GTE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC

May 14, 2000

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: Thank you.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Of course, it's great any time you win a golf tournament. You know, I think this is the first playoff I've been in in the United States. I've played in a playoff against Seve long time ago where we played six holes; he beat me in the end. But this was definitely exciting. After the putt I missed on 12, I really didn't see that I was going to get into the playoff. But I missed a putt like, I don't know, it was a foot. But then I watched the leaderboard and I saw Davis drop a few and I was right back in the game.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know. It was such a -- you know, it's pretty severe green, but I was so happy I hit such a putt up there about a foot from the hole. I didn't know, I didn't think about it and just marked it and tapped in and it just snapped-sliced.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I was just shocked after that. You don't know -- it's one thing if you miss a putt and you stand over it and you feel uneasy or whatever. But this one, I just wanted to tap it in and it missed and I thought, "Wow".

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I didn't want to take too much time, though.

JESPER PARNEVIK: On 18? No. No. Maybe it crossed my mind in between playoff holes, but not really. When you're out there, I was pretty focused on winning the playoff. But we hit three great shots into 17, I thought. That's a tough pin today, just over the water there; and two birdies and a lip-out is, you know, pretty exciting.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, because I know Davis wants to win so bad. He's had a chance -- well, he's had many chances this year, already: Hilton Head, I don't know all of them. But he's such a great guy and he's such a great player, he should win one of these. You know, after he holed that putt on 17, of course my putt was a lot longer, but it's tough when you want to win very bad, instead of just letting it happen. I expected him to make the putt on 18, even though it was a tough putt with a lot of break on it. I thought we were going to go to extra holes again.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Unbelievable. I forgot about it. (Laughs). You know, after I holed out the putt on 18, I went up there and said, "You know what I forgot? I forgot the cigar." First time in years. I guess it was not really good timing to light up a cigar, anyway.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Of course you're happy. There was -- I don't know how to say it. It was so close all day, and it was not like, you never really thought about winning in that sense, you know, you just try to stay in touch with the guys. I was always behind, one behind, two behind, three behind, two behind. So it's more of a -- you know, I was just happy to get in the playoff in the end, because I thought -- especially when Davis had his six -, seven-footer on 18 to win the tournament. So it's a huge bonus. I mean, it's good. This whole year has been a good bonus.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I thought definitely I was going to birdie 16, but then I hit a great tee shot, I thought, but then the wind kind of died. It was hard off the left and it kind of died, and my ball just went straight for the trap and kicked a little bit left. After that, you know it was the same thing. I hit a great shot into 17. Misread the putt on the 71st hole, but a lot of guys missed a lot of chances, I guess, in the end.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know, it must have broken, I don't know, a cup at least from a foot. I couldn't believe it.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Mine? It was about six feet, I would say. Six, seven feet, yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, felt like 15 after he holed his, and it looked like Phil was going to hole his, as well. But it was a fairly easy putt. It was straight up the hill and fairly straight putt. So, you know, tried to make a good stroke at it and it went in.

JESPER PARNEVIK: The last hole, oh, that was about a 20-footer, I would say, yeah. I hit a good putt there, too. It did go by three or four feet, which I didn't want to see.

JESPER PARNEVIK: 9-iron. Yeah, we hit three terrible shots the first playoff hole, I thought. Everybody had really easy shots in there, and I don't know what we did. I think when we stood behind that tree, you didn't feel the wind and it -- the wind must have been a lot harder off to the left than we thought, because there's no reason why we should hit three 8-irons 40 feet right. I was just very pleased, after I missed mine right, I thought someone should birdie the hole.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I never had a year like this before, of course. I mean, I've won twice now, I have what seven, eight Top-10s, also. It's definitely been my best year so far. The only disappointment has been Augusta where I had a chance for a while and got it to even par the third day, but kind of let it go again. But I'm definitely looking forward to Pebble Beach, which is going to be more of a British Open, links-type U.S. Open, where, you know, I struggled a bit. I've finished Top-10 last few years, but I never consider myself as a really good chance to win it because you have to just hit it so straight.

JESPER PARNEVIK: That's true.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah. The winning putt was about three, four feet, I would say. The miss was just over a foot.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, I felt like that right there, yeah, but I had a good shot on the next par 3 and just missed the birdie putt. And then I stiffed it on the next hole. And when I looked at the scoreboard, then I saw that Davis just made two bogeys; so we're right in it again. I was swinging pretty good out there. I guess Tiger was the only one that really made a big move. He must have shot 63, yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I was going to leave tonight, but I missed that. (Laughter.)

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, I mean, he's a terrific guy. He's doing so much good, I think, for the game and, you know, I can't say enough things about him. Of course, he gave me -- you know, it's very honoring to hear him talk good about my game and so on, and to just watch him sit on the 1st hole every day, walk up to him on the 18th I think is unbelievable.

JESPER PARNEVIK: When I grew up, probably not.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, you know, I don't know how old I was.

