FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 12, 1999

Ted Tryba

TED TRYBA: Started off, made two good pars on the first two holes and birdied the first par 5. Made about a foot putt; just chipped it up there about a foot. Parred the 4th. Went to the 5th. I hit a 2-iron in there about 10 feet and made eagle. That put a big jump on it; so I'm already at 13 and cruising along. Birdied the 6th hole. I made about an 8-footer there. So now I'm already at 14. Cruising along, missed a short birdie at 9. And then back nine, hit it pretty good. Other than the bogey on 13, just caught fire out of the rough over the green and pitched it down about seven feet and missed that putt. Hit some really good shots coming in on 15. Birdied 16; two-putt. And missed two good opportunities on 17 and 18. All in all, it was a really good ball-striking round. I felt like I was pretty much in control of what was going on out there. You know, I'm kind of looking forward to playing tomorrow. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what kind of weather we're going to have, but it's going to be a race to the finish. How many guys are up there, five of us within a shot? You know, you're coming down; it's like a race.

TED TRYBA: I think you just go out there and try to hit good shots. I think you're going to have to drive the ball in the fairway. You can't score from the rough, and every time you have a birdie putt, you can't leave it short. You've got to try to get that thing. There's no holding back. Tomorrow is your last day. You know, you've just got to -- you've got to push it for 18 holes. And just the toughest part will be keeping your concentration for four and a half, five hours out there. You can't slip up once.

TED TRYBA: No. I just felt like -- I had some good looks. I misread both of them. I hit my spots both times. I could never be dissatisfied if I read a putt and I hit my line and I miss it. That's just technical error. I can live with that. But, hopefully, tomorrow I'll be seeing all the right lines.

TED TRYBA: No, not a birthday ritual. That was -- I should have never put that in there. It's too silly. It's Fourth of July. I come from a big Polish family, and my grandfather's birthday was on the Fourth of July; so we always had a big Fourth of July party. And as you can imagine, they drank a lot of beer. So when we were kids, we would all be whacking balls around the yard. It wasn't a ritual. We just did it one time. I don't know where we got that from, but it happened.

TED TRYBA: I'm feeling much better. I was kind of hurting there for a long time, and I've been feeling better and better every week. I think playing the Memorial, I was coming close. But just kind of was too far back, and I kind of forced the action shot. I shot 78, 73 or 74 the last two rounds. I was trying to make birdies out there. I think this week, the temperature was hot enough where I felt pretty good out there. I'm sure the next couple of weeks are going to help me because it will also be hot at Pinehurst. I don't really feel my ribs at all this week, which is nice. I hope I don't feel them ever again, but it's enabled me to kind of hit the ball hard when I want to hit it hard, and back off when I want to back off; and I've been hitting my distances. So it seems like previously, I can only hit it one speed and have to sort of fit the shot in somewhere on the green. Now, I feel like I can stretch it and get it in there when I want to get it in there.

TED TRYBA: I was lifting stuff. I was underwater at my house on my lake fixing an irrigation line and I had to lift some blocks that were suctioned into the sand and they would not come out; so I started losing my breath, and I gave it a real yank, and I guess my feet went down in the sand and my body went up kind of funny and just tore my whole ribs in the front and back and separated it from my sternum; so it hurt.

TED TRYBA: No, I kind of got frustrated later because I thought: 32, I work out all the time. I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in. I'll probably recover in a week or two like everything else. I went to see my chiropractor and felt like I would be all right, but I had no idea the extent and how long it was going to take an injury like that to heal. I just thought, you know, put it back; it was going to be okay, but that's not what happened.

TED TRYBA: I thought so. I thought 17 was tough. 16 got tough. You know, they started pushing it back. I mean, look at the pin on 14; that's the best one they got there. I hit it over the top of the bunker and the back right on 13. 12, they pushed it to the back of the bunker. 11, they put the tees back, and with the wind blowing, that doesn't play easy. 10 was all the way back. And I thought the toughest pin out there was the pin on the 4th hole where they had it. Never; that's the first time I saw it there in 8 years. But I'm sure they will be just as tough tomorrow, though.