DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 5, 1999

Andy Bean

ANDY BEAN: Lipped the putt short on 18 for birdie. How do you do that? Oh, man. What can I say? The last two days I have really hit the ball solid. I have hit a lot of good solid shots, positioned myself for the most part in real good positions. This is a golf course that you just have to go out and you have to play it one shot at a time, and I have done a very good job of that I think, the first two days. I could have made a few more putts than I have, but I am in good position right now going into the last two days and if I keep hitting the ball and driving the ball like I am doing, then I am going to give myself some good opportunities. I think if anything -- today I birdied three of the par 5s, but I haven't birdied 8 yet. I didn't birdie it yesterday or today. You really had it pretty much downwind, but overall, everything I have done has been pretty good. Got it up-and-down a couple good times, but for the most part I have just been knocking it on the green and 2-putting or either 1-putting, so I think that just keeping the ball in play here -- I have played the par 3s relatively -- I think I played them over par today. But I bogeyed No. 13 and I hit a good shot. Hit 4-iron in there. Hit pin-high, just went in the back bunker, missed the putt there, but for the most part everything is very solid. I am hitting the right distances with my irons and guessing -- you know, part of it is a little guesswork with the wind trying to figure out what clubs to hit, but I have been doing that pretty -- I can't complain about that at all. I had a couple today that got away from me, but other than that, I am very satisfied.

ANDY BEAN: I don't know. Doesn't matter. I am here now and I think that is what matters. There is no doubt it has been awhile, so I think I have to look at what I have got ahead of me and use some experience that I have had from in the past. This golf course has been very good to me. I am very comfortable playing the golf course. And the last few days, it has really been fun out there playing. It is a lot more fun driving the ball -- I haven't driven it perfect by any means but I am certainly driving it pretty much right where I am looking off the tee and, you know, that is a big plus any time you go out to play. It is like, oh, no, you don't have to worry about it, you know, going -- and I don't mind being a little aggressive and driving it into a few of the bunkers because I am a good fairway bunker player and this golf course sets up that way. There is some sand out there that will get you if you try to cut across some corners, but for the most part, my driving has been very good. My iron-play has been good and my putting, it has been kind -- is good for a couple of holes, then I kind of hit a couple of putts that maybe I don't get the right speed, then I pick it right back up again. My stroke is good, it is just getting the right speeds. Because the greens, I think, the golf course is in probably the best shape I have seen it in the last ten years. It is all Bermuda grass which when you are playing down in Miami that is what you ought to be playing. You don't have any reason to be playing bent grass, over-seeded greens. The greens, the golf course, everything I think it is very good. I think everyone, Ryder and Doral and the players I don't think I have heard any complaints and somebody is usually complaining about something.

ANDY BEAN: I look forward to coming to Doral. It is a course that sets up good for my game. If I am driving the ball good, then I am going to score good because usually if I am driving the ball good, I am hitting my irons solid. You have got to hit your driver solid to be hitting most everything else solid. For the most part I am, I am driving the ball pretty good. I am not driving it the best by far that I have ever driven it, but this is my first two days this year playing and I think if anything, I had to kick myself in the rear a couple of times because I got it to 5-under one time then I was hitting it over maybe favoring the middle of the green where I should have been going at the flag, because of the wind, I wasn't really sure and I said, well, you better be a little bit -- favor the middle of the green-side of it a little bit, but it was one of those -- I should have just taken one less iron and gone ahead and hit it right at it. I think I would have been much better off. But the golf course itself, it just sets up good for my game.

