FUNAI GOLF CLASSIC AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

October 21, 2003

Bob Burns

JOAN vON THRON: Thank you, Bob, for joining us here at the Funai Classic, Walt Disney World Resort. Defending Champion. I think you have had an opportunity to play the Magnolia course - did you play it yesterday?

BOB BURNS: I played the Magnolia yesterday.

JOAN vON THRON: Talk about the course a little bit then coming back as a defending champion for the first time.

BOB BURNS: Actually I played Palm yesterday. Bit of a whirlwind, really, since last year I have been quite busy. We had a baby, June 28th, so he has been taking up a lot of my time. But I have had a few injuries -- not really injuries, just chronic problems that I have had throughout my career that have been kind of active this year. So I haven't had a great deal of practice time between the baby and nursing a bad back, but it's good to be back here.

JOAN vON THRON: Talk about the courses, any changes? Any differences?

BOB BURNS: Hadn't noticed any changes. They were both in pretty good shape.

Q. A lot of guys you came in here last year I think were in the one-teens on the money list?

BOB BURNS: Yeah, 118, something like that.

Q. What was your mindset at that time - and I am looking through here - I noticed you also finished one year 125, right on the number. Could you just sort of speak to what it is like coming down the stretch in that situation and how you were able to hit a home run last year?

BOB BURNS: I have been on the bubble quite a bit even when I got my card through the Nike Tour I was 14th on the money list going into the last event there. And I won the Championship; ended up finishing first on the money list so I guess it's not anything terribly unusual for me. But coming in last year, 118 on the money list; I think I had about 535,000 or 5 -- right about what we felt the number was going to be at the end of the year. Not that I felt secure but I knew I still needed some good tournaments coming in. I had played pretty well at Vegas; ended up missing the cut by one. Really inspired me to come here and play well because I felt like my game was in good shape. I just made some mistakes there. And Vegas, on those golf courses, you can't make mistakes and get away with it because they are so non-traditional.

Q. At the beginning of the year when you know you have got 25 more of them, is there a tendency to figure, oh, it's a lost shot or it's a lost tournament or I didn't play well on Thursday; I will do -- whatever I do on Friday, get the hell out of here and get down the road, that later in the year can come back and bite guys that have sort of always find themselves in that 110 to 140 spot?

BOB BURNS: That can happen. You can't take anything for granted, especially if you are one of the guys that's always trying to get that 125 spot, which I have been in my career. So you have to treat every tournament as it's, you know, a qualifier for the next year, or -- you know, not to downplay it, you are playing to win the tournament, you know, just doesn't always work out that way. You see a lot of people haven't won out here. A few people have won a lot. So there's a big discrepancy there.

Q. What was your most successful way of the dealing with it thinking about it, not thinking about it? I guess in the locker room do you get treated like a leper, or people don't want to talk to you because they don't want to jinx you? What is your preference on that?

BOB BURNS: Everybody knows me out here that I am pretty approachable. Everybody is cool. So there's no feelings that way as far as being treated as a leper. A lot of well-wishing which is nice; showed that I paid some dues and have a lot of friends out here.

Q. Do you like to think about it, talk about it, hope it goes away knowing that you got that 125 is always out there and that the meter is running?

BOB BURNS: As far as the 125 that's a year-long shot as far as winning last year. You mean more towards me winning more here last year?

Q. The years coming down the stretch knowing that you were close, do you think about it a lot or is it your preference to not think about it and just play normally? How heavily does it weigh on you?

BOB BURNS: I'd be lying if none of the guys that are on that bubble coming down the end of the year, including myself, obviously we're thinking about it. I'd say at this point in my career, even the last couple of years of my career, I haven't put as much pressure on myself; whereas, I have to do it, I have to succeed because I know that there's always golf to be played. It's my job. I have learned that. I have been doing it for almost thirteen years. I will continue to do it and I will play out here for a long time, you know, I might not finish in the 125 every year, I might not win every year, but I still think I have got quite a few good years in me. Hopefully a couple more victories and nothing Hall of Fame, but you know, you never know, I wasn't bred that way. I didn't really take up golf seriously 'til my mid-teens, played a few junior golf tournaments and gradually got better and better so I wasn't like a child prodigy like you see a lot of these guys are coming out these days that are just bred to play the Tour.

