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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

October 31, 2006

Brett Quigley

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Pre-Round

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Brett Quigley to the 2006 TOUR Championship. Brett, pretty much a breakout year for you this year; career high ten Top 10s, you come in 18th on the Money List. Talk about how excited you are to be here this week for the first time.

BRETT QUIGLEY: It's like a Christmas present come early, it really is. At the start of the year I hadn't really thought about it. I think starting the year my goal was to win a golf tournament.

I guess, unfortunately, I haven't done that yet, but I've played pretty well along the way, and that's kind just been comfortable, just been confident, and that's kind of snowballed into a great year.

TODD BUDNICK: What would a win do for you this week.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think a win this week would be the ultimate. Against this field, it definitely would be the ultimate.

Q. What was the turning point for you this year, do you think, Westchester?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Hilton Head. I had a chance to win there, but I just I hadn't played well up until that point. I missed a bunch of cuts and just got into thinking about playing golf again. I think out here, certainly for me the last few years, I've just gotten away from thinking about winning golf tournaments. I think because I've been down that 75 to 150th guy for so long, for me I've been stuck in a rut and not really not playing golf to win tournaments.

And this year really the beginning of the year I started thinking about that, and then at Hilton Head it just came together there. As a result, from there on I played pretty darn nice.

Q. Now, if this is a Christmas present come early, what is it for Tiger and Phil, a root canal (laughter)? You knew it was coming, Brett.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Yeah. You know, the only thing that I would say is that I think that's going to show that the FedEx is really going to work, because they don't have to play after September.

If it's been a long year for them, or if they'd shut it down October 1st, certainly it looks like that would be a great thing for them.

Q. I think Phil was thinking July (laughter).

BRETT QUIGLEY: Well, to me he never seemed right after the Open, the U.S. Open I guess I should say. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he had made par on 18 for the rest of the year. It wouldn't have surprised me if he won the next two.

Q. The guy who did win the next two might have had something to say about it.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Yeah, I think he got a little motivated there. You know, it was a pretty good rivalry I thought, especially with Pelz kind of stirring the pot there a little in the middle. I think that got Tiger motivated. Obviously Tiger went through a lot of stuff this year, and I think that was the spark that he needed to get him back, thinking about golf. I'm sure Phil wasn't happy about that.

Q. Speaking of the FedEx Cup series, what's your take on that? What do you like and what do you dislike about it?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think you're going to see a lot of guys I think you'll see guys playing more events. At the beginning of the year I think guys will kind of fall in line early to get some points early, or at least to just get a feel for it.

It'll be interesting to see how the schedule works, because there's a lot of great tournaments leading into that whole stretch there, the playoffs.

Overall for golf, I think it's going to be good. I really think the guys are going to look at Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Retief, guys that they don't want to play they're saying they don't want to play October, November I mean, I'll play every week.

We have 52 events, and I think I played 32 this year. It was all I could do to not play a few more. I think those guys will fall in line with that, and I think it'll be a good thing.

Q. How much did you know about the FedEx Cup in January of this year?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Nothing.

Q. Zero?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Zero. I mean, we had some ideas, excuse me. I guess zero is not the right answer. We had some ideas, we just didn't know which way it was going. So as far as direction or what the plan was, no.

Q. I'd be curious if there was any type of urgency to make sure that this wasn't a year where you battled for your card, knowing that maybe 126 through 150 was going to be in not so good a shape.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think a lot of guys knew. I think there are going to be limited opportunities next year. I don't think you see Q school guys getting in as much next year, certainly the 126 to 150 category that I've played out of a couple times won't get the same access; veteran members won't get the same access.

You'll see a lot stronger fields in the Nationwide events as a result down the line.

Q. Why don't those guys get in as much, the 125 to 150?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think you'll see 31 to 125 playing more events, because they want to make that playoff and get into those last three or four events. I think you'll have guys it's funny, I think you'll have the guys 31 on adding three, four, five more events.

I don't know if we'll see how much Tiger and Phil and what those guys add. So I think that the access from Q school will be I think you'll see some reduction with numbers.

