DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 6, 1999

Andy Bean

ANDY BEAN: Oh, boy. It was kind of an exciting day. Okay. I birdied 1, I made, I don't know, a 12-, 15-footer. No. 3, I made it from 10 feet. No. 4 I made it from --

ANDY BEAN: No, 25 feet, pin was right up on the back edge. I hit a 3-iron. And it hit just on the bunker and scooted just over the green. I was lucky there too because it would have gone probably four, five feet by. 7, I made it from 15 feet.

ANDY BEAN: 9-iron at 150 yards, actually 147 yards. Let's see, No. 9 I hit a 6-iron, I don't know, 12 feet, 15 feet at the most.

ANDY BEAN: I 3-putted. It was not -- that was one of those that occasionally out there you get going downhill on your putts and some of them get away from you and that one I ran by about six feet and I'm sitting there thinking: Before I hit the putt, I said, this is pretty fast. I'm glad I thought it was fast. I would have knocked it in the lake.

ANDY BEAN: Okay, 11, I 3-putted. I hit it -- I misjudged the wind there. I thought if I hit an easy 3-iron off the tee, it would put me right up there by the bunkers, but I actually pushed the shot a little bit and missed the gap there and I was just in the bunker. Didn't have a very good lie, I blew it by. I hit an 8-iron and I was probably 65 feet past the hole and I hit a good putt, but I was about four feet short and I missed that. 12, hit a 7-iron for third shot. I was probably, I don't know, 18 feet. Just off the edge of the green and it was cut five from the back, actually it was four from the back, so I was about 16 feet, 16, something like that. 13, I didn't hit a very good shot there and I hit it in the rough. I hit a 3-wood, trying to play -- trying to play smart. Oh, excuse me, I'm thinking of the next hole - 13, I was playing 258 today and into the wind, I don't have any irons in my bag that go that far so I pulled a 3-wood and I thought I really hit a good shot and it landed about 245 yards just over, just right at the left edge of the green, but it hit -- it was just on the downslope of the bunker and when I got to my ball, it was right up flush against a tree and actually I -- actually it was not flush, I had about six inches there that I could take a club and pop it and I popped it and it rolled back over the cart path and I chipped it up about 10 feet and I just barely missed the putt. I hit a real good putt and I made double there. And that 3-wood was a solid -- about as good a 3-wood as I hit in a long time. It just needed to be about 15 feet right, I guess. 14, I hit it left off the tee in the rough, didn't have a very good lie at all. It was sitting down. I hit a 9-iron in the bunker and I was probably 70 feet from the pin and I holed it no problem. Just hit, flew up, I guess about 10 feet short of the hole and it bounced one time and when it just started rolling, it just went right in. I mean, it was just boom. And that was a very pleasant surprise.

ANDY BEAN: When I hit the shot, I knew I hit a real good shot. I don't know that you ever feel them going in, but I knew it was coming right down the pin and I knew it was going to be close. I was just going to be glad I was going to have a tap-in for a birdie -- I mean, for a par and, I ended up with a birdie, so...

ANDY BEAN: I was about 70 feet. Let's see, 15, I 2-putted. 16, I left it right on the lip. 17, I left it just short. 18, that may have been -- that's one of the better shots and maybe one of the more questionable shots I have ever hit, but I hit it to the right and I hit the cart path and how it got in the very right side of the bunker, the fairway side of the bunker on No. 1 and it was up against the side and it was -- I had a lie such that there was really no way I could pitch it out to the fairway. I couldn't go back to the tee. I couldn't go straight, sideways and I could hit it, but I could see the flag through the -- over through the palm trees and I thought - I said: Well, might as well. I mean, because it was really -- there was -- it was not -- it would have been a very hard shot. The best shot I had was actually maybe to blast it back in one fairway; then hit it over the palm trees and I thought that's crazy, I gotta go over them anyway. So, luckily, I -- my ball just never left the flag. It just barely nicked the little -- the top limb of the palm.

