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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 11, 2007

Jim Furyk

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

Q. How did the course play today compared to yesterday? Was it a little easier because of less wind or was it still about --
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I think so. Going off in the morning today I think will be -- obviously be a break. The wind is blowing a lot harder now and on our finish than it was this morning. Greens were moist, a little bit more receptive, not quite as fast this morning, and it was good to jump out.
I saw some good rounds out there. I think José had it 6-under, someone else had it 6-under. I understand those are still spectacular rounds, but I understand how they did it.
Playing in the afternoon yesterday and watching those guys shoot 5, I didn't understand how they did it, so I'm not sure they played in the same conditions. Course is still playing tough, greens are firm, and like you said, the wind picked up in the afternoon, so if it stays this way I suspect the guys will have a difficult afternoon ahead of them.

Q. Some guys say they feel like rookies out here because of the changes with the greens. Did you feel any advantage being in the area, kind of seeing how the course was growing into itself, growing up to the tournament?
JIM FURYK: Yeah, I don't think you ever know what to expect tournament time because I haven't played it actually since right before The Masters. But seeing it Bermuda, seeing how much firmer and faster it was on an everyday basis, I knew what the capabilities were.
The one question mark for me was how long and thick do they want to make the rough and how penal that was going to be.
I already knew the greens were playing firm and the golf course was going to play firm and fast, and I had it imagined in my mind what to expect.
Usually in the past I don't think it really was much of an advantage to live here. This year it probably was a little bit. I had a little better idea what was going to happen coming in here.

Q. José said that the guy who wins here is really playing well. There's no margin for error on this course.
JIM FURYK: I agree. I agree. That's typical of a Pete Dye golf course. If you keep the ball in front of you, put it on the fairway, put it on the green somewhere, you can score. There's enough short holes and enough reachable par 5s where you can make some birdies.
But if you get off the beaten path a little bit, out of the fairway and especially around the greens, when you miss greens here, it's very difficult to get the ball up-and-down. There's very few spots. There's spots you can miss it and get it up-and-down, but there's others where you're absolutely in jail. There isn't a lot of room for error, that's for sure.

Q. How frustrating is it to have two good rounds of golf and then just a couple holes at the end penalize you?
JIM FURYK: Well, I'm disappointed, but I've done a lot right. I think that's the mental battle. If I would have made a bogey and a double early today and played the rest of the way around and shot even par, everyone would have been congratulating me for playing a good round here. I got it under par, made those mistakes at the end and everyone kind of expects me to jump off a bridge (laughter).
I'm just kind of following in the middle. I did a lot right today. I played 15, a spectacular hole. I had one three-putt early on, and I hit two just awful shots on 7 and 8 and kind of got what I deserved on those shots. So I'm not really disappointed in the way I thought my way around the golf course but I did make some bad swings I'd like to correct.
I'm going to focus on the positive. I've been playing pretty poorly the last couple outings, so to come out and show some good game out there, I'm going to take the positive out of it and try to do better on the weekend and at least keep plodding away.
Obviously we're hoping for this wind to kick up like it did yesterday afternoon and it'll keep the leaders kind of close hopefully.

Q. Is par a better score around here than maybe it used to be, or at least through the first two days?
JIM FURYK: Well, I think a lot of what you're seeing right now is due to the elements, just the wind and -- but there's a lot more room to make this golf course more difficult in setup. I think the staff has done a pretty good job of keeping the golf course playable for the conditions we're in. But if we caught 80 degrees and no wind, there's a lot more room for firm greens, a lot more room fore faster greens, so I think they've done a good job with the setup so far and keeping it playable, yet not -- scores aren't -- no one is running away with a low score yet. I think they've done a wonderful job.

Q. Can you talk about your birdies there, 16 and 17 and the eagle that you had on 2?
JIM FURYK: 16, par 5, playing short. I hit driver and a 3-iron in the left fringe, and I got down in two from there probably 40 feet. I didn't hit the first putt very well. I left it probably four, four and a half feet short, but I was able to knock it in.
Then 17, I hit -- I think I hit 8-iron today. I believe it was an 8-iron. I hit it about 15 feet short of the pin and I was able to knock that in.
And then 2 was another short par 5 playing downwind. I hit driver and a hybrid about 15, 18 feet and knocked a putt in there. It was pin high just right of the flag.

Q. And then what did you do on 7 and 8?
JIM FURYK: 7, I drove it in the fairway and hit an ugly iron left, and it hit kind of on the bank and shot over there in water that no golf professional should ever hit it in that body of water. I dropped it, pitched it up on the fringe and two-putted from there.
And 8, I got caught in between clubs and was trying to hit the shorter club harder because the penalty on that green is long, and I just made a real quick, fast swing and left it way out to the right and had a bad lie and wasn't able to get the ball up-and-down.

End of FastScripts

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