THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 20, 2002

Chris DiMarco

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome Chris DiMarco.

Chris, you've played some great golf on the West Coast, and back in Florida. Are you looking forward to this week?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yes, I am.

Obviously, this is THE PLAYERS Championship, so this is one of the most special ones we do. I think just about everybody almost considers this a major. Probably one of our best fields, one of the best venues we play all year. So it's going to be -- the course is playing tough. It's getting tougher. I'm really excited.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions?

Q. I guess you didn't break your leg skiing?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I did not break my leg skiing, and my head is refreshed from not having to play on that golf course. I watched a little bit on TV and these guys looked like they had a tough time out there. I've always come up here really frustrated; so it was nice to have a clear head the last two days playing practice rounds.

We went to Snow Mass, Colorado, which is ten miles from Aspen.

Q. Were you getting a little fried towards the end at Honda and whatnot?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Mentally, I think I was.

I played so good on the West Coast and I putted so good, and then I come back to Florida, where you just expect to putt really good. Having grown up here, and I wasn't making the putts that I was making out there. I just needed to get away for a week. That's what I needed.

Q. Anything happen? You had that great first round at Doral and then a bad second or third round?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Really, it was the last four holes on Friday afternoon. I played them 5-over. I had a putt on No. 5 at Doral to get to 6-under, and at that time 6-under was in, like, fourth or fifth place and then missed and finished bogey, bogey, double-bogey. So it was just kind of a weird situation that happened.

No, I'm glad I made the cut there and I got to play. I played good at the Honda, I just didn't make too many putts. I just never got anything going. I'm used to making every putt, so you start missing a few and it starts getting in your head a little bit. So I kind of overanalyzed myself a little bit there.

Q. What's your run up to Augusta going to be?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I'm playing in the next few. This one, Houston, Atlanta and then the Masters. So I'm going to try to go up there on the Monday or Tuesday of Atlanta and play it. I might even play -- yeah, because I'm going to go Houston and after Houston, I'm going right to Atlanta and probably drive over Monday or Tuesday and play a practice round.

Q. The changes and whatnot, that will be the first time you've seen them?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Yeah. I was talking with some of the guys from Ping and said Calc went over there and made nine birdies the other day. So, obviously, they didn't make it long enough. (Laughter.) I don't know if they can do much in three weeks, but obviously it's intact.

Q. Do you have any particular opinions on the struggles that Colin Montgomerie has had on occasions with some fans here, based on maybe what happened to you in Phoenix? Does that give you any particular viewpoint?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Obviously, Colin is a phenomenal player. I don't think there's anybody in the United States, whether they are heckling him or not that doesn't agree with that. I just think it's the way he handles it. I think he could be a little bit more fun about it. It's like the nickname you get in high school, if you let people know that you don't like it, then it's just the more reason they are going to call you it. If you dismiss it, it kind of goes away. I was like that a lot. I was the same way, I used to let those things really affect me and I learned if you just let them go, they just kind of dwindle away.

I just think, obviously, he gets -- he's a very good player and he deserves a little bit more respect than that. But he also can, I think -- maybe doesn't handle it the right way. I think if he was a little bit more funny about it, people would like him for it. That's what people are trying to get out of him.

Q. You were in that type of situation in Phoenix, with fans yelling Newnan (ph), if for some reason that came up more often, could you see where that might be difficult to brush it off?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I love that movie, so Newnan (ph)is a pretty funny name, really. It relaxes me almost to hear that.

You're going to have that no matter what you do, where you go, who you're with, where you are playing. You are going to have people who are going to have a little bit too much to drink and think it's a football game. It's part of the game. You've just got to go with it. If you show that it affects you, then more people are going to do it to you. You just kind of, you know -- I knew that at that point on the hole it was such a big putt for me. I knew that if I would have stepped back it would have been even just that much harder for me to make it. I went through my routine and putted in.

Afterwards, I knew I had to wait on 16 so I could get a little riled up and tell them to get out of there. It was -- you're going to have that and you've just kind of not overdo it and not let the people bother you.

I wish everybody would talk out there. It would be better. Let them talk on the phone, let everybody do it. It would be less distracting than just one person yelling.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about 17 here and the drama that it creates, and the nerves that go through your system particularly on Saturday or Sunday if you're in contention?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Friday. 17 is a hard shot on Friday. (Laughs).

There's no doubt about it. All my friends at home ask me what is the hardest shot on TOUR. There's no doubt 17 is the hardest shot on TOUR, or maybe not the hardest, but the most nerve-wracking short I play all year without a doubt. You start thinking about it on No. 13, or 14, you can start hearing the people, and you just start walking and you've got to stay in the moment because it's easy to get distracted. And then you've got that walk from 16 to 17 and just nothing there -- I just try to keep my head straight down and walk. It's almost a 200-yard walk. And it's a brutal shot it, really is. You just have to -- you've been in that situation enough, you've just got to hit the shot.

