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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

February 22, 2006

Dana Quigley

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVID SENKO: Dana, thanks for joining us. Maybe just real quick, you had a chance to play, this will be your fourth defense this year and fifth including the skins which you won with Raymond Floyd, but would you just talk about your year so far and how you viewed your start.

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, I've been probably not been written but I've been hurt all year. I hurt myself on the Sunday at the MasterCard, my first practice round, or practice rounds, I played 54 holes on Sunday and I played 36 on Monday and 45 on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, my hip was painting me like it was last year, maybe a little worse and I had not had any pain all winter long. I really, really messed it up. It was pretty stupid on my part. But being out there, we were the only two on the golf course and I couldn't resist. It was just too perfect, the setting and everything.

So I have been hurt, I shot 14 under at MasterCard and I was pretty happy with that. I tried not to gauge my performance on what Loren Roberts has done because he's on some kind of drug, we don't know what it is yet, about we're all trying to get it, I know that. I played pretty well. Didn't play great at Turtle Bay on one of the rounds, and last week I was only five shots away from winning and I putted as badly as I have in a few months and tournaments, so I think my ball striking is still going to be pretty solid this year, and when the hip pain goes away, I think I'll be all right.

Q. How did things come about?

DANA QUIGLEY: I played 54 and 36, 90 and 45 I played 135 holes my first few days at Hawaii. Pretty stupid. I play all winter long a lot, but, I don't know, maybe the heat or something, maybe I dehydrated out there and the muscles are trying to, I don't know what it is, the doctors don't tell me, I've had all kind of treatment on it and it has not gotten much better.

Q. Same area?

DANA QUIGLEY: Yeah, same area, yeah, and it had gone away all winter. I didn't have any pain at all all winter, so it's back and you know, I've just got to learn to deal with it and I think gradually, it will go away. I'm not supposed to do a whole lot.

It's not an excuse by any means. Believe me, the level of play is so high this year starting out. It's just going to be tough. You know, I shot 9 under last week, not putting well at all and 14 under won it. So it sounds like I'm not very far away. It just hasn't really happened for me yet and maybe this year it will. But I'm looking forward to each week and the pain will go away and I'll really be able to go hard. My game is based on really going hard at the ball, and you just don't have the trust from my right side for my golf swing.

Q. Was there a single day, that you did not play?

DANA QUIGLEY: In 2006, yeah, I was off three days when I got home. Three days to me is like months, believe me.

I still play every day when I can. Barring travel and weather.

But I just don't think personally, I don't think resting it one day is going to help it at all so that's why I continue to play. I think maybe I can figure a way to play, a different way to hit it, but I really am hitting the ball pretty well, so it could change at any time I think. If we could just slow Loren down, I think you guys need to talk to him into going back to the regular tour and dominating back out there.

Q. What have you tried?

DANA QUIGLEY: I tried acupuncture, I did that all winter and that was a waste. Actually, I brought three Chinese acupuncturists from Naples last week and they worked on me a couple of nights. A lot of massage therapy. I tried the trailer which I had to be shown the way to the trailer because I don't usually go in there, so I've tried that. They worked on it extensively in Hawaii and Turtle Bay and it really didn't get any better. I think it's just something that is going to take some time to go away.

Last year I had an MRI on it and it was completely clean clear. So evidently it's not bone or anything. It's just the muscles are kind of I think they are kind of beat up a little bit.

Q. You mentioned Loren

DANA QUIGLEY: Well, we all know that's a huge advantage. I think if they went out there on the regular tour with the confidence level that they play out here with us, I think they really play well. All three of the guys that do have the dual status could certainly compete out there. That's what we're up against.

It's really a good challenge. It raises the bar to the level that we know that we have to get better to catch him which is good because it's good to have you know, Hale always put the bar up there and now Loren has raised it a little bit higher. It's good to have something to shoot for and something to practice for.

Q. Over the years what have you learned about this golf course?

DANA QUIGLEY: Well, I learned one thing, it changes, every time we get here, it's different. The weather, we always have some kind of weather situation generally, so you've got to deal with that. One year I had a really good shot to win. I shot 66 the final round and lost to Fleisher and I was in the last group. So I played well on this course. It's a great ball strikers golf course, no question. This is one of the better ones we play all year long. I think all of the players really enjoy playing here.

