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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 18, 2007

Scott Verplank

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOE CHEMCYZ: We welcome Scott Verplank in after a second straight 6-under 66. And Scott, cruising along, 35 holes, and tell us about the bogey there on the final hole at 9.
SCOTT VERPLANK: I only had one screw-up in two days, and you want to know about that first? (Laughter).
JOE CHEMCYZ: Get it out of the way because there's too much good stuff to talk about.
SCOTT VERPLANK: I actually had a pretty good second shot at the green. I just hit a bad shot. I was in the rough by about a foot, so there's not really any rough here. But it just didn't come out like I thought it was going to come out, and it was a little bit right of where I was aiming and I hit the hill and overran and went in the water. It's not a very good place to drop over there. I dropped into a bad lie and I hit a another bad shot.
At that point I was just ready to get done. The thing -- the only thing that made me mad was how I left this 30-foot putt for par about five feet short. I was not happy about that. If it had gone up where I could have just kicked it in, but that's the way it goes.

Q. Looked like you had a lot of putts, birdie putts, even some you didn't make today.
SCOTT VERPLANK: I made a couple of bombs, which you don't really count on making. And then I actually had some pretty makeable putts, the ones that you've got to make out here, six, eight, ten feet, straight putts that I missed. So the greens got a little choppy the second nine I played. So I'm going to blame it on that. Go out tomorrow and hopefully the greens will be really good at Bermuda Dunes, which I'm sure they will be. See if I can get back on track.

Q. As well as you played, you could have gone a lot lower, do you feel?
SCOTT VERPLANK: You know, yeah, you can always go lower. Yeah, I guess if everything was perfect, because I did make a couple of puts you certainly don't expect to make, but you know, yeah, if you make a couple of those, and then kick in the ones you're supposed to, then yeah, I probably could have gone lower. But no complaints.

Q. Given what you guys all faced in the final round last year in terms of wind on this golf course, you kind of feel like that's --
SCOTT VERPLANK: Yeah, I guess because it can definitely blow out here, and today was not -- you know it wasn't perfectly calm but it was obviously playable.
The biggest deal today was the wind switched directions about 12 times. I mean, it was -- it blew from the north and then the northeast and then the northwest and then the southwest and then the northeast. It was --

Q. And that was on one hole?
SCOTT VERPLANK: That was on 2, sorry.
But yeah, it was kind of weird now out here, you think it might be a little more constant. But we dealt with it.

Q. You've been here obviously many times, but does the format ever get to you, and are you sort of happy you're not in the quote, A Group with the celebs, is it easier?
SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, I'm not an A Player. I'm not in the A Group which is just fine with me. (Laughing.) I enjoy playing this, I enjoy playing it, I've played with great guys so far. The only thing that is tough is kind of like today, it starts dragging on. You've got these harder golf courses like this one and PGA West that are harder on the other three guys in the group, and that makes the round play a little bit longer and that's the only thing that makes it difficult.
Other than that, I always enjoy talking to the guys and finding out some stuff about them and trying to fool them into thinking that I'm a nice guy.

Q. Do you watch the board, everybody says you can't tell until the fourth round really what's going on, but do you pay attention quickly if you're on top?
SCOTT VERPLANK: Not a whole lot. Yeah, I looked over there one time and saw that I was right there around the lead or in the lead or whatever. Just told my caddie to get the camera out and take a picture and then we'll go from there. (Laughter).
We have a long way to go. As you know, like you said, I'm going to have to play as least at good as I've played the last two days to stay around the top.

Q. You came so close to winning last year, leading at various times in the last round, do you come back here disappointed that you still lost or are you very happy to come back to a place where you played well?
SCOTT VERPLANK: I liked going to places where I played well in the past. It just makes you more comfortable.
Yeah, I'm disappointed I had a great chance to win last year. I didn't play well and Chad just gutted it out a little bit better than I did. I remember it was pretty difficult the last, you know, I don't know 12, 13, 14 holes. It really picked up and got a little dicey. I just didn't play very good that day.
But hopefully that will be some extra incentive and motivation to give myself a better chance this year.

