PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2001

Grant Waite

GRANT WAITE: Well, obviously I'm very excited after today's play. This is a difficult golf course, and I went out there with the idea of, you know, just drive the ball in the fairway and play conservative a lot of the way around. I started out birdie, birdie. I made a 35-foot putt on the second hole, and just all of a sudden felt a lot of good momentum and good feelings. The round just kept building on itself. I then birdied the par 5, No. 5, I think it is. Birdied 5 and then birdied 8. By that point, I could really feel that things were going well and I was accomplishing all of my goals; that was, pick my target, free-swing it, and just find the ball and hit it again. It kept going in the fairway for me for the most part. I'm very proud and honored to play this well in a major championship in the first round, to lead -- not everyone can ever say that they have led a major championship before, and it's a privilege. So it was a fun day and I enjoyed myself immensely. Like I said, I birdied 1 and 2, right out of the box. The second hole is a very difficult par 4. That was a major bonus. The par 5 and then birdied No. 8. The back nine, I played very well. I gave myself a chance on a number of holes, but couldn't convert, which, again, you are not expecting to make a lot of birdies here. Then I hit a good drive, and I had 228 to the pin on the par 5, No. 12. I hit 2-iron because I wanted to play to the pin or on the back of the green, so I flew the ball five yards past the flag and it went all the way to the back of green and 2-putted. Made birdie on 18. Got lucky, pulled my tee shot left of where I was trying to do. Hit it solid but didn't have any curvature to it. It was dead straight. Got up there and I had 179 yards to the hole and hit 7-iron. It was absolutely perfect. So any time you get 7-iron in your hand on 18 is a major bonus, so that was a nice way to finish. Like I said, very exciting for me.

GRANT WAITE: No. You're right, I haven't made any cut and I haven't played particularly well at majors, mostly because I go in there and I'm trying so hard to play well. I'm thinking about, you know, my game is good and I've got a lot of skills that can help me in major championships, and so I expect so much from myself, so much attention is given to the tournaments. You want to play well. I haven't performed. Each time that you struggle in a major it, becomes more difficult at the next one, because you don't have that good feeling about it. So at Augusta this year, I shot 79 the first round, and I could not express to you how disappointed I was. I really thought I was going to play well there this year. Then the second day I came out and shot 71, which doesn't sound like a great round, but it was under par, and it was something that -- a couple friends of mine said, "Well, look, you shot under par; you can do this. You just go there and learn to play your game and not try so hard to play your game. Just play it." So I really concentrated on coming in here, I said the next time I got into a major, I'm trying to look at it more of an adventure. You know, whatever happens, happens. I can't control ultimately what happens. I can influence the things I do, but I can't control it. So just try and look at it more of an adventure, and enjoy it, whether you play good or not so well, and that's the way I am trying to look at this tournament. I came in -- like I said, I missed a few cuts in a row but I came in at the last couple tournaments and I felt like I played very well and just nothing had been happening for me and I had not been making putts, and when I did hit a bad shot, it has been costing me. But overall, I felt good about my game. I've been swinging very well during practice, playing the golf course well in practice, and so I came out today. It was like, okay, let's look at trying to enjoy myself and just play like I can play when I go out and play with my friends and play practice rounds during this week. It's been -- leading up to the tournament, I've been playing very well.

GRANT WAITE: Yeah, well, that adds another dimension to it, because all of a sudden, you know, you're the center of attention, starting the day -- well, not really. Tiger is still the center of attention, but he doesn't tee off till the afternoon. Somewhat center of attention. So that's another dimension to it and that's going to be good for me. This is going to be something that I have to overcome tomorrow to get into the same mindset that I had today. I don't care if I'm in the same mindset tomorrow. To shoot another really low round is kind of a difficult thing to do on this golf course, but I can still play very well and give myself the opportunity to play as well as I can, and if it leads to another low score, great. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm not putting any parameters on this. I just want to go out there, at the end of the week, and be a little more fulfilled at how I did, at how I went about this, rather than at the end of the week just trying too hard and not feeling so good. You're just like all bundled up and tight inside. It's not an enjoyable experience, even if you play well.

GRANT WAITE: Six in a row.

GRANT WAITE: At Memorial, actually I played very well all week, despite the fact that I was very sick, extremely ill that week. It wasn't for a bad finish -- I was 4-over par on the last five holes; I was in the Top-10. After that week I took a couple of weeks off, but I still was very weak for at least a month. Doctors think I had a bout of mono, where energy level was really low so when I came back out, I wasn't playing as well as I would like. Like you said, I missed a few cuts and would go home, work on my game, start to feel a little bit better. Last two tournaments I've played were the INTERNATIONAL and the John Deere. Both of them, I felt like I played a lot better and was very close in both of them to playing well, but score did not reflect that, and that's why, at times, as a player, you try and get away from what the score is telling you and take stock on how you ended up with that score. I realized, you know, my game is not that far away. I came here, had three good days of practice. Last week, I was at home in Orlando and had a good practice session. The things I've been working on started to feel very good. So when I teed off today, again, it was easier, because I had not played so well, so just said, "Okay, look, let's have some fun and see what happens. Tomorrow will be more of a challenge on that." I look forward to seeing if I can handle it.

