WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 1, 2003

Shaun Micheel

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to introduce Shaun Micheel, PGA champion and Spencer Beckstead. Shaun, if you could start with a few comments. You played at the Dunhill Cup last week and you played with your father for the Pro-Am section. It must have been a great experience, and I think it was the first time you played in Europe.

SHAUN MICHEEL: It was. I abused my privilege a little bit, but it was a great opportunity, I think, for anyone to take a family member, particularly someone that introduced you to the game of golf. It was pretty special. So yeah, it was my first trip to Europe, and it was an absolute pleasure.

I certainly went over there to play well, but to take my father and to show him what it's like to be inside the ropes playing in an actual event was something I think he'll remember for a long time, and I know that I will. Golf over there is a lot different than golf over here.

The weather was really nice. I was expecting heavy rain, a lot of wind. We had a lot of wind the first couple days, but it's nice to get over there and play somewhere different, play with some of the European players, players that the people in the United States people don't know much about. I certainly know as a professional what they're capable of doing. To shoot 21-under on those three golf courses around four days -- I thought Lee played outstanding, much like playing the AT&T over here where you have three different styles of courses, it was certainly a lot of fun. It was difficult, I think, getting used to the greens over there.

Over there at Carnoustie in particular, the bunkers and stuff, it's a very difficult driving course, but playing the old course and knowing it's the birth place of golf, just when you walk around there, it was just a very special place because the golf course has not been changed that I know of, outside of maybe fixing up a few bunkers here or there. It was an absolute pleasure and I hope to be able to do that again.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: This is your second WGC Event. You played in the NEC and you played well, but do you find yourself in even more of a comfort zone now?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah, I think so. I thought that right after the week that I had at Oak Hill, I thought finishing where I did was pretty respectable with all that was going on. I thought that golf course was difficult, but then when I came here, this particular golf course is even more difficult, probably one of the most difficult golf courses I've played. It's an honor to have qualified and be out with the best field in golf.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: For everybody that doesn't know, maybe your relationship with Spencer, maybe just touch on that real quick and we'll take some questions.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Everyone may or may not know, this is Spencer Beckstead from Orlando, and I met Spencer probably four years ago. He just turned five yesterday. I'm trying to get it all down, but Spencer has been afflicted with, for a lack of a medical term, he has a brain tumor, and as you can see, he is an absolute bundle of joy. He's had I don't know how many surgeries, way too many, ten. I met him at the Target House in Memphis, part of the St. Jude, and what a wonderful organization. Being from Memphis and having the opportunity to meet someone like this certainly puts things in perspective, but again, as you can see, he's just like a normal little child, and besides some of the things, and with some of the scars that you can see, you wouldn't know he was different than any other five-year-old. He's having a good time and he loves golf, right?

SPENCER BECKSTEAD: I love you.

SHAUN MICHEEL: He loves me, too, and I love you.

He's very independent. His level of vocabulary is amazing. I'm not a father yet, and I only hope that my son can learn a little bit from Spencer, and I certainly will introduce my son to him, and I hope that Spencer can maybe do a little babysitting for him. We'll see about that, won't we, big guy?

Would you like to say something? Would you like to say hello.

SPENCER BECKSTEAD: Hi. This is me. I'm going to sing a song, but we have to wait.

SHAUN MICHEEL: He wants to sing a song. We'll get the music cued up for you.

Q. I know probably one of the first questions you got asked is how do you think winning a major is going to change your life, so how has winning a major changed your life since then?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Not winning a regular PGA TOUR event, I don't really know how it compares that way. I think personally it's really affected my time. I mean, in a good way, of course. There are certain times when I get home and there are a lot of things that are on my plate, a lot of calls to return, a lot of emails to return, and I'm trying to respond to all the fan mail that I'm getting.

It's nice to know that there are golf fans all over the world that are concerned about me and my wife in particular with her pregnancy. It's amazing how many -- and actually we've gotten several gifts, several baby gifts from people around the world.

