FUNAI GOLF CLASSIC AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

October 22, 2003

Shaun Micheel

JOAN vON THRON: Thank you, Shaun, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World Resort. You have had a wonderful year this year. You are getting ready to have a wonderful month coming up here with your wife due in about five weeks, I understand. It's been kind of a whirlwind for you here. Talk a little bit about the last couple of months and the upcoming season.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah, the year I think is starting to wind down and I know that there's a few guys out there battling the top 125 and I certainly can feel for them. I have been in that position the last couple of years and I know what it means to come down to the FUNAI Classic. It is a fun place to be for those of us that are a little bit on the inside and, you know, with the Magic Kingdom and everybody else is looking for a little magic here as well. I still got some work to do left for top-30. I have kind of dropped a little bit. I am taking advantage, I think, of a couple of the things a couple of the opportunities that presented themselves to me. I have missed quite a few weeks on the Tour. As the years winding down finishing in the top-30 for me is certainly something I'd like to do. But here in about five weeks, I am going to have something very special happen to me and my wife and that's the birth of our first child. I am probably a little bit more nervous about that, than playing this week and finishing in the top-30. I certainly have my priorities in order as far as family goes. But it's been interesting. I have had the opportunity to take my father to Scotland a couple of weeks ago to play in the Dunhill links. It was my first time to play links golf, and another opportunity - my father and I had not played together in a tournament golf since probably maybe the 1985 stage father/son in Tennessee. It's been quite a long time that we have had that opportunity. I was lobbying for more shots from him but I didn't get it. But playing-wise, I hadn't played as much. I think this is only going to be my second regular PGA TOUR event since my win. I did play the two American Express tournaments. Not much success. That course beat me up pretty good. It is kind of hard to believe shoot 13-under and still beat 28 players with a world-class field shows you how difficult the golf courses are becoming. I am trying to get back to some sense of normalcy. I don't know if that's going to happen for a while for me. My manager and I my caddie, Bob, went over to Wentworth last week for the World Match Play and the night before I was supposed to play Vijay which is ultimately a big match for me, playing No. 3 in the world, we had an unfortunate incident where someone broke into our house while we were there eating dinner, all my credit cards and my wallet and driver's license were stolen. I am a little bit behind this week. I had to go home and take care of some of the things that needed to be taken care of. But I am anxious to get started and looking forward to a great last couple of weeks.

Q. What will your schedule aside from the birth of your child be like over the next couple of months and how is that going to be different because you are a major champion now compared to maybe last year?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah, I am going to play -- let's see, hopefully TOUR Championship. That's something that I really want to qualify for. That's coming up in three weeks. After that, I have got the Shark Shootout and Chad Campbell and I are going to be partners. I think it will make for a good team. It's confusing enough, how many out there representing Cleveland golfers, there's a lot of us out there and it's great. Then I believe I am going to have about five or pushing it, five days, I think before Stefanie is going to be induced. I hate to say we're having a convenience baby, but it's a 50/50 proposition because her doctor is going to be out-of-town when she's due too so we are going to blame him for half that. After that if she does have the baby on the 21st I am going to have another week with him and go over to the Grand Slam to represent PGA of America and all the club professionals, and I am going to stop back on the way back from L.A. and play in Tiger's event. I am going to do that and then heck, that will be the second or third week of December already. I get about a couple of weeks off, which is fine, I mean, I do like my time off. But last year I took a lot more time off and it took me a lot longer to get back to playing well again. I enjoy playing. I am not much of a practicer. I think that's going to make for a nice schedule for me.

Q. You didn't mention you are committed next week in Tampa; is that still --

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah. I enjoy the golf course over there and I love playing golf in Florida, and I like the way they have got it scheduled this year. I like the way the Tour allowed guys to qualify right up to THE TOUR Championship that there's no offsetting event. I think that was a good decision on the Tour's part. I know it probably extends the year maybe a week longer than they would like, but how many tournaments we play 40, 41 weeks, I mean what is 42 weeks. I think it's great.

Q. After the PGA you talked about wanting to remain an even keel and not change -- represent the Championship in a right way. How has that gone? Are you surprised the attention you get? People see you differently? Do you recognize that and feel people looking at you?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I do. I started noticing that a little bit more the next week in Akron and even the week of Quad Cities being a little bit more recognized as a person. I think had I just won the golf tournament on the 18th hole and I just gone and hit the green and maybe 2-putted, I don't think people would have paid maybe much attention. I would have been another first-time major winner. Not that people have lost sight of what Ben Curtis did because what I think he did was amazing to go over there and play that style of golf course. I think the way that I won the tournament I think sticks out in a lot of peoples' mind. I think that keeps me you know, in the limelight or the spotlight a little bit more. As a person, I think I am the same person. I have my good days and bad days. As my manager can attest, I am not a morning person. I don't enjoy getting up playing 7, 8 o'clock in the morning. Imagine the guys, you know, playing a Super Bowl at 8 o'clock in the morning. It is hard to be up and motivated to play at 8 o'clock in the morning. I still have those personal issues that I deal with. I am getting better I think, in front of people in handling all that's coming with my victory. It's nice to have the attention. I am still trying to balance the media commitments to my practice. That's kind of waned a little bit. I haven't had as much practice time as I would have liked. I played six weeks up to the PGA, so taking two weeks off after the PGA was a no-brainer for me. I have taken a lot more time off from the Tour than maybe I would have liked. I certainly enjoyed the events that I played overseas but it has taken about four weeks off my Tour schedule. Personally I feel like I am the same -- I hope I am.

Q. Do you think somebody knew who they were robbing or were you just at an unfortunate place at the wrong time?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I have my -- giving me a smile back there. Plus I am married to an attorney. I have a theory. I put my Sherlock Holmes hat on. I don't smoke so I didn't have my pipe. I was putting my thinking cap last week. We have some suspicions. I hope the police follow through. They didn't show up until about two hours after we called, so we obviously weren't a priority. They don't carry weapons around there. Maybe that's a good thing. But it was a tough night for me that night, to try to compete against one of the best players in the world is just -- very difficult. It was very disconcerting to think that we were in the house when someone broke in. You feel a little bit violated I suppose, you know, but things happen. Bad things happen to good people. So kind of got to move on.

Q. According to something I read that we know you are a big Kiss fan, but each Halloween you dress up?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, I don't do anymore. They were always -- I was a huge fan of theirs. I still am. Getting to know them and I have known them for a while now. I have known their managers for a while. It is a nice escape for me to -- you know, it's funny, I mean, we always want to do what other people do. I want to be a rock star but I don't sing very well. They'd like to be golfers. One of them would like to be a golfer. They make too much money doing what they do so they are smart. I used to have a drum set when I was a little kid. I drove my mom nuts. But yeah, I was always one of the Kiss characters, so I don't know if I am going to be home for this Halloween, but maybe I will come to the media center dressed up or something. I will have my 6-inch platform shoes on. I was up in the concert I asked them-- they had the platform shoes on and I asked them if they were spikeless or not. I don't think they really caught my joke.

End of FastScripts.