THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 12, 2000

Dudley Hart

DUDLEY HART: It is obviously very gratifying knowing that I played well in front of all my family and friends. They got to enjoy this with me, and to be able to put aside all the distractions that can arise playing in front of your hometown, trying to get all the tickets for everybody, trying to get tickets for hockey games for guys, trying to set up everything and show everybody a good time, if I can help out in my way while they are here. Sometimes it could be a lot of distractions. I was able to put those aside when I came out here on the golf course and play well.

DUDLEY HART: Fortunately Cliff Danley, the tournament director, was very nice to me with tickets. He probably ended up by the end of the week giving me at least 40 tickets and that doesn't count the people who, you know, who had tickets on their own or got their own tickets. So I would say conservatively probably people that I really knew, probably around 100 people. Maybe not people I see all the time, but there were -- see them every now and then when I am home.

DUDLEY HART: Yeah, in a way. They got a little crazy last few holes and they sat out there at the awards ceremony, I could have done without some of the hooting and hollering because it got my juices flowing a little too much.

DUDLEY HART: I didn't really ever give up or anything, but through the first actually nine holes I shot 2-under on the front, but I really had a lot of opportunities -- hit one bad shot on the 5th hole par 3, and it was a tough shot, with the wind for me just not a real comfortable shot for whatever reason and I just kind of pushed it and hit a chip about four, five feet, missed it. I hadn't really last couple of days taken advantage of some of the opportunities I had puttingwise and hitting the ball real solid, hitting a lot of good iron shots, especially, and I guess sometimes when you -- the better you hit it, the more opportunities you have and when you are not making as many, you tend to think you are throwing away so many shots. But it is harder -- it is hard to make everything when you are hitting it 50, 20 feet or in, 10, 12 times a round, you make 4 of them or 5 of them and you think you are missing everything. I was a little disappointed making the turn even though I was 2-under because I thought I needed to be a lot lower there and I thought I had the opportunities to be a lot lower than that and didn't feel real comfortable with my putter. Hit some good putts, misread a couple, but my speed was off a little bit on some of the 25-footers that I had and left a couple short going in and that is a little discouraging when you know you are going to have to shoot a pretty low round to be leaving putts short. Like I said, I just tried to stay patient and stay positive and hope that things started to turn around and fortunately it did.

DUDLEY HART: Yeah, 15, par 3, I hit a 4-iron to about I guess 20 feet pin, I had, left of the hole, made it for birdie. Just a little left-to-right, kind of uphill left-to-right putt, hit a good putt the right speed and fortunately made it. 16, I hit good drive down the left side, hit a 4-iron just right of the hole. I don't know where it landed. I never found a ball mark. But it rolled about to the back part of the green so probably had, say, a good 50-, 60-foot putt. Hit up there about two feet, made it for birdie. 17, drove it just in the first cut on the left side of the fairway, had a really good angle into the pin, and hit a 7-iron to about twelve feet, made that for birdie. 18, I hit good drive down the left side of the fairway and hit a wedge about, I don't know, foot and a half, wiggled that in.

DUDLEY HART: I had no idea about that until I finished, until well after I finished. When he was -- I guess when he was playing 18 someone came up and said there might be a problem with Brian's birdie putt on 17 and I didn't know what happened until I came in here.

DUDLEY HART: Been a while. He doesn't -- he hadn't always come out and watched me even when I played Doral and Honda. I'd kind of have to - not beg him, but I'd kind of have to talk him into a lot of times. I think it was a combination of him not wanting to put any added pressure on me by him being out there when I always tell him at this point I am old enough, I don't care what you think, but it is not totally true, but -- I don't want to get in trouble now, but I am beyond that. When I was younger I think it was a little tougher on me maybe, the few times that he did watch just because when you are a kid everyone wants to impress their father - especially when there dad is a golf pro and you are playing golf. But I think he gets really nervous out there because when you are -- in his day he was a really good player himself, and when you don't have any control over what is going on and you are used to playing competitive golf and like he is, I think it can be really tough to watch. I know when I was a kid and I'd caddie for him in some of the club pro events and it was hard on me because I am sitting -- I'd rather play because it is harder to sit there when you are just watching him and he is making mistakes or doing whatever and you don't really have any control over it. It is quite a bit of pressure on you.

