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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

October 31, 2006

Arron Oberholser

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Pre-Round

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Congratulations on your first TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola, 22nd on the Money List, and won your first event at the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro Am; a great season. Maybe talk about your year so far.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: It's been good. Obviously I've made a lot of large strides this year in my game as well as other parts of my life, which is important as well. It's been a great year, and I've learned a lot about my golf swing and what I am capable of on the golf course this year, and I think that's going to serve me well in years to come.

I've also learned a lot about, I guess, for lack of a better term, my physical body: What it is capable of and what it's not capable of at 31 years old. Definitely not the same things I was at 23 years old, that's for sure, and in other ways more capable.

I think understanding your limitations is really important out here, and I'm not going to be able to play and hit the ball like Tiger or Vijay or Phil or those guys who hit it 400 yards, so I've got to I've just come to the conclusion that I'm never going to be able to fly the ball 330 unless I'm at altitude with a gale force wind at my back, so I've just got to play my game. I think that's the biggest thing that's come out of this year for me.

Q. Which parts of your game you said you made strides. Anything technically certain part of your game you've gotten better at noticeably this year?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: This all comes to the body part actually. I've really worked hard with my trainer in Colorado over the last year and a half, and I've gotten a lot stronger endurance wise. I've been able to go four rounds and feel as good on Sunday as I have on Thursday, which wasn't the case in '03 and '04.

I've been able to consistently hit the ball the same distance each round, whereas before it felt like I got tired, got lethargic going into the fourth round, and the distance wasn't I wasn't hitting the driver as far and just kind of lost it a little going in there.

Now I feel like it's the technical side of the golf swing has actually improved because my strength and my endurance to be able to swing the golf club is improved. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a player is swinging the golf club when you're tired and worn down and you work into bad habits because your body can't maintain the right posture, the right position in the golf swings and so on and so forth. I can get real technical, but you guys would fall asleep.

Q. Speaking of grind, you're going to be asked to play a whole bunch in a relatively small window when this FedEx thing what about that?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Next year, yeah. I'm playing the same amount of events. I've got 23 events scheduled for next year as of right now. I think that with one less month, that's probably the perfect amount of golf. I don't have a lot of two week breaks like I did this year, which I enjoy, because one week off is really not enough in certain instances when you're playing a lot of really difficult golf courses back to back to back.

But then again, no one is going to have any charitable dinners for myself, either. No one really cares about the rest we get, but we care.

So in order to play my best and have an opportunity to play my best every week, I like to have a certain amount of rest going into certain tournaments, especially the major championships. That's going to be tested next year, and I think it's going to be tested for all of us. I think we're all going to be experiencing something new next year obviously, and we might have to tweak our schedules on the fly here and there to adjust to whatever we might have to adjust to during the year.

It's going to be interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how this whole thing shakes down, to be honest with you. I was kind of skeptical about it at the beginning, but I think it could be pretty neat coming down the stretch, but we'll have to wait and see.

Q. Skeptical why? Because it's such a radical departure of 60 years?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, the biggest reason and I think the best reason, for us to do the change was that well, no one can compete with football on Sunday. No one. I mean, football is king in this country; we all know that.

I think it was a good move to shorten the season for that reason alone. I think the points system just gives it that much more I don't know, at least I was skeptical to answer your question, I was skeptical. I was like, Why are we being like NASCAR? They've got the same thing.

After I thought about it, I think it could lend itself to some really maybe more exciting things for the fans to watch, the fans watching. I don't know, we're just going to have to wait and see how it shakes out, but it could be more exciting; it might be just the same thing.

Q. Make a prediction. How much more excitement? Does the excitement increase 50 percent? 10 percent?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm terrible at predictions if you saw my football picks. I don't know, I honestly don't know. With our sport it's still even with Tiger being the person that he is and doing what he's doing, I mean, our sport is still very it's still not that mainstream.

You know, there's a few tournaments that have very mainstream fans. Phoenix for one, Dallas. But for the most part, you know, you're going to have we're going to have our hard core fans every week. The guys that are golf nuts and love to watch and love to come out to the tournaments and they go to the tournaments every year and that's their thing.

I don't know how many more people we're going to attract. I can't predict it. I hope we attract more, but I'm definitely not going to say we're going to attract 50 percent more.

