WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 24, 2002

Kevin Sutherland

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I would like to welcome Kevin Sutherland, Champion of the Accenture Match-Play Championship.

That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: That sounds great. I had some serious doubts today whether it was going to happen because I just was not playing very well. Just kind of hung in there and hit some great chips and putts and various other odd shots. You know, the last 18 holes, I was able to hang in there and do some good things at the end.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Your first PGA TOUR win comes here. What does that mean to you?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: It's phenomenal. Next to winning a major, the World Golf Championship events are right there. And they are a step above the PGA TOUR event because of the quality of the field. The PGA TOUR events are awesome. They have got great players, they are so well run and everything, but this has 64 of the best players in the world playing and everybody pretty much showed up that was not hurt. So, it makes it even more special to beat some of the best players in the world.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: All six of your victories came against players that were seeded higher. Obviously, we saw that that didn't really mean much. From day one, it didn't mean much, but what does that mean?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Well, you know, I have been doing it all week. You go back to that Duval match, and 2-down with two to play, you know, if I don't make those birdies, I'm home Wednesday and it looks like a bad week. Although, losing to Duval on the last hole, you never could say that was a bad week, because he's such a great player.

And then to parlay that into five days later me winning the tournament is just amazing to think about all of the things that went right for me this week. I mean, everything went right.

I played a lot of great golf the first four day, the first four matches. The last two, I'm not so sure about that. I played a lot of golf with maybe a lot of heart and chipped and putted like a demon.

Q. Where was the driver today?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know. Gosh, it was so bad. I can't remember the last time I have driven the ball that poorly. I mean, I couldn't even -- I almost gave up on the fact I was even going to hit a fairway. It was like, which side would be better, what rough would be better to be in. Just throw out the fairway.

Scott, on the 13th hole, after I hooked it left into the rough, he goes, "Are you going to hit a fairway today?"

I go, "I sure don't plan on it because I don't see how it's going to happen. I haven't even come close."

But I hung in there. I got some good lies in the rough. I got a few bad ones, but I got a lot of good ones, so I was lucky from that standpoint and I hit a lot of really good shots out of the rough.

I putted so well. You know, I just started using this claw grip, and I just -- it's amazing to me how much better I putted with the Claw than I was a week ago. It is just incredible. I definitely will be using it in the next time I play.

Q. Can you tell us when you started doing it, who turned you on to it?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Well, actually, this is how the whole thing went.

It was Monday afternoon at Riviera and I went on to the PGA TOUR Links Web site to see if I got in this tournament. And I saw that I was 64th, so I knew the worst the -- I was going to be the 64th in the tournament, so you also knew two guys were not going to play.

So, I started looking at some of the stats and I had to go to putting leaders and I saw that DiMarco and Calcavecchia were leading in putting. And I go, "Man, maybe there's something to that Claw."

So, I kind of forgot about it and I went and played my practice round on Tuesday and my teacher, Don Baucom, who was at Riviera; we are were having a little putting contest, there is no one up there, we are having a little putting contest, and we like to kind of give it to each other a little bit. I said, "Do you see who is leading the thing? DiMarco and Calcavecchia" and I said, "How do you use the Claw?" And John, my caddie, also caddies for Calcavecchia when I'm not playing, and he says he knows how to grip it.

So, I gripped it like Calcavecchia does and I made, like, the first ten putts I hit. And I was like, "Wow, there's something to this thing," but I couldn't use it in the tournament; so I put it in the back of my mind.

And I played the first ten holes at the Riviera and I missed about a 2-footer on 10, which might have been the best 2-footer I ever missed because I immediately went to the Claw. And, I'm telling you, there's no way I would have won this tournament if I was not using the Claw. There's nothing in the past in the last month that showed any of this putting that I did this week.

Q. Are you going to stick with it for a while or a long time?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: When I started using it I was looking at it as a long-term experiment. I was looking at it as something I could use. Not for something like a Band-Aid, but something I could use.

Not that Chris is not a great player, but he definitely putts better now than he used to and I don't think he would argue that. I mean, I'm not trying to say he wasn't a great putter before, but he obviously putts better now. So I was planning on, hey, if this thing works, I'm using it. I'll definitely be using it at Bay Hill and THE PLAYERS Championship and Houston.

Q. How about the Masters?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: And the Masters.

Q. McCarron called you "one of the best rough players on TOUR," and I'm wondering, why you hit such good shots out of the rough. You seem to get a lot of height on the ball.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: My swing is somewhat steep; so that it will allow me to kind of get on the ball without the rough kind of grabbing the club. I don't know why, but it's my particular swing, I guess, but I don't catch flyers very often out of the rough. I could be in the rough and I won't catch a flyer. If fact, if anything, it comes out a little dead. It doesn't come out -- it won't go even as far, so I always have really good distance control out of the rough.

I think that's one reason why I'm so good out of the rough, is I have really good distance control out of the rough.

Unfortunately, I get a lot of practice at it, as it showed today. (Laughs).

