VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 12, 2002

Ben Crane

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I'd like to welcome runner-up Ben Crane. Ben, congratulations on a great week, 65; played some spectacular golf especially on the backside. Talk a little bit about how it felt to be in the hunt and what a day it was for you.

BEN CRANE: It was an amazing day. I can't really say much more than that. All week has been so special. We missed five cuts in a row or something. I have really been struggling. So just to be here, just to be playing the weekend I was so thankful. I was just like I am -- I don't know, I had an amazing sense of peace today that God gave me, prayed for that peace and comfort out there and I did. To be in the hunt, playing with Ernie Els is -- like it was awesome. Just being in the hunt with the best players in the world it doesn't get more exciting than that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I understand you have a pretty exciting day coming up next week. Your second place paycheck of $518,000 will come in pretty handy for you.

BEN CRANE: Oh my gosh, wow. I had no idea. My fiance told me that this was like an inflated purse this week. I was like oh, great. I didn't really care that much. Oh, my gosh.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We can thank the people at Verizon for that one.

BEN CRANE: Thank you Verizon.

Q. Can you talk about your mindset just attacking, maybe some guys would kind of settle for the check, it looked like you were trying to win the tournament, talk about your mindset?

BEN CRANE: My mindset all day was that we wanted to just do our best and we were going to kind of take what the course gave us and if we were in position to score that we might go on a fly. If not we were just going to try to eliminate a mistake. So we just really tried to think our way around the course. And just play intelligently.

Q. You keep saying we?

BEN CRANE: My caddie and I Brandon.

Q. Is that how you approach this as a team effort?

BEN CRANE: Absolutely. We have been together now, this is our third week together, and he's done amazing things. We have just -- we're totally a team out there. He makes some decisions just says, look, this is what we are going to do at times, and we're much better off as a team and so I owe a lot of the credit to Brandon this week, he did a fabulous job.

Q. Ever a point on the back nine maybe early where you were playing for position and then did that change to playing for a win after 16 and 17?

BEN CRANE: I didn't know how I stood all day. Again our goal was just to do our best, every moment, you know, not think about what had happened but just stay in the present, live in the moment. So I never really played the game of I am trying to play to win or play for top 5 or anything like. That I was out there just trying to do my best. I didn't know if that was going to end up in a victory or end up in fifth or what. I mean, I knew that if it came down to it, that my caddie was going -- if it came down to a shot where we needed to play a different way we would talk about that before the day started that he was just going to try to get me to play a different way and kind of inform me of how we stood and that we needed to make some birdies or what have you.

Q. You didn't look at the leader board all day?

BEN CRANE: Never once. A couple of times, you know, I looked up and leader board was right there in front of me, but I didn't read it. I didn't, you know, there was one time I saw my name on it, but I never read it or studied it or -- I think that would have made me more nervous than I wanted to be.

Q. What about the second shot at 18, what was the discussion there?

BEN CRANE: We just -- there was an -- I could have had a low hook, you know, possibly got on the green in two. We actually talked -- that was the first time we talked about the leader board, and Brandon said that we had a two-shot cushion and we were -- if we could make birdie some amazing way, that we would have an outside chance to win the tournament. But there was just really no way to do it. There was kind of a clump in front of my ball, it was probably going to bounce up and hit a tree, so it was pretty clear-cut that we needed to pitch out.

Q. After making the putt on 17 did that change your mindset on the 18th tee? It gave you position to go -- (inaudible) --

BEN CRANE: I mean, I guess I got to the 18th tee and I thought I was right around the lead, if I didn't have it, again, you know, we just -- we were out there just giving it our all, and I was pretty nervous, you know, on the back nine all day; maybe even a little bit more so but my mindset didn't really change.

Q. That was the result, the nerves kind of left -- was that the result of the tee shot?

BEN CRANE: Yeah, I mean, maybe, I just hung onto club face a little bit, left the face open a little. My right foot felt like it slipped a little. So I mean--.

Q. How was it playing with Ernie today and did he say anything to you on the final couple of holes?

BEN CRANE: He was a great, great playing partner. Really relaxed, and pretty funny, you know, over the final few holes, I made the putt on 16. He was really encouraging it, he was like "way to go," you know, "keep it up," you know, and so he was very encouraging, 16 and 17. So it was -- that was very nice.

Q. How excited did you get about his hole-in-one?

BEN CRANE: I got pretty excited. It was amazing. It was a perfect shot. It never left the hole, it was awesome. It was totally awesome. I gave him a high-five and was really excited for him. Then I tried to kind of just go okay, you got to hit a shot, now focus.

Q. Was being in the hunt kind of what you'd expect it to be like for the first time?

BEN CRANE: I don't know. I don't know. I'd say, yeah, it was what a thrill. Thank God I have got -- this is the greatest job in the world. And I can wake up everyday and be nervous because I care so much about what I am doing and be so excited to go out and do it, it is great.

Q. What is your fiance's name?

BEN CRANE: Heather Heinze.

Q. Any chance that she will want to postpone the wedding see if you can repeat this magic at Colonial?

BEN CRANE: No, it was totally ordained that this -- May 18 was the day for us to get married. We totally believe that and we're just blessed to have this time.

Q. Ben where did this performance come from after missing a bunch of cuts in a row?

BEN CRANE: You want to know. From up above. God gave me an amazing -- I don't know, I felt like my game has always been close, but there has been things that kind of killed me, and I went into this week and I was not hitting the ball well. My swing was -- I was missing the ball left, path was off, things were not quite right. I knew I was putting good, but we just kind of -- we worked so hard on managing our game and just finding a way to score, and even if you know, my swing wasn't quite right we were going to try and find a way just to get it done. As the week progressed, my swing got a little better and a little better, so that's -- that's all I can say.

