EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 16, 2003

Scott Verplank

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Scott Verplank for joining us after his 7-under 63. It has him two shots back of the leaders heading into the weekend. No bogeys, today, Scott.

SCOTT VERPLANK: That is correct.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's talk about it.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, after yesterday, I didn't play all that great over at TPC and I kind of felt like I needed a score like that to catch back up. But to be honest with you I didn't know the wind was going to be blowing 20 or 30 miles an hour. It really turned out to be a pretty awfully good round with the way the wind got it. I'm sure the scores are much higher today in general.

TODD BUDNICK: They are. We will take some questions.

Q. What was working for you today? What did you feel good about this round?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, pretty much everything. I drove the ball in the fairway pretty consistently and I hit a lot of nice iron shots and made the putts. I was pretty solid. I never really had a chance to make a bogey.

Q. Was the wind consistent, Scott, or pretty much can you tell what it was going to be?

SCOTT VERPLANK: That's what made it hard because it was gusting a lot. It actually started out the first hole, it was kind of south, southwest. Pretty much the back nine it was straight out of the west. So it switched a little bit. I played two or three holes with it only blowing 25 out of the southwest. Then it got up to 30 out of the west. It was easy the first couple of holes.

Q. Scott, would you like the conditions to stay like this, do you feel you play better in them?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, I'm not a sadist, okay. I mean you know, I don't think anything -- I don't mind the wind blowing so. I grew up here. I live in Oklahoma now. So I yes that, it is good training for days like today. But when it is blowing as hard as it is today and gusting like it was, it's pretty difficult. I don't hit that well every single day.

Q. Scott, you grew up here, this is a tournament where you have had success, lost in a playoff a couple of years ago, talk about what it means coming here and you seem to play so well here.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, obviously I like coming here to play. Being from Dallas, Mr. Nelson, he has been nice to me my hole golf life. He started helping me when I was 16-years-old. It's always great to see him and Peggy. My mom and dad are here, grandparents, brother his wife. So I'm pretty comfortable around Dallas.

Q. You stay with your family, or do you stay in hotel?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Yes, I stay in a hotel. Traffic is too bad, that's why I don't live here anymore. The traffic is too bad. They are 20 minutes from here on the weekend. But during the week an hour 20 minutes so I finally gave up on that.

(Scorecard.)

TODD BUDNICK: Any other questions?

Q. How much tougher is this course than across the street? Can you put it in perspective? How good was the 63 today?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, it was probably better than the 62 I shot over there a couple of years ago. I mean relatively speaking I'm sure any golf course is hard when you start getting wind blowing as hard as it was today. So I don't know.

TODD BUDNICK: It looks like the course is playing 2 strokes higher than yesterday.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Yes. I was going to say probably two or three shots harder than yesterday. The other is the same. It's howling. You are hitting 180 yard 3-irons. And 160 yard pitching wedges depending on which way you're going. That's a pretty big difference.

Q. Does this crack your top 20 runs in your career?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I don't know. I guess. I never ranked them all.

Q. We will do that later.

SCOTT VERPLANK: We will do that later on when we have time. Yes, it was probably as good as I could play today considering the conditions and how difficult it really was. It was pretty difficult to hit the ball in the fairway. You got a lot of crosswind holes, and the fairways, a lot of the holes, the fairways start narrowing up and falling off even on the downwind hole. That is probably the best thing that I did. I kept the ball in front of me. I hit it in the rough a couple of times. It was just barely. I was able to get on it the green. I just kind of kept the ball out there in front of me and was able to stay out of the hazards of the wind.

Q. Who do you like in Game 7 tomorrow night?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I like the Mavs. I went Tuesday night. I may go tomorrow night. Hopefully they will win.

Q. Scott, I don't know how much you played overseas, could you rank this as a British Open wind or is this one of the tougher winds that you see?

SCOTT VERPLANK: It's blowing as hard today as we normally get throughout the year. You can't really go with the British Open because the golf course there is so different. That's what makes it hard here. They're not set up to take this kind of wind. The pin placement is not set up to have the wind blowing 25, 30 miles an hour. Fortunately the greens are kind of soft so that helps you where you could finish the downwind holes.

Q. What do you focus on the weekend coming over from TPC to play from Cottonwood, what is your focus?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Same as it was yesterday and today. Just drive the ball good and keep myself in position to have a chance to make some putts. The same as I try to do every day.

TODD BUDNICK: Thanks, Scott.

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