THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 23, 2002

Stuart Appleby

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stuart, for joining us. Great round today, 67. Out early, third group off. Why don't you make a couple of comments about the course, the way it played and then we will go into some questions.

STUART APPLEBY: It played not so windy probably the first couple of hours of the day. Probably up until about 10 o'clock it was pretty quiet. So the early part of the day sort of the first five or six groups had it pretty good for a couple of hours. That was not really where I made my score, but I chipped away and played solid on the front nine and made a great birdie on nine, that was sort of a two-putt type of hole.

I played the back nine pretty well. I drove the ball fantastic and hit the iron fantastic and putted pretty good. I really have to say, it was a very clean round of golf and more like what I'm feel like I can play and I guess I was actually doing it. I was getting into the next gear. So as a golfer today I have to be happy with my round, I couldn't really complain.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions.

Q. You said more than I feel like I can play. Does that mean you haven't been playing that well?

STUART APPLEBY: No, I guess if golfers at this level aren't putting in results, then they're not playing what they know they can. So I'm a good player, no doubt about that. But what separates the difference? Sometimes well, usually it's just confidence and you don't just play to get confidence you got to go and get it. You got to go and find it. You've got to practice for it. Basically practice and play with confidence. So I have been swinging the club well. If you're swinging well and not getting results it's something else that's wrong. I'm swinging it well now and mentally I feel much better, more relaxed, more positive and much more into my shots and then I'm getting results. So sometimes it's very frustrating. You spend months trying to find it. But I'm getting more of the results that I felt like and I'm right there. And that's the way golf works at this level. Guys are only really always one round away from a good one.

Q. Do you play this course differently when it's dry like this than in years past when it seems like it's always wet?

STUART APPLEBY: Ohio and dry, should never be used in the same sentence in this tournament. I did, I was actually saying to my caddy I remember the 18th hole one year. I hit it over the green, like an inch or two over the green and it was dead-blue dry, I can't remember how many years ago. But it was just the driest, deadest green you've ever seen and we couldn't stop the putt from 20 feet. So there's very few years where it's dry. This course dry and firm would be a much more of a challenge. It would be, I would rather see it firm and dry, where really you would have to think a lot more. It's just the forgiveness of the soft fairways, you get away with a little bit. But not like you can carve it around. But if it would be dry, this would be the way I would like to play a course, really firm. But again, we might have that Sunday if the golfing gods hold out.

Q. How firm is it right now? How much run are you getting?

STUART APPLEBY: 10 being as hard as you can probably get it, it's probably about a six. One rain would be down to a four and sloppy. But it needs probably two more days of this to get to the stage where it would get nice and firm. It's never going to get hard because I guess the Tour doesn't really like that as much. They sort of protect the greens a bit and this stuff might burn, I don't know.

Q. And how has it been the last couple of years on a scale of 10?

STUART APPLEBY: This course?

Q. Yeah.

STUART APPLEBY: Condition-wise it's always a 10. I can never fault it.

Q. No, I mean the wetness. On a scale of -- if this is a six what's it been?

STUART APPLEBY: This is slightly firmer than normal of the slightly, although maybe a point or two higher than normal but again, we're don't have any rain. But right now you're right but tomorrow who knows. This is more like what the course should be playing like. We got no control, but this is where it should be, not the lift, clean and place like last year it was a spectators' nightmare; it was a sloppy mess.

Q. You said you're getting some better results. Did you make any changes to achieve those or just confidence?

STUART APPLEBY: No, no changes, no. Just getting better, I guess. Just practice and that's what it's all about. If you don't practice, you don't get better; if you practice with quality, you will get better. You won't go backwards. You chip away, chip away, keep going at it and you keep knowing that that is what works. I can do this, I've done it before and you find it's like pulling a whole rack of keys and there's one keys that works you keep pulling keys until one works and when you pull one that works, you stick to it. You except your rack of keys sometimes can be thousands.

Q. Kind of a carry over from Sunday?

STUART APPLEBY: I played pretty good all day Sunday but I made my run of birdies. I birdied 8, so I basically played 10 holes, 11 holes, really well. So it wasn't a full day. I played pretty good for the morning but I just hit good shots, quality shots in close, no long bombs, the only thing is I feel like I'm getting better with is my long distance putting and but again if I'm hitting it close, who cares. You know.

Q. If the course is playing like this if it keeps playing like this and maybe even a little faster, if the wind stays the way it is and it doesn't rain, does it bring more guys into contention versus the long hitters who have had their way here the last few years?

STUART APPLEBY: Yes and no. Both, longer hitters will have to be a little bit more careful and a little bit more like last week, where you have to play, they would be playing 3-woods to the corner or to the positions where the shorter hitters will be hitting drivers. At the same time the length will be helping, you can bomb it down there. But other times you'll have length where you back it off because you won't have enough room to stop the ball. Overall, to answer your question, it would be harder when the course gets like that and I still think the best players and the longer hitters are still going to be the players to always dominate any golf course.

