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AMERICAN CENTURY CELEBRITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2005

Billy Joe Tolliver

STATELINE, NEVADA

Q. What were your highlights?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Highlights, I made seven birdies. Made three bogeys with a wedge in my hand, that wasn't real good. 18 kind of chapped me. I got a wedge, I've got 141 yards, pitching wedge in my hands and it hits that big tree just right of the green, goes in the water.

But all in all, I'm happy with the way I played today. Missed four pretty short, makeable birdie putts. But when you make seven birdies, you can't complain.

Q. So you must be playing well.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: I'm hitting okay, you know, maybe not with my wedge apparently, but the rest of it, I'm all right.

Q. Has the top of the leaderboard gotten more competitive over the years since you've won?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Well, I mean, you know, the same guys keep showing up, but you know, the guys have gotten better as a whole. Especially from the first one, what, 16 years ago, the first two.

Now, you go out and you shoot even par, you get lapped. I mean, the guys learned how to play, learned how to manage their game.

Now more importantly, what did Tiger today? 67? Missed it. I said he would be at 12.

Q. Are you playing a lot these days?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: No, that may be why I'm playing a little better. I played two, maybe three times a week, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It depends on my kids' baseball schedules this time of year and whatever the big mama's got me ordered to do.

Q. Heat bother you at all out there today?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Heat? Here?

Q. Yeah.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: This is fall where I'm from. I mean, I live seven miles north of hell in Shreveport, Louisiana. That's hot. This is not hot.

Q. So you may have an edge on some of these guys?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Even for a fat guy, I didn't sweat out there.

Q. Did you get any "Hey, Kool-Aid?"

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: I didn't get any "Hey, Kool-Aid." I must be slimming down.

Q. So if you're leading Sunday, do you think you'll do anything different from what you're normally doing? Playing a little more conservative coming down the stretch?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Last year I was leading Sunday and played conservatively and got my ass kicked.

You know, I figured out this game, this Stableford deal, it's all about birdies. Bogeys really don't matter. I can go out and make nine birdies and nine bogeys and I'm still beating the guy that makes 18 straight pars. I mean, it's a birdie game, you know, you fire at everything, just make sure you don't make doubles.

Q. Just so you know, the boys were all looking, wondering what you were doing, Chandler and the guys checking you out.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: That's my boys.

Q. Now, will you watch the score board a little bit on Sunday? Will you check it and see where you're at?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Hopefully I won't have to. Hopefully I'll be in the last group watching the guys that are with me. I just try and go out every day and make six birdies. Every day I play, whether it's at home, whether it's out here, try to make six birdies and take what it is. You know, so far this week, I made six birdies on Monday, six on Tuesday, five and an eagle on Wednesday. You know, just make a lot of birdies, that's the key.

Q. What are your birdie holes on this course?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: You know, you've gotta take care of the par 5s. If you drive it in play, every hole, you've got a wedge in your hand. So you've got a chance every hole.

But, you know, if you're going to get greedy with the driver, you'd better hit it well, because you'll be blocked out, you'll be behind trees, you'll be in positions where you can't get it up-and-down. You've gotta play away from the flag and make par.

Q. How many greens do you think you hit today?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: I missed 9, I missed 15, 17 and 18, so I hit 14 greens. Two of them I was on the fringe, first cut.

Q. So this could be it, you could be back, you could do it this time; do you think?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Every year after Friday, I'm sitting here doing the same thing. Hey, it's one round, you know. I had the lead last year I think.

Q. Mark Rypien was talking about Rick Rhoden, how in all the practice rounds, there's nothing special about his game, just looks plain, but yet he gets out on the course and he's just a machine. Can you talk about his game, just how every year he's just right there?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Well, Rick just knows where his misses are going. I mean, you know, he's smarter than the rest of us. He won't short-side himself. He knows that, say, a pin is right but it's bad to miss it right, he'll come in 20 feet left of the flagstick where the rest of us are aiming right at the flagstick. Sometimes you've got to let your putter do the talking.

You know, you watch him swing the club, to the untrained eye, it looks pretty ugly. But the last three feet of his golf swing, the club is moving and it's moving down the line and he knows what he's doing. I mean, you don't qualify for the Senior PGA, the Senior U.S. Open and be a chump. The cat can play.

Q. Does a Stableford format neutralize Rick a little bit, because it makes all of you shoot at birdies, because he makes a lot of pars?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: He don't make a lot of pars. I played with him on the weekend, he shoots 74 or 75 the first day, and he shoots 13-under on the weekend. I mean, he's not a connect-the-dots; he makes a lot of birdies.

It doesn't matter. You could tell everybody, you go out and play and you get a throw every hole, you can mix it up any way you want to mix it up and the cream will always be at the top. You can play any format you want to play; the best players will be at the top. It doesn't matter. And he will always be at the top. He beats me this year, I'm going to kick his ass, though. Physically kick his ass, I mean. (Laughter).

Q. Can we get a little exhibition going with that?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: It won't be a long exhibition. I'll get violent.

Q. So do you have a routine you're going to follow the rest of the week here, do you out to the range when you get done, do you relax a little?

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: I'm not much more for practicing. I mean, you know, you get on the range to break the scar tissue loose, that's about it, then go play.

You know, you can sit on that range and hit it at the flagstick one right after the other because you get in a rhythm; you've still got to get it in the hole. My plan is to poison about five of those guys on the board over there.

Q. There are some quarterbacks up there, that's got to be nice, you guys are sneaking up on the hockey guys and Rick.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: Well, they have had more time to practice. They are not as beat up.

Q. There's something about quarterbacks, we asked Brodie about it years ago.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: We're the best athletes. What do you expect?

Q. He figured you guys can just pull the trigger a little faster.

BILLY JOE TOLLIVER: And we're the best athletes, simple. I mean, look at me. I'm a freak. (Laughter). Yeah, maybe I'm not such a good athlete, but some are.

End of FastScripts.

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