DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 4, 1999

Olin Browne

OLIN BROWNE: Everybody here knows it was a little nippy this morning, a little breezy. Tough to play the front nine, but things warmed up, and once I got into a good rhythm out there, the back nine wasn't that bad. I think mostly the first nine holes, that is keeping the scores reasonable. The greens are beautiful, perfect shape, holding up. I expect somebody to shoot a low score this afternoon.

OLIN BROWNE: No. 4, hit a nice shot on No. 4, 2-iron in there about 20 feet above the pin and kind of lagged it down there and low and behold it went in the hole. Kind of nice way to start the day. I think I made another one on 6, I hit a 9-iron into No. 6 about twelve feet, made it. 15, par 3, hit a cut 7-iron in there about two and a half feet. And then 17, I made -- I hit pitching wedge into 17 about 20 feet.

OLIN BROWNE: No, I played solid today. I made some good decisions out there on the golf course which is not the norm for me. But since I have been away from the game for so long I felt like I was thinking a little bit more clearly, wasn't fatigued or anything, and you know, I missed a couple of shots. I hit it right under the lip on 9, it rolled back in the bunker, made really nice bunker shot there to get it, froze it up there about 18 inches, so, overall, I struck the ball nicely and, you know, thought my way around the course fairly well today. I was pleased.

OLIN BROWNE: Been taking care of my kids, driving them to school, irritating my wife, got a dog, I had to teach him not to go to the bathroom in the house, stuff that pretty much everybody else in the world does. Taking advantage of my stay at home for six months, and you know, chomping at the bit a little bit, but it was a good getaway really. You work so hard in this game to get to this Tour and seems like it is a 12-month-a-year process and then we get on Tour and beating balls and working on our short games and grinding week to week, and it's a pretty nice life, don't get me wrong, but there is less time than you'd think to do the normal stuff, the day-to-day stuff and so, you know, just six months of doing day-to-day stuff.

OLIN BROWNE: I did not turn it down. I was unable to play. I had surgery in October on my arm.

OLIN BROWNE: No. No. Guaranteed money. I missed going to Japan this year. I was invited to play some nice off-season stuff and I was unable to play. So it is nice to be playing again.

OLIN BROWNE: I missed it a lot. I think you probably do better if you ask my wife what she thought, but it wasn't so bad in the off-season, but when the Tournament of Champions came around, I was really excited about the prospect of that. We were going to take the family to Hawaii for a couple extra weeks. It was going to be a nice trip. I missed that. I am as much a fan as I am a player, I watch the golf on the tube. I really enjoying watching it and it was not the easiest thing in the world to resist going out and hitting balls when I shouldn't.

OLIN BROWNE: February. First week of February.

OLIN BROWNE: Tore the tendon in my left arm.

OLIN BROWNE: No, just wear and tear, you know, it started as tendinitis, I kept playing with it and eventually the tendon was disattached from the bone so, a doctor out of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, he handles the Mets, sports medicine guy, fixed it up for me in October.

OLIN BROWNE: Hardest thing for me to do was to be patient when I started up again. The first day I am -- I still don't hit balls. I am not really allowed to practice yet. The doc wants me to warm and go play and take care of my arm and let it heal up. So the hard thing for me to -- going to be the days -- today I hit the ball fairly decently. The days when I don't play so well, it is going to be hard to resist going to the range. But for the first two weeks that I was able to play, I restricted myself to nine holes every other day, from the white tees, so, I didn't even hit a driver until the week before I went to Tucson, so, I was hitting 150 yard 5-iron chip-and-run shots around the golf course. It was hard to restrict myself to that.

OLIN BROWNE: Yeah, I have always had it, but I can't and the thing is in pretty good shape. It is fairly strong. I don't have a lot of golf strength back, yet I am finding myself before -- if I was in between clubs, I'd often take the lesser club and beat on it. Now I am taking one more club and trying to beat on it maybe, but I have full range of motion; much of the thing is basically healed. What I don't want to do is -- it is a little weak and I don't want to aggravate it, or it is a long year, I mean I only missed seven events this year and if I keep that in perspective, I think I will be all right.

OLIN BROWNE: I hit enough balls to warm up. Then I worked on my chipping a little bit. So, I am really trying not to hit balls. I am trying to hit -- like this morning, before I played I think I hit 20 -- on a morning like today, loosening up is not easy. I tried to hit 20, 25 balls and then go play, maybe not be as aggressive with my swing on the golf course trying to just hit it down there and hit it down there a little further and chip it up on the green and do my damage there.

OLIN BROWNE: Oh, yeah, 20 years, I mean, I got to college and decided this will be a good way to make a living, so, instead of putting all my effort into my school books, I put it into my golf game. I think that is a pretty typical story. But, you know, we have off-seasons, starting now end of October going through December, and, you know, I traveled to South America and played and so forth. Basically every year I was getting six or eight weeks off, but six months is a significant time for me.

OLIN BROWNE: I am going to play in Florida, take off Atlanta then play Augusta and Heritage and as long as I feel good, as long as I feel healthy, I will continue to play. If I start -- if my arm starts getting sore, I will probably cut out a week somewhere, but I have been good. I have done what the doctors told me; haven't over done it on the range; haven't stood in the sand trap and hit 100 bunker shots. It is those kind of jarring impacts that are damaging to it. So, I am doing exactly what I am told. As long as I feel good, I have permission to continue playing.

OLIN BROWNE: Like last weak at Tucson I played six rounds of golf before I went out there. I was -- didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know if I was going to be playing on the weekend. I made the cut. The whole idea was to go to out and shake off the rust a little bit. Left a lot of shots out on the course last week. My short game was really rusty; had a couple of 3-putts and 4-putt, stupid stuff that I wouldn't expect to happen on a weekly basis. Probably not put too much pressure on myself mentally, trying to just kind of go with the flow a little bit more. But if I hit a crummy shot I still get frosted about it. So but I am a little bit mellower about it, I think, right now. Also really appreciate being back. When you have six months off if it is not six months voluntary vacation; you definitely redevelop and appreciation for being out here. This is a pretty choice place to hang out.