GREATER GREENSBORO CHRYSLER CLASSIC

April 22, 1999

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: I bogeyed No. 3. I hit a 3-wood off the tee and a 6-iron just over the green. Missed about a 6-footer for par there. Kind of got my round going on 6. I hit a 5-wood off the tee and I holed a 9-iron from the fairway. I flew it in and made eagle. And I birdied No. 8, hitting a 4-iron to about eight feet. I got a string of birdies on the back. I birdied 11, hitting a 3-wood, wedge to about 10 feet. I birdied 12 with a 7-iron to about 12 feet. And birdied 13 and I hit a pitch shot -- I hit a 3-wood and a 4-wood right short of the green pitched up to about four feet and knocked that in for birdie.

JIM FURYK: About 150. 147 or so, we'll say. I think 147 is right, actually. I don't normally hit a 9-iron that far, but the wind helped it a little.

JIM FURYK: I think that the wind was definitely difficult. It wasn't -- at times at this golf course it's hard to figure out where it's coming from, especially at holes like 4, 5, 6, 7; you can get a little swirling, especially on 5 and 6. But today it was going one way; so you could figure out which way it was going. The rough was difficult. I think it's probably less difficult -- instead of saying it's easy, I think it's less difficult than the last two years, and I think that's probably from the amount of rain in the last couple years. From what I hear, it's been pretty dry. You can have a real difficult lie and have a hard time getting a club on it; and you can also hit it in spots where the rough isn't too high at all. But for the most part, right on No. 1 and a couple places, it's thick and tough to get the ball on the green; and at other times it's not a problem.

JIM FURYK: I wouldn't say ecstatic. But I've been playing solid. I haven't played poorly, but I haven't had any briefly breakthrough events where I had a chance to win a golf tournament this year. I would say that's been a little disappointing. But I've also played fairly well. The last couple events, PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP, I finished 17th. At the matter of Masters, I finished 14th. Those aren't great events, but it's kind of hard to bat your eye at it and say, I played poorly. I played solidly.

JIM FURYK: I hit some good shots, but I also scrambled a little bit on a few holes and made a couple good saves. Made some good 5- and 6-footers for par out there. But overall from the way I played, I felt like I really got the ball in the hole well today.

JIM FURYK: 20-under would be a heck of a score. But I don't think it's going to take that much.

JIM FURYK: You know, it all depends. They might take a look at it, if it looks like the scores are fairly low. Would that be a safe assumption? They might take a look at that and not put any water on the course and tuck a few pins and see if the scores go up. I'm going to take it one shot at a time tomorrow and see what the course is giving me and not make any -- last thing I want to say is, Yeah, it's going to be easy tomorrow morning. But I'm just going to -- you never know. They might -- they might think the scores are too low today and make the golf course tougher tomorrow. You never know about the wind, either. Towards the end there when I was finishing, it gusted up at times.

JIM FURYK: I'll agree with that. I hit a shot on 12 today. The pin was over on the right side of the green; straight downwind. I didn't really know what to do. I didn't think I was going do be able to hold the green. I thought it would just trickle over the back if I hit a really good shot, and I landed it just over the front fringe and kept the ball about pin-high. The ball left a pretty big ball mark. But if the greens were firm and the pin was there today, there wouldn't have been any way to get the ball on the green unless you left it out there 40 feet, 50 feet from the pin and putted down over the ridge. And in that instance, probably the way the pin was today, it's probably a good idea. The greens were not as firm as they were in the practice round. I'm sure the amateurs yesterday really enjoyed it, too.