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BUICK INVITATIONAL

January 18, 2005

John Daly

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA

Q. This is where it all started for you last year. Do you feel good about coming back to a familiar place again?

JOHN DALY: Yeah, it's always great, it's been so long since I defended a tournament, and this is one of everybody's favorites. The field is so strong, and they are two great golf courses. So it's always great to come here.

Q. Do you feel differently walking in knowing that this was your last win?

JOHN DALY: No, I still feel the same, fat and all that good stuff, just like any other tournament. (Laughing). It's a new year, so everybody's got to start over, so hopefully it would be great if the results ended up the same.

Q. Is your game where you want it to be?

JOHN DALY: No, it's way, way from it. It's kind of weird playing this as a third tournament. I played Mercedes and took Honolulu off last week. Usually your game is a little better because you've gotten into form about four or five tournaments. And this course, especially the South, isn't very easy to not be tournament-ready. But, you know, just deal with it and go on. Both of them are such great golf courses and you want to play good here. But no, I mean, there's a lot of us that probably are not to where our games, we want them to be.

Q. The tournament starts Thursday, but how fun is it, an event like this, a gallery, giving crap to each other?

JOHN DALY: Oh, it's great. I wish we still had the shootouts we used to have, the nine-hole shootouts we had. It gives the spectators a chance to see some of the guys when we are not so serious and makes it a lot more fun. But this is kind of great. You know, Century they do a great job, and Buick behind us, everybody knows Buick has been one of our great sponsors ever, and great to do that and hopefully donate money.

Q. Is it like Masters -- no one who won the par-3 won the tournament?

JOHN DALY: Maybe that's it. Maybe I ought to try and win it. Maybe I could be the only one to do it. That is weird how nobody has ever won a tournament like that, winning the par 3.

Q. Is this a good week to find out where your game is, because the field is strong and all the top players are here?

JOHN DALY: Just try to do the best you can. Like I said, I'm still pretty rusty. I took three weeks off and that's probably the most I've taken off since I've been out here. Chipping and putting -- usually you can get it around, but hitting it -- chipping and putting is what wins tournaments.

Q. After they redid the course, there was the focus on length, last year, in a playoff with Luke Donald, does that give a testament that it still anyone's tournament?

JOHN DALY: Definitely the fairways are, we're going like 40-yard fairways pretty much all year long and that's -- when I first came out here, I think there was like. 60 and some of the rough is up because of all the rain. So I've just got to try and keep it in play and get lucky and get good lies in the rough.

Q. How different is the South now, preparing for the U.S. Open, have you played the South?

JOHN DALY: I haven't played it yet. I'll play it tomorrow. It's a tough golf course any way you look at it. Even if the weather is bad, when the weather is good, it's hard.

So when the wind starts to pick up and all that, it's going to be -- the USGA is going to make it brutal when they come here.

Q. What did you do last week?

JOHN DALY: I just hung out and practiced a little bit up in Ontario with one of my sponsors, Chris Rodson, (ph) and played golf with those guys and relaxed a little bit.

Q. You were vocal in the fact that you thought you should have got a pick in the Ryder Cup team, and you have Presidents Cup coming up this year, is that a goal for you?

JOHN DALY: Oh, I've love to. That wasn't me that was trying to get picked for the Ryder Cup. I think I had a lot of fans pulling on Hal to pick, me and it would have been great, but the Presidents Cup is definitely on my mind. I would love to be able to play in it.

Q. Do you feel like this year is more normal, people are concentrating on golf and not things happening off the course?

JOHN DALY: I think so. We come here and try it do the best we can, and that's all you can do. It's a great venue and that's why I think it's a great city to have it, and that's why it's been here for so long.

Q. How do the galleries treat you in San Diego, any differently from any other tournament?

JOHN DALY: When I play good, they are rowdy, and that's what's great, I love it. The more rowdier, the better.

Q. With the Open coming up in three years, do you look at the course any differently or taking special note?

JOHN DALY: Well, I mean, this course is soft right now. Usually when we play, it's pretty soft. And the USGA will probably put heaters under the greens when they come here, and the rough will be about two or three inches higher and the greens will be about four Stimps faster; it's a totally different golf course.

