KEMPER OPEN

June 8, 1997

Mark Wiebe

MARK WIEBE: I better save that for the locker room.

MARK WIEBE: No. I'm speechless. I don't really -- I don't know what to say. The birdies and bogeys -- the birdies won't take too long, I don't think.

MARK WIEBE: Oh, yeah. I hooked it in the water on No. 4, and dropped it out and had forever to the hole, and hit a 3-iron about, wow, 80 feet, and made a good two-putt for my bogey.

MARK WIEBE: Yeah, the next hole, I hit the same club, 3-wood, hit it straight. So I felt like I got that cured. And hit a wedge fairly close, I'm going to say 15 feet, and made that. It's the first one that I made that hasn't gone in the middle of the hole. The next hole was the par 5. And I was forced to lay up. I hit my drive to the right, and I had a great layup. I laid up with a 9-iron and hit a sand wedge to about 4 or 5 feet. Made that. I bogeyed 8. I three-putted. That's when I started my three-putting binge. Had a pretty long putt. I hit a bad drive in the left bunker and actually hit a pretty good bunker shot, and I thought it would release and hit on the front and stopped, long putt and ran it by 4 feet.

MARK WIEBE: The first one was probably about 40 feet or so. And the second putt was about 4 feet, and I misread the break there. No. 9 was a tough hole. We couldn't really figure it out because there was no wind for the first time this week. I hit a 9-iron. I thought it was plenty of club. It ended up not being enough. I had a pretty tough putt and ran that by the hole probably about the same, 3-and-a-half or 4 feet, and thought that would break a little left. I had done the same thing I believe in the second -- was it the second round? -- and my putt coming back broke a little left and this one didn't. No big deal.

MARK WIEBE: The first putt was probably 35 feet.

MARK WIEBE: And the second putt, like I said, was 3-and-a-half or 4 feet. Went and birdied 10. I hit a nice 3-wood and a 8-iron to about -- I'm going to say about 12 feet. And poured that one right in the middle. And made a good two-putt on 11 for par. Made a great birdie putt on 13, 20 feet I'm going to say.

MARK WIEBE: Well, actually, I putted from short of the green. I hit a driver and a 3-wood just short, and I had not a very good lie. I would have rather chipped, but it was not very good. And the way the pin was, it was just on the front, and it was humped down to it, so I was trying to putt through all the fairway up and over, and I didn't quite -- I made it up, but I didn't make it over. Then I made that putt, like I said, 20 feet. I bogeyed 15. I hit my -- that's the worst drive I had this week. I hit it to the right. I felt like I was a little tired, kind of a lazy swing and didn't really have much and hit it left of the green. And then I just took my, you know -- figured I was going to have a long par putt. I had a terrible lie left of the green and hit it up to about 20 -- 15 or 20 feet. And almost made that putt. I left it just short. Again, I kind of misread the terrain. And three-putted on 17. I hit a pretty good 6-iron off of the tee. We had 180 yards. And Mike Springer, who I think hits the ball farther than me, hit a 6-iron there. That influenced my decision a little bit. Maybe it shouldn't. But there was water short, so I hit the 6-iron, and I hit it on the back -- back part of the green and had to putt down the deal and misread that putt a little bit. And that was, jeez, just left of the hole, and I don't know, 3 feet or so. I had to ask my caddie what side of the hole the ball lipped out on because I must have kept my head down. I didn't really pay attention. And then that's the only time I got a little shaky was when I three-putted there. I felt a little bit nervous, but I did a good job. I sucked it up on 18 and ripped my drive on 18. Just didn't plan on hitting it that far. And hit a really nice 9-iron. And all week long, I had been, if anything, overplaying the breaks on the greens, and I wish I would have overplayed that one, because it broke twice as much as I thought. Not a very good putt. And the second putt, I didn't hit very good either. When you hit putts like that, it's not meant to be, I guess.

MARK WIEBE: Probably closer to 3 feet than 2. And I didn't hit a good putt there. I felt like, you know, I just tried to do my deal. I didn't really think much about making or missing. I just wanted to hit my line, and I didn't do it.

