U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 10, 1997

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think that is 4.

LES UNGER: 4 seconds, I think. That is good. What are your aspirations this week? How many times have you been able to practice here?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I played two rounds now, and I have to say, it is a pretty tough course. It is my first U.S. Open so I never experienced this type of golf course before and it was at least as tough as I heard they are every year and I think you have to bring your A-game this week.

LES UNGER: Some of the holes - great Norman preceded you here and he talked about some of the length at a some of the holes, your length off the tee versus some of the others. What does this course force you to do, perhaps, that you don't face other places?

JESPER PARNEVIK: You just got to keep it in the fairway, for sure. I mean, I don't know if length is a big advantage here because you just have to be so straight. But, at least, for me, I am not long enough to get to the par 5s. I think it might be one or two guys in the field that could have a chance at the par 5; that would be maybe Tiger, Daly and maybe Vijay Singh might get close, the rest of the field are just going to play a 3-shot hole. So, most of the time I think accuracy is much bigger advantage than length actually.

LES UNGER: We will entertain questions, please.

Q. Could you walk us through maybe going back several weeks or months even how you prepare yourself build yourself up to play in a tournament of this magnitude, what do you do mentally, physically that is maybe different than what you do week-to-week playing regular tournaments?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think you just try to mentally prepare yourself. It is not that much of a - what should I say - intended effort, whatever. It is more, I think, your subconscious mind, kind of focus in on this event. I played Kemper last week and felt like I was kind of waiting for this week to start. Didn't do very well, shot 8 over par there. It felt like my focus was elsewhere. And, I think it is more that you try to maybe get your bad shots out of the way last week and keep your good ones for this week. But, you have to come here with a swing, or, at least, one shot you can trust. I think that is very important because you have to be able to shape the ball here and if you can know your ball flight, like some weeks you just you hit and you hope it is going to stay in the middle, but this week, you have to be certain. So, you want to find that safe shot that you can find the fairway with all the time. And, you just have to be very, very mentally prepared to be able to focus for the five hours that it is probably going to take a round here because it is such a tough course. I think that is the biggest key to come here physically, mentally fit to be able to sustain the punishment of this course.

LES UNGER: How have you found the greens here?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, they are very good, I thought. Early in the week, I don't think they were at the speed that they wanted them. But, when I played my second round, it felt like with the undulations they have here, they can't be that much faster because then it is going to be very, very severe because even though I played -- yesterday I played very well. I think I only missed the fairway once and I had a lot of good birdie putts on the front 9 and I was hitting my irons well. I was within 10, 15 feet within every hole. But, still, you can have a 10-footer breaking six feet. So, it is not as bad as Augusta, with the undulations, but you have some severe slopes on the greens. So --

Q. How do you feel about finishing on the par 3?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I don't think any of the players mind at all. I mean, I played with Mark McNulty. He had a good point yesterday that when you finish on the normal way on the par 4, par 5, all the players are going to hit the approach shots in different places. In time you put everybody back to the same yardage. Everybody will hit pretty much the same club, one or two -- well, one club might change. But, it wouldn't be, if you finish on the par 5 the guy that hits it very far, it is going to be able to reach it in 2; where the shorter guy wouldn't. In that sense you put everybody on the same starting line, so to speak. I mean, I can see maybe from the public's point of view that they maybe wanted -- their ideal finish is probably number 13 at Augusta something like that as the finishing hole. But, I don't think any of the players mind at all.

LES UNGER: Other than yourself, do you have a personal favorite for what you see out there, who might come to the floor here?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I have to say Colin Montgomerie is going to be one of my favorites in the U.S. Open because of the way he strikes the ball. He is one of the best strikers of the ball in the game right now. He is very, very straight and he hits a lot of greens and that is going to be key this week. You would not be able to scramble and kind of save a good score from bad play here.

Q. Do you have any thoughts about the Ryder Cup and still any you know, aspirations forgetting on that feel?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, I would love to get on the team. But, my feelings now, at the beginning of the year, I decided to play more over here. Kind of dedicate my season over here this year. And, I am still playing, you know, a lot in Europe. But not like before when I traveled back and forth. So, I am not eligible to get points for my play in Europe this year, so I have to rely on my pick, only chance to get on the Ryder Cup. I feel it is kind of out of my hands, so to speak, and that whatever decisions Seve makes in September, I just have to go with that.

Q. Have you had any communication with Seve?

JESPER PARNEVIK: A little bit. He is pretty tight, though. He doesn't want to reveal anything until the day he picks the team. I think he wants to keep everybody on an edge.

Q. Why is it that you can't scramble here? What are the reasons?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, because it is almost a shot penalty if you miss the fairway to start off with. If you get greedy and you try -- most of time you can only hit sand wedge out of the rough, just kind of move it back into the fairway. If you get greedy, it is very, very easy to get the club to close on you and you are straight over in the left rough. Same with the right rough, you try go for the green, pretty much going to be over in the left rough 30 yards up. You can make a big number that way. So it is virtually impossible to get to the green if you miss the fairway. If you miss the greens, so you don't get up in the bunker, you are going to have a very, very tough time making it up-and-down.

