VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 13, 2001

Robert Damron

ROBERT DAMRON: You know, I've been through about 100 of them already. It's just really nice, and I just -- tonight when I get a chance to sit down and think about it, probably it'll hit me, but it's still kind of -- I've been drug around a little bit and asked a lot of questions, so I haven't had a chance to enjoy it really.

ROBERT DAMRON: I didn't have an option. Scott hit them in front of me. I drew number two. So I think that made it easier. He hit a great shot off 18 and then I just -- it gave me no choice. Either I step up and I hit a good shot or it's over.

ROBERT DAMRON: I felt confident, oddly enough. You know, when I stood over putts, even the ones I missed in the playoff, I felt like they were going to have a good chance to go in. I hit a really good one on 17 the first time around that sat on the front lip short. But you know, I never had any huge adrenaline rush. I never had any real butterflies. I just felt like I was going to hit the shot that I needed to hit at the time. It's a nice feeling. I don't normally feel that way.

ROBERT DAMRON: It's the exact putt I had on the 71st hole. It was just about three feet longer, and we had it read split the left lip, just like before, and I said, you know, Scott and I both had already left a couple putts short in the playoff. We didn't want to do anything stupid, I guess. So I said just hit it solid and it's going to go in, no question.

ROBERT DAMRON: Three feet longer probably.

ROBERT DAMRON: I'm going to say it was 14 feet. 10 feet in the regulation, 14 feet in the playoff.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, we were laughing. We've got a lot of inside jokes with each other and it was a great pairing for me because we just had a good time today.

ROBERT DAMRON: No.

ROBERT DAMRON: I'm sure that's part of it. You know, but only a small part. I played with Vijay yesterday and he can play pretty good sometimes, and I didn't feel out of place. I didn't feel like I don't belong, and I closed pretty strong on him. I started bad, but I knew that coming in the back nine yesterday you don't get a lot of chances, not all of us do, and so you don't want to let it slip any further than it already has, so I finished strong yesterday, luckily.

ROBERT DAMRON: No, no. I've had a sore throat the last couple days, but that's about it. It hasn't really affected me, my sinuses or anything.

ROBERT DAMRON: I would guess. I hope it's that and nothing more serious.

ROBERT DAMRON: None. None.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. When I -- I felt like it was just me and Scott after he chipped in on 15. But honestly, after I missed my putt for birdie on the 72nd hole and I tapped it in and I walked towards my caddy and my back was to it and I said, is it just me and Scott? I mean, does he have to make this? So I didn't know for sure. I was just trying to -- you know, I knew I made some birdies, so you know, I knew I had to be in pretty good shape. But I didn't know that we were three shots clear.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. I put my head in my feet. I made sure I didn't look.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, you know, this isn't the British Open.

ROBERT DAMRON: It's just not something I needed to do. It's not something I felt like I needed to do. I was trying to hit the ball at the hole regardless. Coming to 17 I'm not going to mess with that hole too much. I hit the shot I was going to hit no matter what I was doing. And I'm trying to make birdie every hole.

ROBERT DAMRON: Right. No matter what the score board says, I'm still trying to make the lowest score I can.

ROBERT DAMRON: No, no. Not really. I really don't know how I stood at that point. Actually I did notice on number four that Tiger had already gotten to, what was it, 12 probably, or 14. So anyway, I just remembered thinking, wow, I'm glad he doesn't have many more holes to go. He can't birdie holes he doesn't have left to play.

ROBERT DAMRON: Molly, and it's been very, very nice actually. She gets to come in tomorrow. We've had a two-week break. Her parents' 40th wedding anniversary was today, so she's been in Toledo with her parents for the last week.

ROBERT DAMRON: I got married April 6th.

ROBERT DAMRON: Orlando.

ROBERT DAMRON: I don't live in Isleworth, but I'm probably three miles from his house.

ROBERT DAMRON: I haven't. I haven't. Mark Russell and I live in the same community.

ROBERT DAMRON: You know, I'm not sure yet. I think I'll just carry my head a little higher next week, but it's great and it's awesome, but I can't really -- it's been so -- it just happened, so I can't really say how it's affected me yet.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, I'll tell you a funny story. Sid Wilson who is -- what would his title be with the Tour? Director of Player Relations. I ran into him in the locker room either Tuesday or Wednesday before the tournament, and he said, I got a funny story to tell you. He said, I had a premonition about you this week, and he said -- I don't know if he was dreaming or what, but he said, I saw you walking out to your car and people patting you on the back. I said, all right, Sid. Whatever. Thanks, Bud. You can give me the check now. That would be the way to do it. So that was weird. Maybe he's a psychic or something. He's in the wrong job.

ROBERT DAMRON: Yeah. I know. I'm calling him right now.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, we moved to Bay Hill when I was six. My dad retired, and we're from Kentucky, and you can't play golf too much in the winter, so we spent the winters in Orlando there at Bay Hill where he owns it, and he and my Dad are actually the big rivals. They still to this day play each other every day they're in town and they like to go head to head, you know. Mr. Palmer still -- he's amazing how he still loves to play golf after all these years. I can't see myself playing that long.

ROBERT DAMRON: My Dad owned a coal company. He went in and mined the coal off of your land or whoever's land and so he had the equipment and all that stuff.

