SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 14, 2004

Stuart Appleby

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Stuart Appleby. Stuart, congratulations on your win last week. You played very well all week. Can you talk about last week and also your preparations this week for the Sony Open?

STUART APPLEBY: I guess last week, I was really very pleased, very excited about the way I played. Obviously, winning, we all appreciate that and we'd like to see more of that. And then I guess this week has turned up really quickly, and all of a sudden, it's the next round and another week and there will be another winner at the end of this week. The bandwagon moves on real quick.

Q. Makes it sound like you think we've written you off already.

STUART APPLEBY: No. It's just like Sunday is history, isn't it? Another week, another tournament, there will be another winner at the end of this week and all of a sudden 2004 is finished. I think it will fly by as usual.

I'm still playing well. I like the way I'm playing. Although this course demands a little bit more than last week's course.

Q. Can you compare what you need to do differently this week?

STUART APPLEBY: I need to drive the ball a lot straighter. The greens are better to putt on here. They are a bit smoother here. You need to drive it better, I think is the main thing, and obviously putting is important wherever you play no matter what the greens are like. But drive it straight and really be able to really shape your ball here.

The greens are pretty flat, so if you want to get near the flag you have to go to the flag. Whereas, Kapalua, you could work it off slopes and run it off big hills and run it to the flag. Here this is very much an older style traditional course. Kapalua is built on the side of a mountain.

Q. What style do you play better?

STUART APPLEBY: Last week is very unusual. It's very hilly. I've played well here before. I have played well here before, because probably it's a windy course, it requires good ball-striking and good ball control. That suits my game. The greens are nice. So once you get a few putts going, you feel confident that you can go. It plays the same -- there's only two winds that blow here. One is this one (40-mile-an-hour gusts) which we had a gale, a gale force. And then the other. I've played the course both ways.

Q. You talk about this week being another winner and last week I think you kept talking about piles of tournaments and stuff like that. Still, having won, which you had not done last year, is that a nice way to think, I'm assuming that was a goal this year, "I've got that out of the way"?

STUART APPLEBY: I never really thought about it being a goal this year because this year snuck up on everybody really quick. I almost hardly had any time to sit down and go, "What I want to do this year?"

When I look back, traditionally I had not played very well at the West Coast half of the season at all. Probably money-wise, probably might have made 20, 25 percent of my money in my whole career earnings on the West Coast, if you're lucky, at the absolute most. Probably not even that; ten percent.

I wanted to have a stronger start to the season. I've always wanted to. I just managed to not really know why I had not gotten off to a good start. Kapalua really sort of hardly counts because it's a winner's tournament; so that's a free walk in the door anyway up front.

I've played all right here, but as soon as I got to the West Coast -- what I had would like to do now is have my best West Coast season that I've ever had now.

Q. What is your West Coast season?

STUART APPLEBY: Buick, L.A., match-Play, that's it.

Q. No Pebble?

STUART APPLEBY: No.

Q. A day after a win, is there a tendency to think of the win or now do you say, you're just mentioning a another week?

STUART APPLEBY: Well, I think you do always think about it. Never sleep really good Sunday nights after tournaments because that's the night -- I sleep well in the tournament for some reason, but Sunday nights, I don't usually sleep really well because I'm trying to assess everything that happened that week. I might wake up at 4:00 or 5:00, 5:00 in the morning and then just don't sleep as well. I don't really know why.

Q. Win or lose?

STUART APPLEBY: Doesn't matter.

Q. Win or lose, you don't sleep well?

STUART APPLEBY: It's usually if I have a good tournament or played well and didn't quite -- if I played absolutely crap, it doesn't matter. Nothing happens.

But if I played well and felt like I should have done better or I won, I find it hard because now it's meant I can start to think about what happened; whereas before, I'm just in the process.

Q. Do you count long shots when you finished joint fifth?

STUART APPLEBY: I might look at what mistake was that, just bad conditions, bad club collections, bad mental error; was it just a bad swing. You look at that. But you don't dwell on it. You look at it and you just go straight past it.

