THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY SOUTHERN COMPANY AND MERCEDES-BENZ

November 1, 1998

Hal Sutton

HAL SUTTON: I think the golf course won this week. Man, what a hard golf course this is. We had beautiful weather all week. The golf course was in perfect condition. I don't know if we could have had a better setting for THE TOUR Championship. It's a great golf course. Mr. Cousins has done a great job restoring East Lake, and I'm sure Bobby Jones would be very proud of East Lake right now.

HAL SUTTON: Man, I think that's one of the hardest holes I've ever seen in my life right there. It's all right. Yeah, it's okay to finish on a par 3. I've never really been -- you know, when I heard, that we played, what, Congressional two years ago, we had a finish on a par 3. Wasn't nearly as hard a par 3 as this one is. It's a hole. Any great hole deserves to be the last hole.

HAL SUTTON: I don't know, it was above the pucker factor out there just a minute ago, whatever that is (laughter).

HAL SUTTON: Well, I was a little worried. I needed the birdie at 15 really bad. I felt like, That's not a really good shot for me either. This golf course, as a whole - I should probably reflect back on this - I went to dinner with Tim Finchem Wednesday night. He said, "What do you think of the golf course?" I said, "It's a golf course, but it really favors a high ball hitter. I'm going to have to play pretty defensive. I'm not going to be able to attack the flag a lot. I'm going to have to try to be patient, 2-putt, make a putt wherever I can." He just kept reminding me of that all week long. I didn't really have a lot of close birdie putts. Probably the happiest that I am to report is that I had a lot of long putts all week long, and I only had one 3-put all week. That was the big difference right there. But the finishing holes - getting back to your question a little bit - when I didn't birdie 15, 16 was my last opportunity that I felt like a low shot could be okay, and I drove -- hit a good drive. It just trickled into the rough there. I was fortunate to get a good second shot into the green, but I still didn't have a good birdie putt. When we got to 17 and 18, I knew Vijay had the advantage because he could drive it up on top of the hill. That shot is a much different shot from on top of that hill than it is from 30 yards back there where you can't see the green. Then 18 does require a high shot. That's why I carry a 4-wood most all the time. When I saw that hole early in the week, I knew the 4-wood was in for sure.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I can't come up with a real good answer on that. I've been asked that a hundred times. You know where I'm coming from, and where I'm sitting right now is so far apart. I went from really feeling embarrassed to hit balls on the range with some of the better players in the world to sitting here right now talking about winning this tournament. All the things that had to fall into place to get to here, it's been a long, hard battle. I surrounded myself, like I said the other day, with people that I felt like knew what they were talking about, very positive. I mean, I owe a lot of credit to Floyd Horgen, the guy that helped me with my golf swing, Jackie Burke has helped me a great deal. My wife doesn't allow me to be negative at all. She can't stand me being negative. I'm just like every other golfer in the world. I'm looking at every chance to be negative (laughter). But anyway, I hope that answers your question.

HAL SUTTON: You know, I was a little more nervous over that 3-footer for the par than I was that last putt. Looking back at that, that all happened so fast to me. I'll tell you why. I mean, I shoved the ball in the bunker off the tee. Vijay hit a beautiful shot right at it. I kind of looked away saying, "That's perfect, great shot." I looked down, started walking. Until I got to the green, I didn't realize he was over the green. As I'm walking up, I said, "Vijay's over the green, we're in the ballgame, Freddie." I had a good lie in the bunker. . The only thing, I was looking right into the sun, I couldn't see the pin when I looked up. I had to kind of envision. That's one of those times where you almost got your eyes shut and you're hitting the shot with feel. I hit the bunker shot just exactly like I wanted to. Then the 4-wood in the playoff, the neat part about the first 4-wood was I knew if I didn't come off of it, it was the right club, so it gave me the confidence to hit it in the playoff. When I stayed with it, I knew it was going to be just right. The putt was like I've had all week, a lot of downhill putts that you have to be really careful with. It was a right lip putt. I started on my line, and it went in.

HAL SUTTON: Probably right on the top. I hit a shot at the TPC when I won it about eight inches on 17, that was pretty special, but that wasn't the last shot of the day. That was a pretty special shot.

HAL SUTTON: I didn't even realize it till they told me up there. I've been on two Ryder Cup teams. It was a great honor to play for your country. I'm happy to make that team with all the great players that have made that team. I hope to play well over there. I hope we have a successful trip.

