THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 24, 2001

Scott Hoch

SCOTT HOCH: No. But then that's a relative term. Happier than most of the guys here. I was talking about it being a little ugly the other two days, and everybody was saying, "Oh, how can you be ugly and do that?" Well, if anybody saw me today, they would know what "ugly" was on the golf course. I'm just hitting bad drives -- I'm just lucky I made enough good shots to keep it in there, and recovering well. But a lot of times, you hit it in the stuff that you can't recover.

SCOTT HOCH: Well, with TV they always have me disappearing, so that's nothing new. (Laughter.) I'm like fourth or fifth of the worst-ever guys, and like you say, I'm disappearing. That's TV. Thank you very much, TV. And if it was CBS, it would be even worse. They might not show me at all.

SCOTT HOCH: I just think it's funny. You're the one who brought it up.

SCOTT HOCH: Yeah, I am. I can go through spells like this. I tell you, I really drove it and hit it well last week. My stats were good last week. And then I putted like a moron. And then I get to where I actually feel that I'm putting pretty good and making some putts, even on this course, which is difficult, and just not driving it good. And I think it all goes back to Tuesday and Wednesday, playing in all that wind. Actually, I played less than I normally do, because if I play in a lot of wind, it doesn't do well for my score. If I'm playing in a tournament, then it is okay. But if I'm playing in a practice round, it just messes me up. And I think it's -- you know, hopefully I can attribute that to some of what I'm doing. But also, I have a new swing going that I just instituted last week. Not so much a new swing, but just trying to shorten it. And I tried being short with my driver today, and then I tried hitting it hard. You know, different things that I can try. And one of those things usually work, and right now, it's not. Half of them are coming off, and half of them are not. It's kind of tough when you don't know whether it is going to go left or right. It's not a good course to have to be straight.

SCOTT HOCH: Luckily, I missed enough shots in the fairway bunkers and stuff like that where it is easier to recover than it is from the rough. I actually had a decent shot on 16. I hit it just left, just left of the green on 16, because I had a 4-wood in there. And I thought the wind was coming across, and I hit it a little left, and I just stayed there. And I saw it hit and bounce. And when I finally found it, they kept telling us where it was, standing all over it, it was absolutely the worst lie I had seen in my life. That goes back to a lot of bad lies. You could stand over it and not see it. Matter of fact, I had to put a tee down just so I would not go back and re-step on it -- not re-step on it; otherwise they might fine me. But step on it for the first time. But you hit some poor shots, they are going to end up bad; and you hit some good shots, they are not going to end up too good, either. That's just the way this course is.

SCOTT HOCH: Well, I'm going over to the range, which is something that's rather foreign for me after a round. I brought a couple other drivers, so I'm just going to try that. Actually, I did try -- I did start using another driver last week, along with my new swing -- or different swing, and so I'm going to go see if it's something there that I could find. But problem is, I can get on the range this morning and hit it pretty good, and it is not transferring out into the final groups.

SCOTT HOCH: I'm really playing my game. I'm aware of where I am or close to where I am. I didn't know that I had dropped off, like somebody mentioned earlier, but I knew I was in pretty good shape. And I can't control what the other guys do. You know, the first five or six holes played kind of difficult. I'm looking up there and they are 3-under, and I'm thinking they are playing from different tees, at least from the fairway. But then again, if you start hitting bad shots, it's going to start catching up with you, and I guess it did to a number of people today.

SCOTT HOCH: You heard last night on the Golf Channel and other places that nobody else has won -- this being their first tournament. So they've already ruled him out, but I'm not sure you can do that quite so quick. You know, he's the kind of guy that's pretty fearless, and he just goes out there -- I mean, he seems really loose and everything else. And he might very well be that way when he gets out there tomorrow. But, we'll see. Who is he playing with? Tiger? I tell you what, if he wins his first tournament, and it's here and he's playing with Tiger, my hat is off to him, he deserves it and that would be great. A lot of people can still win this tournament, though, and hopefully I'm still one of them.