BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 13, 2002

Ty Tryon

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We'd like to thank Ty Tryon for joining us here in the Bay Hill Invitational media center.

You practice here often, but this is your first time to play in the Bay Hill Invitational. Why don't you give us some comments about the week ahead, and then we'll go into questions.

TY TRYON: It was hard for me to get to the course on time this morning. I had about a 30-second drive, but still had to rush to the tee.

Yeah, it's awesome to be here. I've grown up playing here since I was 11 years old, and just really thankful to Mr. Palmer for giving me the invitation to play.

Q. How has it complicated your high school activities with what you've been doing?

TY TRYON: I've been gone the last three weeks in a row. It complicates it when you're not present at school, but I finds it's worth the trouble being out here, for sure. It's made it tough for me because I'm not at school. So I have to kind of do my work, not be there to listen to teachers and stuff. So I have to make it up and stuff like that.

Q. Do you have a tutor?

TY TRYON: Yeah, I have tutoring and that helps.

Q. Do you find it hard to get motivated to do school work when you're out here?

TY TRYON: It's a little hard, I'm not going to lie, but you've just got to get it done. I'm committed to doing it. I'm not trying to make 4.5 or anything. I'm just trying to do my work.

Q. We only had a 3.0 scale when I was around.

TY TRYON: All right. (Laughs).

Q. What kind of reception have you had back at your high school after tournaments?

TY TRYON: It's been pretty much the same. I mean, a few more people I don't know say hello to me or like, "Ty Tryon, golfer kid," stuff like that. But my friends treat me pretty much the same. Not much different. I'm glad for that, too.

Q. What about the players; are they nice to you?

TY TRYON: They treat me great. It's the first time I've ever been in the locker room here because you have to be 18. It's a good treat to get in there, and the card playing and all that stuff.

Q. Can you talk about your preparation to play the course this week?

TY TRYON: I want to hit fairways and greens because the course is playing real tough and the greens are hard. If I can just hit the middle of the greens and have some 20-, 25-footers for birdie, hopefully I can shoot a few under each day and I'll be up there.

Q. Can you talk about 16, how different it is without that horseshoe green? And also, when you are on the green, how many different realistic pin positions did you see?

TY TRYON: Not just 16. I mean, every green was changed. My advantage was taken away a little bit from playing here because the greens are changed; so I'm just getting used to the greens also.

But 16 is definitely changed. You can't just bail out left. You have got to pretty much go for the green or lay up.

I like the changes, though. The greens are rolling great. I've never been here during the tournament. Just watching, never playing.

Q. Did you watch quite a bit?

TY TRYON: Oh, yeah.

Q. Did you come out every year?

TY TRYON: Four years in a row.

Q. But you're only 17.

TY TRYON: Not last year. I was in California.

Q. Can you talk about your first year so far, has it been a period of frustration? What's going on?

TY TRYON: Well, I haven't had the success that I would like to have, but I've had -- I just try to keep a positive attitude. I know it's a long year and I'm going to have a few bad tournaments and a few missed cuts. I'm just trying to get better and play better each week, and I feel like I'm playing better each week. Phoenix, I didn't play well. But then Doral I played better and Honda I played better. And so it's improving, I guess, still getting settled.

Q. Obviously, what you showed playing last year and with Q-School as well, has it been frustrating for you the first couple of weeks?

TY TRYON: It's been a little frustrating, but I just haven't got off to the starts I would like. I haven't put together a string of birdies or hit some great shots in a row. Just kind of par, birdie, bogey, stuff like that. Nothing really great.

Q. You said every shot just got worse and worse, has that happened to you?

TY TRYON: I don't understand.

Q. Has that happened to you the past couple weeks? You said you would lose focus; that one round you continued to lose focus with every bad shot; do you see that happening?

TY TRYON: The last two weeks, Honda and Doral, I thought I played pretty well. My focus was there. I just -- I finished really bad, actually, both rounds on Friday. I just didn't finish the way I like and brought it in with four or five bogeys, but I was playing great and just kind of messed up. But I'm trying to keep my focus.

Q. Have you had any conversations with Tiger yet or just passed each other on the range?

TY TRYON: I saw him at Doral. But I just saw him. You don't really see him much. He's kind of here and gone, you know.

Q. What are your plans for future education after high school?

TY TRYON: I'm just trying to finish my junior year right now. Hopefully my grade point average is good enough so I can maybe do some college classes down the road. I'm just somehow trying to fit it in right now.