JESPER PARNEVIK: When you start looking at who is -- I don't know what age you start looking at the Hogans and Byrons and so on. Of course, his record is unbelievable.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think four of them. Three or four.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Very much. So that's why I rejoined the European Tour this year because that was my last resort to get into that event. And to have any chance to win or do well on the U.S. money List, you have to get into the World Championships; otherwise, you pretty much are too far behind.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I mean, that's probably what I've done well this year is to leave bad things behind me. I started the year playing unbelievably well. I doubled every other hole; so I'm pretty used to leaving things behind now. I think I made like 75 birdies like the first three events, but I pretty much average one double-bogey a round as well. That's pretty much what I've improved a lot with this career.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. I was more in shock than steaming. I don't know how to explain that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, marked it, but just for, you know -- I don't know why I marked it even. I gave it to Lance just to wipe off in case there was any dirt on it and I went up and tapped it in and it missed.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, I lined it up.

JESPER PARNEVIK: You can't really think about it. Well, of course, you can think about it that way, but it would have been a longer trip, yes.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I think I'm going back to Price Air. Yeah, I was going to sneak by Sweden tonight and then to Germany tomorrow, but now we go straight from Florida, I think to Hamburg with Nick Price, yeah.

JESPER PARNEVIK: So I go back to Florida tonight and fly over to Germany tomorrow.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I enjoy playing with Tiger. I've had, I would say nine or ten times I've played with him. I've played very well. I love playing with the best guys, and I think everything going around Tiger, with the bigger crowds, all that, just makes me play better, anyway.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I mean, it's fun to see, because you know he can do that any time he plays. Like I said, the times I've played with him we had a lot of fun together. Usually, I putt like crazy when I play with him, hole everything and he doesn't like that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think everybody noticed. I think even myself said, "Oh, Lance, look at Tiger, he's 5-under already." But we were still a few ahead I think at that time.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I mean, he's a great guy. I don't know what to say. There's nothing really bad to say about him. He's a great player, great guy. He's been -- always nice to me ever since I came out on TOUR. He's just -- I don't know what to say.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know. I'm pretty stuck with the old stuff, I think. But the more I win, I guess you might say great player as well.

JESPER PARNEVIK: They are very pink. I tried them once before and I finished second in L.A. But I took them out today again; so good pants. (Laughter.)

JESPER PARNEVIK: What I shot?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, that's very boring stuff. Gray pants and a black shirt. I spent three or four weeks on the West Coast. I ran out of the good stuff.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, that's so hard to say with golf. You know, I took a lot of time off last year. I think that's key and I just came from a two-week break right now with my friends over -- my friends came over from Swede even with -- we spent some time in the Bahamas and so on. I've been working out very hard all year with Boris. Worked out all winter with my sister, Jessica. That must have helped me some. In golf, it's so hard to say, because the difference between 1st and 40th is nothing. I mean, it's one putt there, one shot there and all of the sudden you're talking four, eight, ten shots per tournament, and it's very hard to really point at what's -- you know, it's like if you stand on the range. If you watch all the guys, they pretty much look like they are pretty good guys, all of them. And then Tiger might be a little bit better than everybody else, but it's not huge. But he just does everything a little bit better.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I'm putting better, definitely. This is the first time I'm ever I think Top-10 on the putting stats. I remember my first few years here I struggled to get to the Top-100 for putting. But that's definitely one of the key factors.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, not really. I had a good talk with Schofield. Even though he admitted that changing the rules for the NEC was wrong, he pretty much said there was nothing he could do about it now. And my last chance to get in there was to rejoin the TOUR. I don't know if that was his plan or not, but that's the way it worked out. You know, he's been fairly considerate to me playing over here and so on. He changed a few other rules. You cannot count the majors in the World Championships and so on, and it would even count the NEC this year even if I would not make the tournament.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. So I've got to play well.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Both ways. Most of the time people you know think it's -- they love the stuff, especially the women I think. Once in awhile you hear someone make a funny point or so on, but both ways, I would say.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, I haven't hit it. I hit it once on the range here and that was pretty much it.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, it was illegal. So I thought no real use in trying it out because I don't want to just change it for one week in Europe.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. Like I said, I don't think I would want to change it for a week here and there, in case I would love the thing. (Laughter.)

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, I kicked his ass really bad, 6-Love. Yeah, we played together the first two rounds, as well. But he was not a very good tennis player.

JESPER PARNEVIK: As long as I kept it in play, he would miss; I knew that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I hope not, because then he's not very talented.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't think too much thought went into my tennis gear.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know. Maybe she did that on purpose. I just know that me and Lance do not match at all. He had his orange shirt on. I'm probably going to call him in the morning next time and tell him what to wear.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Most of the time: "Oh, I love your pants, love your shirt." I don't know, that's what else they can say.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, Sign Boy is easy stuff for us. He does everything. We just show up. I think he even provides everything -- I don't even know if we say anything in the commercials. He is funny, though, I have to say, yeah.

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