DUDLEY HART: I hadn't really played here a lot. I probably have played here four, five times other than when the tournament is here. I'd come out and practice more than I would do anything here as well as other clubs around here, usually when I am home I don't play on a golf -- play on the course a lot. Usually do more practicing, range and all that kind of stuff just because when you are on the road, for me there is just so many distractions and so much commotion going on on the range, it is harder to get quality practice. And I like to go down and work and be by myself and kind of hide in one corner of the range and do my thing and get some good practice in. That is what I do most of the time when I am home.

DUDLEY HART: It means a lot. I know -- like I said, my dad being a player, you know, I know he can really appreciate how hard it can be sometimes playing out here and the ups and downs playing golf for a living and I know he is probably getting bombarded right now with calls from friends and congratulating him and it is just -- it is -- it means a lot. The first win, my dad is a pretty macho guy, and when I won in Canada, I called him right after I finished and he was very nonchalant. He was like, yeah, congratulations, bla, bla, bla. I hung up the phone; then I called my sister, I was like, man, dad was kind of like no-big-deal. She had just left his house, I guess he said -- she told me that he was just balling and, you know, he was putting up the -- trying to be all cool about it. But I know how much it means to him even though he is not one to show it to me sometimes.

DUDLEY HART: I haven't talked to him yet. Haven't had a chance, no. But I will call him as soon as I get out of here.

DUDLEY HART: No, I just think ideally 99% of the time I don't think it really should matter where you stand. I think you try to play the same way, you know, unless you have a two or three shot lead maybe coming down the last hole and you can be -- you can be a little more conservative or something like that. But I knew that I needed to make birdies and looking at the scoreboard wasn't going to help me do that. I knew that I had to just try birdie every hole coming in, if I could, and fortunately I did. And when I holed that putt on 18, honest to good, I looked at my caddie, Woody, I said, where does that put us. He said that at the time you had a one-shot lead. I know that sounds hard to believe, people don't -- there are scoreboards everywhere, but I really didn't look at it. I am not saying that I always do that because sometimes I have been in the hunt and kind of noticed it and I don't think that really bothers me either, but I just really wasn't concerned with it. I was just worried -- so into trying to hit my shots, where I was trying to hit them and pick out targets and be trying to be so focused and not let my mind wander at all.

DUDLEY HART: Well, best -- probably best finish, I mean, obviously to win a tournament I'd never birdied the last four to win a tournament. But I would say it would definitely be right up there as far as some of the best rounds - Memphis a couple years ago I played -- we had to play -- I think I played 27 holes the last day and shot -- you will have to look this up to make sure, I think I shot like 9- or 10-under, had a two-shot lead. Got -- because of rain delays I got in the clubhouse early - Norman ended up birdieing the last 3, beat me by one. That was a pretty good roll too for a final round. Just didn't turn out as well as this one did.

DUDLEY HART: They are different because the first time you do it, I think it is like a lot of things until you do it, you don't know that you can do it. Not to put it too simple, but until you go through the emotional ups and downs of the final round and come out on top, it is hard to ever truly, truly believe that you can -- you are doing the right things and that you can get through it emotionally. So it is gratifying the first time because now you are like, okay, when I get back in that position I know that I have done it before, doesn't mean you are going to do it every time, but at least you have done it in the past, you have some feelings to fall back on and some things to remember, and it helps you down the road. Fortunately it took me four more years to do it again, but it is better than five.

DUDLEY HART: It was the year I had wrist surgery, I didn't have an -- I didn't -- that was 1996, I had surgery in early January of 1996 and then didn't play until the second week of June and didn't have a sponsor; didn't -- it is kind of hard to have a sponsor when you are starting midway through the year and didn't know when I was going to start to begin with. And I just kind of carried a Panther bag. I don't know if that is what you are asking about, Marlin bag and just kind have had fun with it.

DUDLEY HART: The doctors -- the doctor was telling me you will be fine, you will be fine, but when you are a golfer and they slice your wrist open, it can freak you out a little bit. It freaked me out. You can ask my wife, Suzanne, I wasn't a lot of fun for four, five months because you have a lot of doubts; you don't know if you are going to have the same flexibility, the same strength, if you are more apt to reinjure it again, because if for some reason you don't get that flexibility back in your wrist, might alter your swing, you maybe have to -- you know, when you have five months to think about things, a lot of crazy things go through your head. Even though it is not a life threatening thing, I think any time you have surgery, you know, for whoever it, there is some crazy things pop through your led.

