DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 3, 2000

Franklin Langham

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Good to be here.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: We are inching forward. The goal is to have the lead after four rounds.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: The conditions as we have seen the wind is not blowing a whole lot, so it is right for scoring. The course is in perfect shape. I knew I wouldn't be -- I didn't know how low they would be going this morning but I knew playing yesterday morning the scores would be low this morning and sure enough they were, saw some great rounds early. You knew you had to go out there and make birdies to keep up before you even teed off if you went in the afternoon. But I like the course. I am playing well right now. I am rolling the ball good and just trying to have fun and not think about it a whole lot and see how many birdies I can make to keep up.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I like to think some somebody asked me earlier, the old saying, you feel more comfortable in your own skin. It is a game and we are all out here playing it. Everybody's goal is to win golf tournaments. I know I can play out here now and do this for a living and having that put behind me now, I am like everybody else, I want to try to win a golf tournament. My approach to do that is to try to get myself in position as much as I can and I think winning a lot of times has to happen to you and but you got to play good golf and put yourself in position to win, to have a chance. That is what I am trying to do, so....

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I am probably playing better too. I think we all mature with our swings as well and a lot of it is timing. I was playing great end of last year at Disney, I finished third and played really well. So I have seen my game start coming around. I am starting to play -- I feel I am playing more consistent golf, just not trying to play a game that is not my own, just play within myself and play into my strengths and go from there.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: No, it is a great feeling, today the back nine; my front nine I just was, golly, I was hitting the ball great. I was, you know, I had good yardages and I was -- just all I can see was the pin. This game is hard enough, you work so hard you have so many frustrating days that I think I have learned not to -- when it is your time, have fun with it and take it as low as it will go and because this game definitely goes in waves and cycles and you try to you feel like when it is your time you want to try and ride that wave.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I don't know. I finished -- yeah, well, I don't know. I finished second at Deposit Guarantee, to finish, the lead after the turn. Finished third at Disney - Tiger won last year, but didn't have the lead going in there. I don't know.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Maybe not. I have played long enough. I have on the Nike Tour a lot and I know it is a different Tour out here, but I mean, the time I won, I led all around, so it is just a matter -- that is one of the things I am sure that interests you guys but it doesn't us -- there are so many guys that are shooting so low this week, it is great, I am leading right now but I am going to take it with a grain of salt. I have still got to go out and play well. It is not like you can shoot even par and win the tournament. You have got keep making birdies and keep playing well and hope it will continue to happen to me.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I think when you are playing well, you tend -- I don't know, maybe certain times on par 5s you might try to go for a shot, may not be in your wheelhouse. I feel like I putt the ball so well when I am putting well. It is the strength of my game that, you know, I'd rather lay a shot up and give myself a chance at a 15-footer then to take a chance on a shot that may not turn out well just so that I can putt at eagle. That is just an example.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: If I am being out-driven by somebody, that doesn't bother me. I know where my strengths are, I know that I can drive the ball in the fairway, that is the strength to have and don't try to all of a sudden if you start playing well, don't start bombing it at 300 if that is not your game. But I have got some good swing keys going, I am trying not to get ahead of myself and just keep doing what I have been doing.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: You kind of look and go, "wow" before you tee off. You are like, I guess I got to take it deep. No, I mean, that is what I am saying. I didn't really -- it didn't put pressure on me because like I said, I feel like I am playing good and I didn't want to go: Oh, God you got to play good today to stay near the lead. I didn't want to do that to myself. I am not going to do it. I am going to take it one shot at a time. I know it is an old cliche but you have got to -- you have got to go about the simple things and stay out of your own way when you are playing well and just, you know, my swing keys have been working. I am going to stick to those, hopefully keep seeing the line on my putts and roll it good.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, I have had some up-and-down days, you know, but too, you have got to look at this too. I remember last year I played in the morning, first day wind wasn't a factor; played in the afternoon, second day, wind was blowing. Greens are little bit more chewed up, things like that. There are a lot of factors that enter into something like that. You have ups and downs in this game. I finished, I don't know, 18th, 20th. I didn't have a terrible tournament. Wasn't like I fell off the map but had a little hiccup there. Hopefully you learn from things like that and go on.