THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 1998

Glen Day

GLEN DAY: I had 180 to the pin I am not really sure what it was to the front. And I hit 7-iron.

GLEN DAY: 17 I hit a 9-iron I am not even sure what I had to the pin. Just a 9 9-iron for me. Normally spins back I try to 2-putt make par.

GLEN DAY: Eight, ten feet.

GLEN DAY: It's amazing. The golf ball usually released on cement pretty good. Hard to stop it. Yes, ma'am, I played for some release. PGA, you have seen the commercials, these guys are good. If I had played for it to stop and made it, that would have been a story.

GLEN DAY: I played pretty solid. I made a dumb mistake on 1, 2, 3, -- 5 whatever hole I doubled. I hit it in the left rough. Off the tee and tried to hit a 3-wood run it up front of the green came out low, went in the water to the left so, made double there. Other than that, I played pretty solid. I bogeyed 13. Just didn't catch the ridge, the winds kind of caught it went over to the right, 3-putted. Other than that I played pretty solid, made some putts and got really lucky.

GLEN DAY: I had no idea.

GLEN DAY: It was lucky. Somebody was going to get lucky. It just happened to be me. I mean, I just I hit a good shot. Hit it where the direction I wanted to. I thought it would be -- I didn't think it would get to the pin and I mean it is just a lucky shot. Just like making a hole-in-one. Just a lucky shot.

GLEN DAY: Oh, I don't know. I mean, there is not one any harder than the other. It is just pure luck.

GLEN DAY: Yeah, I was unbelievable. I stood out there I just knew I could make the it. I asked my caddie which way it would broke. We had the grain written down. It was phenomenal. Is that better?

GLEN DAY: I hit it exactly like I wanted to. I had 7-iron. Wind was blowing off the right. I was just making sure that I hit it right of the little -- the swell, because the swell kind of makes a satisfy in the green. I could not have carried it at the pin. It would have hit the ridge and come back down into the front of the green.

GLEN DAY: Par 3. Hit a 7-iron hit really good shot landed on the front. Made it from about six or eight feet.

GLEN DAY: After the double I hit 3-wood off the tee. Hit sand wedge. Hit really good shot about 10 feet and had a good pretty straight uphill putt at it. Made that. 9, I laid up with a 3-iron, actually laid up to really good yardage. And that is a lot of the key to this golf course. If you after little off yardage when the greens are firm, you can't hit a full shot, can't spin it as much and you are not going to get the ball close. You are playing for pars. And I got lucky there and I had a good yardage and it went about 10 feet behind the hole and I made that.

GLEN DAY: Sand wedge. Or L-wedge. L-wedge.

GLEN DAY: 11 was par 5. I hit driver, 3-wood I pulled knit a little but got over the tree just kind of short of green. Hit really good chip about six feet behind the pin and made that. 12, I again I had a perfect yardage, for an L-wedge, I had 89 yards to the front I hit my L-wedge 90. So I knew it -- hit it really good flew it one step on, hit it about two feet. Then as I said I 3-putted the next hole.

GLEN DAY: I was just past pin-high and little off the green on the right. So I to putt up over the slope and I hit it too hard going down and basically hit a pretty bad putt coming back. It is a good solid 4. I was exciting. (laughs). Next hole I probably played as good as anything. Driver 7-iron and hit another good shot to about five feet and misread the putt there. Then the next hole I hit good drive it went in the rough. Hit a shot outright at the pin, stayed short of the green and chipped it in.

GLEN DAY: 7-iron again. I hit 7-iron a lot today, didn't I West?

GLEN DAY: You are keeping notes.

GLEN DAY: The pin was like 6 -- I was probably 5 short of the green -- five or six yards short of the green.

GLEN DAY: Boy, is this guy good or not?

Q. Outside of that closing stretch of holes, how would you characterize the way you played the rest of the round?

GLEN DAY: Solid.

GLEN DAY: Very solid. Made some good putts, my some good decisions, the only thing I did bad was try to hit the 3-wood out of the rough on whatever hole it was, 4, 5.

GLEN DAY: The chip in was good. You could chip a ball in. That is kind of like making a putt. It was actually -- it was that was a good shot. The birdie at 17 was good. Very solid. The eagle at 18, take a guess what I am going to say gang, come on. Word association? Lucky.

GLEN DAY: I probably should have taken an 8-iron or 9-iron and laid it up short of the bunker and then hit a wedge and had a par-putt and I had should have made bogey. I should have made bogey -- I cost myself one shot there.

GLEN DAY: Terrible. No, I was playing really good early and starting at L.A. my swing got off a little bit, my back started acting up again and I just hadn't -- haven't really played too good. Never making any putts, when you really need to. You come to that one hole where you need to hit a good shot and you don't. So, it hasn't been a lot of fun.

GLEN DAY: Been working on my back a lot, stretching and stuff, and when I get it loose I can swing and when it is tight, my swing is a little short and I just can't -- I don't feel like I can hit really, really good golf shots. But it comes and goes. I mean, it is nothing to whine about. Just like golf, you are going to have your good and bad. Today was a good. Last couple of weeks have been bad.

GLEN DAY: Obviously it is an advantage when you play late and play good because theoretically tomorrow we wouldn't have the wind or the greens will be perfect. I am first off, so the front 9 nobody is going to be on the greens. It will be perfect. So, yes, theoretically I have a good opportunity to go out in the morning post a good number and you know, go back to the hotel and it is and watch it. But you never know. I mean, we are in Florida. Thunderstorm could come up, wind could blow in the morning, you know, you don't know.

