DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 6, 1997

Lee Rinker

LEE RINKER: All right. Well, first of all, I'd say the wind direction, I think, made a big difference in the scoring today. So far today, you know, the Monday through Wednesday, the wind was blowing, I guess, more out of the east, which would make 18 play into the wind and quite a few other holes. And, then there's two or three par 4's that were playing for a left, right crosswind and they're dog leg left. So, I think the wind direction is probably the easiest wind direction we could have out here, and it wasn't much of a wind which helps, too. But anyway, I got off to a good start. I parred the first four holes. I had a couple of birdie chances and didn't make them. And then I hit a wedge on the 5th hole about 4 feet from the hole and made a birdie. And then 6 I hit a good drive and an 8-iron. There's one hole that is normally a driver and 4 or 5 -- I hit it 5 or 6 feet from the hole and made that birdie. And, then, actually, 7, I hit a good drive and had about a 15-footer and I lipped it out for birdie. 8 was playing downwind and I hit a good drive and a 4-wood that almost pitched in the hole. It kind of landed about a foot away from the hole and then rolled to the back fringe and maybe about 30 feet away and I made that for an eagle. And then No. 9, I hit a 7-iron about seven or eight feet behind the hole and made that for a birdie. And, then, 10, actually played pretty well. I hit a poor chip and I made par. 11, I actually hit an 8-iron and I hit a poor shot, but it was on the right side of the green. I had probably a 50-foot putt and I made it for birdie to go to 6-under. Then the next hole I was in good shape. I had a little sand wedge about 87 yards and I hit it - I thought the wind was hurting me a little and I hit it right at the flag and I was posing on it, I flew it over the green and buried it in the back bunker and now I'm dead. I chopped it out and rolled about 30 feet past the hole. I made it for par. Then I went to 16 and hit a nice wedge and made that. And then I hit a bad drive on 17 to the right bunker. And I had a big lip in my way and I had to take a pitching wedge and play it out. I played it out and I hit a wedge, any hit a very good third shot, 25 feet from the hole and I 2-putted for bogey. And then made a nice par on 18. 18, it's always nice to par that hole. That hole was hard before, and it's really hard now.

LEE RINKER: I hit a good drive. There's really no place to drive the ball on the hole. I kind of liked it before. But now there's a couple of bunkers out there. For me, I can't carry the bunker on the left and to get to the fairway and if I hit it straight down the middle, it rolls into the bunker on the right. And that's what I did today. I hit it straight down the middle. You probably have about 10 yards of area to drive the ball in that hole to get it in the fairway today. Anyway, but the bunker isn't bad. There's not a big lip on that bunker and I had 177 yards and I hit a nice 6-iron to the right side of the green. Plus they've shaved that bank on the left. If you miss the green left, it goes right in the water. I wasn't aiming at the flag on that shot. I was aiming at the right side of the green, and I hit a nice shot and 2-putted for par. But there's definitely -- there's three or four holes that, you could make a double-bogey so fast, with some of the new shavings and stuff.

LEE RINKER: 18 was one of tougher holes anywhere. It's even harder now. It's definitely -- it was a very straightforward, very fair hole before. I think now it's a little tricked up. But there's really no place to drive the ball in the hole. For that length of hole I would think -- like Riviera has a great 18th hole, and the driving area on 18 here is half the size it is at Riviera. And, 18, at Riviera is a good driving hole. If it plays into the wind, like the other day I was driving my ball, the fairway is only 22 yards wide. I stepped it off. Normal U.S. Open fairway on a hole like that will be 30 yards wide. It's incredible how narrow it is. If the wind switches, 4 is a hell of a score when the wind is in your face. Today it's not too bad. If you pull it, you can carry the water and go in the left bunker; you can knock it on the green or hit it in the right bunker, you can still knock it on the green. Downwind it's not that bad. The longer hitters, like Norman, they can probably carry the left bunker and they're hitting a fairway that's 408 yards away.

LEE RINKER: Yeah, it's -- I'd like to see it just 30 all the way down instead of 20 on one spot and 40 in another. It kind of hooks on you. It's really difficult. But the longer hitters, like today, it's a nothing tee shot. It's still a good tee shot for me to get in the fairway. But, for the longer hitters, it's nothing. You just blast it out there and go.

LEE RINKER: I think it's --

LEE RINKER: From the very back edge of the tee it's about 273 -- well, it's probably about -- 268 is right. I can't carry it quite that far. Downwind I might be able to carry it. My driving average is only about 263 or 5. So I'm only carrying it about 250 or 45. But, it's still a great hole. At least the bunker's on the right. There's not a big lip on them or the one on the left, there's not a big lip where if you're driving in there, you can't play to the green. Actually, it's more exciting, because it's a scary shot in that bunker. If you hit it left you're dead. The right bunker is no bargain, I mean, by the green, because now you're hitting to a downslope going toward the water. I don't think -- actually, the way the green is designed, I don't think they can use the middle part of the green, because anybody that hits it in the right bunker in the middle it will go in the water. That's where they had the pin in the practice round on Tuesday. I think you'll see the pin on the front twice and on the back twice. I don't think they can use it. They can, but it would be pretty sadistic.