HAL SUTTON: No, it really wasn't on my mind. It was on my mind earlier. After I won Texas, I got up to 14th or something like that. I kept playing, thinking that I needed to make enough money to make the Presidents Cup. I got tired, didn't play very well at Kingsmill, Las Vegas. I thought, "I've got to go home. I can't keep trudging along. If I don't, I won't be able to play well at East Lake." I went home, rested all week. Gave up the notion of making the Presidents Cup team. I was just focusing on trying to play the best I could here. To be honest with you - I'm being as honest as I know how - winning this tournament was completely out of my realm of thinking because the first two trips around this golf course, I mean, I was pretty convinced that this golf course didn't favor Hal Sutton. It didn't favor a low-ball hitter. That might have been really good that I had done that really, in a way - in a backwards way - because I didn't put any pressure on myself to do that. I just tried to play my game all week, not get off my game plan.

HAL SUTTON: Well, you know, I didn't feel like I started very good. I had missed the fairway on the 1st hole, come close, I missed it left, didn't make par there. 2 and 3, I hit it in there pretty good. Didn't hit very good putts. Then on 4, I hit it on the front of the green and run it by six or seven feet, had to really make a really hard downhill putt. I remember standing on the back of the fourth green thinking, "You got to calm down a little bit. You're getting just a little bit anxious. It doesn't matter. If this goes in, it's great. If it doesn't go in, that's okay, too. There's still a lot of golf, let's relax." I knocked that putt right in the middle of the hole. That kind of calmed me down a little bit. I played pretty solidly after that. I mean, even when I made a mistake, like at 13, I hit the club I wanted to off the tee and I got an in between yardage. I pulled the smaller of the two clubs, realizing I was uphill into the wind. I'm thinking, "I've got to force this one to get over the bunker." I hit it exactly like I wanted to, perfect. It lacked about two or three feet making it over the bunker. Got up there, knew I didn't have an easy bunker shot, couldn't get it up-and-down unless I made a putt. I was still okay with it. It's like, "Okay, keep settled. Everybody is going to make a mistake." I think that was the key. This golf course wasn't going to let anybody run from anybody. I mean, Vijay proved that. He played such a great round that first round. Golf course wouldn't let him run away.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I feel like what I had done worked regardless of what I did here. The only way I know how to put this, when I stand on the tee and I look down the fairway, I see the fairway; I don't see the rough. When I was at rockbottom, all I could see was the rough. So I think, yes, in answering your question, I think I'm back now, need to just try to sustain.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I'm happy that I've been able to, but I don't want to get caught in the trap of -- you know, before I make any real comments about that, I think I just want to reflect back and think about what I've got to do next because, you know, having played this game for a long time, 17 years professionally, we're no better than our last round. I realize that now. Where back then, I thought, you know, I don't have to work at it, it will sustain itself. All this does is make me want to go out and practice tomorrow, I mean, because I do know how easy it can leave.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah (laughter).

HAL SUTTON: Left rough on 1. I actually had a halfway decent lie. I had some overhanging limbs. I caught them. It just kicked it down, just short of the green. I hit a really good chip, but that pin was sitting right on a slope, run by about 12 feet, missed it coming back. Then 8, I hit a sand wedge in there about six feet, made that. 13, I hit a 7-iron from 166, and just hit the top lip of the bunker and came back down in the bunker. It was on the flat side of it. Had no green to work with. Hit it out 12 feet, missed it, 14 feet. Then 14, I hit a really good drive. Hit a pitching wedge from 129, about three feet, and made that.

HAL SUTTON: At 2, I hit it about 12 feet left of the hole. The putt was breaking about three feet, really fast. That's one thing I need to say about East Lake. I don't know if that's a good birdie putt or not. The next hole I had a pretty decent birdie putt. I had about a 7- or 8-footer that broke about eight inches left-to-right. I'd consider that an easier birdie putt than the one before that. Then I don't know if I had another birdie putt that I would have considered -- oh, yeah, 7. I hit one in there about ten feet at 7, and missed it. That was probably the easiest putt I had. Probably broke three inches left-to-right. Just hit the under lip of it.

HAL SUTTON: It was playing 240. That's exact yardage that I try to hit it most of the time. Actually, I can fly it about 230 - between 230 and 235. That was just under the hill, so it could release up top.

HAL SUTTON: I don't think that matters. I think Vijay is pretty confident with the clubs that he -- whatever he's got in his hand. He was just -- I don't know. I was confident that my 4-wood was the right club.

HAL SUTTON: I would have preferred to hit first. I'm glad that that happened that way. I felt like I had the club. I felt like if I hit the really good shot, then I put the pressure on him.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, I hit a 4-wood the first day. That day the wind was more -- wait a minute. Yeah, I hit the green that day, I think. No, no, I hit it left of the green that day. The wind was into our face that day. I made it a little bit of a stretch for me.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I don't know where I was hoping the tee was. I tell you what I was hoping. I was hoping I could get to that tee with a chance to win. I didn't care where the tee was at that point.

