MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 5, 2000

Sean Murphy

SEAN MURPHY: My thoughts today were drive it in the fairway and try and keep it underneath the hole give myself as many opportunities as I could. And it didn't start out that way, but that is the way it kind of got going after a while. I missed a fairway on 10 and saved par from over the back of the green; missed the fairway right on 11 and chipped in pin-high left just off the edge. Missed the green on 12, up-and-down front bunker. 13, I hit it on the green, 2-putted from about 20 feet. 14, I missed the fairway right rough and one-hopped it over the back edge, got up-and-down. 15, I 2-putted from about eight feet for par. 16, I hit started driving it better up on 16. I knew I had to hit a good drive there, hit it down the right side and had 116, hit 6-iron about twelve feet, lipped it out. Next hole hit 5-iron about 20 feet, 2-putted. Last hole I hit driver, 4-iron about eight feet, lipped it out. So made the turn 1-under. No. 1 blocked it in the right fairway bunker, 9-iron back there about 20 feet, 2-putted it. No. 2 hit 2-iron to about three feet, made birdie. No. 3, I hit driver, 3-wood, about 20 feet, 2-putted for birdie. No. 4 hit driver, 5-iron about eight feet, made it off the back fringe. No. 9 I came in there and hit driver down the right side, little questionable about the carry so we played out left a little bit safe, one extra club, I hit 4-iron in there and had about 25 feet made it.

SEAN MURPHY: You know, if it was a perfect day, I think I could -- let me see what I have would have been 1, 2, 3 -- 5 -- I could have, if everything being perfect, I could have been 5 better.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah, you just you never know which way it is going to go. You try and keep playing it, hit the fairway, hit the green, hopefully the putter gets hot. The 2-iron I hit into No. 2 was probably the best shot of the day. 216, it never left the flag. I think that kind of got me excited. You don't anticipate birdieing that hole. I walked off birdieing that one. Now I have got three downwind and 2-putt that one and all of a sudden after those two holes you start thinking about, hey, I am going to make some birdies right now.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah. Maybe two Top 5s. Went through a little drought this summer, but I feel like I am playing pretty good right now.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah, last -- actually it was Friday of San Antonio week.

SEAN MURPHY: Casa Grande, just south of Phoenix there. We have been dating four years, so I think it was time for me to step up. (laughs).

SEAN MURPHY: Myrna Rancher.

SEAN MURPHY: It was September 22nd.

SEAN MURPHY: (laughs) I have been out here off and on for ten years, so I have been taking notes the whole time.

SEAN MURPHY: I miss playing well at times like that. I got on the internet, went back through 1995, I was looking up my summer, I had in 1995 -- I think I was 89-under for about six weeks in a row. I kind of miss doing that. Maybe the best stretch I have ever had.

SEAN MURPHY: What is the difference -- that is a good question. I wish I knew. I have been searching. To play a good event you really got -- out here you can't really let one round get away from you. I think if you want to win out here I think your worse round has got to be par or better, maybe 1-under, you really can't afford to shoot 74 unless the weather changes you never know, but in ideal conditions you just can't let your worse round get too bad out here. Over there you can maybe have a 74; then might be able to shoot a 63 the next day. The courses you can reach on the par 5s most of the time, and get it going, they are a little shorter. Rough is not as heavy as out here typically. So the conditions are a little tougher out here.

SEAN MURPHY: No. Reason I say no is I am not really a masher of the golf ball. Those guys can overpower some golf courses, both of them. I typically keep my eyes on guys like Jeff Sluman, Fred Funk, I keep my eyes on what their statistics are doing because I play a similar game to them and you can't -- if you don't have the power game, there is no sense of watching the big-ball hitters. So I was with Mike Reid today. That was fun watching him because he was putting it in position all day long. I hadn't been with Mike in a couple of years, and it was easy to see why they nickname him radar. He is really dialed in. He hit a lot of good putts today. He should probably be sitting here right now, just a lot of things right over the lip, but it is two different types of games. On the Nike Tour I could overpower some of those golf courses, but there is very few courses out here that I can overpower.

SEAN MURPHY: Sure. Absolutely. Those guys are -- they are all good putters, all good wedge players. Typically good iron players. I think that has been my biggest weakness, my iron-play especially, my long irons, but I have been working on that all year long and I feel like I have made some strides in that direction. I was real happy with my iron-play today.

