BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2002

Brandel Chamblee

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I'd like to welcome Brandel Chamblee to the interview area. Brandel shot a 68 today, 4-under par and is tied for the lead at 18-under par. Let's go ahead and get started with your birdies and bogeys.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Birdied the first hole, 10th hole, here, hit it in the fairway trap and hit a 6-iron out of the trap, a little nervy shot, up there about 15, 20 feet and made it. It was a great way to start the day, because 10 is really not the hole you want to start on. Everybody kind of looks at their tee times coming in here, and asks if I'm starting at 10 on PGA west, they'd prefer not to see that, especially first thing in the morning. Anyway, I was delighted.

And I went on to birdie 14, I believe, the par-5. I hit a good wedge in there, sand wedge in there about ten feet below the hole and made that.

15 is a par-3, I can't tell the difference between that and 17, they both kind of look alike. I hit an 8-iron about 25 feet left of the hole and it was just breaking about six inches right and it went right in. It was good to be hitting so many solid putts.

And then 17 was eventful. I yanked a 9-iron, and I thought it would splash in the water and I could chip it, just drop right in the fringe and chip it up there. But it hit the rocks and jumped into the abyss over there. I didn't know where it was.

All I kept thinking about was like a Jean Van De Velde break, it hit the rock and went over there and no telling how hard this shot is going to be. So when I got over there, I had a root behind my ball, it was actually right on the ball. And I had a tree limb hanging down in front of me and the water was there. And there were a lot of issues.

So I told my caddy, "I'm just going to" -- the only shot I had was to play a low shot. And I said, "I'm going to bank it off the rocks, and whatever happens, happens."

And actually when I hit the rocks and it came back, I thought it was going to stop right by the hole, but it kept trickling, and I almost chipped in for par. There was a lot of stress on 17.

And then 18, I didn't birdie. I knocked it over the green in two and missed it. I didn't birdie 2. And then No. 2 is a par-3. I hit it on the front of the green, and had a putt that broke three different ways, about a 60-footer, and I hit a pitiful putt about 12 feet left of the hole. Made bogey there.

I got it going again, I birdied, I believe it's 4. I hit a good 3-wood there and a little wedge to about 15 feet and made that.

I birdied 6 when I hit a pitch from the left hay over a bunker to about 6 feet and made that.

I parred 7.

8, I drove it too far, kind of down on this downslope and had a very difficult pitch, and just -- I hit a pretty good shot, but not a great shot, about 20, 25 feet and made that.

And then No. 9, I didn't hit a very good drive, kind of off to the right, had to hit a 4-iron. I hit a great shot there -- probably the best shot I hit all day under the circumstances -- and almost made birdie.

So overall scorewise, I'm happy. But I didn't hit it very solid. It was a little more stressful than yesterday.

Q. Was Wednesday the first time you've ever shot your age?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Let's see, did I shoot 39?

Q. Talk about some of the bad possibilities of that shot on 17, what could have happened?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Well, anything. As I was -- I was trying to figure out what to do with the shot, with the root behind it. I couldn't get the leading edge of the club -- the leading edge of the club barely fit behind the ball before the root. And the flange of the sand wedge was on the root. If I come in and it hits the flange, it's going to make the club jump up higher, and I'm going to blade the ball straight into the water.

So then I tried another club that had a smaller flange on it and that didn't look good. What I ended up doing was toeing in my 60-degree sand wedge and putting it on the toe where I could chop down on it and the root wouldn't hit the flange.

All of that still wasn't going to work, but the rocks were behind there, so I told my caddy, I said, "you know" -- and then there were tree limbs hanging down in front of me, to boot. But like a big backstop back there were those rocks. I thought, "I'll just fly it into the rocks and see what happens."

I've seen my amateurs do it for three days, now, and hell, it always turns out pretty good when they do it. I've been paying attention. And just fly it into the rocks, it will come back.

Q. Did you have any other options, like replay the shot?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Well, I could have just -- there was another root right in front of me. I thought about just moving the ball like three feet in front of me and I would have an up-slope. But I had limbs hanging over me. If I did that I would still have to worry about it. I could pitch it and hit the limbs and go into the water or hit it and end up on another root. Unplayable, going back to the tee, you know, was -- that was an option.

But I just felt like if I chopped down on it the ball would get elevated, and looking at the limbs I just thought, what are the odds it's going to hit a limb? It might, it might not. I'm just agitated enough to take the chance. So, you know, it worked out. It could have easily hit the limbs, and come down in the water, I could have bladed it, it could be anything.

I was pretty excited to leave with four. It was unlike any other shot I've had playing the Tour.

Q. You say the ball should have gone in the water. Did it hit the concrete bank?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I don't know, I think it hit a rock. When it was in the air, if I had a shotgun, I would have shot it. It was pitiful. And it -- it looked like it was just going to fly in the water, and then I heard that horrible noise that nobody wants to hear out here, "ping," and then I hear the mumbling from the crowd. That's just never good.

And so I envisioned it being way over against the houses over there, in the hay. And now I've got this pitch over the stands, over the trees, over the rocks to a little bitty sliver of green with rocks on the other side of it. And Jean Van De Velde came to my mind. The next ten minutes are not going to be fun. So I was -- like I said, I was very fortunate to leave with four.

Q. How surprised are you that you shot 68 and are still part of the leader?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Pretty surprised. I still feel like at the end of the day I won't be leading. Somebody somewhere is going to make a slew of birdies coming in. Generally 4-under par doesn't keep pace here. It's 6-under par, 7-under par kind of keeps pace if you're up near the lead. So this golf course is more difficult than the others, and for whatever reason on the rotation that I'm on, the majority of the people leading the tournament or are close to the lead are on this rotation. Lucky for you guys.

Anyway, so they're all having to play this golf course, although Cameron Beckman, what did he shoot? 64. So there goes that theory. I started to say this course was harder, if it wasn't for him.

End of FastScripts....