THE RYDER CUP MATCHES MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 23, 2004

Hal Sutton

HAL SUTTON: I'm moved after that. I hope everybody else is. I'm excited about what's a little over from three weeks away, or the actual week itself starts less than three weeks. The team is set. All of the decisions are made. And I'm excited.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I said earlier, yesterday -- well yesterday afternoon, I got a telephone call; we were in transit up here. I got a telephone call and they said, "Well, what did you think about Stewart winning?" I said, well, I'm not surprised by that. I knew he was playing well. I'm proud of him, but he's been playing great for the last three or four months, headed in the right direction. He's a mature, talented young man. He's got a will to win and it showed yesterday. Since you're on that, I'll take it a step further. I thought that Jay Haas and Stewart Cink added maturity, consistency, and a strong desire to win, and will play their role and play their part on the team and that's why they got picked.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I've said continually that I was going to try to prepare the team so that we play to win. I continually said in the media that I wanted everybody to be mature, responsible guys that make this team. I want them to understand and accept whatever role they have to play in order for us to win The Matches. You know, we are going to take 12 egos up there, and everybody thinks that they are going to play a part in winning the 2004 Ryder Cup Team. The truth is some will play a bigger part than others. That is just the reality of it and I hope everybody can accept that and understand their role.

HAL SUTTON: Well, my last two Ryder Cups, I went into it completely different. In '99 I went into it playing really well and I knew that I was going to be a part of the team. And then in 2002, after it was delayed a year, I wasn't playing as well. If the point system had continued on, I would have not made the team. You know, I went to Curtis right off the bat. I said, look, I know, I'm a big boy, I'm not playing as well as I need to play, and there's guys playing on this team playing better than me. Don't feel like you have to have to come alone apologize to me because you didn't play me. I think in order for us to get to where we need to go, everybody needs to assume the role, whatever it is. There's one thing that you can't hide from a golfer; he knows the truth. He knows whether he's playing well or he's not playing well. We're just going to be looking for the guys that are playing well.

HAL SUTTON: I've used the term several times, decisiveness. I think Ben Crenshaw was probably the most decisive. He had Bruce Lietske and Bill Rogers as his assistants. I think they had a plan. It looked like a plan that totally departed us and we were down by four points going into Sunday. But they stuck to the plan. They didn't ask guys questions about how they felt like we ought to be paired up or anything else. They had their -- I felt very organized in that event. I felt, I'm speaking from a player's standpoint, I think the players appreciate the organization of that.

HAL SUTTON: Where I can. Where I can. It may be hard. We've got a bunch of new guys on the team. We're not getting together before the event, so the practice rounds will be used kind of as our, let's find out who does well together, how they work. I'll listen to a little bit about what they have to say about it, but I'll have more of my own idea. Sometimes I've said repeatedly that friendship sometimes can get in the way, you lean on one another a little bit too much and you're always saying, "well, you take this." You don't say it, really, but you're thinking it, you know. The end of the day, you lean too much on one another, whereas if you are maybe not the closest of friends, you kind of go out and you know what your job is, you don't wait on things; you go out and get it yourself.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I think the only thing that's a game plan is the first match. I mean, the first Friday morning. It's probably a game plan, you probably play your cards out on your style and then after that, you've got to go with your gut feeling. You've got something down on paper that you think will work, but based on what happened that morning, you either stick to it or you go to Plan B, whatever that may be, and Plan B is usually your gut.

HAL SUTTON: The only thing I can say to that is expect the unexpected. I mean, I don't know. I've had players tell me who they thought they played well with. I said, that's great. Don't expect it. (Laughter.) I'm trying to set you up not for any disappointment in your journalism, too, that you suspect one thing and it ends up being another. I couldn't -- I thought I did a decent job of not letting the players know who I really was leaning towards. You know, I've tried to put the onus on the players. And I wanted them to perform, I wanted them to make the team, not lean on me as their salvation. I've said all along that we'll play to win. That's the one mistake the U.S. has done, has made. They tried to be politically correct, and to my knowledge since I've been playing professional golf, Europe has yet to do that. They play to win.

HAL SUTTON: I'll feel better about it. I just, I think -- I've been on three losers and one winner, and I don't have to tell you which one I left feeling better about myself with. At the end of the day, if I would have only played the two matches at The Belfry and we would have won, how could I have not been happy with that.

