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BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 16, 2004

Barry Lane

ROYAL TROON, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Barry Lane, 5-under par, the leader of The Open Championship. 68 today, good score following yesterday's 68. How do you feel at this stage?

BARRY LANE: Pretty happy. I think anyone shooting 5-under after two days should be pretty happy. It's very difficult. There's hardly any wind blowing, and it's still very, very difficult.

Q. What's the difference this year for you, in terms of you being very consistent?

BARRY LANE: I played very good -- I started to play good again from 2000. I think because I'm practicing a little bit more. I'm not very good at practicing. And so I'm practicing a little bit harder, especially on my short game, my putting and my chipping. I actually haven't hit the ball particularly well the front nine, but the back nine I've played very solid both days. But I've putted very nicely, and if I've gotten in trouble I've managed to get out of it. The back nine I think I only missed two greens, I think.

Q. Does age and experience come into it here, do you think?

BARRY LANE: I don't know, really. I don't know whether it does. Obviously you do have experience, but I think it is The Open Championship so you have to be realistic. You still have to play very well. And you obviously have a lot of knowledge of what you're trying to do, but you've still got to play the golf course, and you still have to play well. But obviously I'm getting old now and nearing the seniors, which is very nice. I can't wait for that.

Q. You've been around the block a bit?

BARRY LANE: I've been up and down. It's been a long time. I think the first time I went to qualifying school was 1979 when I was 19. I think I went there 7 times, eventually. I've had ups and downs. But that's just the way maybe my swing is, or the way I've been, in my own personalities. Because I worked pretty hard when I was younger, then I didn't work so hard. The game was reasonably easier. Then the older you get the harder it gets. Now I'm working harder. And it's paid dividends.

Q. How are you able to workout? I thought you were falling apart.

BARRY LANE: I have a massage every night and a massage every morning. My knees are aching and my elbows are aching. But it doesn't seem to be threatening to stop me playing golf. The only time this year was when I hurt my back, and I played on the Sunday, and the next three weeks I shouldn't have played and I played awful. But, you know, you're going to get some aches and pains at 44, after playing 20-odd years on the Tour. You're doing something, swinging your club, and it's an unnatural movement to be doing. And when I first started there wasn't really many gyms or anything like that. So we're sort of now trying to catch up.

Q. You had a bad injury about three years ago?

BARRY LANE: I've got a split meniscus in my right knee, which is inoperable. So I just had to lose a bit of weight, and so far it's been not too bad.

Q. How did you do it?

BARRY LANE: Compression. I jumped and braced myself when I jumped off a wall and didn't realize that it was actually about a foot further down than I thought, so I braced myself then I relaxed and hit the ground. Just compressed the meniscus, but the split is internal, so they can't operate on it.

Q. How thick a wall was it?

BARRY LANE: Third floor of a hotel -- no, only a small wall, about three or four feet.

Q. Third group tomorrow, how much would you relish that?

BARRY LANE: It would be wonderful. The support is fantastic. Playing in an Open Championship in the last group would be a dream. If I'm not in the last, I'll be in the second from last or third from last, whatever happens. You've still got to play, so the last group or the third from last is not -- I'd like to play with Thomas because he's a good friend of mine, so that would be very nice.

Q. He's daft, isn't he? In a nice way?

BARRY LANE: He's a wonderful fellow. He's not daft, no. He's just --

Q. You know what I mean.

BARRY LANE: Yeah, he's Thomas. He never stops talking. He's a very generous and genuine fellow. But he's got a wonderful disposition. He's got two wonderful kids and another one on the way. He's a very, very nice guy. And he's playing so good at the minute. He's obviously doing well this week. And he's a very, very nice guy.

Q. Can you talk about your confidence for a moment? Is it something that's grown with age or are you a product of Josh?

BARRY LANE: I think you have a positive mindset, and I don't think I had that at stages in my career. I think early in the early '90s everything was happening really nicely, I was winning a tournament each year and finishing in the top 10 of the Order of Merit. I never really thought about it. I started to struggle in the early '90s, then I saw Josh for a few years. I stopped last year. But I've read a few books and it is -- I never realized how mental the game is, but it is, I would say, 95 percent between the ears, really. It is a big, big thing.

Q. And what do you tell yourself? What's the most important thing you have to tell yourself?

BARRY LANE: Well, I wouldn't be telling you. It's a secret. I don't know. Just to tell yourself that you have obviously tee shots wherever you play that are difficult. But if you tell yourself you love the hole and love hitting it in the fairway it's a big difference. On different things like that you have to be positive, but to try and take one shot at a time and focus on that one shot, because you've only 30 seconds to hit a golf shot, it's about 30 seconds. So you don't really have to concentrate that much, except for each shot and try and focus on what you're trying to do and not worry about anybody else. It's easy to sit here and say, but it's very difficult to do on the golf course.

Q. On the 7th trip to the qualifying school was there any element of, "This is it, I'm not going to keep doing this"?

BARRY LANE: No, because I think on the 7th time, I think I got my card three or four times out of the 7, but I was working as an assistant, so I would only play three or four tournaments a year, just drive up to Manchester to play the Martini or something, because I was working as an assistant. But I had a sponsor lined up if I got my card. But it wasn't -- I wasn't impatient about it, I still knew I was a good player, but it was getting the finances.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BARRY LANE: It took a long time, 44, to getting to leading The Open. Yeah, it is, but you always ask people, you say on the putting green -- for the Europeans it is the biggest one, it is a big thing, but you try and treat it as any other tournament. I arrived on Tuesday and I played an extra practice round this week, which is unusual for me. But you don't know whether -- I'm not one of these people who can practice and say, I'm going to play this -- build up for one tournament. I can't do that. I don't know how it's going to go until Thursday morning until I tee off, really. If you're hitting the ball on Tuesday or Wednesday, obviously you're pretty comfortable. But you still don't know how it's going to go. And I could never peak for one week, I wouldn't think, because I don't know how to.

Q. Would you relish the chance of being the British Open champion. Obviously you've been very impatient for success.

BARRY LANE: I'm going to go out and try my hardest, and if things go my way, then great. But if they don't, then I'm still out there trying, and I'm going to be trying my best. So that's all I can do.

Q. You mentioned about 95 percent of the game is played between the ears. Do you feel that you're mentally tough enough to win The Open Championship this week?

BARRY LANE: I've got no idea. I'll find out tomorrow or Sunday. No, I think -- yeah, I think I've learned an awful lot in the last three years about myself and golf and everything. And that's the thing, I always think you're always learning. You're always learning. Every day you're learning. Shots you hit on the golf courses and things. But we'll find out. I think it's there. After not winning for ten years and having a chance to win at the British Masters was a boost. And to finish as I finished, birdied two of the last three to win by three gives you a lot of confidence.

End of FastScripts.

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