BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 3, 2003

Tom Carter

MODERATOR: We are here with Tom Carter, who is the newest member of the PGA TOUR by virtue of his victory last week on the Nationwide Tour. He has now won three tournaments this year, and two have been in Canada: The Samsung in June and the Alberta Calgary Classic last week, which gave him three victories for the year and gave him automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR.

If you could talk about your season on that tour and we'll open it up for questions.

TOM CARTER: Season started off a little shaky. Missed a few cuts, I think six cuts in a row, a lot of them by a shot. Then came up to Canada, the Samsung, and came up with a different frame of mind. Decided to play a little more patient, not get so down on myself and used that that week and ended up winning a playoff. Really built a lot of confidence from there.

The last two and a half months have -- I missed one cut in the last nine, won three times and really just built off that first win in Canada.

Q. Have you given much thought to the fact that you have a chance to win the Canadian Triple Crown now, this being your third Canadian event this year?

TOM CARTER: I've heard about it a lot. Everybody is talking about the hat trick. It sure would be nice. Everybody is telling me I've got to buy property up here now.

Q. Had you ever been to Canada to play?

TOM CARTER: The previous two years, the Nationwide Tour, I played the same tournament up in Toronto, the Samsung.

Q. You mentioned about Samsung and you went up there with a different frame of mind, a more patient frame of mind; you say you built on that; have you been riding that wave pretty much ever since? And can you just maybe elaborate more on the patience aspect, was it fairways, more patience on the greens, more patient with yourself, which was it?

TOM CARTER: My first two years on the Nationwide, I've had a few opportunities to win golf tournaments. For some reason, I didn't end up winning them. Early in the year, I thought I had to leave the back nine of the Ford Smith Classic (ph) and let that get away after that, I got a little frustrated myself. Just knowing that I could win and not coming through was really getting to me. I think I put a little too much pressure on myself those following weeks of the tournament.

Then I just decided to relax a little bit and not get so down on myself Thursday or Friday, not try to win a golf tournament on the first to days of the tournament.

Q. Are you a patient person by nature or are you not?

TOM CARTER: I'm pretty patient but I'm maybe too -- I fall a little hard on myself. I think I was just getting a little bit too hard on myself, trying to force myself to win and trying to do that on Thursday and Friday. It really wasn't a good thing.

Q. Have you had a chance to see this course?

TOM CARTER: Played it yesterday. I thought it was awesome.

Q. Where are you from?

TOM CARTER: The Philadelphia area.

Q. So you kind of grew up on these kind of golf courses?

TOM CARTER: A couple of my buddies -- I called home last night and they asked me what the course is like, and I said it reminds me of Philadelphia and growing up, playing the golf courses there. Real similar, same grass, lay outs, undulating greens, small greens.

Q. Is it tough on the Nationwide Tour to be patient?

TOM CARTER: Yeah, that probably has something to do with when I was going through that bad stretch, knowing that sometimes you show up to the golf course knowing something in the 20s is going to win, and I might play the front nine at even par and all of a sudden start pressing, saying, I've got to make some birdies. I know 20-under is going to win and I'm even par, where the last two and a half months, I just let whatever, happen, and good things have happened since.

Q. So is it realistic now for you to set any type of goal for the rest of this year based on playing this tour? Your goals might have been set for Nationwide; you've achieved them. Now can you reassess your goals and try to do something, ride the wave out, and who knows what you might be able to accomplish, like some guys have come onto this tour and done over the last several weeks of the season? Any thoughts about that or are you just happy to be here?

TOM CARTER: I'm definitely happy to be here. Yeah, my goal at the beginning of the season like most of the other Nationwide Tour players is to finish in the Top 20 and graduate to the PGA TOUR.

Now that I'm here a little earlier than expected, I've just thought about trying to keep that same frame of mind that I had out there, out here, and just continue to do what I've done the last two and a half months and see where that leaves me, just get comfortable with everything out here.

