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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 3, 2005

Bart Bryant

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Leader in the clubhouse here at the TOUR Championship, Bart Bryant, congratulations, first round 62, a course record here at East Lake. If you could talk about your round today, a great one.

BART BRYANT: Thank you. Yeah, I was very pleased with what went on today. I hit the ball extremely well all day long, hit a couple loose shots coming in, missed the fairway on 16, ended up catching a good lie in the rough, and then on 17 I hit my second kind of mediocre shot of the day, landed a little left of the green, bounced down in the rough and then flew my chip shot in the hole basically and it bounced out. I was very, very fortunate. I could have bogeyed those two holes.

Other than that, I played extremely solid and was very satisfied with my ball striking, and my putting was solid. I made a couple of fairly difficult putts, but for the most part, I had a lot of quality seven, eight to ten footers.

Q. 42 roughly, thereabouts, does it mean more sorry to remind you (laughter) does it mean more that you've had this success later in life given the grind that you've had to get here?

BART BRYANT: It means a lot more because the purses now are a lot bigger than they were ten years ago (laughter). No, it does. It means a lot to kind of go through what Kathy and I have had to go through in this crazy career of mine. But for it to happen now later on, I think I may appreciate it more than some guys.

Q. What has been the biggest change for you over the years, strictly before winning San Antonio, I guess, and then everything kind of took off from there?

BART BRYANT: Honestly they asked me this at San Antonio, and I tried to explain, and I hope I can explain it to you, but at that point I was 41, and I figured it was about time that I kind of stepped up to the plate and get it done.

I've had opportunities in the past to do well. I think I kind of almost sabotaged myself a little bit. I was almost afraid to really get in the mix because I was afraid of failing and maybe embarrassing myself or being labeled a choker or whatever, and Brian Mogg and I worked pretty hard on the mental side of my game, and he showed me stats from the past six, seven years or whatever, and he said, look at that guy's stats, do you think this guy ought to be making money on the PGA TOUR? And I said, "yeah." Well, it was me. I think I finally started buying into the belief that maybe I belonged out here and I certainly wasn't going to chicken out anymore. I was going to put my neck on the line and try to get in the lead, and if I failed, so what. I'm just too old to care about it anymore.

Q. At the Memorial you talked about looking forward to the Presidents Cup and had some fun with Jack there. Obviously it didn't happen, but the Ryder Cup is next year, and how much is that on your mind even at this point?

BART BRYANT: It's a little bit on my mind, not a lot. It's certainly something I would love to be a part of. That would be a dream for anybody who plays the PGA TOUR, to do it at age 43, which I'll be it would be pretty special. I would really, really enjoy doing that.

You know, everything that I do now are baby steps towards that. But to slowly kind of see that rise out there and think about that is a little premature.

Q. You mentioned outside just trying to convince yourself that you belong with these guys, et cetera. Does today do that? Does a 62 do that? What does do that, I guess?

BART BRYANT: I'm working on it. I told the other guys, I don't think if I'll ever believe it in my head. People try to pound it in my head, "you belong, you belong." If I go out and shoot three more 62s maybe I'll believe it.

Q. You've had some success out here. How often do you get recognized now off the course when you're walking down the street, stuff like that?

BART BRYANT: If my girls are out in the driveway sometimes they'll wave at me in cars that drive by. Otherwise I don't even get seated in a restaurant. Believe me, it hasn't changed that much, not as much as you'd think.

Q. Is there some upsides to that anonymity?

BART BRYANT: Yeah, there are. There's other people you can talk to about that. They'd understand the other side. I guess I've always been a fairly private person, and I do like flying under the radar. You know, that's something that I'll have to deal with hopefully as I play better and become more well known. I'm going to have to enjoy getting up and speaking in the mic a little bit more and maybe getting recognized a little bit more, and that's fine, that just comes with it and I know that's part of it, and that's what I need to desire if I'm going to move up to the next level.

Q. I saw your shot on 17. Is that the moment when you knew this had to be your day, from the stance you had, too?

BART BRYANT: Yeah, I almost felt like apologizing after that one. Ted Purdy is going, "you got robbed, it should have gone in the hole." When that happened, I think Bob and I, my caddie, looked at each other and just said, "this is your day." You know, one of those things. That was a very tough shot, terrible lie. I was just trying to get it eight or ten feet from the hole or not leave it in the guts or hit myself in the chin or something. I was very fortunate that it hit the stick.

