VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 28, 2002

Matt Peterson

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If you could just start with some opening comments about your round. Obviously you're in a great position for tomorrow, and great position to set yourself up for the rest of the year.

MATT PETERSON: Yes, all that. The round was very good, I thought, for me, and the situation I was in, not being that tested out here. So it was nice to get that good Saturday, solid Saturday round and keep myself in position.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What particularly is going well for you this week, as far as on the golf course as far as putting, driving.

MATT PETERSON: My swing feels very good, I think everything is kind of meshing together. I don't think I can pinpoint one thing. I am making a few more putts than normally has happened in recent weeks.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: It would certainly be nice to finish your season on a good note.

MATT PETERSON: Definitely. That's the ideal situation for tomorrow, at the end. But I've still got a long way to go, A long way even tournament-wise. I've got more tournaments, so it's not do or die.

Q. You said this was important. What is your thought process going to be tomorrow? For Sunday, your final round? This is very important to you. Are you going to have a hard time sleeping tonight?

MATT PETERSON: No, I'll sleep. I'm tired. But I will -- I'm going to try to do everything the same tomorrow. That will be the test whether I can stay confident and get everything going. If I can get off to a good start and don't have anything major happening in the round, then it will be easy. If I do get tested at some point, that will be the key.

Q. Do you have a regular caddie that's with you this week?

MATT PETERSON: Yes, and that's a big factor in what's going on. Brian has been with me -- this is our third year together. He knows me well enough to know what he needs to do, whether it be just kind of calm me down or give me a kick in the rear end.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You came over from the BUY.COM Tour last year, correct?

MATT PETERSON: Correct.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What's been the biggest change coming over from that Tour to the PGA Tour?

MATT PETERSON: For me, and I think for any rookie, I think it's learning the new golf courses, because I had -- I was a veteran out there and I knew the golf courses very well, knew where to stay, where to eat. That's been the hardest thing; getting around, getting your feet wet and learning the golf courses.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: It seems there are a lot of players out on the tour, once they play 10, 15 years, they show up Wednesday, play in the Pro-Am and are ready to go because they've played the course so many times.

MATT PETERSON: That's the way I was last year, on the BUY.COM Tour. I saved my energy by doing that, especially when it's hot. That's something I'll have to battle and get through if I'm going to succeed out here.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: It will make things easier, next year definitely.

MATT PETERSON: Yes, I think so, especially starting out, because at the beginning of this year, the first year, you're just trying to get settled somehow, and having to learn new courses to boot, it was tough.

Q. Talk about 17. What happened on that?

MATT PETERSON: 17, we had -- basically, we felt we had the same conditions we had yesterday, which I had hit a 6-iron to basically the middle of the green. I was comfortable with that result for that particular pin placement. I wasn't wanting to go anywhere near it. But when I hit it, a gust of wind popped up and instead of left to right, it quartered into us pretty hard, and I could tell right away it was spinning up into the wind and getting knocked down.

Then the bunker, it was a hard shot to start with. That was one of the new bunkers, so the sand was probably six inches deep, and the club just bounced into the ball. It was a bit frustrating.

The birdie on 18 was very helpful.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: A nice way to finish up. Thank you, Matt. Good luck tomorrow.

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