GTE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC

May 11, 2000

Blaine McCallister

BLAINE McCALLISTER: I had a good. Solid round of golf. I'm very pleased with it. After last week, you know, one of those deals last week where you felt a little down, but you also have a lot of positives to take out of it, and I did that. And today was a good day for me to go out and focus on what was at hand, and I did that very well and I was very pleased my ability to go out and do that. A very tough day. Wind conditions kind of blustery, and I think the toughest part is on the putting surfaces. You know, you can kind of gauge the wind a little bit and get used to the gusting and so forth, but when you're on the putting green it's hard to do that because you lose your balance and it's hard to stay stable out there. The ball -- it's getting close to where the ball is actually moving on the surface. That's some pretty strong winds, and that was tough conditions. I was very pleased my round and I played a good, solid round of golf. Made five birdies and one bogey. My bogey fell on the 9th hole, the par 3. Kind of miss-hit my 6-iron and kind of floated off to the left. Just off the green and I was kind of lucky it stayed up above the hazard; and I made a bogey there. I played a good round of golf. I made a good first putt on the -- second putt on the 1st hole from about six feet; so that was kind of a nice feeling to go out there and 2-putt the 1st hole after knocking it by six feet. But my first birdie fell on No. 5. I made about a 12-footer, good 12-foot putt that came from left-to-right and fell right in the center of the hole. But that's a tough hole any time, with the wind or without wind. And I followed that up with a birdie on the next hole; put that about 10 feet and made that. On 5, I hit a 6-iron just out of the left rough and the ball went through the fairway and just came out in the left rough. Next hole, I laid up with a 4-wood of the tee and hit a pitching wedge about 10 feet and made that. 9, I hit a 6-iron, just got up in the wind and just gusted it to the left of the green and didn't get that up and down. Fortunate, really, to have a shot. I thought it might go in the hazard. Fortunately, it stayed up and made bogey there. But came back with two good pars on 10 and 11 and then hit it about 3 1/2, four feet on the 12th hole and missed it. Hit a 4-iron about 3 1/2 feet and just missed it. Then I came back and made birdie on 13 from about 12 feet. And I made about a 10-footer or 12-footer on 14 for birdie. 14, I hit a 7-iron from about -- I think it was 149 yards, really hard right-to-left wind. I walked off the green; the marshal said it was the first birdie of the day. I said, "Well, good, I hope it's the only one." (Laughs). Then 15th hole was a great par 4 there. Made my par there. I got it up-and-down from just off the right edge of the green. And 16, the par 5, I hit it just in the left rough and hit a 4-wood short of the green. And hit it about a foot, chipped up there about a foot. Hit a good lob shot just short of the bunker about a foot and made that for a birdie to go 4-under. This was tough conditions out there. I don't care which worse course you were playing; it will try your mind out there. I grew up in the wind. I grew up in west Texas. The wind blows hard. I'm used to this, but when you're out there in this kind of tournament conditions, it requires a lot more patience from the standpoint of -- on the surfaces of the green, because you can really get blown around out there, and you've got to be very patient. And I was very proud of the way I did that today.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: Yeah, I was worried about it from the standpoint of, you know, I had a chance to win that golf tournament, and then I let it get away. I mean, I was -- that hurt. You know -- but you know what, I didn't lose any sleep. I mean, I was able to go to bed and get up the next morning and get on an airplane and fly here. The thing I'm very happy is my focus on today's round. Last week is gone and I was very pleased what I did out there today as far as that. I had a lot of people patting me on the back and a lot of shaking of hands and pulling for me and so forth. Hey, you know, I wasn't trying to miss that putt. I just did. But I came here with another goal, and that was to play well and I'm golf to a good start; so I'm excited about that.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: No. I'm a very positive guy. I feel like I'm very positive in anything I do, and I think it was key to me to make sure that I stayed that way, you know, and focus on this round. Not what happened last week. Don't review what I did. It's gone, it's over, and I was very good about that today. Today, I went out there and just put the peg in the ground and hit it and chased it found and hit it again. That's what I was very happy with. You know, there could have been some thoughts back there if I let them. I told my caddy, "last week is gone," and we talked about what we're going to do right now, and that's what I was very happy with.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: 191, I believe is what it was. You'll have to forgive me. I mean, there's 18 of them. Let me see here. 191. I hit it just 3 1/2 feet. But it was one of those little left-to-righters, and when the wind kind of gusted on me. I didn't quite hit if off, and the wind caught it and blew it. But I played with two guys; we all agreed: This was tough out there, watching the putts that could do some things -- it required a lot of patience.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: I feel like I can play good golf in the wind. I hit the ball solid and I let the wind kind of be my friend. I believe that's one thing you've got to be out there. I mean, you can't try to fight it. You get to fighting the wind, and next thing you know, you lose the battle because there's -- this kind of wind, the strength of this wind was very severe today. It was blowing 25, 30 miles an hour and gusting. If you could just play with the wind, let the wind carry your ball, that's a very small thing, and to get up in that wind and it's just letting the wind help you as much as you can; and that's what I did today.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: It varied. Some holes there was two and some holes there was -- you're hitting -- the 3rd hole, I had 196 to the pin and I hit 7-iron. I mean, turned around, and you know, you could be 160 yards and you're hitting a 5-iron. It's a testing out there of your mental patience and dealing with that. That's one thing that you've got to be careful with. You can get caught up in worrying about what the ball is doing with the wind, and like -- I've always grown up in the wind and my theory is let the wind, like I said, help you.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: Average. About average. No, this is a little bit above average. But the windiest day I can recall playing in a golf tournament was -- well, we played a practice round the day before, and you know how you've got these golf carts with windshields; you had it floor-boarded into the wind and you weren't going anywhere. That's windy. How about that. I've hit driver from 130 yards on a par 3. So, I mean, I've seen wind. What can I tell you? When you grow up out there, there's nothing to stop it, guys. Shoot, there's nothing out there. I mean, somebody said there was a wildfire burning 43,000 acres out there. I said what's it going to burn? There's nothing there. It's only going to help it. It was started by lightning. We can can't get rain but we can get lightning. Where I grew up. It was a 9-hole golf course. We played two sets of tees. And trust me, the wind did blow.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: Yeah, I got it there. I was the only one in the group. We played -- we had to wear a scarf, because the sand, the dust, it would hurt your skin from the -- you know, blowing up out of the wind and hitting you. That's windy. I've learned how to handle that.

BLAINE McCALLISTER: I saw a guy drive a 550-yard par 5, one of my teammates. He drove it pin-high left, just off the edge of the green, 550. How's that? .

BLAINE McCALLISTER: Luckily, he just had to chip it. He made eagle, but nothing like chipping for double-eagle. You've all watched "Tin Cup"? Remember where he says I can a 7-iron farther than you? Remember how he hit it? That's what it's like. I can remember playing a high school golf tournament where you got to use a tee on every shot because there was so many rocks in the fairways, you would tear your clubs up. So they gave you a bunch of tees and you carry those in your pocket because you can tee it up.