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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

May 26, 2004

Fredrik Jacobson

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

Q. Congratulations.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Thank you.

Q. How's the little gal doing?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: She's doing fine. She just has a little bit of yellowness. She had a very nice tan when she came out, but after a little bit of light treatment, she's okay.

Q. How big was she?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: She was a bit smallish since she was early. She was about six pounds. I expected a big long baby, more like nine or something pounds.

Q. Who was ten pounds, was that you?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Me and my wife were both nine and a half pounds.

Q. What's your daughter's name?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Alice Sofia.

Q. Is this your first trip away?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: First time, yeah. I've had smaller trips for a couple of hours, but that's been about it. This is the first trip.

Q. Was it tough to leave?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, it's tougher than it's been in the past, of course, but at the same time, Erika is recovering well from the Cesarean and able to do more and more -- I feel a lot more comfortable now than if I would have left a week earlier or something. She's getting better and better.

I need to get started again. I'm just playing for this week and then I have a week off again, so I won't be away for too many days. I think it would have been tougher if it were two or three weeks away the first time.

Q. So she had a Cesarean section?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes.

Q. Talk about leaving Charlotte.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: It was tough because I was just about to fall asleep when I had the phone call just before 11:00 o'clock at night, and then trying to organize a flight and everything to get back as quickly as possible, so just to find out -- predict how long she had and whether I would have the chance to make it back in time. I was fed up and had help from different people trying to sort out flights.

Erika did have a very high fever at the time, so they kind of tried to help it on a bit. They had to make sure the high fever wasn't going to affect the baby.

When it was on the way they found out the baby was upside down, so that's when they did the Cesarean, and then I realized things were going too quick for me to be able to catch up, so I had a flight organized at 4:00 in the morning but unfortunately it never arrived until 5:30 the plane came in, so that's where I basically missed it. If I would have been there at 4:00 o'clock they could have waited for me, but the flight was an hour and a half late. They were never going to wait two hours for me.

Q. (Inaudible).

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, I was really disappointed there and then. When you have a flight at 4:00 o'clock and there's the one thing in your life you do not want to miss and you're doing everything possible, people helping enormously, everybody trying, and a thing like that, the way I felt then screwed it all up. I can never get that moment back. I mean, it's still special, but I can't tell you how.

It would have been to be there at the delivery. I'm lucky Erika had her best friend over for a couple of weeks in the house so she had somebody there to support her and everything. That was a very good thing.

Q. Where is your house?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: We are down at the Jupiter Hospital. I was sitting at Waffle House in Charlotte. Just before I got off the flight I found out we had a girl. They had her call me before they even stitched her together, they gave me a call.

Q. Before they put in the stitches she called you on the cell phone from the operating room?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, well, I don't know whether it was a cell phone or what. She might have given them the phone.

Q. What time did you finally get to Florida?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I got there about 5:30 -- around 7:00 o'clock.

Q. Do you know the name of the hospital?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Jupiter Hospital.

Q. And when you got the call, was it Erika who called or who called you?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, she called me up.

Q. And she said it's happening?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, actually the water broke. That can be anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days, but I realized that it wasn't going to be that long, that there was no chance to finish the tournament up. I mean, we had phone contact, and I don't know what it's like in Sweden, but I don't have the feeling that you could have as much contact as we had, which was nice, especially for me not being there, to get to listen and speak to Anna, her friend, and get to speak to Erika in between the contractions. At least that was very special for me to at least be able to talk and see what's going on and follow it closely rather than getting into the hospital at 1:00 o'clock at night and not hearing anything until after the birth. So that was kind of nice.

Q. When she called you from the operating room, what did she say to you?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: After the operation?

Q. Yes. She's on the phone and she's not been stitched up yet.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: No, she said we're having a little girl. We both thought we were going to have a boy. She doesn't remember the phone call now. I think they had some drugs that they had given her for the operation, and she doesn't remember talking to me, but she did call me up and we spoke for a few minutes.

