VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 12, 2001

Robert Damron

ROBERT DAMRON: Yes, sir.

ROBERT DAMRON: Yeah. It would be a nice position to be in tomorrow, go extra holes maybe. I feel like if I play well like I have, I should be at or around the lead. So I've played well, and put three pretty good rounds together and right where I should be, playing like that.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. Well, they did play a little shorter as opposed to yesterday, but I shot 30 on the back nine yesterday also, so it played about the same for me. The greens were a little softer than yesterday just because of the little bit of rain we had last night, but I imagine by tomorrow that'll be gone and it'll be a little firmer again.

ROBERT DAMRON: What happened on number nine, I'm two over for the round, I had missed a couple short putts and it was odd because I know I'm putting well and I just hit some really bad short putts early, but number nine I shoved a 3-wood off the tee going in. It was no way it wasn't going to go in the water, and it hit a tree and actually stopped about a yard short of going in the water; and I told my caddy, Fred, I said, hey, this is it. This is the good break we need to maybe turn the day around. And I got my par on that hole, which was a miracle considering the way I hit my tee shot. And then I birdied the next two.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, yeah. It did. I felt like maybe that's a sign of good things to come because the way it was going I expected the ball to hit the tree and kick straight into the water. I hadn't really hit a -- I take that back. I hit a couple of good shots, but missed the putt and I three-putted. I three-putted two holes in a row actually, early, and just -- that just stinks. That's just hard on your psyche knowing you just -- you know when you make a bogey, you make a bogey, that's all right, but to know you just kind of throw a shot away. Plus, before the two three-putts I just missed a 6-footer on two for birdies. So you know probably out of those three holes I threw at least two shots away. It's tough. It's tough on your psyche, because like I said, it's not something that just happens. With just a bogey, well, it didn't go right. It was just dumb. So I just had to stop and try to keep hitting good shots and try to figure out why I was missing the putts and turn it around.

ROBERT DAMRON: Not really. No more than the front. I mean I can't tell you there's a whole lot of difference. I just happened to play better on the back nine in the last couple days than the front nine. They're pretty similar nine holes really. Hopefully I'll just keep it up tomorrow. Hopefully I'll put two good nines together tomorrow.

ROBERT DAMRON: You know, it's been a while. It's been a few years, so just try to take it like any other day really. I'm playing well enough, so my job now is just to not put any undue pressure on me because of the situation. Just go out and have a good time and let my game do what it's been doing.

ROBERT DAMRON: Oh, the last time? Memphis probably, '97, yeah.

ROBERT DAMRON: Greg Norman birdied the last three holes. I mean, what do you do? He and I were tied and Dudley Hart had already posted two ahead of us, two shots ahead of both of us, and Greg finished birdie, birdie, birdie and I finished par, par, birdie. You know, not bad, but gees, not good enough.