KEMPER OPEN

June 6, 1998

Tommy Tolles

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, seems like over the last two or three months, I've been fighting for more weekends on the top of the leaderboard. It's kind of a pleasant surprise to be in the position I am in right now. I had a few butterflies coming down the stretch. If anybody was out there watching, it was kind of -- it was those last few holes. For the most part, it was pretty solid. I putted well today, kept the ball in play until the last few holes, and, you know, I was kind of fortunate to finish as well as I did.

TOMMY TOLLES: I had a -- my manager, Lyn Roach, is a local resident here from Weston, Virginia. I had to sit down and talk with him and we discussed a few problems I was having. You know, there's been a lot of stuff going through my head lately. It has nothing really to do with anything. I've been playing kind of scared golf lately. So, you know, after having a sitdown lunch with him, we discussed certain things that we're going to do for the rest of the year and a course of action here and there. I think just getting some of that stuff off my chest or whatever gave me enough relief for the short term. And I kind of went out and just played golf this week.

TOMMY TOLLES: I haven't had a bad attitude, no swing flaws. You know, I just -- I'm just not comfortable in any situation right now. You know, it's -- there's been a few times that I've been two or three shots, four shots from the cut with a couple holes to play. That's when all the pressure is off of me, you've got nothing to lose, and I still don't feel comfortable in situations that are happening week in and week out. I just put poor swings on. And it's coming from within, not from the swing.

TOMMY TOLLES: No. I mean, I still -- you know, the one thing I truly love in this world is the game of golf. As far as I'm concerned, it's the greatest game. It can be professional and it can also be social. So, everybody plays on an even playing field. It's, you know, I love it day in and day out. If there's one thing I can do every day, that would be play golf. I really have a great passion for it. But, you know, I just -- when you're not playing well, it's just not a whole lot of fun. When you're playing for a living and you're not playing well, it's even less fun.

TOMMY TOLLES: No, it's -- well, it bothers me every -- I have these little demons running through my head it seems like. When I'm walking down the fairway, it's those things that just pile on top of each other, one after the other. It's hard to brush those away. All the past experiences you've had lately when you haven't been playing too well, putts you may have pushed or pulled, hooks or slices. It seems like I get in a familiar situation of something I may have had in the past and I talk myself into hitting a bad shot instead of having the confidence to do it the right way.

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, I hit the -- there's a big pine tree up on the right. I heard it hit. I was kind of surprised --

TOMMY TOLLES: Off the tee. Hit the tree just to the right of the cart path. I had two sprinkler boxes -- a sprinkler box and an electrical box that kept me from basically playing left of the tree. That was one of my options, was just to chip over those boxes and leave myself a 200-yard shot in the green. Or, play it to the right of the tree up and over. And I hit a shot that probably hooked 70 or 80 yards. It hooked all the way across the fairway into the left rough and I left myself with no shot. I tried to land something short of the green, maybe 10 or 15 yards, and flew it all the way to the pin and it rolled off the back. From there I made probably a 60- or 70-footer. So, I mean, it looks like four on the score card, but it was a lot more interesting.

TOMMY TOLLES: It keeps the momentum of the round going. If you throw in birdies in there at a regular pace and then all of a sudden you start tossing bogeys in there, your mindset changes a little bit as, you know, let's try and hang on and salvage the round instead of continuing on, trying to make birdies.

TOMMY TOLLES: Hmm, well, actually, when I started this year -- I played all winter long. Not so much competitively, but I made sure I went out and played nine holes or hit a couple hundred balls every day. I was down in Florida, we had some great weather down there. Ti was windy, it was great weather to practice in. I switched to a new set of clubs, so it was a chance for me to get familiar with them. And when I went out to the west coast, I had a lot of confidence, I was striking the ball very well. I was 17 under par through four rounds at Palm Springs, and then I threw an 80 in on the last day. In Bermuda days, you can't shoot 80. It's a course, in a bad round all-around even par. It's in such good shape, and it's a very simple layout. And to thrust an 80 in like I did, you know, it really kind of burst my bubble a little bit. That was all the confidence that I built up from last year through practice in the winter, just basically popped it.

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah. As soon as I go home and see my wife and kids, my problems are all gone. But it seems like as soon as I come back to the golf course the next day, things that occurred the day before, somehow they show up. It all boils down to confidence. If you have the confidence, you don't worry about these things. You know, if you're a little bit skittish at times, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. There are things you have to ward off and fight off.

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah. You know last year I had so much fun just being in this position, a chance to win, a chance to finish well, a chance to play in front of a large crowd. I had so much fun. This year, a couple times, you know, at Palm Springs I was there; the Honda Classic, I was there; Doral, I was there. Each of those Sunday rounds, I threw something very poor, a couple of 74s, an 80. It's just things that are very disappointing. It's hard to put those behind you or at least it is right now for me. So, you know, I'll probably be a little nervous, have a hard time sleeping tonight. But a couple Valium will take care of that.

TOMMY TOLLES: I switched from Pings to -- well, it's Armour Golf now. It's a similar club, premiere weighted casts. I had offset clubs with the pings, and I felt that was holding me back. So it was an easy switch.

TOMMY TOLLES: The second hole was playing very hard today for a par 5. I did driver, hit a 9-iron to about 25 feet. And then the 4th hole I hit a putt, 25-footer, about 2 feet, I went to tap it in and somehow I tapped it out. So that was a shot that I actually gave back to the golf course. Then I came back with a birdie on the 5th hole from ten feet below the hole. 6, I hit an 8-iron to about 3 feet.

TOMMY TOLLES: Sorry, 7. Then 8 I hit a sand wedge to about 4 feet.

TOMMY TOLLES: 11, 9-iron to about 15 feet behind the hole. And then the par 5, 13, I hit 4-iron in front of the green, two-putt.