100TH WESTERN OPEN

July 3, 2003

Vance Veazey

TODD BUDNICK: Vance, we thank you for stopping by today after a long day and an 8-under 64 has you one back of the lead heading into the second round tomorrow. Vance, it's been kind of a tough year for you, had a rough start, finished T-20 last week and tied one off the lead today.

VANCE VEAZEY: It has been a tough year so far. The main thing I want to do is keep plugging away. I felt like last week my game was starting to come together and I played solid rounds. I shot under par four days, every day. Then today got off to a great start, birdied the first three holes, got some good momentum going and made some putts, so that was really the only difference. Actually I didn't hit a lot of fairways today and that was one of the things that you need to do out here, but the putter kept me going and I think that was the key to the round.

TODD BUDNICK: And the rain delay did not seem to bother your round too much.

VANCE VEAZEY: I think we caught a break because just before we stopped playing the wind was blowing maybe 15 miles an hour, and when we went back out the wind basically had stopped, so it was a good break.

Q. Coming into Memphis did you see this coming for you, that things were going to turn around for you?

VANCE VEAZEY: I think so. I worked with Randy Smith, a teacher in Dallas, and Randy got me going in the right direction, and also another guy here, Greg Towne, who has really helped me with my putting in the last couple weeks. That's been the difference is just making some putts. The key for me, if I can hit fairways I think I'll have a good week, and that's kind of the main thing I need to do this week.

Q. And today you didn't?

VANCE VEAZEY: I maybe hit half of them, but when I was in the rough I had pretty good lies. My putter kept me in there all day.

Q. Vance, you got in as an alternate. How does that process work? Does somebody call you? When were you notified?

VANCE VEAZEY: I believe I started the week maybe seventh alternate and I was even doubtful if I would even get in the golf tournament, so fortunately for me guys dropped out and I was actually in the tournament Monday afternoon, so we came up Tuesday morning.

Q. So you had a little bit of time?

VANCE VEAZEY: I had some time, yes.

Q. I was just wondering how dark was it out there?

VANCE VEAZEY: Dark. It was dark, but I'm glad we got through because now I can get a little more sleep in the morning. I think we start back at 8:48 maybe, but we probably would have had to have come out here at 7:00 o'clock and finished and then waited around for an hour or so. I'm glad we got through.

Q. Was playing in your hometown last week and then obviously after missing ten cuts, that had to be something --

VANCE VEAZEY: I think playing the hometown can work both ways. If you let the pressure of -- playing in front of your friends and family, you obviously want to play well. Fortunately for me it worked out. I think it got me going. It got me focusing a little bit better. I feel like my game is good enough to play out here, I just have to get out of my own way sometimes. I think sometimes we try a little bit too hard to prove ourselves out here, and there are a lot of great players out here obviously and you have to play well every day, so hopefully I can take this -- it's given me a lot of confidence. Last week gave me a lot of confidence. I've just got to keep it going.

Q. Obviously it's only Thursday, but look at your name up there on the leaderboard and the names around it, Woods and Toms, it's pretty cool, huh?

VANCE VEAZEY: Yeah, I love it. It's great. It's why we all go out and work hard on our games and put the hours in. It's obviously where we all want to be. It's the first time on this Tour that I've been in this situation. I've won a couple of times on the Nationwide Tour and that's always a good building ground to learn, so I've been playing 14 years professionally. I've played a lot of golf. Hopefully now -- and Loren Roberts has been a big mentor for me. He's told me through the years that I just need to believe in myself and believe in my game, and hopefully everything will keep gelling.

Q. How were the greens, especially after the rain?

VANCE VEAZEY: I loved the greens. I think I had 23 putts. The greens were perfect. I don't know how many putts I had. I didn't have a lot of putts. The greens were great. The speed is awesome. Like I said, the greens were outstanding. Ask me that again tomorrow.

Q. Have you had to wait out a lot of tournaments like that in that alternate situation?

VANCE VEAZEY: I have. This year at Doral I was first alternate on Tuesday and I was thinking, okay, I've got to get in the golf tournament, and I was down there and I did not get in the tournament. There have been a few tournaments where I didn't get in, but this time of year is when we start to get in a lot of golf tournaments, so I have had that two or three times where I didn't get in.

Q. Does that get to be mentally taxing week after week, not knowing?

VANCE VEAZEY: It's a little tough because we all want to get in and play. Maybe you're playing well at a time when you don't get in a golf tournament, and then when you do get in maybe your game is not quite as good as when you wanted to get in. It's a very fair system. If you come out here and play well, you're going to get in golf tournaments. That's the bottom line. I've had my opportunities this year earlier in the year, and if I would have played better I would have been in these golf tournaments. That's pretty much how it works.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through the round. Start with those first three birdies.

VANCE VEAZEY: 10, I hit a 5-wood in the left rough. I only had a sand wedge in and made a nice 12-footer for birdie.

11, I hooked it in the left rough, had to hit a 9-iron over a tree and hit a 9-iron in about six feet for birdie.

12, I hit a 7-iron about 25 feet left of the hole and made that for birdie, so good starts with the putter.

15, once again, hooked it in the left rough, 8-iron over the trees, wedge about six feet for birdie.

17, right rough this time, so now I'm changing my -- hit it in the right rough, hit a wedge about six feet, made it for birdie.

Bogey, drove in the left bunker, had to hit a wedge out, left me 128 for my third shot and just didn't get it up-and-down.

1, finally hit the fairway, hit a good drive, sand wedge about ten feet, made the putt.

4, I hit a 3-wood, 3-wood, wedge to five feet, birdied. 5, 5-iron in the right bunker, got it up-and-down out of the bunker for birdie.

8, I hit 3-iron, 9-iron about six feet.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Vance.

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