All of the great golf courses that we play, through my career that I've played, the USGA makes them -- they don't play the same because they make them so much harder than they already are. The South Course is hard. If it's dry in June, which it probably will be, it's a totally different golf course.

Q. Are you a different player when you show up now to play, knowing that every time you tee it up you have a chance to win?

JOHN DALY: It makes me feel better. You take a nine-year drought, you start to wonder. I think winning in Germany in 2001, and I had a few chances on our tour in 2001; I just didn't do it. You have a little doubt in your mind. It just feels good to win again, and nine years is a long time.

Q. Other than confidence, what comes out of winning? Is there more of a relaxed state of mind when you win?

JOHN DALY: I think for me it was more of a relief because it was so long since I won. Like Vijay and Tiger, they are on these rolls now, and Ernie, even Retief Goosen, they are on rolls. Even if they don't win, they upset -- they are not mad-mad, but they expect to win.

The way I'm playing with the equipment I have now, I feel like right when I tee it up, I've got a good chance to win because I've got confidence in my equipment for the first time in a lot of years.

Q. How calming is that now?

JOHN DALY: It's very calming. I mean, you know, me and Peter, like we did last year, we won bounceback Player of the Year and that's what our goal was for the whole year, and the results were good. So we're going to continue to work on that and you know, that's what it did for me last year.

Q. Are you eager to get going this week, John?

JOHN DALY: This is mellow. I'm not in no hurry. I get to play with Drew Brees tomorrow in the Pro-Am, so I'm looking forward to meeting him.

Q. What's your schedule for early part of the year?

JOHN DALY: Hope and Phoenix, take a week off and play L.A. and hopefully Match Play.

Q. Do you have the same motivation and drive that you did at the beginning of your career? Or do you just a little more casual now?

JOHN DALY: More drive but more casual, if that makes any sense. I don't get too uptight anymore. I feel the pressure all the time, which is great, but it's more like positive pressure. A the lot of times I tee it up, I had some negative pressure, used to bring some of the things that went through in my life on the golf course, and now I don't really have those problems anymore. So that kind of makes it easier.

Q. How are you different now than when you first broke out and won the PGA Championship?

JOHN DALY: It just took me forever to mature a little bit. That's it, it's just mature. You play this game long enough -- I feel like my swing is where I wanted to be. I'm very gifted for myself. I'm very lucky that I don't have to go out and hit a thousand balls a day. I remember Nicklaus saying one time, if he hit 12 perfect balls on the driving range that was it; he he's not going to hit anymore. You take Vijay who works on it, works on it, works on it; if I stay on the driving range more than an hour or two, I feel like I get negative thoughts in my mind. I don't think I could have that stamina what he does to sit on the range that long. I could chip and putt forever, but I can't hit balls that long.

Q. When you first came out, you hit it so much farther than everyone else, and technology has improved and everyone bombs it out to where you used to; does that make you change your game?

JOHN DALY: No. I went back with Dunlop and I signed with them and I bit the ball, that's about 14 back in technology, I went back to a lot softer ball, a low track ball that doesn't go as far but it's consistent. My irons, my yardages are really consistent. It's wonderful around the greens. It's like an old HT-Maxfli or the old Maxfli. The balls today, if I hit them, I can hit it 30 yards further, but with my swing I've got to have control. And the balls today, the dimples are so big, which gives you more spin which gives you less control. And just doing that with Dunlop, that was unbelievable help for me, and last year was the first year I used them at this tournament and I only had six balls for the week.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JOHN DALY: Grip-it-and-rip-it's always there. I just don't have to try and hit it past these guys. My goal is just to play good around the greens and that's where you win.

Q. Did you win the week with six balls, too?

JOHN DALY: We had two left.

Q. Would you say your short game is the most underrated part of your game?

JOHN DALY: That's what I work on probably more than anything. I love to chip and I love to putt, and that's for us, that's what Wednesday tournaments. In golf today, kids even, they want to go on the driving range and just beat balls and beat balls. The outings and stuff I do all over the country and the world, all you see is kids on the driving range. You never see them chipping and putting that much, and that's something that I think the Tour, all of the players, we need to look hard at and help grow the game. We've got to get better at that.

End of FastScripts.

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