PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2001

Stuart Appleby

STUART APPLEBY: The course, it dried out a little bit, not dramatically where we are getting masses amount of run by any means, but certainly became shorter, just due to the moisture being evaporated out of the fairways the last few days. Greens obviously had not changed much. They were draining well so they were not any drier or faster, but really the secret, as you've been told before out here, is driving the ball really well. I drove it okay today. Not flash, but got away twice with some bad drives, and I guess that's really the secret of shot shooting under par here is getting away with the mistakes, and obviously when you hit fairways you are going to hit greens and go onto shoot a decent score. Easy conditions this morning. Really, no wind. I guess the breeze pops up here. I think you are going to have a real hard time shooting anything under par, but the guys will definitely shoot low this morning.

STUART APPLEBY: 18, that's about the only birdie I remember actually. Don't ask me how I did -- because the holes blend in too much. Too hard for me. But 18, you will never forget a birdie there. I think that was a Skin. I hit 3-wood off the tee, around the right half of the fairway and then had -- I think it was like -- well, it was a 3-iron. I hit a 3-iron -- I didn't really push it. It was just one of those shots that was slightly right of where I wanted it, but I always knew it was okay. I guess I must have had somewhere around 230 yards plus, around 210, 215 meters. So it was a long way. Not really -- I didn't really want to hit 3-wood, but driver potentially is going to put me in trouble if I was right and definitely going to put me in water if I was left. So I had to try and be defensive all the way down the hole. Birdie is a bonus. Most of the time, you're not going to 3-iron out that distance. You're going to make a birdie very rarely.

STUART APPLEBY: Probably about 15 feet.

STUART APPLEBY: A confidence thing, I guess when you are always trying to play good golf, you are looking for confidence. Yeah, I don't know about it being a real confidence thing. It's just really what I'm trying to do is, you know, this year has not been a year that I've been pleased with my golf, with my scores, where I'm positioned World Ranking Money Lists, whatever you want to call it, stats, anything. I think I swung it okay, so I guess, really, just trying to get mentally sharper, and stick with the swing keys that I've had this week. That's really it. So it's nice to say, hey, this actually works, this swing thought works, this routine works, and just keep going and try to play 72 holes as strong as you can.

STUART APPLEBY: Well, I had last week at the Buick tournament, I played -- hit the ball pretty good all week. At times, really good, and didn't really putt great and that's why I finished well down -- it was a birdie fest out there and I didn't putt to keep up. But I had some good feelings and I had some good shots under my belt, what I thought were good. You know, felt good, looked good, and were good. That's the struggle when you feel like you're swinging it good and the ball heads off into the trees; it's very frustrating. So I was getting some real results. So having those swing thoughts, from that week, really, the best I got out of it and bring it in here, and that's where I got a portion of that again this morning. Just a matter of sticking with what I knew worked, and recently I had proven that it worked. So just a matter of repeating it, repeating it, repeating it. This course will come up and bite you even if you stick to that plan, but, you know I'm happy with that for a start.

STUART APPLEBY: It was all right. I shot a 64 last week in the Buick tournament and I didn't really -- I missed three really close putts, inside six feet, and the rest were all tap-ins, so I have not had any round low where I've done some miraculous putting, really good stuff. So the round today was okay. I made one good save. Rolled the ball okay. But didn't quite feel like I hit the ball on the line I picked enough, which means you are not going to make putts, basically, or you're going to get close. I've just got to get those a little bit better. But today, I made some improvement.

STUART APPLEBY: I think that's pretty fair, yeah. But I don't really see a stretch of holes where you go: This is your birdie stretch or this is where you've got to eat it up; this is where you've got to make your run. Any hole can be birdie. I did that on 18, which certainly feels like a non-birdieable hole. I guess you would have to say that stretch because, you know, into the tournament, pressure, good strong holes, good club selection, certainly, needed on 17 with the water; 18, critical with the water. That's a pretty fair statement. There's going to be some action happening through there, but certainly, Hole No. 1 was critical for me today, I suppose, because I go out and I start strong and off I go. So they all add up. But at least on TV sitting at home on your couch, those holes are going to be pretty impactful.

STUART APPLEBY: I do remember that time. I haven't reflected on it. Yeah, that was -- I mean, like you say, three years ago, so I haven't reflected on that. Mainly because the PGA doesn't hold any significance to that event because that event was so much more than what a golf tournament was to me. No, I haven't really thought about it. But what you say is very true, and it's hard to believe that three years has gone by. For me, to be sitting here right now and say that three years have gone by, if you know what I mean. No, I guess a single tournament doesn't really anchor any emotions, really.

STUART APPLEBY: I guess I wonder where three years went. I guess that's the overwhelming thing. I certainly remember times when time seemed to not really move and everything was really slow and I guess time almost got to a normal state, and then all of the sudden, you just turn around and you think back. A certain amount of birthdays have gone by, a certain amount of Christmases have gone by, how many times my Visa has been stamped. There's a lot of stuff, that like just keeps moving. I think the greatest thing that I certainly haven't lost the feeling of is having Renay's parents and her friends and family around, just being like the greatest. Certainly nothing has changed there one iota, one iota from the time that Renay passed. Very thankful for the people I have around me, really. I can't believe that three years has gone by and another three will go by and many more. But it's an unknown journey. I don't really quite know where it all takes you, but what I'm trying to do this year is enjoy my golf, which I've struggled to do. Frustrating; I'm a competitor. I want to play. I want to win. You know, it's one minute you're at the PGA, you know, doing a press interview about your wife's death, and the next minute you're out playing golf and the next minute you're back in Australia seeing family and friends again and it just never changes. I think I've become more used to life-changing situations and understanding what they are all about, and not being too upset by them, if they are positive or negative. Just understand, that's just life.

