Q. What's the key to playing good on this golf course?
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: Obviously you've got to keep the ball in play. There's not a lot of -- I think putting on this golf course, you just can't take it personal. The ball just does a lot of strange things out there. You can hit some good putts and they just kind of wander around. I wish I could putt boldly like I say I'm going to every time I come here. I just can't make myself do it. Those 4-footers are just dangerous.
Q. Al, same question.
AL DEL GRECO: I think if you try and cut off too much on a couple hole with tee shots and try to play them too perfect, you can get in trouble. You know, a lot of the holes maybe take a little less club and just get in the fairway like Bart said. But the format is not indicative of that. You kind of want to push the envelope a little bit and give yourself a better chance to make eagle or birdie. But then you have the negative effect, or if you don't hit it perfect, something bad could happen. I agree with Bart in that a lot of good putts don't go in, but I find it hard to chip here because the greens are so soft and spongy. You don't know if it's going to catch and stop or hit and go. Whenever I miss a green, I just get all uptight because I really don't know what the ball is going to do. It putts pressure on you when you're in the fairway not to miss greens, and then you have to relax, keep it in the fairway, hit it on the green and just hope the ball rolls well for you.
Q. Dan, does the golf course lend itself to this format and what you want to do?
DAN QUINN: In the years that I've played well here, just try to get off to a good start of the of. In the middle of the golf course, there's a lot of holes you have to be careful on with severe greens. The par 3s are always a key, I find, and the par 5s.
I think this format, obviously the par 5s, if you can reach, you have huge swings in the points. To shoot a score, obviously if you play the par 3s and par 5s well and play a certain amount of holes, I always think 7 through 12, those holes, just get through them, which to me today, personally, I felt that it was -- I'm thinking normally if I just par through that, I'm happy. Today it didn't feel like that. It was weird. I got my three bogeys and it was like, yuck. That's generally the way I feel this golf course plays. You have a chance if you're swing well at the end of the day, standing on 13 key, you're going to wedges in your hand, two reachable par 5s.
That's the key to the golf course, the most challenging greens you'll ever putt, spongy and fast greens with slope. But it's fun. It's a great golf course. I enjoy every hole out here. I love playing here.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: Me, too.
DAN QUINN: There's not one hole I don't like. They are all fun and it should be a good day tomorrow.
AL DEL GRECO: No. 9 is definitely not fun. (Laughter.) If I could play 17 holes in this tournament I would have won three more times. (Laughter.)
Every year, I have a bad score on that hole every year. Hopefully today was my day and tomorrow won't be.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: You'll birdie it tomorrow.
Q. I know you're nine back, but is it nice to be in the role of the hunter where you can go out there and maybe put a couple numbers up early to play some mind games?
AL DEL GRECO: I think I've won four times out here and I don't think I have ever led. So, I'm not sure I'm a good front-runner.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: You shot a 65 on us one year and zipped past everybody. That was fun to watch.
AL DEL GRECO: Last three rounds here I had 65, 68 and 71. I've had to do that to have a chance. I don't know, like Bart said, I think especially with points adding up ahead of -- I'll be ahead of these guys tomorrow. So even though you have holes to play, you see people with bigger numbers up there than you --
DAN QUINN: The difference is you're leading, but somebody could be three holes ahead of you and catch you. Technically are leading in relation to par. I'm speaking for myself, when I've played this before, I never noticed it before today as much. You feel like you're leading but you just want to cruise in your round.
I think Al would agree, if we were playing medal today, shooting 3-under today yesterday, 2-under through four, that's the perfect spot just to feel your way till you get to 16. It didn't feel that way. It will be a challenge for the guys behind us tomorrow as well.
Q. Does 80 win it tomorrow?
DAN QUINN: I don't think it will be 80. Somebody shoots 80, they win.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: No doubt about it.
AL DEL GRECO: 75 will win.
DAN QUINN: If they get 30 points tomorrow, they win. It's different. Steve did it today. There's no telling. You've got eight points at the end, you could have ten on the last three holes. That's always something that's there. Nobody will know maybe until maybe 16 tomorrow.
I think playing in the last group, Steve probably felt hungry, if you're at the top you're thinking, well, I've to make a birdie here because somebody could make a six and catch me by five points on one hole. I don't know how everybody will react. If the objective was to get some excitement. There should be some tomorrow.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: It should be exciting.
Q. The pressure is what you make of it, obviously, and you can't control anybody else's game, does it make any difference to you the fact that Rhoden and Quinn who have won these this thing eight times are the two closest pursuers?
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: They are our two best players, and certainly the guy I'm sitting next to, they are the heat, no doubt about it. But pressure is what you make it. I've got a great job, I don't -- to me, it's a little more about the trophy than it is about the money. I just feel very fortunate to have an opportunity to compete against these guys because I know what caliber of player they are. If I could just kind of get a sub-sentence behind them, one mention behind them, that will be fine for me.
But they set the bar for us, truly. It's been great. It's not unlike, really, what some of the great players on the PGA TOUR have done there. Guys just continue to get better, because they have to.
Q. The tournament's contract with the Lake Tahoe area is up for renewal and there's been some talk that it could go somewhere else, but what does this tournament mean here, is this a place where you guys want to see this tournament held?
DAN QUINN: Most definitely. I think if you think of all the things involved, I'm sure it will all work out, but no other event could come here and have the success that we've had. You couldn't bring the PGA TOUR or the LPGA or the Seniors. We are a perfect fit. Some of the guys in our field are the big of the players in the casino. All told, people coming from Sacramento, there's never been a better fit. The golf course is good for us. The amount of people is nice. I think it's one of the most -- it's been one of the greatest weeks year-in, year-out for me. I can't see it being a better fit anywhere else, and I don't know that we could ever duplicate it. We've tried on our tour to duplicate this thing. It's impossible.
AL DEL GRECO: I think American Century Championship and Lake Tahoe are synonymous. Whenever throughout the year you talk about something on the Celebrity Tour, the only event that everybody knows about is this one, the one out in Tahoe. I think the golf course is great. Obviously this area is great. We get great crowds every year, and I think this year, with all of the new faces. People saw a lot of different celebrities that they had not seen in the past.
If we can continue to do that, it's a plus for this area for us to come here. I wouldn't want to go anywhere else, to be honest with you. I hope we have it here.
Q. So we would probably see fewer faces if this tournament was somewhere else, just because of the lake and everything?
AL DEL GRECO: I don't know about that. It just wouldn't mean the same. It started here and this is the biggest one every year. This is just our major.
DAN QUINN: There's a lot of factors beyond the tournament that this place offers, like I said, casinos. Our group is a natural to be in the casino. (Laughter.) How can I say it any better? If I was a casino city, I'd have us over here. But these guys I'm sure will echo, I tip my hat to the whole community. There's people you see every year, the volunteers that come in from all over around the valley here, two, three hours away, from San Francisco, it's amazing, it really truly is.
AL DEL GRECO: You've been here every year.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: I don't know how they could replicate it anywhere else.
DAN QUINN: Probably killing negotiations here. (Laughter.)
STEVE BARTKOWSKI: I'm like these guys. I look forward to this week every year. Boy, it's great to get the new guys, as long as they can keep inviting the same old guys back, too. Put a little plug in for the old guys that are feeling threatened, didn't get a chance to play the Pro-Am. That's usual;u first sign that you're the next guy to go. That's pressure. Not getting your ticket punched to come back here, that's the big one.
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