THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 31, 2001

Scott Verplank

SCOTT VERPLANK: The conditions, actually, they are always great here, really. The golf course is perfect. The toughest thing about playing in the afternoon is the greens get a little bit beat up. You've already had another 100 guys ahead of you walking around the hole; they get bumpier. The greens on the front nine were great, but the last six holes, they were getting a little bit choppy. It had not rained in a couple days, I don't think, so the golf course was drying out a little bit, which in my opinion, makes it play better. I like it when it plays hard and fast, not to say it was not hard and fast, but it was not complete slosh.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I would not say after practice, no. I withdrew at Colonial after the first round there because my allergies were so bad; I pulled a muscle in my back. I could not swing. So I went home for the week in between and had my back worked on. But previous to that, I was in the playoff in Dallas, so it was not like it was a complete shock.

SCOTT VERPLANK: You know when you cough? (Laughs). I strained my back working out the day after the Byron Nelson, and then I got to coughing so bad that I could not rest it, and it just got to where I was not comfortable hitting golf shots in Fort Worth. So I figured instead of messing it up more, I had better lay low with the U.S. Open in a couple more weeks.

SCOTT VERPLANK: To me it is. Today, I felt more like Dallas. Fort Worth I played horrible the whole time I was there. I probably should not have played Thursday, but I'm not very good at quitting.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Thank you. The last couple months -- well, actually I always played good in Phoenix. I've played solid, other than winning -- I had a great chance to win in Dallas, but I've played pretty solid. Things have gotten a little bit better overall in the last couple months. I would hope that I'm hitting on all cylinders here in a couple weeks.

SCOTT VERPLANK: No, not in the last couple months. Just that I would not say anything in the last couple months is responsible for me playing better. I've been lucky enough in the last year, year and a half that when I putt good, I play good. I've gotten pretty consistent, hitting the ball in the fairway, hitting quite a few greens. Short game has been okay. If I make some putts like did today, I shoot a decent score.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I think I have -- yeah. I mean, you know, I don't know how you answer that correctly. I don't know if feeling sorry is the right way to putt it, but I've always had sympathy, or felt for his situation. You know, I did not -- I did not agree with some of the Tour and going to the Supreme Court, because I firmly believe that we should have the right to make our own rules. However, it would not have bothered me one bit if he would have dropped the lawsuit and we would have given him a cart. Now, that may be impossible to do, based in the minds of the guy that is running the PGA TOUR, but I would not have had a real problem with saying this is the one and only situation that's like that. I don't have a problem with him riding. I know he can't play without riding, but I do have a problem with the Supreme Court, having at least seven of them have no idea what goes out here. We have seven people that have no clue making a decision for us, which is -- that's un-American.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, yeah. I think so. I mean, I'll put it to you this way. If I had, at 36, barring any other injuries or anything, I could probably add two or three or four more years of really good playing to my career from riding in a car, just simply from the wear and tear. I tell you, you get around September, October, you are tired. I mean, everybody out here is tired. At that point in time -- just from the wear and tear of over the course of the year it would help me just from my feet would be better. Being diabetic, you have foot problems; that's a pretty major problem. I have not had horrible problems, but I my be dumb. The doctor is saying, "Yeah, you've got to take care of your feet real good." Golf shoes are horrible to walk in. Yeah, I'll tell you this, in the right conditions, there's no question a cart would be an advantage to me. Particularly in some of these places where we play that it is hard walking or real hot, but I think almost everybody will tell you that. That's a very difficult situation, in my opinion, you know, because I guess my question is: How do you define disabled now? In some respects, I'm disabled compared to you because I'm diabetic and I have a lot of other health issues most normal people don't have. However, I don't feel that way, and I've always had the attitude that you are kind of -- you play the cards you are dealt. If my health is bad enough where I can't play out here, I'll do something else. Hopefully, that won't happen. I've finally got my health pretty good over the last couple years, and my play has gone accordingly. I'm hoping I'll have six or eight more years of good health and see what I can do.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I would not. You never say never, but at this point in time, no. But I would never say no, I wouldn't. Like I said, I just -- I am of a different breed. Maybe older school than some of the younger guys, I don't know. And nothing against them. Like I said, I'm happy that Casey gets to try to play. But I would have preferred it by the PGA TOUR saying, "We're going to make a special exception for this guy. Anybody else that has a complaint, we'll handle them individually." I don't like the fact that you go to court and have people that have no clue deciding what we can do and what we can't do.

