VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 11, 2001

Robert Damron

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, it's just nice to be there. You know, it's been a little while since I've put together a few good rounds in a row, even two really, but I've been playing well and I've been expecting good things. It just hasn't been coming together yet.

ROBERT DAMRON: I worked hard on making a couple swing changes to hit it better. I noticed that the best players that I see week in, week out that always play well, the Vijays and Tigers and Duvals, hit it really solid, and they seem to give themselves a lot of chances. They can all be shaky putters at times, so I didn't like where I sat on the greens stats, and I didn't like how I was hitting it, so I made a few changes, and those have worked out well. I've been hitting it a lot better, so I expected good things and my putter and my chipper left me. But hopefully that's turning around a little bit this week.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, it's kind of a combination of stuff. Mostly it's just a swing plank and being connected, you know, more body, club and hands working together rather than fighting one another.

ROBERT DAMRON: Adrian Wadey. We've been working together three years. It's still work in progress. You know, I don't like to take my swing, break it apart because it takes a lot of time to recuperate after that. You're looking at a potential long stretch, so I've worked at it slowly, but steadily for about three years now.

ROBERT DAMRON: Not really. The wind actually got a little softer. I just got a couple putts and gave myself a couple more chances. Just coincidence I guess we'll call it.

ROBERT DAMRON: Yeah. I've played some good rounds here. I don't think that I've ever had any real high finishes, but I've been in the lead in tournaments a couple times late actually just to kind of finish poorly, but so I like it here. I've shot some good rounds out here.

ROBERT DAMRON: Well, you have to give them -- as soon as Tiger's group's done and they've left the green, you still have to wait a little bit to let everybody else that's going to -- cameras and media and gallery -- that's going to follow him because it's kind of a madhouse, but it's okay. It's the kind of thing where if you're playing poorly, it's going to bother you a lot. If you're playing well, it's all right.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. Ed Fryatt's wife was pretty friendly, Clapped for me a few times. She was out there. She clapped more for Ed, though.

ROBERT DAMRON: I started hitting it really well two, three weeks before the season started. I was excited about coming out and playing. Never done that well on the West Coast and after the West Coast swing, I said, well, that's all right. I didn't play that well, but I'm still hitting it good. I'll make some putts in Florida, which I always do, and I didn't. Even home at Bay Hill I hit a lot of putts that I thought were going to go in and didn't, and so I just I actually made a putter change this week. This is my third one. I've used the same putter probably for, I don't know, 99 percent of my tournaments that I've played in, and changed putters this week, and they were going in so far.

ROBERT DAMRON: No. I've never been one to work much on my putting. I've always just had confidence in it, and any time I went to the putting green I made a lot of putts, and my thought was do I want to sit around and wait till I miss, you know, so why practice. Maybe -- I think it's linked with just wanting to make them too bad because I am hitting it better, and I feel like I should be shooting lower numbers, and instead of just feeling like I'm going to make 'em, I've kind of wanted and I've tried to force them in a little bit, and it hasn't been working so far.

ROBERT DAMRON: Seymore. I've used -- it's my first ever start without a Scotty Cameron putter. Hopefully he still talks to me.