PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 16, 2000

Jeff Maggert

JEFF MAGGERT: Yeah.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I'm excited about going back. Obviously it was a big win for me last year, having gone five years not winning. But I've had a great year. I didn't play too well at the end of last year. I was a little bit tired, but I took a couple months off, November, December. Feel really good about my game the first couple of months in the year. I've been hitting the ball really well. I'm just looking forward to getting back and trying to win it again. As far as playing Bob the first round, Bob is going to be a tough guy to beat. But, you know, as we saw last year, it real doesn't matter who you play. Anybody out there has the ability to win and beat you, so you just have to go out and play well and hopefully you can get a few good bounces go your way and win the match.

JEFF MAGGERT: I don't know, it's difficult to defend any tournament. The caliber of play out here is so tough, and so many things can happen to your game in the course of 12 months. You know, your game has to be, you know, really top notch to win, and to have all that, you know, go in sync 12 months later is tough to do sometimes. You know, I love the match play format. I feel like my game can take that format very well, especially over six matches. And you do have to have a little bit of luck on your side, but certainly the way I'm playing, I have built some good confidence to play well next week.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think a lot of players after playing the tournament last year are going to know what to expect. I think last year was new to most of the players. A few of the players have played some team competitions. But as far as changing your mind set, I think you just have to have a lot of confidence in your game. I think the most important thing is you -- you know, you have to realize that it is one -- one tournament, one day at a time, and each day is a new tournament and you have to approach every day with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of confidence in your game, because, you know, in match play if you're not playing well, you can kind of get a little bit out of your rhythm and you might have a bad round over four days, and you can recover and play well the other three and still have a good tournament and even have a chance to win. But in match play, you have to play well every day. You can't afford to slip up any one day. And that's the way I tried to approach it last year, and every day was a new tournament. You know, either you played well and you had a chance to keep going or if you don't play well, you pack your bags and go home.

JEFF MAGGERT: A little of everything. I have a very steady golf game. I feel like I play pretty intelligent golf. I don't make a lot of mistakes. I'm not going to give up holes that I shouldn't be, and I have a lot of experience I feel like in match play format. I've played three Ryder Cups and the Presidents Cup, and obviously, I played well last year in the match play. So I just have a lot of confidence in my game. I don't get intimidated by who I'm playing. I feel like I can compete against anybody, you know, whether it's Tiger Woods or anyone else. I feel like I have the game to beat those guys, especially when you're just playing one round. It really brings the competitiveness together. Obviously Tiger is playing very well and over the course of four or five days, he's a tough guy to beat right now. But I don't have any, you know, worries about having to face a guy like that in a match and being able to beat him. You know, I feel like my game is at a level where I can do that against any of the other players in the field.

JEFF MAGGERT: I don't look at the rankings. I don't look and see that Bob Tway is ranked 40-something whatever. I'm going to have a good chance of beating him. I think you're going to look more at the players and what he's accomplished in his career. Obviously, Bob Tway has done a lot of good things in his career and he knows how to win and he's going to be a tough opponent. I think you're going to see a lot of what you saw last year. You're going to see, you know, some guys get beat that are ranked Top-10, and it's not because, you know, they didn't play well. It's because there's a lot of good players in the field. You know, I think we can get used to seeing kind of what we saw last year and I think that tournament's going to be that way all the time. It's just you have to get used to the fact that there's pretty darned good golfers out there playing and every match is going to be competitive. You know, the guy who wins on Sunday is going to be the guy who played some really good golf that week.

JEFF MAGGERT: If I play well, I guess it will look like it helped me a lot. If I lose in the first round, it will look like it didn't help me at all. It's hard to say. I think more than anything, it's just confidence, and I do have a lot of confidence going into the tournament. I think obviously the way I've played last year only helps that confidence. I am playing well. I feel like my game might actually be a little bit better than it was last year going into the tournament.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think I probably rallied around that a little bit. But it is -- you know, Tiger has done a lot of great things. You know, it was just a lot of fun, and I think, you know, it kind of put a little different outlook that he had on the game of golf. He plays a little bit himself, and he was in awe of Tiger, just like everyone else is. But I told my son, actually on Monday, I was telling him, I said, "Man, I wish Tiger would have won that tournament Sunday; that way I could have ended his streak down there." And he was saying, "Yeah, you'd better watch out, he might win again." Anyway, but I would like to play the best winners in the world and beat them . If I get a chance to play Tiger again next week, it's going to be a lot of fun. But it will also be tough to beat him, I know that.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think the four majors and The PLAYERS Championship, if you want to say that's a 5th major, really, those five tournaments are still probably the most important tournaments to the players. Certainly, you know the World Golf Championships is a great concept, and I think over time, especially the match play tournament because it is a format that we don't play, really at any time else. I think all the tournaments will grow in stature and to be on the level of the four majors and some of the other more established tournaments, I think it's just going to take some time.

JEFF MAGGERT: I am looking forward to the tournament maybe kind of jump-starting my year. I'm just starting to play really good right now. I have a lot of confidence. Hopefully, I can play well out here in L.A. to be honest with you, I'm really looking forward, you know, to the Nissan tournament this week. The way I'm playing, I am thinking a little bit about the match play, but I haven't -- I really haven't put a whole lot of thought about next week, other than I'm looking forward to going back and trying to win. As far as the Presidents Cup, I'd like to make the team. I think I've played the first Presidents Cup in '94, and I certainly think that my experience in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, I could be a benefit to the team. So hopefully I can play well over the next few months and be on the team.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think Sunday is going to be the factor there. Last year, we had kind of a day of rest before Sunday with just one match. But, you know, both players are going to be tired on Sunday afternoon, there's no doubt. About two years ago, I started a fitness program, running and doing some weights and I really feel like it helped me in the tournament last year as far as my physical conditioning. I've been on the same program all of this year, as well, so I feel like I might have a slight edge over some of the players because I have, you know, worked hard on my physical condition. And if I do make it to Sunday, hopefully it will be an advantage.