Q. Is it going to be harder for the sidewalk casual guy hiding on The Golf Channel next year versus ESPN and USA network? Does that make the challenge a little more difficult? Speaking of radical changes

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, that is a radical change. You know, I don't foresee that happening, because it seems that Golf Channel now is part of everybody's basic cable package. It's not an upgrade or anything like that. You're going to have it; just look on your guide.

There have been commercials airing left and right all year, telling people we're moving to The Golf Channel, we're moving to The Golf Channel. Most of the time they've been on The Golf Channel, that's the problem.

I'm hoping they got out in other facets and got to other parts of the media that were able to or other just I think we're going to be fine. I just think that people might have to search for the first maybe month or so and find out where we are, because they're so used to TNT and USA and ESPN, seeing our Thursday Friday coverage.

Q. Now that you're here, what have you found to be the best part of being here?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: At the TOUR Championship?

Q. Yeah, maybe not necessarily a perk, but just overall. Anything struck you this week?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Well, this is my first time on the property today.

Q. Played it yet?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: What struck me I just played the back nine.

What struck me is what an absolutely wonderful job that Mr. Cousins has done with this area, considering from what I understood, my manager and my agent went to Georgia Tech, played with Stewart Cink at Georgia Tech and said they'd come over here a lot.

His comment was this was '96, '97 because we're the same age. So when he was a junior or senior at Georgia Tech, the bet would press every time they heard a gunshot was the running deal at Georgia Tech.

Q. And they were playing for FedEx Cup money at the end, weren't they (laughter)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: To see this area, to roll in here today and see this area, it's just kind of done a complete 180 from what he made it sound like is pretty impressive on everybody's part, what a good job. Apart from that, the golf course is awfully fantastic.

Q. For your own part, do you feel special this week in simple terms?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: No, I don't feel special. I never feel special, only to my mom.

Q. I'm not trying to be your mother here. You're set for next year in terms of your

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't look at it like that. I look at it as just another golf tournament. There just happens to be 27 guys in the field instead of 144 or 156.

Q. Or 30.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: You've still got to go out and beat 26 other guys, and a very elite 26 guys. It's a culmination it's hard work. It means a lot. But by the same token, I'm not resting on my laurels this week. I'm going to go out and win a golf tournament. I'm not here just doing my parade wave.

Q. What about this golf course makes it fantastic in your mind?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm a big fan you all know that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and I grew up on a lot of old school golf courses, and this is another old school golf course. I love seeing greens slope back to front. I love seeing them pitched in at the sides like they are. I like hitting mid irons into par 4s where you're not running around hitting wedges into all the par 4s. Well, I'm hitting mid irons. Some guys are hitting 8s and 9s. It's enjoyable.

You know what I'm surprised at? It's really narrow. I didn't know it was as narrow as it was. Those fairways are no more than 25, 30 yards wide in spots, and they're really, really good. You've got to really drive the ball extremely well out here because you're not going to it's a crap shoot whether you're going to put it in the rough. You never know whether you're going to get a good lie or a bad lie for sure.

Q. How does your mindset change after you win an early season event as far as what's going through your mind for the rest of the year?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: It frees you up a little bit, there's no doubt. You feel like you can fire at more flags. You feel like you don't have to play as safe, maybe as safe as you would maybe if you didn't know you had a job for the next two years. You know, I think the goal is to learn how to play like that when everything is on the line.

But it definitely the biggest thing is it frees you up for the rest of the year and allows you to just do some things that maybe you wouldn't be as eager to do on the golf course beforehand.

Q. Did you watch the Ryder Cup?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I did.

Q. Comments, please?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Phew. I don't know if you guys were as upset as I was at it, but I was pretty upset watching it to be very honest with you. You know, the Europeans, they're just they are so good as a unit. It's unbelievable how good they are as a unit. You know, it just goes to show you having the 1, 2 and 3 players in the world doesn't mean anything if you don't have 4 through 12 playing well.

And when 1, 2 and 3 don't play well, then you're really in deep pooh pooh. I think the PGA, in my humblest of opinions, should really take a step back and think about their points structure and revamp it in my opinion. I don't know anything about anything about this, being a fourth year player, but in my opinion, they really need to think twice about what they're doing.