Q. You almost fell down trying to line it up.

BART BRYANT: Yeah, I've never been that graceful.

Q. You're not the first guy I've talked with this year who said that he wanted to fly under the radar. How does that happen for athletes? Because most athletes are very cocky, self confident people?

BART BRYANT: Most athletes talk a very cocky, self confident talk. You might want to see them on the inside and see what's going on. Maybe our sport is different, too. I think it's unlike any other sport, it's almost expected maybe to intimidate the other team or other people, and in our sport there's not a lot of that that goes on. I don't really know how to answer your question, I'm sorry.

Q. Can you comment on the success of the two Bryants, one on the Champions Tour, one on this Tour?

BART BRYANT: Brad had a good year this year. For y'all that don't know, he finished 25th or 26th on the Money List on the Champions Tour, played in the TOUR Championship last week, finished 13th. He had a good year. He actually had to go through the Tour school process, finished 3rd, so now he'll be exempt next year. I think on the Champions Tour that gets you like in every event and all the majors except for one maybe or something. We don't know. It gets you in a lot of stuff.

Being exempt out here doesn't get you in the majors necessarily. Out there I think it gets you in four of them, so I think he's pretty much guaranteed to play a lot of golf next year if he wants to. It was certainly a good year for him. It just gets hard out there. This year has exceeded my expectations.

So it's been a great year for the Bryant brothers, certainly for the Bryant family. I think my mom and dad are walking about this high off the ground right now. If anybody deserves it, they do. They put an awful lot into Brad and I to get us to the point where we are now.

Q. Your brother put a lot into it, too, kind of giving you a leg up. Did you not live with him right out of college, you and your wife sort of under the same roof?

BART BRYANT: We did.

Q. He sort of nurtured you along and helped you with Q school funding when you were Tommy Armour Touring it around?

BART BRYANT: Yeah. If y'all don't know, Kathy and I got married in college, and when I got out, Brad invited us to come and live with him in Florida, help us get on our feet. I played the mini Tours there in Florida which was kind of where you needed to be if you weren't playing the Tour. There wasn't a lot going on back then, and there were a couple of tours that played in Florida, so Brad invited us to live with him. I started playing, Kathy got on a job, we started to get on our feet and moved out, but we lived with him for about a year. He did help me get into Tour school a couple times when I needed some financial help, helped us get our first house. I owe a lot to my brother. He was very, very kind to us, and not only with his finances but just his advice and his encouragement. It would have been tough to make it if I hadn't had him maybe paving the way a little bit.

Q. Do you find that with the dues that you paid you appreciate where you are now more?

BART BRYANT: With the dues that I paid?

Q. Considering all the hard work.

BART BRYANT: Yeah, I kind of addressed that, yes. I think from what we've been to where we are now, maybe kind of through the school of hard knocks, that maybe we appreciate it a little bit more.

Q. Who else was playing in the Tommy Armour circuit? Way back in the mists of my head I'm thinking you might have played with Ty Tryon when he was like 12 or 13.

BART BRYANT: I'll tell you, I did. When I was playing the mini tours I played with Ty Tryon who was 12 years old at Ridgewood Lakes. I'm like, "what is this guy doing?" He paired me with a 12 year old. He shot 75. It was pretty incredible. When I saw that, I said, "man, this guy is going to be something special."

Q. Anybody else you remember?

BART BRYANT: Olin Browne and I were talking last night. Olin, Greg Craft, Skip Kendall, Joe Durant and I all played together on the mini tours. Maybe Marco Dawson. There may be one or two other guys that are playing the Tour right now. It's pretty amazing that we all kind of played against each other there for two or three years on the mini tours.

Q. What do you think about what Ty is trying to do? Obviously he was 17 out here, has his card, school of hard knocks for him, too, right now. What do you think about his possibilities of getting back out here?

BART BRYANT: I hate to say this, I really don't know what's going on with Ty? Did he go to Q school this year?

Q. Yeah, he got through first stage.

BART BRYANT: I haven't seen his game lately or played with him or heard much about what's going on. I hope he'll find his way and have a good career. I mean, not only is he a good player, he's a really good guy. I call him a kid. I mean, he's very respectful. I really like that. I hope he does it.

Who was the other guy that played out here that I actually went back, his dad told him to go back to college or something from Orlando?

