BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 19, 2002

Deane Pappas

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us. Another good, solid round here today at the PGA West course. Why don't you make a couple of comments on your round and your position going into the final day tomorrow.

DEANE PAPPAS: I'm not sure exactly where I stand.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: You're at 24-under and tied with one other person at this point, and Jay is at 26-under.

DEANE PAPPAS: Okay. Yeah, I played very well. I started on the back 9 and I made four birdies, I guess, on the backside and actually left a couple out there.

And then we made the turn and it was like I walked on to a new golf course. I really struggled around the front side. I think the front side plays probably the toughest 9 that we played all week. But I wasn't hitting the ball well. And I scrambled, got some good up-and-downs to save me. I think I picked up one birdie on the par-5, the second hole, and it was pretty much a scramble from there on out.

But we'll go straighten that out on the range now. And I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. Just talk about how excited you are to be in this position going into Sunday this early in the year.

DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah, it's great. It's always good to get off to a good start. I missed the cut last week. I wasn't playing that badly, just a couple of mental errors, and just never made any putts on the Friday. But I felt like I was playing good.

I'm excited about it, a little nervous. But I think we get off to a solid start tomorrow and I'll be there all day.

Q. Is being in contention in a PGA TOUR event different than being in contention in a BUY.COM?

DEANE PAPPAS: I'll find out tomorrow. It's the first time for me to be in contention on a PGA event. I won a couple of times on the BUY.COM. Obviously there's a lot more money, a lot more prestige.

I guess my nerves will be up a little bit tomorrow. But as long as I can channel that energy in the right direction, I'll be fine.

Q. When you've been in contention on the BUY.COM, how have you handled it? What kind of personality do you have on a Sunday in contention when you've been in contention?

DEANE PAPPAS: I don't know. Most of the time it seems to stay pretty much the same from the first round to the last round. I appear to be very calm, but I don't let my emotions get up and down too much. I try to keep it that way all the time.

Q. Is it an advantage or disadvantage to play this course two days in a row?

DEANE PAPPAS: I think it might be a little bit of an advantage. I expected the greens to be a little harder today. They were actually the softest greens we've played all week. And going from today until tomorrow, your yardages are fresh in your mind. And I'm not sure which way -- there was a slight breeze -- my back 9 seemed like we played every hole into the wind today. I think it was chopping and changing a little bit. I think it might be a little bit of an advantage.

Q. Have you talked to your brother, Brenden at all, or anybody else in the family and discussed your great start and situation this week?

DEANE PAPPAS: No, not really. Brenden, he's been out here this week. I think he was one of the second alternate or something, so he stuck around and hit some balls in practice.

No, I had one of my cousins call me from Chicago, congratulating me on the way I've been playing, and telling me to hang in there and play well these last two days.

Q. Is Brenden still here?

DEANE PAPPAS: I think he might have gone down to Phoenix. I don't know if he's going to get in, he's going to try for a spot.

Q. Who is longer off the tee?

DEANE PAPPAS: Probably Brenden, he's a little longer than I am. Almost twice my size.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Birdies and bogeys.

DEANE PAPPAS: We started on the back nine. Got it up-and-down on 10 for par.

Hit a sand wedge to about three feet on 11.

Par-3 was just --.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Just do your birdies.

DEANE PAPPAS: We got to par-4, I hit a 7-iron to about three feet.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: No. 13.

DEANE PAPPAS: No. 16, sand wedge to about ten feet, made a good putt coming down over the big break.

And then was on the green in two in 18, two putts.

And then No. 2 was just short of the green and chipped it actually horseshoed out of the hole to about a foot and tapped that in.

Q. What did you learn on the BUY.COM tour when you got in contention about your tendencies? What kind of experience are you going to draw from on that?

DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah, I just know I have a good short game, and my ball-striking has gotten better. The big thing for me is just keeping calm, accepting everything that I get out on the golf course.

I used to beat myself up on the course, and that's what's made a big change for me is my mental attitude out there. And I'm not living and dying by every shot, I'm just teeing off on the first hole and walking off the 18th hole without going up and down the mountain.

Q. Did somebody help you do that or how did you change your attitude on that?

DEANE PAPPAS: Well, it started beginning of last year, we were in South Africa and me and my teacher were sitting watching the guys coming in on the TV ,and the one guy was tossing his toys. And I said to my teacher, I said, "Look at this guy, how does he expect to compete?" And he just looked at me and started laughing, and he said, "That's exactly how you are out there."

And so it was a 360 right there. And my game's only gotten better since.

Q. Did you play any other sports growing up or were you always a golfer solely?

DEANE PAPPAS: No, we played -- in junior school I played pretty much everything - soccer, cricket, swimming, tennis. We played all the school sports - track and field. And then I think I started focusing on golf when I got to about 14 years old. And I then went to University of Arkansas after school.

Q. ABC today was talking about you coming from northern South Africa and coming to Arkansas and what a culture shock that must have been. Was it, and is there any place in America like where you grew up?

DEANE PAPPAS: Weatherwise, like Florida, it just depends where you go. Johannesberg is like Denver, it's a mile-high city. It doesn't get quite as cold as Denver, but then the coastal regions are pretty much the same climate. They even have a lot of the trees and stuff are the same. I guess it wasn't much of a culture shock for me.

Q. I think I read that you grew up playing Hans Merensky. What was that like? I heard that elephants walk across the fairways, is that true?

DEANE PAPPAS: Yeah, there's a lot of wild animals. Your golf course bordered Cragen National Park on the 15th, 16th and 4th hole is where the Cragen National Park fence runs past the golf course. Yeah, from time to time you can see anything on the golf course. There's hippos that live in the 17th pond with a few crocodiles. There's always antelope out on the golf course, a couple of giraffe. The lions come and go, wild dogs come and go. So people have run into lions out there before, and there was actually a woman that was killed there by an elephant a couple of years ago.

And so -- but when you grow up there, you understand what the animals are like, and how to avoid them. Unfortunately that woman was a tourist and she didn't understand what she shouldn't do. And she did the wrong things and the elephant killed her.

But it's fun. It's an experience that you can't find anywhere else in the world. And it's beautiful. I miss that part of the world. That's what I miss about -- besides my parents, that's what I miss the most.

Muirfield Country Club is across the street, Brenden is the head pro.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us. Good luck tomorrow.

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