THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 3, 1999

Frank Nobilo

FRANK NOBILO: Little off, your arm ploy and a little off, your short game's a little off, your putting is a little off and the score just keeps blowing out.

FRANK NOBILO: Hopefully, yeah, I've worked very hard the last four weeks and it's been close. Like I said, I started -- like I said, with Mike about a month ago. Then I just tried to get on track. For him it was a very simple setup change as far as my swing was concerned. If you don't swing like you used to, the first step is to try and set up the way you used to. I changed that. Try to get a feel of how I used to feel over the ball, even before I've hit the shot. That helped. Then just try and play. The first tournament out, Byron Nelson, I played fairly well. I just had a bad finish. That put a bad taste in my mouth. I played half decent at the Colonial, but, you know, didn't score very well. I probably finished about 40th. Then last week I was getting back into the event and double bogeyed probably the easiest par 5 on the course, the back nine. 3-putted 7 and 8, missed a couple of shots. So it's just those things. It meant that things were getting closer, and I think, you know, last week with the guy that won, he hadn't really had -- the best finish was 45th. Then bang, all of a sudden that's it. I think there's a big difference once you tip the cart over, everything seems to fall out and hopefully go in the right direction.

FRANK NOBILO: No question, yeah. I mean physically I really wasn't able to play 36 holes a day in retrospect. But, yeah, in the individual thing, I think I got caught obviously with Jim Furyk playing well. But in the team event, motivation of the event and the team, because it was a great team atmosphere. You don't want to let those guys down. It was a great start. I made a big putt on the last green. I think your motivation, when it's going for you, can give you that extra energy that you need. And it also works against you in an individual competition when you're not playing well because I think, you know, when you've won a few tournaments and, you know, I need a lot of things going for me to compete against the best players in the world; they have that much extra in their game. For me, I'm going to be far more -- for me, I've got to be all cylinders. I can't afford to have the little mishaps. But probably about 18 months was probably -- was the first time I really felt I played well.

FRANK NOBILO: I think it sounds terrible, but you don't realize what you miss until you see it again. Because the ovation that people gave me was great. Somebody was yelling coming down the 9th hole, par it and all that. I hadn't heard that for a while. Plus, I hadn't been playing well. So there was that. It started as far back as there. I hit a really good shot into 12, to about 5 or 6 feet, I didn't make it. But the crowd was great there. I didn't make it there. They just carried it through. So I think when you get the people on your side again, you feel great. That's where we're very fortunate in sports. The audience does make a difference. It made a difference in the Presidents Cup for us, and it makes a difference in an individual competition. That's the advantage that Tiger has when he's playing back home in America; that the crowd, when they're going for you, it's a great plus.

FRANK NOBILO: 95 yards, lob wedge.

FRANK NOBILO: Yeah.

FRANK NOBILO: I think the course in the past, because of the rain it softened it, it's made iron play a lot easier. Because, you know, you can just literally get the number to the flag and hit it. Now you really have to know where the pins are in relation to the slopes. It plays more the way the designer has designed the course. You know, the humps and the hollows come into it. It brings the premium then back on driving. Everyone's always said these fairways are too wide, but they're wide for a reason. When it firms up you then have to start driving the ball down the left or the right-hand side of the field. That's the way it was designed to be played. Playing soft, the holes are probably a little bit longer. The standard of golf, I don't think the best players in the world really mind if they're hitting a -- they'd rather hit a 4-iron to a soft green than a wedge to a firm green. Effectively, that's what happens and the scores prove that over the years.

FRANK NOBILO: No, probably took me about 60 yards to pick my chin off the ground. And, yeah, I mean it was hard. Then I thought oh, well, maybe it's in the bunker or just in the rough there. Where the pin was, it wouldn't have been that difficult a chip. Then where I saw where the ball had finished, I asked them, how did it get here. Where did it hit. They said it pitched up there. Then you realize, obviously, it was a really bad shot anyway. But you try and find an excuse first of all. You want a reason why it got there. Then you realize there's nothing, and you just have to go ahead and play it and refocus. But it probably took me all the way, at least a couple of minutes, to try and refocus.

FRANK NOBILO: Thank you very much.