SPRINT INTERNATIONAL

August 19, 1999

Steve Elkington

STEVE ELKINGTON: I had a good day. Played real well. I really enjoyed -- someone asked me the other day what is the best thing about coming to Castle Pines. I told them I think the weather; usually high altitude, the weather is beautiful. So pretty out there. My wife and I love it. I don't think I could live up here, but I like coming up here for this event. I played very well. I have a good record here in the past. I have not won the tournament but I have played well. Seems like I know the course very well and feel pretty comfortable about things, and showed today obviously. I had eight birdies and three bogeys which is sort of the really the format is what we are playing here. Go for broke on a few shots and I made bogey the first hole and made four more birdies, made a birdie at 3, made a long putt, maybe a 40-foot putt at 3 and I birdied the 5th hole, made about a 15-foot putt there. I birdied the 7th hole with a 7-iron about 12-footer. 8, I was just short just left of the green in 2. I putted up, made about a 3-footer for birdie on 8. Made a bogey at 10, drove it in the rough; had to play down short. I birdied 11 from about ten feet.

STEVE ELKINGTON: 9. I birdied the 13th hole, I had about 15- or 20-footer there, I birdied. 15, I hit it close, maybe two foot with a wedge. And 16, I actually was sort of a nice save there, I missed the green to the right. It is very -- the pin is cut well to the right there on 16. I had no shot and finished up blading it over the green in the bunker. I got that up-and-down; made about a 10-footer for bogey to stop the minus 3 points. Then driver and 7-iron the front bunker at 17 and made birdie there, splashed out to about six feet.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Greens are very smooth. Very consistent. Some of them a bit firmer than others, but the speed of the greens overall are, I'd say, they are probably running 11 or 12 and they are just very true. They are a nice set of greens up here.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I was -- I laid up second shot, then went over the green just a little bit, I putted too strong, about three feet by, four feet by, missed it.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I think it is. I birdied the third, I said to my caddie, well, there you go. I said, bogey, par, birdies is better than par, par, par, so sort of the format. You don't feel like you are ever out of it when you make a bogey early on.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, most of you fellows know I pulled out last week because my caddy had a suspected heart attack just before we teed off. He is a real close friend of mine. He probably needed me to be with him at that time. He wasn't doing too well. He is doing fine now. He had an asthmatic seizure. He passed all the stress tests; his heart is fine. Being asthmatic and he has never had an attack like that, but it was more of a heart attack where he had the pressure on his chest; he couldn't feel his arm, and he did not look good, and I really didn't think about it too much, to be honest. Looking back it was probably unlucky that it didn't happen maybe earlier in the day where he could have been maybe in the hospital; could have called through and said, hey, he is doing all right but at that time I thought he was going to die, he looked bad, wasn't breathing, so I am sure all of you have seen people that looked like they are in pretty -- a lot of distress, so I thought it was important that I was there with him.

STEVE ELKINGTON: A friend of mine from Houston, Jimmy Johnson. He is a fireman who caddies quite a bit for me on and off. He caddies up here actually because Gypsy has asthma so he doesn't caddie here normally anyway. Jimmy is a family friend, pinch-hit this week.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah, he caddied for me half a dozen times here and always caddies for me in the Houston Open. We take him to Australia with us and some other trips. He a real close friend of my families.

STEVE ELKINGTON: It was about an hour or so. I was so shook up I don't think I could have made an 2-footer if I went to out there on the putting green after I saw him.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I gave my golf bag to a kid on Tuesday. We had a new bag sent. I put all the gear in the new bag and I gave it to this young kid and his dad. They were thrilled and then I got home found that I had not transferred everything. I had a little pouch that had all my medicines and wedding ring. That was -- that is my original too, so we got it back which we were thankful for that. Never showed up until Friday night, so I guess the guy never went home and unzipped the bag. I would have unzipped every pocket.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I called the pressroom to see if I could get it in the paper. They put it on the air. Right away, five minutes later, the guy called. It was good.