Q. What did they do wrong?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think quadrupling or tripling the points was a bit too much in my opinion. I thought it was a bit too much. I thought that I think that in my opinion as well as actually some other guys in the locker room but speaking only for myself, that I shouldn't have to split points with a European guy in the Top 10 or an international guy if I finish Top 10. I think it should be the Top 10 Americans that get points, not the

Q. Wouldn't that reward mediocrity? Because there was an occasion where one guy would have finished 28th and gotten Top 10 points for it.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Well, I think that is telling you who is playing the most consistently throughout the year in my opinion, you know.

Q. What about two other ideas. You only get points in the year in which the Cup is going to be played

ARRON OBERHOLSER: That's not a bad idea, either.

Q. Another idea is maybe you forget about the whole points mess and maybe you give six picks or you just hire somebody and say, Give us a team.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think the pick situation in my opinion is fine. I like the way they do the points. I just think that I don't know why they just don't do it I was looking at the list after it was all said and done after the Ryder Cup was over, and I went down the Money List and then I went down the World Rankings, and half and half, five off the World Rankings and five off the Money List, just like the Europeans do.

They seem to get a pretty good team every year. Why don't we just do that? No shame in copying them. They're whipping our rears. Might as well do the same thing they're doing.

Q. What about 12 captain's picks? What do you think of that?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Seriously? That's a very radical idea. I don't think that it's a bad one necessarily. Boy, you'd better have a guy who really knows what he's doing.

You talk about stress on a captain, holy mackerel.

Q. Taking yourself out of the equation and without naming names, are there players that weren't on the team that could have made a difference, 18 and a half to 9 and a half?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yes.

Q. Go ahead and name names.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't know if I want to do that. I think we had some we had a good team. We didn't have a great team; we had a good team. We had very capable players 1 through 12. They just didn't get it done. That's all there is to it.

I don't know that I would have helped any more or any less if I would have been on the team. But I didn't play well enough to make the team, so that's a moot point.

Q. How is your health?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Good. Everything is excellent.

Q. Hip?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Hip is fine.

Q. Speaking of radical ideas, what, if anything, if you were commissioner, could you or would you do

ARRON OBERHOLSER: If I was commissioner. I love it.

Q. to get Tiger and Phil to play in this thing? Fix it for us.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think it's being fixed. I think next year is a Phil seems to go galavanting around the world after September, so he doesn't want to play after October. His season is done. We do have the longest season in sports. The European Tour really has the longest season in sports, and then maybe the men's tennis Tour, and then it's the PGA TOUR. I mean, we're out here for days.

You know, I think one of the reasons football is king is because it's a short season. Everybody can follow it, and it has an ending and blah blah blah, and one team walks home with the dough and that's it.

I think these drawn out seasons you lose people sometimes, and that's why I think shortening a season, even if it's just by one month, is going to help a lot of things. You're going to get more of the top players playing more often in my opinion, and I can't see in September the weather here should be I don't live here, but it should be fantastic I would think.

Q. It'll be hot.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Hot is fine. We don't care about hot. We don't care about hot and humid. I think I'd rather play in 90 degrees and humid than 50 degrees and raining any day of the week.

Q. That's Friday.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Is that Friday? Yeah.

Q. Are the top players really going to play more, or is it just going to seem like it? Tiger, instead of playing 18 out of 45 he'll play 18 out of 38.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I think it's going to seem like the guys are playing more, but I'm not playing any more next year. This will be my 23rd this year with an extra month, so there's going to be one less month and I'll play the same amount of events, and then I'll play one or two after the deal.

I just think that you're going to see us more often rather than us taking a month off or three weeks off or two weeks off. It's going to be like three on, one week off, three on, one week off, three on, one week off, two on, one week off.

Guys aren't going to be going for a long period of time. The way the schedule shakes out the way the schedule shakes out, they jumbled up some tournaments, and unfortunately my schedule I'm going to have to miss some tournaments I enjoy playing.

It doesn't look like I'm going to play Wachovia next year because I love to play the BellSouth and Colonial and I love to play the Byron. I don't want to play five in a row, especially on those tracks with TPC in there. That's a killer. I'll be a vegetable after that. Considering how I grind on every shot and how I play the game, I'm good for three, four tops. I think some guys are going to have some issues like that with the schedule.

