BUICK OPEN

August 10, 2000

Woody Austin

WOODY AUSTIN: First 5 in a row. I hit it about four feet on 10, made birdie. Hit 6-iron on No. 11 to about probably about 15 feet, I guess, and then 12, I hit it about six feet. 13, I made a great -- good bunker shot from under the lip and then made about a 12-footer on 13. Then I almost chipped it in on 14, so I chipped it about a foot on 14. So that was the first five. 16, I hit it about six feet with a wedge. Let's see. 18, I hit it just a little bit to the right in the right bunker, barely got it out of the bunker and I made about, I guess, about a three and a half, 4-footer for bogey. Nine 1-putts in a row. Started out on No. 1, I hit 3-wood on the front left of the green about 111 feet away from the hole, hit a pretty good first putt just trying to get myself a chance to make the second one and I left it about probably eight, ten feet short and made that from about ten feet. Made a great putt on No. 11 to -- No. 2 to keep my momentum going. I thought I hit a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway, but the way the course is playing today, it rolled through the fairway behind the overhanging tree and I only had a wedge into the green and I tried to get it around the tree and it hit the tree and it went into the bunker and I made about a 12-footer there for par which was huge to keep my momentum going. Then I went back to hitting it close again. I hit a 5-iron on the par 3 about 6, eight feet, made that. I hit a wedge into the next hole, hit it about eight feet, eight to ten feet, made that. And then the bomb of the day was No. 6, I made about probably made 20-footer on 6, yeah, 20, 25 feet from the front left and that is when I felt like I couldn't miss. All the other ones were -- those were ones where you feel like if you give yourself those 8-, 10-footers you are going to make a bunch of them. You obviously don't think you are going to make them all like I did today, but when you then make a 20-footer that you even had all day, that is when you start thinking: I am going to make them. Then sure enough, I went to the next hole; made another one from about 12, 15 feet on No. 7. Then I hit a great 3-iron into No. 8 and thought I had made that putt to get to 11. I almost made that one from 25 feet and then the last hole I just hit a bad drive and I paid the price. Hit it over in the bleachers.

WOODY AUSTIN: I had four 2-putts. 14 1-putts, 11 birdies, and I missed a couple of greens. But I mean, like I said, I never really had to make a long one, so that was the key. I was making -- I was making all the ones that you feel like if you give yourself an 8-, 10-footer you got a great chance to make and I made them all. I literally made every putt I looked at today until the last hole. Last hole was only putt I could have easily made that I didn't make.

WOODY AUSTIN: Game-wise? Yeah, my game is pretty bad, so this was huge for me. I need some positive input about my golf game and this was very important.

WOODY AUSTIN: I don't know. I just -- it may just be one of those places because, in all reality, it is not a golf course that fits my game. I don't know why I play good here. I am not a person who makes a lot of birdies; not a person who makes a lot of putts. It was funny, I was telling the guys out there, the guys were ribbing me yesterday when we were in the locker room during the rain delay, Vijay Singh and those guys and they were talking about putting. I was laughing at them. I said, you don't know what putting bad is. You might putt bad for a tournament or two, but you don't know what putting bad is. To putt bad is to putt bad all the time and maybe putt good once in a while. He thought I was joking. I said, well, go back, look at the stats, I have never even cracked the top 150. Keith Clearwater came back to me this morning; he said, you know we went back checked all six years. He goes you weren't lying. So I mean, I don't know why -- like I said, I played better in the U.S. Opens. I have only played in two U.S. Opens and I played pretty darn good. I like it when par is a good score. I like it when if you are a good ball-striker and you can just hit a lot of good shots and make a lot of pars, and grind it out, I do very well in those, Colonials and stuff like that, I almost won Colonial my rookie year also. Then I come here twice now, I have shot 63 which is, by far, the lowest round I have ever shot in any tournament in six years and it's at the same place, so I don't know.

