BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 24, 1999

Steve Pate

STEVE PATE: Birdied the first hole, hit a driver and 9-iron about 35 feet, made it. Birdied the third hole, hit a 5-iron about six feet, made it. Birdied 6th hole, driver, 4-iron, sand wedge about eight feet, made it. Birdied 12th hole, hit 5-iron about eight feet, made it. Birdied the 14th hole, hit driver, 4-iron, sand wedge, about 12 feet, made it. Birdied 16, 3-wood, sand wedge about 18 feet, made it.

STEVE PATE: Not really. Got it on the green. It is not like I was dead. Wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Guess it beat the hell out of 20 yards left, but that is about all I can say for it.

STEVE PATE: It was. Either hit it an inch too far or too far right, take your pick.

STEVE PATE: Yeah, with two holes to go, I knew he had gotten to 26.

STEVE PATE: No. Still need to make birdies. Three holes to play. Walking to the 16 green, I think I saw 26 go up on the board.

STEVE PATE: No, hit it right where I was at. Didn't aim it in the right place. I do that a lot out here. That is why I never played particularly well here.

STEVE PATE: No. Not really. I went out and I played decent out there. Played pretty well. Just didn't putt well enough. Doesn't matter if he shot 59, or if John Huston would have shot 3 better. Really doesn't make any difference to me.

STEVE PATE: What is this his 9th win in 30 starts or something? What more can you say? If he doesn't jump to No. 1 in the world rankings, there is something seriously wrong with him.

STEVE PATE: Yeah, but that is not the first time. I played better than everybody but one guy. I guess you could say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn't really expect him to shoot 13-under, but I mean Fred or John could have shot low today too and they didn't. So, it is not really important to me who did it.

STEVE PATE: The bunker shot -- these bunkers are hard for me to spin it out of. I hit a decent bunker shot, but I flew it too far. It went 18 feet by, maybe, and hit it pretty much, you know, I pushed it just a hair. I thought it had a chance because it was breaking left. I was going in the high side. I pushed it right about to where it hit the hole. I mean, it was an inch too far right, but I had felt it had a good chance to go in anyway and didn't.

STEVE PATE: Two something, 205 to the front. 234 to the hole? This isn't my favorite shot to try to hook a 2-iron off of that, but somehow didn't look very good to aim to the left of the water and try to cut it in.

STEVE PATE: Yeah, today I played well. Hit a lot of good shots; just not enough of them. I didn't really, other than a you couple of tee shots, didn't hit any bad ones and I really didn't hit any bad putts. Misread a couple but, that is going to happen anywhere, especially out here. I have a tough time with these courses reading them. Did pretty good job this week for me here.

STEVE PATE: I didn't know that. That is a good thing. Is that what it was?

STEVE PATE: Biggest check I have ever made. I like our new TV contract. (laughter)

STEVE PATE: I don't -- I don't know. I have never done particularly well out here reading the greens. Indian Wells, I usually do a pretty good job. Out here, there is no general slope to the greens. There are just humps and bumps and a little bit of grain thrown in there and -- I don't know, I haven't played it enough to know all the putts. And, you play here once every -- once a year, one round, it is not -- it is not like playing the same course for four rounds and learning all the subtleties.