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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 27, 2004

Kevin Sutherland

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Kevin for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at THE PLAYERS Championship. 8-under par, great position going into Sunday. Tough day out there. You guys played under -- leaders played under some tough conditions, as opposed to the players that played in the early round this morning. Why don't you make a couple of comments about your round and then -- and your position and we'll go into questions.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Well, I kind of gutted it out, I guess. I didn't really play all that well. I drove the ball very poorly, which was something I was a little concerned with. I had driven the ball okay the first rounds. I putted the ball beautifully, and that's something I'm excited about. I feel if I can go out tomorrow and hit good shots, like I did the first day and the second day, that it will give me a great opportunity to make some birdies. That's something that -- I made two birdies today and I had two or three opportunities. I took advantage of my chances. So I didn't play very well. I'm happy with 73, considering how I played.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: And your position.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Ecstatic. If somebody told me I'd be 2 back starting the tournament on Wednesday or Thursday, I'd have said I'll take it. It's a tremendous position to be in.

Q. Sand right behind the ball on 16?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I was in a sand divot, right in the very front edge of it or -- I guess that would be the front, I'm not sure, I don't know if it's the front or the back. But I had a clump of sand, maybe about half the height of the ball and about this wide behind my ball. And it was in the divot. And my ball was on the other side of it.

And what my concern was is -- why I asked for the ruling was when I ground my club, I'm going to put my club right on the top of it. And that will improve my lie. And so I wanted to know if I could do that. And so that's why I called for the ruling. He was unsure. So he talks to -- he calls on the radio and they get a communication going.

And I was trying to get across if I ground my club, I'm going to improve my lie. They say you can't improve your lie. I said, so that means I can't touch the sand. Through all this talk somehow the communication was -- I just wanted to know if I could ground my club, and I was told that I can't. I can't improve my lie is what they kept telling me. So I take that as I can't touch the sand.

And I find out later on that I am entitled to ground my club. It's a little bit disappointing, because it would have made the shot quite a bit easier. I'm having to hold my club two inches off the ground as opposed to a normal shot. That was disappointing. It would have been nice to know then what I know now, and I think it would have made the shot easier.

Q. How did you find out, in the bullpen when you got off?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, they came in and talked to me after I signed my card, just to let me know that I could have grounded my club, and for future reference, I guess.

Q. It just got lost in translation?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I guess. Because John, afterwards -- John afterwards said, after we got done with the hole -- I was obviously very disappointed, making a bogey on that hole. He says, I don't think -- I don't think he was understanding what we were saying. And obviously that's what happened. We were just trying to get across whether I can touch -- whether I can touch the sand, and if by touching the sand I would improve my lie. But all I'm doing is grounding my club.

Q. If you had touched the sand was the ball also in danger of moving?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No, the ball wouldn't have moved. It was in the sand. If it would have done that, obviously that would have been a penalty. I wasn't concerned about that so much. Because the sand wasn't necessarily touching the ball. The ball was like -- there was the ball and there was a gap and there was a clump of sand. It was probably wet and it got clumped and stayed that way. Who knows -- I don't know the clumping of sand.

Q. That last bogey put you in the next-to-the-last group tomorrow. You can turn that into a positive mentally. Do you think that might help you out a little bit?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know. I don't think it would have mattered either way. I would rather have had the stroke, to be honest with you.

Q. Would you rather play in the last group, if all things were equal? Would you rather be in the last group or next-to-the-last group on Sunday?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: It doesn't matter to me. Last group would have been great. I would have loved to have been in the last group. I wish I would have made par to be in the last group. I happened to look up there and think -- I don't know, 15-footer on the last hole, if I made this putt I would be in the last group.

Q. Next-to-the-last group would be slightly less gallery, or fewer cameras following every move; it might be easier to play next to the last group, depending in who is in the last group?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: There's some truth to that. I'll let you know tomorrow. I don't know how to answer that question. I was hoping to play in the last group, but I understand what you're saying. There's some distractions with that.

Q. A lot of guys were saying the course was playing almost as hard as it could play today, the greens, especially. Is that true, and what's that mean for tomorrow? Can it get any tougher tomorrow?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I thought the greens were very difficult. They were so fast and they're so hard. I think -- I think that's part of my problem. The good drive that I did hit, that I hit in the fairway, my iron play, I felt like I was trying to be so precise. I felt like I was trying to hit the ball in the exact spot, that I wasn't necessarily playing very aggressive. I felt like I was constantly trying to steer it up there, to land it in a spot, and I finally just decided I've just got to hit it. You can't try to constantly try to hit the ball in a two-foot circle. You're not going to play aggressively enough. You're going to constantly feed it around the course.

I didn't play nearly as confidently as I did the first two days. I putted the ball brilliantly, but it was always for par.

Q. Adam Scott pretty much remind you of a young Kevin Sutherland?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No, I wish.

Q. Bad lie on 10 and 15, greenside?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, the lie on 10 was better than the lie on 15. The lie on 15 was horrible. That was easily the best up-and-down I've made all year. It was an impossible lie. If fact, my caddy said I'm not sure if that holed bunker shot was better than that up-and-down. The lie on 10 was very doable. I actually didn't hit that shot nearly as well as I should have. I got lucky and caught a piece of the hole just to slow it down a bit. But I kept making my six-, seven-, eight-foot par putts which kind of kept me in.

It's something that I had to do to stay in contention, which I'm excited about, going into tomorrow. I just need to just play a little more aggressive with my iron play. Not necessarily shooting at a pin, but aggressive to the spot where I want to hit it. You can't really aim at a whole bunch of pins out here, because you can't stop it at the hole. I was trying to aim 15 feet left of the pin, but I wasn't necessarily trying to be aggressive to hit a shot there.

Q. On 18 what was said on the tee?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: When Jerry Kelly --

Q. Yes.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: He was taking the club back and he yelled Noonan, from Caddyshack. It was right in his swing. You can say anything you want after we're done, that's fine, but you do it in someone's swing, that's against the etiquette of the game. We don't know who it was, but it's inappropriate.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies and bogeys?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: 2, I hit a 3 off the tee -- 3-iron just short of the green, just an average chip, and made about a four- or five-footer for birdie.

7, right rough, then across to the left rough and then knocked it on the middle of the green and two-putted. It was pretty much your standard TPC bogey, drive it in the rough and hack it around for a little while and make a bogey, that's what I did there.

16, we've talked about that hole. Hit it in the right rough, laid up. And then I chunked it out. Everything being said about the ruling, it was a shot that I should have hit better than I did. I hit it heavy. It's something I should have been able to pull the shot off the way it was. I'm not blaming the Tour staff or anything like that. I should have hit the shot better than I did, and I should know the rules. If I'd have known for sure what the rules were, I would have been more adamant about it. I had a horrible lie, knocked it past.

I came back nicely with a birdie, I hit it left of the pin and then rolled in a 25-footer on 17.

18, bogey. Hit a good putt right of the hole and just missed it to the right, and it was a good putt.

End of FastScripts.

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