THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 12, 1999

Brian Watts

BRIAN WATTS: I birdied the third hold, hit a 3-iron and pitching wedge, about 15 feet. Fourth hole, I believe I hit a wedge to about six feet, made that. Then 6th hole hit a 7-iron to about six feet again, made that. 9th hole, sand wedge to about eight feet. Made that. Then I bogeyed the 15th hole, I hid an unsolid 3-iron short of the green, chipped it up and 2-putted from about seven feet. Then the 17th hole made a real long putt, hit a 7-iron to about, I don't know, 30 feet and made that one.

BRIAN WATTS: It's nice. The treatment we received was unbelievable, plus the excitement in all the tournaments, even starting on Thursday morning is just tremendous. You have a lot of gallery and just the excitement is just really nice. And plus you are playing on great golf courses every week. I haven't played on a bad golf course yet, this is my fifth tournament. All the golf courses are great. The conditions of them are outstanding and get to compete against all the great, top players.

BRIAN WATTS: Life is really good, yes, absolutely. When you get paid to play golf I think it is a pretty darn good life.

BRIAN WATTS: Yes, even though I played THE TOUR in '91 I don't remember any of the golf courses really. I would say this is a new golf course, too. But in that respect, I feel like a rookie because I'm coming out on Tuesdays, sometimes I'm in the Pro-Am Wednesday and I'm trying to really learn the golf course. Whereas in Japan I played there for six years and we played the same courses pretty much all the time, so I got 30, 40 rounds of golf on those courses, they're like home courses every week, maybe that will be the case here after four, five years. That's probably the hardest thing for me so far. But in other ways I don't feel like I'm a rookie because I'm going to be 33 next week. I have been playing pro golf for 11 years so I don't feel like a rookie in that way.

BRIAN WATTS: That's the hardest thing. I started Pebble Beach. When I went to Pebble Beach, I started there on Saturday, the week before, so I got all my practice rounds in, no problem, but part of the -- that's part of the reason why I didn't play Phoenix actually because it is hard to play, you know, count on the weather, first of all, out there, at Pebble Beach and played three practice rounds Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; it just makes a hard week. Buick Invitational, being that was on two courses, even though I played eight years ago I couldn't remember a hole.

BRIAN WATTS: Yeah, obviously my second place at the Open championship, whatever I made, $309,000, whatever, that got me in the top 125, ended up playing a few more tournaments, finished 90th on the money list. When I got a full-time card, and after thinking about it for -- I probably thought about it for two or three months after the British Open, and came to the conclusion that was best for my family and for me to start playing here.

BRIAN WATTS: I don't think that's probably the -- I don't think that's the best way to do things and make a rush decision like that, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm always one to think about things and weigh my options and the Japanese Tour have been so great to me, I played there six years. I have been treated real well and I don't think that was the best thing for me to do, was make a rash decision just like that.

BRIAN WATTS: What was that?

BRIAN WATTS: Well, first of all, the competition is different. Even though this is the U.S. PGA TOUR, it's -- at least I look at it kind of like the World Tour. I know there's a lot of great players from the European Tour, but we have a lot of great players that play here from all over the world, and the competition is probably the biggest difference. The Japanese Tour is much tougher than what people think it is, though. I think that's the case. Maruyama I think proved that in the Presidents Cup when he was undefeated and he's done that in other tournaments in the U.S.

BRIAN WATTS: No, I have always lived here in the U.S. I live in Oklahoma.

BRIAN WATTS: No, I lived in Oklahoma. I just traveled back and forth like a businessman. I usually made six or seven round trips in the year over there, played three to five tournaments then come back for a couple of weeks, made that flight many, many times.

BRIAN WATTS: Yeah, I have been probably flying close to 150,000 miles a year last six years.

BRIAN WATTS: A lot, that's a good thing, though.

BRIAN WATTS: Twice, I think. I haven't -- to be honest, I haven't even watched the whole -- I have got the British Open, I shouldn't say I haven't had time, I haven't made time to even watch the tournament yet. I just know that Mark O'Meara made some long putts on I think 11 and 12, or something like that, that kind of got his round going on the back 9.

BRIAN WATTS: It is not that I don't want to watch it, I just haven't made the time to do it. I have got a one-and-a-half-year-old boy and all my free time I devote to him.

BRIAN WATTS: Yeah, and in one way it is a great thing because I got my chance to play here again, but in another way it was a disappointing thing because I had the chance to win the British Open championship, that's as big a tournament you are going to have the chance to lead. I had to leave with nine holes to go. It was more disappointing for me.

BRIAN WATTS: Yeah, absolutely. People in the gallery at least will say, oh, that's the guy that lost to Mark O'Meara, that's the guy that shot the bunker shot on the last hole. If it wasn't for that I don't think here would know me.

BRIAN WATTS: Yes, I'm very well known in Japan. Ever since about my second year on the Japanese Tour in '94 I have had very good fan support there.

BRIAN WATTS: Yes, absolutely.

BRIAN WATTS: I haven't decided exactly, but I'll probably play 5 to 10 tournaments over there this year.

BRIAN WATTS: I am playing the TPC championship, taking a week off again after that, then I'll play the Masters and the heritage. Probably skip a couple of weeks after that, then play -- what's that after, New Orleans, Dallas and Fort Worth. Kind of the schedule for right now, I guess.

BRIAN WATTS: Japanese Tour, actually first tournament is this week it runs all the way through the middle of December, so I can pick up quite a few tournaments after our Tour here finishes. I just haven't decided when I'm going to go over there. Probably in the next month or so I'll know a little more.

BRIAN WATTS: Yes, I like all the food except for the sashimi, but that's the -- I like everything else. I like all the rice and all the noodles and all those dishes, I love it. They eat very healthy over there.

BRIAN WATTS: Yes, not conversation-wise, but vocabulary-wise pretty decent. Not as good as I want to be, though.

BRIAN WATTS: You're right, when I did get my foot in the door, I was at such a young age, my golf wasn't up to standard to compete here, it is a different story now. But I knew most of the guys -- probably half of the guys out here. Half of the guys I know the names, but I don't know the people at all. It's been so long since I played here.

BRIAN WATTS: Yeah, well playing on the Japanese Tour and winning the tournaments that I have, I think that's the reason why I played so well at the British Open last year. Without the success that I had in Japan, I don't think I would have been able to handle the pressure like I did.

BRIAN WATTS: Everybody has got their own opinion and I'm not one to get into the controversy about all that, but somebody set up -- defending Jumbo on one side is he just goes out and plays, and if he wins a bunch of tournaments, whoever is running the world rankings gives X amount of points to the winner in Japan, that's not Jumbo's fault. He's just going out and competing and winning. On the other hand, all we see is Americans, or I should say you guys, all you see is when he plays over here, he hasn't done very well at all, he's had his flashes here and there, but that's about it, and -- but nothing to warrant whatever ranking he's got. He hasn't played that well here. But I think you have to take into consideration that there's golf to be played outside the U.S. and not just only inside the U.S. and I think that the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches show that.

BRIAN WATTS: Thanks for having me.