JEFF MAGGERT: I don't think it's any more or less than any other tournament on the TOUR. You have to have a little luck to win tournaments. You have to be lucky and make some long putts when you absolutely have to have them. I think we've seen that in Tiger Woods' streak. At times, he's, you know, the 30- and 40-footers that are just not everyday putts that you make, you know, you see him make. You know, you see him knock them in like he's been doing forever, and a lot of that's luck. I mean, you have to have some luck on your side. You know, certainly, to win, you have to play really well over the course of six matches, but you have to have some good bounces along the way.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think. So I think when you put yourself in a position on Sunday to be in the heat of the battle and to experience all that, I think that's good -- good experience for match play because, you know, every match is like a Sunday afternoon. It's do or die. Either you play well and win in order to keep playing or you lose and you go home. So I think certainly being, you know, in a position to win a lot of tournaments on Sunday afternoon is good experience.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think confidence is a better word. I was down in some of my matches, but I always had the confidence, you know, that I could come back. I think -- you know, I never got -- I never dug myself a really large hole. 1 or 2-down occasionally in some of the matches. But I think for me the key to the tournament last year was a stretch of holes like 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. I really played those very well all week. I don't know how many under par I was on those particular holes, but it seemed like every match I was down in, you know, I might have been down at 9, but by 15 or 16, I was 1- or 2-up. I just had a lot of success on those holes, and I think that was the difference in just about every one of my matches. I just played really good golf in that stretch.

JEFF MAGGERT: I played steady golf all week. I didn't have any -- I didn't really shoot lights out in any of my rounds. I don't think I had any round where I was 6- or 7-under. Most of my rounds, I was probably 1-under, 2-under, 3-under. You know, I just played really steady in all my matches. I won't over par in any of my matches. I don't remember being over par in any single match. I think Andrew mentioned that one match that he had won, you know, he was 2- or 3-over par and still won, which sometimes you have to have that happen to you to make it to the finals. You have to have that day where, you know, you might not play so well, but then your opponent doesn't play well, either.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think everyone knows what to expect, and I think you can see a lot more of the same. Certainly, everyone would have loved to have seen Tiger and David play for it all on Sunday last year. And who knows, maybe that's the way it will turn out this year. But certainly, I think the odds are against that. The quality of play out there is pretty stiff. I think there will be some upsets. You know, everyone and their brother, I'm sure, is pulling for Tiger to play Sunday. I know it's good for the sponsors and television ratings and all that, but, you know, there's a lot of good players out there. You know, who knows, it could end up with a couple of nobodies like myself again.

JEFF MAGGERT: I don't really think so. You know, people will talk about it and write about it as an upset. You know, I'm sure if Tiger loses in the first round, everyone is going to say what a huge upset that was. You know, it's -- over the course of just one round, it's easy for these guys to win. I don't know who Tiger is playing the first round --.

JEFF MAGGERT: That guy is on a hot streak. I read in the paper he's won three or four of his last five tournaments. Obviously, he's playing really well, and if he comes over and plays well, he's got a chance to beat Tiger.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think probably the steady guys are tougher to beat, usually. But, you know, the thing is, a guy like Michael Campbell, if he gets hot and shoots seven or eight birdies, what are you going to do? There's not much that you can do. You know, every match is different. You can't really make any predictions or really try to anticipate what might happen from the other player. The attitude that I usually have is, you know, the guy that I'm playing is going to make a lot of birdies and I'm going to have to go make a lot of birdies to beat him. Just don't expect your opponent to give you anything. Just expect to have to play hard and make birdies to win.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, tradition and history has a lot to do with it. The four majors are just kind of our -- that's how we're judged in our careers, you know, did you win any majors. And if you did, which ones. That's just kind of the standard that we're judged by. You know, I think The PLAYERS Championship is really elevated up into that status as probably the 5th major, but I think the World Golf Championships will, you know, will take time. I don't think the prize money can make a tournament, you know, into the stature of one of the other majors. Certainly, when you're playing for a lot of money and $1 million to the winner, it piques everybody's interests, and even the players, the players put a lot of emphasis on those tournaments. They want to play well and they want to win.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think that does make it tough. I think, you know, to play six days of golf, if you've just flown across seven or eight time zones is tough. I think as far as going to Australia, I think just about all of the players are going to be in the same boat there, the Americans and the Europeans, whoever. Everyone is going to be traveling through a lot of time zones to get to Australia. There will be a few Australian players, obviously, that are at home, but probably 90% of the field is going to be traveling in there.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think there will be some players that probably skip. I would like to see all of the players eligible compete. But it is -- it's a tough schedule, you know, being the first week of the year. You know, I don't know, I'm not going to judge a player one way or the other whether he chooses to play, but I would hope everyone makes the effort to go down. Certainly with the Tournament of Champions, the Mercedes Tournament being the week after in Hawaii makes the travel a little bit more convenient. It's not as bad traveling to and from Hawaii as it is some of the other places you can be in.

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