Par 3 Shootout - 2006 Post-Round Quotes

Monday, June 26, 2006

FRED COUPLES -- (on his winning hole) I hit a good shot and made about a 6-footer to get control of the skin and the next hole, when I thought there would be a 2 on the hole and there wasn’t. Chris (DiMarco) buzzed the edge to give me a skin. Other than that, I was mediocre, but it was a lot of fun.

It would be fun to see some more balls go at the hole for this million dollars and we didn’t really hit it close. It’s not so much hitting it right or left, but it makes it more fun when you get the ball going at the hole for a million bucks up for grabs.

(on whether he will give any pointers) – I don’t think they need a whole lot of help. They’ve watched it. I watched it before I came. You don’t remember a shot, but once you see a ball catch the slope and kind of funnel down to the pin, it doesn’t take much to figure it out.

CHRIS DIMARCO -- (on how hard it was to get it close) The elevations are tough. It was hard to get it the right distance and there were some crosswinds up there that threw up, but Fred’s right. I wish we would have made some more birdies and tied each other, but it was still fun. At least we birdied 4-5 of the last six.

The elevation drops are tough, but thankfully it’s not a 2-iron. It’s a 6-iron.

(on playing “pass the hat” with Craig Stadler for closest-to-pin bonuses) – That was fun. Nice to get on the board. The longer you’re not on there, the tougher it is.

(on his late invite to Treetops) – I drove around last night and checked out some of the holes. It was nice to get out in the pro-am and get a feel for the course, but it’s great up here. I was up here eight years ago for the SIDS pro-am. I have my son with me and it’s nice for him to be here and it’s nice to come back.

CRAIG STADLER -- (on his good start) Starting off last was OK, seeing what you had to beat for the first couple of holes. I kind of misread and mishit the putt and it went in. Chris returned the favor on the next hole. The wind played havoc with shots, especially the downhill ones. You get it up in the air and you have no clue where it will come down. It was a lot of fun and a couple putts went in after I whiffed the 3-footer (on No. 5). I finally got it in range -- 2-3 feet is deadly.

(On his practice) – I practiced for an hour in the pub last year. That was my practice round. There wasn’t much wind. No elevation. It was pretty calm. … It worked. Andy and I kind of talked about it. I haven’t played in a month, Chris hasn’t played much. We’re all kind of rusty in one sense, but my game is usually OK for the first couple of days and it goes south for 2-3 days after a long layoff and then it starts getting better. Fortunately for the first nine holes, I caught my upswing and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

FRED COUPLES – (on winning $200,000 on the final hole) I liked it when Andy told us there was no validation on the last hole. That made me feel a little bit better. I hit a good shot and Andy hit a beautiful shot in there and just like any event, someone’s going to make one and someone’s going to miss one whether it’s the 72nd hole of a tournament or the ING Par-3 Shootout. I felt good about it, I played OK, but had a great time.

It was fun. I always enjoy coming here and it really is a treat. There’s not one boring shot in two days.

(on his 9-iron to 4’5” on the last hole) On 9, if you hit it over there, it seems like an easy shot. Craig’s ball didn’t cut enough. I tried to hit the same shot. You hit that shot for $10,000 or $200,000, to be honest, I don’t think anyone is standing up there that worried about hitting a 9-iron. If I had to hit a drive perfect with water left and OB right and then hit it 135 yards up there, I’d feel pretty comfortable. So that’s the way I look at it.: a good second shot to a hard par-4, take aim and hit it.

(on why he comes from California every year for the last five) Honestly, this is a beautiful, beautiful place. Every year, I come to California and you can say what you want: it’s not the easiest place to get to, it’s not the hardest place to get to, but once you get here, to play with these guys is a lot of fun.

