BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 4, 2002

Dudley Hart

TODD BUDNICK: We have Dudley Hart, 6-under, 66 today. Dudley got off to a great start with birdies on your first two holes. Go through them please.

DUDLEY HART: I started on No. 10 hit a pretty good drive down the right side on the fairway laid just -- had to lay-it-up, hit a sand wedge about 15 feet short of the hole; made that for birdie.

On No. 11, I hit a small -- just a little 8-iron to about probably five feet, six feet left of the hole, made that.

17, I hit a good drive down the right center of the fairway, pitching wedge about 20 feet short and made that for birdie.

Then 2, I hit just a small 9-iron to about two feet, made that for birdie.

4, I hit a good drive, par 5, down the middle and I hit a 3-wood just right of the green and chipped it about six feet, made that for birdie.

6, I hit a drive right of the fairway just in the rough, laid it up, hit a little 9-iron to about a foot and made that for birdie.

7, I hit a good drive down the middle, and hit a pitching wedge one-hopped just over the back of the green and had a pretty easy chip, just hit a little bump-and-run and chipped it in there for birdie.

Then on 8 I hit it in the right bunker, didn't get up-and-down, so made bogey there.

TODD BUDNICK: How far was that bump-and-run?

DUDLEY HART: Maybe 30 feet.

TODD BUDNICK: Looks like conditions are pretty good out there today. I know it is a little colder than what you expected early in the week.

DUDLEY HART: Yeah it was a little cool, warming up but it wasn't too bad. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been from what everyone was saying. But golf course is -- we all noticed it on the 10th green when we got up there how much firmer and faster the greens were, even this morning, you know, the weather has been good. I guess it is going to continue to be pretty nice, so we are expecting the greens just to get firmer and faster all week long.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. Looks like a lot of guys were getting a lot of birdies on the back nine. Is that side easier to you, do you think, or is it just guys coming out wanting to play aggressively early on?

DUDLEY HART: Well, I think the back nine can play a little bit easier actually. I think it's got -- you have got a few shorter par 4s. You are going to hit a lot more 8-iron to wedges, it seems like, on the back nine than you will on the front. It still has some a couple of dangerous holes if you don't hit a good tee shot. But if you drive it well on the back I think it plays a lot easier than the front side. The front side you have got 7 and today it wasn't playing too bad because it was downwind but 7 and 8 pretty long holes and No. 1 got pretty tricky green when the wind is blowing into you we hit 6, 7-irons in there today. You hit a lot more mid-length irons, I think, on the front side which obviously will make it play a little bit harder than when you are hitting 7, 8-irons most of the time.

Q. How has the season been for you, anything you are working on in your game that's coming together for you right now?

DUDLEY HART: The season has been fairly uneventful so far. I didn't play much early on. We had -- my wife and I had triplets so I was home waiting for them to come home from the hospital and didn't really get geared up to much until Florida, so once Doral came around, basically the start of my year. I have played decent, haven't played great, but you know, I just -- I feel like things are coming around a little bit. I am not swinging exactly the way I'd like to right now, but at the same time, I pretty much know what kind of shot my swing is going to produce every time which really helps obviously if you -- you know what you are going to hit even though you don't necessarily like hitting it. I don't want to sound like I am complaining about my round. But it's not the feel that I want to have, but I just play it and right now at least I got away with it today, so.....

Q. How do you cope with the life with triplets especially on the road?

DUDLEY HART: On the road it is a lot easier because they are at home (laughs) so I can sleep and go to bed early and catch up and all that. But it's not that bad really so far. It's busy at home. But we have -- fortunately we can afford to have some help and we have got people coming into help and makes life liveable so it's basically 24/7 with three little babies. If you didn't have somebody coming in to help you it would really wear hard on my wife especially with me being gone a lot and her having try to do it by herself. There was just no way. She thought for a while that maybe she can do that. But all along I was telling her don't even think about it. She was going to hate me then and I was going to be the bad guy, so we have got enough help where she still works her tail off obviously it's still -- she loves it. My wife -- I have always said, there are some women that are made to be mothers and my wife is definitely one of those women.

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