Q. Do you have any particularly great memories of it, and also, harrowing memories?

CHRIS DiMARCO: I've hit pretty good shots there in my career. I don't try to necessarily get it close on that hole. I know it's only an 8-iron or 9-iron, but obviously, the risk is a lot greater than the reward. So I try and just go ahead and put it in the middle of the green. If the pin is up front, you put it in the middle of the green, and if it rolls down, you have a chance for birdie, great; or jumps up there to be the back, great. You make four 4s on the hole and you're not hurting yourself. So my goal is to play that hole in 12 shots all year.

Q. It's not the hardest shot in terms of athletic execution, it sounds like you're just saying in terms of up here, you're probably outsmarting yourself in thinking about it?

CHRIS DiMARCO: It's gotten so big now because now it's "Live on 17," everybody on the Internet is watching and always got a camera there.

Whoever does make the big number on that hole is just overplayed on every sports channel all over the world. There's so much that goes with that hole.

Q. You don't want to be that guy?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Nobody wants to be that guy. So it's kind of like the bunker on St. Andrews on 17 they have got that camera you know you need to avoid that, so the camera is not watching you duff it in there six times.

It's not. Execution-wise, it's not a really hard time, you're taking a 9-iron to a pretty big green. But, you know, it's that walk from, if you do hit in the water, you walk all the way up there to the left and drop and not necessarily getting a good lie. It's just a tough, tough shot and once you hit in there once, the second shot that that much more nervous. It's -- I remember when Robert Gamez made an 11 or a 12 there one year and lost by like four shots in one of the rounds.

The hole can grab you, for sure. You've just got to -- I try to take that, just hit it in the middle of the green, kind of like No. 12 at Augusta, you just hit it on the green, you walk away with four threes and you're not going to get hurt.

Q. Is 18 the hardest finish?

CHRIS DiMARCO: You know, 18 is a hard finish, depending on the wind. If the wind is coming off the water to the left, boy, that's a really hard hole. If the wind is coming down the right, it's not as difficult, and obviously if it's into the wind at all, it's a really hard hoe. It really depends on the wind. If there's not much wind, for me, it's not that hard of a hole, I know I played it terrible last year; I made three doubles and a bogey, but you can just throw a 3-wood out there and have a 6- or a 5-iron into the green.

Just again, it's another hole; you make four 4s, you are picking up some shots on the field. That's the thing about this course. You have to have a lot of patience, a lot of holes. You can make bogeys because they are not bad scores and lot of holes you can make birdies. So just stay patient -- the first three rounds I did not make bogeys, but I made eight doubles. I think I was 4-over for the tournament and I made eight doubles. So I was making birdies, I just wasn't making any bogeys -- if I make eight bogeys and eight doubles, I'm 4-under for the tournament and I'm right in it.

So you've just kind of got to stay away from the big numbers. It's the type of course where if you hit in the rough. You are better just knocking 80 yards from the green and try to make par that way. Rather than you are trying chop it up around the greens. Because you get in the rough around the greens it's almost hard to get it on the green.

Q. A lot is made obviously of Tiger, his dominance, if you will, over the last few years, do you come into a tournament thinking this guy is the favorite? Do you come in thinking you're the favorite? Obviously, you've been playing very, very well, you have a terrific stretch the last couple of years.

CHRIS DiMARCO: I don't necessarily, come in, obviously, Tiger is the man to beat. Obviously, he gets up for these type of tournaments. I think he handles the tournament, the stress that everything goes with it, a little better than all of us.

But, again, I know it sounds cliche, but you want to be there on Sunday on the back nine and that's all you want to do. The first nine holes is just to set up the second nine holes to set up the third nine holes to get to that point. You just try and get there. If you can get there and you're back there on Sunday, I tell you what, it's an awesome feeling. I remember Tiger always seeing it's like a drug, it's like an addiction to get up the lead; and I got a lot of that on the West Coast, the last year and a half, it's a lot of fun. It's addicting. It's fun to have a 5-iron into a green with water around to try to make birdie to try to win the golf tournament. It's fun. That's what it's about. Instead of being scared like I used to be it's fun now. And get over that hump and you feel like, you know, you're going for stuff in that situation instead of worrying about what's going to happen, you're going to come out on top more that that's why I've been able to win a couple more times.

Q. Earlier this week Butch, Tiger's coach, had mentioned that he has the one thing that -- talked about his heart being the one thing, his greatest strength is what you don't see. Can you talk about that? And it goes to what you were talking about, how he handles the things that other guys don't.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Him and Sergio both. They both strive for that. It's just like Michael Jordan, he wants the ball.

I can honestly admit, up until a couple of years ago, I didn't want the ball at the end. I do now. It's something that you have to learn.