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: No, the wind started picking up a little bit, it came out of a different direction. Guys playing 18, I looked over when they were on 9, I hit my shot on 9 and we are kind of -- it was right-to-left and into us whereas when I played 18 it was kind of just mainly right-to-left maybe a hair of help if anything. So it kind of -- it sort of died down middle of the day and in the morning it wasn't hardly a factor. All of a sudden we get a little wind you sort of get in between clubs that makes the difference in hitting the ball six, eight feet than hitting it 25 feet, I had a few of those coming in and couple of times I was in between clubs, that is something you can't help. Like I said, when I was playing good on the front, I was hitting the ball well, getting to the shot, I'd had perfect yardages for whatever club for that yardage and it was just, you know, playing well. Yeah, I hit that spell there; when you are playing that good you go five holes without making a birdie you like hit a dry spell, but it was -- sometimes you make them at the beginning, sometimes the middle, sometimes the ends; you just hope you make them. I had a stretch there like you said kind of in the middle of the round, that is when they were falling.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: It helps a lot. I have struggled a little bit the beginning of this year, but I always struggle on the West Coast. I am not used to poa annua greens. They are hard to figure out; the ball bounces a lot. But this is the grass I grew up on, Bermuda, the grain, all that, and I am kind of used to it and reading where the grain grows to the west; the way the water flows, stuff like that. And the firmness of the ground, we played the first two weeks and the ground is so soggy. I am used to playing where it is pretty dry and firm like this and you get roll with your golf shots; you play more shots than you do. There you are flying the ball past the hole or to the hole and it was just stopping. Not to say I can't play well there, I am just saying this is more of what I am used to.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I grew up in Thomson, Georgia, but it is 30 miles from Augusta. I played a lot of my junior golf in Augusta, but yeah, that helps to be able to roll your rock there, too.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: It is definitely toned down, but I think it is for the better. I think there are spots where there is a fine line between a course or holes being difficult and being unfair and I think we kind of push that borderline a few times when at this -- that is why guys quit coming here, you get holes like 4 that are shaved to the right or 3 that was shaved off to the right over there, and I saw a couple of balls, one guy in my group chipped one from across the green, left of the green on 3. It would have been in the water a few years ago. That is a little severe. I think you have got -- this course now is designed to play so that you can play in 25 mile an hour winds or more sometimes you get down here. That is what you have got to do. That is what the norm is here. You are going to have wind more times than not; you have got to make the course playable in the wind, but I am happy to see the changes. I think letting the rough grow back in spots is a good thing like on 18 and places like that to the left. Because, you know, you get that hole into the wind, there have been many times see guys finish it with long irons and woods in. When it is shaved off to the left there you have no margin for error from 230 into the wind. That is not quite what we like to see. But some people may say it is too easy now, but I think that is the by-product of the wind subsiding right now. I think over time we will be able to tell how we like it and that is just part of doing business. I guess in anything you have to tweak things, but I am happy to see it the way it is.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I will be pretty relaxed. I have got my wife and two little boys here so I will be putting them to bed and we are going to go grab some dinner and that is another thing, I think I have got a good balance in my life now. I leave golf at the course and go home and have fun with them. Because we that is one of the tough things about what we do is travelling so much and being away from your family. I have been away from them for two weeks. I am just happy to see them and so after I am done here and go hit a few balls I am done with it until tomorrow. That helped yesterday -- that probably helped me some because I hit balls probably for 30 minutes after I was done yesterday, putted for 30 minutes, I went to the pool with my 3 year old and had a lot of fun and kind of gets your mind off it. That way you can come back with a good fresh attitude and ready to go get it.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I do. I am going to be honest, I think a win is something special. That was one of the perks to winning a Tour event and it is still hard to win and I think somebody that wins deserves the right to play there. But a lot has been made of the World Rankings too and I think a lot of players are -- we are still not real sure about -- they have got to tweak that some a little bit too because it is hard to figure out why guys take weeks off, they move up in the rankings, it is kind of bizarre, the devisor, all that, I will let the mathematicians figure that out. They have gone more to that World Ranking and being able to give foreign exemptions, things of that nature, but honestly, you know, I am sure I will be saying if I win, but I do think that the winner should be able to play.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: You still got to win to move up the rankings.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: But they played great golf too because I have got a few friends that were that way.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, consistency and playing well. That is why I go back -- you asked me about winning, a lot of those guys put themselves in position but didn't win. They probably will eventually. That is not to say they are less of a player. Your question is about winning less?

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Yeah, once you win nobody will take that away from you. I think everybody will tell you that out here. Winners are looked at differently. When you do it and do it for four days, it says a lot about your game. No, I mean, heck, they can take the money away and winning is still awesome. It is what we are all out here to do, I believe, and at least I feel that way. I don't think it is de-emphasized.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: I couldn't spell my name back then. It was neat. It was a lot of fun seeing a lot of great golf. We usually -- we would work half days, be an adult, two high school kids, and then actually -- 4 high school kids on one hole, we'd swap off, do half days, you got to watch the tournament. That was awesome. I was there when Nicklaus won in 1986. That was pretty neat. That was my senior year in high school.

FRANKLIN LANGHAM: Three years.

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