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FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

March 4, 2005

Franklin Langham

DORAL, FLORIDA

TODD BUDNICK: 5-under, Franklin, today has you 36 holes without a bogey and a good start to the Ford Championship at Doral. Talk about your success for the first two rounds.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, it's always good when you go through two rounds without a bogey. You're playing pretty well and your short game is covering when you're not.

So just a good, solid start. Got good memories here and just feel like I putt the greens really well and you know, it's just a good start for the weekend. I guess probably the one thing I would say is I think everybody out here, each week, you'd like to have a chance going into the weekend and hopefully I'll have that.

Just depends on what the weather does for the afternoon, and if it clears up like they are saying it can do, somebody can shoot low but hopefully we'll be in touch.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about your finish in 2000, obviously there's a lot you can take from that into this weekend?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, you go back to those good memories you have of playing well, the course is playing totally different, they have overseeded the tees and greens and they were not back then and I remember it playing pretty firm and fast now with the rain we've had and playing soft and a lot longer. Some holes, like 8, used to be a divot and you would go for it in two, and 10 as well, now it just depends on what kind of bounce you get and they were plugging a lot this morning. They can play a lot longer.

Q. What was going through your mind when you saw Furyk jump up on the leaderboard the back nine in 2000?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Well, I was playing with him, so, I mean, he was playing really well and you know, on the back nine he knew he had to go for broke to win and he did. I think he pulled it off and shot 30 or 31 on the back nine. There's not much you can do in that situation. I kind of ran into a buzz saw, a three-shot lead and shot 2-over. It was still breezy and you had to hit good golf shots. I played good but just got beat.

Q. Did that change your perspective on the game while you're playing at all going in with a certain attitude?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I mean, if you get to this level you've learned enough to play your own game. You can't really control what the other guys are doing and that's all I was trying to do was play one shot at a time and unfortunately in the end it didn't add up where I won but I didn't feel like I lost the tournament. I felt like he went out and won it and my hat was off to him.

Q. Do you feel kind of like that might have been a lot of opportunity because of what you could have had, had you won that, because I know that you had to get your card after that.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I've been asked that before, and, you know, yes and no. Up to that point that was the best finish I had ever had on tour and it pretty much secured my card for the following year and I did it early in the season. It went on to be my best year on TOUR. I finished 26 on the Money List, Top-30. That's good, if you can finish Top-30 and make THE TOUR Championship out here that's a great year. It stinks, when you have a chance to win you always want to win. When you look at the great players, Nicklaus, Tiger now, Vijay now, they have tons of seconds. Padraig Harrington is struggling with the same thing, has a ton of seconds and has not won. As a golfer, all you can control is playing good enough to get yourself in position and sometimes winning has to happen to you.

Q. Without having done a lick of research, you had the great year in 2000 and a good run at the PGA if I remember at Valhalla, where did you go? We haven't seen you enough lately.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, the end of that good year I was playing, my elbow had started bothering me and I was getting cortisone shots. I think I would have had to be dead or you would have had to drag me off not to play in 2001. I was eligible for Masters, I grew up there was a kid, I'm keeping scoreboards, and I just wanted to play. Maybe I should have gone ahead and had the surgery then.

I tried to play in '01, and felt like as soon as I'm in a comfortable position I'm going to have the surgery. It kind of led on and after the PGA was my last event, the won that David Toms won at the Athletic Club was my last event out here and I had to go in for elbow surgery. That took some time to rehab. Came back in 2002, had seven events to make the difference up, one of those medical things. I made my money in the 5th event but not enough to keep my card that year.

Subsequently went back to Tour School. It was as much of a mental adjustment as physical. I had to get my swing back after that. You go down to the Nationwide Tour and it's a demotion. I feel like I had worked my way to a point in my career that I was out here and felt comfortable out here. So anyway, that first year on the Nationwide I just -- I was just so down, down on my game and wondered if I would ever get back. So I had a real -- I worked really hard, recommitted myself at the end of 2003. I worked with Gio Valiente who is a sports psychologist who works with guys out here, worked really hard on my swing, played excellent last year on the Nationwide Tour, finished fourth playing 23 events. So I had a lot of good quality starts and here I am.

Q. Is it possible that if you had finished say 50th on the Money List in '00 and not finished fourth at the PGA, so you are not in the Masters and not in some of the majors that you don't go through that? It almost seems like all of the good things that you always wanted were right there, and elbow be damned, here I come.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Well, I guess hindsight is always 20/20 and I might have gone ahead and had the surgery, I don't know.

I mean, looking back, we're all dealt blows in life. You know, it's not whether you'll have them; it's how you'll deal with them. If it doesn't break you, it makes you stronger and that's the way I look at it. I fought my way back to get here, and like I told my wife and my sports psychologist, nobody will want it more than I do this year. Hopefully it will happen playing well and the things that go with that. But I really am determined to get back to where I was.

Q. Not to make it sound like an election year, but are you better off than you were four years ago?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, I think I am. I've learned a lot and I feel like I'm meant to do this for a living. God's given me a talent, and I just want to make it perfect it as much as I can and be as good as Franklin Langham can be. You know, I'm going to have fun chasing it.

