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FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP


July 8, 2004


Dana Quigley


DEARBORN, MICHIGAN

DANA QUIGLEY: I'm a pretty good wind player, seriously I was thinking out there at some point like, I'm still through 14 or 15, that the other players must have felt that it was really windy out there, and I really had played 14 or 15 holes without thinking about the wind.

So it's a good mindset for me. I know I'm in a good position, good place, play for 14 holes and not know the wind is blowing. Of course as soon as I started thinking about it, I thought about it every shot. It's a good thing not to think of.

I hit the ball really, really solid and well for me today, and 4 under I think is going to be a good score when it's all said and done. Usually I'm out of contention by the first round. So to get a good, low first round in there, you can build on it for the weekend. It's a good spot.

DAVE SENKO: Just share your thoughts, you've been asked this before, but reaching a milestone, 250.

DANA QUIGLEY: That's the first time I've been asked. It's obviously something I'm very proud of. It certainly didn't detract from any thoughts of playing in the golf tournament today for me. I don't want to minimize the fact of this milestone, but it's really another day of golf for me. As I said I'm very proud, my family is very proud of what I've done and I think the golf world, through the Golf Channel, is aware of what's going on with my streak and everything.

But it's something I don't give a thought to because I play golf every day. I mean, you guys, and girls, have all heard this from me before; that's all I do is play golf. It's a milestone because no one else has ever done it, but for me, it's, I don't even think it's halfway to be honest with you. Unless if I got hurt or injured, I just can't imagine me taking a week off because I didn't want to play golf. I don't see that happening at all.

You know, it's a great thing to get that number 250 here at the Ford Senior PLAYERS, at a major. I love this golf course, it's a nice week for it to fall on, and they honored me last night at the dinner. And I guess when it's all over I'll probably look back and say, man, how the heck did you do it. But while now while it's happening, it's okay.

Q. How good was it to actually go out and play a good round despite the distractions?

DANA QUIGLEY: Obviously, very good, in a major, you know, you can't win on the first day. But certainly, you've all heard this, you can all shoot yourself in the foot and be out of it. I think of the eight Ford Seniors I've played in, I've probably been out of it after the first round or two many more times than I've been it in it.

It was important to get off to a good start, the competition now is so deep, you can't you can't fall back and come back and win out here because it's so strong. It's getting more and more important each week for us to get off on the right foot, very first hole out of the box, and I felt like I was off and running pretty good, good stuff for me.

DAVE SENKO: Just go through your birdies real quick.

DANA QUIGLEY: I birdied 1. I hit driver, pitching wedge, to, I would say ten feet and made it.

2, I drove it in the right bunker. The two bad swings I made were on 2 and 3 today. I just drove it in the right bunker and came out about ten yards short of the green and didn't get up and down. I had about an 8 footer, really solid putt that didn't go in.

3 was a critical hole, I think because I just bogeyed 2 but I drove it in the weeds in the left. I had to chip out across the green. I still had 260 yards to the hole for my third shot, and I got that to the front edge, chipped it up ten feet and made that. So I think that was a critical save for me.

5 played real hard today. Driver, 8 iron about 15 feet behind the hole and made it.

7, I made eagle. Played driver, 4 wood on the green about 20 feet. Usually I have about eight or nine eagles for the year, and this is my first eagle of the year today. So that was kind of another milestone for me, just making an eagle.

And then I birdied 9. I hit driver, nine iron about 15 feet behind the hole on 9.

13, the par 5, I hit driver, 4 wood just off the front of the green on the right, chipped about four feet by and made it.

17, I hit from the tee, my caddie and I both talked about probably not trying to spin the ball up in the corner. The water was in play off the tee because it was downwind. So I laid up off the tee with a 3 iron, I hit a 5 iron to 98 yards, which is the perfect yardage for me, and that green was like concrete. I hit a shot, a 60 degree wedge that took one bounce in the water, and so it was a really good iron shot that I ended up making bogey with. 5 iron, 3 iron, 5 iron, sand wedge; it was one of those good feeling bogeys. I made bogey, but I didn't miss any shots. So those things don't even faze me when that happens.

Q. Everybody is going to mention today, your milestone, 250 in a row, to have that mentioned along with the fact that you were 4 under in the pack just behind Gil Morgan, has got to feel good, yeah, 250, a good day.

DANA QUIGLEY: I imagine 250, it just psyches me up some more. It's not a distraction. I want to make sure you all understand that. It is absolutely not a distraction. I love playing golf and talking to people. Trevino, I don't know if you saw in the telecast, but I'm sure Trevino and I were there, you could see our lips moving the whole time. We had a great time out there talking the whole round and they interviewed us while we were playing.

I play better that way. Fuzzy birdied the last three first tournament of the year, at the MasterCard, and he's another guy that just loves to play because we are talking all the time. The people saying good run, with the 250 in a row, it's just really it keeps me in a good mood to deep playing well I think. I think rather than a distraction, I use that as an incentive to play well. It got me you've got me really geared to play.

Q. Was Mexico this year the closest you came to scratching?

DANA QUIGLEY: Closest in the eight years. The first time I'd really been injured to really not play. I took the five days off before Mexico, we were off that week after Tampa. So I took off the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, didn't play and I flew to Mexico. I think my I didn't really think I was going to be able to play and I wanted to be there in case I could. My family all definitely wanted me to try to play.

So I went and I played in the Pro Am on Thursday, not knowing what to expect, and, you know, it was bad but I was able to play. And you know, because this was 250 here, I'm pretty glad I did play to keep the streak alive.

But I really did not think I was going to be able to play that week; it was hurting that bad. And that was the only time my whole streak that I was really injured, not to play, you know. I mean, we all have nagging injuries, all of us, so I don't even talk about the pains and aches because, you know, we're all a bunch of old men. We're all going to have them.

Q. What was the diagnosis on the elbow?

DANA QUIGLEY: I didn't see a doctor. I've had this elbow since I was 14 and I know I just I snapped my driver, or actually, the guy from Charles Schwab, he was on my range in Tampa on Thursday night and snapped my driver. And I got a new one sent in the mail on Friday. I probably hit 300 or 400 balls with drivers over the course of that weekend trying to see if I could get this one to where my driver usually is because it's a brand new one. I overdid it. I know I can't hit balls with this elbow, and so I've really toned it down since then, knowing that I can't practice.

Q. You said you went 14, 15 holes without noticing the wind. When did you become aware ?

DANA QUIGLEY: There's a scoreboard behind the par 3, the 15th hole, and I was looking at the board and all the scores, they are up there along with my name, all had an F on it, which meant finished and they were all from the morning round. There were no rounds going. I was in second place, but no rounds in the making that were on that leaderboard. I said, well, what the heck, why aren't they shooting? And it just dawned on me that it was really windy. Maybe that green is kind of on a hill where the wind is howling through it, but, man, this wind was really blowing.

I was trying to think of a reason why these guys, you know, because you get just as strong a field in the afternoon as you do in the morning. They try to split it up on TV so both days get a good influx of the players. It's not a question of all the top players played this morning. It was just really tough condition wise. I was hitting the ball so solidly that it really didn't dawn on me.

DAVE SENKO: Thank you, Dana.

End of FastScripts.

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