BUICK OPEN

July 31, 2003

Carl Paulson

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Carl, for joining us. 6-under, 66. You played in a fun group. You and Mike played very well today. Talk a little bit about your round and then we'll go into questions.

CARL PAULSON: Well, I got off to a great start. I birdied the 1st hole, hit a great chip on the 2nd hole to get up and down. That kind of keeps the momentum going. I hit it close on 3, missed it. Getting into the groove, I could tell I was hitting the ball where I wanted to.

Never really did anything crazy. Just made a bunch of 10- to 20-footers on the front, got up and down on a couple of the par 5s, so... Nice to get off to a good start like that, though.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Anything in the recent weeks that suggested you were looking forward to playing here, shooting a low round?

CARL PAULSON: Actually, yeah, it's been an absolutely brutal year for me. Got off to a great start. Never played well on the West Coast. Finished 15th in Hawaii, 20th in Phoenix. I thought, "Man, this is going to be great." I got back east, and about a month ago I ended an 0 for 8 or 1 for 8. I mean, I was just playing horribly.

Started playing a little bit better, making a few cuts, grinding it out. Then last week I really played well. I only shot 1-under. I didn't make any putts. You know, going by the stats, I hit like 85% of my fairways, 80% of my greens, some good-quality shots.

Last couple weeks, you can kind of see it turning around, so it's been nice.

Q. Can you talk about what it's like when somebody else in the group is playing well, too? Does that help you or you're worried about your own game?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah, more often than not you'll get kind of a drafting effect like Mike was talking about. You know, you see a guy going well, "Doesn't make any sense why I can't make any birdies." Kind of frees you up a little bit. Or it can go the opposite way: "Why the hell is this guy making so many birdies and I'm not?" If you think about it that way, it can hurt you.

You see it a lot out here. You see two guys in a group play real well.

Q. Does the dynamic change at all when the guy who is going low, playing well, is a friend, somebody that you played a lot with?

CARL PAULSON: No. I've been out on either this TOUR or now the Nationwide Tour, this is my ninth year. Learned a few things in those nine years. Sometimes your friends play well; sometimes they don't play well. You just kind of got to worry about yourself out there.

Q. Has this course been good to you in the past?

CARL PAULSON: It's either been really good or really bad. I think I missed the cut the first three times I played here. A couple years ago I finished fifth. Last year I think I was in the Top 10 going into Sunday, didn't play very well.

Q. That's got to be a good feeling coming back to someplace where at least the last couple years you've had success?

CARL PAULSON: A lot of it depends on how you're playing. If you're playing well, you get to a course that you've had some good memories at, it makes it even better.

Q. Mike talked about 13. What were your impressions today of that hole, where that pin was?

CARL PAULSON: That's a par hole, reachable par 5. Par is a decent score.

Q. What has changed? It wasn't that long ago that everybody got to that tee and expected to make eagle.

CARL PAULSON: Well, that pin placement that they used today, the one that they've used in the past is about 10 feet further up into the green, and a little bit further over to the right. Maybe not 10 feet, but eight feet. That little shelf up there is probably from me to you and her to her.

If you're hitting a sand wedge in there, it's obviously going to spin. I mean, I had a brutal hole. I hit a tree off the tee, kicked it left, hit another tree. I had 260 from my third shot from the other fairway, hit it pin-high left, chipped it up there 10 feet and made it.

That pin placement, you put the pin on the left side of that green where it's a little bit flatter, and half the field is going to make a birdie on that hole. It's just that it's all in the pin placement. Like Mike said, there's really nowhere to say, "Okay, if I hit it over here, I'll have a good chance of getting up and down."

Q. Putting pins maybe someplace where they might not have put them a few years ago?

CARL PAULSON: That pin placement in the past, you know, if you look back and check the scoring average for the tournaments in the past with that pin placement, it will be higher than the other pin placement, regardless if it's closer to the ridge or not.

I think today it's just so close to the ridge that there's no room up there.

THE MODERATOR: Can we go through your birdies.

CARL PAULSON: No. 1, hit a good drive, kind of short of the green, wedged up about six feet and made it for birdie.

4 - I'm terrible at this.

MR. TAKER: Just the green, how many feet.

CARL PAULSON: 9-iron into the green, made about a 20-footer.

THE MODERATOR: 6?

CARL PAULSON: Pitching wedge about 15 feet.

THE MODERATOR: 7, par 5.

CARL PAULSON: Hit a driver, 3-wood, just short of the green, chipped it about five or six feet past the hole.

THE MODERATOR: 12.

CARL PAULSON: Sand wedge into the green, almost dumped it right on top of Mike's. Two or three feet.

THE MODERATOR: Then 15, par 4, 457 yards.

CARL PAULSON: I hit 8-iron about 10 feet.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Carl, for joining us. We appreciate it.

CARL PAULSON: Thank you.

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