Q. What exactly was the injury from?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Dr. Jobe, he assisted on the surgery. But he called it plica and it's scar tissue that builds up in the ulna the elbow. When I went to the full extension, it would pinch because it hooks in back there, and there are nerve endings in that scar tissue; so at impact and at the top of my swings. When I look at film of my swing, I didn't realize it, but I was starting to compensate for it. I would bend at the top and I would kind of flinch at impact and it started leading to other things. I talked to him and he said, "You're not going to damage the elbow anymore but be careful if other things start hurting." Sure enough, my rotator cuff started bothering me, and I just decided I had to get it done because your body is going to compensate when you're hurt.

So they went in, scoped it, took scar tissue out. And as much as anything, it was the rehab because when I came back, my forearm was about as big as my wrist is now. I lost so much muscle strength and had to rehab and get all of that back and then get my swing back because I had worked myself into some bad habits.

Q. When exactly did you have the surgery?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: In October of 2001. I was on a flight September 11 that morning. I left Atlanta to head to L.A. They put us down in Dallas and had to drive back home. So the surgery got delayed a month. LAX was closed. I felt fortunate compared to those people.

Q. Do you still work with a sports psychologist?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Mm-hmm.

Q. What is your mindset on winning? Do they tell you anything? Do you go into a tournament thinking like right now, I could win this?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: That's the thing you try not to do is get ahead of yourself. He was in here Wednesday and he's coming back this week. He works with other guys as well, Justin Leonard and other guys. Mostly controlling what you can control. If I had to put it in a nutshell, you can't control what other people do and what the weather is doing. All you can control is that one shot that you're hitting right then. And, you know, it's easier said than done because your mind, it's only natural it wants to race on you.

But, you know, he just kind of helps me keep things in perspective and my wife doesn't want to hear me bellyache about my golf all the time; I don't see her enough. Gives me a sound board.

Q. I saw your recovery shot at 18, under the tree, was that indicative of your round? I hope not.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Not really. That shot is the toughest drive on the course. The wind was down left-to-right and I sort of came out of it. I hit a good drive there yesterday. I hit probably the best ball of the day on 17, and had 126 to the hole.

You know that was just a loose swing, and I had a gap to go through and I hit a great second shot.

Q. You've had feast or famine when you've been here, how does this course suit your game?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I like it a lot. You know, I feel comfortable on the greens, I'm used to bermudagreens and reading greens and all that. It's a relief to get off the West Coast because I struggle on those greens out there. I know my way around this course enough and feel comfortable.

Q. Is there a difference now that you're back playing with guys of this caliber this week and on the Nationwide?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Not a whole lot. You see guys every year that come out here and play exceptionally well coming off of that tour, and I think that just goes to show you the depth of the Tours now. There's so many good players and not enough jobs out here to stay out here all the time. You know, I've told people, I said you can have an injury like I did and have a so-so year. You don't even have to have a bad year and you can lose your card. A lot of guys are in that situation every year.

It's not a whole lot of difference, just probably the galleries, the spectators, being out, which is fun. I enjoy that. It's nice when you hit a shot close and you get somebody to clap and notice.

Q. There was some talk earlier this week by players who are quite wealthy about wanting to shorten the season. What was your thoughts on that?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I had heard that. I had not really had a chance to sit down and think about it. I could see shortening it a little bit. I don't think it would be -- what do we have, 44 events now?

Q. 44 weeks.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: You know, maybe 38 or 40.

I don't know. I've been back and forth on that issue before. I think golf has grown so much, I think it's great when you can go to towns and show the talent that's out here on the Tour. I'm sure it would help the guys in the upper echelon because they are still going to play their 18, 20, 22, 23 events. It gives guys that are middle to lower tier another playing opportunity. I think that's the good thing about it.

So kind of on the fence on that, you know. Every week we play out here is great. I don't know what we would cut, I don't know what these guys would want to cut out.

Q. They could always just not play.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, that's their option and that's what they do and that's fine with me.

Q. You're one of the few guys who has gone low out there this morning, is the course set up tougher or what's going on?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: It just played hard. It was cold this morning. I caught a really good end of the wave in Phoenix, but some weeks the waves work out like that and I think this is one of those weeks. It's supposed to clear off this afternoon; we'll wait and see. Yesterday morning there was supposed to be no wind and we came out in the afternoon and it was blowing.

This morning it was cold and wet, a lot of standing water. The course drained well. The superintendent and his staff did a wonderful job, but I think we got over an inch of rain. There were some puddles out there, the ball is plugging, the course is playing long. There were par 5s that usually you go for and all of a sudden you're playing up. So I think it played pretty tough.

Q. What's the name of your sports psychologist?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Gio Valiente. He's a professor at Rollins College did some graduate work at Emery. He's around. He's of course in Orlando, so the Florida Swing is easy for him to get to, but he's out occasionally. Works with Chad Campbell and Heath Slocum, some other guys.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your birdies.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: 3, there's a hole right there, I hit driver and 4-iron, hit it to about eight feet and made the birdie putt. That hole is usually not that long.

5, hit a knock-down 8-iron from 134 to about 25 feet and made it for birdie.

7, hit another knock-down from 145 and hit an 8-iron to about five, six feet we'll call it, and made that for birdie.

9, I hit it in there, hit 7-iron pretty much pin-high about 12 feet for birdie and made that.

Only birdie on the back was 10. I went for that one yesterday. Today I had to lay up and hit a sand wedge from about 65 yards to about two feet and made the birdie.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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