ANDY BEAN: 3-iron, I was about 205. But the good part about it was I figured if I miss it, the worse I'm going to be is in that right bunker because my misses go right and -- but it never really left the flag. I mean, it was within a couple of feet of going right at the flag all the way and I was about, I guess -- I walked it off. It must have been 39, 40 feet from the pin just off the edge of the green. When I hit the putt I thought it was going in, I thought: Oh, man, and it stopped, I guess, about two inches just absolutely perfect distance but just to the left of the cup and I tapped that in and very gladly tapped that in for a par. So it was kind of an exciting day. I made -- I had a couple of 3-putts today. I had kind of a rough break there on 13 where -- I mean, if it's not where it was I could have gotten it up-and-down. I was really getting something going again there, and then when -- you never know about this game. It's just like here it looked like I might lose a shot again on 14 after making the double there and then I hole it. That's, I guess, when you keep hitting it at the flag. Guy told me, I told him, I said, he said something about, man, I don't know if I can follow you anymore tomorrow or not. I told him, I said, you better have a strong heart if you do because for a few holes there it was either feast or famine, but I guess I'm within striking distance tomorrow and that's all I can ask to be.

ANDY BEAN: Lately I have been at home right now watching this on TV or doing something with the kids and it's not that I didn't want to be with the kids, you know, it's nice being back in here.

ANDY BEAN: There's no doubt the equipment has changed the game considerably. I think probably the graphite shafts and the metal woods have changed this game because they made it possible for players that weren't very good drivers of the ball to swing at it even a little bit harder, hit it further and still hit it straighter. So your misses are still misses, but it is a lot -- when you're driving it out there 15 or 20 yards further than you ever hit it with any other club and you're driving it straighter, something can be said for that.

ANDY BEAN: Well, it's not so much the no-pressure, but it was one of those shots where you try to -- you always try to play golf shot-by-shot, but it was like one of those things that -- it would really -- I would have been a lot more tense trying to lay it up because then I'd have been upset if I laid it up and got in trouble. So I figured the best thing to do was, you know, to go ahead and go at it. At least you feel like you're playing -- if you are going to mess up, I'd rather mess up playing aggressive than playing defensive because the defensive shot there or the more conservative shot there was actually a much harder shot.

ANDY BEAN: I'm comfortable playing on this golf course and if I get off to a good start, it is just a matter of getting the momentum going exactly. There's not a hole out there that I haven't played that you can't reflect back on and have really good thoughts about. So I think you just go out and try to get your -- just try to get myself in position on the Front 9 and see what happens on the back.

ANDY BEAN: Oh, it's really -- it's basically the same golf course. Some of the bunkers are flared up a little bit more; some of the greens are tougher, there's no doubt about that. I mean, if you watch the shots coming to 18 or really coming into 9, you watch some shots coming into 9, that's a much harder hole to get the ball close on now than it ever was before. But the greens are -- I mean, they are so good; they've got them -- I mean, they're as good as we putted on, I think.

ANDY BEAN: I'll tell you, I'm having fun out there and it's been a long time coming. This is the first time I ever took two months off because I wanted to take two months off back in November and December. Usually I take time off because my arms or elbows, you know, hands or something, and now this time I took it off just to really try to get fresh, to start back out playing again and so far it's working. So I just feel -- I feel a lot more comfortable now. It's not -- it's like the pressure is there, but it's really not. You go out there, you play as well as you can and you go on to the next week.

ANDY BEAN: Those are a thing of the past.

ANDY BEAN: Well, I don't think -- they don't ever vanish. I think everybody that plays this game has aches and pains at one time or another, but it's just -- I think probably those two months that I took off really -- it certainly didn't hurt anything. Maybe a little mental help there, too, because I think a lot of times when you're a little more mentally sharp, you can overcome a lot more.

ANDY BEAN: I don't know, I forgot that. That's in the past hopefully. I really -- to go back and say a date, I really couldn't tell you right now, but I'm good, everything is good now and I'm just looking forward to teeing it up tomorrow.

ANDY BEAN: I couldn't get them to quiet down on 18 to let P.H. hit. It was -- I tried to step back and stand where I hit the shot from, then I said, shoot, you all gotta be quiet. It's great because it's like they're -- it's not -- it's just satisfying to be able to hit some good shots, have people really enjoy them and, heck, I amazed myself there on 18, so it is just one of them things, you go out and do the best you can. I'm just very fortunate there were a lot of people pulling for me today.

