THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 25, 2000

Jeff Sluman

JEFF SLUMAN: Well, I got off to a good start and so did Greg. I think that is kind of one of those infectious things out there when you can both get going early, which really helps your mental frame of mind out here at TPC. I drove the ball obviously well, and I was able to -- you don't plan on it, but I was able to drive the ball in good yardage with my irons numerous times today. It is just one of those things that you can't plan on, but it happened today, so I felt very comfortable with the irons. And I hit a lot of very good iron shots and obviously made some putts. Just one of those rounds that kind of clicked together and just kind of really kept everything going. I didn't -- made a couple of bogeys that I will go over, but overall I thought I played a good, solid round of golf. It was just kind of nice to get that one done and over with out here.

JEFF SLUMAN: I think I birdied No. 2. Drove it in the left rough, just barely, had kind of blasted out. I had a perfect sand wedge. I hit it in there about three feet from about 98 yards. No. 3, downwind again, down left-to-right. I hit a 7-iron after seeing Greg kind of upshot his 7. I think he tried to hit eight -- like he hit it easy. I thought it was a full one. Hit it 12-foot left of the hole; made that. 5, good 4-iron in there, from, I think I had 193? Something like that. To about 12-foot to the right of the hole and rolled in. I am saying: "Geez, this is kind of really where I want to be." Same thing as yesterday, I got off to a good start and then I bogeyed 7 again for the third straight day. So that is going to be one of my goals tomorrow to possibly figure out how to par that hole. As I did yesterday, I birdied 8. Hit a 3-iron from, I think it was 203. Pin was in a great location to make birdie, kind of on the front. And Greg and I both hit it in there. He hit it about 8 foot. I hit it about 10 foot right. I made the putt. Nice drive on 9. Laid it up with a 4-iron. I think I had 90-something yards again, 98 yards, and pin was back left. I didn't really feel like I needed to challenge that one so much. I hit it just about pin-high, but it was about 20-foot right kind of up the hill, and hit it -- went right in the center of the hole. I missed very short birdie chances on 10 and 11. I got up on 12 and hit it in there 3-wood off the tee. And another real good yardage, my sand wedge to about 10 foot back of the hole; made that. Then 13 was kind of down left-to-right hit a 6-iron, I think playing about 190. But you just got to get it to about 180. It is going to feed right down to the hole. Managed to execute that all right, to about, I think, about 6 foot back of the hole. I made that. Then a bunch of pars. I hit a 9-iron on 17 -- the world scariest shot for four days. Any other day, you know, 361 days of the year it is a pretty easy shot. But Thursday through Sunday here, it is kind of nerve-wracking. I hit that about 12-foot left of the hole; made that. Then hit a really good drive aggressively on 18 down the right side. And I think the pin placement today is probably the hardest pin placement on 18, at least for me. I was in between yardage, and I elected to try and cut a 6-iron from 170-something, and hit it a little long and kind of in the middle of the green and certainly misread it. I read it to break about a foot left-to-right, and it wound up breaking about six feet. So from there, obviously kind of ran it by about 7, 8 foot and tried to get it kind of right edge on the second putt. And it broke about a half a cup or a cup. So all and all, I wasn't all that upset about it. Obviously would have liked to have not finished with a 3-putt. But the pin there was just on the right side over that edge, and I felt like 167, to carry with my 7-iron was just maybe a little too much for me at that time. So you don't want to hit it in most mounds. I have hit it in there before with it, St. Augustine rough, I mean, I could still be in there. It is unbelievable how hard and where the ball can stay. I mean, it can stay on a slope like this, and I remember one year I was-- hit it in there and -- on my 36th hole, and all I had to do is make 8 to make the cut, and I was down one of those slopes, almost double hit it. I think I ended up making double-bogey. Could have missed the cut from there. I kind of learned from that. But maybe next year if I am in the position, I will -- at least I will know how much that putt breaks.

JEFF SLUMAN: 10 was maybe six feet, and 11 I drove it perfect. Hit a 4-wood without going on the green. I hit it exactly where I wanted, just into the bunker on the edge. I mean, pretty elementary bunker shot. But I had just a little funny stance. Actually got about this close to the edge (indicating six inches). It hit in the grass, came back in the bunker. I blasted that about eight, ten feet; missed that. Then I missed it from about six feet on No. 6 also.

JEFF SLUMAN: It certainly can. But I think anybody that has been out and playing under these conditions for a number of years, you realize, I mean, you have got to really keep focused right 'til the very end out here; whether you have, you know, goofed up 17 or hit it in the water on 18. If you lapse again and hit a wild shot in anger or something, you are only going to kill yourself, because the golf course is going to murder you. You are going to hit it back in the water or hit it over in those drops that I am talking about and end up making a big number. So if you let your temper get the best of you out here, and I think that is one of the great things about this golf course, you really have to stay as focused as you can.

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, driver, close, and putt it in.

JEFF SLUMAN: Well, I think -- you know, like I said, before, I think it will play easier if they didn't use the tee that they are using now. They backed it up about 20 yards. And I always thought the hole played a little harder just a little shorter, because then if you wanted to take a driver, you have to turn it, where the longer hitters have to turn their 3-wood. Now you can kind of just blast it straight, and it is not going to go through the fairway on the right into those areas where you have to hit a big sweeping cut, and you got all those trees there. So this is one of those rare -- I think by lengthening, it actually makes it a little easier.

JEFF SLUMAN: I try not to. I try not to. But I got all the par 3s today, which was a rarity out here.