(on why he seems to have a knack for these events) I loved the Shell (Wonderful World of Golf) Matches. If they came to Chris and I and asked us to go to Vancouver, Wash., or Key Largo, Fla., I think it’s a lot of fun. As a kid, I watched a lot of it. If I was 35 or 30 in my prime and we were playing for the money we were, I would play. I’ve always enjoyed going to play and it’s a lot easier to win a two-day thing or a one-day thing than a four-day thing. That’s how I look at it.

(on DiMarco) Chris is always fun to be around. It was great to have him come because you saw what he was like and he’s fun to be around.

CHRIS DIMARCO – (on his ING Par-3 Shootout debut) I had a great time. I said it yesterday, everyone’s thanking me for coming. I feel like I should be thanking them for me being here.

(on having his son Christian and other kids walking with them inside the ropes) It was so cool to have them inside the ropes. At the end there, it was like “OK, good now, guys. Step over to the side. Enough for the clubs. Let’s play some golf.”

CRAIG STADLER – (on how today went) It was pretty much like yesterday. I hit a horrible tee shot on No. 1 yesterday and a horrible tee shot on No. 1 today and played pretty much OK from there. As you saw, nobody really made any putts and we only had a couple balls close to the hole: the one I hit on five yesterday and Fred and Andy’s on 18 today. There really weren’t any tap-ins both days, which was kind of surprising. But the greens are hard to read. They’re really rolling good, good speed, but a lot of misreads out there.

It was a lot of fun. Great two days and playing with these guys was very enjoyable. Fred hit the right shot at the right time.

(on the competitive nature of this event) The golf is still the same. We compete day in and day out; that’s what we do, that’s what we’re trained to do and all the camaraderie and bantering and fun aside, we’re still trying to hit quality shots and still trying to make the putts. We’re trying to read them, we’re not just getting over them and hitting them. We’re trying to win this thing, there’s no doubt about that.

ANDY NORTH – (on what this is like) It’s always good to come out and play in an event like this where you can have a little more fun and you can talk a little bit more and it shows the people at home a bit more of what we’re about rather than just grinding and grinding the way you see us on television most weeks.

I would have like to make a few more putts today. I felt I was really close to hitting a few good shots today. This is a golf course where you can hit a really good shot and be a foot off or the foot on the wrong side of a ridge and it looks pretty stupid when it stops rolling. Or you can hit one that may not be quite as good, but it catches the other side of the ridge and it looks pretty decent. That’s the nature of this game.

(on the near miss on the last hole) It all came down to the last hole. I’d of liked to have made Fred make his. It would have been a lot of fun watching that. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way… I actually thought I hit it (his 7-foot putt) the way I wanted to. I thought watching both Craig’s and Chris’ that didn’t break as much, I’d of liked to not see their putts; I’d of probably gotten it a bit higher. After seeing theirs, it looked like it might not break as much. It went across the hole the last foot.

(on Couples’ knack for these events) Fred’s attitude is so good for this type of event. We all could retire on the money Fred’s made from events that people don’t count as official money. But trust me. He does.

RICK SMITH/MANAGING PARTNER TREETOPS RESORT – (on how the ING Par-3 Shootout has grown) I got back from Augusta and watched everyone have so much fun on the Par-3 Course there. My good friend (Harry Melling) who started all this asked me “What do we need to do to make this more interesting?” I said “We should build a Par-3 course” He said “Go do it.” It was really the first thing I ever did. I looked at the land and it was so severe, I couldn’t build a par-4 there without dynamite, so I’ll build a nine-hole par-3. Five months later, it was complete and it opened the same time the Fazio (Premier) Course did. It was built to have fun. The game’s hard and sometimes the game takes too long to play so to play in an hour and 15 minutes is good for the game of golf.

It was nice to do this, but more importantly, to get the best players in the world to come up here and compete in a really fun format makes for interesting TV. It’s great for us; northern Michigan loves it. It’s great for the fans, who support and love these guys never get to see them. I’m just pleased it’s worked out as well as it has. I’d just like to get the purse higher, get it to where I think it should be, which is a little more. These guys could be anywhere in the world they want to be and I’m glad they’re here.

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