Q. How does winning affect the way you approach this year and maybe next year because obviously you don't have to worry about this for two years? It is a luxury this year.

BOB BURNS: Definitely a luxury; especially the way I played this year (laughs). Ironically enough, I got engaged to my wife here two years ago and on Friday, two years ago here at Disney and ironically last year on Friday, we found out that we were pregnant. So we had a big week. It is a good tournament for us.

Q. When you are playing in an event where you have to make a lot of birdies like you do here, how does that affect the way you think, I mean, do you have to change your approach coming to a tournament like this and have a different mindset about par?

BOB BURNS: Not really. It's getting few and far between, the tournaments out here that you don't have to make a lot of birdie year-in, year-out, week-in and week-out. This is one of them. This is historically everybody goes low because it's the good old-style traditional golf course that we play. The greens aren't -- the golf course isn't tricked up, the greens aren't tricked up. Usually you look at the Top-20 or 30 guys that are finishing in the tournament they are all hitting it pretty much the same, but the two or three that are really rolling the ball that week and making the putts and that makes a difference.

Q. Everybody has been talking about equipment and the ball, how much farther everybody hits it. Except everybody has got that benefit. Would the game be different if it were still back to years ago?

BOB BURNS: The level of training and information and training aides with computer programs, you know, graphic programs that I personally use with my teacher also; you know, are so much better than it was 20 years ago. And the physical fitness is a huge factor compared to what it was 20 years ago, where it was -- or even 30 years ago, you know, guys would go out eat a big dinner and drink a few drinks and come out in the morning, not stretch, nothing, just go play.

Q. As far as everybody playing at the same, on the same page, is it better now than it was 20 years ago when you are hitting --

BOB BURNS: As far as the equipment performance?

Q. As being a player, as in just competing?

BOB BURNS: Are you referencing me or --

Q. Yeah, for you, I mean, are you a different competitor with the equipment you are playing now, you think you would have been playing for persimmon woods and playing 25 years ago how everybody is playing at same level?

BOB BURNS: It's always relative, really. Everybody has to play -- everybody plays the current equipment, you know, if I were trying to play with hickory shaft Persimmon heads right now, yeah, I won't have a chance out here against guys playing today's equipment. That kind of where you are going?

Q. Not really. It was a bad question. I apologize.

BOB BURNS: Try to help me with it.

Q. Just the fact that everybody talks about the advancement in equipment. 25 years ago everybody is playing at the same level of equipment. Now they are still playing on the same level of equipment ---

BOB BURNS: Are you saying that if they were using the same equipment we have now 20 years ago --

Q. No. No.

BOB BURNS: I am trying to help. It hot out there. I just hit a bunch of because. My brain is not quite working yet.

Q. Two years ago how did you propose? Is there a good story there?

BOB BURNS: No, no good stories. She would have known it was coming if it was a big fancy dinner. Actually it was very, very casual and a little sneaky.

Q. How so?

BOB BURNS: I am not going to tell you.

JOAN vON THRON: Anymore questions?

Q. Tiger is going for like 113 consecutive cuts this week. Can other players even comprehend that, I mean, 113 in a row?

BOB BURNS: I can't. There's a few other guys, obviously the top guys are not guys that are having trouble making cuts us consistently out here. 113? That's pretty amazing. Obviously some of the no-cut fields are included in that, he probably plays six or seven of those a year where there's no cut. I don't know.

Q. 23.

BOB BURNS: So 23 in that stretch. Yeah, that makes it a little different. I am not taking anything away from him. Obviously he doesn't have any trouble making cuts, the full-field cut tournaments either.

JOAN vON THRON: Thank you, Bob, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.