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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

October 22, 2004

Morris Hatalsky

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

Q. Thanks for joining us. 67 today to go with your 68. You find yourself right now tied for the lead. Maybe just get us started and talk about your day.

MORRIS HATALSKY: Well, basically I felt like I played very solid the first nine holes, and then I guess I shot, what, 4-under on the front. It was basically two different nines. The back side, I made some loose swings with the driver and some irons, and basically was scrambling for par the whole nine holes.

So on the front nine I was very solid tee to green, made some nice putts. The second nine, I didn't hit it well, but yet my short game was solid, so in essence my whole game showed up today.

Q. Your birdies, want to start with No. 2, the par 5?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Let's see. I hit a wedge in there about six feet.

6, hit a -- made about a 25-footer there. It was not a good second shot. I kind of came out of it, but I made a very nice putt there, 25 feet.

I hit a wedge into 8 about seven feet, made that.

Then 9, I made a nice putt from above the hole there, about nine feet.

Then 14, a par 3, made a long putt.

Q. It was 33 feet.

MORRIS HATALSKY: Is that what it was? I was going to say 32 and a half, but 33 (laughing). That was a nice putt. That was a pleasant surprise. You visualize those going in, but actually because of the severity of the slope going down the hole, I was basically trying to get it close.

Q. What did you hit?

MORRIS HATALSKY: I hit a utility club, 19-degree, like a 3-iron.

Q. Any saves of note?

MORRIS HATALSKY: I basically scrambled because I was not hitting iron shots close. I was having to two-putt from 30 and 35 and 40 feet. If you just miss the green like I did on 17, I was fairly close to the hole, but you get little snarly lies and it's difficult to control the shot, so you kind of play a little bit of a conservative role as to how that ball is going to come out, so I made some good up-and-downs from that standpoint. I think the only thing I was disappointed in was the bunker shot on 16, but it was a difficult one because of the awkwardness of the stance. It was just very soft sand and it was hard to be real aggressive with the shot.

Q. You haven't won this year on Tour but a lot of Top 10s.

MORRIS HATALSKY: Yeah, I've been in position probably three or four times where I felt if I would have finished it off, I would have won this year, but I have not. You know, there's one last tournament, and everybody -- you know, first of all, it's a privilege to be at this event because it's a reflection that you've had a good year; secondly, it's a tremendous field; and thirdly, just the Schwab Cup points and what they represent, I think they represent more about the generosity of what the players are thinking about versus the fact that they're winning a million dollars for themselves.

The majority of guys think about the idea of where they could give the money to charity. So there's some really nice things about this finishing event.

Q. You've won four times on the regular Tour?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Yes.

Q. Do you still think of yourself as an underdog grinder (inaudible)?

MORRIS HATALSKY: You can't help but think that, just from the standpoint they've been in this position many times and they've won major championships. You know, I have a tremendous amount of respect for their accomplishments. But I don't control the way they play golf, I only control the way I play golf, so I'm playing well and I just need to keep pressing on with what I'm doing.

Q. San Diego and then Arizona, obviously some great golfers coming from there, Mickelson, guys like that, and then ASU has always had good golfers. Did you think you were going to go farther, and how also did you end up back on the east coast?

MORRIS HATALSKY: That's a big question. Well, the San Diego area breeds a lot of wonderful golfers. It's got a tremendous history because of its junior golf program, and you can just go down the list. I was definitely a product of a wonderful junior golf program, and there was great competition with that.

You know, that was just all part of the journey of that, and as far as my ambitions, yeah, I had ambitions to play professional golf, and where I headed with it and where I ended up, I really didn't know; I was just ambitious to be a professional golfer. You have examples like Billy Casper and Gene Littler kind of paved the way for what could be done as far as being a local kid.

So there was a standard already set for the guys that grew up in that area. You know, as far as the east coast, that's a long story how I ended up there, but we enjoy the east coast. I miss San Diego. There's some wonderful memories with that being a California boy. I mean, I'm born and raised there and spent a lot of time there, but now we're splitting our time in North Carolina and Florida.

Q. You've played a lot of Monday qualifiers. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about what life is like when you have to qualify that way and why you were so motivated to do it.

MORRIS HATALSKY: It's kind of a lifestyle of uncertainty, and it's kind of like people that maybe like to gamble in Las Vegas and they just roll the dice and whatever it ends up, and really Monday qualifying is very much like that because it's a crap shoot. You have to be on top of your game and you've got that one shot.

Quite honestly, the first year that I came out here where I was Monday qualifying, that was probably the best golf I've played since I've been playing again.

Q. Is it because you tend to be more focused?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Well, it's a tournament outside of another tournament, so really there's just that added dimension of competition that is part of it.

Q. You could get discouraged in a situation like that but you flourished? Why? Were you hungry?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Well, I didn't get discouraged because I was successful. I was putting the good scores on the board and I was continuing with that type of play in the tournaments. I mean, I started out at the beginning of that year missing the Monday qualifying by one stroke and two strokes I think the first couple that I participated in. But also, I was just determined to try to compete.

Q. No qualifying now. I mean, things have changed so much in recent years. Do you regret coming along that early or basically is it, "Hey, I did it"?

MORRIS HATALSKY: No regrets at all because I think it made that group, that generation of player, I think, tougher, mentally tougher, because of just the different elements that you're dealing with. I think it is a lot different with the all-exempt Tour. I have nothing but good thoughts about what I had to go through as far as the Monday qualifying and what have you.

Q. What would you tell the average golfer is the most important thing about being a great putter?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Oh, it's a long list, but I think to simplify it, I think the idea of being committed to how you read your line, I think that's one thing. I think the other thing is you've got to have a repetitive stroke, even if it's an ugly stroke. If it repeats, in other words, you're hitting the same line every time, so there's a certain amount of repetition that is needed. There's just so many things about the proper attitude and things like that.

Q. Putting on poa here, is that going to bring you back to your San Diego days and maybe give you an advantage here?

MORRIS HATALSKY: No, I never feel like I have an advantage with this group. I think playing on these type of greens, I feel comfortable with them. I think there's a lot of guys out there that feel the same way.

Q. You've been on the Champions Tour a couple of years. Did you think at age 40 that you'd come out here? You came up with the line about the greatest Mulligan in life. You're having a great time out here. At age 40 are you saying, "God, I can't see in ten years playing golf"?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Absolutely, that's true. When you're 40 years old, you're just not really thinking about that far in advance. You have that many issues that you're dealing with, especially with the growing family, things like that. Once you get closer to that 50 mark -- I've never looked forward to a birthday more than I did when I was going to turn 50, and as far as it being a Mulligan, absolutely. I mean, all of us love to compete, and it's just -- you know, maybe some of us don't play the way we used to. In my particular case, I play probably better than I used to, and there's a number of reasons why, but it's a wonderful Mulligan in life as far as enjoying competition here.

I will say this, that it is a different culture out here than it was on the regular Tour. One of the biggest elements is the cut that you have out there. If you're a marginal player from the standpoint of always fighting to make a cut, then there's a lot more pressure there.

Q. Were you always fighting to make the cut?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Absolutely.

Q. Even when you qualified on Mondays?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Absolutely.

Q. You had dropped out of golf for a while. Why?

MORRIS HATALSKY: What happened was it was -- I had played 20 years. There was a time in my life where I wanted to be more with my family. Our two children were getting into adolescence, and my wife looked at me and said, "You know, this kind of requires two parents to be around," and I couldn't have agreed with her more. It just came at the right time in my life to be more of a full-time parent in terms of quantity. You know, as far as quality time, I've always been very interested in what my family does, but there was a quantity issue that was involved.

So I became partners in a golf course development that four of us started, and I designed and built a course in North Carolina, and it kept me busy for five years.

No, actually, I went three years without playing golf.

Q. You finally picked up a club again?

MORRIS HATALSKY: I got rid of some of my bad habits. It was very interesting.

Q. But to go three years and not play, why does a player go three years and not play? Did you miss it in that three years?

MORRIS HATALSKY: No, I didn't miss it because I was three years away from it. I was more enthralled with the golf course building and the architecture of it and running a golf course and just being a partner in our development group and just learning about a different way of life.

Q. If you don't mind, my next question would be if you don't play for three years really not missing it, where does the feeling come back from? Where do you begin to feel the feeling again? What happened?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Well, I started spending more time inside those four walls, and you'd be surprised how that motivates you, and then I had people reminding me that I was going to be turning 50 years old there in another couple of years, and so I just -- it got me jump started.

Q. Your first round after three years, low 70s?

MORRIS HATALSKY: I gave myself a lot of breaks. I didn't take any hard shots.

Q. Have you played with Stadler?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Yeah, we played golf together. I've known Stadler my whole life. He was a couple years younger.

Q. Was he colorful when you were kids?

MORRIS HATALSKY: Absolutely. Craig has not changed in all the years I've known him.

Okay, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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