CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 5, 1998

Vijay Singh

VIJAY SINGH: Twice to 61. Twice, I shot 61. But it wasn't a TOUR event.

VIJAY SINGH: One in Europe. One was, I think, New Jersey somewhere.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah.

VIJAY SINGH: I was playing pretty good. I played the front nine very nicely. I started the back nine, I needed two under and get out of here. But I birdied 10 and missed a good chance at 11 and birdied 12 and chipped in on 13. I did that. Kenny got excited. I got a little excited. Obviously, I hit a good shot the next one and made birdie. Two putted the par, 15th hole. Almost hold out on 16. You know, it was -- everything was just flowing and I made some putts out there as well.

VIJAY SINGH: Where did I make birdie? Third hole. I hit a driver sand wedge to probably 30 feet and made that putt and the next one I hit driver four iron to about six feet. I three-putted the eight hole, hit a three-iron to about 20 feet behind, by about five feet, and missed it. Ten, hit a driver, five iron about eight feet. 13, I hit a driver L wedge to about a foot. 13, I hit a driver three iron. I hit just over the green. I chipped in from about 40 feet. Then I hit a three-wood wedge to about ten feet on 14. 15 I drove the green and two-putted from 40 feet. 16 I hit an eight iron to about foot and a half. That was it.

VIJAY SINGH: I've got a plane at 2:00. I'm trying to get out as soon as possible.

VIJAY SINGH: It was a good feeling to do this, because the British Open is around the corner. I've been playing well. I've got a week off to think about what I'm going to do next, in a week's time. This is something good to take away with me. And hopefully I can just continue from where I left off today at the Open.

VIJAY SINGH: I hit a lot of close shots today. You know, I started off yesterday with a good start, the ball up in the tree. Kind of took all the gas out of me. If that hadn't happened, you don't know what would have gone on. You can't look back and say if, if, if. I'm quite happy to do what I did. I've been playing well for the last five, six weeks. My putt is coming around and it's been great.

VIJAY SINGH: He had a bad start, double bogied the second hole. He wanted to do really good. He made a few mistakes out there. It's hard to get it back when you're starting too early in the day, and if you drop a few shots in the early round, it's hard to get motivated, unless you do what I did, start making birdies. You're either going to shoot a low one or be out of it.

VIJAY SINGH: Not at all. You play your own game. He plays his game and I play mine. It's how much concentration you have out there, that pulls you through.

VIJAY SINGH: I think for me to shoot low numbers, for anyone to shoot a low number, you've got to putt well. I think the last two years I've been really struggling with my putting, and it just came around last week. I had a good tournament. This week I feel so much confident on the green that I can make putts from, you know, 30 feet instead of trying to lag it inside a foot. I'm not going to have a next putt. I can go out and shoot low numbers by hitting good golf shots. Previously I was just scraping it around. I think my average was something like 33, 32 for a while. That's a lot of putts. I think last week I was tied for six in putting stats. I don't know what I did last week. Today I putted well, so ...

VIJAY SINGH: It was good for a while. It gets stale after a wheel. This cross-handed thing is very close to what I've been doing. I've putted cross-handed for a while before. I feel so much more comfortable right now. This is the best I've ever felt going cross-handed with my putting than I've ever felt. So it's a good feeling to have.

VIJAY SINGH: That's true. Obviously, whichever tournament you play, you've got to putt well and, you know, to do well in the majors, you've got to definitely putt well. That's a plus for me going there with so much confidence in my putting.

VIJAY SINGH: Whatever is going. It's going good right now. I don't want to experiment, see what I'm doing right or wrong. I want to go out and do what I'm doing. Once you putt well, you let it happen. If you start thinking about why you're putting well, obviously, you'll start messing it up. I don't feel like I need to go out there and experiment why I'm putting good. Just standing over there and hitting it, not wasting too much time over the ball as well. Once I get my line I stand and hit it.

VIJAY SINGH: I was looking at the little ball, hurricane 11 under. Hurricane may blow here this afternoon. I just tried to make a good putt. I had a good chance, the long hole today. Yesterday I hit a driver wedge. Today I hit a driver four iron. Shows a lot of difference in the golf course.

VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, about 20 feet.

VIJAY SINGH: About 20 feet, yeah.

VIJAY SINGH: No.

VIJAY SINGH: Too many guys out there.

VIJAY SINGH: You've got to let me go. I can't make my flight. Thank you.