GRANT WAITE: I don't know. Wish I had -- I think it gets to the point where you try -- you do try too hard to play well, and it doesn't, and then you just go, "Well, nothing I can do. Just go out there and have some fun and play." And then you start to play. I think that there are so many talented players out here, that to get the best out of yourself, you have to find what makes you tick, and that's the challenge. If I can do that, then day-in, day-out you can play at a higher level. So, I don't know. I can't explain it. At this time last year, I kind of got into the same kind of mindset and had a chance to win three or four tournaments.

GRANT WAITE: (Laughs) the opening round? At Vancouver last year, the Air Canada.

GRANT WAITE: Yeah, throughout my career, I've had a number of opportunities to play very well and win some tournaments. I've had five seconds out here. Usually, if there is a weakness in my game, it is in putting, and the scoring aspect of it. I've spent -- I've tried it all, talked to everybody that's been out there that's ever come up with a theory on putting. Some of them -- there's some interesting theories and some of them, some good theories, and tried it all. I think it comes down to, for me, continually working on the same things and spending appropriate time and organizing my practice and getting into that part of the game as much as I do hitting drivers on the range, because that's a lot of fun. But so is putting, if you can go about it the right way. So I spent a lot of time the last few days on that and last week at home at Isleworth really working on my putting. Obviously, today was very good. I made some nice putts, and if I can just be consistent in that, I don't necessarily have to be the best in the world at it, but as long as I can be consistent at it, then I'll be good. I switched putters. I'm now using a Dandy putter, which is a putter that was used by Vijay Singh when he won the Masters. Gil Morgan uses it on the Senior Tour. It's the No. 1 putter out there. It's an unusual putter with a different design. I've used it the last two weeks and this is my second week with it. Just because I had a successful day with it today doesn't mean I'm going to putt like that every day. There are a number of advantages with this putter than over a regular one. What makes it so special, you'd have to ask the guy that designed it; I'm not an expert in physics and the way it works, but it looked good and sounded good to me.

GRANT WAITE: I'm going to estimate that was 19 feet (Laughter.)

GRANT WAITE: An interesting choice to turn into a par 5 -- normally, when they do that, they give you an opportunity in front of the green at least to run the ball up, because you know you're left with hitting 2- and 3-irons a lot of times and I play -- both my playing competitors hit woods in there. Very difficult hole. Very challenging hole. It is definitely going to be the talking point of the tournament and probably will decide who wins the tournament. If you can get past what the par is on that hole and just play the hole as best you can, I think you're better off; than realizing this is a 490-yard par 4. It's kind of just a mindset to get up and say, "Okay I'm going to hit my drive down here. And when you get down there, make a decision based on where your drive finishes what you're going to do from there." In a major championship, probably is going to be the most demanding finishing hole for a player to make par to win the tournament. It would be -- I've love to have the opportunity to be that player to try to do that. That would be fun to see if I could do it, and if you did it, you would feel like you really earned the tournament, that's for sure.

GRANT WAITE: Yes, I talk to Mike. Mike, I've worked with him now for 15 years. I think he's one of the best instructors, little known instructors in the United States, certainly in Atlanta. He's very knowledgeable, I think. He has an understanding that I have not heard from a lot of instructors.

GRANT WAITE: Yeah, he said -- told me, make sure I drive it in the fairway and hit a lot of good -- make all your putts and you'll have a good week. There's no secrets to this golf course. You've got to drive the ball well and from there, position it around the golf course. Be conservative on a few shots out there because there is a number of difficult shots out there especially coming down the last four or five holes." Maybe the most difficult stretch to finish off a round on a golf course I've seen in a long time. I don't even think -- I can't even think of another stretch more difficult than that.

GRANT WAITE: No, I didn't arrive here thinking I'm going to win. And from Phil, no, he makes some interesting statements all the time, so that's par for the course for him. He's at a level now with his game and his mindset where he believes that. He's pretty close to being on Tiger's level, and to get there, you have to think in a way that's abnormal at times. Because to think that you're going to come here and win a tournament by a certain number of strokes over the best players in the world, that's unusual thinking, and I think that's to his benefit and says a lot about where his mind is and his confidence level is, and I think that's fantastic.

GRANT WAITE: I've got to be probably low 100s. It's probably 115th or so.

GRANT WAITE: That's right. Okay. So it's 96 of the top 101 players. (Laughter.) Yeah, a major championship is kind of special. And to play this well, like I said, it's an honor and a privilege to lead this tournament. You know, no matter what happens, I can always say I led a major championship at some point during it, and at the end of 18 holes and that's pretty exciting. I plan to keep playing consistently well the rest of the week, and I look forward it. But if I don't, I don't. I'm certainly not going to say I'm going to win by a certain number of strokes over the best players in the world. I've proven to myself, if I'm on my game I can play with anyone. Last year at the Glen Abbey, I nearly beat Tiger. I shot 21 under par at Glen Abbey, which is a tournament record. Didn't win, but, you know, that's about as good of golf as you're going to get, so that was fun. I'm not worried about anybody else right now. I'm just more concerned about my mindset and my game, and if I do that, then I'll be fine.