CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 3, 1998

Grant Waite

Grant, if you could start off by going through your round and tell us about your birdies.

GRANT WAITE: All right. I start on number 10 today, I birdied 12, pitching wedge in there, six feet under the hole, made that. And then birdied 14, pitching wedge in there, five feet, made that. And birdied number 1 with nine iron, about eight feet, made that. And then number two, sand wedge in there about eight feet again, made that. And then birdied the par three, which is five, is it?

GRANT WAITE: Five, I hit a three iron. 12 feet of the hole, made that. Birdied number seven from probably 35 feet. And that was it. No bogies, six birdies.

GRANT WAITE: I -- yeah, I was. I couldn't get. I played particularly well today, didn't hit any balls out of play, kept the ball -- everything you want to do; drove the ball well and hit a lot of good irons in there close. Still missed a couple of putts for birdies, couple of five footers, at the end of the day. I'm happy what I did. I had no negative momentum at all. Any adversity, as far as making a bogey, really no stress as far as missing greens in the wrong places. So it was just a nice day and, hey, how you would love to play golf how you enjoy playing golf, go out there and look where the ball's going.

GRANT WAITE: I think it is. You see -- five inches of rain on Tuesday, and I think it's attributed to the golf course on Tuesday evening. They even open it and let the players play. I think that's outstanding. Most golf courses would have been shut for a couple of days with that amount of rain. We teed off on Thursday, playing the ball down. The fairways aren't fast, so it's making it a little bit easier to drive it in the fairway. The greens are holding well enough. They're not sucking back, they're holding in nicely. You're ten under par, after my look with leading, perfect conditions, when you give that to TOUR players, you're going to get some guys against you with some scores on you. I think the golf course stood up very well considering all the things that have happened with the rain and all that.

GRANT WAITE: I had a second-place finish here in '96.

GRANT WAITE: I don't know, there's a lot of holes out in that sit up well. When I stand on the tee boxes and look at the fairway, I can see what I'm trying to do. That makes it a lot easier, then, of course, I played very well these first two days, 28 putts yesterday. I'm not sure how many today, I haven't gone over it. All I can say, for me personally, the last month or so it's been difficult. I missed the Kemper Open Cup by a stroke. I made a double bogey very late in my round, went to the U.S. Open, three putted the last. I did the same thing Payne Stewart did on Friday. I had the exact putt he did, mine did the same thing, missed that cup by a stroke, which was very disappointing the next week. Last week at the Western Open I showed up to register, I forgotten to come into the tournament. First time I did that. I had a bad stretch for the last three weeks or month, where I actually was playing quite well, but things hadn't been working out. It's nice to come here and continue to play well and all of a sudden things switching a little bit the other way, and feeling a little bit of momentum right now. So it's nice to be on the other side of the coin. No one on the other side.

GRANT WAITE: Well, you know, I think the biggest challenge for any player out here, whether you're at the top of your game or not, is being able to emotionally deal with the things that go wrong; to have emotional stability. And at the U.S. Open, especially the first day, I shot 77. I played quite well. I got frustrated at the way the course was set up and got a couple bad breaks and I turned a very good round into a 77, as quick as saying 77. It just happened so fast, all over the last four or five holes. And, you know, trying to evaluate to become a better player, what happened there, I don't think that emotionally I handled the adversity the way a great player -- especially the ones, very top echelons of players, Tiger Woods, David Duval are right now, and those guys, everyone faces it, makes a silly bogey here, misses a three footer, whatever, ball takes a bad bounce. Emotionally you've got to deal with it. At times I know for me that I get too frustrated with it, and feel like you've given away an opportunity to play a good round. It leads to a couple more strokes going away. I'd evaluate them the way I look at things and trying to be tougher mentally as far as when adversity strikes. And it will strike no matter, eve if you win the golf tournament, you're going to face it. Making that commitment to myself after the U.S. Open, I mean, I can't say that's the reason, but I've really been utmost in my mind. Yesterday I bogied. I was three under for the day, went for the green at 15, hit in it the water and made bogey, my first bogey of the tournament, straight away. Bogied the 16th hole right after it, went to one under. At this moment I'm facing adversity there and emotionally got to deal with the fact I'm playing well, made two bogies, came back, made a birdie on 17. And came back and par two under, kept myself in the tournament. Where you play a good round and play yourself right back into contention, those are the things I think utmost in my mind what I'm trying to do. Technically and physically, you know, there's not much I can improve on.

GRANT WAITE: I don't think it comes from experience. I think it comes from understanding the importance of it and then applying that, you know, experience is going to help you, because I know what's going the happen Saturday. I know what's going to happen Sunday with gallery and who you're playing with and being up there before, I've done all that. As far as emotionally, having emotional stability out there, I mean, that comes at any age. Jack Nicklaus had it when he was 15 and Tiger Woods is obviously advanced mentally. Some guys do it later in life. That's the ultimate of the determination. Who is going to play well in the tournament? Everyone is going to have a bad break or two.

GRANT WAITE: Well, you know, on the weekend -- I'm going to say, depending on the weather, if the weather stays like it is now, you're going to have to be 16 under, I'd say, 17 under, somewhere around there; 16 under maybe. 10 under is leading right now. Somewhere around there; 15, 16 under.

GRANT WAITE: No, we've had perfect conditions in the golf course. It's optimum for scoring. It's a little soft as the weather stays warm and dry. The course drains a little better. All of a sudden the little shots here or there gets a little more difficult. They're not holding quite as well, get extra around the fairways, runs a little into the rough. You have to worry about a flier, whatever. The course will get more difficult. As you get closer and closer to the finish of the tournament, the pressure mounts a little bit. It becomes 40-yard shots from the middle of the fairway to a tight pin, isn't quite easy as it is, say, on the fourth hole, for example, or wherever you may be. Because of that, the scores might go 10 under for two rounds. 20 under is going to win the tournament, probably 15 under to win.

GRANT WAITE: Yes, because the golf course is there and it doesn't look like there's going to be much of a change in the weather conditions. The opportunity is there to shoot a low score. The guys on the PGA TOUR for a reason is because they can play. Any guy that gets hot, it doesn't matter how difficult the golf course is, they're going to shoot a low score. At the U.S. Open, each day someone was shooting four under par, 66, same here. You guys shoot four five, six under par. No matter what you do, that's going to happen. No matter how difficult you try and set the course, some guys will make moves to get themselves back into the tournament.

GRANT WAITE: 60. That was at the Phoenix Open in '96, two years ago, '96. Had a putt for 59 on the last hole, didn't make it.

GRANT WAITE: Emotional stability. You know if you can do it, it's easy to say, but golf's going to challenge you in every way you can. You've got to show some toughness, and it's tough, especially when you you're emotionally fragile like I am at times.