AN INTERVIEW WITH: SCOTT MCCARRON

Q. First question. Did you know what you were bargaining for this year at what point did you figure out that there was going to be a real good chance you were going to play with the President of the United States?

SCOTT MCCARRON: When we kind of got Greg to kind of commit to play and Greg and the President kind of talked and both agreed that, I’ll play if you play and we’ll play together type thing.

I had a pretty good idea that I might be paired with Greg at that point. I worked pretty hard to get Greg to come play and President Clinton played an integral part in that, and so when Greg and Bill both kind of committed to play I had a feeling I might be playing with those guys. It’s great.

Q. And you got the CEO of Humana with you too?

SCOTT MCCARRON: I do, I do, yeah. It should be a lot of fun.

Q. Ever played with anybody like that?

SCOTT MCCARRON: I played with the President before. Greg and President Clinton and President Bush were raising money for the Three Friends One Goal after the tsunami and I was staying at Greg’s house for the Honda Classic, had dinner with President Clinton, had breakfast the next morning, and he invited me to come out there and hang out with him for the day.

So I forego a practice round and went out there and hung out and unfortunately it rained like cats and dogs and we weren’t able to play, but after everybody left they did some speeches to some people that paid to play. President Clinton looked at me and said, come on, let’s go play. And it was absolutely pouring. I’m like, okay, I’ll go. And so Greg and I and President Clinton went and played and President Bush went out there and played, and it was just.

Q. The Bush the first?

SCOTT MCCARRON: Yeah, Bush, Senior. And it was one of those days like there’s no way you would play, but when the President says, come on let’s go play, we were like kids out there, we played like 12, 13 holes. Just pouring down rain and had an absolute blast.

Q. Where was that?

SCOTT MCCARRON: This was at the Medalist Club.

Q. What year?

SCOTT MCCARRON: It was the tsunami year, so 2005. Right around there. It was like we were kids out there playing. It was just golf and having fun and one of the most memorable rounds of golf I think I ever had.

And I realized at that point he can play. The President Clinton can actually play some pretty darn good golf. He hit a lot of good shots that day.

Q. You’ve played in this tournament, you played in the celebrity field before?

SCOTT MCCARRON: Right, many times. As a matter of fact I asked to be in the celebrity field all the time.

Q. But that, but this is a different level of celebrity.

SCOTT MCCARRON: Certainly.

Q. There will be people paying money to come see it this time, as opposed to just down there.

SCOTT MCCARRON: Sure.

Q. You’re still trying to make a cut, play as well as you can.

SCOTT MCCARRON: I’m trying to win a golf tournament, not make a cut.

Q. And this could be a pretty distracting day.

SCOTT MCCARRON: Well, I think it will be a great opportunity for me to really get focused every shot. Golf is, you don’t have to focus all the time, you just have to focus for a few seconds at a time. And so it will be a great opportunity for me to challenge myself to be focused and ready to hit the shots when it is my turn to hit. But obviously it will be a lot of fun, Greg and I will have a great time with Mike McCallister and President Clinton, I’m sure there will be a lot of people out there, but it’s still a golf tournament for us and we’re trying to play as well as we can.

Q. Were you here in ’95 when the three presidents played?

SCOTT MCCARRON: I was. That was my first Bob Hope actually my rookie year. And I remember that being quite an ordeal with Secret Service and guys, everybody was saying, oh, I think I think the Secret Service were up in the hills with guns, the security and I remember talking to Scott Hoch about it and what a memorable, memorable day.

Q. You and Norman, I mean, that’s an obvious pairing when you look, because you’ve been friends for quite some time.

SCOTT MCCARRON: Yeah, we have.

Q. You say you talked, you helped talk him into it.

SCOTT MCCARRON: I tell you what we played the Shark Shoot out together this year and when we were playing I thought he actually played really well. And he hadn’t played that much, practiced just a little bit before and I said, you know, you ever thought of starting to play a little bit more.

And he’s finally starting to feel healthy. He’s kind of a year off of all the surgeries and he’s really got his health back. He’s happy, he’s healthy. And I said, why don’t you come out and join us and play a couple times this year. And he said, I’m thinking about it. So I proposed the idea of coming out here for the Humana Challenge at the start of the year, with President Clinton being involved with the Clinton Foundation, I know they’re friends.

And so I just started talking to him about it and put the bug in his ear. And we kept talking every week, what do you think and I think it was really when President Clinton finally called him and said, come on, Greg, why don’t you come play, it was really that that put him over the top. Which was great. We played Tuesday practice round we had dinner last night, up at Bob Hope’s.

Q. Up at the house?

SCOTT MCCARRON: Up at the house. With the President, I mean.

Q. You been to the house before?

SCOTT MCCARRON: I never been to the house before. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Once in a lifetime type dinner. All because of golf and all because of Humana being involved.

Q. How’s the game?

SCOTT MCCARRON: Game’s good. I’m healthy, been practicing a lot. The game’s really good kind of right where I want it at the start of the season.

I’m looking forward to getting out there and playing and getting a good start here. I’m not in next week, I’m kind of fourth, fifth alternate right now, so I’m kind of on the bubble. So I need to play well here and get in San Diego and play well there, because I did not get a spot in the Phoenix, and just keep going. I’ll be in the AT&T.

Q. You’ll be playing and I’ll be driving home.

SCOTT MCCARRON: The Hall of Fame. I’m looking forward to that. And then Cancun. So I’ll probably play 25 events. I just don’t get to pick and choose as much at the start of the season but I’ll get in quite a few as soon as the season starts going after the Florida swing.