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MCI HERITAGE

April 15, 2004

Jonathan Byrd

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you Jonathan for joining us for a few minutes. Good round of 2 under par, 68. Tough day out there, I know. We haven't seen a lot of low scores.

JONATHAN BYRD: I scored well today. That was the quote of the day, I guess, or the theme from the day. I've played two tournaments coming back from surgery, and I've hit a lot of good shots, but I scored very poorly. But today I only made one bogey, and I got a really bad break on 18. I hit it right of the green, where I was pretty much trying to hit it. Because the green is so tiny, and just trying to hit it up and down, and hit a good chip and got the collar and chipped it right over the green and made bogey. But other than that, made four birdies, and other than that chipped it up to tap it in.

Q. Talk about your short game, 7, 8 and 9 saved par, and most of the putts were short. Where else did you do that and talk a little bit about that?

JONATHAN BYRD: You've got to work hard on your short game this week. My short game has been pretty good. But you're going to miss greens. These greens are so small that you're going to hit good shots and miss greens. On the back nine I didn't miss a green until 18 well, until 17. And 17 I just flushed a 6 over the green, just misjudged the wind, chipped it to a foot and a half, not an easy pitch, either. And then I didn't get it up and down on 18. But other than that, on the front nine I got them down from the front bunker on one, and then other than that it was just 7, 8 and 9. On 7 I had a miserably hard bunker shot and then hit it ideally, perfect to about a foot. And four yards out on 8, hit it two feet. And then 9 was pretty simple.

Q. The rough is cut differently this year, talk about that.

JONATHAN BYRD: Shorter, right?

Q. It's longer.

JONATHAN BYRD: It's longer? I don't feel that it seems that much different out there. The rough is not a factor at all. It's not long enough to mess you up. Around the greens the pitch shots, you always get pretty good lies.

Q. What's keeping the score so close to par?

JONATHAN BYRD: You feel that breeze out there? It swirls here. It swirls like it does in Augusta. You've got the trees lining the fairways, and one, you kind of get lost out in those trees, and you don't know where that wind is coming from, and they'll funnel down the fairways. And like on like on 17 it's pretty open, and we still misjudge the wind. The flags are whipping right to left and we feel it's in, and it's right to left down. So that's the hardest part, because the greens are small and you have to be precise. And if you're having trouble judging the wind it makes it difficult. And I think that was the hardest part about the day. There were a lot of holes, other than a couple of par 5s that played into the wind like 8 and 18, those holes are hard enough, and now they're into the wind.

Q. How good a round was 68? How much better could yours have been?

JONATHAN BYRD: I felt like 68 was a solid round. There were plenty of holes out there that I felt like I played poorly. I didn't feel like I played the par 5s very well. I missed the fairway on 2, when it was a 3 wood off the tee for me, 3 wood, long iron, probably. But I still made birdie with a wedge. And I struggled to make par on the next par 5. But I got a couple of good breaks, and I hit a tree a couple of times, and I think twice got good bounces. I hit the tree on 9, on the second shot from the fairway, and then I hit the tree on the second par 5, No. 5, with my second shot. I got a couple of good breaks. It was a really solid round for me. But if you're playing well, I think four or five, 6 under is very achievable out there.

Q. You said your hip feels fine. Just coming back, is there an adjustment period, even though you said you hit the ball well, just to get back into things?

JONATHAN BYRD: The biggest adjustment for me is just getting back to playing. I kept telling people, they asked me, it's going to take you a while to start playing good, right, not taking the time off. And I told them, I said playing golf is like riding a bike, you don't forget to do it. But for me it's not like riding a bike, I've had to coach myself. But scoring and playing golf, I've hit good shots, but not had good scores. Today is the first day, and it's a morale booster for me.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can you tell us about your surgery, did you have you had surgery, when you had the surgery?

JONATHAN BYRD: I had a hang nail I'm just kidding I had hip surgery the week of San Diego, after AT&T. I went and saw a doctor in Pittsburg and saw him on Wednesday, had surgery Friday morning. I had two tears in my labrum front and back, and fixed those tears, and tightened up my hip. I had looseness and instability, but didn't have pain. I made it back to TPC and Augusta.

Q. I believe you had an 83 at Pebble beach. Was that the final straw that led you to get the surgery?

JONATHAN BYRD: Yeah, that round was it wasn't the final straw. I didn't know I had a problem with my hip then at all. So I couldn't blame it on it then. That could have been a contributor, but I just played bad that day and the course got me. I went and saw my trainer the next week on Monday. I had some weakness in my right hip before the year started, and we were trying to strengthen it. I went back and my hip was weaker, after working hard on it for five weeks. He said there was something wrong with your spine or hip, it's not muscular. So I went and saw a specialist and he told me what I had wrong.

