DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 6, 1997

Greg Norman

GREG NORMAN: Well, today was a beautiful springtime in Florida, I guess, morning. The golf course was fairly soft. There was no breeze for us. If you were playing well you could take advantage of it. But you still have to play well to do that and shoot the good scores. This golf course wasn't playing, obviously with the lack of wind, it wasn't playing the way we would hope it would play. I hit a 9-iron into 18 today. So that tells you that the golf course played, with the way the conditions gave it.

GREG NORMAN: You want me to go over it? Okay. I teed off the 10th hole. You want me to go 10 through 9?

GREG NORMAN: 10th hole, 3-wood, 6-iron, 8-iron, about 20-footer for 4. 12 I hit the driver, 4-iron, 6-iron to 6 feet for a 4. 13 I hit a 4-iron to about 25 feet and one putted. 17 I hit a driver 9-iron to about 3 feet. And then I go parred all the way through to 8. On the 8th, driver 4-iron to about 12 feet and 2-putted. And 9 I hit a 7-iron in about 10 feet and 1-putted.

GREG NORMAN: 213.

GREG NORMAN: The 18 I played? Yeah, I drive a 9-iron.

GREG NORMAN: 20 feet. Everybody thought I made double bogey there or something.

GREG NORMAN: Geez.

GREG NORMAN: I signed the right one? Okay. I am 6-under.

GREG NORMAN: I had 136 yards.

GREG NORMAN: I drove it way down the middle, I just took it over the bunker, over everything. With the 9-iron at 18 I played away from the flag, because the greens were soft. I don't know if we got the flag, with the little downslope, it might spin off the green, so I had to land about 15 feet right of the hole, because not knowing the conditions, how the ball was going to react.

GREG NORMAN: 13 played about, I think it was 203 to the front. I think the pin was 23 or 24, something like that.

GREG NORMAN: I guess I like getting out of my own bed and coming down here, I suppose. As I said to you, one thing that with the renovations, Raymond never changed any of the lines off the tee. So when I go out there and play, even now, I just hit the ball where I'm supposed to hit the ball, which I've done for how many years I've been down here now. And there wasn't any situation out there today that I had to say, well, do I go here or go over here now because these bunkers are in a certain position. Not one time did I do that. I got up on each tee and just drove. I know on 18 when you're a little downwind you can take it over everything. So there wasn't one shot out there that I was apprehensive on, because I knew exactly where the lines were and where the ball would go.

GREG NORMAN: No, I had to struggle on a couple of them. I read a few of them by 9 inches. I played some grain that I knew was there last year, thinking it would still be there, but never affected the putt. So there was a couple of situations. And I asked Tony to read a putt for me probably the first time in many years around here on the 9th hole, my last hole, because it was -- I wasn't too familiar, didn't get a comfortable feel on what I was seeing. And he said exactly the same as I was seeing, anyway. There was a couple of putts, probably three or four that were a little question mark for me, because they are new greens.

GREG NORMAN: I think I'm longer now. I'm getting back to where I was in the mid '80s. I had lost my yardage over the last couple of years, drive like at 18. The drive I hit down the 8. I hit that well over 300 yards. So those type of things are making me feel good again that I'm getting the ball back to the flight and the distance I want to get it back at. And even Jackie noticed that today. So those type of things. We talked about it, he asked me how I was feeling with David. I said I think it's great. He said I think it's great, too, he said you're really starting to swing well. Those type of things when other players see it I'm doing the right things.

GREG NORMAN: I've got more freedom. I have a familiar swing again. My right elbow is not behind my torso, which you lose a lot of power. My right elbow is staying out in front of me, when it's out in front my club, is out in front you can generate more club head speed. I'm swinging more down the line, more control. So I've only been working on it a short period of time and the results are showing.

GREG NORMAN: I've seen David probably four times. I'm not one who likes somebody around me all the time. I like to -- as I said to David, David just give me one thing to work on and let me get that done, then give me another thing, don't give me a bunch of things to work on. So it's been -- he's been great. He's got a fantastic eye, he's got a great feel for the game. For him to pick up my mistakes that quickly, he's got to be great.

GREG NORMAN: If I go up to Orlando, it's an hour and a half, two hours. If he comes down to -- he came down on Monday, I didn't even go out and see him. I was too tired to go hit balls. He had Nicky out there, so I figured it was okay.

GREG NORMAN: No, I don't think so. I think a lot of the good instructors, like David, I mean David had Nick Price and Nick Faldo. Still has them and Ernie Els, those guys. So it's -- there should never be a problem with that. I don't have a problem with who he coaches. He can go coach anybody he wants, as long as he does the right thing by me.

GREG NORMAN: He's not here, he's going home, so he's lucky.

GREG NORMAN: Yes, I'm sure he would do. I wouldn't want somebody on a Sunday morning, anyway. If I've got that position where we're tied in the last group going in on Sunday, then I know my game is really solid. But knowing David he would divide it up equally. I don't think he would show any favoritism to any one player, he likes to see us all perform to the best of our ability that's where he gets the satisfaction and the reward of him, irrespective of who wins, me or Nick or Nick or Ernie, he gets the right reward because he got us in the right position to win.

GREG NORMAN: No, I wasn't thinking length, I was thinking getting a familiar swing back again, that was all I was thinking.