THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 29, 1997

Phil Blackmar

PHIL BLACKMAR: I played very well today. The course was playing very long. When I was warming up until the first three or four holes it was raining pretty hard and I didn't think the round was going to get finished. Then it rained lightly for the next four or five holes. Now it's just cold and windy and pretty raw out there; about as cold as it gets in Texas in January. But I'm very pleased with how I played. I hit 13 fairways today and hit the ball very well to the green, made a few putts, played very well.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I birdied No. 4, Par-3, hit a nice 5-iron about seven or eight feet, made that for birdie. I birdied No. 11. I laid up on my second, hit a nice pitching wedge to about seven or eight feet and made that for birdie. I birdied 13. I hit a real nice drive and real nice 8-iron to about 12 feet and made that for birdie. And 16, it's always a very tough hole, I hit a good 4-iron right behind the hole for about 18 feet and made that for two.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I missed a few greens. I don't think -- I think I made about an 8-footer on the third hole for par, I hit it in the bunker left on my second shot, and had a tough bunker shot, and had a ^ bunker shot of about eight feet and made that for par. I don't think I had another --

PHIL BLACKMAR: I've been working with Jim Flick, and his thoughts on the golf swing now for the last four or five years. I'm kind of stubborn, things take a while. I've been working on it kind of gradually. It's kind of hard on TOUR to change things very much in your swing and compete week after week at the same time. It's been a long process. So that part is doing a lot better, I've been putting pretty well this year, as well. And I think, mentally, I'm just now getting over 1995 or '4, a few of those years in there. It's quite a process trying to heal those old wounds as well.

PHIL BLACKMAR: Just occasionally. I understand his philosophies very well on the swing now. I used to see him quite often. I'm not actually seeing him as often these days. I'm working on everything that he taught me. I understand his philosophies and I am trying to apply them to my swing and trying to find a way to take the philosophies from the driving range to the golf course, which is the key to playing competitive golf. It's easy on the range to go out and work on something, another thing to play golf. I'm trying to apply his philosophies to my style of play.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I would say that's accurate.

PHIL BLACKMAR: For instance everybody has a different tempo to their swing. And there are certain positions in your golf swing that you'd like to get to and some of them require soft, easy tempo, and some of them you can be a little bit faster with. Personally, when I get out on the golf course and I get kind of wound up and I've got to have something that I can go ahead and hit it hard, that I can go ahead and create some speed in my golf swing, and not lose my golf swing. Prior to working with Jim, anytime I tried to play and got antsy or -- I twisted my upper body and created a lot of speed, I could hit it far but not straight. I've been trying to find some speed and leverage in other places in my swing. And that's primarily been the difference here the last -- this year as I've -- I have worked on a lot of drills in shortening my swing, particularly on the driving range to find my speed without twisting out and have found some different muscles that I didn't use before, and different ways to work the clubs. I've also gone back to playing a hook. I played a cut for the last seven or eight or ten years. I've gone back to a hook, as well.

PHIL BLACKMAR: Yes, it made it easier to chip and putt, as well. There's some very tricky putts out here where the greens are hard and fast. Yesterday, I found the greens to be pretty tricky. And they're a little slower, more forgiving today and you can get away with a little bit more.

PHIL BLACKMAR: No, actually my equipment is not that different. My irons are an inch over length is all. I played with some up to three inches over length but they didn't work too well. My driver is 45-and-a-half, which is kind of almost standard these days with the large headed drivers. My irons are bent quite a bit upright, but there's no problem to bend them.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I read a little bit.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I go through phases. I've been through several different phases as far as reading different things. Lately, I've been into a fly-tying mode.

PHIL BLACKMAR: Fly-tying mode. I'm into fly fishing. I tie all my own flies. Lately I haven't read too much, I'm more into creating my own flies and working on that.

PHIL BLACKMAR: No, I started off just reading every day spy-type fiction, and Robert Ludlum, that sort of thing and read all of Tom Clancy's stuff. But also went through some phases where I read some Eastern philosophies. And also I got into some layman's physics for a while. And then some applications of Eastern philosophies and physics put together, different ways of looking at things. I've been through a lot of different things that -- to spend the time out here on TOUR.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I've gotten pretty good as far as a caster. I've still got some to learn as far as being a real fisherman.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I think on TOUR -- I played a hook prior to coming on TOUR. I played a hook my first year on TOUR, I was Rookie-of-the-Year, I went to the Tournament of Champions the next year, shot 74 the first day, I was pretty disgusted, I was hanging it out. I went to the driving range, I went to play on dry cut, finished 13 under the next three days and finished third. And I kind of got comfortable with that. And unfortunately what happened over the years in hitting a fade every day, every week, my swing deteriorated. I started making shorter turn, I started cutting off coming through, and my swing deteriorated over time doing that, but it was like a failsafe. It just felt comfortable to try to block out the left side and just hang on to it.

