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BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 18, 2004

John Daly

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Q. Overall happy with your round?

JOHN DALY: Yeah, started out, birdied the first three. Then I was 4 under after six and kind of got a horrible break on nine. I thought I hit a better drive than that.

But I hit the ball solid. You want to come out and you want to score well, but it's cool to hit the ball solid. This is only my fifth round in two weeks. I worked really hard the last two days and I've got a good rhythm going.

Q. What happened with the second shot on 11, did the wind come up or did you underclub yourself a little?

JOHN DALY: I thought I hit a good shot. I thought I was going to hit it 15 feet left hole. We thought it was crossing and it must have just changed and came into us. Todd, he said he hit a little 7 iron and got it back of the green. It's the wind. It can do some funny things sometimes. I was supposing on that shot, like on 18, I thought I hit good shots. This course can do that to you, though.

Q. How is your hand?

JOHN DALY: Hand is good. Got a little jammed in the door.

Two seconds went by, my buddy Greg, I said, "I think you shut my hand in the door." It shut all the way and it was crossed up in there. He pulled it out. It swelled up really bad on Sunday, and I didn't play golf until till I tried to hit some balls the following Thursday.

Q. Were you worried it was going to keep you out longer?

JOHN DALY: No. Any time I hit it here on the knuckles, these knuckles it's been fractured three or four times. As long as I don't hurt these two, the other part of my happened can heel.

Q. He's still your buddy?

JOHN DALY: Oh, yeah, yeah. Just an accident.

Q. How much would it mean to get back in the winner's circle?

JOHN DALY: It's definitely a goal. My track record here and THE PLAYERS has not been great, but I look at it as though I've played some decent rounds on both of those courses. I think one here I shot 65, a couple 65s and maybe a 66 at PLAYERS a couple of times. I think I've had some decent rounds here, so I've just got to think positive and hopefully do it. It's a challenge. There's no doubt about it. But, you know, just got to go out and see what happens.

Q. Do you think you're better equipped to handle the patience and the things the courses throw at you now than in the past?

JOHN DALY: I think the good thing about here and THE PLAYERS is I used never carry a 3 wood. There's a lot of holes out here, I've got to hit 3 wood on that a 2 iron just wasn't quite enough. But I had never been a 3 wood player. I had always been a 1 iron carrier or something like that. I think the 3 wood helped me last year at THE PLAYERS and it always helps me here now the last two years. That's a big thing for me.

Q. It's early, obviously, but would you relish Sunday seeing Tiger with you up there on the leaderboard?

JOHN DALY: I know he's going for his fifth one that row so we are all trying to catch him so he doesn't do it. He owns this course, there's no doubt about it. He's going to be tough to beat just like he is every week.

Q. Does making the Masters mean more to you now than it did years ago?

JOHN DALY: I think in a way. I always look forward to playing the Masters when I was exempt for it. It's a tournament everybody wants to play in. The tournament is the most prestigious, I think. It's totally different than most majors because the greens are so fast all the time and it's a beautiful place. So, you know, I've just got to take it and hopefully keep swinging like I am and hope to be scoring pretty good so I can get there.

Q. The way you're playing now, do you feel like this course suits you more now with the state of your game now?

JOHN DALY: I don't know. I know one thing, it's going to play a lot longer. I think it's like six years ago, when Augusta started mowing the grass towards the tee boxes.

The first two years they mowed it towards the green so you could get some roll on the ball. It plays a lot longer, which if you're hitting the driver straight, it's a good advantage. But still, you've got to putt those greens and whoever wins, they are making putts.

Q. Were you down at VH 1 on Monday?

JOHN DALY: We had a blast. I played with Brett Michaels, lead singer of Poison. We just had a blast. That tournament is so much fun. It's always great to see the rock stars and all that and play golf with them and hang out with them a little bit and play some music on the bus. We had a great time. We won in a playoff, too. That's nice.

End of FastScripts.

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