Q. You've never played Pebble?

STUART APPLEBY: Every year, I've played there it's rained really bad.

Q. You missed last year then.

STUART APPLEBY: Well, that's why I wasn't there. It didn't rain. I was there in '96 and it was a wash-out. Every year I've been there, it's been diabolically -- like this with rain. Last time I was there was the year Payne won. That was just a slop-fest. Like I said Pebble Beach, was a bog hole. That was a quote from an Australian sportsman in the Australian paper, "Pebble Beach plays like a bog hole every time I'm there ." Bog, b-o-g.

Q. I've got it?

STUART APPLEBY: Every year I'm not there, it's fine. So I dare say, the weather will be perfect this year.

Q. Thanks, Stuart. Thanks for staying away.

STUART APPLEBY: Unlike the Memorial, the Indian jinx over at Memorial, I'm the opposite version of that for Pebble.

Q. When you assessed Kapalua Sunday night, what did you come up with?

STUART APPLEBY: I guess I didn't really assess too much except that I had won; and that I had won; I had done it; I had beaten a good field; beat some really good players that had played very well. I did everything very, very well that week and was very proud of the way I played. And I guess worry about what color car to pick out for Ashley.

Q. Do they send that to you in Australia?

STUART APPLEBY: That's a $300,000 car in Australian laws.

Q. You had eight less putts than Vijay and 13 less than Tiger, and Vijay was saying he thinks you looked more comfortable and you are gripping the putter lighter. Do you think you're putting better than ever?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, probably. Yeah, it's hard to tell. Putting is like, you know, if you hit it six-foot closer, if you go from 30 feet to say 20, 25 and you make the putt, are you really putting better? Because you're not going to make it at 30, even if you're putting really well. So you get into an area where it starts to getting closer. So I think it's a bit of everything really. All the parts are better.

Q. Don't you know if you're rolling the ball well, you're "putting well," even if it doesn't go in

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, I putted well last week. I felt like I've putted better. I felt more confident with my putting in other tournaments and played very, very well. Last week I did everything right. But I wasn't -- I wasn't overly confident at all. Like I was confident, but I've had the putter before where I go: "Gee, this feels good in my hands, I'm going to go with this." Because last week I just was totally into what I was doing. I didn't even think about that.

Q. Isn't part of that -- we "played" on Monday, ha-ha, played -- but the greens there are so tough because the grain makes it very -- you're very tentative when you're putting.

STUART APPLEBY: No. I felt comfortable on the greens and I felt like the harder -- the part of my putting that I didn't like recently was my long putting was really bad. And I felt like I'm a pretty good long putter normally. It was really ordinary. I didn't like the way I putted or just felt terrible. I got rid of all that and fixed that up and rolled the ball, made a couple actually really nice bombs through the week, very surprise putts, low percentage chance at any time.

But, yeah, I did. Technically I think I stroked it pretty well last week and had a good feel. I think the main thing was last week was my feel for the speed was good and I think the line just came upon it.

Q. What are your thoughts about Michelle playing this week?

STUART APPLEBY: Michelle, she played the Pro-Am last year, didn't she? I think it's good this year. I think it's really good. I think she needs to play -- I think this is the perfect event for her to play. I think it's good sponsor. I think it's the right venue. I think it's right for her seeing as she played the Pro-Am last year. I don't have any problems with it.

I think we've done with, like I mentioned some where, we've had -- might have been the Golf Channel the other day, mentioned that we had had the extreme, the elite of women's golf playing. And now we have the beginning of women's golf at the other end playing on the Tour. I think you can't fill in between. You can't do anything else. You can't have another -- you can't have anyone else -- I feel, no one else can come on to the TOUR and do any better job than what she's going to do. Not so much how she'll play, but who she is, what she is and who she could be. And obviously where Annika was at the top. I don't think you can put anybody else there and make anything out of it.

Q. Did you play Colonial this year?

STUART APPLEBY: Last year I did.

Q. I'm sorry. Last year. Do you think that if Annika had not played, if Suzie Whaley had not qualified at Hartford, that this was the first, there might be a lot more, maybe not criticism but eyebrows raised? Or are we used to that?

