THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 27, 1997

Steve Elkington

STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, obviously, I am very happy with the 66 today. You know, obviously I played well. I felt like that gives me a little bit of momentum for the rest of this swing. I didn't play good at Bay Hill, but, however, I prepared myself for this week, and I got off to a great start too. I birdied four holes in a row - 10, 11, 12, and 13. That is usually the makings of a decent round. And, played steady. I had one bad hole. I hit it in the water, 18, second shot, made 6. Other than that, it was pretty steady.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I started on the 10th hole. I hit 3-wood, 8-iron, 20-feet birdie. 11: I hit driver, 3-wood and green-side bunker came out to about a foot. 12: I hit 3-wood, sandwedge, about 8 feet, birdie. 13: I hit 6-iron, 8 feet, birdie. 15: I hit driver, 7-iron about 8 feet. Missed birdie there.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah. You would have played a 9 on that hole. (Audience laughter.) 15: I hit the driver and 8-iron about 10 feet, made par. 16: I was driver, 3-wood left of the green, chipped on about 12 feet, par. 17: Hit 9-iron up on the back of the green, 2-putted from 30 feet. And 18, I hit 3-wood, but I kind of skied it. I didn't really hit it very far off the tee, maybe 220, 225. Actually, I had 220 to the hole, so whatever the distance is minus 220, is what I drove it. I was just trying to hit it straight, straight 2-iron, and I pulled it in the water. So, made 6 there. I birdied 1, hit driver, wedge, to about 12 feet. Birdie. 2: I hit driver, 3-wood, on the green. 2-putted from about 20 feet. Birdied that one. 3: 7-iron, 30 feet, 2-putt. 4: Driver, wedge, 30 feet, 2-putt. 5: Driver, in the fairway bunker, hit a 5-iron, just short, chipped on 2 feet, par. 6: 3-wood, 9-iron, 2 feet, birdie. 7: Driver, 7-iron, just in sort of fringe on the edge, chipped down to about 4 feet, par. 8: I hit 2-iron left bunker, hit it out to about 2 feet, par. 9: I hit driver, 3-iron, wedge, to about 12 feet, 15 feet, birdie.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Two par 5s you can reach. Obviously, that is the first thing that comes to mind. Probably with the soft conditions, two par 3s play a little easier there than they would normally. 13 and 17, they are playing pretty easy today. 13 was down breeze and -- or down-breeze, yeah. And 14, probably hardest hole on the course is down-breeze today. That is probably why.

STEVE ELKINGTON: No, they are now my primary set.

STEVE ELKINGTON: No.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Two. But I've got a good set now. It is all right.

STEVE ELKINGTON: No. Actually, I am not worried anymore.

STEVE ELKINGTON: No. I have got more.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, first set was stolen in Houston. That was stolen in a real bad area of town, so they actually were stolen by some -- well, I am not even going to go into it. Forget about it.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Some good restaurants there.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Bad part of town. Other side of the railroad tracks. They broke into about 10 peoples' cars that day and took a bunch of stuff.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I lost a set after Pebble Beach this year on the way to Thailand going over there playing, I lost -- they never arrived.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah, I think they never even got on the plane. I think someone stole them from San Francisco Airport.

STEVE ELKINGTON: After Pebble Beach.

STEVE ELKINGTON: He can have them. I didn't win with them anyway. Got one win with these at least.

STEVE ELKINGTON: The rough -- I think the rough in practice was a bit more severe than it is now. I think probably this morning, it would have been tougher because it would have been still wet, but it seems as though it dried out and sort of flattened down from the rain, so it is not good. I mean, you are not going to be able to hit a good shot out of it. You are going to have to lay up. One of the things right now is you can be pretty aggressive out of the rough because the greens are soft. So, you can actually take a pretty good hefty cut at, say, a 7-iron out of the rough and fly it at the green somewhere and it will stick. Normally, you would have to play a different approach; if the green was a lot firmer, you would have to try a run-up shot. And, then it becomes narrower and so on. Right now the greens are soft so the rough is the same but the greens are softer so you can hit it out of the rough.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I am not sure. I think I shot 66 at PGA, didn't I, last year -- or 67, wasn't any.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, you are in the media. (Audience Laughter) I have only played four or five events, six events, something like that. I played well at Doral the first day, 67 or something? No, 70. I have had some good starts.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I think my score was 12-under in 1991. I remember the last day being real windy. Last hole was into the wind. It was playing real long. I came from behind, maybe 4 shots behind. My record in Florida, I have always played very good at Doral. I normally just play Doral and here, really. I have never played much there at Honda. For some reason haven't really played much at Bay Hill. But, I have played pretty good in the two, this one and Doral.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, it has actually been a little bit tough for me this year until I won because it is hard to focus when I got the little ones at home, but it has been a lot of fun, obviously. I feel like -- half of me feels like I should be home at the moment. Other half knows I should be out here playing. So I had a long time off this year on the off-season; relaxed a lot. Stayed in Houston; didn't go overseas to Australia. So I feel pretty ready to play the TOUR this year; just haven't played that much golf. But, I am going to play a lot of golf in the next three months, so things have been, you know, obviously winning Doral was a nice surprise because I haven't obviously had much form up to that point. But, you know, as I said, I worked hard in the off-season.

STEVE ELKINGTON: You know, I think that has something to do with it. That is one thing. But, the other thing is I was starting to become a better player maybe -- after maybe three years ago after I had some good wins and I won the PGA and had a great year in 1995; then I lost my stuff which took me about six months to get over it. Kind of blew out '96 and now I am sort of getting back to where I was before. I feel like other than losing the set, I have sort of been the same in my minds since '95. I still feel very confident and feel like I could play pretty well on occasion and my putting is good and, you know, I don't feel like it was like this (INDICATING SLOPEY). I feel other than losing the clubs, everything feels pretty good. I played not bad, really, last year in places. It is just that I had such a rough start with losing all my gear.

STEVE ELKINGTON: I got plenty of sets, so if you feel like stealing them -- (Audience laughter.) -- be my guest. My caddie may chop your head off, though.

STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah.