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BUICK OPEN

July 28, 2005

Neal Lancaster

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Leader in the clubhouse, Neal Lancaster, thanks for joining us. Great round today, 6 under 66, and you rolled in a nice birdie putt on 18 to take the lead. If you could start with some opening comments.

NEAL LANCASTER: I didn't expect very much. Actually, I was lucky to come here. Last week I ruptured my eardrum, so I've been shoving cotton in and out all day and can't hear a thing. Maybe that's the best thing, couldn't hear the ball or the club. The last I rolled in a 40 footer. The last nine I drove it as good as I've drove it all year. I actually missed, you know, three 5 footers on the front nine and made a 40 footer and a 25 footer. I missed only one green, and that was 15 and I chipped it really close. I didn't really come close to a bogey.

I'm just fortunate to play. I was just going to go out and just try to do the best I could, and luckily it worked out for me today.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If you could talk about the conditions, the golf course is playing longer certainly, and also a little more receptive on the greens; is that evening out?

NEAL LANCASTER: Well, I noticed today they have a lot of Sunday pins already out on Thursday. The 17th hole I've seen the pin there some on Sundays just over the bunker. There was a couple more pins that were Sunday pins. The first hole was a Sunday pin, and the course is playing soft. Actually, the last hole, I hit a good shot out of the rough, short rough and it hit 15 feet from the hole and backed all the way to the front of the green with an 8 iron. It played soft, I actually think it plays tougher when it's soft for a lot of guys because it's hard to get yourself, when you're hitting just short of the par 5s in two, it's hard to throw it all the way to the hole from 50 yards. Most of the guys are skipping it in there and it's just stopping.

I can see somebody really going low out there. The par 5s, though, they are playing a lot different as of right now because you can't reach them. Tiger can reach them and Vijay and a couple more guys, but the average field cannot reach the par 5s. Just, you know, you're not going to birdie every hole. Just try to be patient and get you a few every now and then.

Q. A lot of the guys from this morning are saying that they are coming off the golf course feeling that they left something out there. The guys who are at 4 and 5 under, they all seem to think they should have been a couple better. How about you, where do you think you should have been?

NEAL LANCASTER: Everyone in the field when they get done today will think it ought to be better. Every day you play this game, you're going to feel that way. I left a couple out there. I hit a ball out of bounds off the first tee. I'm hitting an iron off No. 1 and playing it as a three shot hole and I birdied it. Other guys hitting drivers going for the green; they make par. You're going to leave something out there, everybody is. You're not going to make 18 birdies. Nobody has not 54 yet, I don't think.

You feel like every hole out there is a birdie hole, you really do. There's probably three holes that are not birdie holes, like 15, probably the fourth hole, that's a birdie hole. But it was really soft and the greens are just so pure. The greens are probably as good as we've been on all year. You've just got to take them where you can get them. A lot of guys, I looked up, nobody was tearing it up, which surprised me. A lot of guys were at 2 and 3 under.

So you just take what it gives you, actually. If you shoot 6 under every day, you'll be there at the end, but it's the first day. It's like going into turn one in a NASCAR race; you've still got to go all the way around the track.

Q. You mentioned how moist the track is out there, using your NASCAR analogy. Do you feel the players that are teeing off in the afternoon will have an advantage today because it will have had a chance to dry up a little bit?

NEAL LANCASTER: Well, I don't know. The wind picked up probably our last four or five holes, and it started switching around on 17. With 16, it was downwind left to right. And we got to 17, running the same direction and I hit, it was downwind left to right and the next two guys get up and the wind turns completely back at us and they hit one more and came up short of the green. The wind is playing a few tricks out there right now, and, you know, if it firms up, I don't think it's going to firm up that much, it's pretty wet out there, but you never can tell, you know.

Q. You mentioned maybe nobody goes any lower than 6 under. Obviously anybody likes being in the lead, that's a good spot to be, but do you like that feeling after the first day of being on top of the leaderboard, is that a good feeling?