Professionally it's what we all are striving for. You know, we're all trying to win golf tournaments. You know, I don't really know any different now. I've only won one tournament and it just happens to be a major championship. It's nice to not have to worry about keeping my PGA TOUR card.

Q. Do you think of yourself any differently when you're out there playing? When you face a difficult shot, do you say, I won a major, I can knock this down?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, I don't. Over the last couple of years I've certainly gotten a little bit more of a comfort level, I think, with my play and with what goes on around the ropes and around golf tournaments and stuff like that. I was the biggest burden -- not burden. It was very difficult for me my first couple years to handle mis-hits, missed shots, poor shots, big numbers on holes. I don't know if I was just intimidated or what because I grew up wanting to play on the PGA TOUR. I used to go out on the range and hit balls next to Nick Price and Greg Norman and I was in awe. Now I feel like I've earned a little bit of respect.

I mean, I'm still trying to improve myself on the golf course and off really, but I'm just absolutely comfortable out there. I can't explain it, and I've been that way for about a year or two. If you look, I've gotten better over the years. My stats have gotten better, and that's a direct correlation to being able to get onto the first tee and absolutely know unconditionally that I belong out here, and self-doubt is probably the biggest problem that I had to deal with.

Q. Do you expect it's going to mean that it'll be easier for you to be in contention more often and the next time easier to win because you've done it, or do you think that you still have a learning curve to get yourself there more often?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, the golf course that I won on is so difficult and so demanding. A lot of the regularly sponsored PGA TOUR events, you've got to keep making birdies, and I was fortunate I think that I've always played tough golf courses very well.

One thing that I learned coming from college, and that's been 11 years now, is that you cannot go out and just try to close the deal by making pars. Sure, there's a few courses you can do that on. I don't know, there's a few things I want to work on to try to get in contention more often. I think that is so much fun to be playing for something, and it's very difficult to go out on Sunday without a chance to win and stay motivated and try to improve your position. You hit a bad shot and you maybe sometimes give up a little bit.

I can't say that I really do that because I've always been hovering around that top 125 number. So giving up on Sunday was never an option. I'm not really like that in any event, but it's just a lot more fun, I think, to be playing well.

You know, much like Vijay and Davis and Mike and Tiger, it's just fun. It's just where you want to be. I think I will have a better handle on it next time I get that opportunity.

Q. Did you have any conversations with Ben Curtis after the British but before the PGA or have you had any conversations with him since the PGA where y'all sat around and said, geez, how did a couple of guys like us do this?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, I haven't. I did watch his win, and I only met Ben in June at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. That's the only time I met him. I certainly watched his win and thought it was a tremendous victory, and I said to the media last week, after going around links golf, I was shocked and amazed and impressed that someone could go over there for the first time and win a championship on those types of golf courses.

I said hello to him yesterday and we spoke about five minutes prior to his wedding in Akron, and that's it. We've both been kind of going two different directions, so I haven't really had a chance to sit down -- maybe one day we'll get a chance to go to dinner. We'll certainly see each other at the grand slam, but I haven't had any time with him.

Q. His occurrence at the 18th hole, he didn't even know that he had a chance at that point. You're in the final group so you had the shot you did. But making the putt and then being told that he had won the British, would you have been more comfortable with that putt or with your 7-iron at the PGA or would it have mattered?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I don't know, a win is a win. How many times did Jack Nicklaus win by people faltering? You've got to play 72 holes of golf. If you go back and look at my stats, putting is my weakest stat, so sure, in greens in regulation I think I'm top ten. So for me I'm going to have to say the 7-iron. Like I said, a win is a win. I don't really know if he knew he had a chance to win or not. Maybe he said he didn't know. I didn't look at any boards on Sunday and maybe he didn't, either.

You know, when a good round is going, you want to keep it going all the way through the 18th hole until that last putt drops. I was thoroughly impressed with what he did. I'm not going to try to compare what I did to what he did. I only know what I was going through, and emotionally it was very difficult for me Saturday and Sunday, and I alluded to this several weeks ago, that the tee time, 3:05 tee time, was tough. I have a tendency to wake up early, and to know what was about to happen was probably the most difficult thing that I had to do. I can't really comment on what was going through his mind.

