THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 31, 2001

Stuart Appleby

STUART APPLEBY: At least on the weather front, the wind stayed pretty consistent, which made it nice. I think that makes it easier on this course, if it starts to get blustery, it can be diabolical on what it does to your club selection, and what it does to your head, but it stayed the same all day. I got used to hitting shots downwind. I think if you can get your rhythm -- if your rhythm stays the same, you get a couple holes where it's playing the same, and then a couple where you're playing back into the wind. I felt good off the tee. Hit some wide shots off the tee, but that's expected. I'm not going to go out and try and hit it short, but hit as many fairways as I can. Club irons felt really good in my hands for a change. Especially last week it started to improve. Good technique is happening. Got the ball rolling. Felt comfortable with the putter. It feels more comfortable than it has been. And it's feeling easier to shoot a respectable score, instead of scrapping my round around, which has been just really ugly of late, which is really frustrating. I guess I'm getting somewhere for all this hard work, and 5-under is where we are.

STUART APPLEBY: First hole, driver right rough. Hit a very good 8-iron from an ugly stance on the sides of the bunker, and a chip and a putt from the back of the green, 4-foot putt. Second hole, hit a driver, a little blocky right, still in the fairway. Knocked it in the bunker. Up-and-down, got a 4-footer there for par. Third, 3-wood, 2-putt -- 2-putt, wrong distance -- no, actually short. Chip-and-putt. 4, made a birdie. My first birdie on 4, the par 3, 6-iron to about ten feet. Birdie. Par 5, 3-wood, 3-wood to about 30 feet, plus, behind the hole. Two good shots there. 2-putt, birdie. Next, poor drive, pulled left. Hit an 8-iron to about 12 feet right behind the hole. Pulled it a bit. I think that was -- I pulled, but I pulled it right into a perfect spot. Made a birdie there; so it was three in a row. Par 5, knocked my third shot to about eight feet. Missed an opportunity there. 8, was almost a birdie. 30 foot 2-putt. Tough little hole today with the cross-breeze into. 9th hole, bad drive left. Chipped it out. Knocked my next one way over the green with the pin up front. Made about a 12-footer to par. 10, I made a little par over the edge of the green, maybe 15 feet maximum. Not too hard. Par 5, good drive. Not so great second shot. Good pitch to about eight feet for birdie on the par 5. 12, tough par 3 today. Flying straight downwind. Really tough hole. Knocked it in the bunker short right and ordinary trap shot and missed about a 15-foot par putt. Next hole is downwind. Hit a driver, 8-iron to about 25 feet, 2-putt. Next hole, 3-wood, 9-iron. Spun back to about four feet for birdie. The par 5, driver, right, a little fortunate clip of branch; and tried to kick it, steer it back in the fairway on the right side. Knocked it in the trap in two. 2-putt, 35-footer on the next par 3. And 17, missed about a 20, 20-footer there. Birdie, 18, in the right trap for two. Up-and-down to a foot.

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah. I guess a little bit of a scramble, but I don't know, if you scramble enough, you become good at it.

STUART APPLEBY: My coach is telling me my swing looks good. Hasn't been feel good, so I've really tried to -- just like a new pair of shoes, I guess. They don't feel great straight on your foot, but do a couple of miles in them and all of the sudden they feel fine. I guess that's when my swing is starting to make me feel where I like it and he likes it; so get it on the same page. Just hard work. It's been a long road trying to get it a little bit more under control, but I guess, also, I'm trying to get mentally a little bit better. Trying to think a little bit better on the course than I have been. Been getting a little bit down on my game too much, trying to be too competitive, but I guess being competitive can cause you to play poor golf. I guess one of the reasons I've not played so well, not playing nearly as well as I should have. Nothing fancy in the coaching . Feels boring -- you look at coach, but it's not, "I've got it, I know what it is." It's not like that. But I'm feeling more comfortable definitely.

STUART APPLEBY: Last week was good from the sense I made a lot of birdies.

STUART APPLEBY: I think I had 25 for the week. Then I had 7 today, so it was a good run through five rounds. So many bogeys -- I guess it was a dozen and a half bogeys last week. Must have been like five doubles, I don't know. Pretty imbalanced round; it was up-and-down. The thing was, I made birdies. And birdies are a great feeling. You make a lot of birdies -- if you make a lot of birdies and bogeys, you'll drop the bogeys before you lose the birdies. I don't know why that works, but that seems to be; if you can make birdies, you can create them and the bogey starts to disappear and I guess that happened today. But this is all the start. I've just got my swing back on. Just starting to give it a go, and I think what it is doing is good and just a matter of me getting used to that and going. Birdies keep smiley faces.

STUART APPLEBY: Yeah, just a little bit. I'm trying to really get in -- I always know what I can play well, I have good thought patterns throughout my game. If I'm playing well -- if I'm swing-based, I'll have a good thought to use when I'm swinging. If it's putting, I'll have a thought for that. And all you're doing just before the round is really not trying cram your homework, just go over exactly what you've been trying to do and say your checklist, okay. And that's all did I late last night was trying to make sure that was what I wanted to go with the next day. Was really a checkup.

STUART APPLEBY: I don't really care how I shoot 67. I guess if you keep shooting whatever sort of scores that wins tournaments, doesn't matter. Doesn't have to be pretty, and certainly wasn't ugly, though, by no means. It was probably one of the most consistent rounds or the most balanced rounds I've played for a long time. Not worried about that. I'm sure if you watch Tiger hit every shot, he can't hit every fairway. If you look at his stats, driving average, I would guess you would say scrambling, but I guess he doesn't care.

STUART APPLEBY: I know all about putting balls in water. Just look at last week's stats.

STUART APPLEBY: No, I don't think it really matters. I think he was just really disappointed he had the drop shots on the front nine. And when you shoot 6-under on the back nine, you don't do that very often like my six in a row; you don't do that very often. You've got to get good breaks at the right time. Getting the right club is not as easy as you think. Just having the instinct; well, I think it is an 8 not a 7. When you hit the ball, all these things, after having a lot of birdies in a row, you get it on the fly. He can certainly do those things downwind on 10, downwind on 11, downwind on 12. You can go in there and hit lots of short clubs. There's not many clubs that he is hitting a mid-iron in, not at all. All he has to do is get his club length right, and his stroke average -- it all averages out. There are days he's going to shoot 4-over or 6-under, and I think it averages out to what it did last year, 67 average.