ANDY BEAN: It's been a long time. I'm swinging a lot -- I'm swinging like I swung at the ball back in the early eighties again. It's not that good yet, but it's got chances of getting back there and I can hit shots again. Shoot, if it would have been last year or a couple of years ago to even try that shot, I mean, they might as well have committed me because I would have been trying to do something with my arms where now I'm really swinging the golf club again and hitting the ball rather than just trying to force everything.

ANDY BEAN: Well, I think any time you hit a good shot it's that way because if you dwell on the bad things, you're really not going to accomplish much. I just hadn't had enough of the real good shots lately and this week I have hit a number of real good shots. I can see the ball, you know, I don't even have to close my eyes, I can see the ball going out on the bunker on 14 there. The sun was shining in my face, it just came down through the sun and just split the pin, I said, oh, how about that. I started laughing in the bunker. I didn't know what to do except say thank you, lord, I appreciate that and go on to the next hole.

ANDY BEAN: No, I don't think so. Used to, I think I put so much pressure on myself that I didn't enjoy it as much.

ANDY BEAN: I'm sure I had a lot of good shots, but I think I hit a couple of great shots on 17. There are a lot of times when you hit the ball on 18th green that you've hit a great shot, you know, because a lot of time you're back there hitting a 2-iron or 3-iron or 4-iron and a crosswind either into you, right now with those greens the way they are, you've got to hit a good shot to get it close. The shot I hit on 18 yesterday was as good as I have hit anything. I hit a 6-iron, I had 174 yards and I flew it right at the flag. It only hit about four, six inches from the pin and -- or from the cup, and I mean I'm sitting there just watching it the whole time, now I'm squinting, I don't see as good as I used to, but -- and it ended up about twelve feet and I left the putt short. But it was like the shot I hit was a shot that I pictured before I hit. That shot there, if it had been about -- maybe about eight feet higher, I wouldn't have been nearly as concerned as when I hit that one today. It went right at the flag and I mean, I have hit a lot of real good shots this week to get out of some -- out of some tough places that I got into. That's what this game's about. You're not always going to hit perfect shots and good shots, but you have to be able to play your miss-hits. And fortunately I have been doing a good job of that.

ANDY BEAN: Actually Scott Cameron was supposed to have that about five years ago and somehow it got left in one of the vans, the equipment vans and I found it about -- when I was up in Gainesville, Tom Hunt (ph) had it because he bought the old True Temper van and I looked at the putter when I walked in there, I said, that's gotta be my putter because Tad Moore, he only made a few putters like that and he made them for me because they had no offset on them. I don't like offset on anything. I looked over there, I said -- he said, yeah, your name is on the back of it in magic marker, I know it's yours. I left the name on the back in magic marker, but it was -- I'd even drawn on there how I wanted Scotty to make the putter for me and somewhere between here and California it never got there, so I guess now I'm fortunate that it didn't because I'm putting -- I made a lot of good putts and I made some putts when I really had to make some.

ANDY BEAN: Well --

ANDY BEAN: Back then it was easier to be there.

ANDY BEAN: I was -- I hit my irons -- I was just a very good iron player and when I drove the ball on the fairway then I got the job done pretty well. But I think now I'm not as hurried about -- maybe I'm a little more patient, might be the -- it's like I'm just trying to, you know, let it just happen and slow it down and not make it happen, not force it all the time. Fortunately, today, it's just like on 14 where I knocked it in on the bunker -- I really did, I think when I got there I said, you know, you gotta do something, you have to hit a good shot here and that's all I was thinking about and I did. A little better than I was even wanting to, so -- but you keep hitting it at the hole and sooner or later it is going to fall in and hopefully I can just get out and hit a good solid round tomorrow. I played really good today. I had a couple of 3-putts, like I said, then I made that double there, but for the most part I really didn't miss that many shots today and I hit a lot of good shots and if I can get myself those opportunities tomorrow then I'll have a chance.

ANDY BEAN: Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.