THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 22, 2002

Carl Paulson

TODD BUDNICK: Welcome, Carl Paulson, the leader at 6-under par, right now. Probably the first thing people want to know about is you are 0 and 4 cuts this year but I know you have had some personal difficulties.

CARL PAULSON: I have, yeah.

TODD BUDNICK: That probably played a part in that.

CARL PAULSON: It has. I was skipping Hawaii; then I was going to start at the Hope. Friday of Hawaii I got a headache and went to the doctor and spent three days in the hospital for viral meningitis, so, it took a couple of weeks to get back up to strength, and I went out and played a few events. Not too shabby, I missed the cut by a shot; then by a couple. When I was on the range in Tucson, my mom called and said my dad was going in for triple bypass surgery. And I played at Doral and Honda and it was no good. And so the last couple of weeks, I have just been working pretty hard on my game.

TODD BUDNICK: Tell us about the course today. Was it any different than yesterday?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah it was brutal (laughs). I played twice as well today as I did yesterday. The course is -- just every shot out there is really tough.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's start and go through your card real quick, bogey on 11.

CARL PAULSON: Yeah. I hit a pretty good drive and had about 240 to the front and 265, or something to the hole trying to ease a 3-wood back in there and -- first of all, it's a pin you can't go for the green unless you have got a 7-iron, so, I hit a terrible shot out in the water. Actually, I was pretty fortunate that that had happened because that settled me down and I went way back to being real conservative for a couple of holes, and ended up playing really conservatively still all day, but I birdied on 13.

I hit not so good -- I made about a 60-footer from the bottom slope, I hit 8-iron.

On 18, I hit a driver and a 3-iron and made about a 12-footer.

TODD BUDNICK: Par 3, big green.

CARL PAULSON: I can't remember. Oh, yeah, it has been a long day. I hit a great 6-iron to about three feet. 4 hit 3-wood and sand wedge to about eight feet.

Q. What does viral meningitis do to you? Is it flu- like?

CARL PAULSON: There's a lining in between your skull and your brain, and it gets inflamed and it just --

Q. What are the symptoms?

CARL PAULSON: Really, really bad headaches, real sensitivity to light. I went to my doctor. She said, "You need to go to the hospital immediately," which scared the hell out of everybody in the family. And I had a couple of CAT scans and spinal taps, and it was just a nightmare.

Q. You were in Orlando then?

CARL PAULSON: Yes.

Q. How long was the hospital stay?

CARL PAULSON: Three days.

Q. What was the treatment while you were there?

CARL PAULSON: A lot of morphine (laughs).

Q. So, it wasn't all bad?

CARL PAULSON: No. (Laughs) The first day was really, really bad because they had to do a bunch of tests before they could decide what to do and I was in a lot of pain. But once I had the morphine, I slept for a couple of days. Then Sunday morning, I woke up and I was okay; ready to go.

Q. This is January?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah. I was just getting ready to go out to the Hope.

Q. Right before the Hope?

CARL PAULSON: Yes.

Viral meningitis was like the angel like out of all the stuff I could have had. There was a ton of other stuff that -- they are all worse. They had me in isolation for a couple of days because they weren't sure if it was bacterial meningitis which is deadly and very contagious, luckily I didn't have that.

Q. How is your father doing?

CARL PAULSON: He's doing awesome. He walked 18 holes all day today.

Q. What was date of the operation?

CARL PAULSON: Friday of Tucson.

Q. What is your dad's name?

CARL PAULSON: Ned.

Q. When was he up and walking or how long did it take him to ---

CARL PAULSON: He was a marine corp pilot, so it was quickly as possible (laughs).

Q. Same day?

CARL PAULSON: (Laughs) Next day he was sitting up in a recliner eating lunch. It was amazing, he was marine corp pilot the way Robert Duval was in that movie.

CARL PAULSON: The Great Santini?

Q. Yes.

CARL PAULSON: Not quite.

Q. Once your situation got relieved and once you knew your dad was going to be okay did you feel a little bit of a weight lift off you to the point where you could concentrate on this game now?

CARL PAULSON: Absolutely. Obviously everything that happened was far more important than golf and you know, as soon as I found that he was better I went to work and went to work really hard. I practiced a lot. I still will because there's still come things that I need to work on. But -- and generally I don't play very well until the summer anyway, so I mean, this is not you know, a gigantic fluke that I hadn't played all that well, but the added stuff didn't help.

Q. Your family is pretty tight. Does your brother not live in your backyard?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah, next door.

Q. This must have been kind of rough on the whole crowd?

CARL PAULSON: It was. It was. My brother and I went up and they did the surgery up in Bethesda so we were up there for about a week, a little less than a week.

