WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 9, 2003

Rich Beem

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Rich, for joining us. An interesting day out there again this morning. No one really went too low.

RICH BEEM: Well they shouldn't have. It was a grind. I didn't hit it very good. I was pleased with my round. I missed a few putts coming down the stretch, but overall it was a pretty good round. It was definitely a lot tougher today with the wind and seemed to be swirling a little bit back in those trees. But definitely a lot tougher today than it was yesterday, and I don't see the scores going very low this afternoon.

So, you guys will probably be bored this afternoon because there won't be a whole lot of people coming in here.

Q. Inaudible?

RICH BEEM: Just like yesterday, I seem to play harder courses better. I make a lot of pars normally in a round of golf, and a lot of golf courses, that's not very good. But on a golf course where it actually means something, I seem to do very well.

So it's just when it's not a putting contest I seem to fair fairly well. But when it's a putting contest, and my putting stats have obviously been atrocious this year, I'm not going to play well.

So I enjoy coming to golf courses like this where you have to grind it out, it's tough, and a lot of knock-it-on-the-green, 25-feet-from-the-hole, 2-putt-and-get-out-of-there, so, I enjoy doing that.

Q. Inaudible?

RICH BEEM: A few of them, yeah. A couple you have to aim away from you just can't get to them. You know me, I try to hit it at every pin I find but there's a few of them where you can't quite get to them.

On 17, I actually pulled it right in the middle of the green. I wasn't even intending on hitting that green and of course -- there's a lot of holes where you just don't want it -- there's a few holes I think you don't want to go right at the pin. But that doesn't mean they are not accessible if you drive it well. But with the winds swirling as bad as they are, it's tough, but the saving grace is the greens are soft. If the greens were firm, it would be really brutal.

I guess that's a nice thing to say to the guys who setup the golf course, the advance man Dillard Pruett (ph) plus the grounds crew. The golf course is in perfect shape.

Q. Inaudible?

RICH BEEM: If I keep putting poorly the other way, I will have to commit myself. I was going crazy.

Yeah, today wasn't as good but I still made a few putts. I hit a lot of good putts out there. They just didn't kind of go in today. I'm still kind of getting the feel for it. But I'm sticking with it. Obviously, it's better than it was and it's still not great so I'm hoping.

Q. Inaudible?

RICH BEEM: No, doubtful. I'm going to stick through this. It was bad conventional, so I'm sticking with this, regardless of what happens tomorrow.

Q. Inaudible?

RICH BEEM: Well, absolutely. I guess everybody has been saying, this is kind of like a major championship setup this week, which it is, and there is definitely a strategy to that. You've got to plod along and make as few mistakes as you can. I think whoever does that successfully will be right up there at the end of the weekend.

It's one of those golf courses where you can't be overly aggressive and fire at everything because you're not going to make ten birdies in a row, where on other golf courses you have that capability. On this one, if somebody makes ten birdies around, well, they are a way better golfer than I am on TOUR.

There is going to be a little strategy out there, but like I said at the beginning of the week, if somebody gets it to 12-under, that's going to be right there.

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