BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 7, 2003

Bob Tway

LAURY LIVSEY: We are here with Bob Tway, the 2003 Bell Canadian Open Champion, in a three-hole playoff.

I think you've gone about 176 events since your last victory at MCI in '95. You have a way of winning in playoffs, do you want talk about that a little bit?

BOB TWAY: I know it's been eight years, I don't know how many tournaments, but this is a very special win. I've been coming to Canada for a long, long time. The reason is, is it's a National Open. We kind of think of this as a little more important than the rest of them, the other TOUR events.

I was extremely pleased when I got here and played the practice round and the Pro-Am and saw this golf course. I don't know what it is about the guys who built them early in the 1900 but they knew what they were doing. This is a very special place. Everyone raved about it inside the locker room about how great this golf course is. The golf course is 6,800 yards. 8-under par wins the tournament. Pretty hard to believe.

Q. Why is it that you've had that sort of affinity for Canada? You've played a little, did you not, on the Canadian Tour?

BOB TWAY: I never really played the Canadian Tour. Maybe a couple of events when I was just starting out.

I don't know, like I said, I've always thought of it as a little bit bigger tournament than just our normal stops, just because it's a National Open.

When I was playing in the 80s, people kind of called it the fifth major. You've got names like Nicklaus and those guys on there, Trevino and those guys. They really talked about this tournament, so we always came to play this tournament.

Q. I thought the eagle at the fourth got your attention pretty quickly. It seemed like your body language changed just a little bit after that.

BOB TWAY: You never really know how things are going to go. I was pleased with how I was playing. I thought -- thinking last night that if I could go out and play a good round, that I would have a good chance, but you don't know. You don't know how your nerves are going to be and how you're going to go about things.

But I hit a really nice drive there and only hit an 8-iron to the green and made a nice shot and hit the putt. That was huge.

The next hole was maybe even bigger than that because I hit a 3-wood into the right hand rough but hit a decent lie and had a shot a couple feet from the hole. I had a not very good tee shot and made birdie.

I didn't pay much attention to the leaderboard after that. I was 7-under, so figured that was somewhere near the lead. I just tried to play as smart as I could the rest of the way.

Q. You briefly mentioned how special this was to you because of events, but just for you personally, being 44 years old, not getting this opportunity as much anymore, eight years; does it maybe mean as much to you or more than some of the ones you won earlier in your career?

BOB TWAY: Mike Ritz was asking me, the one in '95 was very special at Hilton Head. I had not won since '90. The reason that was so special because I played so poorly in '92 and '93. I didn't know if I was ever going to play good anymore. So '95 was huge.

Since '95, I have actually been pleased with how I played. I haven't won a golf tournament, but I haven't disliked what was happening. It gets frustrating to have some chances and not be able to pull it off, but at least I'm playing good golf and enjoying the game.

At age 44, I don't know. I don't feel that old, but I know, like you say, it's been eight years and you don't get that many chances. So this is very, very special.

Q. We've heard nothing but positive word-of-mouth about this golf course all week, and you've been around for a while, when was the last time it was as unanimous as we are hearing, about a golf course?

BOB TWAY: I don't know, to tell you the truth. I know we've played some good ones. Riviera, Hilton Head, Colonial/Fort Worth, old-style golf course. But this place in my mind ranks right up there with those.

Like I say, it's 6,800 yards. We are all hitting the ball extremely long way and 8-under par wins the golf tournament. It just goes to show you, you grow a little rough, you've got to maneuver your ball a little bit, you've got some greens that are pretty firm and pretty fast, you just have to manage your golf game. I think that's what golf is meant to be.

Q. Is there any reason why it's been 176 starts since your last win? And do you have your own explanation why guys in their 40s are doing so well this year?

BOB TWAY: Oh, I don't know that. We all keep working at it because I think we love the game.

The number of tournaments since my last win, I could say I've had some chances and not been able to do it, or someone has played better at the end to end up winning. I almost didn't win today, but he could have made that putt and I would have been down the road again, on 17.

