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BUICK OPEN

June 30, 2007

Jesper Parnevik

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Jesper Parnevik to the interview room here at the Buick Open after a fantastic third round 64, I believe your low round of the year. If you could, talk about coming into a venue like this on a day like this where scoring is optimal and getting out there early, posting a low number and now you get to sit and watch what the leaders are going to do.
JESPER PARNEVIK: It's good every time you post a low number. Like I said earlier, I did not feel very good coming into this week. I've been struggling the whole year. I broke my finger in the second tournament of the year. I broke my toe about six weeks ago. I had hip surgery. My body is pretty much done.
Anyway, so I shot a good round, the last round at Hartford last week, came in here, and I pretty much duck hooked everything. I could not keep it on the fairway if my life depended on it. I got pretty much away with a 72 the first round, even though I had it at 3 under for a while.
I teed off with a 4-iron off the first tee the first round, because there is no way that my ball was going to stay in bounds with a driver. The second round I actually ripped a driver, a power fade, and both of my playing partners looked at me and said, that was the most impressive thing we've ever seen on Tour. They were expecting that thing to go 200 yards O.B. left.
But I found something on the range on Thursday afternoon that felt good, and any time I can find something I know I can play well. It's a fun golf course here because it is very rewarding if you do play well. You can shoot low 60s if you have it going. And like I said, the first round I played badly and I could have shot 80 in a heartbeat.

Q. Nice round.
JESPER PARNEVIK: Thank you.

Q. Kenny Perry came in here yesterday and said that he couldn't find the golf course on Thursday and suddenly something happened and shot 63 yesterday. What is it about this golf course that lets you guys suddenly find something?
JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know if it is the golf course. I think it is the golf game that's messed up. It's a very, very weird game, where you can have it one day, you can lose it for two months all of a sudden, and then it's back for three years and you don't even know what happened.
But I mean, it is such a confidence-oriented game. If you can get confidence and make aggressive swings at it where you feel good through the ball, it's an easy game. When your mind is full of doubts and you have nowhere and no way of knowing if it's going to duck hook or go straight right, you cannot even aim anymore. You're aiming somewhere down the middle and hoping it's not going to hit someone. Today I hit every fairway and every green until the 17th hole. It's a weird game.

Q. Talk a little bit about, I guess, your injury report. You said you broke your finger in the second tournament of the year, can you explain how that happened, then how you broke your toe, and then a little more on the hip, please?
JESPER PARNEVIK: Both of those were pretty silly injuries. I came into Hawaii this year after playing really well. I think I was top seven before the last round, I think. I felt good. I think it was the second or third round of Bob Hope, you know, I was asleep in my bedroom. We had connecting rooms with my kids, and one of my kids had a nightmare in the next room. I ran out and was going to check on her and fell on a suitcase and fell on the round and broke my middle finger on my right hand. That was pretty silly. I sat the whole night with ice on it and they kind of adjusted it. And I tried to play after that, but the only problem was I could not bend my finger. So that was that.
Then my toe was even more stupid. I was out on a boat in the Bahamas and I was docking and I had to run into the boat, and I ran very fast into a case of beer and broke my little toe on the left side. So there you go, stay away from kids and alcohol and you're doing okay. (Laughing).
The hip surgery was in 2001. This game is pretty straining on your body. Okay, these days a lot of the guys are very, very fit and hang out a lot longer, but if you look back 15 years, if you made it past 40 -- I know Jack Nicklaus won the Masters in '86, I think, and that was an incredible achievement. Today you have guys in their mid 40s playing very well, but it's just the repetitive motion really puts a lot of stress on your body. So it just comes with the line of work.

Q. Have you talked to Tiger Woods since he's had his baby, and do you realize that you're part of the reason that he's not here this week?
JESPER PARNEVIK: Yes, only through text messaging. I haven't seen them or their daughter, but I heard everything is fine. I'm very happy for them. It's a great thing to have your first child. I have to say, unfortunately, I think he's going to play even better now, which is very bad news for us on the PGA Tour. As soon as I had my first child, I think I won five tournaments the next three or four years, so he could probably win 25 the next two to three years, the way I see it.

Q. Become more of a family man?
JESPER PARNEVIK: This game is so much focused and pressure, and him especially, with all the stress and all the chaos that he has in his life, to have something else to think about just for a little bit, it sometimes really helps your mindset and makes you relax a little bit more on the course and so on, not that he has a tough time focusing, but I think his focus could actually be better.

Q. There's at least one time, and I think twice where the winner of this tournament has gone 64, 64, back-to-back. Do you have another one in you?
JESPER PARNEVIK: Yes, if I play like today, definitely. It was a very easy 64, it felt like today. It takes good play. You cannot scramble yourself around this golf course and shoot 64. You have to hit every fairway or put yourself in position to make birdies. I think that's why so many players like this golf course. That's why you see Tiger, Vijay, those guys, usually play here every here, it's a fun golf course that way. If you play well, you're going to shoot low scores.

Q. Why haven't you played here?
JESPER PARNEVIK: I'm usually in Europe. Every year I go to Europe after the U.S. Open and come back for the PGA Championship. I decided to stay this year, which I'm very happy about.

Q. Your hat, is that a fedora? What's the style of the hat that you're wearing?
JESPER PARNEVIK: Actually, I don't know what you would call it. It's a J. Lindeberg hat. They've always been on the front edge of fashion on Tour, and this was their last thing at the beginning of this year, was to come out with new hats and golf shoes and other stuff, so I'm trying it out, and if I keep playing like this, I would recommend it for everyone.

Q. (No microphone).
JESPER PARNEVIK: Now it's a little bit too hot. We have beautiful weather this week here, but the tie is more for Pebble Beach kind of weather.
THE MODERATOR: Great round. Best of luck tomorrow. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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