SEAN MURPHY: I think the aggressiveness comes from the fact that most guys know they can overpower the golf course. There is maybe a handful of courses on that Tour that you really have to respect, but most of them you can overpower them. Like I said earlier, there is not as much heavy rough on them as what you see out here typically. I wish it was a lot of rough out there; I think I would have won more times because there is guys just beating it every somewhere and still scoring. Reaching every par 5 with a 7-iron or 5-iron I can name a few of those guys that can do it. That is the real difference. I think that is where the aggressiveness comes in to answer your question.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah, over there you can rely on making some birdies everyday on those par 5s if you knew you were going to reach every one of them in two. You come out here and everything is a little longer, tee-to-green, and the greens are harder and firmer and faster and the rough is up, and you just have to be more accurate. One week you are driving it well and your iron-play is kind of so-so and your short game is good; next week your driving it well, ironing it well and not putting it good and it is just trying to put every part of the game together for a week and it is not easy. That is why you see typically guys make most of their money in five or six or seven weeks. They play 25 to 30 and they are only successful five or seven weeks at a time and it is really hard to put your entire game together for a week. Especially under these conditions.

SEAN MURPHY: No, I am not. I have had a lot of distractions this year. I feel like I have more forest fires going than the state of Montana there for a while, but most of them have been put out now. I feel like I am playing some of my best golf right now and I am not really worried about the next month or two months or three months. I am excited about playing. I am not down on myself. I am not feeling bad about how I am playing right now, so, I am really actually excited to be playing right now.

SEAN MURPHY: Well, I had a lawsuit that was going on for about 18 months that ended the Friday of Toronto. And then my grandmother passed away Thursday of San Antonio and those were two of the main distractions. Had a flood in my kitchen earlier this summer. We had an inline water filter explode, nobody was there and half the house flooded so that was a bit of a setback. It is just distractions like that that have been going on.

SEAN MURPHY: About a sponsor that just quit paying me last year. Basically it went all the way and fortunately I won and I am going to end up getting paid anyway. So that was nice to know that that is over with. And you know, most of that stuff, it is all behind me knew. That is kind of why I am excited about playing golf again because it has been distracting to come out and try and play your best golf with all this stuff going on off the golf course.

SEAN MURPHY: I think that is where the calm came. After I stepped up and made the commitment, it pretty much changes your focus. Maybe it has relaxed me a little bit, I don't know. It is pretty early though.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah, she did. The reason that the timing was the way it was because Myrna and I had our first date in San Antonio four years ago and I had planned on us going back to the same place we had our first date at and it just so happened my grandmother passed away the day before. So I was hoping she could have hung in there one more day but she had a great life. I got to see her the Sunday before, so everything was good anyway.

SEAN MURPHY: I have always thought this was a tough golf course and the reason I think that is the heavy Bermuda rough that is here and you have to putt on the right part of some of these greens. No. 1 today the pin was up in the back right and that is just a small little shelf up there. No. 11 you have to have it over in that little left shelf on 11. 16 is always a tough hole. 17 you are always messing with the wind down there by the river. 18 is a really difficult driving hole to get yourself the right kind of iron to get to that part of that green. You have to drive it to take advantage of the par 5s. You have got to drive it well. No. 3 has got a difficult green from 215, there is some undulation and some corners to that green that you are trying to get it in and the heavy rough around the greens does not make it easy to chip to it. These greens are small by most of the Tour standards, so I don't really -- I wouldn't say that this was an easy golf course.

SEAN MURPHY: For me?

SEAN MURPHY: For me I am only 5', 8" but I can't really see the outline of the fairway standing on the tee. I can see the left bunker and I can see the right bunker early on the right side. I can see a little bit of the first cut going up the right side and so when I stand on the tee I am basically looking at the right cut trying to keep my ball just left of it. But I think it is hard because you can't see. It is a little bit of a blind drive.

SEAN MURPHY: Yeah, I think my confidence is as high as it has ever been out here. I definitely feel comfortable out here now. It is just going to be a matter of putting one good tournament together -- I have had a good of couple of good tournaments in the past, but I don't know, I think I can do a little better.