GREATER GREENSBORO CHRYSLER CLASSIC

April 26, 2002

Robert Gamez

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I would like to welcome Robert Gamez to the media center. Thank you for coming in. He shot matching 67s in his first two rounds and tied to the lead with 10 under par.

Get us started a little bit with how your day went today and how your week is going so far. Obviously pretty well.

ROBERT GAMEZ: My week is going pretty well. I struggled yesterday with my first nine, which was my back nine. I think I hit only two fairways, but when I missed it I was in position where I could get it up around the green and got it up and down. I shot a couple under my first nine yesterday and it got me kickstarted really, because to drive it poorly my first nine and get away with a couple under round, and then I found something on the first tee and started striking it off the tee. I've been hitting it good ever since. My iron play has been good. But like I said, the driver struggled a little bit. My putting has been great. For two days I've made a lot of good putts. My three bogeys have all come from three putts, but for the most part I've made some great putts. I made a good putt on 17 for par, and made a couple of good saves and a bunch of good birdie putts. Overall I'm happy with the way I'm playing.

Q. You were saying out there you're back to being aggressive. Why weren't you earlier? Just confidence?

ROBERT GAMEZ: Just the confidence of it. You know, I think a lot of it has been over the last -- basically the last two years, just trying to make cuts, I'm trying to get my card back. The qualifying school is so hard, and actually last year at the school gave me a lot of confidence, even though I missed by a shot, I made some really good shots, was aggressive all week and it paid off. Yeah, I missed by a shot, shooting 40 my first nine, but I really didn't hit that many shots. And for some reason, I played really aggressive at Pebble Beach this year when I played, and played well, and then the next couple of events, Bay Hill and Tucson, I just -- I really wasn't being aggressive. I don't know why that was. I don't know what happened to make me that way. But I said this week I'm just going to come out and fire at it and see what happens.

That's the way I've always played, and in junior golf and college golf and my first three or four or five years out here, and actually up until the accident really I've played that way. Yes, I've shot a lot of high scores, but also low ones. Over the last few years I haven't shot low scores, ever since I got back from the accident, healthy enough to be able to play well, I haven't hit that many low scores.

Q. (Inaudible) do you know when that was you heard that on TV or where did you hear that?

ROBERT GAMEZ: Bay Hill, he started there, because I was pretty frustrated after Bay Hill. I didn't really play that poorly, but I just wasn't aggressive enough. I hit a couple of funky shots where if I was as aggressive as I should have been, I probably would have hit good shots, instead I hit a couple of bad ones. I made a bogey on one hole and a double on another, and I missed the cut. I was frustrated and watched a little on TV that weekend and I haven't really played. I've been off. So I've watched a lot of golf on TV and watched a lot of the interviews and things that he's done and I started thinking, that's the way I used to play. I mean, I don't know why I'm not doing that anymore. That's how I won my golf tournaments and that's how I've had the finishes I've had in the past. It's just somewhere along the line the last -- well, basically since the accident, I lost a little bit of my confidence and didn't know if I could play that way anymore. And now that I'm actually starting to hit it better again, and I'm putting very well, so I can go ahead and be aggressive again and it's paid off the last two days.

Q. You have a lot of friends in this area, and a pretty big following?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I love Greensboro. Probably besides Bay Hill where I won, this is probably my favorite stop of the year. When I wasn't in the tournament field on Friday, I was really disappointed. I had written for an exception and I didn't get one, but I was close enough. I think I was the 7th alternate Friday night and I felt that was close enough to get in. And when I got the call Monday morning I was really happy. I was either going to play here or in Greenville for the Buy.Com. I'm glad I'm here.

Q. Would you say your aggressiveness let you take advantage of that advantage?

ROBERT GAMEZ: Yes, one way or the other, either here or Greenville I was going to be aggressive. I love Forest Oaks. It's one of my favorites of the year to come play here. They always set the course up tough. The rough is up and the fairways are firm so the ball rolls out into the rough. The greens are always firm. Unfortunately, it's gotten away from that on the tour. The tour seems to be making the greens a lot softer. I know I was there early at Bay Hill and the greens were really firm and the rough was up, and they came in and cut the rough down a little bit and started softening up the greens. I'm just a little frustrated about that and I knew here it would be a lot different and it's nice to come back to a golf course that's set up that way.

Q. Rocco was talking about your game and personally saying some guys would have given up the game, with all the things you've been through. Why have you stuck it out and stuck with the game?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I love playing golf. I love the game of golf. Yeah, the things that I've been going through and the things I've gone through since my accident, and not getting my card back and going back and forth between the two tours, playing both tours, it's real frustrating, but I love playing. I love the competition. Something inside me knew that I could get back to where I should be. Even though my confidence level was low, I knew that I could get back there. I just couldn't bring that to the top. Bob Rotello has helped me a lot with getting out of my way when I putt and trying to stay loose there and not stress about it, because I used to stress about my putting a lot, and now I've stayed out of my own way and let my stroke happen, but I just couldn't get that whatever was inside me saying I could get back, I couldn't get it out.