HAL SUTTON: There were some common denominators, yeah. One of them I talked about. I think Curtis was a victim of history, basically. I think Curtis was extremely organized and all of a sudden, what happens, happens, in September. I've made the statement at Whistling Straits that if all of a sudden Julius called me and said we're going to put this off for another year, "I'd say, you're kidding me, find another captain." (Laughing). Not because I don't enjoy it, but because, I mean, I can't imagine Curtis having to go through another year, basically. Because as a player, you never see what goes on behind the scenes. You don't see this part. None of the players knew I was coming up here to do this, see. They will read about it. And the next guy that they ask to be the captain, Julius will drop all of those things on. (Laughing).

HAL SUTTON: You go back to '99, there was three guys that didn't even play a match before singles.

HAL SUTTON: Well, listen, we're all second-guessing every decision that's made. And September the 20th, there will be a lot of people second-guessing either me or Bernhard Langer. That's just part of the territory.

HAL SUTTON: I think Seve rose to a level as a captain.

HAL SUTTON: I think Seve stepped up there and proved to his team that, hey, I'm with you 100%, I'm going to fight to the finish, I'm doing my fighting from pairing and all of that sort of stuff and you guys go fight with your clubs.

HAL SUTTON: Kerry Haigh is going to set the golf course up. I spent that much time playing the golf course because I wanted to see what I felt like the golf course was required for good play and so that it would help me pick the two guys that I picked as captain's picks. That's really why I spent the time there. I'm going to ride around with Kerry Haigh. He's probably just going to tell me what he thinks he ought to do, but it looks like it's perfect to me and perfect shape. He does a great job setting up the major championships, so I don't see any reason why he can't set this up.

HAL SUTTON: Well, let me tell you what I see. I called two people after Whistling Straits to congratulate them, and that was Chris DiMarco and Chris Riley because they went from out of the Top-10 into the Top-10. I had to leave a message; they were both in transit. Chris Riley calls me back and he could hardly speak to me on the phone. He was ecstatic. It wasn't pride. I mean, he was just so overjoyed with his accomplishment that it actually was -- I was just really happy for him. If God let me live long enough to hear up one of my kids be that excited about some accomplishment that they achieve in their life, then it will all be worthwhile, because Chris Riley was that excited.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I think the biggest thing that makes it different is we are individual players. We play an individual game. We never have the for the camaraderie that a team sport has. And, to be able to come together for the same cause, play for your country and go do something of this magnitude. Every golfer that's ever grown up, every great player played on the Ryder Cup teams. It's the only true barometer and gauge of success today that is similar to what it was. Money is not the same. Golf courses have been changed. Guys just look forward to doing it.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I think any time you earn something, you feel good about it. Since you said that, I'm going to go ahead and tell you this: All 12 members of this team earned their right on this team. I picked two guys because they earned it, and that's exactly what I said to both Stewart and Jay whenever I called them. Don't ever for one second feel like you were chosen; you earned it.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I mean, the world was in shock, first of all. We were all in shock, whether you were a golfer or on the Ryder Cup Team or just an American citizen. We were all in shock. Then to think that a few weeks later you were going to go over to another country and play a large sporting event where a high concentration of people would be, it was a little bit of an alarming thing. There was a lot of talk back and forth between PGA of America and every player on the team. There was a lot of feelings on them. I think President Bush really wanted us to go if I remember correctly. He wanted to show the world that, you know, we were going to overcome this and go do it. I think it was just so close right after that it made it difficult. That kind of took the decisiveness out of it because we were undecided. But that's what I mean when I say Curtis was at a disadvantage in a way.

HAL SUTTON: I don't have the World Rankings right here in front of me, but I think that's No. 1 and No. 3 in the world. I can speculate on that. I would say that would be one hell of a team. What do you think? (Laughter.)

HAL SUTTON: Well, what we've got to do is we've got -- we have to, for one week, we've got to put our own selfish endeavors aside and we've got to do something for a common cause. Now, in order to be good at golf, you have to be very selfish. And if you don't believe that, go ask any wife of any professional golfer. They will tell you that their husband has been pretty selfish about doing the things he had to do in order to get to where he went to. So it's hard for a golfer immediately putting selfish behind him. So whatever I have to do, I've got to spend some time trying to figure out how I can get that to happen so that we can all work towards a common goal. Part of the battle is won because I recognize that. I know that. Those are the kind of things that we don't talk about necessarily. We don't want to think of ourselves as being selfish. It's not proper, you know, it's just not a good thing. But that actually happens.