Q. So her friend Anna had --

FREDRIK JACOBSON: She was there and she was there during everything, helping a little bit. The talking on the phone and everything, I got to hear the contractions, and a got a little bit of a picture of what was going on at least.

Q. A radio broadcast?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes.

Q. You had had a nice first round there in Charlotte?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah.

Q. Obviously that's meaningless at this point?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah. I mean, of course you're still hoping that she was going to call on Sunday night or the Monday after, I can't deny that. I would have been a lot happier if that phone call came Sunday afternoon after I was finishing up.

Q. Or if you had shot 77 or something?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, that would have been -- it would have felt like a lot better timing, but what can you do about it? It's one thing you can't predict. We had a good plan for what to do in case. It's just what happens. I was feeling good in Charlotte, though, didn't have any bogeys, I shot 6-under, and on a course like that if you got off to a good start -- the way it turned out, the winning scores weren't that low, so I was in a very good position, that's for sure.

Q. Tell us about the decision to come here. Obviously this was around the time that I guess -- (inaudible)?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes.

Q. So you weren't going to come here and now you decided last week to go ahead and make it?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes. I mean, we were expecting her around this week, so I didn't think there was any chance to maybe come back to this tournament, which since they moved it from last year when it was in June, I think, I didn't think I was going to have the chance to come back this year, and I really wanted to come back and play this year because Phil Cannon, tournament director, and FedEx helped me out enormously last year by giving me an invitation after the U.S. Open last year. That invitation gave me basically, looking back on it, gave me the spot for this year on the Tour.

I could have made it if it was later on at least, but when I had this invitation, I knew after the British Open or after the Western Open I was pretty sure that after the Western Open I knew I was going to be playing here the year after, and this week got me into the Western Open from the Top 10 finish. So it would have been a lot of work if I didn't get this invitation, so that meant a whole lot to me, the first invitation I got over here, and it made it possible for me last year, so that was great. So it's nice to be back here again.

Q. I would imagine it's probably good to be back in a place where you've had some success, too?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I did have a very good -- Erika was here last year, so we had a very good time here last year, a lot of fun things to do during the week, as well. We did a baseball game last year and we did the flight simulator. It's a little different setup this year with Erika down in Florida and me being here, but it's nice to come back to this course and this tournament. I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Have you played a practice round yet or have you been on the course at all?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: No, I'm playing today in a little while.

Q. Have you practiced much at all since the baby came?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Not as much as normally naturally, but I've been playing a couple of days. I didn't play 18 holes and I worked a little bit the day before. I've just tried to get a little bit in about every four days or something golf-wise and trying to stay in shape. It's been more to try to keep it not too long of a time without touching the clubs. It's kind of good exercise carrying a baby all day and carrying things to the car, the seat and everything.

Q. What was your plan last year as far as before your finish in the Open and then you played well here, played well at the Western, among other places, but you played so well in Europe. Did you pretty much still continue to play in Europe most of the time until that success or were you kind of waiting to break through here and then move over here at least part-time?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: My plan was -- before I came over for the qualifying for the U.S. Open, my plan was all the way trying to do well in Europe so I could get some invitations and some starts here. I thought I was going to have a decent chance when I won my second tournament of the year and then didn't get any starts, and then I qualified for the U.S. Open, and I thought since I haven't got any starts yet, I'll fly over and try to qualify, try to get myself a start and get the first start going, and maybe if I can do well and get into a tournament, maybe that can open some doors, and that's what happened. I mean, three of the four tournaments I played for qualifying were Top 10 finishes, then this tournament kind of closed the gap there to give me a bunch of tournaments in a row.

Q. And you won a third one in Europe then just for good measure?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes, the Volvo Masters, yes. Same as the Tour Championship here but it's 60 players instead of 30.