PHIL BLACKMAR: At Houston, you mean?

PHIL BLACKMAR: On the 17th. I don't know, that particular round, I used to feel like one of my strong points was my ability to focus and to reach another level with my performance. I could get in a tournament -- I was a better tournament player than going out and playing for ^ turn. I could get in a tournament and get zoned out and get things out of my game that I couldn't otherwise, hit shots I couldn't hit on the driving range. Houston was the first time in a long time that I had reached that level of concentration again. That was the first time in a long, long time. And I think that's why I was able to focus and get beyond that shot. I was so in tuned into what I was doing that I hit it in the water and just -- it was like -- it was almost like it didn't happen. It happened and I was a little upset about it, obviously, but I was able to maintain my focus. Why I could that day, and some days you can go out and you might do that, and most other days you can't. Why that day, I can't help you. But that was an attribute I felt I had had a long time that I had lost and it was nice to have that day. I have not gotten to that level again.

PHIL BLACKMAR: Not a lot, if I hit the cut well off the tee there's not a lot of difference. The new modern drivers with the large heads and the large sweet spots, you can play a fade and they still go pretty far. With the shorter irons I had a hard time in the wind playing a fade because the ball flight would tend to balloon a little bit. So that was a problem playing a fade. And it's a little more comfortable now playing a hook, I can hold the ball down in the wind a little better.

PHIL BLACKMAR: I don't agree with that that they run a lot more. I can spin the ball as well left to right as I can right to left. But you're right, most players, a lot of great players hit the ball left to right. And the last two or three years working with Jim, working on these things, it felt more natural maybe to play a draw, yet I kept trying to hit the ball left to right, and what I finally said this year after the first couple of tournaments, I was close, I was right there, but trying to play a fade, I kept opening up too quick, and I finally said, you know, I've got to go hit the ball right to left a little while so I can stay turned longer in my swing, and if I do that maybe I can go back to play a fade. I still play quite a few fades, I don't hook every shot. If the shot calls for a fade I'll hit a fade. I try to limit myself to the number of those which I hit.

PHIL BLACKMAR: No, unfortunately here on TOUR a lot of us tend to take this golf game way too personal. And you know it when you're doing it, you realize you shouldn't be doing it, it's not conducive to good play or good mental health. Unfortunately we don't treat ourselves that way. Some people do, but most of us have a hard time dealing with it, and I don't know why that is. But I beat myself up pretty bad those years playing poorly. And a lot of the poor play was as a result of beating myself up. Subsequently you lose a lot of confidence in yourself and your golf game. It doesn't come back overnight. It takes a long time to get the confidence back that it takes to play at a competitive level in front of a lot of people and for a lot of money. Those wounds, just getting more and more comfortable -- the more times you're in a position to win or to do well, the more comfortable you're going to be there. You can't expect to be in position to win a golf tournament once or twice a year, and feel comfortable in that situation.

PHIL BLACKMAR: It's very tough. The way I approached it today was I was more passive than anything else. I just tried to go out and starting out tried to put the ball in the fairways, hit some greens, make some pars, and just wait and see what was going to happen, what was going to unfold. I didn't feel like, particularly the first three holes were very difficult, and the pins were tough -- the pins were actually pretty tough all day, and I didn't feel like I could attack those, so I tried to be more passive. Then as the round progressed and I hit better and better I started feeling more comfortable and the rain quit and took advantage of a few shorter shots on the backside.

PHIL BLACKMAR: The thing is I've always handled myself poorly when I've played poorly or treated myself poorly when I've played poorly, but the turning point to some mental decadence was not the first time at TPC, because I felt -- I hit the ball in the water on the 17th hole there when I had a chance to win. I came out of that, I still had to make par-par to tie Steve and to get in the playoff. I actually felt very good about that tournament. I proved to myself I could compete on that level with the best players in the world, because that tournament does have the strongest field in the game. I proved to myself I've got enough talent to compete on that level. The next year I was right there again, I was in the last group, played with Faldo Saturday and Sunday, and was really clicking, had the short game, my putting was working, I was clicking mentally, and I couldn't hit the ball quite well enough. I played a fade and kept losing it left, kept losing it left. I shot 73 that day, Davis won, and after that I was really distraught over that, I was really upset that I could have everything going so good, yet I couldn't physically strike the ball well enough to reach the level that I had with the rest of my game. And that kind of started more or less the turnaround at that point.