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BUICK OPEN

June 26, 2008

Dudley Hart

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

THE MODERATOR: Dudley Hart tied for the lead, after a first round of 64 at the 50th Anniversary of the Buick Open. Opening comments. Little tougher in the afternoon with the tough conditions. You posted great day for you.
DUDLEY HART: It blew pretty good this afternoon. I seemed to hit the ball pretty solid for the most part all day and gave myself a lot of really good opportunities and rolled the ball a lot better.
I didn't par real well last week. I worked with Stan Uttley on Tuesday, who I work with on my short game, got me going in the right direction. I feel like I can get the ball turning over the way I want to with the putter. And it's hard to explain, but when you have that thing coming off the putter the right way, you feel like you can make some putts.
I survived a few bad swings on the front nine. My back nine, couple bad drives. But if you can do that around here, there's some pretty tight tee shots. And if you miss a couple, if you can survive those, you'll have plenty -- you'll have plenty of other holes you can birdie and fortunately I made a bunch today.
THE MODERATOR: Little delay out there, 20 minutes, did that affect you in any way.
DUDLEY HART: It wasn't long enough, really. I had a two-foot put for par on 18 when they blew the horn and went out there and tapped that in. And maybe. I mean I had some pretty good rhythm going and you like to always keep it going and keep that rhythm, but I can't use that as an excuse. And I still played pretty solid on the front. Other than a couple of bad drives.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. When you go out in the afternoon, see all those low scores in the morning, is that in your mind at all, or you just know you have to go really low here at some point to be successful?
DUDLEY HART: In all honesty, you try not to pay too much attention to that. You know you're going to go out there. You try to shoot as low as you can. I think the more you pay attention to what guys are doing in front of you and what they did before you even start, the less chance you have of playing the way you need to play.
And the more pressure you put on yourself, oh my God, guys are shooting 6, 7, 8-under, I think if you think of that, I just find that over the years your chances of playing well go down when you start worrying about things you can't control. Just kind of try to worry about -- I know it's an old boring adage -- but you just have to worry about yourself and go out there and play the best you can.
You know there's plenty of holes you can birdie. Like I said, you should have plenty good birdie opportunities, and there's certain holes that you gotta try to survive. There's some tough ones but there's plenty of good birdie opportunities.

Q. This is one of those tournaments where you have to have a number like that at least at some point to be successful, isn't it?
DUDLEY HART: Probably. You gotta do it at some point. That's kind of the way you look at it. You can't freak out when you go out and see all those low numbers. And all of a sudden you're even par at the turn.
You can't get down on yourself. Because if you can finish 2, 3, 4-under the first day, whatever, and you know if you can fire a couple low ones at them, you don't have to shoot 64 every day, obviously, but it definitely helps to throw one or two of them at them. Hopefully I can throw three more at them, that would be great. But I'll take it.

Q. Dudley, you mentioned that your putter was working today. Was it just that, or were there other things that you liked about your game today?
DUDLEY HART: I don't feel I made everything by any stretch. I definitely feel like I could have putted it a lot better. I don't want that to be taken the wrong way. I chipped in on one hole. I had two birdie putts that were two, three feet.
And I just had a bunch of pretty good 12- to 20-footers on the proper side of the hole. That's a big part of it on this golf course, too, is getting the ball in the right spot so you can be aggressive at putts.
Sometimes, if you get it in the wrong spot, you might be 10, 12 feet but you could have a put that breaks six inches and it's downhill. And that put needs to be hit a lot better than a put that's right center uphill. You know what I mean? You can't misjudge the speed at all on those downhill sliders. So a big part of it is getting the ball in the right spot. And I did that for the most part today.

Q. You had to hit a certain money figure this year to continue your medical exemption. That pressure is behind you now, is it good to be past that?
DUDLEY HART: I got by that a while ago. I think it was in New Orleans. But I, honestly, a lot of people have asked me that question and I honestly started the year, I had 15 events in my medical exemption to make, I don't remember what I need to make, make a little under 500,000. The way I looked at it, if I just played the way I know I can play, that that shouldn't be an issue.
And I didn't really put a lot of pressure on myself to make that 500,000. And I really didn't want to look at 500,000 because I didn't want to limit myself to that. You don't go to a tournament thinking I need to make X amount of money, believe it or not. A lot of my buddies at home go how did you make the put on the last hole. Guy asked me at Pebble, I made a 12-footer for birdie on the last hole, made me $100,000 more. I'm not thinking about $100,000, you're thinking about finishing as high as you can in the tournament. Trying to win tournaments. If not, trying to finish as high as you can and play as well as you can and the money takes care of itself.
And, honestly, that was my attitude starting the year. I wanted to get my game back into shape. I needed to get back out there because I hadn't played competitive golf in six, seven months. So that's a tricky thing, too, trying to get your concentration level to the point that it needs to be at. That's the hardest thing when you haven't played.
So I was concentrating on that more than I was the money, in all honesty.

Q. Let's go through your card. You start on the backside with a birdie on the first hole, No. 10?
DUDLEY HART: No. 10, I hit a good drive down the fairway and actually kind of had a tricky little, if you can have a tricky little sand wedge shot. The pin was tucked, and I was on a pretty severe downhill lie and hit a crappy wedge just about 25 feet from the hole, just off the green. Had a pretty easy chip and chipped it in for birdie.
Then we go to 12. 12 I hit a good drive in the fairway. Hit a sand wedge about 15 feet and made that for birdie.

Q. 14, 15 and 16?
DUDLEY HART: 14, I didn't realize I birdied three in a row. I got a deal with my wife which I can't elaborate on. But anyway --

Q. Don't think about birdie, don't think about the money just making putts.
DUDLEY HART: Pretty much. Sometimes you get in modes where you're not really, you're just kind of going. That's what I got in today.
But 14 I hit a good drive just 30 yards off the front of the green. The pin was pretty far back. Had about a 60-yard wedge shot that I hit for six feet made for birdie. Next hole hit a nice drive down the fairway. Hit a 9-iron about two feet, made that for birdie. Next hole hit a drive in the fairway, hit a hybrid just in front of the green. Hit a little pitch about three feet short and made that for birdie.
2, I hit a pretty good drive on the first cut. Hit an 8-iron maybe about eight feet short of the hole. Pretty easy put. Made that for birdie. Then I survived a couple of holes. 6, I hit a 3-wood down the left side of the fairway. Hit a pitching wedge to about 15 feet, made that for birdie. And then 8, I hit a 5-iron about 20 feet pin high left and made that one.

Q. (Off microphone)
DUDLEY HART: I was probably 25 feet from the hole. It was pretty close. It was a pretty easy chip. Not that you chip a ton of them in. But it was downhill and I wasn't really happy to be chipping from 95 yards. But when it went in, it cheered me up a little bit, obviously.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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