home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

CHRYSLER CHAMPIONSHIP

October 30, 2004

Jesper Parnevik

PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jesper, thanks for joining us. A third round 68 puts you at 10-under par. Right now there's a couple players still on the course, but right now you're just two shots off the lead in great position going into Sunday. Maybe start with some opening comments about your week and about your day today.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I mean, I didn't know what to expect coming into this week. I haven't been playing great. I played well at the Canadian, had a good chance of winning there, but apart from that, I haven't done much in the late part of the season. I started out early on and took a long break in the summertime, went back to Sweden and had a good time there in the rain.

So I just pretty much had no expectations coming into the week. I've been very relaxed. Even if I didn't play great the first two rounds, up to my standards anyway, I got around the golf course really well.

I putted beautifully. I played with Jay Haas, and I think I even out-putted him, and he's a great putter, so that's good news.

Q. How long was your summer vacation?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, it was from I would say beginning the June until mid-August.

Q. That's pretty good.

A. Yeah, it was nice, very nice. It was pretty much from Westchester to PGA.

Q. Is that the first time you've taken one that long?

JESPER PARNEVIK: In the summertime, off the U.S. Tour, yeah, I would say so.

I tried a weird experiment a few years ago when I was struggling bad with my game. I took five weeks off in the middle of the summer where I didn't touch a club before the British Open, and that felt really scary, the first ball I hit actually. The Swedish TV crew was actually there for the first shots I was going to hit on the range, and I could not make contact. I had just no chance. It was scary.

My first tee shot on the first hole at Muirfield went right to the village, which is probably 150 yards right. It was amazing.

Q. What did you make?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, that was in a practice round. We didn't even bother looking for it.

This year when I was home I practiced and played and did all that, but I don't know, it's been a weird season. I started real well, and I thought I had it and I lost my putting a little bit the middle of the year. I mean, this week I'm very happy to be where I'm at. It's always nice to finish off nicely. I've got a long break in front of me, so why not take advantage of it here and maybe play next week.

Q. When you go home, are you recognized a lot? I mean, when you go home to Sweden, are you recognized a lot? Are there demandsÃ‚Â --

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, definitely. I've played the Scandinavian Masters most years, and that's a Tiger week for me where it's very, very hectic. Well, it's crazy, put it that way. It's one of those weeks where everybody expects me to do real well, and I won it twice, but it's a very tiring week. It's hard to explain. It's continuous media, press, fans, the whole week. I mean, it's fun, but it's very tiring. I understand that Tiger needs a few weeks off once in a while.

Q. You were saying about maybe getting back to the Tour Championship, you came so close a couple years ago. Just talk about how important it would be for you to get back there.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Of course I would love to be back, not only just to get in the tournament, just all the privileges it gives you with getting in all the majors and this and that. I mean, it just proves you had a great year. A few years ago I took it for granted to be in the Top 30. It was just automatic. Once you're outside it, you just realize it was actually pretty nice to play in those events.

Q. Do you think you have to win to be kind of considered backÃ‚Â --

JESPER PARNEVIK: I have to win. I don't think 2nd would be enough.

Q. But in terms of you're saying to be back to where you were, do you need to win a tournament?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I would just need a little bit more consistency right now, especially with the putter. It comes and goes a little bit too much. But like this week, it felt great again. I have no idea why.

Q. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be one of those days where there's eight, a dozen guys bunched up right there, a nice little shootout scenario. Does it change when one of the guys you're chasing is Vijay, the dynamics?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Not really. For him that's automatic now. He's very relaxed, very focused when he plays. Nothing bothers him whatsoever. He just expects to win every week, and it doesn't matter if he starts with two bogeys or in Canada where he made two triples on the 11th hole. He just keeps going. I mean, he has an amazing run going. It's the same run Tiger had four years ago.

Q. It looked like you had a rooting section out there?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, the Swedish Army was out there today.

Q. Is that surprising or did you know?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, they usually come to a few of the Florida events. I mean, they were bigger today than they have been in the past. They're fun guys.

Q. Are they really Swedes?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, they're Swedes. I think they're over here in college or something like that. We Swedes are everywhere. We're only 9 million people, but we are everywhere.

Q. You didn't go to Tiger's wedding, did you?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No.

Q. Were you invited? I'm sure you were invited, right?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I had already said yes to an outing in Seattle the day before, and from Seattle to Barbados is quite a long ways, so we decided it was going to be too much of a hassle getting over there. We didn't even know how to get there first of all. I felt a little bit wrongÃ‚Â -- I think it was Cadillac that had 1,500 people coming to this outing, and to cancel it just a few days before, I didn't think it was the right thing to do.

Q. Was Mia down there, other family members?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, she came up to Seattle, then we went down to Vegas and played there.

Q. You mentioned earlier that you didn't really have any expectations this week. Do you think that's helped you at all, maybe relaxed you in any sense?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of guys are like that this week because, like I said, there's a long break coming up, and everybody is tired. You just go and check in at the fitness trailer this week, there's probably one- to two-hour line just to get in there because everybody is hurt, sore, backs, legs, shoulders, everything. Everybody is tired, and it's been a long year.

Q. What was the situation with Jay's ball at 16? Nobody saw whether it went in the water?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, that's right. He hit it just by that tree. The official didn't see if it kicked back down in the water and he couldn't find it. If nobody sees it go in the water, it's a lost ball, so I think that was the big holdup there. It's not a nice tee to stand on for 20 minutes, either, waiting.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round and take one final question. You started out with a birdie on the first hole, par 5.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Hit driver, 3-iron in the front bunker and hit the bunker shot to two inches probably.

Then 3-iron, 7-iron on the next hole to about 30 feet and three-putted.

Birdie on 5, driver, 3-wood, 20 yards short of the green and chipped that to about four feet.

Bogey on 6, I hit driver, 9-iron just on the left fringe and chipped it up and missed the putt.

Came back with a birdie on the next hole, hit 3-wood, sand wedge to two feet.

Then the back side, 10, I hit driver, sand wedge I would say to about 15 feet.

12, I hit 4-iron, 9-iron to about 20 feet.

Q. Is it getting any harder out there? I mean, it seems like obviously the first day Jeff went really low. It seems like it's a little bit tougher now.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I mean, the first few days I think everybody was amazed how low the scoring was because this is one of the toughest courses we play all year and one of the best courses we play all year I would say. Everybody loves coming here because you know usually around double digits are going to be the winning score, and all of a sudden Jeff shoots 9-under the first day, and I think the cut was even par, which is also very low for around here. It's that type of golf course. It's almost a major type of setup here where the rough is very, very thick and you can have some wicked Augusta-like putts on the greens, as well.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jesper, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297