U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 12, 2001

Thongchai Jaidee

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I'm very proud to be the first Thai. Very proud to represent my nation, and I'm happy to be here.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I start as a 13-year-old. Now I'm an 18-year-old. I turned pro two years ago. 1999 was my first year as a professional.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I believe that the strongest part of my game is the mental part of my game. I'm a long hitter, but I really believe that the mental part is what separates me from the other players. A lot of players hit the ball a long way, as I do, but my big strength is the mental part.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: There's a big difference between here and the international courses, because of the different kinds of grass, the different kinds of courses. My experience on the American golf courses is limited, frankly, to the qualifier in Tarzana, California, and then training out in Palm Desert, California. The one thing I can say is that I have appreciated the quality of the courses here in America. In fact, I've joked that the tee boxes here in America look as good as the greens that I frequently play on in Asia. I'm very excited about the quality of the courses.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I actually like the weather here very much. It's very similar to the weather in Thailand. I thought that Palm Desert where I was training was a little hot this time of year, and feels like this, 93 degrees, and 90 percent humidity is perfect for me. All the players are complaining, but I love it. It's like playing at home.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: To answer the first question, I began as a youngster. My family lived near a golf course, and so I started playing when I was 13. I then joined the Army when I was 19 years old and was in the Army for 11 years. It's compulsory in Thailand for men to be in the military for two years, and I chose to continue and was in the military for 11 years. The mental discipline -- I was a paratrooper over there. That was part of what I did. I jumped out of perfectly good airplanes voluntarily, and the discipline and the focus and the work ethic that I found in the military there, I use some of those same principles and applies them to my golf preparation and play. In terms of the Asian Tour, itself, to explain the Asian Tour, Wanchai Mecchai, who is caddying, happens to be the tournament director for the PGA TOUR, and probably as well as anybody can describe what the Asian PGA TOUR does.

WANCHAI MECCHAI: He's planning to play in the Asian Tour this year. He will play until the end of this year. And then we come back to qualify at the U.S. tour, maybe the end of November.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: They have a Tour very similar to here, like in the United States, where we play weekly, and they go from country to country, and I was the leader in the money list, I was surpassed because I was training for the qualifier. But I intend to go back after this and continue in Singapore, and continue with the schedule over there.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I have not yet met Tiger Woods. And the people in Thailand, and myself included, look at Tiger Woods as the complete golfer. There's nothing missing in his game. There's been jokes about the fact that Tiger is half-Thai and he's all Thai. So the world hasn't seen what a full-Thai player can do. But I'd be happy to have any comparison with Tiger Woods.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: In terms of my decision to come qualify, I first came to Palm Desert, California, to work with Adam Schriber, my swing instructor, and this is actually my mental instructor, to work with my mental game. And we were at the Landmark Club, and I came out about five days to work with us, and that was my first trip to America, this was just in March. And after getting acclimated to what America was like, and getting a sense and a feel for the country, I felt more comfortable and making an attempt to qualify for the Open. And thus was interested then in coming over. I was exempted into the sectional qualifying, because of my status on the Asian PGA TOUR and came to California, and has been chronicled in other media. Basically in Tarzana all I did was flew to LAX, went to the motel room, and went from motel room to Thai straight to the golf course for five days. Didn't go anywhere else. My perception has been Palm Desert, California, and the places around there, and Tarzana and the Thai restaurants. I don't have a broad picture yet of what the United States is. In fact, when I was told that we were going to Oklahoma, I had to pull the map out and look where Oklahoma was, and didn't know where it was, and had no clue about it.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I'm 170 centimeters and 70 kilograms.

THONGCHAI JAIDEE: The very first thing that struck me was that you drive on the opposite side of the road. That was one thing. And everything here seems more comfortable, to be able to find shopping and go to different places and get whatever you want is a big difference for me. And another little difference is when these wonderful hotel rooms here that they put us up in, I choose to sleep on the floor, because the mattress is too soft. So I sleep on the floor with a towel under my head, because the pillows are too soft. It's a completely different thing. I spend $200 a night for a room, but I sleep in on the floor.