NEC WORLD SERIES OF GOLF

August 27, 1998

Tim Herron

TIM HERRON: Well, I kind of finally started to get my putting going. I was -- it was one of my better putting rounds of the year. I drove it actually pretty good. I drove to it on some holes where you could option 1-iron, driver. Drove it pretty good. Hit a couple of wild ones, but recovered nicely, like, on 9. I almost hit it in that fairway out on 10 and made birdie from over there. Got some good breaks and had some luck go my way. Hit it way over the green on 2 and kind of hit a lucky chip through the rough and went down there about 6, 7 feet and made it for birdie.

TIM HERRON: They're not as near as low, really? I always thought this was a pretty hard golf course.

TIM HERRON: But was there -- it seemed to be a lot of wind out there today, maybe a little tricky. Yeah, the wind, I think, switched a couple of times out there. And, yeah, you kind of have to be aware of it. It was -- the wind -- yeah, the wind was a little difficult. Into the wind -- it wasn't playing maybe because it was in the ball more solid, it wasn't playing as long as I thought it would be, like on the PRO-AM yesterday. But I think it's probably playing a little longer because of the softness. But 16, the tees were up. So you could kind of -- that was the only kind of low area in the driving. So I think that's why they moved the tees up.

TIM HERRON: No. It's -- I'd say it's right on the front edge of the tee box. The tee box has got to be about 60 yards long. It's probably 570, 585.

TIM HERRON: Hit a big drive there. Hit a 5-iron about 30 yards over the green back where it was all trampled and kind of chipped it to the rough. Went up there about 7 feet and made it for birdie. What other hole did I birdie?

TIM HERRON: 9, hooked it way left. Almost in the 10th fairway, it was in the rough. Came to where it was trampled down and I had 170 to the front, almost 190 to the hole. Hit 8-iron. If I could only get it up over the trees, thinking I could get it in the left bunker, thinking I could get it for par. I kind of -- it cut a fairway and went up there about eight feet and made it for birdie. And then I birdied 16. Hit a good drive, laid up to an O-wedge, kind of pulled my O-wedge, kind of a tricky little pin placement. But it was a pin placement where you could get aggressive and pulled a little bit, had about a 20-footer and made that for birdie.

TIM HERRON: Actually, no, I didn't. I didn't know. Yeah, you kind -- kind of have to keep grinding and I hit a good -- I mean, I hit a good shot out of the bunker and it swung back off the green because I had to get it over the trees and got it up-and-down. So I figured if I could kind of keep it in play, my short game could kind of take over today and that's kind of what happened. It kept me in the game. I finally kind of scored for the first time in a month or two.

TIM HERRON: I hit a -- on No. 4, I drove it down the left-hand side and I stood in the fairway and I pulled it in the left bunker and the pin was back right and hit a bunker shot up there about 12 feet and made that for par. Made about a 7-footer on 15 for par. And had a phenomenal up-and-down on 17 where I kind of had to flip it up and knock it in there stony. The putting just feels a little more comfortable, doesn't sound like I was draining it from all over, but the way I've been putting the last couple of months, it was pretty good.

TIM HERRON: It's a little bit of both. I think it starts at the -- I think if you start making putts, it does the reverse as in missing putts. I think you start getting a little sloppy with the long game when you start missing putts. If you start making putts, you kind of feel like you're in the game now, I can try to work on my long game and try to get going that way. But, you know, being out here three years, I don't think there's a guy that's won a tournament that hasn't putted well. Putting is probably the most important factor out here.

TIM HERRON: We're going to go through that again? These guys that --

TIM HERRON: They haven't met me. These guys back in Minnesota where I worked in a golf shop went -- came in first day of work and they asked if I had a nickname. I didn't, I was a roly-poly, fat little kid and they told me to go down and pick up the range, came back up and my name was Lumpy ever since, so...

TIM HERRON: That was about 12 years ago. Faded away in college. And then it had to come back because when I won the HONDA it kind of came out here because a friend of the pro's used to play on the Senior Tour and they were one of the guys in the booth. That's kind of how they got it.

TIM HERRON: I didn't tell anyone my nickname was Lumpy. It was Skinny. Had Tiny at the front door, right?

TIM HERRON: Thank you.