KEMPER OPEN

May 29, 1999

Bill Glasson

BILL GLASSON: It is going to sound very cliche, but I had my own problems out there. I really couldn't worry about what they were doing. I still think somebody is going to break out and shoot 64 tomorrow and I was hoping to be that one today to do it, but it is tougher playing late, in the aspect that the greens are not quite as smooth. They are not spiking up at all, but it seems that the poa annua just like I said, yesterday, it has just kind of grown a little bit in the afternoon. And, you know, it is not really affecting the putts as much as it is the approach shots. It seems like a couple of times we hit into the green and might have hit a patch or something and the ball really veered off. So that is another factor late in the day and with the wind not being up today, I really thought the scores -- the scores early were good. A couple of 5-under, I saw, you know, I really thought that we had to go out and make a move really or else we were going to, you know, bunch up. But you guys like it that way. You like 50 guys within three shots.

BILL GLASSON: I think so. I think it is playing like a mature golf course, like a mature Avenel. If you guys remember the first couple of years when it hadn't filled in, it was kind of like a racetrack. But this is one of the premium TPC courses in my opinion with -- not just because I have played well. I have missed plenty of cuts here too. So you just -- because it has a great variety of short holes, long holes, long par 3, short par 3s, you know. To me a good golf course is one I don't get bored on. When all the holes start looking the same, I get bored very easily. Especially if there aren't any girls walking around in the ropes and stuff. But I kind of lose my focus a little bit, believe it or not. But this is a fun golf course. Every hole is different. I still think they should play the No. 6 from the front tee. It is just such a neat hole from there.

BILL GLASSON: From the next tee down, the par 5.

BILL GLASSON: You have to hit two good shots regardless. I think -- yeah, you are going to bring in more 4s and maybe even a 3, but you are going to also bring in 6. But they have played 9 from the front lower tee, that has been very interesting. So tomorrow that is the other good thing about this course. 9 will probably, tomorrow, not even look like the same hole if they go back pin, back tee, you know, goes from 142 yards downhill to 180 something with a crosswind, so a lot of these holes won't even look the same tomorrow as they did today.

BILL GLASSON: The guys today have so much more experience than we did or "We", the older generation, did when we were trying to win. I wasn't trying to win my first tournament in 1985 across the street. I was trying not to have a heart attack before I finished the 72nd hole. Winning had nothing to do with -- it wasn't even in the equation. I turned around to say something to my caddie on the 17th hole, nothing came out. I mean, it wasn't a matter of winning. It was a matter of just trying to finish without bleeding to death. But guys nowadays they have different avenues to tune their games and to learn to play. When I came out in 1984, I was terrible, you know, luckily, Kent, from across the street, kind of felt sorry for me and started working with me. But -- I had to learn to play golf on the Tour, so that was in itself a pretty big challenge. But with the Nike Tour and the other Tours going on now, you can really fine-tune your game away from this and then when they come out here, you know, they are 27, 28, 29, 30-year-old rookies but they have probably played more tournaments than I have over the period. They come out here. They are not afraid of winning because they have so much more experience nowadays.

BILL GLASSON: You bet. It is probably 90 or 100 by now. It kind of grows (laughs) about five feet a year, so....

BILL GLASSON: Back then I was a good putter, so to make a putt wasn't a surprise. The fact that I hit it off the tee and didn't hit it in the water on my second shot was a bigger surprise than actually making a long putt because back then I couldn't hit it for squat and I could putt. Now I can hit it and can't putt. I am trying to have a merge of the two one of these days where I hit it all right and just putt it better. That is a total fluke, my first win. That is all it was. You got to remember Larry Mize -- I was six shots behind going in the last round and, you know, I made eight birdies and two bogeys that day and Larry shot 73.

BILL GLASSON: Not even. Not even. I didn't really -- until I won my fourth Tour event I really didn't think I was going to play the Tour. I thought I was just avoiding working for just a little bit longer. But it took me until my fourth win to actually say, I might do this for a while. But I really didn't have much faith or confidence in my ability, really. I just -- I was waiting until the real estate market got better to start selling some real estate. I am a golfer by accident. I owe the democrats my golfing career.

BILL GLASSON: The interest rates went crazy back in the early '80s, so I couldn't go to work. I was licensed to sell real estate after I graduated college and the market was so bad with interest rates in '82, '83 that I borrowed some money and played mini-tours because they said I wasn't going to make any money in the market. Then I got my card somehow that year.

BILL GLASSON: It is before Reganomics, that is for sure. Whatever it was, it worked out.

BILL GLASSON: The fairway bunker shots I don't have any problem with because I can pick the ball and if you noticed I still flinch a little bit because I tend to thin a ball as opposed to hit it a little bit heavy out of a fairway bunker. Like I told the guys yesterday, if I am in the rough I am flinching, I know it. I am scared to death to swing at it. I punched out today on 13, so you know, it is just, you know, just hit it up the fairway type thing for me.

BILL GLASSON: Oh, boy. That is a darn good question. I think I would, yeah, no doubt. Not think twice about it.

BILL GLASSON: I don't feel like I can -- I have a couple of bad swings in me still. I am not as -- I don't feel like I can be as aggressive as I would like to be, which may be a blessing. When I won in 1992 here, from a similar logjam, I made three birdies and no bogeys the last round and was good enough to win from behind. That is what I mean, it could be a blessing that I am going to, you know, I still have some bad swings in me. I am not quite tight enough with what I am trying to do and so I will be conservative on the holes that I can make a big number and I will try to be aggressive from the fairways and, you know, on some of the other holes. I have been pretty aggressive on the stretch of holes like 6, 7, well 7, 8, 4, holes I am -- usually don't think of being aggressive on, just kind of playing for par because of the other holes, like 9, 11, 12. I am really playing a little bit defensive along some of those holes.

BILL GLASSON: Well, I don't know that I can retear the tendon. I guess it is always possible. It happened before and surgically it is reattached so maybe it will go again. That is the worst case, I am out for another year and a half. That is just not worth it.