WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 23, 2000

Hal Sutton

HAL SUTTON: Wow, what a golf course. I wish we played one like this every week. I always look forward to coming to Firestone. I think it's one of the top five golf courses I've ever played. Every chance I get to play in it, it's exciting to me.

HAL SUTTON: Better. Better.

HAL SUTTON: What does that mean? Somewhere between not good and feeling perfect. (Laughs). You know, it is not 100%, but it is so much better than it was last week. It's good enough to go, let me put it that way.

HAL SUTTON: No, I won't be limping.

HAL SUTTON: I favored the foot so much that -- I don't know -- what do they call it? Sacroiliac or something like that. It was sending sharp pains down my right leg and rear end. Every time I'd try to get my right side up to the ball, it hurt really bad.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, that was bad. That's the worst I've ever felt on the golf course.

HAL SUTTON: I could feel it Thursday, yeah. It was not feeling good. And then by -- I went out there really early Friday and let them work on me for a long time. I didn't feel like I could walk very good Friday morning when I got up, and they worked on it for a long time. Still didn't get it where I wanted it.

HAL SUTTON: Well, it's long, so it favors a longer hitter. But it's better to be straight, because there is some pretty good rough out there, and it's always easier to hit a shot into these greens, which are pretty difficult, from the fairway. So, you know, it's great to be long and straight. But if I had to be one or the other, I would rather be straight.

HAL SUTTON: It's solid. I'm ready to go with that.

HAL SUTTON: I hit some shots last week that are totally uncharacteristic of me. I was flicking those arms out, hitting some lame ducks out to the right, which I never really do. And I usually get it released if I'm going to miss it, I'll miss it left. That was pretty ugly, having to endure watching that.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, that shot I hit on No. 12, right of the green short there, was awful. But I got it up-and-down. I don't think anybody thought I could get it up-and-down. I did do that. (Laughs).

HAL SUTTON: Well, first of all, I think Bob played awesome. I think he played great. He's to be commended about the way he played. A little different scenario there. You know, they were reeling birdie after birdie after birdie, and we were not able to do that at TPC. We were just kind of parring along there. But anyway, it was the most exciting finish I've ever seen in a golf tournament, I think, last week.

HAL SUTTON: I guess I avoided that question because I don't think it was a similar parallel. I think that, you know, they were trying to make birdie after birdie after birdie. You know, we were not shooting -- we were not matching 31s on the back nine, in other words. It was a little bit more -- we were not necessarily looking right at the flag and, you know, knocking the pin down with shots or whatever. We were looking at certain spots and going from there.

HAL SUTTON: Well, what I think is -- I constantly contend that people like to see birdies. And people don't like to see guys just thrashing it around making par after par after par. And when you get two guys that match 31s on the back nine, to tie for a major championship -- I mean, and it wasn't just them shooting low scores. There were a lot of people shooting low scores. Birdies are exciting. That's what people like to see. I think that's what makes exciting finishes, making birdies. I mean, if the PGA did any one thing wrong last week, I thought that they put the pin back on the top shelf four straight days in a row. I think it would have been exciting if they put the pin on one side or the other where the guys could have made an eagle to win the golf tournament. I thought that showed how limited that golf course really was, on where you could put pins, to put it on the same shelf all four days. I believe I would have done it, just to say there was another way of doing it.

HAL SUTTON: Well, when they put it on the front, you know, right on the very front right there, that green is kind of like a V. So when you put it on the very front, you run the real risk of running it on the other side, if you're on the left side chipping, you not only have to worry about it coming back to you, you have to worry about it going off the front. So the further they put it back, the wider the slope is.

HAL SUTTON: Yes.

HAL SUTTON: I think so.

HAL SUTTON: If my ball was tweaked, they have never told me it's been tweaked, put it that way. If we find out that my ball is different than one sold across a counter, well, that will be news to me just like it will be news to you.

HAL SUTTON: They are different grinds, too. If you tweak them, they will look different to you than what they sell across the counter, just because they have been grounded.

HAL SUTTON: I think -- that Strata has a lot to do with my golf, is that what you're saying?

HAL SUTTON: That's not misleading. If my ball is different than the one you can buy in the pro shop, well, it would be news to me. The only thing different about my golf balls is it has got my name written on it.