HAL SUTTON: I'm still very much undecided about that.

HAL SUTTON: I'm pencilling things in and then scratching it out, pencilling it and then scratching it out.

HAL SUTTON: Well, you may have complementing games. And what I mean by complementing is in fourball play, you might have one really long hitter that's aggressive, and you might have a guy that's a little bit more consistent so that you feel like, you know, par is always secure and many birdies can be made. Then all of a sudden, in my case, they might like each other too much. So I might move them over and do something else. I think way too much has been made out of the Americans don't talk to one another and the Europeans are reading each other's putts and all that sort of stuff. I mean, if you're a golfer, let's just be honest. Would it be easy for me to go out and read your putt for you? I'm just curious, would that be easy? I mean, I don't know how hard you're going to hit it; if it's going to break six inches, if you're going to hit it firm, I'd better know that you're going to do it that, basically. And everybody's feel is different from one day to the next, so that's pretty hard to do. I've always thought there was too much emphasis put on that.

HAL SUTTON: It doesn't. That part of my job is done. He's got to do his part. I'm not paying a lot of attention. I don't know what I would do if I were him. That's probably the next question that somebody's going to ask, okay. I don't know what I would do if I were him.

HAL SUTTON: You mean what they drink and what they eat and what time they go to bed? (Laughter.)

HAL SUTTON: How much do I scout the opponent?

HAL SUTTON: There's a lot of guys that I don't know a whole lot about their game. I mean, I don't know a lot about Ian Poulter or David Howell. I know some about Paul Casey and Thomas Levet. And obviously I know about all of these guys on the left-hand side, Harrington, Garcia, Clark, Jimenez and Westwood, I know a lot about them. But no, I'm just using what I know. I'm not trying to find out anything that's hidden from me. The science in this is not what they do; it's figuring out what to do with what we have, and that's the science of this.

HAL SUTTON: I don't know. I'm looking for it. If you can figure it out before we leave -- (Laughter.) I think there is a science to it. I think there is a chemistry to it. I think figuring out the right mix is critical. I think wives have something to do with that. I think -- I've seen too much behind the scenes. I think some women make a difference.

HAL SUTTON: No. I think they say things that are important to their husbands. We've got a different rule going this year. I made a change. In the past, the caddies have had their own sort of spot. No place is off-limits to the caddies. I want them in the team room. I want them in there, and here's the reason why I do: It's because they might single-handedly say one thing that makes a difference in the half-point that wins this thing. And I'm not going to keep them out here like this; I'm going to bring them right on in. They are part of the team. I fully think the wives have that same thing. They could say something that says, hey, you can make the difference; I believe in you. You could be the deciding thing, the deciding one.

HAL SUTTON: I thought '99 was one of most moving Saturday nights I've ever been involved in.

HAL SUTTON: I think certain wives had certain things to say that were meaningful. I thought certain guys had things to say. That week we laughed together, we cried together and we won together. You know, it was kind of like we all, what was the Rascals or whatever, where they became blood brothers or whatever. I felt like we all put the blood together out there. (Rubbing thumbs together).

HAL SUTTON: There's a video played every night I think.

HAL SUTTON: They are all specific now that I'm captain. (Laughter.) They have a pointed message; it's just whether everybody is bright enough to get them or not.

HAL SUTTON: I can't answer that. I don't know. I don't really know. I think the world circumstances caused -- there was a lot of emphasis put on putting the respect and the gentlemanliness back into the game. I felt for obvious reasons that we played golf in straightjackets, basically. The Americans, it was our fault and we had to do something about it, so to speak. We did. I think everything is back where everybody wants to see it.

HAL SUTTON: Well, you know, there is that little -- a player or a wife, caddie, wonders is it going to be different this week because it's a Ryder Cup, should I say this or should I not say this. I think that would be very hard. I'll just have a meeting with each one of them privately and just say: Look, be yourself. Say what you feel. You know your husband, you know your player, better than all of us do. Don't be afraid to speak your mind. I don't want one of them overtaking a team meeting (Laughter.) But I'm talking about behind closed doors --

HAL SUTTON: That wife is such supposed to know them better than anybody else is. So I would think that they should be able to make an impact, I don't know. That's my feelings. Y'all will be second-guessing me about that, too, won't you.