STUART APPLEBY: Let me try and think about that.

I'm trying to -- I can't visualize that. I just can't get -- I'm trying to think of Annika not playing Colonial. Would she play if Annika had not played Colonial? I can't answer that. I can't visualize that scenario really.

Q. Let's go to the back end then. Do you think we are at a level now where I wouldn't say it was used to it, but certainly more --

STUART APPLEBY: I think everyone is getting more used to it, but I don't think it won't become a common trend or denominator consistently. You can only tell a story like Michelle's once. If she plays great, there's no point in inviting her back to more tournaments, because she's so young that she should really focus on being young and being herself and remembering these latter part of her teens. Because the more she knows it, if she wants to be a player, she's going to be out there playing on the Tour.

My teenage years and everybody's teenage years, and even the early 20s when you're turning pro, they are the best years and she doesn't need to have all of this attention and doesn't need to have all of the pressure.

She doesn't even need to worry about turning pro for plenty of years yet. She really has not got the need. I feel like once this is done, it really doesn't become a place for -- there's no other stories to write about women's golf in men's golf. Annika has done it and she did a fantastic job and Michelle, whatever way she does it will be fine and it's great exposure. We can't beat that drum anymore.

Q. Will it surprise you if another tournament, particularly one in the fall, offers her an exemption, one that needs some help?

STUART APPLEBY: Wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised that would happen. The question becomes now: Is it appropriate? I think what Annika did in the end was appropriate. It didn't look good early. Turned out to be appropriate. I think Michelle's looks fine now even before she's played.

But is it appropriate that it happens later this year? I don't know. Then you start to wonder about tournaments are exploiting her for their benefit. It's not about: "Let's bring Michelle here, what a nice girl and what a refreshing spirit."

It becomes: "How can we make our tournament better?" And that looks a bit tacky.

Q. On the tournament's part, not Michelle's?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah.

Q. Have you seen her play?

STUART APPLEBY: Not play. I've seen her hit a couple of shots.

Q. Given that she finished last on the Nationwide Tour and I think even last in an LPGA event, what would be a realistic for her here?

STUART APPLEBY: I think it's a lot to ask. I wasn't even playing golf at her age. So, you know, she could beat the hell out of me with one arm. I shot 120 my first round of golf when I was 14, somewhere around 120. I would be last anywhere. (Laughter).

What's realistic? I think if she shot -- if the weather stays, let's just stay half decent, if she can shoot two scores in the 80s, that would be good. Two nice scores in the 80s.

Q. In the 80s?

STUART APPLEBY: If she shoots in the 70s in these windy conditions, that's a damned good score. If you don't look at tradition, she has not played any good at any of the events so far. But if you were a bookie in Vegas, what are you going to do? What odds are you going to throw at her? Making the cut would be unbelievable. She's 14 and she has never experienced the pressure of playing under pressure. She's learning how to induce pressure on herself now being at such a young age.

I think where she'll develop will be no doubt she will step up, and I don't know what she'll learn from this. I don't really know what I would learn from this if I was 14. All I know is that these guys out here are a lot different league to where I am. When she physically starts to mature more, gets a bit stronger and fills out a bit, she is going to have -- there's no reason being that she can be a competitor and understand and deal with the media and deal with all that. There's no reason why she can't do stuff Annika is doing, absolutely at all. She has all the attributes to do that.

Q. If it's like this tomorrow --

STUART APPLEBY: If it was like this tomorrow, she would not break 80. No way.

Q. You know what Ernie Els said --

STUART APPLEBY: Two rounds, she would not have a chance. A lot of pros won't break 80.

Q. Ernie played with her yesterday and said he felt she would be better off if the weather would be bad, because he thought she knew the course and you would be able to adjust; that was his comment.

STUART APPLEBY: Don't know her game. He played with her. That's fair for him to say.

Q. If you had a child that was really keen on playing and playing professionally, would you steer him or her toward staying at the age group and kicking everybody's butt, or taking yourself to the highest level possible just to compete against the best; Tiger or Michelle, do you see where I'm going with this?