SCOTT VERPLANK: No. You'd have to ask them. I don't know. I just think it's -- I just think the bottom line it was not about Casey; it was about our right to make our own rules. It was my opinion, and it was not Casey's and it was not the lawyers that he had working for him.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Sure. I birdied No. 1. I hit kind of a sorry drive and actually had a 3-iron to the green after popping up my drive a little bit. Hit a great shot about eight feet. Made that. Hit a 5-iron about six feet on No. 4. Made about a 25-footer on No. 6. Hit a 6-iron -- not a very good drive there, either. I hit a sand wedge about three feet on No. 7. Bogeyed No. 8. I didn't hit a very good tee shot. It was on the fringe, but I was on the high fringe, so I had to try to chip over the corner of the green kind of, and left it about eight feet short and missed it. No. 9, I hit a wedge about 25 feet and made that. 10, hit a 9-iron about ten feet and made that. 17, I hit a 6-iron about 12 feet and made that one.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Yeah, that was pretty good. That was just more fun. I love hitting those shots. I had to hit first, and it's 150 yards, or, you know, 152, and looking back it was a perfect pitching wedge for me; but since I'm playing decent, I'm not going to hit a pitching wedge and go, "Oh." I just tried to hit a little behind, pumped it a little, and it went in the back. I've practiced that shot several times so I knew how fast it was. Fortunately, I had a decent lie where I could get the club under the ball and get some air under it and just had it trickle on to the green.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I could care less what he does.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Although, I'm glad he plays out here, because he's great for the Tour. (Laughter.)

SCOTT VERPLANK: That's for you to decide. Not me. Yeah, the guy is remarkable. How could you say anything other -- nobody has ever played like he plays. But I don't think there's one guy out here that would concede to him or would not want to try to beat him. How could you not want to? I think he's the best there's ever been. I mean, Jack has got the greatest record of all time, but pretty hard to believe that anybody has ever played better than Tiger has ever played in the last year or two. But I tell you, if I win the tournament, I know who want to finish second. I think that's the way everybody out here is, I think. If they are not, they probably shouldn't be out here.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I started wearing an insulin pump about, gosh, 20 months ago. It started in October of '99, and it's just turned my life around, as far as my health. It's just night and day. So consequently, I've been able to play a little bit better because I'm having much less health worries and problems.

SCOTT VERPLANK: No. Not at all.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I thought about it about a year before I went on it. But I'm like anybody: Do I really want to do that? But looking back, I wish I was a year smarter. (Laughter.) Anyway, it's been fantastic for me.

SCOTT VERPLANK: No, I don't think so. Listen, I'm looking forward to playing there. I don't have any kind of home course advantage or anything there. I've played the course a dozen times probably. I just think it will be neat to play there. It's a neat golf course. It will be nice that I'll drive to the tournament. I won't stay at home, but I'll have a lot more friend and family and stuff. Particularly after the experience that I had in Dallas where I grew up and almost won the tournament there. Had lots of local support. I hope that I can get in some sort of position like that in Southern Hills. It's pretty cool when you have lots of friends and family out there pulling for you.

SCOTT VERPLANK: It would be great. I won the U.S. Amateur in Oklahoma. It would be awesome. It would obviously be a dream of mine, but everybody knows -- where's that guy? Everybody knows who the favorite is. (Laughter.) Yeah, I'm just hoping, like I said, I'm hoping that I'm feeling good and feel like I'm hitting the ball solid and putting good, and see how I do. I feel like the Open is good -- my game suits an Open setup real good, but I haven't done particularly great in the U.S. Open. So, go from there.

SCOTT VERPLANK: This is close on the greens and some of the putts, but the fairways are so soft here and they are wide, so it is not quite the same. But the greens, we have not played greens this fast in a long time, so this is a nice change of pace, because this is probably what Southern Hills will be like.