Q. Do you think the general public is really going to care about who needs points one week to the next? Some marketing people I've spoken with have basically said it's a bit confusing, people either want to watch golf or they don't want to watch golf. They'll care at the end of the season maybe, but during the buildup during the season, do you think the general public cares about what points are needed for what player?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think that depends on you guys. The only thing that I can think of is the four majors were two amateur events before and two professional events. I mean, that's changed over time. Not to compare the FedEx Cup with majors, but certainly you can change that perception.

Q. What would you rather win next year, a major or the FedEx Cup?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I'd say a major.

Q. You've thought about that way too long.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Well, it's a question that someone asked me last week: Would you rather have one win this year or ten Top 10s and me playing in the TOUR Championship? My thought was a win.

It's funny, my wife and I were talking about it. She said I played much better this year, had a better year having ten Top 10s, having a chance to win and not having done it. So making the TOUR Championship playing well all year or most of the year as opposed to maybe a lot of guys there are a few guys not here that have won tournaments, and not in the Top 30.

So would you rather have played great all year or just won one tournament.

Q. Is 140 guys too many? Maybe they ought to make that a little more exclusive.

BRETT QUIGLEY: No, I don't think so. If you want to have a true playoff or a true reduction, have the TOUR Championship with 32 guys, match play. You're going to have elimination every day. I mean, if that's what you want to call a playoff.

Calling this a playoff, to me it's similar to NASCAR. We're not like other sports where guys get straightaway eliminated, whether it's Yankees or Mets or whomever. But if you're dying to have a reduction against the field

Q. You didn't mention the Red Sox there.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I can't even talk about the Red Sox anymore.

Have a match play tournament the last event.

Q. Do you think it might be better, though, if you started at 144 in Chicago, I think, to knock it down to 96 in Boston and 64 in Westchester before you get to the 30 year?

BRETT QUIGLEY: To me then you wouldn't have Troy, Troy Matteson, who's played great the last couple weeks. The guy wins Vegas and then finishes 6th or 4th or whatever he did the last couple weeks.

Q. But if he did that then he would still be alive playing.

BRETT QUIGLEY: If he wins only. A guy could finish 2nd, 2nd, 2nd the way we talked about it, and he still couldn't get into the finals. I mean, to me you want to have a guy a true have everybody have a chance. I'd even start everybody over if they really want to get if they had elimination.

Okay, start everyone at zero that first event and then cut 30 guys, and then cut 30 guys, whatever it is. But to me don't handicap the 144th guy and say this is basically your last event.

Q. Couldn't you make the case that he had all career to make the 144?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Absolutely, but 144 is not going to beat Tiger and Phil every week. I mean, there's going to be a pecking order.

Q. What do you dislike about the FedEx Cup series? What needs to be improved?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I just think the uncertainty. I know they have points straight out, but I just think there's still too much up in the air for us.

Q. What does that mean specifically?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Like, okay, what are the points going to be for is a major definitely double or is it opposite field event, $12,500 total? To me it's not how the points are going to be distributed.

Q. Is that still being worked out?

TODD BUDNICK: I thought it was, but I'd have to double check on that.

BRETT QUIGLEY: That's the thing. I don't know; Todd doesn't know.

TODD BUDNICK: Until you said it, I thought it was all set.

Q. What they presented in June was 25 grand, and then 27 and a half for the majors and then half for the opposite fields, but last week they gave me definitive numbers.

TODD BUDNICK: With the 25 and the half.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Okay, it's all set. Everything is perfect (laughter). I just think a lot of the players don't really know all the details.

Q. What do you think about the Florida Swing next year?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Totally different.

Q. There may be some guys that can't play half of them.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Does it go Tampa, Honda

Q. Honda, Tampa, Bay Hill, Doral, which is a World Golf Championship, WGC.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I mean, it's changing everything, so it goes from the Match Play in Tucson/Mexico, then Honda and then Tampa.

Q. What do you care, you're home?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I'm in Florida. I'll be playing them all.

Q. Most important year in Tour history given the fact that the old template has been shortened in one way and the schedule has been overhauled and the Money List has been deemphasized? Can you imagine more upheaval over the arc of time than what's coming this year?

