THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 12, 1999

Bradley Hughes

BRADLEY HUGHES: Third hole a wedge in, 11 feet, I guess, made that. And the fourth hole, pretty much the same, wedged to 10 feet, I guess. Fifth hole, I just rode one on the window of the green and just stopped at the edge, 3-putted from off the fringe. 12, I hit a 7-iron to about twelve feet, I guess, made. Next hole was a 9-iron, twelve feet again, made it. And then got up-and-down the bunker on the next hole, probably 8, 9 foot put.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Yeah, it's nice. Well, I got up a little bit, the wind's sort of been funny around here. We played one hole, the 12, we played coming back the opposite way downwind, so that was pretty good. Actually, the par 5 played downwind and the long 4 downwind, all at the same time. Sort of getting up, but not as much as it could, I guess.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Not really. I think the fairways are pretty wide, you know, if you hit the right club off the tee to take the bunkers out of play there's a lot of room to hit the ball into, so the fairway's are -- you can stop the ball pretty good and the greens are putting, you know, as good as you can find, I guess. So if you're hitting the ball in the right spots it's not too hard to score well. There's a little bit of trouble out there, I haven't found it as yet, I'm not sure -- you just have to be in -- the rough is pretty thick so you don't really want to go in there, but there's a lot of room to get the ball around the course.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Probably not. I think the green -- the pins are probably tucked a little more today, there are a couple of holes pretty much near some ridges, like just fall-offs to the edges of the greens, the ones that are four, five from the edge, sort of fall away on the other side, so it is not that easy to get them close. And if you have a few close to the pin. Hit in the middle of the green, you still haven't got an easy 2-putt. The course is probably set up a little bit tougher than yesterday, but the wind -- without the wind it is a little easier. I don't think you'll see 8 under like yesterday.

BRADLEY HUGHES: No, but I have other weeks. I have stayed away. I'm trying to be good. I got my coach coming from Australia next week, so we have some catching up to do, so I'll probably have a couple of beers and put some weight on so I am going to try to eat well this week.

BRADLEY HUGHES: I'll try one after we're done in here. I like them. They're about my favorite.

BRADLEY HUGHES: Yes, I have -- I have never really been up near the lead, even the good finishes I have had I sort of came from out of the pack on the last day or something like that, last year. In Australia the three big tournaments that I have won I pretty much led the whole way, so it's -- the ones that I have won I have actually been up there and led the whole way, so I know how to do that, I guess. Obviously it is different here, but I have never actually come out of the pack and won. I like my position where I am now. More so the fact that I'm hitting the ball pretty good off the tee and hitting a lot of greens. I have never had to really struggle for par on any hole more or less, no nine irons into the holes, sort of been around the edges and chipped them up to five, six foot and made most of them. So that's been stress-free the first couple of days.