He was given that. You know, it's tough out here. You're talking about the media exposure, you're talking, you know if somebody makes a double on last hole to lose the tournament by a shot it is a really hard thing to get over. So many people play it up so much, the stress from that alone is hard enough to deal with, rather than, you know, what else goes on.

So there's so much that goes along with it, and I know that was the hardest thing for me to learn out here knowing that the cameras were on me and the people were watching me; and once I got over that I don't really see anybody out there anymore. I was able to excuse me down relax and play golf and just relax. That was my main goal a couple of years ago, play golf. When I'm playing with my buddies, I'm relaxed and playing good golf. Out here, if you're tense and nervous, it's hard to play good golf. I know what makes me play my best golf is being relaxed. You look at Tiger, look at Duval, look at Mickelson, they never look nervous; and it shows that's why they play good all the time. That's where I feel like I've gotten to.

Q. You wonder last week with Phil, like the shot he had on 16, whether there was anybody else in the lead, might he not have taken that chance, for example?

CHRIS DiMARCO: That's just Phil. Doesn't matter who is in the lead. He plays that shot; that's just the way he plays. He just thinking he can do everything. He never not believes in himself. Sometimes he gets in trouble and sometimes he hits the miraculous shots that gets on the green. If he feels like he can do it, he does it.

Q. There was a story in the paper today about tempers and whatnot out here, the local paper. Your college coach said that at one point you had a worse temper than Dudley Hart.

CHRIS DiMARCO: No, that's a lie.

Q. That's what he said.

CHRIS DiMARCO: No, no -- I had a bad temper in college.

Q. How did you get over it?

CHRIS DiMARCO: He showed me a stat. Buddy was a great coach, because he not only taught you how to play the game, but he also taught you course management. He said here when you make a bogey, 75 percent of the time you follow it up with another bogey because you're angry about the first bogey.

So when he showed me that stat it really kind of calmed me down, and now the ones I pride out here is bounce-back and making a birdie after it, or just not getting on a bogey train. You know, it's helped me.

Q. Do you see a lot of other guys out here that you watch and you see, you know, they are in here but for the grace of God; guys that can just not stop getting in their own way sometimes? Dudley still wrestles with that demon frequently.

CHRIS DiMARCO: Dudley's is more different because he's more of a perfectionist. Dudley gets mad if it goes in right center instead of dead center; so he is just a perfectionist. He's always been like that even through college and just expects so much of himself. There are other guys that are very negative, let's get out of here, where's plane, stuff like that.

I learned to kind of get over that and just focus and play golf and really, I think the key out here, you know you see Tiger, he only plays 19 or 20 weeks; it's for a reason. If you're up there a lot it really is mentally stressful on you. Physically, I think everybody can play all week all year physically, play every single week, play 43 weeks, getting the ball in the hole is not that hard. But mentally it's really hard. Your brain needs a week off. And that's been -- I know that when I start getting frustrated myself on the golf course, no matter what week it is, I need a week off, sometimes two.

Q. On that front, do you think it's reasonable to assume -- Tiger got sick after Augusta last year on Sunday night, just kind of a crash-and-burn thing. With human nature and that kind of grind that you are talking about, all of the slump talk that he went through last year, as well as six months of build up for Augusta, do you think it's possible that he might have had even maybe a little bit of a hangover that could explain his play for part of the rest of the year or maybe would it be human nature to exhale?

CHRIS DiMARCO: My opinion on that is that Tiger gets up for the big tournaments and that's his goal. He gears himself. He has a routine that he does to get to the tournaments. Obviously, Bay Hill, Arnold's tournament, this week, TPC, and he gears himself to those tournaments and he gears himself to the Masters.

It's hard being up there at the lead all the time. Mentally and physically exhausting being up there. I can't imagine being up there as many times as he is in the majors with all that pressure, how he couldn't be like -- you know that after I walked in after Phoenix on that course, my stomach was in knots for an hour. It was just hurting. It was obviously from the stress of the tournament.

You know, stress is not a good thing. We deal with it a lot out here.

Q. We're here this week, but what are your thoughts going back to Augusta coming up after a great show last year for you?

CHRIS DiMARCO: Last year was my first year and I never got to play the old Augusta, the one where there was no intermediate rough, and I always thought from watching that those guys had it tougher without the intermediate rough because the fairways were so tight, it was so hard chipping and bouncing. Now you get the intermediate rough and the ball sits up. You can hit spin shots and you have more imagination you can use. Now they have lengthened it so basically I am going to a new golf course. So, I don't know what to expect. I know the course set up good for me, and I'm assuming it still does. I putt good. I'm a good iron player and obviously there's not much rough, so, you know, if there's a lack in my game, it's my accuracy off the tee. My distance is fine. So, you know, if anything, the course is going to favor me in that aspect. I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

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