Q. Have you had a chance to think about -- inaudible -- high on the list?

TOM CARTER: From what I've heard, the rest of this year, my status, I'm going to be behind all of the Tour school guys, I believe. But then next year, I'm going to have -- I'm going to be basically like 126 or 127th on the Money List. I'm not going to get reshuffled.

Q. Any impact on THE TOUR Championship --

TOM CARTER: No, I think my status is going to be the same. I'm not going to be in the reshuffle. They basically said I'm going to be able to almost pick and choose except for the Invitationals which ones I play in.

Q. So you're looking at your schedule right now, based on what you see, are you going to play each week without a doubt? Is there anything that you won't play, other than the obvious?

TOM CARTER: End of this year you're talking? I'll play in whatever they say I can play in, yeah.

Q. Is it at all intimidating this week, or is it just the same, the lower scale in Calgary last week to this?

TOM CARTER: You know, the Nationwide Tour really prepares you for almost everything out here. It's just a little bigger scale out here.

But I can't say enough about the Nationwide Tour and what that does prepare you for, what you're going to get out here. Almost everything is basically the same, just a little bit bigger. Rough is a little longer, course might be a little bit bigger. Stands are bigger, more crowds. But I've got a lot of friends that are already out here. And just seeing what the guys on the Nationwide Tour have done in the past, gradually coming out here and the success that they have had, really gives the guys a lot of confidence coming up here.

Q. Is the course playing your to game -- like we were saying on the Nationwide Tour, there are events where 25-under you need to win, is it better for your game?

TOM CARTER: It's hard to say because I feel like I play well on both types of courses. I've won a tournament this year at 21-under par and I won one at, I think the Samsung, was at 8- or 9-under par. So I think I'm pretty fortunate to be able to play both types of courses.

Q. What's the one thing, if you said there's one thing different between the big tour and the Nationwide Tour, what do you think would be the one thing that separates the players?

TOM CARTER: Probably a lot of it is experience. Maybe just they just know how to manage their games a little better. But a lot of it, I believe, is physically, there's a tremendous amount of talent on the Nationwide Tour. I think mentally the guys out here might be a little sharper and a little more confident through experience than the guys out there.

Q. Can you just quickly go over who you've been working with on your swing in the last few years, if anybody, because I really don't know your background to that extent. And if there's one thing or two things about your golf swing that have progressed maybe in the last couple years, fine-tuned in the last couple years, what would they be?

TOM CARTER: I've worked with the same guy since I was a freshman in college at Temple University. His name is Gary Hardin.

Q. And who is he?

TOM CARTER: He's the head pro at North Hampton Country Club in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Q. So just to finish that off, there's a couple things that you guys have worked on with your golf swing in the last couple years?

TOM CARTER: I would say the last three years, well we haven't really changed anything, we basically -- he just got me to the point where I know my own golf swing. If things get a little bit off, I can talk to myself. If they get really bad, I call him or go see him.

By if I look back through the statistics of my ball-striking over the last three years of the Nationwide Tour, ball-striking has been probably my strength. I think I've been somewhere in the Top 15 in greens hit every year. So that part of my game really hasn't changed.

I think it's mostly just proving to myself that I can play out there and now proving to myself that I can win out there, and I guess I'll do the same thing out here.

Q. What's the situation with your car and everything? A lot was made that your car was in Denver you were in Calgary, you had to come here, how is it coming with sort of getting your affairs in order, per se?

TOM CARTER: Yeah, my car is still in Denver. I made arrangements to get it back somehow to Florida. One of my sponsors is Jim Auregio (ph) who owns a Dodge dealership. It's really his truck. He has a buddy in Chicago and they are going to drive it there and put it on the truck and drive it down to Florida. That will be taken care of that way. It's a good predicament to be in. Basically, I just -- I was selling my car on Sunday and they asked me if I wanted to play in the Canadian Open and I said sure. That night I was trying to make plans to get here.

End of FastScripts.