Q. When you practice, what are you trying to accomplish? I watched a number of players out there just kind of slopping it around putting -- when you go out there and play practice round what do you have in mind? Are you trying with some specific goal in mind or are you seeing which way the --

JESPER PARNEVIK: Trying to figure out where they are going to put the pins and so on, where you don't want to be past the hole or short of the hole where you don't want to let us -- let us say, the pin is -- let us see, a good hole, 10, 11, 12, I think it is 13, for example, I mean, if the pin is anywhere back of the middle there, you knock it past the pin, you are pretty much done. I mean, you cannot 2-putt or you cannot get it up-and-down, just things like that where it is a no-no to miss, where you want to keep it short of the pin and so on. On what holes you have to play safe..... I mean, you are going to probably see some guys, not even tee off with driver on the par 5s because if you would miss the fairway on the tee shot, you wouldn't reach the par 5 in 3, so on, just got to see a lot of players play a different game this week than I'd say -- a lot of safe play is going to be -- to avoid big numbers is going to be probably the key this week.

Q. How does this rank among the most difficult courses you have played and have any courses that you have seen that resembles this that you have played before?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. I have never seen a course that resembles this one. This is probably one of the tougher ones I played being that it has no real hassels. I mean, it is a very straightforward course. Pretty much no water, maybe three holes with water. And the trees set up really in play -- it is just a very, very good sign, very tough course from -- a very straightforward course, so to speak; you, of course, where the wind is going to be a big factor or it has to be a big factor, and you, of course, where the greens have to be firm and fast for the course to play tough. But I'd say this week, whatever weather we are going to have is going to play pretty tough. It is probably one of the toughest ones I have seen so far.

Q. The card says 7,200 yards, but a few players yesterday were saying that due to the lack of roll, it is actually playing closer to 7,500 is that an accurate assessment?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, I wouldn't know because I don't know -- I never pay attention to how long the courses are, but it is playing very, very long. I mean, on a normal, even normal PGA TOUR event, we wouldn't hit that many iron shots from 5 and down. But, this week it seems like pretty much every other hole you are going to hit 3-, 4-, 5-irons into the greens. And, like I said before, if the greens get firm, it is no telling what the score is going to be like.

Q. International players have not had a whole lot of success at the Opens; only 2 wins since 1970. Is it something that you think Americans get more psyched up to play or does the course favor them? Any idea?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, I think -- I mean, one of my reasons why I went and got my U.S. Tour card was I wanted to first of all, get into all the Majors. I feel it is a little bit easier to play in the Majors if you play on this Tour and secondly was to do well on -- especially the newest Majors is a big advantage to play over here. It is very, very tough to come from, let us say, the German Open last week and come over here and play this week because it is completely different golf course. And, in Europe we would never ever play a course that even comes close to this one. I mean, you would never play rough -- you have your Tour events like Westchester where the rough is going to be tough, but in Europe, we never ever play that. You never play a course where you have a foot of grass around the greens where you have to hit a soft lob shot and you never play courses that are this tight. So, I think it is more of a mental battle to come from a pretty wide open course where you know you can hit in the rough, so on, and all of a sudden you stand on the tee and you know you are going to be severely penalized every time you hit off-line shot. But, I mean, I told my caddie yesterday it would be lovely to have a course like this, maybe even a tighter one for your home course, because then all the other courses would be easy. Even when you get to the back 9, you start to think it is not as tight anymore. You kind of get used to seeing one lane of fairway going down and it kind of opens up the more holes you play. First few holes you, think this is unbelievable, standing over a 470 par 4, and it looks like you have to place -- to hit your driver. But, you get used to it after a while.

Q. What might have you picked up from playing with Annika Sorenstam?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Our games are probably as far a part as they can be. I mean, she is probably as machine-like of a player as you can get. She never misses a shot pretty much. And that is why the U.S. Open is just perfect for her. She usually never misses the fairway and iron shots are pretty much always on line. And, U.S. Open is a tournament that she should win every year. And for me, I mean, I hit my off shots more than once in a while. So, I think my chances might be a little bit more in the British Open actually, where you can actually recover if you miss a shot.

Q. Greg Norman came in here a few minutes ago and was talking about No. 6 in particular. Other players might almost view that as a par 5 and play it as such. Can you talk about looking at a par 4 as a possible lay-up situation; how would you play that and the dangers of that hole?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think most of the holes this week is -- the par on the holes are pretty much irrelevant because I think in this type of a tournament you just have to go out and try to shoot the lowest possible score off -- on every hole. Doesn't matter if it is par 3, 4 or 5 and a hole like No. 6, you just have to hit your 2 best shots to get -- to hit the green in two. You have to hit the perfect drive and you have to hit a dead solid perfect second shot probably 2, 3-iron. I mean, if you happen to miss your tee shot, all you got to do is lay up and hopefully hit the green on the third one. But, both holes, they change into par 4s from par 5s, so it is going to be very tough holes. I mean, 6 is -- if the green gets firm, there, it is going to be very tough to hit the green in 2 and same thing on number 10, I'd say it is going to be tough to hit the green too. But, like I said, I mean, you just got to try to shoot the lowest possible score even though it is a par 4 instead of a par 5.

LES UNGER: Thank you very much. We wish you good luck this week.

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