Q. First of all, don't mention anything more about the morphine because from the way you are playing they may decide to give you a drug test. But what was key to your round today because although you know, it was terrible out there, pretty steady round and you are in a good spot?

CARL PAULSON: Well, the key was after I had hit that horrible shot in the water on 11 I was playing too aggressively early and I went back to just trying to get it in the fairway and take an extra club and hitting it as easy as I could with the wind blowing around. I just stayed really patient and waited and waited and waited and I finally hit one, you know, I got lucky on 18, I hit a thin little bleeder out to the right, caught the slope, came down, made that putt, and you know, then I hit one like this (indicating about four feet) on the par 3. I was just waiting for good stuff to happen and trying to stay away from the bad stuff. If I made a mistake, the goal was not to compound it by making another one. If I was going to hit it in that deep rough then I was going to pitch out. But I was -- when I missed a fairway I was in a fairway bunker or in the first cut, so a lot of good stuff happened for me.

Q. With all that wind out there, are the greens holding up well and how did you putt today?

CARL PAULSON: They are holding up very well and I putted pretty well. It's hard to make putts when the wind is blowing especially when you are getting on fast undulating greens but I made the ones that I needed to make.

Q. You contended relatively early in your career at Disney in 1995 and since then it -- if you could capsulize in kind of a brief sentence what has been keeping you from getting to the next level, and contending in events like this which you are, what would that have been? What have you been fighting all these years?

CARL PAULSON: When I got out on Tour I was -- I almost wish I could have played a couple of years on the Nike Tour first. I came out right from college and I just -- I learned a lot in those years but I just played terrible with the exception of a couple of events. When I went back to the Nike Tour and really learned how to play golf and when I had to shoot good numbers when I am not playing well and got in contention a bunch and finally win a couple of events and win the money list I have always been a guy that just takes it one step at a time. I wish I could skip a couple, but I feel like I am on my way. I am still young. I am only 31 years old. For golf, I am relatively young for -- have a lot of experience for that age, so I think what you are talking about is not too far in the near future if it's not this week, but contending more consistently, that's the -- I will play well but I will play well in spurts; then I will play poorly in spurts. If I can get myself to play more consistently I will be a much better player, money-wise, and position on the money list and that kind of thing.

Q. Working with a coach?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah Butch Leibler, I started taking lessons from him when I was about 13.

Q. Where he is out of?

CARL PAULSON: Virginia Beach.

Q. I heard on television them saying obviously you haven't had weekend experience this year, just tell us how you will react playing a tournament like this, on this course, you know, having not been there recently?

CARL PAULSON: I mean, who is to know. (Laughs) I am just going to go out there and try and stay as relaxed as I can and play. This is obviously -- with as bad as I had been playing and missing so many cuts and all of the stuff I had gone through, this is a pleasant surprise but like I said, I knew I was playing pretty well. I didn't have any expectations coming into the tournament so I wasn't going, "okay, that's exactly where we're supposed to," it was just playing golf. Like out there today, I looked at the leaderboard once, I think right around the turn and somebody was 8-under or 9-under maybe. There were ---

Q. DiMarco?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah, there were a couple of 7-unders, I am saying: Hang in there, hang in there. I saw the leaderboard again on 8 which was my 17th hole and I was leading by a couple, so I was just playing, you know, just playing -- missed a couple of 15-footers, but pars are really good out here right now.

Q. How much tougher do you think the course is from yesterday afternoon, early this morning, to now?

CARL PAULSON: Twice as hard. At least twice as hard.

Q. Your 69 today was how much better than yesterday's?

CARL PAULSON: I played probably twice as well today than I did yesterday.

Q. Are there any holes out there today, a lot tougher today, other than the obvious 17 or 18?

CARL PAULSON: Any hole that you play after 17 is (laughs) -- that hole is -- what a nightmare, my heart right must have been 190 on that tee. (Laughs) 140 yard shot, could barely draw the club back. But it was really tough wind with that pin, it was coming across and in and luckily we all got it on land, so -- but I don't think there's probably any as tough as 17 and 18 but there aren't any easy ones. Every now and then you can -- you will hit a good drive like on 4 and have a perfect yardage, 110-yard sand wedge downwind, but like I had a perfect yardage today, but if you have got in-between yardage there that's a tough shot. There aren't a lot of easy shots out there.

Q. Enough wind to firm the greens up considerably?

CARL PAULSON: They are starting to firm up. If it blows all afternoon, and we have some nice sunny days on this weekend, Sunday it should be getting pretty firm.

Q. What did you do last week, hang around the house?

CARL PAULSON: Yeah, I got together with David Morland and we played a couple of games and just trying to stay sharp and Scott McCarron stayed at my house last week so was kind of having fun with him hanging out.

End of FastScripts....