HAL SUTTON: Well, that just says we don't want to roll over and play dead yet. You know, everybody, the focus has been on all those young guys. It's kind of paved the way for us to quietly go about our business. Nobody has put any pressure on us, bothered us. You know, actually those young guys push -- they're pushing us pretty hard. We don't want to give up yet. I think that's what's great about the TOUR right now. It's got he so much depth, young and old. I mean, the future, in my opinion, the TOUR looks bright because there's so many guys that are capable players.

HAL SUTTON: You know, I was so focused on playing one shot at a time today. I mean, this is one of the few rounds that I can honestly say that I never, ever let someone else, what they did, influence what I was doing. I just locked in so hard on the shot that I was about to play that I wasn't focusing on the past or the future or anything else. I mean, I just wanted to play that shot that I had right there to the best of my ability. I'm not sure anything that I've ever done from the past would have helped me or anything that I've ever done in the past would have hurt me. The answer to that question is, I didn't even think about any of that. I literally was just locked in on that one shot at a time.

HAL SUTTON: You know, we hit some woods the year I won the PGA at Riviera, at the 4th hole. We don't hit many woods to par 3s, we really don't. I tell you what, I hit two really great 4-woods today. That might not have been the 4-wood that won the tournament for me. The 4-wood that might have won the tournament for me might have been when I drove it in the right rough on No. 9, pitched it out of the fairway, had 249, hit it right in the center of the green with that 4-wood. We had a lot of golf to play. If I made bogey there on a hole that you were trying to make your birdie on, things might have turned out a lot different. That 4-wood worked pretty good for me this week.

HAL SUTTON: I tell you, what I'll put that into perspective for you. I'll tell you how long ago I won. Both checks was $226,000. That's about just half a million dollars short of this one check here, so (laughter).

HAL SUTTON: Oh, yeah, that felt like a lot of money. But, you know, what I don't play this game for money. I play this game because I want to be good at it. I like being able to feel proud of what you've done. You know, that check is just a by-product of what you work hard for. I mean, being able to feel what you feel on that 18th hole in there on that playoff, that's what it's all about. It's not the check they're going to send me later.

HAL SUTTON: Well, yeah, you have a completely different mind set. But, I mean, I prefer golf courses like this. I don't like to get in a birdie shootout with everybody. I like hard golf courses where par is a good score. So from that side of it, I like the way it's set up this week.

HAL SUTTON: I haven't even thought about that. I don't know. I like a putt to win, knowing that you can 2-putt and still go to the next hole. If I got that putt to win, I don't care if it's downhill, uphill, sidehill.

HAL SUTTON: Well, yeah. I like six-footers. I would have preferred a one- or two-footer, you know.

HAL SUTTON: Not really. I was paying a lot more attention -- I mean, Vijay had kind of set the pace on the Back 9. I knew both Jesper and Furyk were right around us. There really wasn't any time to look at that or pay any attention to that. I had to make sure I was taking care of my job. I looked at the score board when I walked up to 18, I knew exactly where everybody stood. I knew what they had done. Like I said, I did not know Vijay hit it over the green till I walked up. I said, "Gee, that went over the front of the green. We got a ballgame now."

HAL SUTTON: Well, we had great weather, too. I didn't think this course was going to get beat up. I played with all these guys all my life. I know what everybody's capabilities are. I thought this course was going to be the real winner this week. When you have rough as high as it is out there, a lot of those fairways are sloping, some of those fairways are 20 to 25 yards wide in the driving areas. I knew the course was the real winner at the end of the week.

HAL SUTTON: Well, I think, yeah, everybody else, the appeal is the fact that it's got a big payoff. You know what? I guarantee if you ask all 30 of the guys that played in this tournament, "What would you rather have, the check or the trophy, and the fact that you won the tournament, beat all your peers," I guarantee all 30 guys would say they'd rather have the trophy.

HAL SUTTON: I'm not saying that everybody doesn't like money. I mean, that's not what I'm saying. That's why the 30 guys are here. I mean, they're not playing for money; they're playing to play to the best of their ability. There's always an argument for that. I've heard that there's an argument that we're playing for so much money that guys don't play to win. I'm telling you right now, I've never seen a guy that didn't play to win. If he didn't play to win, he just didn't think he could.

HAL SUTTON: That's the only time I wish I were 30 years old again. The TOUR doing what it's doing right now, I'd like be to be 30 instead of 40. I'll try to keep myself in shape.

HAL SUTTON: He's patting himself on the back. Can everybody tell that? I did have a bad crick in my neck this week. That's one thing, Ralph in the fitness -- Ralph Sampson deserves a lot of credit. He worked hard on my back this week. We were in there till 6:30 Friday night working on my back.

HAL SUTTON: Thank you.