HAL SUTTON: I think we'll have a little of that to overcome with everybody. These guys played darned good golf over the last two years to be a part of this team. They look forward to being part of it. It's something that they look -- it's one of the highlights in their career. And maybe to get there and feel as though you can't contribute as much as somebody else is bitterness in a way. Some players handle that better than others. If were to make it through life and if we could deal with reality better, I think we could all do a better job at whatever we were trying to do. Sometimes we want to live in a little bit of a dream world, if you will. That's a golfer. We've got to envision ourselves being, the next day is going to be better all the time. That's the way we live our life, you know.

HAL SUTTON: Well, you know, Tiger is the one guy that I've singled out every time I've talked. He sees -- let me step into his world for a minute for y'all. He set expectations. He set a standard that nobody has ever set before. And boy, everybody liked that standard, and we wrote about it and we talked about it and we anticipated how far that would continue and go. His career, if you will, has taken a period here where it looks like he's loafing to the world, and this man is not loafing. He is still going. It's not easy to do what he did. It looked easy to do. It's not easy to do. It's not even easy for Tiger Woods, who is maybe the most talented player that's ever touched a golf club. I used term this morning. If anything, he is going through a transition period in his life where he's doing more things on his own. He's being more accountable to himself. He's not looking to others as much. He may be enjoying life just a little bit more. I mean, in order to set the standard that he set, he can't think about anything but 14 golf clubs and green fairways and green grass and that sort of stuff. I mean, he may be doing that a little bit, but that's okay. Let me tell you where most people see two shots, he sees four and he can hit all four; that's the difference. You know, I could see a few shots; I couldn't hit some of them. He can. You know, his worst is usually better than most people's best. He's proven that this year. I mean, he didn't drive the ball good this weekend and he still finished second in the tournament. And he's had a number of those events where he didn't drive the ball well and still finished second. If he drives it good, what's gonna happen?

HAL SUTTON: It will matter. Any major championship venue, it will matter. It's not as long as I remembered it being. Guys like Tiger Woods, they know how to back off of clubs. They are going to play the club that's going to put them where they need to be in order to move forward. Tiger can hit it a mile, but he doesn't have to prove that to you on every hole that he comes to.

HAL SUTTON: Well, it's a different stage. The Ryder Cup is a different stage. It's a worldwide stage that there's a lot of anticipation. It's one guy against another guy or two guys against two guys. So, there's a good chance. I wouldn't be surprised if Tiger elevated his game that week. I mean, that would be doing something he had not done, according to everybody else, he's had less than a stellar Ryder Cup record to this point.

HAL SUTTON: I'm not sure what you mean by that.

HAL SUTTON: Absolutely he's different than everybody else. (Laughter.) Yeah, he is different than everybody else. You used the term everybody's equal. Everybody is not equal. We're men, that's the equal part of it. We play the same game. That's the second equal part of it. But we have different talents, different abilities, and you know, here is what I'm going to do, I'm going to reach in and pull those talents out and put them together out there. I mean, there's some great companies right here in New York City. I'm affiliated with one of them, CitiGroup, and I can tell you right now, they don't treat everybody the same. Some guys do things differently. Jack Welch didn't treat everybody the same at GE. We are going to exploit talents here. We're going to use the ones that can help us get the goal accomplished.

HAL SUTTON: I'm going to tell them that before we start. And if they forget it, I'm going to remind them of it.

HAL SUTTON: First of all, it's easy to be decisive about whether it was a mistake or not after the fact. Some things are glaringly wrong. If something is glaringly wrong, I will have a conversation with a guy. I don't foresee that happening very much. I don't think there is that sort of, being Oakland Hills doesn't present that much.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I'm going to be watching whatever they do. I'm the only guy that can give the American team any advice. I can tell them what I think. The assistant captains can't. I won't be afraid to tell them what I think. I won't be afraid to encourage them if I think that's what they need. Seve wasn't.