Does anybody know how many fairways I hit today? Was it ten?

Q. But you only made one bogey.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I know I didn't have very many bogeys. I didn't stop to think but I knew I was doing a pretty good job of getting it around the golf course, considering that I hit ten fairways. I figured it was somewhere around that.

Q. Isn't match-play, isn't that really a big key where one guy gets sort of psyched out because the other guy just keeps making up-and-down pars?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Scott drove the ball beautifully today. He hit it long, he's hitting straight, and he hit a lot of -- he had a lot of good putts for birdie, and some were for eagle. The ball just wasn't going in for him today. It was unfortunate for me him, but it gave me a chance. If they were going in, I would have been done and our match-play would have been over, 6&5 or whatever. But he gave me a chance because of the fact, his ball, for some reason, was not going in today and I was able to hang on, make some 5-footers to tie some holes.

In the 9th hole, the second round was -- I thought was the tournament, looking back on it now. I'm in the right rough behind a tree having to hook one around the tree with the likelihood I'm not going to get it back in the fairway, which I didn't, and he's going for the green in two and I'm 2-down at this point with ten holes to play.

You know, I happened to hit a third shot from underneath another tree that goes -- I hit a great shot there to six feet. He doesn't let his up-and-down and I make birdie and all of a sudden instead of being three down, I'm 1-down and all of a sudden I'm right back in it.

So, instead of looking like be falling out of touch with Scott, I'm right back in the tournament. There were times on the front side where I just really felt like I was going to have a hard time keeping up. And also, making the birdie on 11 was big.

But, you know, he gave me a good break there on 14 and 15 when he made bogey.

Q. What was the situation on 9, what club did you use to get it close? What was your lie and what was your like?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Wedge from underneath the tree. I had like, 90 yards, so I knew that I was going to hit the wedge so easy that I was not going to get up into the tree. I was also fortunate that I had a downhill lie, and I also had a fairly bare lie. There was some grass, but it was not really thick. So, I knew I would be able to fly it back towards the hole with some spin on the ball. But, you know it's always a dicey shot when you're trying to judge a 90-yard shot with a pitching wedge, a shot, I honestly, don't practice a lot. Usually, I'm hitting a sand wedge from that distance. But it turned out great for me on that hole.

Same thing with the Faxon match; that was a pivotal hole again. I made a birdie when it looked like he was going to make a birdie and able to win that hole.

Q. What do you think the principle behind the Claw is?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I have no idea. I really don't. You just kind of grip it and it just seems like my stroke seems to smooth out a little bit and it seems like I'm able to get the ball to roll really, really well. But I don't know what it does. I don't know if I want to figure that out. (Laughs).

Q. What were you trying to do like, the second round off the tee, were you trying to make an adjustment? Did you know what was wrong?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I did make an adjustment. When I was on 16 the first round, I said I need to try to figure out -- the ball needs to go one direction. Because the first 15 holes, the ball was not going one direction. It was going as far left as it was right.

I said, I've just got to start hitting a cut and get the ball going one direction, so then maybe I'll have a chance of somewhat controlling where the ball is going to go. And I actually hit a good drive on 17, 18 and then I hit a good drive on 1,2, and that was about it. (Laughter.) Four holes in a row, I hit good drives. That was four of my ten fairways right there.

I thought that maybe I had figured something out. I really started getting some confidence in it and actually I hit a good drive on 8, after I hit a bad drive on 6. But I felt like, hey, this is looking like it's going in the right direction. At least I know where it's going. But that didn't last very long. I hit it right on 10 and then left on 12 and all of a sudden I was back where I started from.

I just stayed with it, though. I thought about going back to just trying to swing normally and I thought, well, that's no good because I'll hit it all over again. At least I know where it's going to go. At least I'll know that it's either going to be in the fairway or the right rough. And I felt like that was somewhat to my advantage because now I could at least aim on the left side of the fairway and use the whole fairway, but the adjustment did not last very long.

I was trying to make adjustments as I went. I was struggling with the irons on the first 18. I basically just tried to hit like little punch-shot all day and try to get the ball going straight. I was not trying to do anything fancy. I just tried to advance the golf ball.

I don't know why, but the first four rounds, I played -- hit my irons as good as I could hit them, hit my driver as good as I could hit it and for some reason, it just left me and I don't know where it went.

Q. Did you think about going to the Claw with your driver?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Maybe I should. That's probably a very good idea.

Q. Can you tell us about 18?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I hit my little flare out to the right. The rough there was kind of thick and I didn't have a great lie, but I was fortunate from the standpoint that the rough was in a tire track and it was going towards the green. So I knew that I could at least probably get it in the front bunker. I knew could I not get it on the green because the lie was not good enough.

But I knew I could get it into the front bunker and, you know, that's probably the best bunker shot that I've ever hit in my life. I mean, I've hit a lot of really good ones but none of them meant that much. And for the fact that I was able to get it up there to where Scott was going to try to throw it over the stands, it at least made Scott know that he was going to have to make his putt; so it put a little more pressure on him to make the putt.

