NEC WORLD SERIES OF GOLF

August 19, 1997

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: Improvement - not much game-wise. I am trying to find something right now. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong, but I need to hit a lot of balls in the next couple of days.

JESPER PARNEVIK: If one is going to decide it -- I don't think he is thinking that way, but I think he is just hoping that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: My best chances, of course, are if Olazabal last couple of weeks -- I don't know how much money he needs, but I think, I don't know, the top 3 might do it for him. Yeah. So, I mean, he is very -- I don't know. He is struggling a little bit with his game right now. But, being the guy he is, I think he can pull it off.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Like I said last week, you want Nick on the team no matter it -- even if he is not playing 100%. You know he is going to come through. It is up to him, coming last match or whatever. Just the way he performed last Ryder Cup and especially in the last one where he actually took the very crucial point against Curtis, and just his name, I think, brings a lot of, I don't know, puts more weight to the European team as to maybe having him on the team.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I am just not able to hit the shots I would like to hit. I get around the course pretty good. From the outside it doesn't look that bad, but from the inside it does. It is just, you know, some weeks you feel comfortable hitting whatever shot you need to hit. And, in the last couple of months, I just had to more improvise a lot and hit shots that I might not -- that I had hit early on this year. Before the British Open, I was not really playing the way I wanted and it kind of stayed the same after that. It was more of -- it was because it was the British Open. I was doing well there. I mean, I could have, maybe if it wasn't such a high rough last week, I probably could have got around there pretty good as well. But, my 8-over was actually pretty good for the way I was hitting it. That was a course that you had no chance if you were not hitting it well, so-- That is what everybody wants to do. It is nothing really. I think about like I should have put it -- it is not one of my goals, if you want to put it that way. I mean, a win is not the first thing on my agenda. Right now I just would like to play some good golf again. Around the course? Nine holes. (Impressions) It is a very tough course. The rough is not high as last week, but you still have to hit it very straight and it is a beautiful golf course. I mean, it is in perfect condition. Probably need -- they don't need more rain to make the greens a little bit firmer, but still a very challenging course. I can't really see how Olazabal shot 61. That is unbelievable. We were talking. I was struggling with my swing going into the British Open. It hasn't improved a lot after that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I mean, I was -- I have been a little bit tired the last couple of weeks or so because I had -- two really big weeks for me was British Open and the Scandinavian Masters, played there, my home country, so that is always a very tough week because it is a lot of press, a lot of people and all that.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think it looks pretty strong. I mean, pretty much every year, the last few years at least, I mean, the U.S. team has been looking stronger than the European team, I think, on paper. But, the Europeans always kind of raise their game a bit and have been able to pull it off. But, I mean, they have a very strong team this year, I'd say, the Americans. The Americans are very involved, yes. But, it just seems, I don't know, I thought the U.S. had a big advantage last year, especially on the U.S. Open type of golf course and playing in the America, all that, and I guess the teams are so close that, I mean, it is going to end up very even. I mean, I can even see it because the matches are so close that it could be a big win for one of the teams just because it is usually ending up on the 18th or 17th holes -- seems like every match can go either way. And the last four, five times, it just ended up real close. It is my home country. It is the only European event we have in Sweden. It has been something that I have probably known since I was three years old. I think that what is when I was first on TV. And, I mean, I always been known being his son forever. And then when golf is really booming in Sweden right now as it has in the last ten years, so, now I am a little bit more recognized because of my game. But, I am still my father's son. Son of the comedian. That depends what you mean by good months. Not too many days like today. But, I'd say -- well, three months it is good. Courses are probably good for one month, the courses maybe end of April, but then they are so bad. We play on winter greens and things like that. But right now we had a great summer this summer. They are in really good shape. But, coming September is going to be terrible weather again. I think, first of all, I think when you are young you don't need to play twelve months out of the year because I think you gain a lot of experience just handling or playing ball, just doing different sports. You play tennis. You play ice hockey. You play soccer. You play squash. And, you grow up getting a good feel for all the sports and when summer comes along, you know, you are so keen on playing golf that, you know, that is all you do all summer. And, until you are 16 or 17, I think that is enough to play those months. Of course, we have indoor ranges like tents, you can practice in the wintertime. If you are good enough, you kind of maybe get picked for the Swedish boys' team. You might play some competition against the English and French boys' team and so on. When you are through with college in Sweden, some guys go over to the States and go through college there as well.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. Yeah, my father actually has a golf show now. It is not on the range. He does it on stage. What he has done is -- little bit like what are they called, Jake and the Flounders. They redo their famous songs and so on. He takes old traditional Swedish songs and puts like golf lyrics on them and things like that. And, you tell golf jokes and -- I don't know how he does it. He builds it up for about an hour about golf.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, at least.

JESPER PARNEVIK: He is an impersonator in the beginning. Well, that is what he does.

JESPER PARNEVIK: He tries. I mean, he puts enough hours in to try --

JESPER PARNEVIK: Johan called me up last fall and kind of talked about it. And he works for this clothing company called Diesel for a long time. He said he was going to start his own company. And, he just thought that in his mind, he thought golf clothes was getting a little bit boring, too, casual. He thought like all the golfers nowadays, he thought, were wearing kind of like tennis shirts and regular casual shirts and he thought golf is no longer a fashion like it was in the '60s, and '70s. If you were a golfer, it was a fashion that went with golf. So, he just wanted to bring back that and kind of style again and so on. He realized you don't really buy golf clothes. You can use a shirt for tennis, whatever. At the same time he wanted to do it fashionable so you can go from the golf course to a restaurant without kind of looking, you know, too casual or whatever. The thing was there. I saw Tom Weiskopf win. I mean, I thought if he can win with the pants he won with, I mean, I could definitely wear my purple pants, no problem. Usually when it is this hot, I don't like to get my shirt all drenched like last week. It was, if you didn't wear an undershirt, you were absolutely wet after just five balls on the practice range, and I just feel more comfortable wearing it that way.

JESPER PARNEVIK: This is probably the most frustrating game ever invented. I mean, it drives you berserk most of the time, so you definitely have to have a good, what should I say, well, view of life and everything because it could drive you insane completely, for sure. I mean, like before I got to where I am now, where when I am playing well, they thought -- that is the thing, though, I mean, if you are not doing well and you do something different, they think you are crazy, you don't have a clue. But, if you are doing okay, you can do pretty much whatever you want. So-- Yeah, sometimes, but he is very supportive. He goes to most of the big tournaments and so on. He went to Augusta and the British Open this year.