STUART APPLEBY: Nothing like that -- how would you -- God, it's hard to describe the feeling. More now -- it's more not the sense of feeling, it's a sense of that -- I don't know. It's like knowing that, well, I was privileged to know her and have known her. Just grateful, really, for the time we had, grateful for the memories, grateful for what she's left me with her parents and her sister and brother. Just very thankful, and, you know, certainly makes me feel good that I got the portion that I did instead of -- where was before, I felt probably denied, or, you know, ripped off or taken away, where now I'm like thanks, that was good and now you understand that you can't sort of turn a wish back. So certainly very grateful. Thoughts are different, but I still I think I can look back easier now and understand and look at that portion of my life and go that was very stressful, very difficult times and look back and now just understand all the thought processes I was going through, all of the healing that I was going through, or that I was trying to go through.

STUART APPLEBY: Well, I think long hitters can hit it shorter, but short hitters can't hit it longer. Length and accuracy is ahead of everything. You can't beat it. Short hitters are going to have to be on the top of their game. I'm hearing Curtis Strange saying yesterday -- and it's true, short hitters cannot make mistakes. Short hitters cannot mis-hit shots. Certainly, short hitters cannot power the ball out of the rough, and it is tough. Talking about short hitters, we just are terming them as what's the Tour stand or what the top players are hitting. We are not talking about short hitters that can hit it nowhere. We are just staying players compared to. And that might only be 20 yards, but that 20 yards is maybe two clubs or three clubs in the hand; that a long hitter is hitting a wedge and a shorter hitter is hitting an 8-iron. The greens are very accessible. They are not hard. They are not going to get hard. They are not real quick. So the ball is just going to be banging around the hole and that's going to help the short hitter. Great fairways firming up is going to help, but the greens being soft and relatively average pace is where the short hitter can contend. But there's not going to be many quality short hitters that are going to be up there at the end just based on the way -- the USGA, the PGA, the NBA, whoever it is, they are all making the courses longer. It's just the standard now to give us 7,000, well into the 7,000-plus-yard course now.

STUART APPLEBY: You've just got to take your time, I guess do what you think is right. You only get really one chance at doing something right. I guess try not to live in the past too much in a negative state and try to be positive and optimistic. I guess have a really good attitude on life. But there's a lot of hurdles to jump, definitely, and that's the task of the individual at the time to understand how to approach them and what to do with them, how to get around them or attack them. Yeah, that's the beauty of life, getting these little things put in front of you. Sometimes it's death, sometimes it's birth. I've seen some friends having kids and they -- certainly, the emotion of my friends having kids, seeing them have kids is just the opposite to what death is, which is obvious, but the emotions of it. So it is the amazing little things that pop up in front of you.

STUART APPLEBY: Rough is not real thick in length, if you sort of measure it, but it's got no body, so the ball sits very low. Nothing like U.S. Open, but probably has the penalty, almost, as severe as a U.S. Open. You probably get, maybe 50 percent of the time, you can get a short iron onto it to hit it some distance, and then maybe the other 50, it's just hack it out and try and make a third shot reasonable. The fairways aren't -- well, I don't think they are real wide, but when you mix that with hitting drivers every hole, it's a real premium to hit fairways. It's not like hitting 2-irons and 5-iron. It's driver and 5-iron to most of the par 4's sometimes.

STUART APPLEBY: I don't think it's as simple as saying 10 out of 10, you are totally healed. That never happens because life is full of memories. It's full of regrets. It's full of wanting to do things. Wishing you had not done things. And also, that's what makes a personality. There's certainly no level that I'm at in the healing part of Renay's death. It's that, I guess -- it doesn't finish. You just learn to understand it. I always talk about Renay constantly -- conversation, yeah. I certainly don't hold back there. I don't like keep it quiet, keep it secretive. I talk about it amongst anybody. It doesn't really matter. I mean, that's the truth, she was part of my life. So we talk about things we did and whatever and that will be amongst anybody. It doesn't really matter. I've known people who have stopped and gotten very quiet, and I don't think that's real healthy. It's not easy to talk about how you doing, what's going on, it's just hard. You can't put words to that, really. That's a very personal thing. I certainly miss the fun that we had together. I miss that. I guess in a real sense, I miss her not so much for me, but miss her for her family. I wish that -- I don't know, I just wish I could give my family and her family more of her than maybe what I would want or have. That's one of about a million wish list things that someone like myself, when you go it, you know, wishes you could have. But it all stems back to you don't know what's going to happen the next day. Sometimes, I get out there and I'm trying really hard on the course and I'm busting my rear end and doing my best and I lose reality check sometimes, at how lucky I am. To have the ability to play on this Tour and to be in the world-class level and to have great friends out there, and I'm worried: Did I hit it to 20 feet because I had a wedge. You get in your own world a little bit too much. So trying to step away from that is much easier than what it used to be.