DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 4, 1999

Tommy Armour III

TOMMY ARMOUR III: One, made bogey, so that was the way I started the day. It wasn't such a good start. I birdied, made a couple of good par putts on two -- two and four. Then on 6, I made birdie. Hit it about 5 inches from the hole.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Pitching wedge.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I pulled it in the left bunker, hit the lip coming out. Hit it from there left of the green hit it up about twelve feet, missed it. 9, hit 7-iron about 18 feet from the hole, made the putt. 10, I missed about a five-footer for birdie. 11, I hit it about four feet. 12, I hit it about five feet. 14, just hit it just long about 20 feet from the hole, made that.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Behind and the left of the hole. 16, I hit it about five feet -- about eight feet, made that. I hit a pitching wedge.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: 8-iron.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Actually I got it up-and-down from about 75 yards on 17 for par. Hit a sand wedge. It hit the pin; went about three feet. Then 18, I had about a 20-footer for birdie.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Yes, from when we started, yes.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I have just been working on my game and basically just -- that is -- just working on it.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: No secrets. Callouses. (laughs).

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Not really, no.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I do. I haven't played in a few years here. Last year I was in the hospital. A week after L.A. I went in the hospital for about a week, so I withdrew.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Yes.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I had an infected jaw and it was --

TOMMY ARMOUR III: I mean, you always -- when you win one, you expect your going to win two, so, yeah, but I haven't yet, so that is the way it is.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: You know, I really didn't watch the scoreboard that much and I was on the 17th tee and I looked over to see -- actually 16 I looked at the scoreboard and I was 11-under and leader was 14, so, I mean earlier in the round I was leading by a shot or two. I had gotten to 13-under. Then I made a couple of bogeys and I missed some good birdie putts so I figure I was leading at that point. I was 11-under and I had missed a couple of 12, 15-footers for birdie and then on 16 I saw 14-under was leading, so I figured try and make a birdie or two coming in, get some money and get out-of-town because -- then on the 17th tee when we were standing there waiting for the group in front of us, I looked over and it said 12-under. I knew he double bogeyed the last hole then. I hit it about five inches from the hole

and --

TOMMY ARMOUR III: 5-iron. Then I parred 18.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: You feel fortunate. Gabriel, he lost the tournament and then he won it back.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: He made about a 30-footer for birdie and I missed about a 35-footer before he did.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Well, yeah, with some disappointment because, you know, in so many years I have played the TOUR, I have only won one tournament so, yeah, there is disappointment. So knew -- I am playing well, so I mean it left tournaments before with disappointment, so it wasn't -- I mean, that is the one thing about golf that I have only won one time on the TOUR and I don't know how many tournaments I have played in, 350 or 400, whatever it is where, you know, NBA and baseball, they get a win every once in a while. So, they get that instant gratification for winning. I won a couple of Nike events a couple years ago, but I mean that is not like winning out here.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: The yeah before I had played pretty well. I never really finished strong in a tournament. I had made a lot of cuts. I finished 18th and 12th and 17th and 25th a lot and just a shot here and there and I would have had the year like last year, the year before as well. So, I mean, I finished 131 on the money list, so I mean, I wasn't -- I was excited to play the next year. I mean, a lot of guys are saying -- then I went to the TOUR school and missed, obviously didn't make me happy, but I knew I was in a good situation because I was, you know, because a few guys had gotten their cards, so I was only two after the TOUR school so I knew I was going to play in a lot of golf tournaments and -- so went to a Nike event the first week of the year, last year I finished third, the next week I went to Phoenix and finished second so, basically after I finished second at Phoenix, I knew I was going to play a lot. I knew I would get hopefully some invitations and then a couple weeks later I finished like 5th or 6th in San Diego and then a couple weeks later I was leading L.A., going in the last round, and finished 6th there. Actually got sick that week and had to spend the week in the hospital the following -- but I knew I was playing good. It took me a while to recover from that because I had a couple of teeth extracted, I had lost like 17 pounds while I was in the hospital, 16 pounds.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: For seven days.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Bay Hill. I really shouldn't have played there. I should have taken that week off. Then I played the TPC the following week and I mean, I played good there. Finished like 35th. But there was another one of those things where I didn't quite get out of the tournament how I played.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: In Dallas.

TOMMY ARMOUR III: Yeah, there is a lot of golf left. You still have to play the second round and third round and then the fourth round and, you know, then you start thinking about that.