ADVIL WESTERN OPEN

July 4, 2001

Robert Allenby

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, absolutely. I am looking forward to this week. I had last week off. I feel very fresh and ready to go. This golf course brings back a lot of good memories obviously. It was nice yesterday I went out and played the back nine holes and the golf course itself is in fantastic condition. I think it is even in better condition than last year. So weather must have been very good leading up to this tournament. Looking forward to it. Just feeling good about my game and feeling good about this course.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Sure. Obviously the U.S. open, I missed the cut, but if I had to stop ten minutes prior when we should have, then we would have been okay. But I was -- I had a bad hole in the dark and which I know it happened too quite a few players. So I was unfortunate there. But I played well the week after the Buick. I had last week off. I feel like I am hitting it good. I have been pretty consistent most of the year; especially the last few months, and just, you know, it is just slightly coming together and it takes a couple of shots or a couple of putts, especially around a course like Cog Hill from where I have won last year, anything can click into place this week. I am really looking forward to it.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, I think I had a lot of confidence for this course. Obviously had a lot of confidence last year to go on and win. When you go back to the defend, you had a lot of confidence and it's pretty easy to just walk back in and get the confidence. Everyone says: Oh, there's a lot of pressure on you because you are the defending champion, you know, you have got to try and back it up and that. But my theory is if I play well, I play well and if I don't, then I don't. You can't put any pressure on yourself. You are either going to play well or you are not - simple as that. That's the way I look at it. I am looking forward to this week and just looking forward to tomorrow and the next four days.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I haven't. I will see it this afternoon. I have heard it is very good. So I am looking forward it to. It will be good.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I had from the back tee yesterday, driver, 4-iron. I mean, obviously, yesterday was quite wet and a little soft out there, I hit driver, 4-iron to the sort of front middle half of the green. I think I will probably only play it depending on the wind conditions. I mean, that hole always plays into the wind, so, it will be interesting to see what they do. I think if they put the flags from the middle to the back, I will always go off the front tee. Otherwise guys will be hitting woods into there. I had to hit 2-iron into the back yesterday.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think it is great. Play as far back as you want (laughs) I think -- actually makes the hole -- obviously makes the hole very tough, but the bunker on the left, the fairway bunker brings that into play whereas if you are on the front tee or the tee just in front of the back markers, you can fly over the top of that bunker. So the bunker is not in play. Now when you go off the back, if you hit it in that left trap then you virtually have got no chance of getting into the green on two because you are going in there with three or four iron and you can't get it over the lip. It kind of makes the hole a better hole from back there. It makes it a lot tougher, that's for sure.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Everything goes around in circles. What goes around comes around. I am a true believer in that. You know, I guess we are all human and some weeks we are going to have some really good weeks and others we are not going to have so good weeks. That's what has happened to Tiger the last few tournaments. You can't expect -- we all expect to win every week, but we don't do it. He does it a little bit more often than most of us. But you know, just -- it just proves to you guys that you know, he is not who you think he is. He is close, but (laughs) he is human. Humans make mistakes and you know, some weeks when he putts well he is just going to win all the time because he hits it so good, I mean, he hits it off-line but when he hits it off-line, he is so strong out of the rough and he is only hitting short irons in. So when he putts well, he will win most weeks because of his strengths that he has in his power. But you know, he is going to have off weeks like he had with his putter and other people are going to win like Goosen. So you know, people are going to win as well. Obviously with the way that Tiger has played it's brought everyone else's game another level, so he is good for us. He is good for you. He is good for the game.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, absolutely. As I said before he is a human being and if you can't talk to every human being in the world then there is something wrong. Just because he is the world No. 1 and has this amount of money (raises hand high),whatever, the fame, and whatever, it doesn't mean that we can't talk to him. He is just like me. He is just like you, and he is a human being. He is a person. Just because he plays so well and he has done so much already at such a young age, you know, everyone wants to play with him. Everyone wants to him to be there. We all know that it adds a little bit more to the tournament when Tiger Woods is playing, but when he is not it is still great field. If Tiger Woods wasn't playing in this week you still got the best field you probably ever had here. So you know, we don't need Tiger Woods, but we do, (laughs) so to speak. But no one feels intimidated by him or anything like that.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think -- I mean, I can't speak on behalf of everyone else, but I think for myself, you know this is a very old tournament. I think 98 years, so it has been around for a long time. A long time before any of us in here, and you know, it has a lot of history to it but I think the golf course itself is for me is one of the main factors of coming here. It is such a great golf course. It is so demanding, you have to drive it long. You have to drive it straight. Probably more so straight than long. You have to have very precise iron-play. The greens are very -- there's some subtle breaks there and a few little mounds that you don't want to get on the wrong side of so it is very demanding on the greens. And it requires a good touch on the greens with the putter. I think the -- overall this course is one -- there's not too many courses that we play on the Tour that are as demanding in all parts of the game. You have got to drive it well. You have got to putt well, you have got to chip well and you have got to hit your irons well. It is just the way they set this course up. The greens aren't -- some greens are big but some greens are quite small and quite narrow and it is a demanding course. That's pretty much the main reason why I am here because it's such a great golf course and you have got to be a good ball-striker.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think you can stand up on 10 and we all look at 10, we think it's such a short hole. Some guys hit drivers and some guys hit 3-woods and some guys hit 2-irons. But if you miss the fairway, you are virtually definitely thrown away your chance of making a birdie and maybe eight times out of 10 you will bring in a bogey. It is such a short hole that if you hit it in the rough, you are virtually, you know, you have got no shot.