Q. You talk about finding the right key. Do you have to find that on your own or, I don't know if you have a sports psychologist?

STUART APPLEBY: Everybody has an assistant in some way. And really everybody has trainers, psychologists or coaches, obviously. And I sort of utilize all the avenues that make great golfers great. Every great golfer has had everything, there's really not been -- although I shouldn't say physically, there's been some golfers you wouldn't say they got huge physical talents but they know how to play golf. But there's been no one thing I sat down and I said I got to change this, this is not even close. I don't have ever feel like I'm ever far away, but it's like tweaking. It's a swing, it's a tune. It's tuning. But I guess sometimes you got to know to not tune it and let it go, let it go and just play. When you're not concentrating really well. Geez I'm swinging it good, but I'm wandering in my concentration. Or I'm concentrating really hard and the ball just goes off the thing, you know. So it's sort of knowing the right mixture or recipe of what to attack. And at the moment I attacked everything, just summarized everything and everything seems pretty good. And I just hit it and walk down and hit it again wherever it goes. Make sure that I give myself the best chance about doing a hundred percent, putting a hundred percent in hitting it and then once it leaves my face, off it goes. Q. You talk about your birdie on 9?

STUART APPLEBY: Birdie on 9. That was when the wind really started to pick up. 8 we didn't feel it a huge amount. We felt it but it was a bit more tunnel affect in there. 9 was really howling. I was going to hit 3-wood off the tee. So we all went with driver which I don't normally ever hit down that hole. And I hit a little 8-iron, pulled it a little bit, misjudged the wind and had about an, about 30 foot sort of left-to-right and really fast through the shadows. Most guys don't like to putt through the shadows, you can't see the green or the break quite as good and it was really a two-putt type thing. And I thought this is definitely inside a foot, I've stiffed it and it never really ever left the hole. Certainly a bonus. That was a putt where you wouldn't expect to make maybe more than one in 20.

Q. So that doesn't count as a bomb to you?

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, that's --

Q. You said no bombs.

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, yeah. That's a bonus. I don't call that a bomb. That's a bonus. I don't know if you make many bombs any more. But I haven't made any since about 45 I think.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can you go through the rest of the birdies and bogeys.

STUART APPLEBY: The par-5? It was pars all the way through there obviously through the first four. Five I hit a 3-wood playing downwind off the see. Most guys are playing 3-wood there. I hit a three iron in. Chipped it from about 12 yards, chipped it to about four feet. Tapped it in for birdie.

Had almost had a great chance on the next speedy putt that all of us had. Had a par there.

Went down the next par-5, good drive, good lay up on good lob wedge shot to about five feet. Made that.

Then down 8, 2-putt from about 20 something feet, 25 feet.

Nine was that 30 footer, so I guess that's three birdies, is that right? Three birdies on that nine.

10, two putt from about 25 feet. Tricky 2-putt.

11, poor second shot, poor third shot. I shouldn't have hit the shot, I wasn't ready and I didn't play for it . That was a wasted shot there.

And the par-3 was playing pretty tough today. I hit -- all of us hit great shots in there. I hit the worst shot to about 12 feet.

And then next was playing downwind off the tee shot. Hit a good drive, hit a wedge to about a foot.

The next we hit 2-irons down there. I hit a sand wedge, a lob wedge to about four feet. Tapped it in.

The next, driver, 3-wood on the green and 3-putted from probably about 40 feet plus. 40 feet. Not a very good finish there considering I hit two good shots in.

And 16 was a good 2-putt from about 25 feet.

17 was driver, lob wedge to about 120 something yards. I hit it to about five feet there. And I pulled it left on 18 in the creek and chopped it up and had about 60 yards to the hole and got up-and-down from about six feet.

Q. How gratifying is it to make a save like you did on 18?

STUART APPLEBY: I think because you know it's the end of the day, that's it, you don't have to do any more scrambling or you don't, you know, the day is done. I guess the real secret is to mentally know that you haven't finished yet, you just got to go. You got to keep going like the round is not finished. I guess it's sort of used, we term it this way when we play at Tour School, you got six rounds to go for, normally you're used to finishing after four. I guess it's like you, just like a boxer, you start punching until the bell rings. You just keep going.

So that was very nice to finish that nine, considering I hit a sloppy tee shot, when I drove it perfect all day. But I was fortunate to get away with it and use someone's hand as a rebound tool.

Andrew, you got anything to say? Don't talk to me when I walk out this door. Yeah, see.

(Laughter.)

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Stuart, for joining us.

STUART APPLEBY: You got it. Thanks.

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