Q. Kuchar would be the only one I can think of.

BART BRYANT: That's him, Kuchar. When he first came back, it looked like he made a mistake by not coming out here and taking endorsement money and all that, but Matt found his way eventually, and I think that may be what happens to Ty as he gets a little bit more maturity.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round, six birdies and an eagle. First birdie on No. 3, club and distance.

BART BRYANT: No. 3, I am so bad at this. Do you have something I can look at?

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Yeah.

BART BRYANT: I hit a sand wedge from approximately 100 yards. Okay, I was 90 yards, I hit a sand wedge and I hit it pretty close, three inches. I'm like almost 99 percent from that range (laughter).

No. 5, par 4, if y'all haven't been on the golf course, it is one tough hole. If you drive it on the fairway it will roll another 50 or 60 yards. Luckily I got it on the left side and I hit a 6 iron on the front to about 16 feet and made a really good putt there. I mean, birdieing that hole is almost like making eagle to be honest with you.

No. 8, I hit a really good drive down there, had 112 yards, and I hit a nice little wedge. I actually had a fairly similar yardage on the previous hole and came up a little short, so I was able to kind of gauge off that wedge how hard to hit it, and that really helped me hit it close to that hole and made a good putt there?

Q. How far?

BART BRYANT: That was about seven feet.

Q. No. 11?

BART BRYANT: Par 3, I hit it a little long there. It was a really tough pin today. It was tough to keep it short of the hole. I hit it 15 or 16 feet long and was trying to lag it somehow two putt, and it went in.

Q. What did you hit there?

BART BRYANT: It was a 5 iron, and I hit it to 24 feet.

12, it's downhill, I had about 135 yards, and I hit a hard wedge, and luckily it landed about pin high and bounced about six feet past and made a real good putt there.

13 is a great hole, going back up the hill, hit a 5 iron from 195 yards to five feet, two inches. I was aiming 25 feet right of the hole and pulled it.

Eagle on 15, Clean and I were really debating on a 3 iron or my little Rescue club. We had 226 up the hill, and we decided to go with the Rescue, and I hit it extremely well. I was able to take a little bit off, and luckily it landed perfectly. I had a six foot eagle putt and made that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If you could talk about the last three holes. The three closing holes are among the toughest on Tour. Maybe if you could talk about those closing holes.

BART BRYANT: I kind of alluded to that earlier. 16 I drove it in the right rough, not too far in the rough, but here you're lucky to have a shot if you drive it in the rough. I had a great lie. In fact, the guys down there said, you've got the best lie of anybody today. I was able to hit it in the middle of the green and two putt from 30, 35 feet.

17, I hit a perfect drive, ended up having a 9 iron a perfect distance, but it was probably one of my worst swings of the day. If it had landed two feet to the right I probably would have had a good birdie putt, but it landed in the bunker where I had a bad lie and I was trying to balance on the bunker, just trying to get it out, and luckily flew it right into the hole and kind of bounced out, so very fortunate there.

Then 18 was a pretty good yardage for my Rescue, 225, 226. I hit a soft rescue in there and landed right on that upslope like it's supposed to and made a good two putt. The shadow coming in on 18 where that pin it today makes it tough to read the putt and get the distance and speed.

Q. I know you've known Brian a long time, but when you called him to work on your game in 2000, where were you then? Did you feel kind of lost with your game then and what were you looking to do?

BART BRYANT: You know, Brian is here. He could probably answer that better than I. I was kind of working with David Leadbetter a little bit, and Brian was working for David at the time. I would work with Brian if David wasn't around, and I kind of got to where I really felt comfortable with Brian, so I started working with Brian at that point. It's just been a better fit for me. Brian really understands my swing, and he's really helped me beyond that, he's really helped me with the mental side of the game, too, which may be more important than what he's done with my swing, I don't know.

Q. You were talking about your brother earlier in the press conference. I know that sometimes you'll hear shouts of "go Brad" out on the course (laughter).

BART BRYANT: I don't think so. Did y'all hear anybody yell "go Brad"? I didn't hear it today. I may be getting close to the point where maybe I'm going to be called "Bart" occasionally.

Q. You do get that occasionally?

BART BRYANT: Yeah, I still get it. It's fine. It's funny, I've never had one of his checks deposited in my bank account. A lot of people get us confused.

Q. So you got a brother Dr. Dirt and a caddie Mr. Clean? Does that even out?

BART BRYANT: Yeah, I'm somewhere between that, Dr. Dirt and Mr. Clean.

End of FastScripts.

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