BRETT QUIGLEY: No, this coming year, you're right, it's obviously a huge year for the Tour and the success of the Tour, and to see what the players do, the Top 10 guys and how they fall in line with their schedule.

Q. What's the next thing that can happen next year? Give us a worst case scenario for the end of the year.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I win the money title (laughter).

Q. But you're not Player of the Year?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Maybe not. If guys skip the playoffs. I mean, like say if Tiger is No. 1 or Vijay or Phil or Ernie or Retief, I think if they skip one or two of the events, that would hurt the event.

Q. Do you think there's a chance that could happen?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I'd say there's always a chance. I mean, it seems like there's a bunch of events in a row. It just depends who's leading the points probably and how far away the guys chasing them are.

Q. Just to throw a hypothetical out there, what if Tiger has had a good year and does well at Chicago where he's done well before, and Boston where he's done well before, and now he's got a big lead, takes Westchester off before going to the TOUR Championship? Is that a bad thing, given that he never plays Westchester anyway? Or is Westchester still okay because they've got a bunch of other guys?

BRETT QUIGLEY: They're still going to have a strong field. Obviously you want Tiger playing every week, but he doesn't. So you'll have to ask Tiger about Westchester. I don't know what his schedule is for next year.

Q. I don't know where he is. He's in the dental chair apparently.

BRETT QUIGLEY: Maybe.

Q. What do you think about this tournament since it's the last time it will be as it is now?

BRETT QUIGLEY: What do I think about it?

Q. What do you think the meaning of it will be this week?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I don't understand.

TODD BUDNICK: This week now or this week next year?

Q. No, this week now. This is the last of this tournament standing alone as it is as a season ending event. Next year it's going to be tied to other events leading up to it.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I mean, the theory is it's still going to be a season ending event for all the big players. I think it'll have more significance. Certainly there's going to be a huge buildup to the event, and I think guys are going to be excited, the big guys, with playing one more event and then being done.

Vijay will still play a little bit in the fall, but I think the event will still be a strong event in the second week of September.

Q. What do you think about this tournament this weekend in that regard? Apparently Phil and Tiger didn't think it was a solution to their problems.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think obviously it hurts golf that they don't play it, but I don't know what goes on in Tiger's mind or Phil's mind as far as what their schedule is. I'm sure Tiger said he wanted to rest for the two big events that he has coming up.

Q. Do you have any early recollections of the TOUR Championship?

BRETT QUIGLEY: It's funny, I got up on 18 tee, and I said, "This isn't at all what it looks like on TV." Yeah, I remember watching all I think Pebble Beach, did they play it there, with Hale Irwin, and the bunker on 16? I think Irwin hit the fairway bunker that you can now hit it over. That's not even playing anymore.

Yeah, it's the best tournament in golf to me. I mean, Maui is great to me, but it's more like a party. This has the best field.

Q. If you were the commissioner and you were trying to get everybody to play more often, is there anything you'd like to see done to ensure that everybody who's qualified for here comes here? Would you make it mandatory, increase the number from 15 to 20 or 18 or

BRETT QUIGLEY: I would. I mean, do Tiger and Phil play? Is their number 18 this year or 20? I'd up the number.

Q. Tiger has played 15, but he missed two months with the dad thing in the middle of the year.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I'd make it 20, and I'd also make this event mandatory, but I am not the commissioner and he certainly doesn't listen to me.

Q. That blows holes in the independent contractor theory, doesn't it?

BRETT QUIGLEY: We're still required to play 15 events. Why not just make it 20? I mean, to me it's better for everybody.

Tiger never plays 20. 18? So make it 18. 18 sounds great.

Q. Easy for somebody from his family to say.

BRETT QUIGLEY: But it's a tough

Q. No, I agree with you.

BRETT QUIGLEY: You punish a guy like Vijay Singh because he plays so many events that it hurts his World Ranking, and the divisor goes down so much for the guys that don't play so much. The Tour is always after us to play more events, more events, but you can't tell everybody to play 20 events.

Once that divisor goes up it hurts their World Ranking. You can't blame a guy for wanting to keep his ranking up there, because then he gets in all those good events.