It takes some luck, good fortune and some good golf. Like I say, I don't know, maybe this will spur things on for more of them. I don't know what's going to happen. Like I said before, I'm enjoying playing golf, and obviously we play to win tournaments. It doesn't come all that often on the PGA TOUR. It's tough to win. When you do get it, it's very special.

Q. That putt Brad missed on 17, what was going through your mind, as well as the shot out of the bunker?

BOB TWAY: The shot he hit out of the bunker was incredible. It's incredible if it's a practice round. 50-, 60-yard bunker shot, it's the hardest shot there is. He just hit in there and knocked it stiff. It's incredible. He does it all the time. I was watching him and I was like, you know what, he's going to knock that shot up there close. You just know how he does things.

The only saving grace for me was that he was above the hole and he couldn't hit that putt with any speed. So it kind of meandered off to the right on him a little bit. I think he hit a good putt. So I had a little bit of life.

Q. What about 18 when he was in the rough?

BOB TWAY: Well, obviously, you thought probably the second shot, he could get it up there just short of the green. The rough is very severe this week. The club turned over and he couldn't get it in the air. I don't know, if he had a do-over if he would have hit lesser club, I don't know.

Q. With the leaderboard jammed all week, it was only fitting it came down to a playoff. Did you feel that way, and did you feel that it would ever end by the time guys teed off on your third playoff hole?

BOB TWAY: I guess you don't really think about it. You're so into what you're doing, you just kind of keep plugging along.

I actually thought on the very first playoff hole, I had the exact same putt I did on my 72nd hole. I just didn't hit that putt solid. The 72nd hole, I really hit a great putt, the bull's eye, solid. That one I hit it on the heel and didn't get it to the hole. It's another one you want to get it to the hole but you don't want to blow it three feet by either. You never know what's going to come, first hole or third hole.

Q. The 18th hole is pretty tough on the golfers this weekend. Heading into the playoff, your thoughts, was it an intimidating hole or what would it take to win on that hole?

BOB TWAY: It's a very difficult hole. Obviously you've got to drive the ball in the fairway. I hit 3-wood the first day because it was more into the wind and softer. As the golf course firmed up, I started hitting 3-iron just to get the ball in the fairway.

The first playoff hole, I hit an incredible 3-iron and hit 7-iron. Next one I didn't hit as good. So I left myself with a 4-iron which is obviously a very difficult shot on the side. But the main thing is you need to be on the fairway.

Q. The only bogey you had was the final hole. Was it maybe the best round you've played in quite some time?

BOB TWAY: Well, I don't know. It's a good round under the circumstances. I guess I might have made it a little bit better run at that putt if I would have had to make it instead of just lagging it up there. It was a great round of golf, no doubt about that.

Q. How many drivers did you hit today?

BOB TWAY: I hit driver on 2, 4, 10, 14, 15, 17.

Q. I don't mean this probably the way it will sound, but after a long time without winning, do you still go every week expecting to win, or do you just go to play?

BOB TWAY: No. I don't think I've ever expected to win any time I've ever won. I guess I'm not that good. (Laughing).

Only thing I know how to do is to prepare the best possible way you can and get there and do the best you can. You know, it's the old cliche: You play one shot at a time, do the best you can and keep going. That's the only way I know how to play golf. That's the way I was taught to play golf. I don't say you go there to win a golf tournament. You go there trying to give yourself a chance to win a golf tournament.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB TWAY: I actually played okay at Reno. I finished horribly. I made triple-bogey at 16 and double-bogey on 18. Actually I was up there doing pretty good in the tournament. So I was pretty upset last week at home.

I don't know, I've been struggling with my putting. It's funny, I went from -- I was using a belly putter earlier in the year. And I was trying to use the most, I don't know, easiest putter I guess or the -- I don't know what the right word is. The best technological putter you could have, the easiest to hit and see if that could help me.

I got kind of mad last week; I went to the toughest putter to putt with; that you've got to hit the ball perfectly with it, and I kept practicing with it and I started putting better. My stroke got better. I played great this week. I don't know, maybe things happen for a reason.

LAURY LIVSEY: Thanks, Bob. Congratulations.

End of FastScripts.