BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 15, 2002

Scott McCarron

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Scott, for coming in and joining us for a few minutes. Good round today, 8-under par for the tournament. Why don't you talk about your round, and then we'll go to some questions.

SCOTT McCARRON: I played really solid today. I hit a lot of fairways and was -- I hit a lot of greens, and when I missed a green, most of the time I had some chips and I -- I chipped one in today, chipped one in yesterday so that was kind of nice. Hit a lot of good putts.

You know, these greens are very, very firm and you've really got to pick and choose where you're going to be aggressive, and I felt like I was patient all day long and took advantage of the holes that I felt I could take advantage of and pretty much tried to hit in the middle of the green.

Q. What did you do in your two off weeks to keep the MoJo going?

SCOTT McCARRON: To keep the MoJo going, I skied seven days. Just really tried to keep my golf game in intact by not hitting any balls so I would have total reminiscence when I came back, which is nice. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

But, yeah, I skied three or four days in Tahoe, went to Denver and Aspen and came back home; it snowed three feet in 24 hours and went skiing Friday all day and it was just fantastic.

Q. You said when you left La Costa when you came back you would still feel like you were playing better than anybody else in the world --

SCOTT McCARRON: I said at the time I felt I was playing as good as anybody else in the world.

Q. And when you came back you expected to be right there again.

SCOTT McCARRON: I expected to come back and not miss a beat. When you don't play for two weeks, and I didn't practice at all -- obviously, I'm pretty happy that I'm in this position again. I'm still playing really solid golf, seeing a lot of good shots going into the hole and feeling good swing thoughts and just got to keep it going.

Q. You don't seem to have the trouble of everybody else complaining about the poa annua on the West Coast and you played well there and everybody comes to the East Coast -- inaudible -- you don't seem to have any trouble either way?

SCOTT McCARRON: When you're playing well it feels like you can play any golf course; it doesn't really matter. And right now I've been playing some really good golf whether it's poa annua, bermuda, tiffeagle. I'm enjoying playing golf now.

Q. The missed putt from 18, that was a frequently missed putt. What did you see there that made you think it was going to go the other direction?

SCOTT McCARRON: I thought it was going right, which it did. It looks like it's going left and from -- down by the water it looks like it's going right; everything's breaking to the right . It's hard to make a putt on bermuda and play it away from the water. There's kind of a little bit of a dip right there, a little settling of the green. These new greens have a little bit of settle in them; so sometimes the putts don't roll as true. I didn't hit the putt exactly the way I wanted to hit it. I kind of dogged it up there.

Q. When is the last time you remember playing with this Tiger character?

SCOTT McCARRON: I haven't played with Tiger for a while, actually. We played a few practice rounds in '98, played with him in '97 a lot when he first came out. I really haven't put myself in position to be in the last few groups, you know, until recently, last year and a half I played pretty well, and we just haven't had a chance to really play much together. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. It's been years, at least?

SCOTT McCARRON: It's been a couple of years.

Q. Do you have an advantage playing in a group with him, knowing what he's doing?

SCOTT McCARRON: Or he playing in the group with me? (Laughter.)

I don't think he'll have any advantage playing in a group with me. I'm going to go out there and play as well as I can and keep thinking well and keep being patient.

Tiger is obviously playing really well. To be at 12-under through two rounds on this golf course, when the cut is 3-over, is playing some pretty good golf.

So I've got to go out there and focus on what I'm doing well and just keep playing good golf.

Q. Is a four-stroke deficit any daunting when the leader is a guy who won here the last two years?

SCOTT McCARRON: Not really. It doesn't matter whether it's Tiger or Ernie Els or whatever. Four shots is four shots. But there's still 36 holes of golf left, a lot of golf.

This golf course is playing very difficult. Anything can happen. There's a lot of trouble out there. You know, if you start missing some greens, it's going to be difficult to get up-and-down. But I've just got to keep doing the things that I'm doing well. I can't worry about what Tiger is doing, or anybody else for that matter.

Q. Or Ernie?

SCOTT McCARRON: Or Ernie or whoever. Is Ernie even up there? I don't even know.

Q. He's right behind you.

SCOTT McCARRON: There you go.

Q. Were you looking at some places along the way where we might see some pins tomorrow? I noticed after you finished putting, you were looking at a few things?

SCOTT McCARRON: My caddy usually does that, and if there's anything that is radical he might bring me over there. Like on 12, the par 5, just as I was walking off, I saw that pin placement, it's right on the other side of mound there on the front left. There's basically no way you can hit it close, if that's where they are going to put the pin. I'm homing that was either a bird dropping or someone dropped some paint there, because that pin, no one is going to be able to hit it close. (Laughter.)

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your round?

SCOTT McCARRON: Sure.

No. 5, I made a bunch of pars. Hit it just over a little bit left of the green on 5 and chipped it in with a little sand wedge.

Then I hit 6 -- hit a good drive and a 5-wood there, just a little long right. I had a really tough lie and hit a good chip there to about a foot or so and made birdie there.

9, hit a really good drive there. Hit 9-iron in there about six, seven feet and made that for birdie.

10, hit a good 3-wood off the tee. Pitching wedge to about 12 feet. Made that for birdie.

Then 12, good drive, 3-iron, laid out and hit sand wedge there about a foot for birdie.

That's five of them.

Q. What did you do on 16?

SCOTT McCARRON: Oh, I'd like to have that back. I hit a great drive down the left side. I had 217 to the hole and had a perfect 4-iron that landed right smack in the center of the green, and took one hop and went over the green, that far out of the fringe (indicating four inches) in the deep rough; and had really a difficult lie; hit a good chip to about maybe eight feet and missed it.

But, you know that's the kind of thing, that shot should be two feet for eagle. The way the greens are, they just happened to be really firm on that mound on that green, which they might want to think about re-doing that one out of any of the ones that he did.

So, you know, I had hit two good shots there and just didn't get any out of it.

Q. Have you been to Augusta?

SCOTT McCARRON: No.

Q. Do you plan to?

SCOTT McCARRON: I'm thinking about going Monday after THE PLAYERS Championship for a day and play 36 holes really quick and fly home because I don't think I'm going to get another look at it.

I hear the golf course, the changes are great. I think it certainly favors the longer hitters. So, I'm looking forward to playing there, that's for sure.

Again, this weekend -- I've got this weekend, next weekend, big tournaments, and I've got to focus on these. And then Atlanta where I'm defending. So I have to think about these before I start thinking about the Masters.

Q. Overall, can you find of figure the greens are going to be about the same way, from green to green as far as hardness?

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, you would hope so. But they are -- there are greens that are really, really firm and that are greens that are really firm. (Laughs) so that's pretty consistent.

There are a few balls that you thought might release a little bit more that didn't and other balls that bounced over the greens. The greens have softened up a little bit since Tuesday. Tuesday they were extremely firm. I don't think I had ever played on greens that hard before.

So I'm glad that we had a little rain and they softened up just a little bit. You know, if you hit the fairway, you've got a legitimate chance to at least knock ton the green. If you miss a fairway on the first cut, it's very difficult. If you hit it short of the green, all of that is really wet. I don't mind having fix greens where they would even make the front of the greens firm, so you could run balls up.

Q. I think Tiger has won like 12 of the 14 events he has held a 36-hole lead on. I hate to tell you that, as well as you have played coming off of back-to-back seconds, but he just came in here and said this is the best he's been playing in a long, long time.

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, I hope it is. He's 12-under. That's pretty good. If he came in and said he's 12-under and playing bad, I'd be worried.

What's the question? (Laughter.)

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Scott, for joining us.

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