THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 1, 2001

Chris Smith

CHRIS SMITH: It's hard, when you are sitting around waiting, and I'm trying to find people I know who I knew that were going to be out here this week, and talk. So it kind of messed up your routine a little bit to start, but I was ready to go by the time we started. I hit two good shots on the first hole and 3-putted, and hit two good shots on the second hole, and 3-putted the second hole, too. I felt like my golf swing was okay. I just couldn't hit the ball soft enough on the greens, and so I didn't panic too much. I felt like I knew what I was doing. Then I birdied -- I hit it really close on 4 and made birdie. Hit it really close on 6 and made birdie. Hit it really close on 14 and made birdie, and parred the rest. I don't think -- I don't think I missed -- I might not have missed a green today, actually. I might have been on a fringe or two. I just hit the ball well. I didn't putt very well, but I was able to hit it well and stay where I want to be.

CHRIS SMITH: You're walking through the fairways, and there's so much water in the fairway, you'd have to think that the greens are going to slow down a little bit, and the greens are just fast. There's no way around it. The first hole, I hit a putt and I was on the back fringe back there, just on the green and had a long putt. I thought it was going to be really fast and I left it ten feet short. Then missed the second one. The second one, I only had about a 20-footer and rolled it about five feet by and missed that one. So you think the greens are going to slow down a little bit, but they held their speed pretty well all day. The greens are just really good. They are really fast and they are smooth and they are just really good.

CHRIS SMITH: Oh, no way. Absolutely not. They were smart that they decided to do it at the start of the day. I was surprised -- I don't know how much rain we got last night, but I was surprised when I got out onto the practice tee this morning how wet it was. There's no way. We would not have been able to finish if we not have been playing lift, clean and place.

CHRIS SMITH: I think it helps you, as opposed to not playing lift, clean and place when it is this wet. When you can dry your ball off, and get the mud off of it, and get it out of the water on the fairways in a good lie, it helps you with the distance of your shots. But the course is so good that it would be better -- I think you would be able to play better if it was dry and you were playing out of the dry fairways rather than lift, clean and place.

CHRIS SMITH: No. It was just kind of down the fairway and on the greens today. I almost made a 1 on 4, and almost holed it on 6, and almost holed it on 13, and those were all three, literally, tap-ins. I finished -- 14, I had to wait until the other guys putted. But on 4 and 6, I tapped in. They were close enough, I just went out there and raked them in. I didn't make any putts, but I hit the ball pretty well.

CHRIS SMITH: You're not going to believe me --

CHRIS SMITH: No. 4, I hit a 6-iron, and it was three or four inches. No. 6, I had 7-iron and it was four or five inches. 14, I hit gap wedge and it was about a foot and a half. My caddy thought we were for sure going to make one from the fairway today. The one on 4 and 6 looked like they were for sure going to go in. So I didn't make a whole lot of footage of putts.

CHRIS SMITH: I 3-putted 5 and I rolled the first -- I hit a driver, 3-iron on the green in five, and had about a 40-footer probably up the hill, and I rolled it up there just about where I wanted to, about four feet right below the hole, and I missed that one. But other than that, I didn't have any other -- I had a couple of 10-, 15-footers that looked like I hit good putts, but I didn't have anything else really close.

CHRIS SMITH: He must have caught a different wind than we did. When we got to 15, it was dead into the wind. I hit driver -- driver, 5-wood on 15, and I hit it into the first cut of rough on the left side. I was trying to hook a 5-wood around the trees but it went and trickled down into the long grass on the side of the hill, and I hit it up there about 30 feet. 11, was that downwind for him?

CHRIS SMITH: 11 was blowing into such a strong wind that I didn't even hit driver off the tee. I hit 3-wood off the tee and laid up and had 7-iron into the green. When we turned, 16, that's when we got downwind. I had like 8-iron on 16, and I'm used to hitting 5- or 6-iron there.

CHRIS SMITH: I'm just happy to be here. (Laughs). I'm going to go home happy. I'm hitting the ball well. I feel like I have control of my swing. I've kind of struggled the last two weeks that I've played at the Byron Nelson, Colonial and I was a little discouraged. I worked really hard last week and I feel like I know where the ball is going to every shot, and I feel like I have control of it and I can hit some knock-down shots and some things like that, that I could not do a couple weeks ago. So, I'm encouraged. I'm really happy to be in the position that I'm in. I'm excited to be in a position on Saturday morning to play well in this tournament.

CHRIS SMITH: Yeah, I felt good. I felt really good this morning. I was messing around with Spielman on his radio show this morning and having fun. Even by the time we sat around for a couple hours, I still felt good. Even after 3-putting the first two holes, I didn't feel myself starting to worry about, "Oh, you're making bogeys and you're shooting yourself out of it." I felt calm and I felt comfortable. The greens are difficult. I think you can 3-putt any putt out here. You can 3-putt it from five feet if you are on the wrong side of the hole. It didn't do too much to me. I had a good group. I had fun playing with Fred and Joe, and we just kind of went around our business. It wasn't nearly as fast as it was first out yesterday, but I felt good the whole time. It really didn't bother me so much today.

CHRIS SMITH: Tiger is coming, though. (Laughs).

CHRIS SMITH: I think that's great. That's where you want to be. That means you're playing well. I think it would be fun. I felt a lot of support out there. I heard a lot of, "Go, Bucks." Obviously, you want to play as well as you can, and if you're in the last group, that means you are playing well. I'd like to be there tomorrow and I'd like to be there Sunday. Nothing bad will come from this week.