MARK WIEBE: No, I really didn't think about it. I've made so many putts this week, to be honest, four three-putts for me today. I really can't believe it. I felt the same way. I've been a little bit shaky on my smaller putts all week long. Even the ones I made, my hands felt a little quivery. And I'm just trying to deal with this whole thing we've been talking about all week. And today it just-- you know, maybe it caught up with me a little bit. On 18, I wasn't thinking anything other than making birdie when I was on the green. And then after I missed, all I was thinking was making my putt, and didn't really give it another thought, and didn't do it.

MARK WIEBE: You know, I asked one of the camera guys from CBS on the 18th fairway what was going on. You know, you hear the gallery talking. I heard that Justin was 10-under when we were on -- was he 10-under when I maybe was on 16 or so?

MARK WIEBE: So I heard that. But I didn't really pay attention. Again, I hate to keep saying this, but I was kind of busy, so I didn't really have time. But on 18, I got the update, and I felt like I was going to make birdie, to tell you the truth.

MARK WIEBE: No. No, you really don't. We really don't think that stuff. I mean, I -- you know, I -- my goal was to hit it in the fairway, and once I did, my goal was to hit it as close as I could. And once I did that, my goal was to make my putt. And then my next goal was to make the next one, and then make the next one.

MARK WIEBE: Well, I'm disappointed. I'm very disappointed, extremely. It's hard to go beyond that. It's just unexpected. I felt like it was my tournament to win or lose, and I lost.

MARK WIEBE: For sure. I felt very confident with my game today. I hit some very nice shots -- at the time, you don't sit there and think, wow, this is the big shot of the tournament or anything. But in looking back over my round, which I did in the 10 after, I hit the ball nice today. Maybe the best today as far as hitting it solid, being in control. I probably hit a few more shots that were astray, but, you know, in the crunch time, I hit -- I hit some nice shots. I played -- played 13 aggressively and played it well. And 14, I couldn't be too aggressive. And 15, I hit a bad drive. 16, I hit it right down the middle. I hit it long. 17, I hit it just the way I wanted. I hit too much club. And 18, I hit a nice drive and a nice 9-iron. So I'm happy with the way I'm hitting it, and I'll definitely take that part of my game to next week.

MARK WIEBE: Yeah.

MARK WIEBE: Well, no, you just -- I don't think we have those thoughts while we're playing. I thought beforehand that it was my tournament, you know, if I played bad, I wouldn't win. If I played good, I would win. But part on 13 was just part of the ride for the day. You know, that's just part of the deal. But, no, you just kind of play along. You know, I'm trying to make better than a 5 there. Just like on par 4s, I'm trying to make better than a 4.

MARK WIEBE: When I was in the tent?

MARK WIEBE: After I played?

MARK WIEBE: I was just trying to collect myself.

MARK WIEBE: I'm going to check into a new hotel. That's my excitement for the evening. I congratulated Justin. He's a great guy. He was kind of -- I was kind of busy going to, you know, sign my card, and he was kind of busy going to get the trophy.

MARK WIEBE: No, no chance. I'm going to try to sleep in tomorrow, which I know I won't. I'll probably wake up at 6:00. Just going to prepare myself for next week. I'm going to mentally try to get over this and move on.

MARK WIEBE: Oh, this is -- I mean, did I finish second?

MARK WIEBE: This isn't that bad. I mean, I'm very disappointed, believe me. But, you know, only one guy beat me. So it's kind of a mixed deal there.

MARK WIEBE: Well, it's not just this week. It happened in Dallas. Believe me, I missed a bunch of putts in Dallas, and my hands were quivering and it shocked me there because I wasn't expecting it. You know, this is a different thing now because I make -- you know, I'm dealing with it. And, believe me, it's not fun when you feel like your hands are shaking to try to perform and win a tournament. But, you know, I'll just deal with it. I'm irked, but my putter got me in the situation to win, so I can't really, you know -- my dad would say, "You should have hit it closer."

MARK WIEBE: The first putt on 17 was 35 or 40 feet. Then it was from the top level down to the bottom level. 18 was not that far. 18 was about 20 feet, maybe 22 feet.

MARK WIEBE: With about a 4-foot break.

MARK WIEBE: I'm sorry?

MARK WIEBE: On tape?

MARK WIEBE: Well, no.

MARK WIEBE: No, I just -- when I hit it, it wasn't right. You know, I mis-hit the putt. And something I've been preaching all week is to hit my putts solid, and I didn't do a very good job today.