THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 23, 2001

Scott Hoch

SCOTT HOCH: Actually played better, hit the ball better than yesterday. Didn't get as much out of it. And then towards the end, I had a few errant drives, but I got away with it. Yesterday I was lucky; today I probably got about what I deserved.

SCOTT HOCH: My nature is I get lucky once, and unfortunately I get what I deserve about four other times. Seems that way anyway.

SCOTT HOCH: Yeah. Tell you what, Jerry Kelly -- not easy out there, especially finishing out. I figured he probably finished on the front, with the scores they're shooting, but finishing on the back, that's pretty impressive the way that wind's blowing up there. It's not swirling, but it's coming up, dying down, coming up. So you get to 17, you don't know what to pull. You just pull it fast. Whatever you do, you pull it fast.

SCOTT HOCH: It helps, yeah. You would -- if the wind blows, you would much prefer finishing on the other side. As long as you miss the wind on this side, yeah, you'd much rather want to finish on the front side. But, hey, you still have to play all 18 of them. Some of those holes aren't that easy either. But you don't have the potential of a big number finishing on the front as you do on the back.

SCOTT HOCH: They don't get too low on the weekend here. But I'm afraid they're going to make me play the last two rounds anyway, so it doesn't do any good if I take what I have right now. I mean, this is going to make it tougher tomorrow with a little wind today. It's going to dry the greens out a little more. They're going to find some good pin placements. And the last forecast I heard, we may have rain Sunday, so who knows what the conditions will be. But I'm pleased with where I am, because the alternative isn't good. And I've been the alternative up until last week this year.

SCOTT HOCH: You just said it. You pretty much have to grind on every shot. It's tough to do that, but really you have to. If you don't, if your mind slips one time and misses to the wrong spot or don't play the wind or something like that, it could -- I wouldn't say it would be deadly. It could cost you one or two. But unfortunately this hole, it makes you think about what you just did on, you know, on the holes coming up. So you say, "Well, gosh, if I bogey 14, gosh, I still have 17 and 18 to go." There aren't any real let-up holes because of the rough. Sometimes you can, you know, you don't really have to be that into it off the tee if they don't have that much rough. But here, you can't miss an iron shot or a drive.