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BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

March 28, 2006

Jose Maria Olazabal

DULUTH, GEORGIA

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Jose Maria, thank you for spending a little time this afternoon with us. You came book to play in a tournament you did pretty well at last year, and you're coming off a good tournament last week at THE PLAYERS Championship. A couple thoughts about coming into this week.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I've always said that I like this golf course. I think it's a good test of golf. If we manage to have decent weather, I think it's good preparation for next week. Especially, the greens are very undulating, they can get very, very fast. It's a golf course where you have to make those kind of shots, you have to play the ball and you have to really control it, otherwise you're going to put yourself in some tough positions on the greens.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Can you assess your year to this point?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's been okay. I had a wonderful start at the fifth tournament there in San Diego, even though I lost in a playoff.

So far the season has been okay. On the West Coast, I didn't play steady. I still had some problems with my irons over there. The putting has not been all that great. But, you know, I'm happy where I am at the moment. I had as you said a good week last week on a tough golf course, and hopefully I'll be able to keep doing that.

Q. When you looked out the hotel window today and saw the weather, did you think, "Here we go again"?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Not really. I mean, what are the odds? The odds are in our favor. We had bad weather last year, it's not going to be bad weather every year. It should be better than last year, for sure. It's better to have bad weather on Tuesday and have good weather for the tournament than the other way around.

Q. Inaudible?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Not really, the light was starting to show up.

Q. I asked you this at Bay Hill, but the disappointment of the way you lost last year, is it easier to handle because of all of the success you've had over the course of your career that you can put that into perspective, or is it just as bitter, anyway?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, not bitter. When you play the tour for 20 years, you go through the highs and lows of this game. Somehow you learn to cope with the situations especially when they are tough.

I think even though last year obviously was very hard to swallow because it was a tournament that I had, all I had to do was make two putts on 18. Even though I said it was hard to swallow, I'm pretty sure that if that happened earlier in my career, that would have hurt much more.

Q. Playing on the Monday inaudible?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Not the result itself, not losing the tournament. It was more the lack of time of preparation over there. Finishing very late on Monday over here, we go there late, it was, you know, the practice rounds were like a little rushed. Maybe I didn't have enough time to really mentally prepare myself for it.

Q. I don't know if you've been over to Augusta yet, but just in general, what are your thoughts on them lengthening the course yet again?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I said before, I haven't played the course. It wouldn't be very fair for me to make an opinion about the changes because I haven't played the course. I talked to the boys that have played the course already and they say it's really, really very, very tough. They were hitting quite long irons on to some of the greens, and we will have to wait and see how we play the golf course.

Since they started making the changes, we've played every year in wet conditions. We've had rain every year. We've never had a fast golf course and a hard golf course there since they changed the golf course. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens if we get a dry week. We will see what the scores are and I think, you know, the decision will have to be made if they are needed I guess.

Q. (How do you think the course will play)?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: You're not going to see many birdies. I remember when we played in 1990, the greens were really hard and fast. We had a hard time stopping 9 irons and wedges. We might be hitting 7 irons and 6 irons. Time will tell to be honest. We have seen the direction they have taken and time will tell if they are right or wrong.

Q. If someone were to ask you for the single reason that you've done so well at Augusta in the past, would it be short game?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, nowadays the golf course is completely different to when I started playing there in the late 80s and all through the 90s. Obviously it was a much shorter golf course. It was a more open golf course, wider fairways. It was not so demanding off the tee as it is now. They have narrowed most of the fairways quite a lot.

In those days, you know, the irons on the green is what was needed. Obviously you still had to hit the ball pretty good off the tee. If you were in the wrong side of the fairway, you would be hitting maybe two more clubs on to the green. If you were able to hit the half of the fairway that was long towards the green, you could have more run on the ball and the whole would be playing shorter, so that's not the case anymore. They took care of that, too.

You know, it was a different golf course, and it suited my game at that point. In those days, I hit a lot of great iron shots on to the green, the short game was very good. I think that combination was ideal for that golf course, which I don't think you see now anymore. I think you need length, I think you need accuracy off the tee. It's a different golf course.

Q. You talk about the length, two holes jump out, No. 4 now, and the second shot coming into 11. At 250 on No. 4, a lot of guy the might be changing clubs in their bag. Do you carry a hybrid?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I carry a 5 wood with me.

Q. Would that be the club you would probably use?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I'll have to wait and see. Probably.

Q. At 350?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: If the wind comes in, maybe a 3 would be good. Might not have to change anything in the bag.

Q. Would you think there would be some guys because of that, added length might be making some changes in the bag that week to get something high and soft, rather than a 3 iron?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, Augusta, all through the years has always asked for high balls on to the greens. Even in the past when we used to use the wooden drivers, there was a lot of players that never used a 4 wood for a 5 wood in those days, and actually had those clubs in the bag just for that week, for holes like 13, 15, and so on.

In that sense, the golf course, if we play like we usually do with hard greens and fast, that's what it's going to have.

Q. Inaudible?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's not a matter of how I want it. I think that golf course was meant to be played like that. Now, having said that, with all of the lengthening and everything, some of the pin positions we played all through the years, they are not going to be acceptable, maybe except for, I don't know, ten players. It might even the first hole if they put it short left just over the bunker, I don't know how long the golf hole is now. But if you are hitting 5 iron or a 6 iron, I mean, okay, we'll have to hit it somewhere on the middle of the green or on right or that might be on the back edge of the green and so on. So that's something that you have to think about I guess, is my opinion, anyway.