JEFF SLUMAN: Just one of those things, I think the biggest memory I have is you got a lot of adrenaline going, going for your first win, and it is at the TPC, it is your THE PLAYERS Championship, and, you know, candidly you are pretty nervous back then. I heard the splash -- I thought it was a fish. I kind of stepped away, and then I heard all the booing. I thought they were booing me from stepping away from the ball. I mean the shock - thing goes through your body, you are like: "Wow, this is really a tough crowd." (laughter). Then you look up and you see some clown in it having an identity crisis swimming around. Kind of realize what was going on. But at first, it was unbelievable the feeling in your body of being booed on the golf course.

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, that is what you originally thought.

JEFF SLUMAN: Five minutes, I'd say.

JEFF SLUMAN: Anything is possible. But I will tell you what, if one guy has a lead like that, that you won't want to play here, it would be Hal Sutton. He drives it long, he drives it straight. He has got unbelievable accuracy and ball -- distance control of his irons. This golf course, he has won it twice here, is really, really suited for his game. He is not going to make many mistakes. If he goes out and finishes 11 or finishes, let's say at 13, like I said, nothing is impossible. But somebody better get pretty close to him today, get up to, eight or nine, I would think. One guy that could probably overcome it right now would be Tiger. I am not obviously discounting my chances, but I think he would be the toughest guy on Tour. Even including Tiger, to have a 4-, 5-shot lead at this golf course under these conditions, it would be the toughest guy on Tour to beat.

JEFF SLUMAN: Absolutely. You can't hope for Hal making mistakes, because he is not going to. He is that solid, and he is on a roll. And we all know how well he plays tee-to-green. Unless he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed or something, you can't expect him to make any mistakes. This golf course punishes some other golfers when you try and get everything right to the edge and force birdies on your, you know, on yourself. And especially you can imagine where the Sunday pins are going to be. It is going to be a tough task. If Hal goes out and continues and knocks two more off today, it is going to be tough.

JEFF SLUMAN: No.

JEFF SLUMAN: I am so far removed from the guys that are, you know, they have only got, six, seven, eight holes -- even if I am in second place, I am thinking, you know, there they're still going to make a lot of birdies on the back nine or last 10, 12 holes. So at that point in time, I am just saying: "Get as many under as you can and maybe you will be in 5th, 6th, 7th place at the end of the day." But I certainly wasn't thinking about second place at that time.

JEFF SLUMAN: Hopefully it is afternoon time.

JEFF SLUMAN: I know. (laughs). I am just going to go out. I could only do and play the way I can play and I have put a lot of hard work into my game the last two or three weeks. I played in Greg Norman Members Guest with my coach and won that one, by the way. It was another title to my name. But I have really worked very hard on my game and I am going to go out and work on it right now and just play the way I can. I can't try and overpower anything out there. I am hitting it pretty long and pretty straight. I hope I can get by my bugaboo holes which are 7 and 16, I haven't played very well this week. Everything else has been setting up pretty good for me.

JEFF SLUMAN: I think Greg is playing very well. He had a couple of errant shots today, but I think it's as good as I have seen him swing in a while. When we played together as Member Guests, I thought he played real well down there. He is hitting the ball good. I expect things from him and don't be surprised to see him, you know, on top of the leaderboard at Augusta.

JEFF SLUMAN: I have barely parred it. I have parred it the first day, hit it in the right rough and bogeyed it yesterday and hit it in the right rough and parred it today with a long 2-putt, I drove it in the right rough. I have been driving it this far in the right rough everyday (indicating three feet). Either I got to aim further left or go -- or try and hit a slinger hook out there which isn't my favorite type of shot. But commit to it and go.

JEFF SLUMAN: Last year, I think was way over the edge last year. Last year's Saturday was, I think, more difficult than this year's Thursday, although the stroke average says not. But I think when you consider the stroke average is pretty close and you didn't have 80 guys that were missing the cut, they obviously added it to the stroke average the first -- on Thursday here and only had 70 guys that were playing real well and that stroke average was pretty close to Thursday's. So I would say that last year's, even on Saturday was tougher than Thursday here.

JEFF SLUMAN: I would think that they are still going to have to put a little bit down and hope they do. I thought the golf course -- I have been a little critical of it, but I think that this year they have done a pretty good job of getting it back under control. I thought we had a chance for some really horrendous conditions Thursday and it was bad, but I think it could have been worse.

JEFF SLUMAN: I didn't hear nor --

JEFF SLUMAN: Absolutely. You would be crazy not to think that he -- I think a lot of players realize they have got to get in better shape. Trying to raise their level of their game, practicing harder and certainly, candidly, there is some players that are probably intimidated by him and think that if they are 1 up or tied going in the last round, that they are probably not going to be able to beat him. His record says that if he has got the lead nobody has ever beat him on Tour except for Eddie, right? Is that right?

JEFF SLUMAN: I'd take his chances now against him. (laughs).

JEFF SLUMAN: I have no idea. It will some day obviously happen, but couldn't even give you an explanation. I mean, you have got the best field in golf here. You have got a major atmosphere. Got everything in the world -- maybe after you win here you just -- they are so exhausted you can't get focused quick enough. I would be curious to see if somebody wins here and then plays the following week and then goes to Augusta, how well they do. I mean, that might be --

JEFF SLUMAN: Right, last year. I mean, that is extremely difficult to do. So I would think that if somebody wins here and takes the week off, you know, they might have a better chance.

JEFF SLUMAN: No, I don't think so. I really don't. I think it is more coincidence than anything.

JEFF SLUMAN: Thanks.