HAL SUTTON: (Laughter.) It's very little difference. I can get some with your name on it if you like. It does make you stand out, though.

HAL SUTTON: I don't know, really, why that has happened. By this time of the year, usually there are several guys that are hurting. You know, we've gone hard and we've pushed ourselves, and somebody has taken a wrong step or -- there's just various things for it. I don't know. I don't have the answer to that. But Vijay did pull out? I was supposed to be playing him Tuesday in the Shell's Wonderful World of Golf in Jamaica.

HAL SUTTON: If I am not playing nobody, I'm winning, I can tell you that.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I'll be defending in Canada in two weeks. I'm going to play the Texas Open, because I didn't defend there last year because of the Ryder Cup. And I'm going to play Las Vegas the week before.

HAL SUTTON: I think history; but also, I love the golf course. I think it's super-demanding. I think it asks you to hit every club in the bag. So many golf courses you go to, you don't hit that many 2- or 3-irons. You hit a lot of them, too. You'd better bring your long irons to this golf course because you're going to hit some of them.

HAL SUTTON: I hope so.

HAL SUTTON: I like that kind of competition. I think it's fun.

HAL SUTTON: I don't think so. I think we've got several first-timers on this team, I think. We've got -- how many? Three or four first-timers. There's going to be a nice mix of players there, of experience and young guys. And we're going to have a good time. Ken is going to be a great captain. I think we're looking forward to playing. We had a little meeting yesterday. It seemed like everybody was excited. You know, Paul is going to be a great addition to the team. I thought Paul was an excellent choice for the team, as was Loren Roberts, too. But Paul is such a fiery, spirited, competitive, great player. And those kind of guys are good to have on a team like that.

HAL SUTTON: I don't know. We'll see.

HAL SUTTON: No. I wasn't surprised. I felt like, having talked to Ken a few times prior to that, that he was going to go for experience. And if he did go for inexperience in that 11th or 12th spot, it was going to be somebody that was playing really lights-out. And, you know, as it turned out, you know, he went for the experience.

HAL SUTTON: Well, you make the team, first. You know, see, to me -- I'm putting words in the captain's mouth here, I don't know if this is really true, but a lot has to do with what a guy does late if he ends up being picked in a situation like that. If he does not play well the week or two prior to the PGA, to me, he's telling me 'I don't really care if I make the team or not. But if I don't make the team, okay.' There were a few guys in that position. And then there's other guys that -- you know, Chris played good. He could have won the Buick, but almost -- but when you have never made that team -- you have to make the team. What I would say to that, this is a roundabout way of me saying it: Make the team. Don't wait on being picked. Make the team. I mean, everybody made the team first, and the reason why they get picked after that is because they made several teams. Do you see what I'm saying?

HAL SUTTON: Well, that's what I was saying. If a guy is playing really great, maybe he has not won, he's played lights-out, and he's playing all the time trying to get there, he's telling me he wants to play, even though he has not made it.

HAL SUTTON: A little bit. Wasn't particularly good time for us at our house there.

HAL SUTTON: I wasn't down there to feel what was going on. I was surprised we got beat as badly as we did. I don't know.

HAL SUTTON: Are you looking for why they got beat that bad?

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, it bothers me when one of our teams gets beat that badly, it bothers me. There's something about it. Everybody, I mean, it's kind of -- how can I say this, or even if I should say this, but there's something about beating Americans, people just like to beat the Americans, and you know, they rise to the occasion. They make shots from out of the fairway. I've been on several Ryder Cup teams when I was totally amazed with the shots that guys made. Like, "Man, this is unbelievable," you know, the shots that they are making. But it's just the aura of the event itself that makes everybody rise to the occasion. So we're like the hunted, if that makes any sense. Maybe we're going in being the hunter in this Presidents Cup.

HAL SUTTON: Well, they have the Cup. They have what we want. So that makes us the hunter, I think.

HAL SUTTON: I have not.

HAL SUTTON: I have to do an outing in Baltimore in September, so I'm thinking about slipping in there the day before or the day after and playing. But there wasn't any organized practice, no. It's kind of hard to do that. You know, we left from here last year and went up to Boston and played the Country Club. It's kind of hard because everybody is going in different directions. Nobody is playing the same golf tournaments. And there's quite a few of us here, but if you didn't do it on the heels of this tournament, then it's pretty hard to go do it, unless you do it on your own.