LEE RINKER: I made the first four cuts, and I think my best finish was about 30th. I wasn't playing badly. I wasn't playing great. And, then the last two weeks, I missed a cut the last two weeks, but I really didn't play badly either week. I just -- last week I bogeyed the last hole. But, I played pretty well the first round last week. For some reason, I've played well -- I grew up a hundred miles north of here in Florida - Stuart, Florida. And the last two years, I mean, I finished third at the Honda and I finished like 12th at Honda two years ago, I finished 7th at Disney. I've played well in Florida, I don't know, I like the Bermuda grass. I don't know what I finished here. I may have finished 50th or something, but I've made most of the cuts in Florida. I've had some of my better finishes down here. I don't know, I think I get down here and I feel like I'm at home again, even though I live up in Ohio now.

LEE RINKER: I moved away from there 1988. I went up to work at Muirfield as an assistant pro there. And I worked there for four years, and I was the head pro at a new course that Nicklaus designed in Dayton, Ohio, called Country Club Of The North for two years and then I decided to try the TOUR again. And I still haven't -- I still am kind of affiliated with Country Club Of The North and they've been really good to me, so I stay up there.

LEE RINKER: No, I wasn't selling stocks.

LEE RINKER: Actually, the funny thing is, I had a very good thing happen to me. I played the TOUR in 1984 right out of college and then I played three years on the mini Tours and did pretty well. One year, I was leading money winner. But, I wasn't -- I just wasn't happy. I kept missing the TOUR school and I couldn't get back on the TOUR. And I felt like I was going nowhere. At the time, the mini Tours weren't very good and there was no NIKE TOUR or anything at the time. So I ended up -- I had majored in financing in college, and I was interviewing with some banks. And, I was in a final interview with Barnett Bank when the head pro at Muirfield, who was a very good friend of my sister's, Jim Garego (Phonetic), his wife, Cathy, is the one who was burned in that bad accident. But Cathy and my sister were good friends and just so happened that one of their assistants had gotten a job, a head pro job somewhere and he was looking for somebody, and my dad was talking to them. And my dad called up and said Jim Garego needs an assistant at Muirfield, would you be interested? I said, yeah, I would be interested in going up there. It really was a great move for me. I met a lot of people up there and it kind of got my life going in the right direction, I think, in a positive direction.

LEE RINKER: I hope not. I was trying to get in a management training program that was a little more advanced than that. I think that was probably the best -- the good Lord was looking after me there, because I really did enjoy -- as much as I enjoy this, I did enjoy being a club pro. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed teaching and I enjoyed all the people. I had some really nice people that I worked with.

LEE RINKER: Yes. Personally, I don't understand it. It's like Bay Hill. Bay Hill to me was one of their best courses in Florida. I won the State Amateur in 1982, and Palmer went and redesigned the whole thing, and it's nowhere near what it was. I don't know, you've got one of the best courses, and what did you redesign the whole thing for. Plus, Dick Wilson is a fantastic architect, the one that designed this course and Bay Hill. He did a course in Dayton called NCR that is outstanding. It's a great golf course. Ray Floyd -- I'm not saying -- this course -- I just think the 18th hole was very simple before, and it was -- the funny thing about the course is that it's -- the rough is severe right now, but you don't hit it in the rough off the tee, because you're either in the fairway or you're in the bunker. You don't hit it in the rough off the tee -- this course would be hard if there were no bunkers and you drove it in the rough, as tough as the rough is right now. Because out of the bunkers, you just knock it right on the -- if you're a good fairway bunker player, you've got to play to knock it on the green. If you were in the rough, it would be brutal. The rough is brutal. But, I don't think -- I saw our group -- we were kind of counting the bunkers because I made a joke on the first hole, I think the over and under is 6 bunkers a day out here, and two of them -- Brandel was at 8 after about 12 holes, and being Mike Hulbert was -- I think he had 8 or 9 and I was in -- I beat them all. I think I had 5 or 6 today. But, that was -- it's a great -- it's a good golf course. It's a very good golf course. Today it had a benign wind. Well, the amount of sand and all that and you get the wind picking up here, it's going to play tough, especially if it comes -- if it blows into you on 18. If it blows into you on 18, the average score could be 5. It really could. Because you'll see just as many doubles as you will pars, almost. That hole really will -- and others, you could even make -- I hit a shot on No. 8 on Tuesday, I hit an 80-yard shot and I hit a sand wedge that landed in the middle of the green, landed 15 yards on the green and it went on the water, sucked back all the way off the green into the water. And now today it's playing downwind. If you're hitting a sand wedge into it, because it's downwind, it's not going to spin back near as much. And, plus, if you hit a good driver, you can go for it, too. Obviously, a shot coming in there at 2 is going to hit and release a little. There's a couple of holes, like 18 is the same way. If 18 gets into the wind and you hit a bad drive and you're hitting a bad wedge, it will spin right into the water if you hit too much spin on it. Unless the wind changes direction -- but it will change around before the week is over -- you're going to see interesting stuff happen. I will say one thing, the condition of the golf course is incredible. The greens are just perfect. And the fairways, -- I guess they redid the fairways, too, because the fairways are just -- are perfect. The fairways are much better than they were last year when I played. The condition of the course is fantastic. I know the caddies are talking. I think they need gloves, because they're having to use their rakes so much. There's a couple of times that Mike Hulbert is -- I drove it in the fairway bunker on this one hole and it was 30 yards in there, and it took any caddie half an hour to rake it. It's a good golf course.