Q. 7 with no wind, hitting drive and six iron inaudible?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I'm going to have to use a 5 wood there. (Laughter) I might take out the 6 and 7 and 8 irons out of the bag and then put 5 wood and receive wood and nine wood, something like that maybe, I don't know.

Ask that's on the green, too, to see that kind of club on the green. Not a short hitter, one of the longest hitters on Tour and he's hitting a 6 iron on to that green, wonder what I'm going to be hitting over there. We'll have to wait and see anyway what they do. They might not use the whole length of the tee, I don't know. It's what I said. I think it's going to be interesting to see if we get a dry week, the next two or three years what the winning score is, and see what they do, what the decisions they take.

Q. With all of the changes at a lot of great courses because of bigger, stronger players, technology, what do you think about the way officials they are trying to defend themselves against the long hitters, what's your thoughts on technology? Are they going about change it the right way? What are your feelings about that whole situation?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I think pretty much everybody agrees on this that the longer the hitter you are, the longer the golf course, the better, without question. I mean, I'm not saying I don't know how to put it.

Q. Are they playing right into the hands of the long hitters?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think so. If you go out and play the week after Augusta, it's okay, then you have the golf course that is not long at all and the winning score is still in single figures most of the time. You have par 3s that are 150 yards long, 140 yards long, and they are straight par 3s. Nowadays some of the paragraph threes we play are like 250 sometimes.

I don't think by making the golf course longer, you know, you are improving the whole situation when you say that you are trying to protect the golf course from the long hitters. I think the long hitters, I think they have the hugest smile from ear to ear to be honest.

Q. Does it take the course away from the rest of the field?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I don't know. I mean, the longer the golf course, especially for us that we don't hit it that long, we're going to miss more greens. We're going to have to chip around a lot. I guess for some it might, and for some of us, obviously not.

You know, that week is very special for me. It doesn't matter if they make the golf course 9,000 yards long. I've done what I've done over there. That place is wonderful. It's been wonderful to me ever since, you know, my whole career; the two majors that I won, I won them there. Every time I set foot on that place, I feel blessed. Golf has given me a lot and that place has given me most of it. I'm not going to complain about the golf course being that long. The only thing I'm saying is that, you know, you have to be sure if you are going in the right direction. That's what I'm saying.

Q. Not to belabor the point, but the idea about courses that seem to have taken everybody but long hitters out of the equation, Torrey Pines is almost the best example, but you've had great success there, Luke Donald, as well. How do you explain that?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It doesn't matter if the golf course is as long; it doesn't mean that it's playing the same. Augusta is very unique in that sense. You don't find the greens at Augusta anywhere else, do you?

As I said, Torrey Pines is a long golf course, but it's a golf course that you can still play. You can still hit a 3 iron on the greens and stop the ball. If you hit a good shot, you can have the ball on the greens. But some cases, that's not going to happen. You can hit a good shot but if you don't hit the right height to hit the ball on the green, you're not going to get the ball on the green. 14, what they have done on the right conner there, it used to be a wedge in there and I have a hard time to stop the ball on the corner. Everyone was pitching the ball by the hole and ended up on the back edge. The only guys that are really able to attack that flag, the long hitters that can hit a wedge or 9 iron.

Even though the two golf courses are not all that different in distance, you know, they are playing different. We'll see when we play the U.S. open at Torrey Pines, we'll see if the winning score is the same as when you play the Buick over there.

Q. How has this course grown up? Is it improving, changing and what do you think of it as an all around test of golf?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think I answered that last part of the question. I think they have done a good improving the holes, considering when I came here there was a tiny little chipping green on the very left edge of the driving range and now we have two big ones. They have changed the grass on the driving range. They have changed, actually this year, they re seeded the rough and it looks much better now. It's more of a fair contest. The whole golf course usually is in great shape. I think it's wonderful. You have to as I said, you have to hit all kind of shots and you have to draw the ball and you have to fade the ball and you have to hit high shots. You have to use your imagination around the greens because some of the greens fall. You might bump and run it and you can flop it up in the air. It has everything. So, you know, as I said, they have done a great effort on improving the whole facility on the golf course.

Q. Are you looking forward to seeing what it's going to look like in May next year?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: In May, we will have much mover more rough and the golf course will be playing faster and harder. The weather will be much warmer. It's going to be I think interesting to see. I think more and more players will enjoy it, the golf course and the tournament.

Q. With all that being said about how you've played this year and the changes at Augusta, how do you rate your chances next week?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Through the years I have learned not to not to think too far ahead. You know, I've done well there, played well previous to the tournament and I've done well there playing badly before the tournament has started. I've had the opposite where I've done very well last year having played really well here. It's a week where you have to go there with a kind of peace and calm attitude. It's a week that takes a lot out of you. You have to be very patient. You have to really control, also, how much energy you are using on the practice rounds. And it's something, you know, you go out there, you do your best and things will come along if it's your week. If not, you're going to struggle.

Whatever happens out there on that golf course is what I said before. I have wonderful memories over there and it's not going to change.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Thank you, Jose.

End of FastScripts.

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