Q. What got better? What were you trying to correct?

BEN CRANE: My path got better. I was swinging from the outside and with a closed face and missing shots just left. And as you know, if you hit an iron close the face down, swing a little from the outside, it is going to go long and left. Long and left with a short iron is generally over the green and you got a downhill and possible chip coming back. That was kind of killing me the last few weeks, so we really had get that ironed out and we did as the week went on it got better and better.

Q. Today it seemed like the more you played the sharper you got, was it -- was there anything that you fiddled with during the round?

BEN CRANE: No, not really. I just -- my swing thoughts were pretty consistent all day and I felt like there was kind of a period in the middle there where I could have been frustrated, I made a couple of bogeys in there, and you know, Brandon and I just kept talking about staying in it, just don't be frustrated, just keep a good attitude. And keep perspective most important about where you, what is going on, don't get too down.

Q. Did you guys ever talk about maybe putting some heat on Shigeki up ahead as far as with the --?

BEN CRANE: Never, I didn't know he was leading, so I obviously couldn't think about putting some heat on him.

Q. Talk about your caddie out here after three weeks, what is the difference between this caddy and your caddy you had before that?

BEN CRANE: My caddy I had before that was a guy who was a good friend, who is my instructor's son. He was out for the last like 8 weeks on the BUY.COM and caddied for me at Q-School and the first seven weeks out here, we played great together. It was a lot of fun but he's a good amateur golfer so he went to play. Then we kind of fiddled around with different caddies and stuff. Actually Brandon my caddy today went out and got trained by him for a week and so that was really kind of a smart move I guess you can say and so now he's -- caddies a lot like Craig did. He does some things a little different, but it is great. Does a fabulous job.

Q. Brandon going to stay on as your caddy or are you going to back to your other caddy?

BEN CRANE: No, Brandon has got the job. He had an okay week. (Laughter).

Q. You mentioned you putted well all week, can you talk about how confident you were over those putts, the eagle and the birdie putt, if you felt good on both of them?

BEN CRANE: I felt fairly confident over them. We really read the greens well this week and once we felt like we had a good read on it. It was just a matter of get it on line with the right speed. My speed had been good all day it was just matter of focusing just letting it happen over the putt. I felt fairly confident over it, so, it was -- pretty consistent all week, it really felt good.

Q. It seems like that coming down the stretch talking like you were a little bit in awe of your surroundings. Next time you are in this situation how do you think you can avoid putting all of that out?

BEN CRANE: Yeah, I think so. It is so important to live in the present and not think about what's happened in the past or anything, so, that's really my focus. When I am in that situation, and we really did a good job of it today. Your mind tends to wander at time and tends to kind of get caught up in some thoughts that you know, aren't maybe where you are supposed to be. So you stop it and kind of get back to just living in the present and just enjoying the walk and enjoying the fans who are there to support you and they want to see you do well. It's really a lot of fun.

Q. Before today what was biggest thing you felt you had done in golf?

BEN CRANE: Before today?

Q. Yes.

BEN CRANE: Maybe Q-School. Q-School, I put 6 really good rounds together, 6 rounds in the 60s together at Q-School, and went and accomplished our goal, our goal to come out with a PGA TOUR card, so I think that was probably the biggest thrill.

Q. Clubs and yard damages on 16 and 17?

BEN CRANE: 16, we had like 235 to the -- caddies got the book always with him. 207, 237 - 237 to the hole and it is uphill into the wind, and so it really -- it is a perfect 3-wood kind of a soft 3-wood you kind of just cut it, really had a great number there. 17 was a 7-iron I think it was 174 yards -- 169. 174 yard-shot, Brandon said, make sure you are obviously not short. Then 18 was 145 or so and hit little 7-iron, just a great shot.

Q. Is part of you itching to get right back?

BEN CRANE: No, not at all. Thankful for today. Now I will get a little rest.

Q. I would think with a marriage blooming six days away, it would kind of be a little bit on your mind. Do you think that might have actually helped this week?

BEN CRANE: Yeah, I do. I do. It was a good distraction. It was really neat to talk about it with Brandon and talk about with Ernie a little bit, it was a great distraction to think about making an amazing commitment here to the greatest woman I think in the world in a few days, I am really excited about that. So that was wonderful.

Q. Where is she from?

BEN CRANE: She's from Portland. I met her at the University of Oregon.

Q. Honeymoon plans change?

BEN CRANE: No, we got our spot. It is a surprise. She doesn't know what we're doing.

Q. Tell us, we won't tell.

BEN CRANE: Sure, sure. (Laughter).

Q. How did you end up at Baylor and what was the story there?

BEN CRANE: My brother went to Baylor. So that was kind of one of the reasons. And another reason Texas was a great place to play golf. Down in the south, it's windy down here, great conditions, and I really like Texas and Baylor was a Christian school. I liked it. So I went and talked to the coach who offered me a little bit of a scholarship and I was pretty much committed on going down south to school. I didn't want to stay up in Portland in the Northwest, so, I came down, but I really -- once I got down here, I just didn't feel like the team was maybe, I don't know, I didn't feel quite at home, and so I transferred to Oregon. They had a great tournament schedule, a lot of my friends were playing there, and I had a great time in college.

Q. Mom and dad out here?

BEN CRANE: No, they are back helping getting the wedding planned. This is my brother's mother and father-in-law. They live here in Dallas so they came out. Wonderful to have them out.

Q. Have you talked to your mom yet?

BEN CRANE: No, I wished her a happy mother's day on TV.

Q. (Inaudible)

Yeah, maybe she will be excited about it.

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