MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 7, 2000

Bradley Hughes

BRADLEY HUGHES: It was just a tough start. I didn't -- first couple of holes I didn't -- I 3-putted the first. The second hole I was probably only 15, 18 feet away my tee shot, just off the fringe, pretty much 3-putted that one as well. Just had no touch early on with my short putts and they were all left-to-right putts and I just started outside the hole. Then I would overcompensate and pushed a couple. And after that I played pretty solid for a while except for the 10th hole. And then 14, 15, 16, and 17 were all right-to-left putts and I put them all in. So got to try and remember that tomorrow. Keep it right of the hole, just putt the right-to-left ones in, even on 18 it was a right-to-left putt as well. So that was a good way to finish.

BRADLEY HUGHES: No, not at all. Although after 9, for the amount of rubbish -- I really played the front nine holes -- I think I still was only one behind after nine holes, so that gave me some, not some confidence, but some something to think about that even how horribly I played, I still am only one off the lead and still had the whole back nine to go. If I could do something - and I did play the back nine well yesterday-so that was one good thought. But even after, I had good chances on 11, 12, and 13 and missed them all. So still wasn't brewing (sic) with confidence. Then I put one in on 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, so, just shows you -- it is a stupid game, really (laughter).

BRADLEY HUGHES: I haven't been in the lead for a long time, but I felt good. It wasn't my really my ball striking. I hit a bad lay-up on the third probably under clubbed and hung up in the rough where I had no shot, cost me a bogey there. But the other holes, it wasn't poor ball-striking. It was just my putting, and I think I was probably a little bit timid with my first putts, or trying to push them near the hole instead of just stroking it like I had the last couple of days and that is what I tried to do with the last few. I just loosened up my grip a bit more and let it flow and then poured them in. I think I might have been a little bit tight with my short putts. Obviously they are only 4-foot putts and you don't want to look like an idiot and miss them, which I did anyway. I should have been just looser like I had been and just take the consequences; instead I was worrying about missing them and that is what I did.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Probably not because for how poorly my scoring was, I am still in the lead. No one really made a move, you know, jumped right out there, and did anything special if you came from 1- or 2-under and got up near the lead. Hopefully -- normally everyone has a bad round in a tournament and I am hoping that was mine to get that out of the way, but I have to be confident the way I played the last five, six holes. That was a big comeback for me.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Like it was tough because like I said, I didn't hit that many bad -- really bad shots. I hit a bad lay-up on one hole, but it was mainly putting, so you are hoping on the next hole get -- you don't get one of those putts again. You want to stiff -- like a 20-footer, it's not so bad if you miss it. I just had four, four-and-a-half-foot range all the time and kept missing them. So I made a good birdie on 7 from out of the rough and that got me going again. And after that, I played really well except the drive on 10. That cost me. So like I said before, I knew that even though I had four bogies in a row I was still only one behind, or something like that. So it was a horrible start but it wasn't the end of my day really at that point.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Yeah, about a foot and a half. I marked it. I lined it up.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Mainly left. Like slightly -- like left edge putts and I tended to pull them all a little bit left, so I think like that might have been just because I was gripping it maybe slightly tighter than I had been the last couple of days. I have tried to keep it loose and my putting improved, so I think I might have been just a little tight on them just trying to force them into the hole instead of just letting my putter flow like it had been.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Hit a wedge to about probably eight or nine feet on 14, made that. Then on 15, I hit a 4-iron, really good 4-iron. It didn't stop. It ran over the green. Chipped it up to probably that range, 4 and a half to 5 foot. I made it so that was a nice one to get. Then 16 I hit a 7-iron to probably twelve feet and 17 I hit 8-iron just pin-high left, just off the fringe, so I guess it was 18, 20 feet. It was a good putt because I didn't read what it did. I remember yesterday, I thought I missed my putt and it broke back to the left so I did the same again today for some reason.

BRADLEY HUGHES: 18 was very similar, I guess, probably 15 to 18 feet. Maybe 20 feet.

BRADLEY HUGHES: No, I just wandered around for a while. I had perfect yardage for 8-iron. I think it was 156 yards. I just had a slightly funny lie on the hill and I just towed it a little bit; that is why I came up short. But I knew if I hit it well I could get it there. I just miss-hit it a little, then my club -- my chip, I just popped up in the air; probably should have used a less-lofted club. But as it was, I told my caddie it is not a good chip, but I think I will hole hit because it is right-to-left like the other ones were.

BRADLEY HUGHES: It is probably good in one way in that now I am in the last group. If I had missed that, I would have been second or third, last group, I guess. It is nice and still one more shot, everyone has to catch up on me. So if I can play like I did the last six, seven, eight holes and hopefully they will have a hard time catching me. I know no one really did a lot today.

BRADLEY HUGHES: I don't know. No, maybe it was a little cooler, the greens were probably a little bit spiked up more than the other days for some reason. I don't know why. Because there was less players, but being in the last group you notice that more. Pins -- I don't know, maybe the wind was sort of there but it wasn't there. It was you were allowing for it and one minute it was blowing; next minute it wasn't. It was hard to get your hands on the right club and pins are in more traditional harder places in the hills and tucked over bunkers and things.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Obviously David, because he has played -- he has won here twice and he is 9-under. But anyone can play and do anything special on any given day, so you can't really -- obviously he is the one with the track record, but you can't worry about what he is doing because someone else could sneak up under there and throw a 65 in and then it is all over anyway. You just got to try and play your best. There is nothing more you can do. If you go out with the attitude that you want to protect the lead or you want to win, that is not going to work. You just got to try and hit every shot as good as you can and then let -- it is a hard thing to do -- and add your score up at the end, but that is what you have got to try and do.

BRADLEY HUGHES: No, I am hoping to just go out and play as well as I can and get the putts in like I did towards the end there. And obviously I will have a look at the scoreboard, see what is going on, players affect you in some of your decision making hopefully I won't play to big an important role on the scoreboard until the last hole if it is tied or one behind, then that influences what you have to do.

BRADLEY HUGHES: I have been around long enough. I have won in Australia. I have won The Masters twice over there which is big tournaments; used to have the Normans and Nick Price and Faldos, all those people play, and I beat them there, and pretty much led everyday in those tournaments. So it is nothing new. It is just a different scenery being over here in America. It is a little bit more daunting, I guess, but I have played here for four years now, so maybe it is my time. I am playing well enough. So someone has got to win and may as well be me, really, I guess.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Just because it is the PGA TOUR, I think that is what -- we grew up in Australia -- PGA TOUR is a long way away from where I grew up in Melbourne. You just get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and watch it. You don't know any guys. You don't see any guys growing up or like every over here, you are in the college system, you might play a few events; you get to meet them at your club, things like that. That was all way off for some of us. U.S. Open, I never dreamed I'd play in the U.S. Open; next minute I am there. It was pretty strange. But you got to go through all those, and hopefully I have done my homework or my leading-up-to-a-win and if I do all the right things, it is going to happen sooner or later.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Football is tougher than that.

BRADLEY HUGHES: I came back today. I couldn't come back from the hospital or the ambulance from the other game.

BRADLEY HUGHES: I did that pretty much. I didn't play it a lot differently. Yeah, I stroked the ball pretty well. And the mistakes I made early on were mainly putting. It wasn't, you know, like yesterday I would have said all them and I would have still been at 11-under after 4 holes. Today I was back to 7. Yeah, it was more putting than anything, I think, I probably hit as many fairways and almost as many greens in regulation. It wasn't much different.