Q. Speaking of the end, with Firestone, the PGA, Greensboro, and then the big four, how many guys do you think will play six of seven at the end? ? And will you?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Including the big four?

Q. Well, it goes: Firestone, PGA, Greensboro, and then the big four.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'll play six out of seven. That will be me.

Q. And then you'll be ready to go for The Presidents Cup two weeks after the season is over?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Tell me about it.

Q. Do you think guys will do that?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I can't see too many guys missing the FedEx Cup playoff deals. I can't see anybody ditching out on the Bridgestone.

Q. Can you see a guy of a Tiger or Phil level, if they're playing well, bailing out on one of the tournaments going into the TOUR Championship?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I would imagine if they have the option to do that and they want some rest and they know they're going to be playing The Presidents Cup, I would think they would do that just so they save themselves.

Q. Would you do it? Let's say you had a great year next year. Let's say you were 4th going into the points thing and you did really well in New York, finished 2nd or so and 2nd in the next one. Do you take the third one off and get ready for the TOUR Championship?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't know. Ask me that next year if I'm fortunate enough to be in that position.

Q. I'll forget by then.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I don't know, Ferg, seriously. That's a tough call. It's the playoffs. I mean, it's not like the New England Patriots go, You know, I don't think we're going to play this week. We're just going to take this week off and we'll play next week. You're scheduled to play, you play. That's how the playoffs work. If it's the playoffs, then there should be a way to have guys there that need to be there for the playoffs.

Q. Are you in favor of the idea of starting from the first one, paring the field down as you get closer and closer to the TOUR Championship?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: There's been talk about that, and it's kind of a cool idea. I think that you probably could mathematically eliminate guys, but then it all comes down to the masses talking about playing opportunities. That's one of the biggest gripes on the Tour, is guys want more playing opportunities.

Q. They've got Vegas for that, don't they?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: That's why they have seven events afterwards. If you're mathematically eliminated, you won't have a chance to make it. I don't know, NASCAR doesn't do that. NASCAR still has everybody run because, look, Tony Stewart won last week and you're surprised I knew that?

Tony Stewart won last week and he wasn't even in the Chase for the Cup. I think that you create I think it's a cool idea. I don't know if it's a good idea. It's a cool thought, but I don't think you're going to make a lot of friends making that decision out on this Tour as a commissioner, if I put on my commissioner's hat.

Q. What if someone bailed out on The Presidents Cup? Said, I don't need a Presidents Cup, I've got a FedEx Cup.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Oh, man. You know, I just

Q. You just played seven out of nine weeks. After the British, played your brains out, tank is empty

ARRON OBERHOLSER: You guys all raise good questions and good points. I don't know what guys are going to do. I know what I'd do: I'd play the Presidents Cup, even if I was a blubbering idiot. It's a team event. And you're playing for your country, and that's an honor and a privilege. The first guy that I see back out of one of those events for anything other than a life threatening illness or an injury or having a kid born or something big like that, their name is mud in the locker room in my opinion. Seriously. There's no excuses for that in my opinion.

Q. You're going to have 144 guys tee it up the first of the four. What about the guy that's 145 and has to go home and sit on his butt for four weeks? Say Troy Matteson or wherever he would have been under this year's scenario?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: He wouldn't have made it?

Q. I don't know. He was 160 something when he won.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: The kid is playing in the Masters next year. Went from 160 to the Top 40 in four weeks. The 145 guy?

Q. Four weeks off is a long time. I guess he's going to have to play the sentinel on the back end.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: This is what I think most guys would answer, and I'm going to say the same thing. I'm going to say that you've had X amount of time to get it done and you didn't get it done. That's all there is to it. This is survival of the fittest out here. It's the purest form of sports capitalism in my opinion, and that's why a lot of people are attracted to it and a lot of people love it and why I think most of us who play out here love it is because you get what you earn.

There are no guaranteed contracts for the most part, and you've got to play well to make a check. You can't go out there and go 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and make a check.

Q. All research that I've seen tells us that interesting golf peaks at the U.S. Open and then starts falling off steadily after that. Why not just start the playoffs at the 1st of August, something like that, get it over sooner?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: You'd really tick off the PGA of America. Where do you put the PGA? Where do you put the PGA Championship? The PGA Championship is a major championship. It's been around for years. It's a major, major tournament.

