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FBR OPEN

February 5, 2005

Steve Flesch

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

JOHN BUSH: All right, Steve, thanks for coming by, 4-under par 67 today. If we could get you to comment on your round.

STEVE FLESCH: Played great, driving the ball well, just simple things, driving the ball well, putting it well, and converted on a lot of opportunities out there today. I think I only had -- maybe I had two bogeys, but I'm just playing well. I'm just glad I've got a chance for tomorrow. It's been a while for me.

Q. Nice finish there with a birdie on 18. That's always a nice way to finish up.

STEVE FLESCH: I had a lot of chances from 14 on in, but that's the only one I converted, so it's going to be a nice one going into tomorrow.

JOHN BUSH: Take us through your birdies and bogeys starting on No. 2.

STEVE FLESCH: Birdied 2, drove it right down the middle and hit a sand wedge about 15 feet.

Bogey on 5, drove it in the right bunker, fatted that one out into the hay, just didn't make par. Just an easy bogey.

Birdied 6, drove it right down the middle, hit a sand wedge about 12 feet.

Birdie on 7 was a good 3-iron to about 10 feet, made that one, so I turned at I guess 2-under.

Birdie on 10, drove it in the fairway bunker, almost perfect with a 5-wood and it kicked into the bunker. I hit a pitching wedge on the front edge just about 35 feet and made that.

Bogey on 12, wrong club, misjudged the wind a little bit, just hit the wrong club and made a poor swing, missed it short of the green, poor chip, good putt but missed it.

Anyway, made bogey.

Then driver and 5-wood onto 13, good two-putt there from about 40 feet, and I guess the birdie on 18 was a really good drive down the middle and a sand wedge about 20 feet, 25 feet, made that.

Q. Can you talk about 16 today, how they greeted you there?

STEVE FLESCH: It's nice. I told some people out there, I think every week should be like this. I think it would make our events just a blast to come to.

Obviously maybe not as wild as on 16, but just the whole atmosphere of the whole event. There's just a buzz every time you come play the Phoenix Open, and I think that's the direction that sports are going, and even though golf is, quote-unquote, the gentleman's game, you're supposed to be quiet, I just think it's a lot of fun to play events like this.

I think the PGA TOUR, if we're going to entertain people, they're doing it the right way here in Phoenix.

Q. They seem like they've got it under control where they were loud but not unruly. It was actually kind of subdued for 16, I thought.

STEVE FLESCH: It is, although when we were standing on 17 green, we waved a group of guys up, they're doing the wave all around there, and that's fine. I think the way they had the seats set up this year, they've almost enclosed the whole -- that's almost promoting that, but that's fine.

We play one hole all year long like that, and it's not big deal. If you don't want to play, don't come, but I think it's an awfully cool way to advertise the PGA TOUR, showing people having that much fun.

Q. What's the second loudest hole in golf?

STEVE FLESCH: You know, everybody always asked about 17 at TPC, but it's never like that because it's not a raucous crowd. It's such a serious event that people aren't getting that wild.

I'll tell you what other hole, 17 at Bethpage at the U.S. Open a couple years ago was pretty loud, good crowd, really energetic, but week in, week out, I don't think anyplace holds a candle to here.

Q. Talk about your mindset heading into tomorrow.

STEVE FLESCH: Great. A little bit of a slow start to the year, but I never play that great on the West Coast.

It's either hit or miss for me, so I'm not really that worried about it. I've always played well here, love the greens out here. I don't know why. The poa annua of San Diego and the bermuda of Hawaii doesn't interest me much, but these desert greens are great.

I just play well here, I can't explain it. I think I'm comfortable on a lot of the tee balls, but most importantly going into tomorrow I'm just happy I'm in contention because really since June I played a lot of events and made a lot of cuts but never really contended.

Q. Are you kind of the forgotten left-hander at this tournament?

STEVE FLESCH: So be it. Let everybody else watch Phil, and maybe I can sneak up and go right around him. He's the desert son out here, so that's the way it should be. I don't mind being in the backseat to him this week.

Q. Can you talk about how good you felt with your game? Was that how it was coming into this week or do you come in here knowing you're going to play well coming into Phoenix?

STEVE FLESCH: No. I shot 3-under at the Hope last week for four rounds. That's pretty pathetic. But there again, the Hope for me is always total hit or miss. It's more miss than hit. I go there because the weather in Kentucky is so bad this time of year, there's no reason to go home.

I know I'm going to get six good days of golf in the desert, and if I play all right I'll get paid on the weekend.

The Hope for me is almost -- even though I played the first two weeks in Hawaii, I took San Diego off, so I almost use that as another warm-up event. I've played decent there but never played great. Honestly not hitting my schedule again for a while, but coming in this week, no, other than the fact drawing on past experiences here and playing well, I mean, I always expect to play well here, but I couldn't draw on last week as any sort of confidence builder.

Q. Is that sort of like your spring training, the Hope and a few others?

STEVE FLESCH: A lot of it is, yeah. I think looking back at my career, this is my eight year, maybe four of the years I've gotten off to great starts out here, and four of the years have been so-so.

That's not to say that the Tour starts in Florida, but that's where really I think I start playing my best is once we get into March.

JOHN BUSH: Steve, thanks for coming by. Play well tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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