THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 21, 2002

Chris DiMarco

CHRIS DiMARCO: I had to make a little 3, about a 3 1/2 foot downhill in the dark on No. 13 for par with a spikemark and I made it. I wanted to get that over with.

Q. How hard is it to have the rain delay in the morning? Does it affect, a little bit, how you get started?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It did. I was actually very lucky this morning. I slept until almost 9:45, which I don't do. I got a good nine hours' sleep, which is a lot for me. So when I got up, it was really -- I was going to have to rush around to eat and get out there, because we had a 12:40 tee time, it only gave me two hours. So it gave me some more time. I just laid around and relaxed, ordered breakfast, then came out here around, I don't know, 1:45, ate some lunch 2:00, and then went out and played. Knew we were not going to finish so we just kind of took our time.

Nick was playing real good so we both had nice round going. We both just kind of fed off each other. I hit a lot of fairways today and that was key. I think I only missed two fairways up until that point. The ones I missed, I hit good drives on, just kicked a little right. It was still stuff out there because the mud was on the ball and you had to be careful of that.

Q. So did you oversleep?

CHRIS DiMARCO: No, I knew I wasn't going to sleep until 12:40. It was nice. I got up about 8:00. Next thing I know it was 9:40. I knew I had two hours, three hours to get to my tee time, I was fine. Just waking up that late, I wasn't sitting around all morning. Normally I get up about 8:00. So it was like, you it was good. I got a nice little rest this morning.

I think we got the better end of the deal. The wind was blowing early, but, you know those last three or four holes the wind didn't really affect too much. I would have liked to have gotten 17 in there. That would have been fun.

Q. Would have been great to be able to finish 17, 18 with the conditions you had.

CHRIS DiMARCO: It would have been nice. I don't know what the conditions are going to be like tomorrow.

Q. A little windy.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Who knows it was supposed to be windy all day afternoon, too, but slowed down at the end, so who knows.

Q. Talk about having to play 17 twice.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't want to play 17 once, let alone twice. I'm hitting my irons really good. I'm hitting the ball really solid. And, you know it's just -- you've just got to hit a good shot. I played there enough. I really think that my pre-shot routine really helps me a lot, no matter how nervous I am on that shot or whatever, I'm just going to do my pre-shot routine. You can only hit the best shot you can hit. If you hit in the water, you hit in the water. I watched 12 or 15 guys in a row hit it in the water this morning; I just had to turn it off after a while. If it's going to happen, you can hit good shots that go in the water. If the wind is up, if you start thinking too much and you hit it over the green. You just -- it's a 135-yard shot into the wind, you just take the trajectory off a little bit and try to knock it in the middle of the green. I said yesterday to my caddie, try to hit the ball in the middle of the green. If you're not going -- just try to hit it just 11 of the bunker in the middle and wherever it ends up, it ends up.

Q. How far did you have into 11?

CHRIS DiMARCO: 11, I had 219 yards. I got lucky. I kind of went through the bunker in the upslope in that island rough, but had a good lie and hit a 3-iron about 12 feet.

Q. And the up-and-down on 12?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I missed the fairway there and I had the worst lie I've had all year in the rough, and I mean luckily I only had -- I thought I was just going to hit in the front bunker it came out hot. I could not even believe I hit it that far. I only hit it 20 yards and I can't believe I did that. I had a good lie above the hole; and the greens are softening up. I just plopped it up there three feet.

I really didn't putt well at Honda or Doral. I've been putting so well on West Coast. So, the week off last week was really good, just cleared my mind of everything and I really worked hard on just trying to go through my routine. With the two practice rounds I played, I didn't really putt much on the putting greens because that doesn't do much for me. I like to make them on the course. I just really worked on what I was going to do and I stuck with my same pre-shot routine and I made everything you're supposed to make.

Q. If the greens were firmer, would you have hit that 3-iron into 11?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I probably would had hit a 4-iron and played from the front bunker. I knew the greens were. So I was between 4- and 3-iron and I told my caddy the greens of soft enough. So let's just hit a 3-iron and if it goes past the hole, it goes past the hole. The key is to get it on the green. I'd rather be on the green than hitting out of a bunker. I probably could have stepped on a 4-iron, but it was a good lie, so I hit a nice solid 3-iron.

Q. How much is the speed of the greens today different from the practice round?

CHRIS DiMARCO: They were still fast in spots. They were -- if you got it downhill, they were fast. If you had some sidehill putts and you missed it low, they got away from you. It was hard to get the ball -- it was hard all day, it really putted -- no matter how far you are it putted, to a gimmee. It just seemed like every putt I had was a 2- or 3-footer.

End of FastScripts....