HAL SUTTON: I think Oakland Hills is just set up that way period. I don't think you can take anything away from it. You can't bump it and run it. The game is played in the air. Oakland Hills is all about being below the hole and good iron play in order. In order to be a good iron play, it's easier to be that from the fairway than it is from the rough. It's go to be easier to make a 15-foot uphill putt than it is a six-foot downhill putt.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I guess you could, but you'd have to be making that decision now, so that it would look normal and we're not making those decisions now. We're not going to alter the golf course. I mean, Kerry Haigh will set the golf course up -- I mean, he did -- let me tell you something. If you doubted what Kerry Haigh was capable of, Whistling Straits could have made an idiot out of a genius, basically. Kerry Haigh did a great job of setting that golf course up. He'll do the same sort of job at Oakland Hills.

HAL SUTTON: I tell you what, if he can't play out of the rough, you didn't play close attention this weekend. He's got all of the shots.

HAL SUTTON: I think if you pulled every player that was on that team, we would all like to take that moment back and wish that it never happened. Do I think it was unfair to say that it should have not happened in the moment? You know, we were excited. History was being made at that particular point. We were coming from further back than any other team had ever come from. There was a lot of baggage on that team. That was a team that a lot of people had talked about, they should be paid to play and that sort of stuff. You know, that team had come a long ways. I think all of the emotions came out at that particular moment from all of those things. You know, we need in order to win, we need to recall all emotions, we need to bring -- there needs to be emotion. It needs to all come out, in a constructed way. I think every leader of the team will not be afraid to say what's on his mind at the right time. I mean, somebody will emerge on this team as a player that will say what he thinks. And it will be at an opportune time. I don't know who that person is. We'll find out. I'll be able to tell you after it's over with.

HAL SUTTON: That's what one of the British writers said this last week, "we always play above our weight." You know, we're back to expectations. Everybody has these lofty expectations of the American players. They add up the World Rankings and the World Rankings when you look at the U.S. versus Europe, it's pretty lopsided. Problem is, is that it's going to boil down to who makes the most putts that week. And sometimes the greatest player in the game doesn't make enough putts that week to win. One thing that is great about the game of golf is that David actually beats Goliath sometimes.

HAL SUTTON: I was surprised. We're back to your question here a minute ago. I personally thought it was the wrong move for him to come back at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock and challenge himself like that after having been off for six months, and it would have proved that I was wrong. He played very well. If I would have said anything, would have messed up, wouldn't I? But I was very shocked at how well he's done. It's just a credit to what kind of player he is.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I'm not sure what that means, everybody player out there has a great deal of respect for people that win major championships. But, you know, everybody that makes it there has the ability to play whether they have won a major championship or not, and that's what they will rely on is their own talents and certainly if I had not won a major championship and I was playing Tiger Woods, I would realize that he's performed well at a very high level many times. But my best still is good enough to beat him on a given day. That's what they are going to go to battle with, each and every one of those guys. I don't think there is a shoe-in, I really don't. Nobody would have guess that had Phillip Price would have beat Phil Mickelson last time, but it happened.

HAL SUTTON: For Sunday, you mean.

HAL SUTTON: All I'm for sure of is no matter what I do, somebody will be opposed to what I do. And I'm comfortable with that fact. I am completely comfortable. I've been very comfortable about picks that I made. I knew that there was nobody that was controversial-free. Somebody else thought somebody else should have been on the team, and that's good, everybody is entitled to their opinion. I'm going to play the way I think we have to play in order to win. Somebody is going to write a story the next day if we lose, that it should have been another way and we will never really know the answer if the outcome would have been any different.

HAL SUTTON: Absolutely. That's not fair to the player to throw them into the mix on Sunday. I mean, in retrospect looking back, and I'm going to be y'all for a minute and second-guess. If you thought they couldn't have one thing to do with you winning, and you had not used them at all, they should have been, 10,11 and 12. It was a given that you didn't think they could help you. You didn't play them a single match. Now I second-guessed just like everyone else is going to do.

HAL SUTTON: I don't think anybody's ever said that to anybody. So first of all, if somebody said that to me, I'd need a bigger explanation. And I don't know that I could actually give you a straight answer as to whether I would overrule it or not overrule it. I'd have to listen to the circumstances. I mean, I'm not going to be stupid, come hell or high water, you're going to do this, or else. I'm not going to throw the chair out on the court or anything else, you know. Here is one thing for sure and certain. Hal Sutton won't win it, but Hal Sutton could lose it and that's what's going to be written. Now, if that's really the case, we're going to kind of do it my way. I'm going to play Frank Sinatra's song quite a bit. I'm going to make the decisions and we're going to live by them. It's not going to be up for debate for 45 minutes on Saturday night's team.

