SEI PENNSYLVANIA CLASSIC

September 13, 2002

Kenneth Staton

TODD BUDNICK: We have Ken Staton. Second round 69 has him two shots back of the lead, 136, 6-under, Ken, your best 2 opening rounds on TOUR to date. Let's go ahead and you mentioned yesterday about you had some problems getting off to rough starts and overcoming that, but it looks like you had that double bogey on 10, jumped back in and held your composure.

KENNETH STATON: I did. I started off missing the fairway and that's one thing that you can't do on that hole. So I decided just to play it safe and chipped it back in the fairway, but I don't know if I had a bad yardage. It might have been. I wasn't used to the cool air and the ball didn't quite carry and I left it in the front bunker and I didn't get up and down. That started the day off.

I felt like I was fine still. I was feel going this morning, so I, you know, just kind of shook it off and went to the next hole and actually made a couple, pretty bad swings in the next four or five holes but I was able to recover. I had some good up and downs, and once I got to the par-5, the first par-5, the backside; which was my front, I had a good birdie chance there and I missed it but made birdie on the next hole and that kind of got me back into thinking about making birdies and not, you know, making bogeys or bad scores or anything like that, then I birdied the par-3 which was a great birdie. The hole was playing real tough, good pin position there. 18, I drove the ball poorly today, all day. I don't know how many fairways I hit. I might have hit maybe two fairways. I was able to scramble out of the rough. I was pretty fortunate with some good lies and was able to get it out and somewhere closer to green where I was able to get it up and down or even hit the greens at times.

TODD BUDNICK: We will take some questions.

Q. You spent the last few years on the Canadian Tour and just talk about everything being on a much bigger scale, competing here.

KENNETH STATON: The difference between the Canadian Tour and the PGA TOUR, what I see, just more people, more distractions on the course. The rough is higher. The course is, you know -- there is great courses that we play up in Canada, so that's pretty much the same. The speeds of the greens on the PGA TOUR are a little quicker. But besides that, you know, two-day cuts, pro-ams and all of that stuff that you have before the tournament starts.

TODD BUDNICK: The scrambling portion of the game it seems to my at this level that's really where you can make a difference with your game, a lot of players, even Tiger Woods make a lot of mistakes off the tee, but it's the recovery from that. Is that something you've come to work on? Today was a prime example.

KENNETH STATON: I'm really not known for my short game but at times, especially the times that I won on the Canadian Tour, it seemed like I didn't really think about it too much. And when the time came, I hit the shot. I hit the shot when it was needed and that's one thing I haven't done this year is when there is certain shots during your round where it's like the defining moment and I haven't been able to do that. And today I was able to do that. Even though I made a double on the first hole, I got up and down on 11. I got up and down on 13 which was a fantastic up and down. A great 2 putt on the par-3, next hole, 14. Pin back right, I barely snuck it on the green front left. It was the length of the green and just, you know, those up and downs and that 2 putt kind of kept me in the game and everything turned around for me.

Q. This may have been asked before I walked in. What's it been like, the transition from the Canadian Tour to this?

KENNETH STATON: It's just a bigger arena. More distractions on the course. The greens are a little slicker; the rough is a little higher. We get treated better out here. (Laughs) We have free food and a place to eat and courtesy cars and all of that stuff that takes a little getting used to. It kind of gets you out of your thought of just going to the course and playing. There is all of these extra things to do during the week. There is tickets to go to baseball games. You can go here and there. That's actually another difference that, you know, it's nice to have, but it actually distracts you away from the game.

Q. Are you still in touch with buddies on the Canadian Tour and the Nike Tour, BUY.COM this is like going from triple A up to the big leagues, they want to know what it's like, do you talk to them?

KENNETH STATON: Right. The funny thing is the BUY.COM this year has almost -- this year has been dominated by Canadian Tour guys. I think two of those guys have won multiple times. I mean, they know the game. There is great players up there and the Tour doesn't really get the respect that it really should. It was a good homecoming the last two weeks in Vancouver, I saw a lot of the guys that got exemptions and earned their way into the Canadian Tour events and Toronto was fantastic. I saw different guys there as well. And actually in Vancouver two of the rules officials that were on the Canadian Tour were helping out that week and I kind of hung out with them and talked with them a little bit so it was nice.

TODD BUDNICK: All right. Thank you, Kenneth. Play well this weekend.

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