KEMPER OPEN

May 29, 1999

Emlyn Aubrey

EMLYN AUBREY: Well, the game seemed to click a couple of weeks ago at Byron Nelson. I have been playing pretty good all year, just haven't really gotten things going. And had a good four days down there in Dallas, unfortunately had to take last week off to think about it. I have been thinking well now. I am knocking in some putts, so it is pretty much the same this week so far. First two days were kind of tough, the conditions, so I knew today was going to be a little easier, with a little less wind and smoother greens. I was fortunate enough to take advantage of it.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah, a little bit. Mainly just because I started getting a little nervous and a little anxious and wasn't so much the disappointing bogeys, it was just my mind just started going haywire a little bit, and hit a few stray drives actually on 15 and got away with a good shot out of the rough and made birdie there. Same on 16, I hit a straight drive and was fortunate to get up-and-down for par. 17, I just pulled a bad club. It was bad course management there. Instead of just trying to put it in the middle of the green, I was trying to be a hero and hit it close. Paid for that with a bogey. Then actually 18, I really didn't hit that bad a shot. Wind just took it a little left and I think it was the right club just didn't carry that bunker and rolled down and, you know, left it about ten feet short and hit really good putt there, but it spun out. Bogey on 17 was actually the one that really gets me. 18 was -- I hated finishing that way, but it really wasn't that bad -- actually settled down a little bit on the tee, told myself to focus in a little better and hit a good drive and hit a pretty decent second shot. Didn't wind up on the green and just came away with a bogey. It is a little disappointing but I know I am playing well. Thinking well and hopefully I can do the same tomorrow.

EMLYN AUBREY: Nobody was close except for Loren Roberts and Steve Pate. They ran away from everybody. It was playing tough down there. The wind was blowing for Friday Saturday and Sunday. Every week you get some guy that is right there for the lead, they are going to play, you know, we always say they are playing a different course than the rest of us. They were doing that. I just kind of held in there and played solid under the conditions and so I was never in the hunt down there at all.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah, a little bit. I guess I will be pretty late teeing off again tomorrow, so I will get some time to wake up and think about it. I know what I did wrong today as far as getting a little anxious on the last few holes. So at least I am aware of that. I can be, you know, I can hopefully catch it a little earlier if it happens again tomorrow.

EMLYN AUBREY: Probably not. What do you need to know?

EMLYN AUBREY: Well, what do they want to know, Lee?

EMLYN AUBREY: This is my 7th year on this Tour and played three years on the Nike in the '90s. I seem to struggle out here a bit, but when I fall down and play the Nike, I usually play pretty good down there. Just a matter of being comfortable, wherever you are playing. Won a couple out there. I think my best out here is second, finished second a couple years ago in Vancouver. I drive race cars in the off-season or when I am not playing.

EMLYN AUBREY: Just birdied 2.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah, about five feet or so. Then I birdied 5 and 6 same, just from pretty close range, five feet or so. I think that was it. Just turned in 3-under. Birdied 10. Then 13, 14, 15, I think, so it was a good stretch there. Unfortunately, got that finish in there.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah, that was really scary. I could have been there for a while. I could still be there. It is a good day altogether and it is one of those things you are trying to get on the green but you sure don't want to hit it hard enough to go over the green. It just came out, just right and landed just over the top of that hill there and rolled out to the hole. Just, you know, things were going well, they go well, no matter good and bad.

EMLYN AUBREY: On 17?

EMLYN AUBREY: Actually it wasn't as bad as it looked. Lie was pretty good and I was really -- I had a perfect path right between the two mounds there that the hole was placed. Main thing was I didn't want to hit it too hard and have it roll all the way down the front of the green. Again, I just -- a little nervous and just kind of let up, just at the last second and came up short. Actually the next, you know, the next little pitch wasn't any bargain either. So pitched that up about three feet, made the putt. Turned into a good bogey, if there is such a thing.

EMLYN AUBREY: My parents were involved in it when I was growing up and obviously it is a little bit more expensive than golf, so I have gotten -- being on the Tour and playing Tour golf, I have gotten to know some people in the racing business and people who own cars. I have been able to do it for five or six years now.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah.

EMLYN AUBREY: No, I can't do that.

EMLYN AUBREY: No, I can't do that. That takes even more money than driving. I go to about two or three racing schools a year, a company called Track Time in Youngstown, Ohio - that is a plug. So like I said, I just know the right people and they let me borrow their cars and I give some golf lessons in return and it works out good for everybody.

EMLYN AUBREY: Small sports cars; BMW, Honda.

EMLYN AUBREY: No. No, although they do that too. They have a NASCAR school at Michigan where they own 10 or 12 Winston Cup cars. You can drive those around the track for fun. But the other ones are road racing, you know, like Summit Point, a track near here over in West Virginia, you know, left hand, right turns, so, it is more excitement.

EMLYN AUBREY: Yeah, safety roll cages and fat tires and stuff like. But they are regular cars.

EMLYN AUBREY: I have crashed, sure. Fortunately I haven't been hurt. I think with racing there is -- every lap is a unique experience, especially at my novice level that you are scaring yourself all the time, so the less you scare yourself at my level, I think it is a good day.

EMLYN AUBREY: No, no rollovers. I just -- I spun out in front of a bunch of people and a couple of them hit me on the way by. Then a lot of obviously spinouts. I haven't hit any walls or anything. That is the thing --

EMLYN AUBREY: A couple of times, yeah. Most of them are schools when do I it, but I have raced a couple of times. The thing with other peoples' cars, the same deal, even though you don't own them you have got to pay for them if you wreck them so, you tend to be a little bit more careful.

EMLYN AUBREY: I wasn't really paying attention much to the scoreboard. But I can tell you just it played a lot easier and especially probably for the guys that went off earlier it was even easier than that because the wind was -- wasn't up yet. So obviously the greens were -- earlier tee off greens are smoother so you feel like when it is not blowing you feel like you have to shoot pretty low and I guess a few guys did.

EMLYN AUBREY: I will tell you tomorrow, depends on how many 4-footers I have got to make. But it is a lot easier out here.

EMLYN AUBREY: Well, if I started today and somebody said you would have shot 5-under I would have been real happy. Yeah, I mean, you always need to -- it is never enough obviously, but -- until Sunday. So -- but I am happy 5-under is fine. One of the lower rounds I have shot this year, that is about all I can ask for. Just trying to forget those bogeys that I finished with and do the same things tomorrow.