ROBERT DAMRON: Yeah.

ROBERT DAMRON: Bill.

ROBERT DAMRON: The thing that made it easier was the fact that he's so nice. Byron Nelson I'm talking about. I mean I don't know if you guys have had any contact with him or not, but he is as nice and friendly and just as genuine guy as you'll meet, so the fact that he won all those tournaments really you don't think about it.

ROBERT DAMRON: I felt all year like I'm supposed to do something good this year. I've hit it so much better this year, and I am not much of a stats watcher, but every year I've been in the top 20 at putting and this year I've gotta be at the bottom. I don't know where I am, but I've played so bad, so you know, I've changed putters. I had to make a little change, and hey, it worked out. I don't think I'll change back next week.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. Putters.

ROBERT DAMRON: This week, right. Wednesday.

ROBERT DAMRON: See More.

ROBERT DAMRON: I'm sorry.

ROBERT DAMRON: Scotty Cameron. I've used Scotty Cameron every tournament I've played on Tour until this one. I don't know if that's good advertising or bad. Hopefully it's good. I like Scotty a lot.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, See More is actually different than any other putter. It promotes the way I like to putt, which is kind of ball center of my stance, and it's kind of 90 degrees up-and-down. I've got no forward press or anything like that. And so anyway, Mike Hicks, who was Payne's caddy, and you know, Payne started playing great when he went to that, he came up to me on the practice range this morning before we played and he said, I always thought you had a perfect stroke for this putter, like it doesn't suit some people, but I thought it was perfect for you, and this week it worked pretty good.

ROBERT DAMRON: You know, that was big for me and I think The Players Championship, even though I played like crap between then and now, with a few small exceptions, but to know that I shot 78 the first round, and then to finish third, you know, I was several behind Tiger and Hal, but you know, for the last three rounds I played actually better than they did and on as tough a course as you'll find anywhere. So that did a lot for my confidence and just knowing what I can do, but then the next thing is just being patient and when does it come, when does it happen again. You know, you just never know.

ROBERT DAMRON: I didn't think he was going to be -- well, I didn't think he was going to get much more because I know he didn't have many holes left. I mean how can he? No. I didn't think 14 was going to be enough. Too many players were bunched up. So you know some of them are going to make some birdies, you know. I didn't think anybody was going to shoot 29 or anything on the back, but I tried as best I could to keep my thoughts off it.

ROBERT DAMRON: 18 feet. Scott had the exact same putt the hole before the last hole. I don't know. It would be our third hole of the playoff.

ROBERT DAMRON: Oh, yeah. One roll short. Well, in that situation, you know, I'm one up on him, and he's still gotta make his putt, and I want to make it, but I also don't want to do anything ignorant, so I hit as good a putt as I could have hit with a pretty good speed, and it was just one roll short, and I was fine with that.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. I changed to 7-iron on the last time. It doesn't sound very smart. I hit 6-iron close twice, but just the wind was up-and-down all day and Scott hit 7-iron, which he's about half an iron longer than I am. And you know, he hit 7-iron long this time. And I told my caddy, I said, hey, I've been hitting a little small 6-iron with a cut and letting the wind take it over. I said, I think I can aim just left of the hole with a good solid 7-iron, and the worst thing that's going to happen is we lose. You know, it's a playoff and one of us is going to have to, and I don't want to do it by backing down or not hitting the right shot. So the shot called for a 7-iron.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. I don't know what I'll do with it. I'll keep it out of the NASDAQ probably. I don't know. I'll never see it. Thankfully I'll never see the green cash, you know. It's just wire transfers and paper because if I actually saw the money, I'd probably faint.

ROBERT DAMRON: You know, yeah, I guess you could say that. To me I didn't have any choice. You know, the pitch-out was no bargain, and really I'm not here to -- you know, I'm just not here to do that. If it hits the tree and goes in the water, then I make my double or whatever and I go on. And that's what I mean by the guy gets the breaks. If I don't get that break, I'm just not going to win, and you know, we go on to next week. But I knew I had the shot and I didn't want to second-guess myself and I never allowed myself to even consider pitching out.

ROBERT DAMRON: That and having a halfway decent lie that I could get to and not having it in the hazard which was about one yard in front of me.

ROBERT DAMRON: Not very big. About between his head and your head, the guy sitting right beside you, 2 inches.

ROBERT DAMRON: I knew he wanted to, but I just didn't -- no. I wouldn't hear it. I'm the one that's gotta hit the shot. So like I said, the pitch-out wasn't easy, and if I do pitch out, A, there's a good chance that because there's branches overhanging, I could either leave it in the rough in front of me or dribble it through in the water which is on the other side. And you know, he even said pitch it backwards, and the pin wasn't a good pin to get -- you know, if the pin was on the front, then I could pitch out and hit sandwedge and it's okay, because there's a lot of green. But I felt that bunker shot was a lot easier than an 8-iron from the back of the middle of the fairway.

ROBERT DAMRON: It touched the branches, but it hit, fortunately, and landed right where I wanted to, and jumped up in the trap and good lie and reasonable easy bunker shot.

ROBERT DAMRON: I hope so. It'll be nice. It would be nice. It's a good feeling.

ROBERT DAMRON: Seven feet. I had a good shot, sand wedge.