BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 21, 1999

John Huston

JOHN HUSTON: Started out on the back 9 and No. 12, if I could remember what hole that is, par 3, wind was blowing pretty hard, hit 3-iron short of the green, chipped up about six feet, and horseshoe lip-out. Birdied 16 hit, sand wedge about five feet, birdie. No. 18, I got up-and-down out of the back bunker, hit it about a foot.

JOHN HUSTON: I hit 5-iron, right of the green and chipped up about twelve feet, missed. Then No. 4, I hit kind of an okay drive and got a bad kick, and it trickled into the water. Then I dropped down, and I hit a pitching wedge about four feet short of the green just about 25 feet from the pin, but chipped it by about six feet and missed that, so I made double. Then the next hole, I hit a 3-wood that actually hit the rocks and bounced onto the back of the green, and I 3-putted from about 50 feet. No. 6, I hit a 4-wood on the green and 2-putted from about 40 feet. No. 8, I chipped in from the fringe about 25 feet.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, it was -- I would imagine that yesterday on No. 5 they were probably hitting 3-iron, and today it was a good 3-wood, maybe even -- might even could have considered hitting a driver. I think that is the one hole that maybe, you know, in years past they usually - when we come through here the first time around, because everybody is on different courses, they usually play that up-tee just in case you get a day like today. Unfortunately, there is probably going to be - by now there is probably two or three groups sitting there waiting on that tee and everybody has to hit a 3-wood into that wind so, maybe they might -- should have considered having that tee up.

JOHN HUSTON: A lot of things. I got myself feeling better. My shoulder quit hurting, and I changed equipment. I got equipment that is much better for me. It has really worked out with the Wilson irons back to more of a blade-type iron. And a little bit of determination. Sometimes when your back is against the wall, so to speak, you kind of come out more determined to play better. I think that was a big factor.

JOHN HUSTON: These greens out here -- this course -- there is five par 5s, and when the wind is not blowing you can really attack those par 5s. Today, the wind made the greens very hard and fast and some of the time you couldn't get there. So, then it was hard to get it close hitting a sand wedge even. Then some of the holes were, on perfect, ideal days, which we play with most of the time, you are hitting 8-iron into the green or something. Now, you are all of a sudden hitting 5-iron into a really hard green. It makes quite a big difference. The greens got really fast. I don't know if the greens got that much faster at the other courses, but I played in the shootout here Tuesday, an incredible difference between how fast the greens were today and Tuesday.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, Presidents Cup and the Australian Open kind of is like -- I had two and a half weeks from when I got home to when I left to go back out. So really wasn't much of a break, so I am planning on taking the next four weeks off after this tournament.

JOHN HUSTON: Those particular tournaments we had ideal conditions and you start getting a lot of short irons in your hand if you are driving the ball well, which certainly I did at Hawaii last year, and you are able to attack the course a little bit more and keep giving yourself birdie chances.

JOHN HUSTON: It can, but the next week - I think Tucson was the week after Hawaii last year and it played totally different than Hawaii. Tucson is more of a course, you know, the greens are usually pretty firm, but there is a pretty steep-faced bunker in front of almost every green there, whereas in Hawaii you can hit easier shots and kind of bump it up into the hole. Tucson is more of -- you have got to hit a hard shot into the green to be able to stop it. So if you get a similar course you can certainly kind of build on.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I think if you would go from shooting low in Hawaii to maybe coming here, you can -- you have a chance and under ideal conditions to be able to land the ball short of the hole and bounce it in.

JOHN HUSTON: You'd like to. You'd like to be able to feed off that and you certainly try to. But each week is different and you just have to come out and feel that week out. I have learned that when I am playing really well I can attack the par 5s, maybe I right have a real long carry-over water to a narrow green, I might go for it. Whereas, if I am not playing quite right, I might lay up under that same circumstance nowadays.

JOHN HUSTON: I feel to a certain degree I escaped. But on the other hand, I had a lot of putts today that lipped out. I made an incredible number of putts yesterday, and putted equally as well today, but it seemed like I had five or six really pretty nasty lip-outs today.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I am going to stay home. I am going to go skiing one week and about the third week, I am going to go skiing. Mark O'Meara has been nice enough to offer his house that he just bought in Utah, so, you can't hardly pass that up. Just be with my family mostly. I am sure they are ready for me to be home.

JOHN HUSTON: Yes.

JOHN HUSTON: No.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I would consider it, but I would probably -- 99% I would still take the four weeks off just because I haven't gotten to see the family very much.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I think that the better players will -- that will be true, but they will -- their valleys won't be as bad and they will be able to manage themselves through those valleys and still have a chance to win. Hopefully I am getting smarter and I can manage myself through those times. Like I don't feel like I played very well last week, but I still had a chance to win going the last day. And if I would have putted well, I think I lost by three or four shots. So that is a big improvement over the past.

JOHN HUSTON: Yes, I feel really well. I feel great right now.

JOHN HUSTON: A lot of things. I worked out. Certain exercises, I started using magnetic therapy and just a lot of other things too.

JOHN HUSTON: I had bursitis in my left shoulder.

JOHN HUSTON: I had it -- kind of got progressively worse but I had hit for about a little over a year probably from when it first started bothering me.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah.

JOHN HUSTON: Never was really right there. I was, you know, I was pretty close. If I would have shot a really low score the last day I would have had a chance, but I was never right, right by the lead.

JOHN HUSTON: No, I don't think so; not at the PGA.

JOHN HUSTON: Could have been the British Open. I played good the first day at the British Open.

JOHN HUSTON: Okay.

JOHN HUSTON: Yeah, I think so. I think hopefully gotten a lot smarter and today is a day that probably in the past I might have got -- let it get away from me, you know, that stretch where I went double-bogey, bogey. I still was -- I was giving myself a chance and then I -- I birdied two out of the lost four holes or something to keep it respectable. Hopefully I am getting smart enough to make it through those times.

JOHN HUSTON: It is a little of both. I think certainly it was -- I was very frustrated today and on the verge of letting it get away from me and I just -- that is when you have to challenge yourself and say that this is when you have to -- you are either going to lose the tournament or stay in there and still have a chance to win.

JOHN HUSTON: I would have let it gotten the better of me, definitely and maybe tried to hit too good of a shot or do something stupid and instead of making -- giving yourself a chance to make birdie, making another bogey and making it worse.

JOHN HUSTON: Oh, no. I don't think so. I think because Mark was certainly a great player before. He just hadn't -- it just hadn't happened for him at the right time and it just so happened last year, boom, boom, it happened twice. He has always been a great player. He has a great attitude and he is very confident and it shows.