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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 2, 2005

J.L. Lewis

DULUTH, GEORGIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, J.L., for joining for a few minutes in the media center.

It's been a long, long, long first round, but you finally got through, and it was a tough day out there. Why don't you tell us a little bit about it.

J.L. LEWIS: Well, the cold and the wind and just the conditions, with the course being so wet, it's just a tough day. You've got to go out there and try to survive.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Have you played anything close to that --

J.L. LEWIS: This year on the TOUR?

Q. Cold and wind?

J.L. LEWIS: No, it hasn't been this cold, I don't think, in a while. It's been windy and raining every week just about, but the temperature this morning was, I don't know what it was, 40 maybe or something like that. So it was cold with the wind, especially coming out of the north.

I hit a lot of excellent shots. I didn't play perfect golf but I hit -- I hit my share of good shots. You know, I didn't make -- I made a couple of minor mistakes, but nothing major. I think I 3-putted No. 11, and then I didn't get up-and-down from two feet off the green on No. 3. But other than that, it was a pretty good day.

Q. Were there many places where you could actually get out of the wind?

J.L. LEWIS: A few down on the green. I noticed it on the par-3 No. 8 down in the hole down there, I didn't feel the wind there. But the shot from the tee, I hit a 5-iron about 240. So, you know, it was blowing unbelievable.

Q. Is there anything in your background, playing in Texas that helped you play in the wind?

J.L. LEWIS: Well, I grew up in Kansas. This was a normal day, spring day. We played in the snow and everything and the wind. It was always bad weather.

Q. What does that bring you, what you learned?

J.L. LEWIS: I think you just learned how to play, chip it around, half-shots. Normally you're going to hit a 6-iron; well, I'm choking up and hitting 4-irons, and I'm cutting the ball into the wind if it's right-to-left wind, then I'm hooking the ball if it's left-to-right wind. I just learned to do that from the time I started playing because the wind was always blowing 40, 30 to 40 where I grew up.

Q. Does keeping your composure help you even more in this type of conditions?

J.L. LEWIS: Yeah, I think so. I understand, because par is a good score. If you can keep making pars and get some birdie opportunities you're going to do all right.

Q. If it was 5-iron to 240, what was the reversal?

J.L. LEWIS: What did we do into the wind? I was hitting a 5-iron about 170 probably into the wind, something like that.

Q. Another hole where it was really --

J.L. LEWIS: On the back nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 -- 13 and 14. In fact, 14 I needed to hit a 4-iron from about 160.

It's more about the trajectory of the ball than it is the number on the club. So, you know, if you can control the flight of the ball, you have a huge advantage today.

Q. Some of the greens would be almost unplayable --

J.L. LEWIS: Yeah, I don't think the balls stay on the greens, because they are fast and they are hilly, and if the wind is blowing 40 like this, there's no way.

Q. Do your legs take a beating on a day like this?

J.L. LEWIS: Yeah, feet will be aching tonight because of the ground, you know.

Q. Your thoughts this 36-hole Monday day plan?

J.L. LEWIS: I don't want to play till Tuesday because I bought a house in Austin and I have to sign the papers Tuesday. I'm all for, "Let's go." Let's go back out there right now, I guess.

Q. Is that a realistic plan, do you think?

J.L. LEWIS: Well, you know, it's not my decision. But if it was my decision, I don't know, this is an awful tough golf course to walk. I feel like I'm in good enough shape to do it, but it's going to be a grind. If a guy is going to play in the Masters after walking 36 on this hole, this place, he's probably going to -- he's probably going to think about it a little bit. I don't have to play the next two weeks, so I'm ready to go, you know.

Q. Is it hard to have fun and keep a positive outlook on a day like this?

J.L. LEWIS: Well, you know, I just focus on seeing how good I can play each shot, and then I don't think about anything else. When I'm playing good, I don't think about anything else, really. The weather, it's the same for everybody every day.

Q. If you were in the Masters, would you do 36 on Monday here?

J.L. LEWIS: Depends on the kind of year I was having. If I was having a great year, no. I mean, I'm going to be honest with you, if I was having a great year, I'd be gone. After the first and second round were cancelled, I probably would have went and ahead and gone and tried to prepare for that.

Q. As a veteran looking at this situation, it's a tough situation for everybody, what other options might you -- if you were not bound by the rules, what other options might you have come up with?

J.L. LEWIS: 54 holes. If the first round, first two rounds are knocked out, it's pretty hard to get in 72 holes by Wednesday, actually, Tuesday. I don't know, I think they wanted a 72-hole tournament, so that's their idea.

Maybe the course will dry out and it will be more walkable by then. I'm not trying to start any controversies or anything. I don't make the decisions. I just think that, you know, it's tough, it's hard to get in 72 after you -- when you start on Saturday.

Q. What holes were playing the toughest out there today?

J.L. LEWIS: I'd say all -- the holes coming back into the wind. That hole on the front nine that goes over the ravine, the par 4 or the par 5 -- the par 5, that's the hardest hole. Because you've got to hit a driver, and if the wind was gusting, you had to back off the ball a couple of times and regroup, and it killed a drive and it went about 240. And then you had to hit 4-iron from 175, you know, into a gale over that ravine. Well, that's the hardest hole, I think.

Q. Kind of a British Open day, isn't it?

J.L. LEWIS: Yeah. It's just central Kansas day. This is a normal day, man.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Let's go over your card.

J.L. LEWIS: I birdied 11 from about 25 feet, 9-iron.

3-putted 12. Missed a short putt on 13 for birdie. Made a short putt on 14 for birdie, 6-footer. Chipped in on 15 for birdie. 2-putted from off the green on 16, par. Up-and-down on 17, par, and then parred 18.

Parred 1, parred two, bogeyed three. 3, I left it short of the green on the second shot and tried to chip it. Birdied 4, short putt, three feet. Parred 5, parred 6, parred 7, parred 8, birdied 9. 9, I got a little lucky, hit a putt from 35 feet too hard; one of those that hit the hole bounced around and went in.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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