Q. You're in contention for the weekend. How do you feel?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I'll be nervous. I was nervous the last few holes coming in, but that's a good nervous. It's good to have those butterflies. I haven't had those in a long time. The last time I think I had them was at the Bob Hope last year. I mean, I was playing really well the last day and had 11 under with 3 to go for the last round and I started getting nervous. It was nice and I just haven't gotten that feeling in a while. I didn't even have it at Q-School when I played so well. At the qualifying school, I really felt like I was going to make it, going into the last day. I didn't feel nervous at all. I probably should have been. Things would have been nervous.

Q. Will people look at the newspaper and highlights tonight and say, "I remember him. Whatever happened to him"?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I don't know. It's nice coming back to places that people know me. I come here and everybody -- you actually get a gallery because they come and watch you play every year and you see the same faces and people recognize me. I'm pretty lucky there, where they either remember my shot at Bay Hill or they remember that I was the first one to wear the sunglasses or whatever. That's what people remember about me, which is kind of nice.

Q. The putt on 17, how huge was that?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I was playing well all day and I actually didn't have that bad a lie in the rough. It was one of those lies where the grass was growing with me. It's one you could actually shoot out pretty good, so I kind of decelled on of the chip, thinking it was going to shoot and take off on my. So I was little disappointed with the chip. But it was a huge putt, because after making four birdies in a row, I had some adrenaline going. And as soon as I hit it, I knew it was good. I mean, halfway there I said this is perfect, if it just gets there, and it was a nice putt to make.

Q. (Inaudible)

ROBERT GAMEZ: I won by four.

Q. What do you remember about that shot?

ROBERT GAMEZ: Well, I didn't play with him the last day, but all I know is I had a 6-shot lead going into the last hole and made double. I was so nervous on the last hole. I made a good 10-footer for double on the last hole.

Q. Do you remember the last time you were 10 under on tour?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I can't remember.

Q. It has been that long?

ROBERT GAMEZ: After two rounds -- it's been a while. I played good in Hartford a few years ago, but not this well.

Q. And you said you played 5 tournaments this year?

ROBERT GAMEZ: This is my fifth tournament but my 4th on the regular tour. I played in Lafayette a couple of weeks ago on the Buy.Com.

Q. So you're well rested?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I'm well rested. I can look at it a couple of different ways. I haven't played very much so I don't know how I'm going to play, or I'm well rested. That's the thing. I felt really good. Last year I got a little bit run down at the end of the summertime and I missed 11 cuts in a row last year at one point. It's hard to stay confident that way. But right now I feel great. I'm playing well. I am rested, mentally and physically, and I can go out and have some fun this weekend.

Q. Rocco said that back in '90 you had something in you that let you win that's still there. Do you believe it's still there?

ROBERT GAMEZ: It's still there. That's what I was talking about earlier. I know inside I can get there. I can get back to where I was. It's just a matter of letting it come out. And like I said, being aggressive is the way that helped me to win when I first came out, and helped me to have a bunch of good finishes and I had a few runner-up finishes and lost a playoff to Couples at the Honda Classic one year, but that's how I played. I was aggressive and played that way the whole time and that's how I decided to come in this week.

Q. If you were to win, no telling what would happen?

ROBERT GAMEZ: We'll see. I kind of feel that way as well. It would get me over that hump. There is just this hump I have to get over to get back to where I need to be, and it's being able to pick a schedule and stick to it and knowing ahead of time that I'm going to play somewhere, instead of right now they call me Monday morning and tell me I'm in the event, or I've had it in the last few years where they call me on Tuesday night and say I'm in or whatever. It's tough to play that way.

Q. (Inaudible) would aggressiveness be the key for you?

ROBERT GAMEZ: That's what I'm going to do. That's my plan.

Q. When you come out on tour and have the success you did, do you get caught up in the I'm a star, this is the good life, get caught up in the hoopla?

ROBERT GAMEZ: I didn't get caught up in the "I'm going to be a star" thing. I did get caught up in just having some fun. I mean, just going out and -- you know, I would rather be away from the golf course back then. And there were times, because of the way I used to putt, I mean, I used to be a streaky putter, and a lot of it was when I didn't play well the first day or wasn't putting well, I didn't feel -- why practice if it's not going to work. I would practice, and I'd practice my putting and it just wouldn't get any better, it would get worse, so I just said I'm not going to do it. It's just stupid. Instead of getting help for it, like I should have, instead of seeking somebody -- I started working with Bob Rotello not this past year, but the year before, right after Q-school out in the desert, I should have made it easily, I missed by 3, I missed 10 or 15 three-footers in the six rounds, so I should have made it, I called him on the phone and I said I need help, because I just wasn't getting better. I knew I had the touch to be a good putter. I knew because I'm a good chipper and pitcher around the greens, and I knew I had the touch to do it. I just couldn't get out of my way. I was so mechanical and now I have no mechanical thought whatsoever when I putt. That's the same way I play golf. I don't have mechanical thoughts when I'm playing golf. I don't think about my swing. I don't think about anything. I just think about where I want the ball to go. And I had lost that in my putt, in my short game, and Bob has helped me to free up and just make strokes again and it's starting to pay off.

Q. So you're old and wiser now, where you were younger and stupid?

ROBERT GAMEZ: Exactly. It's one of those things where I want to be aggressive this weekend, but I'll know when to back off. I think that's the thing. That's one thing that I have done, and have learned is that I know when I should back off.

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