DUDLEY HART: Fortunately Bill Torry (phonetic) is a good friend and he set us up with a box and we had probably, I don't know, had 15 or 20 guys and their wives and girlfriend and stuff, so it was a good time and they got us down there on the ice, make fools out of ourselves in between periods so it was fun.

DUDLEY HART: I am thinking -- I was trying to prepare myself to get ready to hit the shot on 18 because I had no idea -- I couldn't really see how far of a putt he had, and I knew that from what happened to me in Memphis, they got me up -- like I said, I had a two-shot lead, I was done probably 45 minutes before the final groups and they had me up in the tower doing all this congratulating -- they all put the jinx on me, and I figured let's not get caught up in that because I might have to play some more golf. So I just wanted to -- didn't want to be getting ahead of myself and -- because I wanted to be mentally prepared if I had to go play some more golf.

DUDLEY HART: Yeah, well I had -- I had a great angle. I don't know -- you couldn't get a much better angle hit. It was just to the right of the bunker, the left bunkers, I was just in the fairway over there. A lot of people don't realize how much luck there is sometimes in getting the right club, in that circumstance if you put me back you know, six or eight yards or moved me up another ten yards, I am now -- I am kind of in between and to a pin that is tucked like that, and a little bit downwind, and got to spin it pretty good to keep it in that little neck, now that shot gets a little harder. You can still hit a good shot, but I mean, I had 127 to the front and 134 to the hole with a little -- wind pretty much died down last two holes, but with a little bit of help in right-to-left wind and I figured it was just a perfect pitching wedge for me, I could go ahead and hit it and hit a full shot and, fortunately, I hit it right at it. It is a lot easier to go at a tucked flag like that when you are hitting a full shot, I think, sometimes. When you are trying to kind of dink a little 9-iron in there, you might not have as much spin on the ball, little tougher to squeeze it into a spot; might have tried to hit it ten feet left, tried to make it from there.

DUDLEY HART: I was just thinking birdie. I had no idea, to be honest. I wasn't sure if 19 would get it done. I figured last time I saw the scoreboard I think was on 9 and I think somebody was at 17 and I figured, surely someone is going to get to 19 or 20 and I just was trying -- it is hard to explain. I was just trying to stay so focused. I am just trying to hit good shots and pick out targets and just concentrate on hitting the shot which I was looking.

DUDLEY HART: I was a little surprised, to be honest with you. I was kind of hoping he'd say, you are tied right now and he said, well, we got a one-shot lead and I said, oh, well, cool. I said, well, we will see what happens. I want to make sure I got my card signed right. I went over it about ten times; make sure you don't do something stupid so everybody knows you the rest of your life, he is the idiot that signed the card wrong.

DUDLEY HART: Walking off 17 I did. They went pretty crazy when I made birdie on 17 and they kind of was screaming so much and I am used to having people yell at me; not scream for me, so it was pretty cool, but it was also now I am getting ready to hit the hardest shot on the golf course, tee shot on 18 is the hardest shot, I think, out there because I tend to draw the ball and it sets up for a cut and so all of a sudden, they are going crazy. Now I kind of -- getting little goose bumps, and now I am like all right, go get a drink of water, and just kind of get back into your routine and pick out a target. I picked out one of the tops of one of the corners of the tent way out in the distance, just said, let's rip it at that; if I hit a good one, great. I hit it right which I was looking maybe about five yards left, actually, but it worked out well.

DUDLEY HART: It does a lot. Every week you want to go -- you want to go out and play as well as you can and just knowing that, you know, that my putting more than anything -- last week I was really down and hitting the ball so well and when you don't feel comfortable with your putter, doesn't really matter how good you hit the ball, you are not going to play well when you are not making putts and to know that my putter is a lot better, obviously it makes things more encouraging. I think I can definitely improve and I am not trying to sound crazy, but I hit the ball so well and had so many chances that I mean, I know everybody misses putts out there, but I know at least that I am on the right track rolling the ball because last year my ball-striking really for the majority of the year wasn't necessarily great, but my short game really saved me. I putted real well. Now, so far, this year, it's kind have been a flip for some crazy reason, but hopefully my putting starts keeps turning around like it did this week and as long as I keep hitting the ball pretty solid, then hopefully we will keep playing well.