ANDY BEAN: I think I do. But I think maybe it has matured a little bit because it is one of those -- I can't say how Nicklaus did what he did all those years. I mean, the kids, you know, with the family that he has got, I mean, they are great. I mean, I have got three girls and he has got five? Four boys and a girl. I mean that is two more than me and I am sitting there going, man, how do you do it. I have to give him a lot of credit because he can turn it on and turn it off. For me, it wasn't that easy. I think it was like maybe when I, in the last ten years, when I haven't been playing as well, it wasn't that I chose to not come out and play as much as -- I wasn't playing to my potential and maybe it was easier to stay home and watch my kids play volley ball or soccer or basketball and I really enjoyed it. That I enjoyed, being dad. But I think it has come to a point where now I see them growing up and they are pretty much in a few years going to be out of the house, and I don't fish nearly as much as everybody says I get to go fishing. So I think it is just one of those things that I have got to really focus back on golf. I have been -- I took a -- I really took almost two months off on November and December and didn't -- I came here and played the Pepsi, little Pepsi Pro-Am, but I didn't touch a club until I got here. Then I didn't touch a club until the first of the year because I just wanted to be fresh when I started out I actually thought I was going to get to play in a few tournaments on the West Coast and I didn't. That was a little disappointing, but this being my first tournament, you always want to go out and play well. I have accomplished what I wanted to do so far. I just got two more days to go and hopefully can carry it on into next week and you know, the rest of the year. But it is like the thing that I thought that I needed to do to really get back and get focused again was go out there and play one shot at a time and that is one thing that I have so far I have done very -- I have done a very good job this week.

ANDY BEAN: I think 22, 24 would be great, but I think I will be lucky if I get to play 20 unless I am fortunate enough to win. Or if I get off to a good start and play good in Florida, then obviously that is going to get me into -- I would think that would help me get into more tournaments, because some of the tournament directors in those tournaments, shoot -- I mean, they retired now when I won them or played well there and everyone now when I first started on Tour they may have been in diapers. So, I mean, you just got a lot of new faces out here and it is like to get in tournaments some of them, you feel like you have to play politics. I am not a very good politician as far as that goes. I mean, I feel like when you have gone out and you have played and you have supported a tournament, and for the most part they have been very generous in letting me play. You have got a lot of young players out here that are asking for spots too, so, it is a tough decision, much tougher than it was maybe when I started on the TOUR.

ANDY BEAN: My headlights don't shine that far, man. I want to focus on today and get my game back now, because if I get it back now, it will carry on over to the SENIOR TOUR. I can't just be looking ahead for, you know, what might be four years down the road. Shoot, we have got to eat now.

ANDY BEAN: Frustration really couldn't -- if you capitalized it probably won't be a very good description, but it would be close. I think that was -- it was like every time I went out and played I really wasn't striking the ball solid. That is one thing, up to, say, the mid '80s that I did -- I did a very good job of going out and hitting shots solid. Now, I may have hit the ball, let one get away from me and hit it in the water or dunes, but it was solid. Really the last six or seven years at least I have not hit the ball the distances, everything has just been -- it has been like I have been guiding everything and now I am actually starting to hit golf shots again and it really feels good. I mean, it is like you want to be out there when you can identify with what I am doing now with what I used to do, everything -- it is like -- it starts to flow again when you are out there as opposed to just grinding so hard that you really don't enjoy playing. Because you are out there playing with guys that you have played well; you have beat in the past and now all of a sudden you are really struggling to stay out there with them. That was the one reason I took and a couple months off this past year, I wanted to just really let everything just chill out and then go back to work with the idea that I was going to be working on everything positive. If you are looking in a positive manner, you have got a lot better chance to come out with something that is going to be good. I haven't -- I have been trying to really focus too on maybe not hitting as many balls as I used to hit, but hitting every one of them that I hit with the authority and with the focus that is needed to hit that shot. That is why I was talking about playing each shot as it comes out on the golf course. I mean, I pulled out a couple of bad clubs and -- it was just the in-between clubs, then I went one or the other and I hit it over a couple of greens, but other than that, everything has been really good and I am fortunate to be where I am, but then again, I have played well. So I could have been a little bit better. I thought the putt -- I watched the guys on -- after I had putted 18 in the Pro-Am on Monday, the pin was on the side of a hill there, you putted up, it would come back to you, putted up, it would come back to you. I watched Wayne Levi knock his putt about eight, ten feet by then Nolan Henke ran his bunker shot about, I guess, 15 feet or so. I am sitting there going -- I looking- didn't looks like it is almost going downhill again. I am going the one thing I may not make -- I mean, if this putt gets to, you know, goes in, it is going to die in. And I said I am not going to mess this round up. I really thought I hit a good putt. It came up about six inches short. I am sitting there going, how did I leave the putt short. I really didn't play that maybe aggressive enough but I was not going to mess up what I thought was a good round. I hit a real good shot in there and I just didn't want to let it get away from me. Maybe I was thinking a little bit too much about Monday's round.