Q. Was there any question about going in for the surgery? You said you saw the doctor on Wednesday and had the surgery on Friday.

JONATHAN BYRD: There was some urgency, because I had seven and a half weeks until Augusta. And I didn't want to miss there. I threw TPC up in the air, I wasn't going to be back for there. I thought at best it was BellSouth. I didn't want to play a year injured. I wanted to get back and be healthy and get back trying to play tournaments. I didn't feel I could make the whole year being injured, mentally. I didn't want to have something to blame it on. He told me I could be ready for Augusta and then I was ready for TPC.

Q. Did Davis give you any tips to play here, and do you have the same feeling he has about almost being at home?

JONATHAN BYRD: He's never given me any tips here, but playing in St. Simons, the golf courses are very similar. One of the golf courses used to be called The Island Club. It's not as tight, but the greens are the same, everything is flat, and we get a good breeze down there, too. The golf is very similar, so I can see why he plays well here. But the biggest reason is the support from the fans. You've got a lot of family here, like you do at Augusta, maybe. I've got my whole family, my wife's parents, my parents, my aunt and uncle and cousins are coming. It's just a fun event. I grew up playing junior golf at Hilton Head and it feels like home here.

Q. How difficult was the transition from missing the cut at Augusta to coming here, what did you do during the off time?

JONATHAN BYRD: I we ate with my aunt in Aiken, South Carolina Friday night, and being around the family kind of helps you forget that you played poorly, because you're having a good time with them. They love you whether you shoot 83 or whether you shoot 68. We went back to St. Simons, we got to spend Easter at home, we went to church on Sunday. It was nice, good place to be. Sunday afternoon we came up here and brought our bicycles and got in our condo and just kind of relaxed.

Q. I believe after the surgery I read you practiced a lot, you've kind of cut that in half, because that just wore

JONATHAN BYRD: I was supposed to. I'm not hitting as many balls as I did probably before. I think I kind of feel like I've learned my lesson, if I'm hitting it well, just stop, because golf is kind of hard on your body, as you see guys like Peter Jacobsen and Norman, and I guess Elkington have had hip surgery. You put a lot of strain on your hips with all the speed and rotation. So there's times I need to kind of stop and take a break. And then if you're swinging poorly and not getting much out of your practice, just hang it up and do something else.

Q. Did you feel any pain last year, either in the back or the hip?

JONATHAN BYRD: I had a little back pain.

Q. Was the injury from stress from the golf swing or otherwise?

JONATHAN BYRD: The doctor said it was from golf, stress from the golf swing, just overuse. And I hate telling people that, because I'm not planning on not playing any golf here for the rest of my life. But he just said it's hard on your body. So I've taken advantage of getting healthy and getting stronger. I'll continue to really work on getting my hips and my core really strong so I can maybe prevent something like this from happening again.

Q. You're already one of the more fit players out there. What specific things do you do when you say build that part that gave you problems?

JONATHAN BYRD: A lot of hip stabilization stuff, a lot of balance work, using core things that kind of pull on you to make you kind of lose your balance. So you're using your core Pilates are very good. A lot of dancers use Pilates, but they use every muscle in your body, just making every muscle in your body. You can't have it too strong. It helps you when you're picking up luggage, just for preventive injury.

Q. You said the grass in the course is kind of similar here to where it is at St. Simons. Is the wind, too?

JONATHAN BYRD: Pretty similar. The course I usually play at Sea Island, Sea Island Golf Club is seaside is pretty close, it's easy to figure out the wind. We were at a golf course similar to this, the holes move inside the trees and you get some different winds.

Q. You've got new irons and a driver and also a new caddy, were those things that you did in the off season or was it during the break with your hip?

JONATHAN BYRD: I got a new everything, I got a new hip, I got a new driver, new irons, FTX, Hogan irons, new wedges, same putter. Same caddy, I had him at the end of last year. I broke off with Mike Kerrick around British Open time, and started trying caddies. But Chuck, we did well at the end of last year, and I've come to be really good friends and we really work well together. It's been a tough year for him, because we've had so much time off. I'm not making money, he's not making any money. So it's been kind of a faith tester for him.

Q. What about the clubs, did you make that switch during the six week break?

JONATHAN BYRD: I did. They came out with some new irons and I just felt like they were a little more solid than the ones I was hitting. I went back to an X1 shaft that's helped me a little bit control my distances better. And it's really a good iron, it's been helping me a lot.

End of FastScripts.

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