Q. Obviously the Ryder Cup didn't turn out the way you wanted it to either personally or team-wise, I know there was more that you would have liked to have done there, any fallout from that personally as far as a motivation for this year, anything at all taken from that?
SCOTT VERPLANK: Oh, not really for this year.
Yeah, you know what, the Ryder Cup's the greatest event in the world that I've ever played in. I've been lucky enough to play in a couple of them. It's disappointing when the team doesn't do a little bit better. I know it was a lot more fun when we were all finished at the Presidents Cup two years ago than the two times we've been on losing Ryder Cup teams.
Yeah, I was disappointed I didn't get to play more. But won both matches I played in. I guess it was a positive experience. It's always a positive experience, but it was a positive experience for me. You know, for some reason, I'm not one of those guys that like goes nuts if you make a hole-in-one. Not that I've made that many, but to me, it's just 2-under on that hole, and I've had more people and more commentary about making -- being the first American to make a hole-in-one. It was pure luck for the ball to go in.
So, yeah, that's been a great deal. I guess I'll be in some sort of asterisk or footnote in history.

Q. Did you at all talk to Tom in the aftermath of that, did you ever have a discussion or heart to heart about your playing time and your feelings about it? Did you ever get to hash it out anymore?
SCOTT VERPLANK: We talked a little bit but not -- I mean, you know, he's got to do what he thinks is right. Obviously I'm a competitor. I want to play. Nobody has everything go the way they want it to go all the time. But you just -- you know, I knew what I was -- I was fairly confident in how I was going to do and how I was going to react in that situation, and obviously he probably wasn't quite as confident in me as I was.
He wrote me a nice note after the thing and say obviously we should have played me more. We had a great time. He did a great job. I mean, he's trying to do what he thinks is best, and you know, really, looking back, it wouldn't have made any difference if I would have played all five matches and won all five points. We got it handed to us as a team pretty good.

Q. Two weeks ago at Mercedes, so much talk about the FedExCup and all of a sudden now, there isn't. Not that I want to bring it up, but I just wonder, does anybody even talk about it on Tour, or is it like, okay, we're just going to go out and play and then we get to September and see what happens.
SCOTT VERPLANK: You know, to be quite honest with you, this is only the second day I've been out all year. I played with the head of the -- the CEO or North American and marketing for FedEx today, so, yeah, it was a big deal. (Laughter) They called me a couple of days ago and said, hey, make sure you're really nice to this guy, he's a FedEx guy. So that was huge today. (Laughter).
I haven't been around enough -- no, I think once September kind of August, September rolls around, guys will be more interested in making sure they are getting into The TOUR Championship.

Q. Were you nice to him?
SCOTT VERPLANK: Man, I absolutely kissed his rear all day long. He was great. He actual whether I was a great player, we had a great time, great guy.
JOE CHEMCYZ: Just go through your card, starting on 10.
SCOTT VERPLANK: Yeah, 10, started off, made a nice probably 45, 50- -foot putt on 10. It was just real lucky, but that's a great way to wake up.
Let's see, 13, I hit a wedge about 12 feet, made that one.
15, yeah, let's see, 14 I missed it from about six feet and then 15 I hit it about five feet, made that.
16, I hit a 7-iron about a foot and a half. Kicked that one in.
I missed up 18. I played the par 5s terrible. I hit it pin-high on 18 in the bunker, chipped out to 20 feet and missed the putt and made par there.
1, I hit it perfect and hit a terrible sand wedge probably 30 feet and I make that. So it's like, there's no way to predict what's going to happen.
Then I 2-putted 4. I hit it on the middle of the green on 4, the par 5 and 2-putted that.
Then 5 I made another 30-footer, kind of up the hill and just on a prayer it went in.
Had some pretty good chances on the rest of them and then I pretty much fell apart on No. 9. But, you know, that's the way it goes.
JOE CHEMCYZ: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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