CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 4, 1998

Olin Browne

OLIN BROWNE: I started at nine, I made about a 30-footer on the first hole, unexpected, since I hadn't made anything that long in a while. It got me off to a great start. And, let's see, my next birdie was number four. I hit it in there about 12, 14 feet above the hole and crawled one in. Five, I hit a four-iron about four feet, made it. I left a couple behind on seven and eight. I made a good par put on nine. I drove it off the tee in the rough and kind of left it short of the green and rolled it up there about six or seven feet, and made that coming back I three-putted ten for my bogey of the day.

OLIN BROWNE: 70 feet, I hit the front of the green.

OLIN BROWNE: Kevin and I both hit it close there, probably a foot or so. I hit it three and a half feet on the next hole and parred in. Pretty boring, really. That's the way we like it.

OLIN BROWNE: I like playing in New England. I played some golf up here. My mom's from the Providence area. It's always nice to be playing where you're comfortable and I feel nice and comfortable up here.

OLIN BROWNE, JR.: Dad, I've got a question for you: Did you see any cool birds today?

OLIN BROWNE: No, I didn't. Sorry.

OLIN BROWNE, JR.: That's okay.

OLIN BROWNE: I putted better this week than I putted in a while. It's given me some confidence on the greens. It's taken a lot of pressure off my iron game. I feel more comfortable swinging at it, hitting it somewhere on the green and letting my putter do the work. I felt loose and relaxed out there. I had a good pairing with Kevin and, obviously, got off to a good start. Those are the kind of things that get the juices flowing, get you flowing a positive way.

OLIN BROWNE: Post as low as I can go and see where it adds up. Obviously, there's a lot of great players playing here. I'm pretty sure Scott birdied 18. He's got at least a 26-shot lead. There's still some guys out there that can move up the board. It doesn't matter until the last four or five holes tomorrow. You get out and try. That's what it boils down to, the way you putt.

OLIN BROWNE: We spent a lot of time chasing your tails out here looking for the answer, experimenting with this and that. And sometimes something just clicks and you know whether it clicks for a day or for two days or a week or two weeks, however long. When something does quick you kind of ride it for as long as you can, and you try and find something else. It never stays with you forever.

OLIN BROWNE: You know, there are signs of life. I haven't played well since March. I had a good west coast. I played a couple good tournaments out there, got back to the east coast and started struggling, hadn't been practicing much, been fighting a sore arm for -- since about November. You know, you've got to lay off, allow that to heel up, whatever. It takes away the consistency and the rhythm. I had one good day and one crummy day. So far I don't know, since really the early part of March I haven't had any flow to my game, and I've been working hard on it the last six weeks and you see signs of good things happening. But it doesn't -- those things don't last as long as you'd like them to. As long as you can kind of focus on those things and recognize the little things are coming back, and then one week it clicks, you know. This week I've done some good things and I'm hoping it stays with me tomorrow and I have another good round tomorrow.

OLIN BROWNE: I had that one at Yale, right. I play that one every year. They had that one in Maine a couple of years. I played that. I played pretty well at Yale. I finished third one year. I like playing in New England. I love going up to the tournament in Worcester, in Sutton. And it's just -- you know, it's nice up here. The people are cool. The golf courses are nice. It's great weather, usually not too hot, not like being in the south at this time of year. God, I'm from Florida. You can imagine what that's like. It's a nice area. I like New England. I'm sad we're losing the tournament up in Worchester next year. I'm looking forward to playing that in a couple of weeks.