ANDY BEAN: I don't think it's got anything to do with that. I think it's got more to do with confidence. I mean, right now I know I am hitting a lot of good shots, whereas, the few years past, I have struggled to hit the good shots. I have held onto the club and now it is starting to happen. I am standing up there, I am picking a spot out where I want to hit my tee shot. The ball is going there. But it is going there because I have putt a lot of good practice in and everything that I have worked on is -- I can identify with what I am doing in my swing, so I am really not swing-oriented. I am position oriented when I get out on the golf course because I am not worried about my swing. Everything is working good: In the past six or eight years it hadn't been that way. I have always just picked a spot out and hit the ball to that spot. I mean, that is just -- and how it gets there, that is why you go out here and practice. That is one thing that I have done plenty of in the past and -- but now, it is like I said, everything is -- I am -- just flowing a lot better in my swing and I don't have any shifts in there, so, I don't have any movements that are funny, so, everything is really -- I am very comfortable.

ANDY BEAN: Oh, I think there is definitely unwritten chapters, but I think in the last eight years the relationship I have had with my three daughters I wouldn't change it for any amount of wins. So -- I am not -- like I was saying earlier, I don't know -- I am not the kind of guy sometimes that can go home and then they can go back out and go back out and play and go home. I think I struggle with that too.

ANDY BEAN: My daughters know who their dad is. Sometimes they may not like him, but they know who he is. I mean, it is like, I mean, most of the time I think it is really good because my 16 year old called me the first or second night when I was down here and I guess she had gotten to a discussion with her mother, "Dad, mother just doesn't understand, you understand." I thought, I said, you know, I like. That I mean, but it was. I was -- but I have had that type of relationship with her and the middle one, my younger one is, I think, is more to the mother still. But I have watched them grow up and might not have been the greatest father in the world, but I have been as good as I could be and I really enjoyed watching them grow up. I mean, I think I got -- when I wasn't playing good, or as good as I would have liked to play, I got the fulfillment out of, you know, watching them grow up. No, I won't second guess that.

ANDY BEAN: It was like my dad was probably as hard a working man as I have ever seen in my life. As a matter of fact, he is -- I mean, he left the house before daylight. He got home after dark. He is a golf pro. Golf pros now don't do that. They got there -- I mean, they work hard, but it is not the same. And I really wanted to be able to spend some time with him. So -- but I know what I need to do. I need to go out practice. I need to play and I need to win again. I have been trying to do it in that order, so if I can keep getting myself in a position then who knows down the road. But I know one thing that I can identify with now, the way I have hit most of the shots I have hit this week with what I did ten, twelve years ago, and it certainly feels better than what I have been struggling with the past couple of years. So I mean, what can you say? I mean, I hit a couple of shots out there today that were -- it was like when I hit them and they got up in the air I said, oh, no, come down. I hit it too far, hit it over a couple of greens, and then the rough around some of the greens, after you get off that little short fringe it rolls down into that long stuff. You can either get a good or a bad lie. I got one good lie then I got a couple of bad ones and I fluffed one of my chips out and I had about a 15-footer and when I hit the putt I knew I made it. I am sitting there, it is like, there wasn't any tension in the stroke at all. It was just get this up and hit it, because I felt very comfortable at what I was doing. That was on 14 today. And it was -- probably in the past, you know, couple of years back I would have been upset because it was like I didn't feel like I could give up something or, you know, have the possibility of giving up something. And felt like I had to take every opportunity that I had, whereas now, hopefully I am going to get a lot of opportunities. I am going to create a lot of opportunities for birdies out there. If I can continue to do that, then I am going to make some putts. It is just going to happen.

ANDY BEAN: I just -- I got two more days I have got to play and I have got to play it. I don't think you can go into doing that until it -- that opportunity presents itself in the last hole or two. I have got to go out there, I mean, shoot, I am behind right now. I have got to go out and play catch up. But if I play as well as I have played the last two days, I am going to have a good chance.

