CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 4, 1998

Grant Waite

GRANT WAITE: Yeah, I did today, didn't I? The front nine, actually we just finished our round. The scorer calling our out scores. I said, can you call out the front nine? I said, gee, that was boring, all pars. The back green was very exciting. But, you know, you're up near the leader of the tournament. Obviously, playing well on the front nine, Larry and I parred every hole. We couldn't get going, couldn't make some birdies. The whole time you keep saying, I'm playing well, just be patient and you never know when you're going to start making birdies and things shift on your side. Number 11, par three I had a nine iron. I left it out to the right in the bunker. The bunker shot. From then on in I played nicely. I followed that up with a birdie on number 12, hit a 7 iron, Little draw about six feet and made that. And then birdied 15, tried to drive the green. I left the tee shot a little to the right. Chipped four feet or so, about four feet. I made that and then 16 again, a par three. I had a beautiful shot I thought was going to be close all the way. It flew all the way to the back edge of the green, which is 181 yards. Just a nice six-iron. I don't know what happened there. It was into the wind, got down there, didn't have the best of lies, tight little shot. And got in there and played about as good a shot I can, laying on the green, rolled in like it was a putt and made a birdie there. 17, three-wood off the tee, 7 iron, 155 yards, about eight feet under the hole. It's absolutely where I was trying to hit it. I made the putt. In this game, you never know when things are going to swing your way. You've got to hang in there and believe you will. Fortunately, for me, it did today.

GRANT WAITE: 16 was about -- well, six or the back edge, about 30, about 45 feet, 40 feet maybe. Maybe not quite that long; about 35 feet.

GRANT WAITE: The bunker shot was probably, oh, about 50 feet or so.

GRANT WAITE: Well, the golf course has given us some lower scores, even though three of us tied are tied for the lead. Someone two or three strokes back can win the tournament. Scott Hoch, I think is, obviously, the player to beat. He has a lot of experience and one of the top handful of players on the TOUR, and one of the best players in the world. David Duval is obviously up there. He can shoot a low score. You're going to go out there tomorrow and, for me, it's important to do what I did today, and that's to stay patient; just hope I get a little momentum early and see what I can do. I think the tournament is poised for a great finish, and, you know, there's a number of players that could win and really that makes it very exciting for the fans and the players.

GRANT WAITE: No question. You can get momentum going both ways. You make an eight-footer for par on a hole. Like, you know, you hit it in the rough, layup. Get up and down. You get to the next tee. You almost can feel a little bit of positive energy growing inside you. You get up on the tee, you focus better the way you're going. That's how it starts to build. Like you say, it can go the other way. You miss a couple of putts, all of a sudden you feel like you're playing better than you are. All of a sudden you're looking around and you can see things if you're really focused you couldn't normally see. So, you know, as a player, they say you're zoning or whatever you want to call it. But you really just focusing in on where you want to go and it's easy to do it. That's when you're just flowing along and nothing bothering you. And that's that state. It's almost like a drug. You just want to get more and more of it. It's just pleasurable place to be. You know, and it can be extended for a period of time, -- has been in it for quite a while now since coming on TOUR. He's always been one of the better players. He hasn't won. Then he won. He's focusing on making distinctions out there, a little better than he used to make it.

GRANT WAITE: I hope so. You know, Scott, I mean, if you look Scott's record, it speaks for itself. He's mentally a very tough competitor. He's got to hang in there and stay in there all day. Rarely does he shoot a score to get himself out. With all of his experience, you know, playing the Ryder Cup last year, and his record of winning, you know, suggests that he's the player to beat. But having said that, it's a 18-hole shoot-out, really for a bunch of players, and whoever gets hot and makes the right place at the right time and gets momentum at the right moment is the player that will win the tournament with his experience. I think Scott is probably the guy to beat.

GRANT WAITE: As I said, the last month or so has been difficult for me. I played well for a stretch there in the middle and after Atlanta I missed the cut and finished down at the track at Colonial. I took time off. I played Kemper, missed by a stroke. I went through that yesterday. At the U.S. Open, a little bit of everything was going wrong. Having said that, I missed the U.S. Open cut by a shot and Kemper by a shot. Both times I was playing well and little things going wrong, a three-putt here. Double bogey at the wrong place. Just very frustrating for you. You go back home and you try and regroup mentally and say, look, things haven't gone well. Let's take an inventory here, how's the state of my game, actually look at it, and not get too swayed by results. I said, I'm swinging good, hitting it good, I feel confident and calm when I'm out here, making the wrong play here and there. It's a fine line. You make a cut by a stroke instead of missing, you can have a good weekend. You can have a top-ten finish like at the U.S. finish, seven over was the cut. Nine over was a top-ten finish. You never know when you make a cut. How close you can be to having a great tournament. I kept telling myself that. You're playing better than the results have shown. Stay patient. It will turn around if you're a good enough player. It will turn around and swing back your pay. Hopefully, there's a big repayment of that this week.

GRANT WAITE: That's what I'm saying. I kept saying to myself, I'm playing fine, nothing wrong with what I'm doing. I haven't made a mistake, I bogied holes, I don't feel like I'm not in control of my game. The ball, you know, I feel I'm hitting most of the shots the way I want to hit them. I keep managing myself around, sooner or later I want to make a good play and just kind of get some momentum going, and both Larry and I couldn't make a birdie in the first ten holes. I made the burner shot and we both -- I made five birdies, he made four birdies in the last eight holes. It's just the way the game is. And if you can just ride out that period of time, just like if you watch the flow of basketball game or Chicago Bulls or any other sport, you see there's a lull. Get momentum. Next thing you know, off they go, a bunch of points in a row. You want to keep yourself in it and hold yourself together till that happens. It may not happen, but you've got to believe it will. I said to Larry after I made the bunker shot, walked up on the green, had a ten-footer. I said I hope that opened the door for both of us. Let's get some birdies going. He made a putt, away we went. The last eight holes was a lot of fun.