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CIALIS WESTERN OPEN

July 3, 2004

Stephen Ames

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stephen Ames, thank you for joining us for a couple of minutes. Great round today in the third round, 64, puts you at 9 under par for the week at the Cialis Western Open. We'll just start with some opening comments. Great day for you, seven birdies, no bogeys.

STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, it was. I struck the ball a lot better than I did the first two days, and of course I made some putts. I wouldn't say a lot of bomb ones, but I had a lot of tap-ins, too, also, so it was good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Eight Top 10s so far this year, third on the PGA TOUR. What's your attitude been towards winning? If you finish in the Top 10 every week, eventually you're going to get a win.

STEPHEN AMES: I've got to look at it that way. At this stage I don't press myself to see if I should win or can win. At this stage I'm trying to play each day as it comes, and when the chips fall where they should or they shouldn't, I'll just take it from there and go on from there. At this stage I've had a wonderful year, my best year so far, and I'm only through 17 of my 25 for the year, so I've got a long way to go still.

Q. At what point did it occur to you that something magical was going on out there?

STEPHEN AMES: Every day I wake up it's going to be magical.

Q. Really?

STEPHEN AMES: Not a clue.

Q. Did you ever have a point during the year -- you said you have to be patient and know that you're going to win. Did you have a point -- did you have that approach throughout the year or did you have a point where you had to kind of reel it in a little bit?

STEPHEN AMES: I think it kind of dawned on me at Houston when I finished 4th there. This is my feelings, not everybody else's probably opinion, that I didn't play very well and finished 4th, and it was like if I was a little bit more patient, one, and if I struck the ball maybe half decent, I might have had an outside chance of winning there, and it was a long week anyhow with the Monday finish there. It kind of dawned on me there. At this stage right now all I've got to do is keep myself in week in, week out, day in, day out and wait for things to happen.

At this stage all I've really concentrated on this year the most has been the short game. I've worked really hard on the short game, spent more time on that than normal. I feel it's good, but it still needs tightening up a lot more than it has in the past.

Q. What kind of lie did you have in the bunker on 18 there, and what did you hit on your second shot there? How far out were you?

STEPHEN AMES: What was it, 198? Yeah, it might have been 192 into the wind off the left there. I was in between the 4 and the 5. I ended up going with a higher 4 and of course the wind got it, and the lie in the bunker was perfect, and that was funny -- statistics-wise, that has been my worst part of my game, which is something we've worked on very hard to get it --

Q. Sand saves?

STEPHEN AMES: Sand saves, yes.

Q. Patience. How difficult is it to be patient -- to get to patient, so to speak?

STEPHEN AMES: Depends on how hard you're pressing, I look at it that way. If I'm going to go to bed tonight thinking I should be winning like Tiger does in a sense, which he does, he's grown up with that attitude since he was three years old from his dad, I haven't grown up with that attitude. At this stage I'm going to go out and have as much fun as I can and hopefully enjoy the golf day tomorrow.

Q. Does it depend on where you are in the round? Is it like a cyclical thing?

STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, I only have control over one thing, and that's me. If I can continue the way I'm playing right now, pick the shots I'm comfortable with hitting and see the shots before I hit them, that's all I can do at this stage. If the putts are going to fall, they're going to fall. If bunker shots are going to go in the hole, that's how it goes.

Q. You talk about your game and playing within yourself tomorrow. That said, Tiger moved up on the leaderboard today. I'm sure you probably saw it. Did you see it?

STEPHEN AMES: Oh, yes.

Q. And will you be aware of him tomorrow and how do you handle that whole thing?

STEPHEN AMES: What did he finish, five back? He's got to play the way he did today again. I'm sure he's capable of it, but right now I know he's struggling with his golf game, his golf swing, but I wouldn't put it out of Tiger to be jumping back up there at all.

Q. What has been the key to your consistency this year? I mean, you've obviously put up a lot of low numbers in the past, 63 here, a round at Doral, a really low number. Why has it been so steady this year? Is it just the short game?