ANDY BEAN: Oh, I think so. That is why I say, you know, on this golf course if you have played four solid rounds that you are going to have a chance to win. I have played two, I need two more. These may not be the two best rounds I am going to shoot this week, I don't know. They might be. But I know that I have put myself in good positions. That is all I want to do tomorrow and Sunday is put myself into good position. Because if I can continue to do that, then I am going -- things are going to be on a positive note at the end of the week.

ANDY BEAN: Actually I walked up 18 there, I was looking -- I was thinking I am going to be on the leaderboard. If I break this putt I might get there. I left it short. I went, oh, well. But it is funny, it is like I was talking about playing -- you know you should be there because you have been there in the past. Man, it is -- I read -- I saw a cartoon, you know, it is like when you have known up there with the eagles being down on the ground with the turkeys or the gizzards it is not the same. I feel nothing against anybody else, but it is just like when you have been there, it is sometimes a lot harder to accept disappointments, but the good part about it is I have been there. Hopefully, if I get a chance to be there again, I will know what to do with it.

ANDY BEAN: No. 1, I hit it in the bunker and blasted out five feet, made that for birdie. 2, I missed a short putt, about a 5-footer for birdie, let's see 3, 2-putted. 4, I 2-putted. I left it just short of the green on 4, though, 2-putted from about, oh, gosh, 45, maybe even 50 feet. Four is one of those holes again, if you play that in three everyday you are going to gain on most of the field and that is all I tried to do is put it in the front middle of the green or just in the middle of the green at the most. Let's see, No. 5, I parred, 2-putted. No. 6, putted for par. Nothing great. Both of those one of them was about 25 feet. The other one was, I guess, about 18 or 20 feet. 7, I drove it just off the fairway at the very top edge of the right bunker and came up with just an awful lie. I am sitting there trying to figure out how can I get it to the green. I have just got a 9-iron in my hand but it is one of those that you can't -- the grass is about three or four inches long, you can't really get down to it. I played it. It never got much overhead high and it hit on the front and went over the back edge, but it was in the long stuff, but I was very fortunate. I came up with a good lie. I was probably about, I guess, 60 feet from the pin and I knocked it up about, at the most, a foot. Eight inches a foot something like that and tapped it in for par. Let's see, 8, I drove it in the bunker and boy, just caught the edge of the bunker. If it was just a couple of feet right, I have got a 4-iron to the green. But I don't. So I in the bunker knock it out. Hit a wedge about twelve feet and lipped that out. I made par there. 9, hit it in there about ten feet. Missed that, 2-putted for par. 10, I hit it about -- hit 3-wood, I had like 253 to the hole and I hit a 3-wood, 16, 18 feet, I was just right on the cut of the green, pin was cut in the front left. I was right on the edge, and I -- I putted it up about a foot short. I misread the speed of it. Made that for birdie. The next hole was where I really -- I hit an iron in the fairway trap. I had a so-so lie. I just hit a bad shot my second shot. I hit it I blooped it into the front bunker at the green and it plugged. I mean, it was a buried lie and I chunked it out, it kept rolling, rolling, rolling. I was about 35 feet, but I made that for par. 12, I hit a wedge in there maybe seven feet. I made that for birdie. 13, I miss -- hit it in the back bunker blasted out about twelve feet, I made that -- missed that, made bogey. Let's see, 14, I hit it over the green in two. That is when I pitched up about 15-feet short and I made that for par. 15, knocked it in in two, 2-putted. 16, I wedged it up. 2-putted. Nothing spectacular there. 17, I hit a really good drive on 17, I hit a wedge in there, maybe 12, 15 feet at the most. I made that for birdie. Then 18, hit a great drive there and I hit a 6-iron, almost flew it in the hole. It hit about three or four inches from the hole and I was about maybe 12 to -- 12 to 15 feet. I left it short. But it was really a pretty good round and hopefully I can do the same next two days.

ANDY BEAN: Thank you, guys. Hope to see you all a little later.