THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 21, 2002

Robert Allenby

ROBERT ALLENBY: I guess four birdies the last five holes. Prior to that, nothing was really happening.

Obviously, after the rain came, the greens got a lot softer, so it really gave yourself an opportunity if you hit a good drive off the tee, you could really compensate and really attack the flags out there. That's what I did, the last five holes, four birdies, made some good putts, hit some good shots.

You know, it's only getting easier. The wind is nowhere near what it was on the first nine holes. It was quite difficult. But now it's eased up after the storm, and, you know, I probably -- you probably should see somebody at maybe 5- , 6-under out there.

Q. A lot of the guys were talking yesterday, they were surprised how soft the golf course was playing and then we have all this rain today. Are they going to be able to get this golf course firm and hard by the weekend?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Hate to disappoint you, but it's not going to be a hard and fast golf course. I think from the start of the week, we all knew in our own mind that it was going to be soft. The greens were already soft on Monday and Tuesday, and so there was a storm predicted for today, for this afternoon and obviously came in a little early. If it rains any more, the course -- if it rained again now, it could be a little tricky because, you know it would be nearly perfect lies. There's already a lot of mud coming from the fairways on the ball, so it's -- hopefully it won't rain and hopefully we'll have good weather the next three days, and we'll get the tournament finished at the rightful time.

Q. Considering the wind, any advantage going off 1 or 10, either one if you had your choice in this wind?

ROBERT ALLENBY: This wind now is fine. It doesn't really matter. Teeing off 10 this morning in a hurricane was quite brutal. You know, I was very lucky after the storm to go out there in quite still conditions and be able to attack it a little bit more.

Q. Where did the birdies come from all of a sudden?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't know, just came out of the sky. I'm not quite sure.

Q. When you get on a streak like that, did you wish you could keep playing?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I was hoping that that was my first nine. I wanted to keep going and get to the back nine. Nearly missed the scorer's tent.

Q. What were the length of those four birdie putts?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I holed it was about a foot and a half on nine, maybe a fat foot. 25 feet on 8. Ten feet on 7. And 5 was about -- that was 15 feet.

Q. What did you hit into 9?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Just hit a lob-wedge.

Q. What did you have?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I had 83 meters. It's about 91 yards, 92. I do everything in meter, coming from Australia, or at least the young guys, not the old guys, but the young guys that's what you'll find that we all work in, meters.

Q. So do you convert all of the yardage?

ROBERT ALLENBY: My caddy does. We have a chart and we do it every week. That's why I pay him. He's got to do something for the week. (Laughs).

Q. What did you do during the delay?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I just sat upstairs with my baby. I've got an 8-week-old daughter, and just sat with her up there and my wife.

Q. How many holes did you play before the rain?

ROBERT ALLENBY: I played nine and a half.

Q. You opened with a 68 last year and struggled in the second round. Can you talk about getting off to a fast start this year?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Is 3-under a fast start?

Q. Looks like it right now.

ROBERT ALLENBY: At the moment it is. I think you'll find there will be a few scores that are better. There should be because the greens are quite soft and they are in fantastic condition. All you've got to do is hit it close and half-stroke it and it's going to go in.

I'm happy to shoot 3-under. I was 1-over with about five or six holes to go. So I can't complain at all. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and it's obviously going to be pretty late.

Last year I played all right the first day and didn't really get it going the second day, but that's golf. You play well, you play bad, you don't know what's going to happen. It's a very unpredictable game.

Q. Will it be difficult tomorrow, because obviously there's going to be a lot of people who have to finish a round first, and with you having already been done and scheduled for an afternoon start, will that be difficult sitting around all day?

ROBERT ALLENBY: No, not really. As I said before, I got plenty of things to do, plenty of things to keep my mind occupied. You know, you get used to it. There's a lot of rain delays over here, and you get used to it after a while.

Q. Do you have to have a certain mindset for that, knowing that you probably won't finish tomorrow's round and that you'll probably have to come back Saturday?

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I mean, I already know that. Obviously, you take that into account. But it's just a matter of just going out there tomorrow whenever you play and just try and play as good as you can and knowing that you're going to have to get up pretty early the next morning and try and finish it off. You know, that's just -- you still got to hit the shot, still got to get up and still got to do it. That's the way I look at it.

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