Q. Do you have that shot on tape and how many times have you seen it again?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I do. Stephanie and I watched the tape a couple of weeks ago, and I was more nervous I think watching the tape, even though I knew the outcome I was busy critiquing my swing and wondering why, but I did remember -- I did remember watching myself and being impressed with the way that I walked and just the way my mannerisms were. They didn't change, and I would keep that tape and make several copies of it, and whenever tough things arise, I'll hopefully remember and reflect on that.

Q. You got a taste of the jet set flying back with Ernie to here? What was that like? You being a pilot guy, what type of rig is he being ferried out on?

SHAUN MICHEEL: It was nice. My father and I flew over with Phil Morris, who's part owner of the Boston Red Sox, and he has a Gulfstream IV, and we got over and I had the chance to come back with Ernie. He has the same plane. It makes life a lot easier, I'm sure. As much as he travels, he needs something like that really to get around. He says he only plays maybe 19 or 20 PGA TOUR events a year. With a home base in London, he needs something like that.

It was certainly a lot easier. Dealing with the security is probably the biggest barrier really to traveling commercially now. It's so difficult, especially going international. It was nice. We flew right into Peachtree Airport and Customs people came on the plane and I didn't have to sign any papers. It was a nice way to go. It was nice of him to do.

Q. Have you gotten a lot of calls from tournament directors and have you had to make some tough decisions about your schedule? I think I read before the PGA you were pretty much just down to play them all, right, or a lot of them?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I do. I commit to almost every event. I figure that I've seen enough of the guys that have not committed to tournaments and have shown up at the site to register and not be in the field. It is nice to be able to play some of the events. I enjoy playing, I really do.

I typically will take off -- last year after the Jackson tournament, Southern Farm Bureau, which is the last event last year, I didn't touch a club until almost the 1st of December, and it felt great. It put me behind so much, and I think with playing more, which like I said, I really enjoy doing, I'm not a ball beater at all, but scheduling has been difficult.

Bernhard invited me to play in the German Masters, and I enjoyed doing that. I still have commitments to play the PGA TOUR. That's my number one priority right now is to play the PGA TOUR.

I have a baby on the way, so that's factoring in, also, into my schedule. So up to this point I'm going to play the World Match Play that I qualified for and then play the Grand Slam, and I fully intend on playing Disney, and I'm not so sure about Tampa yet and the Tour Championship. That gets you right to the end of the year.

Q. I was asking some of the other guys who come in here, and you can speak for the journeymen since journeyman has become your official first name before you won the PGA, can you comprehend what it's like, Tiger is right on the edge of setting a record for the most consecutive cuts, he has 111 in a row and the record is 113. Can you even conceive of that number and what you've got to burn up every week to pull something like that off?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, I can't. I know Bernard did something. He did like 90 no row. That to me is so impressive. My game, there's no way I could ever do something like that. That just shows you from tee to green, he's got it all. I remember at Boston this year I was watching on TV, he had a very good opportunity to miss that cut. I think he had started off very poorly the first few holes. I'm not sure it bothered him one bit. He came back and made the cut by two or three shots, and he was already three shots out after about six or seven holes. That record to me is almost as impressive as what Mr. Nicklaus did in his major championship victories.

When you play the golf courses that we do, they've gotten a lot more difficult, the greens have gotten a lot more faster, and I don't know how he does it. I'm amazed, the mental fortitude that he must have that he does not ever give up on anything. He might get a little frustrated and he might get a little visibly angered, but to be able to put all that behind him and go on -- I mean, I know it's not all about making cuts for him. Maybe that's a goal he's thinking he'd like to achieve, but really he's just hitting one shot at a time and that's how it's added up. I'll never reach that goal. Heck, he's made as many cuts as probably -- almost as many tour events as I've played. So it's really impressive.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks, Shaun.

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