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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

April 17, 2010

Tom Kite

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVE SENKO: Tom, thanks for joining us. 67 today, 4-under to go with your 3-under 68 today, 7-under right now and looks like at the moment you're one behind the leaders. So maybe just share your thoughts on your day and then we'll get some questions.
TOM KITE: Well, it's nice to see some optimism out there, and some good things happening. This year has been off to a very slow start for me, for a number of reasons, and my game has not been very good. And this is really the first good stretch of golf that I have played in 2010, and it's very pleasing to find myself in this position, not having been there, I can tell you I was a little nervous out there today.
The second round, there's no reason to get nervous with what's going on, but I felt the nerves out there, and that was awesome. It was something that I had been looking forward to for a long time. The way I had been playing, there's really nothing to get nervous about. It's just kind of go through the motions and get finished with the tournament, and been very poor golf so far.
So this was nice to see and I'm looking forward to tomorrow to seeing what happens.
DAVE SENKO: Did you expect a little bit of a slow start, you know, coming off the surgery and everything this year?
TOM KITE: I didn't know what to expect. I had shoulder surgery November 4, and it's the first surgery that I've ever had, first injury that I've really ever had that kept me out of action for any length of time. A pulled muscle every now and then but nothing major. The surgery, Dr. Andrews, told me it would be three to five months before I could play golf, and it was a good 3 1/2.
I went back and saw him right before I played my first tournament, and he told me that I couldn't do any harm to the shoulder; that I could go ahead and play, but not to expect a whole lot. Of course, that's not my M.O. I tend to expect an all of lot out of myself and my game.
Unfortunately the shoulder just wasn't there. Didn't have the flexibility, didn't have the strength that I needed to be able to perform at a high level and it's taken a while to get that back. And then my dad passed away in mid February, and you know, that kind of way laid a little bit of my comeback a little bit, dealing with all of those issues that go along with that and trying to help Mom out and help the family get everything situated. That's just another something to confuse the mix a little bit of trying to get back to playing good golf.
It's been a strange year, and quite honestly with the shoulder surgery, I didn't know what to expect. Certainly you don't anticipate a death like that. So this has been a very awkward year. I'm ready to get it going and get to playing some good golf.
DAVE SENKO: Birdies, you started off on No. 10.
TOM KITE: Yeah, I actually started off on No. 10 and got off to a good start. Hit a nice drive and sand wedge in to about three feet on 10.
I hit a good drive on 12. Hit 5-iron on the green and two putted from 30 feet. I hit a really good sand wedge on 13 that looked like from our viewpoint, it almost looked like it spun back in the cup and came back about a foot and a half, and I made that.
Then I hit a 9-iron on my third shot, the next hole, the par 5, about 12 feet, ten feet I guess, and made that.
Then just kind of -- let me see, I bogeyed No. 15. I hit a drive in the right rough and pulled my second shot in the left bunker. Played a pretty nice bunker shot out but it ran by about ten feet and I just misread the putt there, bogey there.
And then everything else was nothing but pars all the way around until the final hole, No. 9, and I hit a pitching wedge in about seven feet.

Q. Were there signs your game was getting in shape or did this round come out of the blue?
TOM KITE: Well, the shoulder is getting better all the time, and that's given me a little bit more freedom with my golf swing. I feel like I'm getting the flexibility back. When I first came back, I couldn't make a shoulder turn. It was just so tight in there, I'd go back, I'd get the club back but I would get it back twice in my left arm, and obviously that changed the release point in my golf swing and I was hitting scatter guns. It was all over the place, and not very solid. It was very short and of course that was to be expected, the swing being a little shorter and not timed as well.
But that's getting better, so I can't really say that there was any great indication that it was going to turn around. But I think I'm a pretty good player, and I think it's going to get better, and once everything, all the stuff that's on the outside of the ropes in my life starts to settle down a little bit, I'm anticipating that things are going to start getting very, very good.
I trained hard, as much as I could with the shoulder during the off-season, and feel like I'm in good shape and ready to go. Just need to get everything outside the ropes get settled down a little bit so I can start enjoying playing golf again.

Q. What was your father's name?
TOM KITE: Tom, Senior and he was 93.

Q. What was his role in your life in golf?
TOM KITE: Well, he started me playing the game. He taught me early on, was very instrumental. He was my best buddy. I played probably more rounds of golf with Dad than I have with anybody else. Played a lot of tournaments together, a lot of father sons. He played with me a number of times out at the old Bing Crosby, the AT&T, until they changed that. We just had a fantastic relationship. He helped me a lot with my business affairs, my investments, and we had a very, very close relationship.

Q. How much of it is competitive balance and you want to get out and play but when the shoulder is still not flexible as you would like it to be, and sometimes you wind up compensating subconsciously and things like that; how tough is that balance, wanting to come out, but maybe not wanting to mess up your swing in the process?
TOM KITE: Well, I checked with the Doctor, and I totally trust Dr. Andrews in Birmingham. He's one of the best, if not the best shoulder guy in the world, and when he told me that I was clear to go play, and that I was not going to do the shoulder any damage, then I felt comfortable about it. And he also told me that the strength and the flexibility were not there, yet, though they are getting pretty close right now. But when I first started back, I wasn't anywhere close to where I am now, and so he told me not to expect a whole lot but just go play. And at some point in time -- at some point in time, you've got to jump in the water, you really do. You can't stay on the sidelines forever and ever. If I wait for this shoulder to be totally perfect, I'd probably sit out the whole year, or close to the whole year if I waited for it to get 100 percent.
I would anticipate -- well, his view was that I would be out of golf for anywhere from three to five months and it was 3 1/2 for me; that the rehab would be intense and very painful, which it was, and that it would probably be close to a year before I would wake up in the morning and never think about my shoulder, where there would be no pain or no tightness or loss of flexibility.
So I've got a ways to go. I mean, I'm not even close to a year yet, but then I don't really want to sit out a whole year. It's not 100 percent, but it's close. It's doing well, and I can't use that as an excuse now, other than the fact that I just need to get back to playing golf and get used to getting in the hunt. Haven't been in the hunt for a while.

Q. Left shoulder?
TOM KITE: Left shoulder. Biceps tendon.

Q. Because of that, all you've been through physically, and as you say, outside the ropes, going into tomorrow, in contention, trying to go for this title, how exciting is that prospect to you?
TOM KITE: It's great. Something that we all look forward to. I'm sure that I'll be nervous and a little antsy tomorrow, but that's okay. That's the feeling that quite honestly, we are all looking for and we want to putt ourselves in position where we have an opportunity to get a little nervous. I'm looking forward to it.
It's been, well, I had some opportunities in '09, but this is the first opportunity to get in one of the last couple of groups in 2010. So I'm really looking forward to it. I may fall on my butt, I may win the golf tournament, or somewhere in between. But it's going to be a fun day for me to see what happens.
DAVE SENKO: Thank you, Tom.

End of FastScripts

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