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VALERO TEXAS OPEN


September 26, 2002


D.A. Weibring


SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: D.A., great round today. 65, 5 under par, puts you in second place right now. There are a lot of players still on the course, but let's get some opening comments from you.

D.A. WEIBRING: Thanks. It was a very interesting day. Needless to say, I guess opening comments would be I haven't played very much this year or very well.

It's kind of a transition year for me, given I move off the Junior Tour onto the Senior Tour next May. We've taken a step back this year. My wife and I built a house this year and spent a little more time at home. Our design business has been pretty busy, with my son graduating college and turning pro. My focus has been some other places. I played last week, after not playing I guess since John Deere. I'm pretty rusty, but I got some things going in the right direction.

And today I got started, I had a pretty good touch around the greens. A couple of greens I missed, I got the ball up and down. I didn't drive the ball well on the front side, but I felt I was swinging well. My caddie, Russ, gave me a terrific tip. It's a perfect reason to be patient on the golf course and not get down on yourself, because I normally drive the ball pretty well. He told me just to kind of slow it down, going away from the ball, and I drove the ball on the back nine as well as I drove poorly on the front side. That kind of brought things together. And five birdies, no bogeys, very pleased.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Was it a case, without any bogeys, not making many mistakes or good saves or a combination of both?

D.A. WEIBRING: A combination of both. I missed some fairways. I just didn't hit the ball very solid on the front side, off the tee. I played a couple of good iron shots. I made a couple of putts when I had chances, but I made a couple of decent saves.

Then the back side, I had a number of good chances for birdie, and hit it pretty solid all the way through on the back side.

Q. When was the last time you shot 65 in a tournament?

D.A. WEIBRING: I guess my first event of the year at Bay Hill I was tied for the lead after the first round. That might have been 67. I can't remember what the score -- I shot five or six under. I don't know. It's been a while.

Q. Do you feel you're going to have to play as well as you did today for three more rounds?

D.A. WEIBRING: I'm not sure. The golf course is playing a little tougher. You've taken the par 5 away on 10. It's really a matter of how much wind we get. When the wind blows that will bring scores up. I don't think the scores were very low really this morning, from what I could see. John Huston shot 6 under and there were a lot of guys two and three under par. There's enough rough out there and the greens are firm enough, I'm not sure the scores are going to be very low. So it's really a matter of managing your own game and playing well. I'm not really that focused on Sunday yet.

What did feel good today is after not having played very much, is I played some good shots around the greens, a couple of good little pitch shots and I felt momentum gathering as the round went on and I played some really good shots the last handful of holes and made birdies coming in.

It was like a place where I've been before. It wasn't a strange place to be, kind of working towards the leads. I really wasn't that aware of the score board until maybe 15 or 16, but it felt pretty good.

Q. You have got Joel Edwards, Paul Stankowski, you up here, should we rename it the North Texas Open?

D.A. WEIBRING: Justin has done pretty well.

Q. Are you guys going to carpool back home?

D.A. WEIBRING: I'm not sure about that, but you've got Tom Kite playing really well, he shot a couple under par. I think guys from Texas enjoy playing in Texas. I'm a transplant, but I've been down here, 24, 25 years now, and I've always enjoyed playing in San Antonio. And Tony Piazzi, the tournament director, is a good friend of mine.

I'm real pleased to see the Senior events are starting back at Oak Hills, so I look forward to that next year.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Let's go over your score card starting with the birdie on No. 2.

D.A. WEIBRING: I had to hit a long iron into two. We were playing against the wind. I hit my tee shot on the left side of the fairway, but hit a good 3-iron in there about maybe 15 feet, made the putt.

No. 8, was a 3-wood off the tee and I guess an 8-iron up there to probably 15, 18 feet right of the hole. I made those two chances. I had a couple of up-and-downs earlier than that.

Back nine, I birdied the par 5, 14. I hit a good tee shot and a 5-iron just to the right edge of the green and chipped it to a couple of feet, two and a half, three feet.

And then 16, a lot of guys were going at that green. I hit an iron off the tee, laid up to 72 yards and hit a sand wedge about two feet.

And then 17, I hit a little three-quarter 5-iron and it kind of jumped. It went right past the hole, went by maybe 12 feet and made that putt. So those were my three birdies.

I hit it pretty close on 13, the par 3, so it was a good solid nine; the back nine, for sure.

Q. No. 10? How did No. 10 play up the hill?

D.A. WEIBRING: 10 played -- I didn't hit a very good tee shot. I think the field staff did a good thing by moving the markers forward today playing against the wind, but it plays a long way up that hill. I think Tom and Jay got stuck with a lot of rock on that hole. We had to play through there. It plays so much uphill, I'm not sure that green is meant to hold a long iron on a par 4. I hit it over in the left rough and got it on the green, and actually had a decent birdie chance. It's probably going to be easier.

I mean, pace of play today, it's always going to be an issue on this golf course, because of the shuttling and the distance from green-to-tee, the toughness of the golf course where you can lose balls -- I think they moved it up there more for pace of play, but we were in the last group and it took us 5 hours and 20 minutes to play. It was slow going out there.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you, very much, best of luck the rest of the week.

End of FastScripts....

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