FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 23, 2000

Steve Pate

STEVE PATE: I played obviously pretty well. Certainly don't have ball striking under control. I putted extremely well. I have hit a lot of real good shots. Fortunately there is a lot of loose ones out there too. And I have gotten away with them pretty much for two days. When I have hit it close, I have made it, therefore, we have got 13 birdies.

STEVE PATE: That tree wasn't in my way. That shot was easy. Like I said, I got away with some bad shots. I got away with that tee shot. Half the time you are going to be chipping out from over there. I walked down there. I got a pretty decent lie and, not quite wide open, but virtually a wide open shot. That doesn't have to happen that way.

STEVE PATE: I feel pretty fortunate. This is the -- it is nice being in the position I am in. I am not real concerned about whether or not it is leading or not after two days. It is just nice to shoot a good score. If I was 7, 8, 9-under I would be just as happy. Obviously I haven't played particularly well this year and it is kind of a nice change of pace.

STEVE PATE: Absolutely. Even though they even out in the long run, generally seems like they are going in a streak - either all getting all good bounces or bad bounces. Every time I have had an opportunity to get a bad break it hasn't happened. Yeah, you swing a little -- it is a little easier to swing freely when, you know, as opposed to when you are hitting good shots, it is just turning out dead which happens more often than most of us would care to remember.

STEVE PATE: As opposed to yesterday -- as opposed to when I played yesterday morning?

STEVE PATE: Greens are a little firmer. They are not firm by any means, but they dry out over the course of the day, so when you get -- when I played yesterday morning, even shots coming out of the rough knocking balls out of the rough were still going to stop fairly quickly. That wasn't the case this afternoon. But any good shot would stop and the greens are a little smoother in the morning just because there hasn't been as many people walking on them. I don't imagine the greens are going to get firm this week because it is too hot. They will die. They have to keep watering them. So I think it is probably -- that is the way it is going to be in the afternoon, they are a little firmer, but they are not going to be hard.

STEVE PATE: I think some -- I have never played very well at all here. There are a lot of hard holes out here. You can make some big numbers, you know, only thing is you do have to make a lot of birdies because if you are hitting it well you can hit it close because the greens are soft. Even the hard pins, it is just -- Greens are really good, but bent grass in this kind of heat, if they don't water them, it is going to die.

STEVE PATE: Not really. I have had enough of them where I don't -- I don't really give it much thought while it is happening. Yeah, sitting here right now, yeah, it was great, 20-footer, 20-footer, 15-footer right in a row. Then I get a great break on 9. When it is happening I don't give it really much thought.

STEVE PATE: More of the same. This is not a place you can sit on a lead and try to make pars, so -- and that -- and the fact that there is 36 holes left -- might have a strategic change if there were five holes left and I was in the lead, but certainly not at this point.

STEVE PATE: Works into the schedule. I mean, this isn't the place I avoid by any means. If it fits in the schedule I come. I have family here that I like to see and I enjoy playing the golf course. I'd like to play better than I do, but, you know, it is -- you know, it is a fun tournament. The people here do a good job. I like coming here.

STEVE PATE: No. I don't really base my schedule on that. I just kind of play where I like to. I don't really care who is here.

STEVE PATE: Yeah, I didn't get hurt. I have had a couple of car accidents. I am fat. (laughs) But other than that, I am doing pretty well. .

STEVE PATE: That is a brutal hole.

STEVE PATE: If you don't drive it well, you can't -- you can be in the fairway and be behind the tree and if you miss the fairway, half the time you are lucky to be able to get it up over -- there is a creek that runs across the fairway; half the time you got to lay-it-up short of that and go in your third shot with a 7-iron or something. I hit it so bad that I go over the trees and had third shot from about 60 yards, but it is -- it is just a hard hole. My ball landed in the fairway only rolled just three inches into the long cut of rough and I didn't have anything. There is just -- if you don't hit a good drive, hopefully your second shot can be within 60 yards of the green.