HAL SUTTON: I think anybody that's decisive and organized is easy to play for. You know what to expect out of them. Doesn't matter if they have got a fiery way or a quiet demeanor. I think it's just easier to expect it. A known product or knowing what somebody is going to do is easier to deal with. I mean, you know who those people are. I was kidding, since I made that reference, I asked Bobby Knight one time, what would I do as a player that would cause him to throw the chair out on the court and coach me. I was 12 years on the Tour or something like that when I asked him this question. He said, "Well, Hal, if I were your coach, and you and I had been playing this hole and three practice rounds and we had decided under all conditions, all circumstances, this was a 3-wood, wind against, downwind everything and you step up the first day and hit driver, I'm going to throw the chair out on the court." (Laughter.) So that's a good explanation about being decisive. And I understand his point. You just totally departed. I mean, there is one exception to that rule, and that is that person that rises above what we had all defined as greatness, that person that was capable of making that last-minute decision and had the ability to do it. There are not that many people in the world; I would say Michael Jordan was that sort of person and I would say Tiger Woods has risen to that sort of level. I mean, he's more equipped to make that decision than I would be at that point. I think I'd have to turn him loose. I'm not going to put a bit in his mouth. I'm going to show up at the track and make sure he can run as far as he can.

HAL SUTTON: I did.

HAL SUTTON: It's challenging. I'm pretty much a speak-my-mind sort of person and I have my own ideas and thoughts. Sometimes having self-talk with myself is a big part of my day with deciding whether it is right or wrong for me to think that way, and if -- you know, if it's okay to say anything. That's been somewhat of a challenge for me.

HAL SUTTON: No. I don't think so. I think -- I mean, the times that I have ever won a golf tournament, it was -- I had to make decisions on how to do things and I had to play certain ways in order to do it and I stuck to my game plan. They know me as that sort of guy. I think that's the captain and I will be it.

HAL SUTTON: I would be surprised, but it's not my choice. He's got several newcomers on this team. On the one side he's got five guys that have played on the other side he's got five that haven't. So I think he needs to -- I mean, I don't know. I would be looking at some experience based on that team.

HAL SUTTON: A stable figure. He'll represent stability. You know, he's got a son that's playing great right now. He did something right around a guy that's young. I think Jay represents stability. That's the word that I would use with Jay. Consistency and stability.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah. Jay, what was it, three years ago said he was 165th on the Money List, or I don't remember the number, you can look at it and see. I'm pretty sure Jay wasn't sure he could do what he's done the last two years and I'm sure it's been an exciting ride for him. I feel sure that the Ryder Cup making it as 50-year-old is something he'll look back on his career as it was certainly one of the highlights. Few people have done that.

HAL SUTTON: It probably is tougher to make it at 50. Fewer have done it.

HAL SUTTON: Jay has a lot of abilities. Abilities of which I would not think that would not be something that he couldn't do. I'm the PGA of America. I don't know how to do that. I would never ever jump out and insinuate something that they might not even be thinking about.

HAL SUTTON: Probably making sure that I want to say what most people would consider the most politically correct thing. I hate second-guessing. It's killer in golf. It is the worst thing that a person can do as a golfer is to second-guess. I mean, if you've got somebody around you that's second-guessing every decision that you make, I mean, we make a lot of them. I told my dad one time, said to me, he said, why is it this and why is it that? Said, "Well how many decisions do you actually make in a decision day? I make 72 a day." Hopefully less; if you make 72 in a day's work, you're going home. And everybody is going to second-guess that decision. Everybody is going to say is that a right one or a wrong one. At the end of the day as golfers, we have to put all of that out of our mind and say it doesn't matter, I did what I thought was best at the time. It's history, we're moving past it. In this particular role, it's not history until everybody decides it's history, and we're going to talk about it till we get tired of talking about it. That's a decision that is sometimes affects decisions that you make.

HAL SUTTON: No. Nothing to do with conservative. Conservative.

HAL SUTTON: Traditionally powerful. Traditionally powerful.

HAL SUTTON: I don't know. We'll find out after y'all see it.

HAL SUTTON: Oh, yeah. It's in my closet.

HAL SUTTON: No. It's hanging -- do I need to take you in my closet here? (Laughter.)

HAL SUTTON: It's hanging on the very end so that you see it whenever you go in. It's not hanging in the midst of a bunch.