PAUL AZINGER: After I won here, I made it all the way to the Top 20 in the World Rankings and I stayed there for a while. It wasn't until two years ago -- 2003 is when I had my really bad year and last year I finished 126th. Those are really the only two horrendous years I've had since I've been on TOUR.
Two years ago, my back was really bad and I pulled out of probably seven or eight tournaments because of my back. I made a swing change at the end of 2003 and my back has not affected me one single bit since then. I've bent over more from the waist and took less pressure off my lower back somehow, and that's made the big difference for me.
Last year, I was in the midst of a lot of different things I was trying to do and I became more of a technical player. And I'm not a technical player; I'm kind of a feel player, and I would like to have no lessons this year, you know, or maybe one or two.
Tiger, well, he's getting lessons, he's third on the Money List and I'm 123 shots or spots worse, so just wasn't good for me. I hit a lot of balls -- I didn't hit a lot of balls; I played a lot of golf in the off-season. In fact, I played many rounds where I just went to the first tee and didn't even warm up. So I'm trying to own what I'm doing and not trying to feel it on the range and hope I've got it on the course.
Q. The 40-something-year-old guys on the leaderboard, any explanation for that?
PAUL AZINGER: Maybe just experience. I think play is a factor on this course because of the greens and the way to play shots. The reality that you're not going to hit fairways is something that all of us know. You're just not going to hit the fairway here, you can't. You hit good drives and they roll in the rough. That's just the way it is.
So, mainly I think probably on the greens, older players, they understand the greens a little better than somebody who is first-timing it.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Paul, thanks.
End of FastScripts.