STUART APPLEBY: I've seen more kids fall on the wayside, more young, really young guns fall on the side of the road than go through and just go gangbusters. There's thousands of kids that can play and there's dozens constantly that really can play, and then only one or two end upcoming through.

So the ratio is not good. It's not a very good success rate. If she goes out and wins everything in Women's Amateur golf can offer, if she's done it this many times, done this, done that, I could foresee; I've done everything. Why not, what's the next step progression: I need to develop; I need to step up. I keep winning the same tournaments every year and not getting any better doing this. I need to step it up.

Now, that depends, because the gap between amateur golf and pro golf is still a gap. So how close is she getting to the gap?

So to answer your question, yes, I believe win everything if you've got the time to. And if it takes a decent amount of time, she could have that by 17, what's she going to do? Go pro at 18? Is she ready to do that? Yes, she is going to play more women's events. Like when I was an amateur, I played some pro events and I beat pros, so I got a feel for, "I can beat these guys. I'm going to get better so I'll be able to beat more."

So she has to get to that stage where "I'm actually doing well in ladies events," not just beating every amateur before she can say let's go.

Q. The two schools here, Tiger did that, he won a lot, a lot of tournaments and didn't really do much in the pros except one or two tournaments a year starting age 16. Michelle has not won a lot, one big tournament she's up in the big leagues, LPGA.

STUART APPLEBY: How many events has she won as an Amateur?

Q. One major.

STUART APPLEBY: I think just getting -- if she progresses she needs at least two to four more years doing that and really getting a bit of repetoire going before she needs to really worry about what pro life is about.

Because there's also -- forget the trophies. There's the maturity factor, which is everything you're our out there hauling your golf bag, suitcase through airports, everybody is bumping into you, no one gives a care about who you are, where you've come from or what you've done. The maturity factor is very critical to making the step of being pro, not just "I can play golf."

Q. Were you surprised at Ty Tryon's first year and a half on TOUR and where he is now?

STUART APPLEBY: A lot of people, it's not an easy step. It's just, you know, a lot come through. A lot come through a lot come through and sometimes you go play -- here is a good example I know -- I wish Joe was here, he would tell me.

Something about Jim Furyk. Someone once said, "Look at his swing." If you looked at him, you would not say this guy could play. You wouldn't. When you look at the way -- but this guy is a flat-out competitor who knows how to play golf. You don't have to have a pretty swing and you don't have to have this and that.

You have to have other stuff, a lot of drive. And that's what keeps guys like Jay Haas and these guys that just keep going and playing well.

So there are a lot of factors that are not measurable by stats, measurable by a video camera and all of these other things. So a lot of hurdles everybody has to jump through. And Ty is obviously going to bump into some. But I believe he's the type of kid who can just go again, regenerate.

Q. Bernie was making a comment a couple years ago talking about Aaron Baddeley that because of what Tiger did so quickly, every talented young kid thinks he should have won a couple of majors by the age of 21, and it's just not that easy.

STUART APPLEBY: You're exactly right. I don't think every teenager thought like that. I think Aaron thought that way. I don't know, I don't believe he thinks like that now because there is a lot -- if you looked at every player, predominately every player's progression. So winning a major, there's a lot of ladders, a lot of steps to climb. You can't just go: I'm going to rush up and do it. There is -- it just happens. You just can't go: I'm going to go surf a 40-foot wave today because I've surfed a couple 10-footers in my life. I'm going straight to the 40. You've got to take progression. You've got to get dumped a few times and understand what that's like from the 20-footers. You have to learn a lot.

A nice idea, but in reality, who am I to say? It's all in the head. If your swing is good, it's all in your head. If you think, "I can beat these guys," no reason why; watch me go. Then there's no reason why you can't, but no one has done it yet.

Now, Tiger came out of the box winning with a million under in Augusta in '97, seems like yesterday. But there's not many Tiger Woods and there are not too many Michelle Wies potentially, and not too many Annikas.

JOHN BUSH: Stuart, thanks for coming by. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.