MARCONI PENNSYLVANIA CLASSIC

September 22, 2001

Kevin Sutherland

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I played very well the last two days. To be honest with you, after the first day, I wasn't really seeing any light at the end of the tunnel, to be honest with you. I didn't play very well the first day. I'm just making everything I look at right now and I'm hitting some good shots, and I'm putting very, very well.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: You know, I have no idea. I hit some really bad shots on Thursday. I was 6-over par on at one point, and I birdied two of the last four holes to kind of get back to -- thinking I didn't have a chance to make the cut. For some reason, on Friday, I just started playing a whole lot better. I didn't hit any golf balls. It just was -- I can't explain it.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I had six holes this morning, and it's kind of a long day. But when you're playing well, it seems to go by a little faster. I mean, not playing well, it just becoming a long day. When you're making a lot of putts and a lot of birdies, it's a lot of fun; and the day, the time goes by a lot faster.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, we kind of fed off each other a little bit. It's always a lot better to play with someone who is playing really well and Cameron was playing great today. With the exception of basically one shot, he played a perfect round of golf. Could have very easily, except for one shot, been, I don't know, what is it, 10-under par. He made ten birdies today, so he played fantastic. It kind of keeps you going. You kind of like -- you have a tendency not to get complacent, you see him making a lot of birdies, he sees you making a lot of birdies, so you feed off each other. Jeff played well today. He shot 4-under par and he played very well. We just had a great group today.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: You have a tendency -- for some reason, today I kept thinking today was Friday. You think the second round is supposed to be Friday and the third round is Saturday, so you have a tendency to lose your day. Out here we're not real smart; we can't count Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It's difficult to a certain extent, but, you know, it's still just golf. It's not like it's real difficult. You're just playing golf, and hopefully, we will be able to play tomorrow. I'm going to be done, but hopefully the guys are going to be able to play in the morning without any fog and be able to start on time tomorrow.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Absolutely. There's no question about it. It's been a tough -- it's been a tough couple of weeks for this country, and, you know, for us to take golf too seriously at this point would be almost idiotic in a sense. We are out here just trying to play golf. I haven't seen anybody, you know, ranting and raving or getting too upset. Everybody is kind of just trying to get through the day and play some golf, but not taking it too seriously. I think to a certain extent, that's one reason why you play a little better. You're just playing. There's no emotion. No, you know, getting ahead of yourself. You're just kind of out there playing. Under these circumstances, that's all you can do.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No. I mean, hard work to play golf?

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No -- I don't know. I'm not sure golf would ever be considered hard work, but it makes it more difficult, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. You know, you just -- you might lose a little bit of your ambition, a little bit of your drive to go out and practice and stuff like that, and you spend a lot more time on the TV set trying to see what's going on and not trying to, you know, find your game. You're out there just trying -- you know, you just -- if you get done with your round, most of the guys are going to see what happened today: Did we find anybody today; are we doing anything over in Afghanistan; stuff like that. In my mind, it's not really hard work.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I'm talking about CNN. Yeah, watching CNN or the nightly news or whatever. Something like that.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I think so. I would rather be done than have to come out here in the morning and play, you know, whatever, two or three holes and then wait around and then play again. It's definitely easier to, you know, sleep in a little bit, kind of get into more of a normal routine as far as golf is concerned.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know. I think it's still the same opportunity. I don't know if my opportunity is any better because I'm not playing in the morning. I think it's definitely an advantage, but it doesn't mean that those guys who are playing tomorrow morning aren't going to play really well. It doesn't mean that that's not going to happen. I mean, today I played this morning and then I went out again and shot 8-under, so, how much of a disadvantage, I don't know. Everybody would rather not have to play in the morning and just play 18 holes this afternoon.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I started on 13 this morning.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Actually, I did. At some point, I wasn't hitting the ball very well. Not so much off the tee, but I was hitting some very poor iron shots. I just said, "Let's try to hit some punch shots, try to get the ball started somewhere on-line. Don't try to get the ball in the air. Just try and hit it somewhere at the pin." Not trying to hit a cut or a hook, just hit is solid. Almost like I had to hit a punch shot underneath a tree, and for whatever reason, it kind of clicked and I started hitting a good iron shots. And a lot of them started going at the hole and as soft as the greens are, the ball does not have to have a lot of spin. In some ways it's almost an advantage because the ball is not going to spin back. For me the greens being soft has been very fortunate because I'm hitting a shot that isn't necessarily a real soft shot. It's kind of like a low shot. So, whatever reason, it clicked. And I don't know why it occurred to me to do that. I just figured it would be easier to punch it, to kind of keep it on-line.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know. It's definitely shorter now than it was on the 14th hole the first day. I'm trying to shorten the golf swing, just trying to hit like a low punch shot, and I don't know by how much it would be, but it's definitely shorter.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, it was drier, but the greens are holding, and they are still very soft, and I would assume it's going to be like that tomorrow.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I think so. I think that's because of everything that's going on. I think that it's really hard to get too excited about anything.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I hit pretty much the same club.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: Well, maybe not quite as much, because I'm not swinging quite as hard at it. But I'm not really -- maybe if I had to hit a hard 7-iron, I probably wouldn't hit it. I would go with like a little easy 6. For the most part, I'm hitting the same club.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't know how many people who were actually following us. I don't think there was very many. There was people around greens when we got to the green, but I don't think there's a lot of people who were following us through 18 holes. I would say it was a low number. I don't know how many, though. There's people around every green, but I think most of them are staying there, around each green. John Daly was in the group ahead of us, I believe, and he had quite a few people following him.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: 1, I birdied the first hole. I hit a poor drive in the left rough and got a decent lie and hit a wedge to three feet. So got off to obviously a very good start there. Birdied 3, hit a sand wedge -- or lob-wedge, actually, to about five feet. Made that putt. I birdied the fourth hole. Hit a pitching wedge to 15 feet and made that. I actually made a good par putt on 5. Made about a 5-footer there. Then I hit a 5-wood on 6 to about 30 feet and 2-putted. I parred 7, 8 and bogeyed 9. Hit a bad drive in the right trees. Basically had to chip up to the front bunker. Didn't get it up-and-down. That was a tough bunker shot. Then I hit a -- I birdied 10. I hit a 7-iron to 25 feet, probably. Made that. Then I hit a sand wedge to ten feet and made that. 11, yeah. I hit a 7-iron to about 15 feet on 12 and I made that. But I made about a 10-footer on 13 for par. Then I made about a -- hit a 7-iron on 14, made about a -- that had to be close to 30 feet, I guess. Made that. At this point I'm kind of going, "Wow." 18, I made about a 3-footer, 4-footer, probably four feet. Hit a wedge in there, pitching wedge.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: I don't think about it. (Laughs). I think the less I think about it, the better. I played very well the last two days. Obviously putted very well today. But, no, I'm very confident about how I'm playing right now. Obviously, I should be. But I'm not thinking about what I did or why I did it.

KEVIN SUTHERLAND: No. I'm not a real mechanical guy. I'm kind of more of a feel player.