STEPHEN AMES: No. I'll just say on the whole, if you've ever watched me play, I have a really unique setup and walk into the ball. That's something that has kept me time and time in the same positions where I'd like to be all the time, so hitting the golf ball is coming out a little easier in the sense of see, feel and hit the ball that way, and setup-wise it's been consistent, which is the name of the game. Your basics have to be consistent day in and day out, and that's what we've worked on. The way I set up to the golf ball and walk into the golf ball is always the same way from practice. From there it's a matter of making a swing and hitting it.

Q. Is there a mental aspect, too, as far as the confidence building?

STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, the mental aspect is challenging myself each shot, each hole, what I'd like to do with each shot, and I'm not going to get too worked up over the fact that it doesn't come out the way I saw it or the way I didn't challenge myself, but the idea is to try. Even if it's 20 feet right of the hole, try and hit it 20 feet right of that target. That's what I'm trying to achieve at that particular time and shot.

Q. What does Robert do for you? Is he another set of eyes?

STEPHEN AMES: Robert is very good around the greens and also course management. He's helped me with that. There are times where I might get in between my clubs, and then he would add in that there's only four or five behind the hole, you're better off a little short of the hole, that kind of stuff, and that will add into the fact of what club I should hit. He's not giving me the club, just giving me the yardage. He's a big confidence booster, also.

He's a big help in the sense come on, Stephen, you can do this, let's see how many birdies we can make coming in. He's always trying to challenge me out there at that stage, also.

Q. Easier to listen to your brother or harder?

STEPHEN AMES: Than who?

Q. Well, someone else, another.

STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, because Robert is a player. He's an ex-pro, so I've got to look at that aspect of it. He's got some form of knowledge of the game and how to play golf in that sense. Compared to a guy who doesn't play enough or either a 15 or 16 handicap, he might only see inside the box. Robert tends to see a little more outside the box. That way he's definitely going to help me, which is what he's done this year a lot.

Q. I'm sure you never get tired of talking about your background, but just talk a little bit about how someone from Trinidad gets into golf. I imagine that's soccer country.

STEPHEN AMES: It's soccer and cricket, yes.

Q. How did that happen, and are there many golfers in the country?

STEPHEN AMES: I don't know how many golfers on the whole we have in the country. I know the club that I'm a member of, I think we've got like 1,500 members there. When I was growing up, we had four nine-hole golf courses, two 18-hole golf courses on the main island, Trinidad, and the sister island, they have two now, but then it was only one.

But the growing up aspect is my grandmother played and my dad played the game, also, and also we were fortunate enough to live 70 yards from a golf course. It was another sport to play because I played all the other sports, and this one being a very individual part of the game, an individual game, I went out and I was able to play by myself and play golf and have fun with it.

Q. Is your brother the second best player ever from Trinidad?

STEPHEN AMES: There are a few. I would say he probably has it locked up at that stage, yes.

Q. I'm wondering if the 64 today brought back memories of the 63, and did you leave any shots out there that would have been equal to or better than that 63?

STEPHEN AMES: No, I wouldn't say I left too many out there. I would say this round was probably better ball-striking than it was when I shot the 63. I think the 63 I had two bogeys with that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your seven birdies and we'll take one final question. Started on the front side, birdied the long par 4, No. 5.

STEPHEN AMES: Driver, and then I had 190 to the hole, hit 5-iron about 120 feet, made that.

No. 8, I hit 2-iron off the tee, 9-iron about four feet.

10, I hit 2-iron, wedge about 18, 20 feet.

15, I hit driver, 3-wood. That hole was straight into the wind today. I hit 3-wood to about 25 feet behind the hole, two-putted.

16, I hit 3-wood, 9-iron about four feet behind the hole.

17, I hit driver, chipped a little three-quarter 8-iron, about four, five feet.

And 18, I holed my bunker shot.

Q. Tiger was saying that the greens were a lot softer today. I mean, you obviously were firing at a lot of flags. Did you find that, too?

STEPHEN AMES: Yeah, definitely. They're more receptive. The first two days one was receptive and another one was firm, so it was very inconsistent. Today they're all softer than they were the first two days without a doubt. Easier, but at the same time the wind came up, so it made things a little more difficult, yes.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Stephen Ames, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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