Q. They played in February one year.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah.

Q. They been around forever. They should have moved it to May long ago.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: That's where THE PLAYERS Championship is.

Q. They let you guys take that spot.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm not the commissioner. Get Timmy up here and have him answer the questions like that, because I can't answer those questions. Those are good questions, tough questions, but I can't answer those.

Q. We've been talking all day to people here, and basically it boils down to how many tournaments you're going to play, how many tournaments haven't you played, and all this other stuff.

So now they're saying, Well, we don't like to play a lot of tournaments in a row, and now you've created a system toward the end of the season. What are you going to play, seven in a row? Then if you're really good then you're going to go out and play The Presidents Cup?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm going to take it that you really don't like this system.

Q. I don't dislike the system. I think it's better than what you have now. But what I'm saying is the arguments to me don't match. I couldn't expect a guy, if they don't want to play seven weeks in a row now

ARRON OBERHOLSER: They're not going to play seven weeks in a row next year. That's pretty good logic, yeah. I tend to agree with that myself.

Q. I covered NASCAR, and they had to drive all these races. End of season, parts of season, there's guys shouldn't even have been in a race car they were so worn out, beat up from accidents or whatever.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah.

Q. You and everybody else are going to be awfully tired toward the end of next season.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yes, we will. I'd better get on the treadmill early this next season.

Q. I don't know if you can change that. It's just natural the human body wears down after a period of time.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I agree with you. You know, this is a physical sport and we are in my opinion considered athletes, even though some people wouldn't consider us athletes. I consider us very good athletes.

You know, there are going to be some aches and pains and some guys that are going to be playing a little bit more than they're used to. You know, we're playing for a lot of money. Suck it up and get it done, man.

Q. I would think you would have been better off in performance to build in a break somewhere.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Like an all star break?

Q. We talked about the World Series. Now because of rain and the way the playoffs works out

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I have another opinion on the World Series. They need to move that up, because football is killing the World Series, too.

Q. One team got a good bit of rest because they finished early, so it's possible for that to happen.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, who knows. I mean, who knows. I don't know. I'm not a baseball player, but I do know that there will be some tired golfers at the end of next season when you have to stuff a full season into one less month.

Q. Speaking of tired golfers, what was your take when you saw Tiger Woods was skipping this because he's tired?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Hey, we're independent contractors. That's the best politically correct answer I can give you (laughter).

Q. What's the worst?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Does that ruin the World Ranking points deal this week because he's not here? That's a bummer. Because if I get less points because he's not here I might have to write a letter.

Q. What's the most politically incorrect thing you could say?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'm not going to do that. I'm not a rookie anymore, Dougy. Nice try.

Q. Are there too many self acclaimed important tournaments in golf if we have the top two Americans skipping an event like this?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I just think

Q. Now we have next year, these self acclaimed big tournaments.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I just think that the guys the competition is so good now and the golf courses are getting tougher and tougher each year, and trying to make it more challenging for us each year because a lot of tournaments have this thing with par. So I think you're getting guys that are just getting tired. Guys are getting tired. The top guys who play a lot and who win a lot like Tiger and Phil and who are up there constantly. It takes a lot out of you to compete at that level for a season, for a long season like that, at that level where you're always grinding and you're always in contention week in and week out. It's a difficult grind. It wears you out mentally as much as it does physically in my opinion.

Q. Does the advent of the FedEx Series move the invitationals down another notch on the pecking order?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: In my opinion I don't think so. I only played one invitational this year. I played Colonial. I love that place. The only reason I don't play the other two is because they just again, scheduling. They just don't fit into what I want to do schedule wise.

But I don't think that that provides that that gives them any less importance. It's an honor to be invited in my opinion to Mr. Palmer's tournament, Mr. Nicklaus' tournament when you get in those fields. Yes, I probably should play, I agree with that. But unfortunately, some scheduling conflicts, and I don't tend to play well at those two golf courses and I play well at Colonial. I think that's another thing to take into consideration in guys' schedules. Horses for courses, and some guys play better on some courses than others.

End of FastScripts.

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