MCI CLASSIC

April 17, 1999

John Huston

JOHN HUSTON: Second hole I hit a 3-iron just left of the green and chipped up about two feet for birdie. I missed a few greens in there through 7 -- 7 and 8 and stuff. But I always chipped up close. Then I hit a bad drive at No. 10 in the water. Made a good five there, I got up and down from just off the green there, made about a 2-footer for bogey. Then 13, I hit a 9-iron about 20 feet, made birdie. 15, I hit a sand wedge about two feet. No. 17, playing pretty difficult, I hit a 5-iron, what I thought was in the bunker, which would have been a pretty easy shot. But I don't know if it bounced over the bunker or what, but ended up in a pretty tough spot. I chipped up about six feet, missed the putt there. Then the last hole I hit a 9-iron about 18 feet past the hole, made birdie.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I am happy with the way that I have played so far. I think this morning a lot of guys shot themselves back into the tournament and then, you know, probably a little bit tougher this afternoon. So everybody is pretty bunched up and it should make for a good tournament.

JOHN HUSTON: It is hard to run away from the field here at this tournament, except Davis Love has done it a few times. But those last few holes are pretty tough. And, you know, I would have thought that he would have played better coming down the stretch. But, you know, it is very difficult. The wind was swirling around. It was hard to hit the greens, let alone get it close.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, with the pin on the front I think you have to. I was just -- I hit a big cut to get way over on the right side. I figured if I hit it straight I was going -- I wasn't going to hit it very solid if I wasn't going to hit the shot that I was trying, then I wouldn't have gone through the fairway.

JOHN HUSTON: Not really. Because, I mean, we had a little bit of room ahead of them, even though they shot really low to get up right by where we were, we still didn't have to shoot really low to get ahead of most of the guys that went low at the start of the day. They were even par, 1-under when it was pretty calm. I am sure there was a lot more moisture in the greens too. Last three greens that are out in the open they really got dried out and brown late in the day. That happens a lot in golf tournaments where guys will go out early on a Saturday or something and shoot a good score and then the wind will pick up and it will play tougher. You've just got to play the course that is presented to you. I think maybe -- if it would have played like it did this morning, we would have had to have felt like we would have had to go lower. But it didn't play that easy.

JOHN HUSTON: Oh, yeah. I think this is definitely in the top three or four because we have gotten to a point now where a lot of the tournaments are just hit it as high and as hard as you can and that is not the case here. You can play some different shots. You don't have to bomb it off the tee. You got to pretty much move the ball both ways and I think it is just a great golf course.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, but not as much. It is not blowing as hard on those other holes, but it is a little harder to figure out where it is coming from. Once you get to the last three holes there is no doubt about which way the wind is blowing.

JOHN HUSTON: You can't tell. No. You just have to kind of have a general idea which way the wind should be playing and kind of be patient and wait until you feel it in the direction you think it is going to be blowing and just trust it.

JOHN HUSTON: Probably this year at Bob Hope. I think that was probably the last time. Maybe Atlanta, I don't know if I was -- yeah, I was in the last group Atlanta at too. So that was three weeks ago, two, three weeks ago.