KEMPER OPEN

May 29, 1999

Tommy Armour III

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Just a good solid round. Hit a lot of good shots. I think I missed two fairways and two greens. Just a lot of good shots. Had a lot of opportunities to make birdies, made four of them, one bogey, it was -- that is kind of what I wanted to do before I went out there this morning or this afternoon.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Well, I hope I shoot one lower than everybody else. I mean, you know -- I mean, I feel good. My golf game is good. Mentally I am good, so hopefully it will be a good day.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I've been working hard on my game, just, you know, I mean, other than that -- the year before I played pretty good too. I just -- I never really had any high finishes. I had a lot of 20ths, 18ths, 25ths and I just, you know, was just not quite getting -- I mean, I could have easily had that kind of year three years ago and then last year I just had a couple opportunities I finished 2nd and 7th a couple of times. Then kind of played steady the rest of the year, never really finished high again, a lot of 15ths and things like that, and then this year, you know, I had lost in a playoff and finished third at Doral. Then I took six weeks off and played good at Colonial; finished 30th, and this week, you know, here we are.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Six weeks?

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I hurt my shoulder and I was off -- I could have probably played in three or four weeks, but I wanted to make sure when I came back that I was 100% and so it wouldn't reoccur.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: In Tucson?

TOMMY ARMOUR III: We both hit drives down the fairway. He hit a 3-iron; I hit 4-iron. I was about 25 feet; he was about 24 feet. I missed mine. He made his. Give him the trophy. I mean, that was about what it was.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: We were pretty close to the same line, but, you know, who knows. He might not even have looked at it or he might have looked at it. I really didn't look at him.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I won nine years ago on the Tour, so I am just -- I think I am just a better player day in, day out. I don't make as many dumb mistakes or whatever you want to call them. And I will play more percentage shots than I used to when I was younger. Other than that, that is it. And the more you play these courses, you have experience where the pins are going to be, I know where the pins are going to be tomorrow and you just know what kind of shots you have to hit.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I am not even worried about him. I am going to go out and play the golf course tomorrow and I have got to -- I think tomorrow is going to be the same kind of weather as today, so pretty much I know where the pins are going to be. I am just going to go over the round in my head tonight and just come out and try and execute. You really can't worry about what everybody else is doing. You just have to take care of yourself.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I think to anybody on the Tour, wins are always important. Yeah, I mean, there is always a clock ticking, you know, each day we live is one less day, but -- yeah, a win would be important right now.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Hit driver, pitching wedge about 15, 16 feet, made it. 6, I hit driver, 2-iron a little bit long past the green, chipped it up to about eight feet, made it. 13, I hit driver, 2-iron on the green, from -- 2-putted from about 60 feet, on the front right, pin was back left. 16, I hit it in the left rough a little bit. Hit kind of a hot shot, came out, went over the green and hit a pretty good shot, it just -- you know, picked up speed coming down that hill and rolled all the way back down off the hill -- I mean, off the green down, and that shot was actually a little tougher than the first one - I mean, it felt like that the way it looked and everything. 17, hit 7-iron about three feet, but I had a lot of good opportunities all day. I mean, I had an -- if I had a hot putting round I would have shot three or four less, but hit a lot of good shots. Maybe that will be tomorrow.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Just try and stay focused on what I am doing. Stay in the present. There is no real secrets to it. Just got to do what you are doing.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Staying in the present is hard for anybody doing anything. I mean, a lot of people in here are already thinking about what they are going to eat tonight.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Right. Execute a shot at a time and I mean, you hear it, but doing it is the fun part.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I am relaxed. I feel good out there. I have been about -- few years ago I changed a few things and after I realized what they were doing and what they were producing; I knew that things were going to get a lot better. This is where I started a few years ago and this is what I wanted to do and here I am. So I am enjoying it.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: It was fun then. Golf has always been fun to me. It is something that I have always enjoyed doing. I have done it my first year was 1982 and I have always enjoyed it. I don't want to do anything else and so -- my game was kind of teetering between good and mediocre and I have just sat down and took about two months and figured out what I needed to do to get it to where I wasn't mediocre.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: It was like -- early '90s. Late 1996, early 1997.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Just the way I approached it. There are little subtle things that when you put them altogether -- you can't I can't really put my finger -- more just the change of state of mind and just what I was doing, what I wanted to do.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Any time you make changes you are going to make them in your life and in situations and, you know, off and on. I mean, it was nothing really drastic at any point or any area. It was just a lot of different things where just -- you can't really put your finger on it. It is just something you know inside.