PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 17, 2003

Chad Campbell

JULIUS MASON: Your runner-up, ladies and gentlemen, in the 85th PGA Championship, Chad Campbell.

He's got a flight that he's got to catch. We have ten minutes. If you wouldn't mind let's move through it quickly so everybody can try to get their questions in.

Chad, some opening thoughts, please.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, felt real good today coming out but really struggled the first few holes. Wasn't really the start I was looking for. I missed the first two fairways. Then hit a good shot on 3. Missed the fairway on 4. Then kind of started playing pretty good on 5, hitting a lot of good shots, hitting fairways, hitting greens, giving myself looks at birdies.

Played pretty solid the whole way in until 14. Drove it in the bunker and hit a bad bunker shot. But other than that, pretty pleased with the way I played. Sure wish I could have got a couple more of those putts to drop. But happy with the way I played.

Q. Can you talk about what was going through your mind when you saw his shot on 18 and going over the hill and when you saw exactly where it was?

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, I knew I had to hit a good shot. That was obviously before he hit his, and I didn't know how close his was. I didn't know it was an inch. I was thinking maybe four or five feet, at least have to make a putt and maybe I could get it in there and make a birdie and maybe something else would happen.

That was a great shot. He played great all day.

Q. Can you just talk about the bunker shot on 14; they speculated on TV that you might have been even trying to pick it clean.

CHAD CAMPBELL: I wasn't trying to pick it clean. I used a pitching wedge and I was trying to get it to run up that hill, because you couldn't really use like a 60-degree wedge, because you don't want to fly it up there, because you don't want to risk going over the back of the green. Just hit it fat. Just decelerated. Maybe it wasn't the right club choice; I don't know.

Q. Can you talk about how you felt last night, thinking about being in this position and coming into this morning, and then also, if you could just tell us where you've got to catch the flight to.

CHAD CAMPBELL: You know, last night I was very excited. I wasn't nervous. It was just more of being really excited about the day and the position I had got myself into. Even waking up this morning, I felt really good. Obviously a little bit nervous and just anxious to get out there and start playing.

Once I did get the round going, I felt a lot more comfortable.

As of right now, I think I'm flying to Dallas.

Q. Are you waiting to hear (NEC)?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I don't know when -- I'm not too sure. I haven't spoke with anybody about that yet.

Q. Give us your idea, you two guys are in many ways -- I don't know if "unknown" is the right word -- but you guys were surprises. What do you think this tells us about the PGA TOUR?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I think it just tells you how many good players there are. I mean, Ben Curtis at the British Open, and then me and Shaun battling here. I mean, you know -- I don't know how many players there were in the tournament, 156; pretty much any of those players could have won this tournament. It just shows how deep the fields are, and that's pretty much all I can say. There's just so many good players.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the last few holes, it really became a match-play situation. There was a lot of excitement, it seemed like, swings back and forth.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, I birdied 13 to go one back. Then 14, there was a two-shot swing in his favor. Then 15 was a two-shot swing in my favor. So it was kind of a roller coaster right through there.

16, both were in the rough. He hit a great shot and made a great putt there.

Then 17, he drove it in the rough and I had a great tee shot. Had a decent look at birdie but wasn't able to capitalize on it.

Then his shot on 18 was just phenomenal.

Q. The emotions of that?

CHAD CAMPBELL: As far as the way I was feeling?

Q. Just the way it was going.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Yeah, it was a little bit crazy. One time you're thinking, well, you know, I might be out of this. But with the last two holes here, you can't really count yourself out. Even 16, if you don't drive the ball in the fairway, the way the rough is, you might not be able to get it to the green. Luckily enough, I guess we both had decent lies on 16.

It was a little crazy, a little back and forth. I just tried to stay patient and let things happen and give myself a chance at the end.

Q. Have you ever personally witnessed a shot as clutch as what you just saw on 18?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I don't think so. That's pretty good to hit it up there where it's a no-brainer. It's nice having just a kick-in for the win.

That would probably be the best shot I've seen under the pressure.

Q. You two are friends, I was just wondering if you had any communication before the match and/or during the match, and what you might have chatted about?

CHAD CAMPBELL: We spoke a little bit on the putting green this morning, kind of about how everybody thinks we look alike, just kind of had a little laugh about that.

Yeah, we are good friends. We had a great time out there. Really the back nine we didn't talk that much. We were kind of focusing on what we were doing. That's about it. We are good friends, and, you know, we always will be, and I'm very happy for him.

Q. Obviously it's not easy to get in contention in a major. Do you take more positives out of playing a solid round on a tough golf course than you do the disappointment of finishing second?

CHAD CAMPBELL: I think so. It is very difficult to get yourself in that position in the last group of a major championship. But I've got to think, you know, take positives out of today the way that I played coming down the stretch, I've got to use that maybe next time that I get in that position. Hopefully that will be soon.

Q. You talked about the shaky start, you didn't feel real solid; was it nerves? If not, what was it?

CHAD CAMPBELL: It wasn't really the way I felt. I felt good. I just didn't hit fairways. I had just a terrible lie on 2. Me and Shaun both did. I don't know if y'all saw, we could barely get it back to the fairway and we were only about five feet off of it.

1, I hit just a bad 3-wood over to the right. It's just not really the start that I was looking for, but once I got in the middle of the round and into the round, I was really relaxed and felt good.

JULIUS MASON: I'm sorry, but Chad has got to leave. A quick hole-by-hole, please.

CHAD CAMPBELL: Bogey on 1. I drove it right and chipped out in the fairway. Hit, I believe, a wedge to probably 15 feet past the hole and missed that.

Bogeyed 6. Just hit the wrong club off that hole. I thought the wind was more right-to-left and it ended up being down. Hit 7-iron and I should have hit 8-iron over that green and it was just dead where that pin was today.

7 was a bogey. Hit a great tee shot, 3-wood and then had 5-iron in. Hit it right, really bad shot, just dead, short-side. Chipped it to 40, 30 feet. 2-putted there.

13 is a birdie. I hit 2-iron, 5-iron, 9-iron to about three feet just above the hole and made a good putt.

No. 14, drove it in the right green-side bunker and fatted it out of there. Then hit a pretty decent chip and left it about four feet and missed that.

And 15, hit it about just short of pin-high on left with a 6-iron and just made a great putt, probably 25 feet.

JULIUS MASON: Thanks very much, Chad.

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