MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2001

Kirk Triplett

KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, it was -- we all had a nice day. I played with Jose and Angel Cabrera, as I'm sure you are aware, and we all had a nice day yesterday. I think we all felt coming good coming into today. Conditions were pretty similar. Front nine was playing a little bit tougher today. We had some very tough pins to get at on the front and I thought the back played a little easier. I thought they had some of the pins more accessible: 11, 12, 13, 15, 16. So I suspect that you will see some pretty good scores. I suspect that you will see some good scores on the back nine today.

KIRK TRIPLETT: Well, it's a different golf course than the other two times I played. I missed the cut my other two years. Shot between 75 and 80 every round and probably shot that or worse in my practice rounds, too. It was cold, 40, 50 degrees those two years, the wind is blowing 20 miles an hour. I'm out there looking at the scores these guys have shot in years past, just going, "How is that possible?" because the ball is going all over the place. I didn't have a great feel for how the course plays when it is maybe a little bit less severe, when it is a little softer. Now, I think it is a pretty nice course. (Laughs).

KIRK TRIPLETT: The first year was tough. I just remember walking around the corner, that first day when I got my -- when I first got here and just being in awe of how it opens up. First time here, I don't know if you guys remember the first time you ever walked around that corner and saw how it opens up, because there's no place else in golf like it, in the world. Maybe there are some parks that are this beautiful. I never really got over that the first year, you spend a lot of years watching the tournament, so you feel like you know the course pretty well, but you don't see all the danger. You only see the guys playing well. I think that took me a little while to get over. And my game plan this year was to come in and try and play a little more conservative, but the course kind of changed that a little bit with the conditions. You could be a little bit more aggressive out there the last two days. This is also the first year I've been here when I have not been spending all of my free time on the range trying to find my game. I feel like I'm playing reasonably well. I told my wife before I left, I said, "I think I can do well this week." There are some weeks where you are just trying to find the answer after every bad shot and so far this week, I have not been document that.

KIRK TRIPLETT: She said, "Well, aren't you trying to play well every week?" (Laughter).

KIRK TRIPLETT: I birdied No. 6, the par 3. I hit a 6-iron about 25 feet. I birdied No. 10. I hit a 6-iron about two feet. I birdied 13. I hit a 3-wood and then a 5-wood to about 30 feet, 2-putted. Bogeyed the next hole. I hit the tree off the tee and then hit short of the green with a 4-iron. Putted it up over the hill, across the green, down the back, chipped it up about five feet and made that for a bogey. So, I was quite happy to get that. I think that's it.

KIRK TRIPLETT: I made about three or four real nice par-saving putts in that five, six, eight-foot range that you -- you have to do around here. I mean, even if you hit good shots and good putts, you sometimes leave yourself, that five, 6- , 8-footer. So I'm watching Jose Coceres practice his craft out there, and he's very good at that, as well, and I think that's probably what has stood him in good stead over the years. You think of the guys that have won: Faldo is very good at those kind of putts, and Crenshaw. There's just no way to avoid them in the major championships. You've just got to be prepared for them.

KIRK TRIPLETT: I was on the 1st tee the other day and the guy was holding up the Green Jacket and I stuck my arm in it -- but it was one of the members. (Laughter.) Sure, I do, yeah.

KIRK TRIPLETT: No.

KIRK TRIPLETT: They want Tiger. Look at all the polls. I'm not saying that in a bad way or anything.

KIRK TRIPLETT: I think they want to see what happened at the PGA last year where Bob May gives them a great run and then a lot of people who are underdog rooters, period will root for Bob May, but I think most people would like to see Mr. Woods.

KIRK TRIPLETT: No, I played with Angel about ten years ago down in Argentina. I played in a tournament in his hometown at his home course, which he reminded me the first day. He goes, "We played together many years ago, senor." I've played with Jose a number of times. I've been working on my Spanish all week because I played a practice round with Franco and Jose on Tuesday. Good thing I'm from Arizona.