GLEN DAY: It is just -- it just -- a couple of vertebrae lock up every now and then where I can't turn, so it has been that way for -- I thought if you played golf you are supposed to have a bad back, so, you know, I have got somebody helping me now and I am excited about it because it is good to know that I can sleep all night and I don't have to get up in the middle of the night sometimes.

GLEN DAY: Oh, I mean, every now and then. Once twice a week it hurt. It is not that -- it is not that big of a deal. I mean, it is part of life. It is just part of life. If your back felt like mine did, you probably wouldn't even worry about it, but you don't have to play golf for a living. If you had if you tore a tendon in your writing finger, would you be in trouble. And I wouldn't worry about it. So, it is just -- a business-related injury, let's say.

GLEN DAY: No, I don't think it is anything like that. It is more mental in the fact that you kind of favor it a little bit instead of standing up there and being aggressive and doing what you want to do, you kind of, you know, you let up on it a little, or you just -- you don't go ahead and hit it. So it is more mentally that you are scared it is going to hurt so you try to do something where it doesn't.

GLEN DAY: Without a doubt. It was one of the best experiences that I had, yes, sir.

GLEN DAY: Three. When I first went to Europe I was not a good enough player to play on this Tour with the guys around here, no, sir.

GLEN DAY: You learned how to play the game. There are so many aspects of the game and that is why you don't see a lot of young guys coming out and making a huge impact. You have your superstars like Tiger, if I am cake out and did it. You have a handful, but you -- you have first team all Americans in college every year, not all of those come out and make a huge impact. So you really have to learn. When I got out of college I just wasn't good enough to play at this level, and I played two years in Asia, I played three years in Europe. Kind of got out of my back door. I could still back then -- I could go out to my home course shoot 6 or 7-under. I mean, you just get used to playing one specific thing. But, it is a lot different when you go away and then you have to learn how to play the game.

GLEN DAY: (laughs) I have got plenty of stories about that. How long do you got?

GLEN DAY: Hey, is this guy good or not? Zoo like what. The second tournament that I was ever over there I will tell you one quick one. I was trying to find out what -- year really you don't want me to tell the story. Come on Kelly. You may even laugh. I was trying to find out if I made the cut. I called the phone number. Now, I didn't know all these people over there at all. And I called and I go, "Yes, can you tell me what the cut is. " They said well. Not everybody finished they call back. We will know approximately in about two hours. I call back in it hours. I said, " Yeah, do you all know anything about the cut? Glen, we are not sure but if you call back in the morning, we will tell you. Now, I talked to two separate people on the phone. So I called back early in the morning, I said "I am wondering what the cut was". They go, yeah, Glen, the cut was this and you tee off at 8:30. I said, " I have got one quick question". I said," I talked to three different people. I'm sorry. I don't know everybody's name. I want to know how you know me. He said Glen, there is nobody in Europe that talks as bad as you do.

GLEN DAY: Spain.

GLEN DAY: Yes, sir. Sure is. If I keep hitting the ball like I did today, it sure is. Whoever wins this week is going to be the person that makes the least amount of mistakes. There is birdies out there to be made, but it is whoever doesn't try to hit a 3-wood out of the rough and get over the water.

GLEN DAY: I built a golf course in North Carolina called Salem Glen and Mr. Nicklaus let me use his Nicklaus design -- his design company, yes, sir.

GLEN DAY: I met Gary when I was in Europe. Gary was playing over in Europe. And, just became friends with Gary and became friends with the family and got to know Mr. Nicklaus and we play golf any time he plays, or you know, a tournament we play. He is just -- he is a very nice man. Everybody is scared to death of him, and I think that is funny as anything. He is always picking on me. He says Glen, he calls me All. He says" All, you are the only guy that is not scared to death of me". I said there is no reason anyway.

GLEN DAY: A-L-L.

GLEN DAY: Because that is my nickname because my first year on Tour I was a little bit faster than a snail but not quite as good as a turtle and I worked really hard on it and I think I have got my routine down and I have got my process back to where I am not making everybody mad anyway.

GLEN DAY: Pre-shot routine is basically getting ready to hit a shot you get your yardage, pick your club.

GLEN DAY: What is mine? I get ready to hit a shot. I pick yardage I pick my club, I get behind it. I picture the shot I want to hit, how I want it to go, and I see myself make the swing and then I get over it. And I try to see my body moving and what I want to do and then just commit to it and hit it: Turtle. See nobody understands me. You know, I am going to get offended. Red necks have rights too, you know.

GLEN DAY: I don't ever try to see it go in the hole unless I am chip-in or sand shots, but from fairways and such, I just try to see the ball land and try to take that bounce. I wanted that ball to land in a certain place and bounce and roll and take the slope.

GLEN DAY: It is little rock it is a course in little rock, shin fell country club.

GLEN DAY: No, sir, I haven't.

GLEN DAY: Sure. All the time.

GLEN DAY: Yeah. All the time. I mean, he is a phenomenal individual. Anybody that can sit down and talk to him and does not, that is in this business, I would say they are just plain stupid. He is just a nice man. He just happens to be the greatest player to ever play the game arguably. And he is a nice man. Miss Nicklaus is a bigger story than probably Mr. Nicklaus, though.

GLEN DAY: He picks on me all the time about it. Sure. We had our players meeting here the last time Jack played here and we were sitting right back there and Mr. Finchem was sitting up here, he said now we are trying to build and I am imagine where you can come out and you can emulate your her rows and such I turned to Mr. Nicklaus and I said you know I came out here I am trying to emulate my heroes like you they find me two shots gave me a $2,000 fine. So...

GLEN DAY: I was the first off in the afternoon at 12 o'clock, the last group was 9 and we were waiting on them to tee off. So it took two hours and 45 minutes for them to play nine holes.

GLEN DAY: I have no earthly idea, sir.

WES SEELEY: All right.