JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

September 15, 2003

J.L. Lewis

TODD BUDNICK: We thank J.L. Lewis for stopping in, runner-up here, also had this victory in '99. It's been a very successful tournament for you, J.L. It just didn't look like anybody could catch Vijay today.

J.L. LEWIS: I couldn't, so I don't know what happened to the other guys, but I never really made a charge. I wasn't hitting the ball good enough or putting it well enough to have a legitimate chance to win. He deserved to win. He played well. He never really missed a shot except a tee shot on 17 coming down the stretch. That's why he's won all those tournaments and that's why he'll probably continue to win some.

TODD BUDNICK: It's your second consecutive top-10 here and the third in five years. What is it about this tournament or this area?

J.L. LEWIS: I think I like the course and I have a lot of friends and family here and it's a fun week for us. I don't know what it is. I'm surprised that I got second because I didn't make a putt on the weekend, but I did, so I'm going to have to come back next here and get some to go in.

Q. Four years ago when you guys first came here, there were some incredible numbers shot by players, and we heard at the time players saying give it three or four years for this course to mature and you won't see these kind of numbers. Scores, while good, are down this year. Is it the course is starting to mature or the conditions?

J.L. LEWIS: I think it was both. It was raining and windy a couple days and it kept the scores down. The course is growing in. There's a lot of holes where the trees are growing in, so you have to work the ball around the tree or over the tree, and it makes the ball more difficult to take aim and hit it straight at it.

You've got to work the shots. I can think of at least six or seven shots on the golf course where the trees have grown out over, tee shots and to the greens, so if they put the pins in the right place, it's hard to get it close. You almost have to hit a ball that moves 10 or 12 yards sometimes with a short iron, so that's why the scores aren't as low.

Q. It looked like especially early on Vijay was right there. He had a lot of putts that were just going by. Did you feel like eventually these things are going to start falling? It looked like he was on his game right from the start.

J.L. LEWIS: I think he hit the ball good today. His iron play was very good. I don't think he missed a shot really. He never missed one where it hurt him. That's how you do it. When you stick it in there inside 15 feet, sooner or later you're going to start making some of them. I never really hit it close enough to ever give him a run. I didn't play as well as I would have liked to on the weekend.

Q. What was the difference between your play in the first two rounds and the last two? Did something feel different? Was your swing different?

J.L. LEWIS: No, not really. I think I struck the ball slightly better, and I putted it a lot better. I had like 25 putts the first two days each and I think I had 30 both days on the weekends. There's ten shots right there, so I went from 12-under to even. I just didn't make any 15-footers. I just didn't roll the ball as good as I'm capable. I don't know what it was. The putter has helped me a lot, but that's kind of how it goes.

When I'm on with it, I can make all of them, and when it's not, when it gets a little bit off because it's a longer object, it's tough, but it's still better on short putts for me, so that's why I use it.

Q. You said a couple days ago you were hitting it as well as you could and you had a pair of 65s. Was it just your putting that went south a little bit?

J.L. LEWIS: Pretty much, yeah. I haven't seen the stats. They said I was -- in the first two days I was first in putting, and then the last two days I was like 35th or something, and then I was 12th in greens in regulation, so I hit the ball okay. I didn't hit it bad. It was wet. I didn't hit it that close to the hole, I didn't have tap-ins. I had a lot of 20- to 25-footers and I couldn't make them. I was getting them there today. I got every one of them there. I three-putted a couple. I three-putted three times this week or I would have finished 15-under.

Q. Watching a top player like Vijay up there close as a tournament comes to be in the balance on the weekend, is that what separates guys like him from -- they produce those putts and so forth, what impression does that have on you?

J.L. LEWIS: I think when you've won that many times, I don't think it's that big a deal. I mean, the guy has done it 13 times, this is 14, so it's just another walk in the park where some of the other guys who have won once or twice or not at all, it means a lot. I would think that there's a difference there. I didn't feel nervous, but I played like I was, so I must have been. I was still producing a score, but it wasn't what I wanted.

TODD BUDNICK: If we could go through your two bogeys and your two birdies. One on 9.

J.L. LEWIS: I hit 3-wood off the tee and hit it right with a 4-iron, had a difficult bunker shot, missed about a 12-footer.

12, hit a great tee shot there. At that point in the tournament I felt like, well, I better start making them sometime, so I played a little less break and hit it hard and it went eight feet by and I missed it coming back. That was a three-putt basically just because I was trying to get back in the game.

I was kind of out of the game from about No. 9 on really. I never really had a shot. I was just trying to get myself up there.

15, birdie, hit a good 6-iron from the right rough about 30 feet short, made that. That's the one putt that I made.

17, driver, 3-wood, two-putt.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, J.L.

End of FastScripts.