THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 30, 1996

Woody Austin

WOODY AUSTIN: I played really solid. I hit every fairway, so the golf course isn't too hard from the middle of every fairway. But I hit a few squarely iron shots. I had one real bad hiccup. I caught kind of a mud flier on 13 and you hit the ball 30 yards further than I should have hit it with the golf club I was hitting and just ended up making double but other than that, I played as solid as I am going to play if you hit it in the middle of every fairway you are going to play pretty good.

WOODY AUSTIN: I hit about twelve feet on the first hole made it. With a 5-iron. Made great putt from probably a good ten feet on second hole for par after I chunked it from the fairway on two just short. Then I made another I probably made a 20-footer on 20, 25 footer on 3. Hit ago 9-iron into 3. And then my only bogey was 4, I hit what I thought was perfect shot good 4-iron right at the flag we are posing it thinking I made one and hit the hill you spun off the green and rolled down rolled up against the collar and made bogey. After that, my bad shot on the front or my bad mistake on the front was number 7, the par 5, hit perfect drive and I hit 3-wood right at it, ball landed on the green rolled right by the hole, went just past the hole of the green I couldn't have been 15 feet from the hole and I didn't get it up-and-down and made par so that was kind of got me going again as far as trying to get motivated, get going I was probably getting little too lethargic playing so solid, and I got to number 10 and I hit perfect shot into 10 probably about six feet left of the hole with a 6-iron. Made birdie. Perfect drive on 11 again which enabled me to go at the green I hit 3-wood I thought again I hit another 3-wood that was right at it that landed, a foot from being absolutely perfect right at the flag right at the bunker but it hit short of the green right of the bunker hopped into the bunker, hit a perfect bunker shot probably six feet past the hole and made that. Then I made a good up-and-down from the back bunker on the next hole, making another probably 5, 6-footer and then my problems I had on 13, but then, I didn't let it bother me because I felt as though I just got there was nothing I can control over that. I made a good swing hit the shot I was trying to hit. The ball just took off, and so I was fortunate that I didn't let it bother me and I stemmed up on the next hole and hit perfect 9-iron into the next green about 108, ten feet and made that for birdie so I got one of them right back so felt really good and I was hitting the ball so solid stepped up on 15, hit a perfect drive right in the middle of the fairway knocked 2-iron on the green about 30 feet for eagle and 2 putted. And then I made 3 pretty routine pars except for my first putt on 18 was pretty darn ugly. I knocked it about eight feet by. And made it coming back, so.....

WOODY AUSTIN: No, I never hit it in the rough.

WOODY AUSTIN: Still playing pretty long. I don't think any of the because really bounced until the ends of the day. Steve Stricker had a couple bounce form at the end of the day but he still talking about hitting a driver lower hard draw, otherwise I don't think balls really bounced, but it is starting to soften up. When you are hitting a driver it is coming down in there pretty soft. You just don't know if you got a little mud under it or whatever, and it caught me and John Daly on 13 because his ball just -- his ball just whistled dead left. He hit it so far left you are going there is no way his ball should have gone that far.

WOODY AUSTIN: I hit 6-iron. I was thinking about hitting 5. I mean, and my caddy said, no, you can get 6 there no problem. So I was just going to hit nice little draw on of an the ball just took off and went that way, just never even I mean when you hit a shot you can tell when it squirts or when the mud takes, because it reacts to it immediately. It is not like you sliced it or you hooked it. The because just takes off, off-line and it took off off-line 30 yards; it was just that way and it went over the bunker and it would have rolled back down in the bunker would have been easy bunker shot, but it got caught by the ^ rake, so now I had to stand in the bunker and hit a shot about chest high and try and just chip it over the bunker and I hit a good shot but it didn't go far enough hit in the lip and rolled back in the bunker and didn't get it up-and-down.

WOODY AUSTIN: I have been playing -- took last week off, but I was playing so good up to it. I had a great chance to win at Houston. I had a good chance to win at Colonial. I didn't play well at all on Sunday at Houston. Putted terrible, then at Colonial I played great on Saturday and Sunday just made nothing shot 1 over, still, you know, didn't finish that far back. I just couldn't get the ball in the hole so I am playing extremely well. I am hitting the ball real well just a matter of putting today. I got off to a great start with those putts early; got my confidence up about making some putts and I putted good. If I putt good, I can play with anybody. If I don't putt good, I am just like anybody else. This game comes down to -- there are so many great players out here, the game comes down to who is putting the best that week - the way I look at it. You are not going to shoot 20 under par like Lehman and 19 under par like Norman last year if you remember putting bad on this golf course it is just matter of who putts the best because there is going to be so many guys that are playing it is just who putts the best.