THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 11, 2001

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: Thank you very much. Yeah, it was a very interesting day out there. We stood on the range and it was dead calm, and my swing felt actually better than it has all week and I was really looking forward to the round. Birdied the 2nd hole and everything seemed to go as planned. And then I don't know what happened. It was like I put the hand brakes on. Both me and Calcavecchia really didn't do anything. We didn't really make a move. After the bogey on 9, you know, I felt like momentum was actually swinging the other way. I just tried to hang in there, give myself a chance in the end. And I was a little disappointed after 16 where I could give myself a cushion walking down 18, because you really would like the cushion walking down there 18, where they put the pin today. And even though I would have loved to have holed the putt to win myself, I'll take it any way I can; and even though I feel for Calc, I know how special this event is for Calc.

JESPER PARNEVIK: After a while, I figured it was -- the greenskeeper really tucked the pins in some tough spots out there. It was tough to get any birdie putts within 10 feet; and then, you probably hit an unbelievable golf shot. It seemed like no one really made a move. Ogilvy was pretty much the only one. I just tried to give myself opportunities because my putter has been so good all week. I just thought if I could give myself, 10-, 15-, 20-footers all of the time, I'll hole a few of them, but today they just didn't go in.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, it was a very strange situation there. Standing in the trap, because I just watched Ogilvy make bogey on 18, so I knew it was between me and Calcavecchia. Calc didn't have that easy of a shot, even though he was in a perfect place there. Where that pin is, you have about five yards to land it on; otherwise, you're over in the trap or you're in the water. So I really didn't know what to do, if I should go for the pin, try to make birdie or if I should aim for the middle. And I just tried to knock it in the middle of the green. There was a little rock right behind the ball. So I guess my ball just shot up in the air and ballooned on me. And then I had a very tricky third shot there that I thought I hit perfect, but it just kept going over the green.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I had about 190. I tried to hit a 4-iron.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think it is more relief than real happiness. You never want to win that way. I would rather -- I would have liked to have knocked mine in and get it over with. But, like I said, you take them any way you can. I'm sure Mickelson felt the same way in San Diego there when he pretty much tried to give it away and it was -- handed it back to himself. I would say at this point, it is very special to me, because I have my family here this week; my parents are here; my sister is here; my kids are here; and my wife is here and a lot of friends in the gallery and so on. So it is a very special week that way. After the hip surgery, you know, I didn't play that great and it was a slow start of the year, and some doubt started creeping into your mind, maybe surgery was bigger than I thought or so on and so on. So this was a very special win.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I know we're going to have a great party tonight.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I took a little bit of a chance on 9. I absolutely ripped the driver down there. I had a chance -- if I rip add another driver to get it on there, but I was expecting it from -- I had a pretty tight lie in the fairway to slice it a little bit. So I aimed for the left side of the green and tried to rip it, and then I somehow got a hook-spin on it and then every place I got in from there, it just got worse. So that was not a pretty bogey. Not a very well-timed bogey. It was right there that Ogilvy made all his birdies. So I was thinking I was one behind there for a while, yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I could not go for the first one, but after that, I tried as hard as I could. But the pins where they were -- I don't know what the low score of the day. It was a lot easier early in the morning, of course. But I don't think too many guys shot low rounds in the afternoon, because every hole that was more downwind, the pin was only a few steps on the front edge, over a trap or something like that; and if it was into the wind, the pin was backed, tuck into a corner. So it felt like every pin was pretty much a sucker pin. Even though you wanted to go for it, or I did, anyway; you had to play a little on the safe side.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, because you're also talking about club there. I wanted to -- I feel like it is easier to draw it out of the trap than fade it. I wanted to aim for the pin, but the only thing there was there was a little rock behind it. If I caught that one first, I'm going to end up first, and I'm not going to get the hook-spin on it either; so I'm going to end up short in the batter. So we were talking either 3-iron, just over the green and make up-and-down from there or have a long putt; and after Ogilvy bogeyed, all I wanted to do was have some -- a chance to make par.

JESPER PARNEVIK: It was playing very hard, I thought. You had to hit a perfect drive, and to have a 4- or 5- , -- 3-iron into that green or that pin is a pretty tough shot. For some reason, from where Calcavecchia putted, it looked really fast, and it was one of the slowest putts all day, because he only hit it halfway. And I was surprised it stopped that quickly, and I'm sure he was very disappointed when he saw that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, like I said, it was probably one of my biggest wins that way, confidence-wise, because I wanted to win badly. I've said all week that I felt good being there and so on, and I did. But I really -- this was an important win for myself. You know, when you are playing well and you're up there every week and so on, but now I've had -- I had may chance to win in L.A., but that's pretty much been it for six months. So in that sense, it was very important to me.

JESPER PARNEVIK: You just know that when you have any type of surgery, you don't know that you're going to come back to the shape I was in before I had the surgery. You know, afterwards, the hip felt a little bit different, swinging at the ball and so on. You know, I hit some strange shots I had never hit before and my putting wasn't that great. I think I saw yesterday on TV I was ranked 159th in the putting stats before this week. So in that sense, you get a little doubt in your head, when you're not playing to the level you want and then you're not putting very well, either.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, I did not play in any regard as well as I can play this week. My head was very focused. My sand game -- I think also the -- the traps were in such good shape. It suits my kind of sand shot perfectly because I felt like could I get up-and-down pretty much out of any trap. And when I feel that confident with the putter all week, it's a lot of fun to play.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, it does. And also the fact, last year, I pretty much had a chance to win every week the first six months of the year. I had, I think nine or ten Top-10s at the first 11 events; and I finished second, third, won twice and so on. So then you don't think about it that much. But when you really haven't been in the situation for six, seven months, that's when you really want it because, you know, you want to get back in that winning circle.

JESPER PARNEVIK: It's hard to say, really. Fashion-wise, that's what's in right now. You know, my clothing, Lindenberg Clothing, has a lot to do with fashion. It's a fashion-oriented company. So I just thought it would be good timing for the weekend to show some played pants.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, a little more subtle today.

JESPER PARNEVIK: It's black.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I was. Just like I said, I didn't have any really good chances. I did not have -- I only had one putt within five feet, I think, for birdie and that was it. The rest the time, I definitely had 20-footers all day. Even though they didn't go in, I still felt like I had good putts at it.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I feel comfortable playing in the wind. I always loved to play in the British Open where the wind is howling and I feel like you have to hit a lot of creative ones and so on. I feel like -- especially into the wind, I can hit the low, running ball and gain a lot of distance that way. Some of the guys doesn't have that shot and they upshoot a little bit.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No.

JESPER PARNEVIK: First time, I have to admit, I thought, "Well, I don't know." But now I think it looks great.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I was going to, but then, you know, it was not really time for it today, with all of the chaos on 18. We had enough of a time just to figure out who was out, me or Calc. I thought he -- I knew what I had to do, if I go for it or try to 2-putt it. It's not like it was something in between.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. We had the PGA official and he pretty much -- he kind of just decides.