THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 13, 1999

Tommy Tolles

TOMMY TOLLES: What do you want to go over?

TOMMY TOLLES: Oh, my first birdie was on the fourth hole. I tried to lay it back from the bunker and I accidentally hit it in the bunker. Hit a nice fat bunker shot out about four-feet short and made the putt.

TOMMY TOLLES: Bogeyed the par-3, landed pin high just to the left, ball took one hop into the hazard, wasn't in the water, but I was able to play out, blasted out about 20 feet, missed the putt. Then the 6th hole, that was a very sadistic pin today, he put it in a big down area on the left-hand side, it's impossible to get to in two shots because you are hitting the 2-iron or 3-wood into the green. That area of the green has to be as fast as any of the putts that we are going to have on the golf course up to this point anyway. 3-putted from about 25 feet. And then 7, I hit an 8-iron from 124 yards to about 6-feet behind the hole. No. 12, I hit a 9-iron from 157 to about two-and-a-half feet right at the hole, I knocked it on the green on 13, 2-putted from about 40 feet.

TOMMY TOLLES: We had 300 to the front and my driving stat said I hit it 275 yards, so I would say, yeah, we had probably 35 yards of wind behind us. And I hit -- popped up my 3-wood off the tee, that was not a good shot in the wind probably came up 10 yards short of the green, chipped up to about six feet and did not make the putt. Hit a sand wedge from 67 yards to about 6 feet right in the hole. And then 17, I hit 9-iron from one -- no, excuse me, 8-iron from 159 to about 12 feet right in the hole.

TOMMY TOLLES: You can't see it, there's a fairway bunker that crosses the majority of the fairway.

TOMMY TOLLES: I couldn't see it land, I could see where it ended up because I could see where Payne Stewart and Paul Stankowski was walking around my ball when they were reading their putts, so I knew it was somewhere on the backside of the green.

TOMMY TOLLES: Not a thing. Guess it wasn't that good. Doug Dunakey right behind us hit it probably four-feet shorter than where I was, so...

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, I'm going to have to change something because it hasn't worked -- whatever I have done hasn't worked so far. You sit there and you read about how guys did -- they said they stayed patient, they said they played aggressive, you know, I don't think there's any, you know, perfect system. You just -- you have to go out and not get upset if things don't go your way, but at the same time, you know, you have to really put up a fight. For some reason you get off to a bad start or you have a bad stretch of holes, you really gotta dig down deep and, you know, find that you're able to, you know, shrug it off and take your game to another level to make up for those mishaps. On the other hand, if you do get off to a good start or you do jump in front, you've got to be able to control your mind, your fears, your nerves and just, you know, stay with what you know. We've all hit a lot -- millions of balls on the driving range, we've hit millions of putts from various distances, we know how to do it, it is just a matter of execution.

TOMMY TOLLES: I have -- this is definitely one of the courses that's a little bit more generous off the fairways than most, so you have a little more room to maneuver the ball. You can -- you've got a lot of bunkers out here. A lot of the bunkers, you know, are right at the distances where you like to hit your tee shots, but it's not impossible to maneuver the ball around these bunkers, especially with the way the wind is blowing right now, it makes it easier to definitely curve a ball or hold a ball into or with the wind. So that helps me a great deal, that I'm not looking up and seeing water hazards on every tee shot. A bunker is not really something that will strike the fear of God in you, so...

TOMMY TOLLES: I was in this position last year, I think I played in the second to last group. If I remember right, it was probably like three or four shots off Calcavecchia, I like the fact that -- not playing with him, but I was playing in front of him, that I could get one hole under my belt faster than he could. I really wanted to get off to a fast start last year and it just so happened I made a couple of bogeys before I made a couple of birdies, I got really frustrated, really down on myself and it carried itself all the way to 18 holes. It's one of those things, I was really disappointed the way I played last year. We had perfect conditions on Sunday, you know, if I remember right, we had very little breeze, the course was probably not quite as firm as it is now, so it was a little bit -- I think it was even better than what it is so far this week, so, you know, the same expectations as I had last year, I don't want to go home two-fisted, with a check in one hand and a trophy in the other.

TOMMY TOLLES: I think I was only one back, I think I was tied with Mike Weir.

TOMMY TOLLES: I bogeyed the first hole, that was a bad start. I 3-putted twice from, you know, four feet one time, six feet the other time, so, that's a killer.

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, a lot of people don't like to be in the lead going into Saturday, they feel everybody -- they feel like they've got a bulls eye on their head, and they do, you never know when you are going to need those couple of extra shots or one shot or two shots or three shots, or whatever his lead is. So I would much rear be in the lead at all times, whether it is the opening hole on Thursday or, you know, obviously the final hole on Sunday. The lead is a good thing to have, but he's won a couple of Nike tournaments. He's not a youngster by any means. He's been around the block, so he knows how to get the job done and he's doing it right now.