WOODY AUSTIN: A long time. I played so bad these last three and a half years it feels like and eternity. When you are struggling for almost four straight years to keep your job down to that last month, it is one of those things-it is like you barely keep your card and you think, okay, well, I can get a fresh start next year. But if you grinded it out all the way through almost into November, then you are starting back up in January. It is kind of hard to refresh your batteries. Then you get off to another bad start every February, January, and March and then you go through the grind three straight years in a row. It is kind of hard to feel real confident about your game.

WOODY AUSTIN: No, only thing I can think of, I mean, if you talked to anybody, everybody says these are the best greens on Tour every year, and I just think that considering I played late in the afternoon on very hot kind of a muggy day, the greens still held up so well. Whereas, I think if you talked to a lot of guys -- those afternoon rounds are the tougher rounds because the greens get choppy and beat up and the ball did not bounce that bad today. The ball really stayed on the ground and rolled really good. I just think these greens just, for some reason, are just the best that we play every year.

WOODY AUSTIN: No, this was a dream round. Like I said, I literally made every putt I could have made until the last hole. Everyone that I could have made I made until the last hole.

WOODY AUSTIN: I have been good to myself this year. I have been putting with that one quite a while. Usually if it's not going well, I carry a lot of them with me and I may mess with a lot of them on the practice rounds and in the Pro-Ams, but it seems like as soon as Thursday goes around I go right back to that one, so I have been sticking with it. It hasn't brought me the dividends until today, but I have rolled it good a few times this year. I just haven't made them and today they just -- the hole jumped in the way.

WOODY AUSTIN: It depends on who you are talking to. Titleist, it is 35 and a half I think based on their scale.

WOODY AUSTIN: Everybody knows it, that is me. I get asked that all the time. That is total frustration and like I said, it is one thing to putt bad like I said, I am -- I know I am never going to be Brad Faxon; never going to be Loren Roberts or anything like that, but I was them today. That is all I have ask is just to see it every once in a while because I know the best parts of their game are putting. The best parts of my game, when I am playing well, is ball-striking. But, sure, it would be nice one year just to be 80th. I am not -- like I said, I am not even greedy. 80th is still 70 spots better than I have ever been. That is pretty -- that is still pretty phenomenal. So these guys that say they don't putt good and they are number 20 or No. 15 or they don't know what putting bad is. That is what I said, you might putt bad for a week or so or; maybe even a month, but you don't know what putting bad is.

WOODY AUSTIN: Well, I mean, putting bad is when even when you are putting well and rolling it well, they don't go in. That is what I consider -- I consider -- my caddie sits there and tells me I have a great stroke and the ball looks really good. I said, yeah, but if it doesn't go in, it doesn't matter. You could have the ugliest stroke in the world, if the ball doesn't go in -- Tiger has proven that. Everybody -- the big thing that people told me for a while, especially those first couple of years was if you hit so many greens, if you are hitting it so well and hitting greens, you are never going to be low in putting because you give yourself too many chances, you can't make them all, so you are always going to be hot. Well, David Duval at the start of last year and Tiger this year are proving that theory wrong and he proved it at the Open with I don't know if you know the stats, 47 1-putts in 72 holes is ungodly.

WOODY AUSTIN: This one. That is what Tiger had. That is pretty darn scary. So when you are making every 8-footer for par and every -- like he did at both Opens, I mean, every time he got himself in trouble he made -- if you are doing that, and you were hitting it as good as he does, then you are unstoppable.

WOODY AUSTIN: Not even close. Way better than I have ever had. Landslides. Like I said, I made every putt I could have made until the last hole. That I can't ask for anything better than that.

WOODY AUSTIN: Well, that is like I said, that is the hard part. People sit there and say, well, you can practice, you can practice. Maybe you don't practice enough. Well, you know, it is just like anything, I think, everyone, if you look over time and everybody talks about it. Everybody was given certain parts of the game better than the other. Their weak parts, everybody knows what everybody's weakness is. Well, that just happens to be my weak spot so no matter how much I practice and work on it, it is still going to be my weaker spot because that is just the way my makeup is just like everyone around. When they say Nicklaus was, in his prime, the greatest -- he was not a good wedge player. Okay, so he had a weakness. Well, when Tiger wasn't winning every week, everybody said, well, he couldn't hit his wedges the right distance and he didn't make the putts he should make. Well, now he does everything right. You know, then if he putts bad like he supposedly putted bad at the Western, well, he can't make anything better than a seeing eye dog. Well, if he putted bad from one week, like I said, you don't know what putting bad is until you do it for a long period of time. Not just one week; in between winning two majors. (laughter) That is just somebody who is too used to making everything.