NEAL LANCASTER: Well, you know, like I said, it's nice to be able to shoot a good round. But there's three more days to go and I figure after I think it's my 16th year on TOUR and I've had one lucky win; it's time for me to do something. That's the way I feel about it.

Q. You mentioned you ruptured your eardrum

NEAL LANCASTER: I didn't know if I could fly. Sunday I was in the water and I knew as soon as I hit it, ruptured my eardrum, so I went into the emergency room and doctor told me not to fly the next week. And I saw the ear, nose and throat guy the next week and he said, "I'm 90 percent sure you can fly." The crazy thing is this guy is an expert on what the healing process would be and he said six weeks to two months. I said, "You're supposed to be the expert." Put a hole in my eardrum about the size of a dime.

When we teed off today, I was so dizzy, I'm having some equilibrium problems and maybe it's helping me but I don't know how far I was going to be able to go; and luckily tomorrow, I play late, and later in the day, it seems get better. But like the first nine holes, I was a little disoriented and I didn't really know where I was. Tomorrow I might not even be able to stand up. Just wait and see what happens.

Q. You said when you looked up at the leaderboard you were surprised the scores were not that low, do you think your 6 under will hold up this afternoon?

NEAL LANCASTER: I think somebody will do better than 6 under. I think somebody will shoot seven or eight probably. It's out there. It just depends on if the wind gets up. If it stays as calm as it is this morning, I think somebody will shoot 7 or 8 under. You hit a lot of good shots, and it's so soft, the ball is backing away from the hole. I think they had some pretty good pins out there, too.

Q. Your record for the year, I think you had a withdrawn at one tournament, but since then it seems like you've been getting some better finishes. Was there a correlation there or something that clicked after that?

NEAL LANCASTER: Well, actually, I was working with a golf coach for a while and I just went and started doing my own thing. I'm so much of a feel player that I change from hole to hole. The first nine, I had a swing thought, and then I hit two bad drives in a row on the back. So I started Trying something else. I play by so much feel, I just start experimenting at any time.

I didn't play last week, and at B.C., I played good the last three days. Actually, I make a triple and a double there the first day, and I shoot 19 under and I make 28 birdies and an eagle the last three days. So I had a good week. Hopefully it will just carry right over.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round, you had six birdies, starting on the first hole.

NEAL LANCASTER: The first hole, I hit a 2 iron off the tee and then I laid up with a 3 wood. Actually, I was really surprised to see both of them go straight. I made about, oh, a 15 foot birdie putt.

Second hole, I hit it in there about eight feet and I missed it.

Third hole I hit it in there about four feet and I missed it.

Fourth hole, actually I missed the green there. I spun a wedge off the green and 2 putted, tapped in a birdie.

Fifth hole, hit a driver and a 7 iron about, oh, five feet to go 2 under.

Then hit a driver and a wedge to 12 to go 3 under.

Missed a 5 footer on 7 for birdie.

8, had about a 20 footer 2 putted.

9, 20 footer, 2 putted. Back nine, started fighting the driver a little bit.

Actually 10th hole hit it about 15 feet and missed it.

11th hole, hit it about, oh, 30 feet and 2 putted. Just trying to play a smart shot there.

On the 12th hole, I had about 15 feet, 15, 18 feet and missed it.

The next hole, I had to lay up, and I hit a wedge past the hole about 25 feet and I made a putt, you know, and I was just trying not to do anything stupid; it just fell in.

Next hole, short par 4, and I drove it right in front of a drain and didn't hit that good of a pitch shot, probably 15 feet, and I didn't make it.

15th hole, I missed the tee shot right and hit it short right of the green and didn't hit enough club and wasn't confident in what I was doing. Chipped it up probably a foot and made it.

16, hit driver, 3 wood out in front of the green. Had 50 yards; I chipped it about two feet.

17, I hit a 7 iron, oh, two inches off the right side of the green, pin high. Ran it by three feet and made a good 3 footer; had a little break to it.

Then 18, hit a good drive and hit a good 8 iron, 15 feet of the hole and backed all the way down to the front of the green and I made it. I was just trying to get it up there close and it went in.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nice way to finish. Neal Lancaster, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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