ROBERT ALLENBY: You got to have good course management around here. Sometimes you have got to put the driver back in the bag and take 3-wood or take an iron. The most important thing about this course is you must keep it in the short stuff. There's some demanding holes out there. 3 and 4, there's two pretty tough holes right there. So very important that you hit the fairways.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I think, you know, it's -- the R&A an USGA, I think they have just got to draw a line somewhere and come to an agreement that this is where it's got to be and it can't be any more than that or whatever. It's kind of a weird deal when they have got a couple of drivers that you can use over the pond and you can't use them over here. So I don't know. It's not my cup of tea that part. I just play golf and my drivers, I use, I know it is legal, so ...

ROBERT ALLENBY: No, no, not at all. I have been using the same driver -- I am actually going to change my driver for the first time this week in a year -- over a year now 18 months or so.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I use a Titleist driver, but I have just changed my shaft, that's all I have.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I am not sure.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't change.

ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't see the point. I mean, you have been -- if you use something for so long and you know exactly where it is going to go, how it behaves, you know, I know a few guys that on the European Tour I have got some good friends over there that play and win quite a fair bit over there and they have got drivers they can't use over here, so when they come over here they have got to change their driver. I'd find that a little bit disturbing mentally more than anything, because here's a driver that I know that I can do this and do that with, and then I have got to change when I come over here, I mean, no driver is the same, believe me. No driver -- I can find a thousand more drivers and not one of them would be the same as the one I have got. I have virtually gone through that many too find the new one I have got right now.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Just a little stiffer shaft, that's all I have done. I have changed my shaft. The head's exactly the same, the same length, same everything, except I have gone maybe a couple of cycles stiffer than the previous one.

ROBERT ALLENBY: No, I have been working on this for several months. That's how long it has taken. I spent a lot of time hitting all different drivers and I have been trying one particular shaft which is a rifle shaft and just I think I have found the one that suits my game.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Obviously all shafts are different, but I wanted to find a shaft that was -- I mean, my whole set are all rifle precision shafts. I wanted to get a rifle graphite in my driver and I had been trying and trying -- I have been trying for years, and I have finally found the shaft that suits me. At least I think so.

ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah. And I look for the right flex. It's got to have a good kick point in the shafts, you know, I want to be able to hit the ball high, I want to hit it low, right-to-left, left-to-right. I want to be able to move it around the golf course the way I can.