and got in a divot and thought I hit a good second shot with a 6-iron and it came up just short and rolled back in the bunker. I left it in the rough short of the green and got up-and-down for bogey.

9, I hit a driver, 5-wood on the back of the green and 2-putted.

10, I hit 3-wood on the front fringe and chipped it up about four feet past the hole probably.

13, I hit a 5-wood off the tee and hit a wedge about ten feet behind the hole.

And 18, I hit driver, 3-wood on the green probably 40 feet and 2-putted.

I can't believe I remember those.

TODD BUDNICK: Well, you've been up since 4:30.

CHRIS SMITH: It has been a long day. Actually, I felt pretty good. I didn't get tired physically at all. I could feel myself the last three or four holes getting tired mentally. I was having trouble concentrating. I told my caddie, I said, "It's time to get off the course." It had been a long day.

I felt really good. I played good. I've played very similar all three rounds. I've hit a lot of fairways and I've hit a lot of greens and I've made some putts that I've needed to keep the round going and made some birdie putts when I had some good looks.

So to this point, it's been pretty easy.

Q. How many holes did you play this morning?

CHRIS SMITH: I played 12 this morning. So I played 30 holes today.

Q. How many were you under for those 12?

CHRIS SMITH: I was 1-under when we quit, so I shot 2-under. So I was 1-under on those 12 holes.

Q. Pat Perez came in here and said that he doesn't really care how he plays tomorrow. He's going to try, but he's looking forward to next week. What would a win in this tournament mean to you?

CHRIS SMITH: Well, that's the whole reason that I play is to try to win. I've played out here 5 1/2 years, and I feel like each year I've gotten a little bit closer to being able to do that.

So obviously, if I could win tomorrow, it would be great. It's something that I've worked for for a long time, and it would be great. On the other hand, if I don't win, I'm still going to be happy when I get home tomorrow night, I know that. I haven't been home for six weeks and I'm going home tomorrow night and I'm a little bit excited about that.

So if I could pick one tournament to have a first win, this would definitely be in my top five or six. I love it here. It's just nice to be in a position to be able to talk about it tonight and when I get up tomorrow, it's 18 holes away, it's a long way away.

I've tried really hard this week to stay in the present and it's kind of been my goal this year to keep everything right where I'm at and not get ahead of myself, and that will be my goal tomorrow.

Q. You were a multiple winner on the BUY.COM. Obviously, you try to draw every week from that. How much different is it trying to close it out here?

CHRIS SMITH: When I first came out it was probably a lot different, in my head it was. But the more time I spend out here, I feel like it's very similar. You know, the level of play is so good on that tour, too. If you're winning on that tour, you're playing good enough to win out here, too. I think it took me four or five years to realize that. But at this point, I feel like winning out there, even though it's been awhile, it's definitely experiences that I needed to get to this point, and then succeed at this point too.

Q. Why this procession over the past five weeks?

CHRIS SMITH: I think that I've finally started putting better. I got into a rotation of tournaments that I enjoy, and I got into a set of courses that I feel like are good for me. To be perfectly honest, when I missed the Open qualifier Monday, I was excited to play this week because I knew I was going home on Sunday. It was kind of an exciting thing for me to know that I'm going home and I think that's helped me play good.

I do that every time, when I've been on the road for a long time, I always play pretty good the last tournament because I'm excited about going home.

Q. When you're home this week, do you think after a couple of days you'll wish that you were in Bethpage?

CHRIS SMITH: Well, sure. I would love to be playing next week. Obviously, the U.S. Open is a tournament that you want to play every year, if you can, and I'll miss it. But I assume that on Thursday evening when I'm playing golf with my two kids, I won't be missing it too bad.

Q. If I counted it right, I think you birdied 7 of the 9 par 5s. How important is it for you tomorrow to keep going after those par 5s, with the advantage of length?

CHRIS SMITH: One thing I've learned about this golf course is that there are spots where I can go ahead and go after it a little bit, and the par 5s are definitely it. Even though I'm hitting 3-wood off the tee on 5, it's still a hole where I can kind of dump it through and down there in the fairway and then get in the green easy.

So 9, I don't have any trouble with that either, and 18 I can get around the corner pretty easy. I'll definitely still go at those and I'll still try to hit up around the greens somewhere around 10, and I've done that every day, too. The spots where I feel comfortable using my distance, I'll play the same way.

Q. What's the most holes you've ever played in a day when you were a kid?

CHRIS SMITH: Oh, gosh, I couldn't answer that. My mom literally used to drop us off. I had two older brothers I played golf with, and my mom used to drop us off at golf course at 7:00 in the morning and my dad would meet us at 5:00 and we would play six or seven holes after dark. We had a golf course that was 3, 400-yard golf course and we just kept going around and around. I would guess that we had many days where we played 63 holes. That was when I was a kid. I'm not a kid anymore. (Laughter.) I wouldn't do it now, I know that.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Chris and good luck tomorrow.

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