This year, it seems like if the first two days are any indication that the greens are going to be slower, it's not going to be fast. The fairways are soft. The greens are holding which a lot of times they don't. If the weather, they say there's a 20 percent chance of rain, then Friday and Saturday, then I don't think it's going to firm up. It's going to play longer and I think you're going to see you're going to probably see good scores.

But again, we all know it's one of the better ball striker's golf courses. You have to drive it really well and hit it pretty hard. You're not going to get any roll.

Q. Are the greens so slow that there's going to be grumbling?

DANA QUIGLEY: Well, there's always going to be grumbling. Some will grumble if it's too fast and some will grumble if it's too slow. I can't see them change a whole lot between yesterday afternoon and Friday morning, especially with the forecast. So I think they are going to basically stay that way, soft and slow, I think. They will double cut them and they will roll them. But if the weather stays a little bit damp, they won't be able to get them real, real hard and fast at all, I don't think.

This golf course, you just know you've got to play your butt off when you get to the first tee. There's no you can't just coax it around here. And with the field that we have you know someone is going to go deep.

Q. Is length ever a challenge for you playing with the amateurs?

DANA QUIGLEY: Well, you try not to get hit. I think playing with an amateur here, it increases the interest here in this tournament because you get the I played with Vince Gil last year and had a riot doing it. I think we are all professional enough not to let the Amateur part of it hurt our chances of playing well. The guys that are going to play well are going to do it regardless if there's amateurs out there or not. Amateurs are well trained to stay out of the way, they are very good at doing that here.

So I think the Amateurs only adds to the appeal of the golf tournament and the public and I think that's what the Champions Tour needs. We need people out here watching us.

Q. Inaudible?

DANA QUIGLEY: I think they are all amazed they would never tell Hale. Hale has always been secretive in his career what have works well and I don't think players would say I think we all are. I say every time I have an interview, Hale is the guy that has raised the bar to know when you can still play when you're 60 years old. This guy is unbelievable.

That's a thing that you can't take away from anyone with age or anything is your competitive desire. Your competitive desire will always be there. It's if your body and mind supports it. That's a feeling that doesn't ever go away. I can't remember any golfer ever saying he was tired of winning. I think everyone out here is here for the same reason. We just want to see how far we can stretch our body and our minds to points where we need to get to to win, and that's the enjoyment of playing golf. There's only one winner each week and each year coming out, it's the younger guys that are going to present the problem I think.

But through all that, add up the rest of the whole season, there's Hale still and it's an amazing thing. I think every player would say it is an amazing thing.

Q. Inaudible?

DANA QUIGLEY: I don't know who told me in my living room it would be the biggest question when I walk by them in the morning and look at them, I'm just going to think back to what it took to get to do that.

Still, my biggest thrill probably was to win my first one to get exempt status out here where I was a career club pro and never thought I would do it. On this tour, the thrills just keep on happening. The year I had last year, we talked about it, how do we go to this year and not compare which is pretty impossible which I found out after four weeks or three weeks. I'm just going to go out and have a lot of fun and not put any pressure on myself to compare to last year. You know, that was a beyond dream year and it probably won't happen again, but I'm certainly going to try to enjoy it as much as I can and like I say, when I walked through that living room with the trophies there, no one can ever take them away.

I get to see the hair on my arms stand up when I even think about it. I was speechless when I had to speak about these things. For a guy coming from where I came from and never expected to be here, and for that kind of year to happen after eight years out here is, I don't know, it's just hard to believe that I have been blessed enough for that to happen to me and my family.

It will never sour a bad round or a bad tournament or a bad year, it's never going to sour the special feeling I've got from what happened last year.

Q. Inaudible?

DANA QUIGLEY: Three last year I lost tournaments when guys birdied the last three. We're not talking about the last hole, we're talking about the last three holes, if you can think about that, it's pretty remarkable that some guy with birdie the last three to catch and you beat you.

I think a little luck, you know, the whole overall scoring and maybe a little bit, maybe just a birdie when I don't make a birdie coming down, but I was in position enough last year in the majors that I was right there to do it. It if it was meant to happen, it probably would have.

So I have that to try to re do this year. Great thing about the majors is we always go to a new venue, and I never know what to expect because I've never played any of these golf courses. A lot of these guys have played some of them in outings or because they went to, they are special golf courses, which I have never done. So I'm always looking forward to the majors just for the fact that, what kind of challenge those will provide for us. But I think good fortune, good luck is a lot more in a victory when you come down the final stretch, there's a lot of luck involved there

End of FastScripts.

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