WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 9, 2000

Franklin Langham

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, first birdie came on No. 2. I made an excellent putt there. It was probably a putt, and it was probably 20 feet, but probably broke 8 feet. It was one of those you just kind of are lagging it, you get up there, it went in, which was nice. Let's see, down to 7. Hit the green in two; 2-putted for birdie. 8, club off the tee, hit about 124 to the pin, pitching wedge in there for about 6 feet; made it for birdie. 9 was just Valderrama. Misjudged the distance, coming out of the rough. The ball didn't carry the green. It caught the front edge, rolled down some 20 yards in front of the green, you know. I was trying to hit a little 6-iron one-up and didn't judge it; left it short. Made bogey there. Then go to back nine, and birdied 13, par 4. I hit a 9-iron to about 3 feet there. Actually I had a good stretch in there. 14, I had a 10-footer; missed it. 15, I had about a pretty long par 3. Had about a 15-footer there; thought I made it, just slid by. 16, I hit it about 4 feet there, actually. Got a good break. Drove it down the right side. Hit a solid drive, but it caught a tree and actually kicked backwards but out into the fairway. So I was left with, I think it was like 206 or so. Hit a 4-iron to about 4 feet; made birdie. 17, laid up on the par 5. Had about 73 yards, and hit it in there about 3 feet; made birdie. Then 18, hit a utility club, rescue club that got a little bit left on me. Got in the rough. Of course, tree was overhanging, trying to hit a low shot. I did. But it ran left into the bunker and busted out to about 15 feet, and missed the par putt. So I think the thing about the round is I realize coming in here from playing two practice rounds that there's going to be times when you hit good shots and the ball doesn't turn out so well. You just got to be patient, and try to make bogey or score.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, little bit. I saw a little bit on TV too, actually, last year. I was at home taking it easy. Much was made of the 17th hole, which makes you respect that. And 18 as well. Those are the holes you see coming in. Basically, the course is all dictated by conditions. If the wind picks up, this course can play extremely hard, because it's hard to control your ball and keep it in the right position when you got a 20-mile-an hour wind going. Plus on top of that, the greens get firm and fast. It makes it difficult to play. Yeah, I mean, I played with David Toms in a practice round. And guys that played, Dudley Hart had played here before, Bob May, you kind of talk to these guys. And the tough part, what they were saying, was the wind kind of came from different directions on them. Like today, there wasn't much wind to speak of. We had a little breeze, maybe 5 miles an hour coming in. But it was at a totally different direction than I played the whole practice round. I was guessing a little bit with clubs off the tee. This is the first day I played without any wind, which I was very fortunate, ended up playing early. You can't script a round. But you know when you get conditions like this, you want to go out there and try to take advantage of it. I was fortunate enough to get a good round in. I only had one thing -- I realized today, too, playing in the practice round, sometimes -- the course, you have to hit good shots to play well. But it's where you leave yourself when you hit a shot that's kind of borderline. But, you know, it's such a fine line on some of these holes between birdie and bogey. I was playing Cabrera on No. 8. He hits a shot right in the center of the tee; hits his ball right on top of the ridge, and it spins back some 40 feet off the green. I hit mine. It didn't really -- checked, and went about 6 feet from the hole. He ends up making birdie; I make bogey. There wasn't a whole lot of difference between the shots. That's Valderrama. Sometimes you call it luck, or whatever you will. It's not how good you hit your good shots, it's where you leave your misses sometimes.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: No. Stunk.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Well, I mean, that's golf though. It happens to all of us. I've learned that the better you can handle the down times, the better off you'll be. Honestly, even when I played well at the Canon, I knew something was going a little bit haywire with my swing. I've been playing so well, I was very hesitant to go to my teacher. You want to continue to get better, but I don't want to get caught in that search for the perfect swing, where everything's got to be absolutely perfect to play well. This game is not perfect. I mean, more times than not it's how good your misses are instead of how good you are when you hit good shots. So I kind of felt it leaving me a little bit. So the week of Disney I worked with my teacher a lot, in hopes of being ready for THE TOUR Championship. I wasn't. I just -- I was playing more swing shots than I was picturing shots and hitting them. But I kind of felt it coming together as the week went on. I had my worst day the first day. The last day I shot 1-under. That was one of those rounds that could have easily been 5 or 6-under. I did some makeable birdie attempts. But golf's a funny game. That's why I respect so much what Tiger's done over the length of time that he's done it. He's just managed to stay at the top. It shows you how good he is. I'm working towards getting there, my bad rounds aren't as bad as staying out of a golf tournament. Yeah, I mean, I would have liked to have played better as of late. But it will get better. It's the end of the year. Everybody's tired. I think our patience tends to run dry quicker, you know? So when it's not going well, you tend to -- I'm not saying pack it in -- but you just go, "Well, it's the end of the year. I've had a great year." That was the thing at THE TOUR Championship. I was trying not to get caught up in the one week I was there and say, "God, you're just playing terrible," even though I thought that. But it's been a good year. I don't want to be bitter about it. But it would have been a little nicer to play better at home.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I think Rich Lerner brought it up, but I'm not going to bring it up.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I've seen some of the quotes in there. Thanks, though.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Well, this is my first World Golf Championship, so I was excited about coming. I qualified from top 30 on the money list, US money list, and was excited about coming. The thing is, your name players are the ones that tend to draw the galleries. What we've experienced over in the US is the quality of play has gotten so good now. There's no such thing as a weak field anymore, because any given week, a guy can come out of the pack and win. It's tougher because they don't have the experience, but I think you're seeing the quality of play rise up. I know you probably see it over here in Europe as well. So the point I'm getting at, it may not be for you guys or for the galleries as many name players as they would like here, but I'd go so far to bet you that the winning score is going to be the same as if they all were here, because they're all not going to play great. That's something I learned too. I have the utmost respect for all the guys who play well here on Tour. But you realize, it's a funny game. Given a chance, any given -- as they say, any given Sunday they can be beat. So I think we got a real good field here. It would be nice to have those guys here, but it's going to take a great four rounds and a good winning score to win.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, I understand what you're saying. There again, though, I mean -- I'm not going to name players. You hear guys that say, "Well, my kid's in school; I got to go do this." A lot of times, they're not sitting there going, "Well, it's a World Golf Championship, but we play for so much money, I'm not going over there." A lot of times it's not there. I think a lot of this week is because of the scheduling. They're going to move it up earlier in the year next year, and I guarantee you're going to have a lot more of our guys playing. I'm whipped right now, but I'm not going to pass this up. This is the first World Golf Championship I got to play. But there's not much off-season for us anymore. I don't think there's a need to require it. I think there are enough guys that play in these things that are good players. I think you kind of -- you open a can of worms when you start making players play places. There are guys in the year that are hurt; they can't play. They probably wish they were here. So I think moving it up to earlier in the year next year is really going to help it. It's just the fact that you're getting to relax a little bit.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I'm planning on it, yeah.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah. If I go, I'll stop back and play the SONY Open, which will help that tournament I think as well. Because you kind of work your way back to the States, as you go.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: That's right. That would be nice, playing Mercedes. So as far as I'm planning right now, I love Match Play. We're still ironing out all the schedule and the flights and everything, but I'm planning on being there.

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