WOODY AUSTIN: He said, "I couldn't make anything even with a seeing eye dog." I thought that that was a pretty good quote. But like I said, one week does not make you --

WOODY AUSTIN: I have four. I tried to practice with a Bullseye because you got to hit it right in the middle and then I have two putters identical to themselves with different medals and then one other one in case I am really putting bad.

WOODY AUSTIN: No, like I said, there is certain times like I said, if I putted bad the week before, you know, I may start out the following week with the same putter, the -- different medal and see if it's going to feel good that week and I will practice with it, but it just seems like the putter I putted with today always feels the best, but it is one of those things you are still -- it is just like anything, this sport is all about, I could have played -- I could have hit it as good as I did today and shot 70 and no one would have talked to me. But the only reason why I am here is because I actually putted good today. So I could have walked into the locker room, like I have many times and gone, you know, man I putted like a dog today. They said, what did you shoot. Well, I shot 70 or 69. Well, you couldn't have putted that bad. Well, trust me, I could have shot really low. Then they think you are just lying to them. Then you go and you have a day like today; now everybody is going to sit there and now I am going to get ribbed at see, you make everything all the time. So�.

WOODY AUSTIN: Not when it comes -- when you have struggled as much as I have, it is just a matter of taking advantage when it comes and this was a first time I have taken advantage a good round. It was nice. A lot of fun.

WOODY AUSTIN: Like I said, no, it has been a long time since I played a good round of golf. I have played flashes of nine holes. I played some good nine holes where I have shot 32 or 31 to make a cut or to do whatever, but I had not put two nine holes together there a long, long time. So this was a lot of fun to actually -- when I bogeyed No. 18 to go back to 5-under the first nine holes, it was very important to me to keep it going to the other side. I didn't want to shoot 5-under today because that would have been the exact same MO that I have had for four years now. So for me to birdie one; then make that save on two; then make a couple more; then get the momentum back and to finish out the round, that was huge for me because now I felt like I maybe turned that small little corner and now maybe I can start being a little bit more positive, a little bit more aggressive, and not worrying about kind of falling off.

WOODY AUSTIN: I think I found it last week. I started to hit the ball very well last week. Hit it pretty decent at the John Deere the week before and I felt like I found maybe a swing key for me that maybe I had been missing for a long time and when I went to The INTERNATIONAL I hit the ball very well at The INTERNATIONAL. I almost holed it out of the fairway like four times. I hit it under a foot like four times. I hit some really good shots and was really feeling like I was doing a lot of good stuff and I was unfortunate I didn't make the Sunday cut but I felt like, okay, maybe I found that key. Then I went and played a Pro-Am in Lansing on Tuesday the Michigan International and my team won and I played really well and that was the key. I felt like on Tuesday I played one of the best rounds I played in almost ten years. So then I came out yesterday and we only played nine holes, but I shot 31 on the back nine in my nine holes. So I was -- it was nice to bring it right back into today. So I feel like I have got some momentum going. I think I found a very important key for me.

WOODY AUSTIN: I certainly was.

WOODY AUSTIN: It is a great Pro-Am. It is a lot of fun. We get to act like some little kids on Monday and drive like idiots and then Tuesday it is a great Pro-Am one of the rare Pro-Ams where it is an all out scramble so there is not so much emphasis on the amateur, not so much emphasis on the pro because everybody hits it and it is a lot of fun. So yesterday was unfortunate, we got rained on or whatever, but I played very well for those nine holes so I feel like I have got a little momentum going and hopefully I can keep it going.

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