Q. Where are you in Ryder Cup points?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I'm not quite sure. I haven't checked the last couple of weeks since I haven't been playing that much. But I'm sure I haven't increased anything the last five weeks, I know that, since I haven't been playing.

Q. What do you think about the position of somebody like Jesper?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: His position?

Q. His position vis-a-vis the Ryder Cup. He almost certainly can't get enough points and yet also can't be a captain's pick because he's no longer in Europe, and he's also playing quite well.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I believe it's very tough at this stage to play 11 tournaments if you're not into the majors and the World Tour events. I think that's where the top catch is. If you're a player that focuses mainly on this Tour but you still want to be connected with Europe, if you're not into the majors and the World Tour, it's going to be very tough. You're going to sacrifice much on this Tour but there's going to be a lot of pressure and the events you play here to do well, to be able to maintain a good ranking here or a good position here as you're leaving playing 11 tournaments in Europe rather than when you can have seven tournaments counting on both rankings and play an additional four. That's a huge difference. I think if I wasn't in the world Tour events and the majors, I think it would have been tougher for myself to play 11 tournaments this year because you need to play more I think on one Tour than the other, and if you don't have those events double counting it's going to be tough.

Q. What about the position of the European Tour that you can't pick somebody who's a non-member so that Jesper is a non-member but he's playing awfully well. He can't even be a captain's pick because he's a non-member.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I don't know the background of that, what goes behind the picks and all that. I'm not really sure whether it's to try to have it equally for everybody. We all have to play a certain number to make it fair rather than somebody counting on a pick or us expecting a pick rather than playing your way onto a team and that opens up for another pick. If two guys start making effort because they know they're going to get picked, the picks are already locked up, I think that could be the key that you lock your two picks up so if you really wanted to pick a third guy, if those two guys made it onto the team, rather you could maybe get a stronger team, I would think that would be the reason for it, to try to make everyone to play their way onto the team rather than just leaving it and expect a pick.

Q. How much play in Europe are you playing?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I'm planning to do -- at least play 11 tournaments. That's the plan.

Q. Are you living full-time in Jupiter now?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yes.

Q. When did you move?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: We live in Hope Town (phonetic).

Q. How long have you been there?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Since New Year, the 31st of December.

Q. Anybody you play golf with in particular on a given day, that you'd call up and say let's go play a practice round?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, me and Richard Johnson, Jesper or Per-Ulrik, now he's had an operation Tuesday so he's not, but we all play a bit together. It all depends what weeks we have off, as well, so there's a lot of people we know around there that we can play with, as well. I play with different people depending on who's around and who's got the time to play.

Q. What was it about this course last year that fits your eye or whatever? You had so many great rounds.

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I don't know whether it was the courses or not. I think coming into the tournaments here last year I think added a lot of pressure on myself from myself to do well to try to take this opportunity since I only knew I had one week at the time and I so badly wanted to make the card on the chances I had. I don't think it was too much -- there's courses I've played that suited me better. I think I had a very good attitude when I was over for a few weeks, and I think my focus was entirely on doing well, and I put myself into good position every week, and I think I managed to do that.

I was quite tired when I came over to the U.S. Open already because I had played quite a lot in Europe, played like three weeks, and then I had four days off, I think, and I flew straight over after three weeks to do qualifying, flew back for a few days, flew to the U.S. Open and then end up playing four events in a row, which for me was quite a lot.

I think what took me through it and made me do well was a good attitude.

Q. Did you anticipate that last year would create sort of a life-changing dynamic for you or experience for you?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: I mean, I had it as one of my goals last year, to make it onto this Tour in one way or another. The first way was to get invitations to try to get into majors and make it that way, and the second opportunity would have been the qualifying school if I had to.

Q. So you were planning on qualifying school?

FREDRIK JACOBSON: Yeah, if I wouldn't have had any starts or wouldn't have been doing well in the starts, I would have played the qualifying school to try to make it. It was one of my goals last year.

End of FastScripts.

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