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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 16, 2004

Ted Purdy

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay, Ted, just an awesome round of golf, four birdies starting out, and then you come in and shoot 30 on the back nine, including an eagle-birdie finish, and 61 is your career low. Congratulations.

TED PURDY: Thank you. Yeah, I was thinking about that on that last putt, and I knew it was probably my career low.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Just sort of general comments on how the course played, and take us through the round.

TED PURDY: It's in beautiful shape. The fairways are perfect, the greens are rolling fast and smooth. The weather was warm, but there's no wind. It was a perfect day for scoring.

I hit the ball better today than I have maybe ever in my life, and I can attribute that to I had a great massage last night from a guy named Jim Weathers, and I was relaxed and the club was on plane and I was hitting it far and square, and it was a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to the Pat Green concert tonight here at the club. A lot to look forward to today. It was fun.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Did you have the massage here at the club or somewhere in local San Antonio?

TED PURDY: I had it here at the club. The fellow's name is Jim Weathers and he was with one of the groups here giving inspirational speeches, and he's kind of an interesting guy. I bumped into him in the workout room here at the Westin. We got to talking, he kind of explained what he did, and he got me on his table, and man, I've never felt better. He says I'll feel even better two days later. It might be good tomorrow.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Well, just take us through your round. You started with a par at 10 and then four birdies in a row.

TED PURDY: Parring 10 is like a birdie because that's a difficult hole, especially starting out the day. Actually it's a difficult hole any time. I hit a driver in the fairway, which I was happy to do, and then a 4-iron onto the green and two-putted.

The second hole, I hit a driver in the fairway -- the 11th hole I hit a driver in the fairway, a wedge to I'd say ten feet, made the putt.

12, I hit a 3-wood in the fairway and hit a wedge to about three feet.

13, I hit a wedge, par 3, to about two feet, three feet.

14, par 5, I just ran it over the green, and I almost chipped it in for eagle, and I had a tap-in for birdie there on 14.

Then I had a good birdie putt on 15 and 16. I missed both of those, but I just played solid. I really only missed one green all day, and I just played solid.

The 1st hole, par 5, I had about say a ten-footer for birdie there and I didn't make it.

No. 2, I hit a 3-wood off the tee and a 7-iron to about two feet.

3, I hit a 4-iron, par 3, to about six, seven feet, made that.

Then I had a real good look on 4 and missed it.

Then I had a good look on 5 and missed it.

Had a good look on 6 and missed it.

Had a good look on 7 and missed it.

8, I holed it from the fairway, a 3-wood and a sand wedge right in the hole.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: We had you on the computer at 71 yards.

TED PURDY: Yeah, 71. Well, my caddie is off. He said 72 (laughter).

Yeah, 71, I had a 60-degree wedge, and when I hit it, I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out because it's a blind shot, and it's a difficult yardage. It's not a full shot, so it's kind of a difficult yardage to hit something close, but I knocked it in the hole.

Then the last hole was a driver, and I was pumped up, hitting it on 9, and I probably hit it -- if it hadn't have been uphill, I probably would have hit that 400 yards, that drive, but I hit it straight down the middle, and then hit a sand wedge -- that was probably the longest putt of the day, to about 10, 15 feet or something, and then made the putt, which was a great way to end a great round, a great day.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: 10'1" on the last one.

TED PURDY: That was I think the longest putt of the day.

So I just hit the ball very well, very solid. So with the massage, and I had some good instruction from my teacher, Pam Barnett, in Phoenix on Monday morning before my flight out here. She noticed that my swing wasn't on plane, and we got it back, and it took her two swings to realize what I was doing wrong. She fixed me, and I just hit it -- I don't think I've ever hit it any better than I hit it today.

Q. The swing being a little out, I checked back and you've been having a rough stretch since the BC.

TED PURDY: Yeah, BC, I hit the ball great at BC -- well, what happened really, I think, more than anything is I had a goal -- Herb Kohler is my sponsor, and I had a goal to reach -- get into the PGA Championship, and it's a difficult thing to do. It's top 70 from PGA to PGA. Well, I didn't get to earn any money because I wasn't on this Tour last year, so I had to earn my way in with half a year to do it. My goal was to get into that tournament, and when I did get into that tournament, there was kind of a letdown, like, "I finally got in."

When I finished 2nd at BC, I'm finally in the PGA, and I had like a little letdown and I really didn't play well -- I haven't played well since then. I think I just had to get -- I have to reset my goals. It's getting towards the end of the year, I have some opportunities to finish in the top 30. Top 40 gets me in the Masters, a tournament that I would die to play in next year.

So I've got to reset my goals, and I kind of did that this weekend. When I missed the cut in Canada, I said, "I've got to really sit down and reset my goals." Starting off the year the goal is to keep the card, and then I solidified that pretty early in the year, and then to get into that PGA Championship, and I did that. So now I have to reset my goals and try to get in that top 30, try to get in Atlanta at the end of the year.