To be honest with you, he hit a great putt. I thought he made it. I was almost shocked when it didn't go in. When it was rolling towards the hole I'm going, "Well he made it, where is the playoff hole." For some reason, it did not break to the right and he had a lot of putts today that looked really good and just did not go in.

Q. What was the yardage on the sand wedge shot?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know. It's just a feel shot. I know some people around the greens like that know exactly how far, I just go strictly by feel. I'm very much a feel player.

Q. Scott used the terminology that you "put yourself on the map today." Do you have any sense of that? Is that important you?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I haven't really thought about it.

I guess so. I mean, you start wondering whether you're ever going to win a PGA tournament. I've had a lot of good chances over the last, what, six years, and you really start -- not that I was doubting myself, but you start wondering if it's going to happen. To win a World Golf Championship, to have your first be a World Golf Championship, is amazing, especially with the quality of this field. It's just amazing to me.

Like I said before, when I came here, I was thrilled when I got to the quarterfinals. I was thrilled when I got to Round 16. I was thrilled when I got to the semis. I was ecstatic when I got to the finals; and to win it, just kept getting better.

Q. Have you thought about how to spend a million bucks yet?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No. You know, it's funny, it never even dawned on me, the money. It was the winning and obviously the money is great. You know, it never occurred to me that it was $1 million.

Q. And to beat a guy that you've known for years, sort of fits in the whole week, didn't it?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I feel bad for Scott. I know he really, really wanted to win. He's had two great weeks in a row and he's a great player. You know, I know he's very disappointed and he really had a golden opportunity to really win this tournament. He outplayed me big time all day long. I was just able to hang in there and stay close and stay close and stay close. And all of a sudden, I got a couple good breaks at the end and all of a sudden, I go: "I'm leading with three holes to play," where all day long, I'm in just total survival mode, just trying to get to the next hole and not hurt anybody while I'm doing it. (Laughter.) Including myself.

And all of a sudden I was leading. It was funny because all of a sudden the adrenaline started flowing a little bit and I'm like, wow, I've got a really good chance here.

But, you know, he hit a great putt on 16 and that could have gone in. He played some beautiful golf from tee-to-green. We were like mirror images of each other. If we could have gotten together we would have been a good player today.

Q. Scott is very self-assured and you seem to be a different type of personality. Is that the case 20 years ago?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: We've been very different people our whole lives. He's all been very outgoing, very self-assured. We were so opposite in just about every way. You know I'm very reserved, I like to -- when I'm in Sacramento, I just basically hang out at home, go to some Kings games, but really don't do anything very exciting. He likes to do everything.

So we're so different in that way, but I think we have a tremendous amount of respect for each other and we always have. It really meant a lot to play Scott today.

We had a great time today. I get choked up every time I start talking about it because I look back to where we were and to think that if someone had told us to years ago when we were playing in high school that we would be playing today, it would have seemed like an amazing accomplishment.

Q. Are you 2-0 against him now in match-play?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah. Well, I guess I am. I made another big comeback I guess. (Smiles).

I don't know what to say to that, besides, yeah, I guess I'm 2-0.

Q. Did he mention your dress at all today, as opposed to 20 years ago?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No, he didn't. Although he did say that he was going to find that picture and it's probably going to ends up somewhere.

Q. The Internet?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: The Internet would be okay. Probably put it up in front of my locker at one tournament and it will be a nice topic of conversation.

Q. Talk to your brother last night?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Talked to my brother. Talked to a few people. Surprisingly, I slept great last night. I was shocked. I thought I was going to be -- I was very relaxed today. It may not have shown by the way I was playing, but I was very relaxed and I think that's one reason why my short game was so good.

Maybe playing against Scott had something to do with that. I was playing someone I was very familiar with. We had a lot of very good conversation. We got very serious at the end. The last nine holes we didn't talk a lot, but for the first 27, we might -- especially the first 18, we could have been playing a practice round together.

In fact, I made a comment to Tom Meeks who was our referee, and he said to him -- he does the USGA tournaments which is a lot of match-play and I said, "Have you seen a match that is less intense than this one"?

He goes, "No, this is kind of refreshing to see two people who could be so friendly, but yet competitive with each other." It kind of turned a little bit in the last nine holes which is great, because we knew what was on the line and we both wanted to win. But we both at the end knew that it was going to be a good day for both of us.

Q. You talked about wondering when this first win was going to come, does this change your outlook for the rest of the year, Masters, U.S. Open?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I'll have the same outlook I've always had. I'm not going to change the way I feel about how I'm going to play golf. I've always knew I could win. Now I know I can win. But I always felt like I could win, I guess I could say.

I don't think my out rook is going to change. When I tee it up in a tournament I'm still going to want to win, but now I guess I'll have something to reflect back on now. You know, the bunker shots and the putts and all that stuff is going to be real positive, refreshing memories for when I get in similar situations again.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts....