JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

September 10, 2003

Jeff Sluman

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jeff Sluman, thanks for joining us. You've been a main stay at the John Deere Classic for many years now. If we could start with some opening comments about coming back to the Illinois-Iowa area for the event.

JEFF SLUMAN: I got in late last night. I had some fatherly duties but I'm always glad to come up here. The people have been fantastic. I've been coming here since 1983.

I actually don't know how many years I've played, but I would guess at least 15 would be a pretty solid guess, maybe more than that, and ever since the first time I came here over at Oakwood I've enjoyed coming to town. The people have been great, and the whole town comes out and supports the event. It's one of those great community get-togethers.

Q. You were recently named by Jack Nicklaus as the assistant captain for The Presidents Cup team in November. If you would just comment about that, certainly a great honor for you.

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah. It's been a great honor for me. Obviously being competitive out here, I would have preferred to have made the team as a player, but that being said and not deserving a spot, I was close, it was quite an honor for the greatest golfer of all time to call and ask you to help him out with a team. I've been quoted before, it took me about a nanosecond to say yes. I'm excited to go down there and kind of see how our team fares. I think they're going to do great. The little that I've been able to really talk to most of the players, I mean, they're excited to go down there. They want to play well, and like I said, they're excited. They're not overconfident because the international team has a wonderful, wonderful team, and it's very deep, but I like our chances.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about the golf course. Obviously the time of the year has changed and it's been dry recently, so it's probably playing a little harder and faster, but talk about the condition of the golf course and the golf course in general.

JEFF SLUMAN: I think the golf course is in very, very good condition. As everybody locally knows, they haven't had much rain lately, so it is playing nice and firm and fast, but the fairways are pretty wide out here, and really that's the way the golf course needs to play. I think if we get any inclement weather, I hope it doesn't rain too much on the golf course or I hope they don't get panicky and soak it with water the next couple days.

The fairways are in terrific shape, areas around the greens. The greens are a little soft. Obviously with the weather being a little warm they put a little water on them, but hopefully they'll get them a little firmer.

Q. There's a lot of buzz around here, Jeff, about the quality of the field. When the tournament starts tomorrow, what does that mean, anything?

JEFF SLUMAN: It's great for the tournament. I think if you probably looked at it on a yearly basis, the word has gotten out that it's a very, very good golf course here, and the quality of the field probably on a yearly basis I would think has gotten a little better each and every year since they've moved over here.

Once you tee it up you're really not thinking about who's out there. You're kind of trying to concentrate on your own game. But it brings some added luster to the event to have such a good field representative of the PGA Tour. I can understand that there's quite a bit of excitement.

Q. Can you talk about working with Stan Utley, what he's taught you, how many sessions you have had and so forth?

JEFF SLUMAN: I worked with Stan earlier in the year and had some immediate results. Quite frankly, I really haven't worked with him too much lately. I've just kind of tried to go back to just kind of letting my putting unfold as you just walk on the green. I got the old adage paralysis by analysis out there, and once you do that, whether it's a tee shot, chip shot or putt or anything, you're probably not going to hit very many good ones. I struggled over the summer with my putting. I played very well tee to green, but I putted horrific really.

Working with Stan, and then I worked with Rotello over there at the British Open on kind of the mental aspect of putting, it's kind of come full circle and now I'm trying to do the things that I naturally do well when I putt.

Q. In terms of The Presidents Cup team, what kind of things is Jack going to ask you to do? What is he looking for you to do over there?

JEFF SLUMAN: We really haven't gone over too much of that yet, but my belief in the little we talked, he's not out here on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, and I am, and he probably doesn't know the players and know the players' games as well as I do, and I've talked to each and every player so far about kind of who they think they'd like to be paired with best ball, and then the alternate shot, and I think that's kind of what I can help bring to the table with Jack, and then as captain he makes his decisions from there as far as pairings and who's going to sit out and who plays all the matches and that. I think really that's kind of what I bring to the table in that regard.

Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Tony Navarro and what the conversation was like back in '92 when he switched over to Greg Norman?

JEFF SLUMAN: Tony has always remained a very dear friend, but we worked together for a few years. We had some great years together. He kind of was hemming and hawing and Greg had asked him to work for him in '92 at the end of the year, and without going into too much of it, I said you'd have to be crazy to stick with me. This is the best player in the world. We always kind of had that funny line. I had bought him a customized van to kind of drive around the tour with, and I said, Do you want the van or do you want the Gulfstream V, which one do you want? We always kind of joke about that. It's been great for him, and it has been and will be a wonderful relationship for great. They've been together 10 or 11 years now, and I couldn't be happier for him. He's worked hard for Greg and done things that most people don't do in the world of golf. It's very, very good for Tony.

Q. (Inaudible). You mentioned if it rains, you're not too hot about that.

JEFF SLUMAN: What I mean by rain is if you get the fairways too soft, then everybody is kind of hitting them -- they're pretty wide out there. You want the ball to chase a little so I think the strategy of playing a hole, you've got to shape the ball a little better. If it's a left to right hole, if it gets a lot of rain, you can hit a big old draw out there and it's not going to roll into any trouble. I think you want the ball -- guys to have to shape different shots.

As far as a distance issue or anything, there really isn't any.

Q. Are these fairways you can run through?

JEFF SLUMAN: Right now, yes. There's a couple that are pretty fast. You've got to be careful, got to be careful on 6, even 5 today I almost ran through. 11, you've got to be real careful there. You've got to hit the right shot off of that tee box. Even that kind of dangerous little 14th hole that you can kind of drive, depending on where they put the tee, you have to hit the right shot there, you just don't get up there and wail away at it.

Of course 18, I always like a finishing hole that kind of makes you try and fade the shot a little because under the pressure coming down to win a golf tournament, that's probably the hardest shot that is demanded of a pro. You've got a lot of adrenaline going, your belly is jumping and you'd better be in control of your game to get up and hit a hard cut there.

Q. Are you and Stan working on chipping and pitching or mostly just putting?

JEFF SLUMAN: Mostly just putting. A little bit pitching and chipping but mostly putting.

Q. His thing is the screen door?

JEFF SLUMAN: Open and close door, kind of a mirror image. I had always been kind of a square-to-square guy. It's difficult for me to kind of comprehend that at this old age.

Q. How does this course suit your game?

JEFF SLUMAN: I think pretty well. I played here the year Michael Clark won I played pretty good. I didn't play here last year, but I've liked the golf course since we were here on that opening day, it was Fuzzy, about 12 of us, so ever since that day, I've really liked the routing, I like the shape of the holes, the strategy involved in playing it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jeff Sluman, thank you, and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.