Q. Have you hired Jim Weathers full-time?

TED PURDY: Absolutely. No, but I guess he works with a lot of professional athletes, a lot of baseball players, a lot of pitchers. He works on the NASCAR guys. He used to be Dale Earnhardt's personal guy, used to go with Dale Earnhardt everywhere, and now he's on the speaking circuit and does the -- I'll botch what he does, but it's some Japanese magic that he does. It felt pretty good, though. It kind of hurt when he was doing it, but it feels good now.

Yeah, I'm going to have to call Jim. I think he was on a plane this morning, but I'll call him and let him know. He doesn't even know -- he doesn't know one golfer, so he's going to get a lot of phone calls now.

Q. Where is he based out of?

TED PURDY: He lives in Boise, he's from Boise, but I think he travels pretty much all the time.

Q. You hit all 14 fairways and just missed one green. Was there a point late in the round when you started -- were you aware of that as you were playing late in the round?

TED PURDY: No, I wasn't aware of that. I got it to 6-under, and I thought, "I can shoot 59 if something special happens on the last six holes." I wasn't aware if I was hitting -- that's pretty impressive.

I got a new driver, a new Ping G2 driver this week, and that may be another contributor. It's really amazing, this new driver that Ping has got. It's called G2. I didn't realize I hit every fairway. That's really good. And I think I was hitting it pretty long, too, because I was 30, 40 yards by the guys in my group. Yeah, Ping, I'll have to call them, too, say thanks to them, too.

Q. During the round were you just sort of -- you said you didn't realize you hit all the fairways. Were you just sort of locked in?

TED PURDY: Yeah, you really don't worry about stats too much. Yeah, I was just trying to swing at the target, trying to pick out small targets and swing towards them and stay in the present. You really can't worry about stats too much. They're irrelevant anyway. The only stat that matters is what you shoot.

Q. Did you have any challenging shots out there at all today, anything where you had to --

TED PURDY: Yeah, I did. On the 18th hole I had 160 yards to the hole, and I'm in the middle of the fairway, hit another beautiful drive, and I'm thinking it's a hard 8-iron, and I think Jim has got me so loose and relaxed, I hit an 8-iron 170 yards. I flew the green, and I had a real difficult downhill chip, down-grain chip that I was fortunate to get up-and-down. I had to make about a ten-footer, or I don't know how long it was, probably inside ten feet, but I had to make a good putt there to save the round. That was a good motivation to save the round there.

But really other than that, I was hitting every fairway and every green. There was really no stress. The only stress that I was putting on myself was the stress to make the birdie putts, to try to keep going lower. That was the only stress, and that's a good stress.

Q. When a round like this is going on, what do you do to fight getting outside yourself and how do you stay focused and stay within yourself?

TED PURDY: That's the challenge.

Q. Anything you do personally that's particular that you've found works?

TED PURDY: For me personally, -- you know, you just try to have positive self-talk. If I've got a negative thought that comes in my head, I try to recognize that and get rid of it. You know, a negative thought meaning -- it could be anything. I'm playing great, that's not a negative thought, but let's just stay back in the present.

Yeah, that's the challenge.

Q. Did that happen today?

TED PURDY: That's why Tiger Woods is so good, that's why Vijay is so good. They have the ability to, I think, get rid of -- they're better than everybody else because they can get rid of those negative thoughts.

Q. Can you think of that happening today? Did that happen? I know you try to forget it.

TED PURDY: Yeah, it happened -- I started hitting -- I was hitting it close, and I hit it close on -- after I get it to 6-under, I'm going, "Oh, man, I can shoot 59 on this golf course." I hit close on 4 and then I hit it close on 5 and then close on 6, and I didn't make any of those putts. Then I hit it close on 7, and I was getting frustrated that the putts weren't going in at that point. My caddie told me, he said, "Be kind to my man." He was telling me to be kind to myself, and I kind of relaxed and then I hole a shot. It's just a crazy game. I mean, it's just a great game.

Yeah, I got frustrated there, but it was because I was trying to shoot a number. Maybe if I had just stayed relaxed, I might have been able to shoot that number that I was trying to shoot.

Yeah, my swing felt good, I was confident. I knew I could shoot a low number today.

Q. What's your caddie's name?

TED PURDY: Paul Jungman. Paul said, "Be nice to my man." That was funny.

Q. Is this your first time playing here?

TED PURDY: Second time. I played in '99. I had my card in '99. That was the last time I played here. I think I missed the cut. I missed every cut that year.

Q. Is the course playing similar to what you remember as far as the conditions?

TED PURDY: I can't remember that far back. I didn't remember being able to shoot 61 on it, though (laughter). I remember it playing pretty hard, and I think I missed the cut.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Ted, thanks a lot. Continued good luck.

TED PURDY: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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