Q. What did you and Arnold talk about when you shot that Callaway commercial?

TY TRYON: It was amazing because Arnold was influential in starting the TOUR, him and Jack. He was just telling to me and Charles and ED Dougherty about the '50s, '60, '70s, how the tour, it was a loose branch of tournaments and how they got them organized and stuff. It was pretty neat.

Q. It's an interesting contrast this week, you have Matt Kuchar winning last week, who decided to wait to turn pro to finish school, and you did the opposite of that. Have you thought at all about that contract?

TY TRYON: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Actually, I played with Kuchar last week. I played a practice round with him on Tuesday and had lunch with him a few times. Saw him two nights ago at a film shoot thing for a commercial, or I don't know what it was, a special.

It worked for him and things worked out and he's a great player and a great guy. So things work out for good people. He's a nice guy. But I decided to do something different, and hopefully the same for me down the road.

Q. What part about it has been more difficult than you thought it would be?

TY TRYON: Time management. Just got to manage your time well. So many people, they want your time, a piece of it. So you've just got to remember to get out here and practice and get better at golf. There's a lot of things besides the golf that you have to do. I just really try to make my own time. It's a lot more valuable than it used to be. Just trying to practice hard and get better.

Q. Can you give us an example, besides the media?

TY TRYON: Family, friends. So many family and friends now come around. Everybody wants tickets, just so much more things going on, contracts, outings, stuff like that.

TY TRYON: Yeah, a lot of stuff. You don't have to deal with that when you're an amateur, because that's the perks of being a pro, I guess.

Q. Do you enjoy the corporate end of it?

TY TRYON: It's cool. Really neat. Free stuff. I love it.

Q. You'll be doing Pro-Ams, soon, if you stay out here long enough?

TY TRYON: I played Wednesday Pro-Am at Honda, actually. We played good, too, 14-under. I think we got the top 5, shot 14-under. I was pretty disappointed.

Q. You said you haven't done as well as you thought you would do. How did you think you would do?

TY TRYON: I didn't really think about it. I just -- I just try to focus on the present. You know, actually, I've done -- you can play well. You can like score well and not get better. Q-School, my game was not where I liked it, but I scored well. But I feel my game is better now than it was then, but I haven't been scoring well.

I feel like I've improved. I just haven't made the putts and kind of put together the strings of birdies and stuff. But hopefully that will come.

Q. BellSouth is next after this week?

TY TRYON: Yeah, BellSouth.

Q. What else on your plate; do you know?

TY TRYON: I haven't really committed to anything yet. I'm thinking about Deutsche Bank overseas. I thought I had a schedule planned out, but I don't really know anymore. Things have kind of changed.

Q. How might your schedule had been different had you not had to wait until June to become a member?

TY TRYON: It's tough because there's a lot of expectations on you, and you've just got to come out here once every five weeks or so and expect to play well, when guys are who are out here week after week who are veterans, and here is a 17-year-old kid who has never played the golf course for the most part. But I'm having a good time doing it.

Q. How many more tournaments might you have played had you not had this scenario where you've had to rely strictly on sponsor's exemptions and seven at a minimum?

TY TRYON: I probably would have played three more or so, three or four more. Not too many more. Probably 10 or 11 I think. Still got to get to school.

Q. School is not a big issue, it doesn't sound like? It almost seems like you are home-schooling on TOUR?

TY TRYON: I am. When I'm home, I actually go to school. I don't know, it kind of worked out the way -- everything works out. I'd be very tempted to play every week, though.

Q. I would imagine that your ranking will a reshuffle once you actually become a member, is going to be fairly low, but there's a lot of openings in the summer. Do you think you would be inclined to play something like the B.C. Open or go over to Britain and try and qualify for the British?

TY TRYON: Right now, I'm committed to playing the B.C. Open because I had a good tournament there last year. So if I get the British Open, that would be a great opportunity, but I've just got to get there first.

Q. But you would not go over to Britain to try to qualify?

TY TRYON: If I got in without qualifying/, but I would not go over and try to qualify, no. B.C. is a good tournament and I had a blast there and did well.

Q. How did the Web site turn out?

TY TRYON: I just saw it last night. It launched today, actually. My manager, Jay, he did a great job on it.

Q. Nothing embarrassing in there?

TY TRYON: No, it's really good, actually. Much better than the last one.

Q. Have the girls paid more attention to you?

TY TRYON: Maybe. A little bit. (Smiles).

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Ty for joining us.

TY TRYON: Thanks a lot.

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