THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY MERCEDES-BENZ AND MICHELOB

October 30, 1997

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: I played very well. I was a little bit surprised because I struggled a lot today. Two days earlier in the Pro Am, practice round, I played with Frank, Ernie and Vijay yesterday. I played terrible, actually. I only made one birdie. So I was hitting balls last night, tried my probably fifth swing this week. It worked today. I hit the ball very well today. I was very pleased, actually.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. I think we all were very, very surprised. I mean, even myself thought that even par would be a great score today. I played probably three clubs shorter today. The fairways must have firmed up a lot yesterday because of the good weather. I mean, this was the longest course we played all year, yesterday. It was still a very long course, but it played a lot easier today.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, it's definitely one of the toughest ones. Like I said, we never play a course this long all year, where you hit three, four, 5-irons to every green. Today played a little bit shorter, so had you to hit a few 8-irons in there. But it's a good course. I mean, you have to drive it straight and long. The greens are big enough, so you shouldn't miss them. You can tuck the pins in tough spots, like they did today.

JESPER PARNEVIK: A few. Let's see, which one was the first one I tried? (laughter). I came in with kind of a Norman-like swing feel to it, hitting up on the ball a little bit. I was playing very well. All of a sudden I completely lost that one, had to go to another one. Kind of like a Lee Trevino low shot swing. That stopped working yesterday. Last night I found this swing where I take it a little bit inside, go over the top, and kind of hit across it on my iron shots. On my driver, I do kind of the opposite, take it straight back, drive my legs to hit that from the inside. Sounds a little bit confusing, but it worked today (laughter).

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, every day.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't know about that. Might be a new swing tomorrow. This one worked today. I'll find out tomorrow on the range if it's still there. Otherwise, I have to look for something new. That's the toughest thing about this game. It's not that you lose it overnight. We lose as well. You're happy if you shoot balls on the range and it's still there from the previous day. Otherwise you're in for a tough day again. Sometimes you have weeks where you can have the same swing, same feel. But usually that disappears very quickly.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I'm so used to changing every day. I mean, British Open was the same thing. I was hitting it terrible. I just tried to find something that worked, you know, to get the ball around. It was the same thing today. Today worked better than what I hoped for. I mean, I 2-putted the three par fives, and I made two pretty easy birdies on the two other holes. Apart from that, I hit pretty much every green.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I had a really good one from PGA last year, and probably first ten weeks this year, which was the longest stretch I ever had in my life. That swing was you take it kind of straight back, then I almost threw the club out in the downswing. I'm not sure if I really did that, but that's what it felt like (laughter). It worked. Like I said, usually they don't last that long. I mean, then when you have a swing that has worked, you try to find it again. And that's always impossible. You look and look for something that's gone.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, pretty much. You can find one shot, one swing where you know this is not going to go left, it's going to go right or the other way around. The worst one is like yesterday, I stood on the tee, I didn't know if it was going to go right or left. Then you can't even shoot for the left, you slice it, you might hook it also. That's the worst feeling.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. If you ask a lot of the pros, we have that feeling much more often than you guys really think. It looks good and confident from the outside, I guess. But if you would have been able to read or hear all the players' thoughts when they're hitting shots, you'd be surprised.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah. This is definitely one of the big ones all year. I mean, if you could pick one, this would be one of the ones you would pick if you wanted to win one beginning of the year. Of course, everybody's going to be a little bit tired. I mean, it is the last tournament. It's been a very long year. But I'm sure everybody's, you know, trying their best to win this one because it's definitely a big one.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Too much (laughter). I'm going to go to a few places. I'm going to play the Mexican Open. I've been invited to Sun City, Million Dollar Challenge. I'm going to do the Johnnie Walker Super Tour with Ernie, Faldo and Woosnam.

JESPER PARNEVIK: All right.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Three, I hit a driver and a 9-iron to about four feet, five feet, yeah. Hit the 2-iron to about 15 feet there. Made two birdies there. It was probably the only two birdies all day on that hole.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I 2-putted from just short of the green on 5. Driver, 2-iron, short of the green. 2-putter from there. No. 9, I sliced my tee shot a little bit, so I was in the rough. I hit the 3-iron up there about 25 feet and 2-putted. Where else did I make birdie?

JESPER PARNEVIK: 13. A driver, 3-wood, to about 45 feet, then 2-putted.