Q. Give yourself a couple years out of college. What would you call the low point in your career? Maybe not even the low point, maybe the lowest were you ever off Tour, for example?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Yeah, my first year on Tour I made it to the finals of Tour school in '91 right out of college, and then I didn't make it on Tour until '97 was my first year.

Q. Did you ever have to go back to the main or leagues?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I've been to Tour school ten times and only made it through once. I finished in that 126 to 150 category four times, but I always played out of that category and always played 15 to 20 events.

I think I was probably most disappointed my rookie year at Vegas was the last tournament, and I finished 128. I birdied 13, 14, 15, 16 on Sunday at Vegas and then bogeyed 17 to miss my card. That was probably the most disappointed that I've ever been in golf.

Q. You kept going back to Q school in that 126 to 150 and just didn't make it?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think I didn't get through to finals until '02 or '03. I had a real good year out of that 126 category in '01, and then lost a million dollars. Then in '02 lost my card, and then went back and got my card back.

Q. As a guy who did the bubble dance down the stretch and had to play all those events out of necessity, the Fall Series is being somewhat diminished obviously next year by the redesign. Do you have any thoughts on that?

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think there will be so much drama for the players like last week I couldn't even watch. I've been around that number and been in that category. It literally makes me sick to watch it, to get that nervous and worry about who's going to do what, and if this guy makes the putt he's in and this guy is out. It's not a fun time.

Q. If watching that makes you nervous, what's next year here, 10 million bucks, the hypothetical number, could come down to a putt. What's that do to a guy's psyche?

BRETT QUIGLEY: For me if I'm thinking about it I have no chance at all (laughter). If I'm thinking about 10 million I'll probably be laying up short of the water on 18. Yeah, that will be in guys' heads. $10 million is a big number, I don't care who you are.

Guys will be thinking about it. How about Loren Roberts last week? He said he was just choking. All he had to do was two putt the last hole and he wins a million, and he three putted. It shows you at any level guys can feel it, and I guess that's why we're all still playing.

Q. Does it matter to you how it's paid out?

BRETT QUIGLEY: Yes and no. To me the way the numbers are, only the Top 10 positions mean any difference. I could see the Top 10 being paid out cash and the rest deferred, because my argument is you don't know what a guy's situation is, whether the guy just bought a new house or he wants to donate it all to his church or cancer research or whatever it is. And what if I just want to disappear and take my $20 million and just disappear? You don't know where everybody's situation is in life. Once you're down the list, it's not going to change anyone's lives. $10 million you might not ever see me again.

Q. How does this course change from November to September, moving this tournament, the Bermudagrass?

BRETT QUIGLEY: It depends. The rough will probably be a little longer, but it's a little soft out there now. I could see this golf course playing a little firmer in the summertime because it's playing long. We hit a bunch of 4 and 5 irons at least half the holes.

Q. There's been a bunch of rain. But as far as the Bermuda, the rough, you hit it into that when it's alive. From a player's point of view, how much harder is it to hit

BRETT QUIGLEY: It's a lot harder because it goes right to the bottom, then you're wedging it out. Here you can play a little bit out of it. Sometimes you hit a 7 iron out if it sits up a little bit, or if it goes to the bottom then you're going to wedge it out. But I'd say it's a little easier right now.

Q. In addition to all the schedule changes and whatnot and FedEx going forward next year, The Golf Channel is going to be a much bigger component to the Tour than it's ever been. Is it too much of a stretch to say the Tour's success and The Golf Channel's success are going to be intertwined next year? And do you think is that station ready for prime time? I know you watch the Champions Tour and all that. You probably watch as much golf as anybody.

BRETT QUIGLEY: I think they're taking some steps to get everything up to speed, getting the right people in there. I think we need viewers. I mean, you're going to need people's support. How much it depends on the other, I don't know.

Q. It just seems like if the ratings numbers aren't there that attracting title sponsors and things, there's going to be sort of an overlap and

BRETT QUIGLEY: I still think that people are going to find golf if they want to watch it.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Brett.

End of FastScripts.

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