MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 7, 1999

Corey Pavin

COREY PAVIN: I was happy with the round and I drove the ball pretty well, which I need to do out there. The rough is pretty long. The course is playing very difficult, the greens are a little firm. When I saw the course in the morning I knew it was going to be a pretty tough day out there.

COREY PAVIN: I don't know if I changed my course, but it kind of makes you relax a little bit. You know you don't have to go out and make a ton of birdies, and you know par is a good score on a hole. And sometimes when the scores are a little bit higher, you're able to stay a little bit more patient in some ways, because you know that if you make par it's fine, you're not really losing any ground, per say.

COREY PAVIN: 9 I hit a driver and 4-iron in about 25 feet behind the pin and made it. 10 I hit driver, 4-wood about 25 feet and made that. 11 I hit driver, 7-iron about six feet for birdie. And 15 I hit driver, 3-wood on the left of the green, I was about of 60 feet and putted it about five feet and made the putt for birdie there.

COREY PAVIN: Pretty tough. I hit a 3-wood in. I just made sure I hit it in the fairway off the tee there. No matter what I do on that hole it's very hard for me to get on top of that hill. I'm basically going to hit it in that bank off the tee, and just have a long shot in. I hit it in the fairway, and I hit 224 or something to the hole, and cut a 3-wood up about 25 feet short of the hole, just below the ridge and 2-putted. It's a pretty strong hole.

COREY PAVIN: It was cold. I played yesterday in the Pro Am in the morning, and it was very cold. And I'm sure it's going to be cold tomorrow morning. There's no clouds now, so it's going to be cold.

COREY PAVIN: As opposed to July? It's cold for here. I think everybody would rather be in warmer weather. But I'd rather be in weather like this than when we used to play in July. It's kind of nice. It's refreshing. Maybe a little too refreshing at the moment. But I think it's going to warm up a little bit on the weekend.

COREY PAVIN: Yeah, obviously it would be nice -- I've been playing better, which I've been pleased with in general, but I know I can play a lot better than I have been, so obviously a win would be great. But three more days, and if I'm playing like this, I'll be in good shape.

COREY PAVIN: Yeah, I played reasonably well here, the last years -- I think the last two years, actually. I played well on this golf course in the past. I haven't played here many times, but I think I played well whenever -- I think I play well here. You need to drive the ball in the fairway here. This rough is very difficult. It's great and I like it, if you keep it in the fairway you have an advantage and I've been driving the ball fairly straight this year, and that's a big help out there.

COREY PAVIN: It could, certainly if the greens are firm, I think there's just a little forecast of rain maybe on Saturday. I think that's pretty iffy, I think. So if the greens firm up a little bit and you've got some long rough, it's a very tough combination. And the greens may be as quick as I've seen them here. And they're pretty difficult when they get quick. All these things add up, definitely, and with the cold weather. It was okay this afternoon, obviously playing was pretty cool out there, and it's flat in the morning, too, which makes it more difficult.

COREY PAVIN: I just looked at the leaderboard, the electronic board and just saw that nobody was really shooting low. One under was tied for 10th when I first teed off. I'd just like to gauge what the scores are going to be, and it helps me with my state of mind for the ride. As I said earlier a lot of times you come here and 8-under is on the board. And you may have a thought of how the golf course is going to play on Tuesday and Wednesday, but until the tournament starts you really never know what the scores are going to be. And it just reaffirmed to me that the course was playing difficult. I just needed to make sure I stayed very patient today.

COREY PAVIN: I want to improve everything, I think every golfer does that in the world, professional or amateur. I think a few things better in the last few weeks, my chipping has been a little bit better. My iron game is probably the one thing that I've been working on the hardest the last month or so. As I said I've been driving the ball pretty straight and I haven't been putting as well as I want to. I think my iron play has been better than my putting. I worked on my iron game and putting mostly. Today I putted very nicely. I can't think of any mistake I made on the greens at all. I made a couple of long putts and made about a 12, 15-footer for par on 14 today, too. A couple of nice putts I made today.

COREY PAVIN: Well, to me it's -- part of it is just playing within your abilities as a player, not getting uptight about a bad break or a bogey or something that doesn't go right or something that goes wrong, for that matter, just trying to stay more on an even keel, and it's talked about a lot in major championships when at majors you're more on edge, and you know that they're really an important tournament and that's the time when your emotions come out more. So it's just trying to keep the emotions down a little bit, and make sure that things don't get out of hand emotionally, one way or another, good or bad. A lot of times you hear patience, and you hear about negative stuff, but also positive things, when you're going really well and doing very well, you still need to stay patient to to stay focused, you don't want to get too excited, either.

COREY PAVIN: I would think you would find some different definitions from different players, certainly. That's more my definition. I think every player has their tendencies, one way or another and you have to work your own theories into your game and what works for you as an individual. I suppose if you did some sort of study you'd find maybe 5 or 6 groups of players that fit in certain categories, I guess. But you can do the research on that and let me know.

COREY PAVIN: Patience.

COREY PAVIN: I think that would be fair enough. I think everybody has a different definition of it in some way as it relates to golf.