FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 22, 2000

David Peoples

DAVID PEOPLES: A little bit frosted doing that on the last hole, but I played good. Overall, takes you a little bit to simmer down after close range. I can't go back and play another hole for however many hours. I am really delighted how I played. I hit the ball well and drove it good in the fairway. I did make my share of putts. Had a brain cramp there on the last hole trying not to obviously lag it down there. I tried to go ahead and make it, but I didn't take enough time to look and see that it was a pretty good downhill putt from there, so anyway I rather focus on the other ones.

DAVID PEOPLES: My first birdie came, I started on the back 9. It came on No. 12; tried to cut drive off the tee, hit it in the left fairway bunker, hit a pitching wedge on about 20, 25 feet past the hole, made the putt. Then No. 14 long par 3, 4-iron from 221 to about six feet, below the hole, made it. Next birdie came at No. 16, driver, 3-wood, about four, five feet short of the green and hit L-wedge about seven, eight feet short, made the putt for birdie. Then my next birdie came on No. 1, my 10th hole, drive down the middle, wrong club, 9-iron; left myself a 50-footer uphill; made it for birdie. No. 2, I had 3-wood and 8-iron to about 15 feet, made that putt. No. 3, I hit a driver in the right rough, laid it out about 100 yards from the hole, hit it about four inches from the Cup almost made eagle there, so that was a tap-in birdie. No. 5, 5-iron from 198 to about a foot and tapped that one in. That was it for the birdies. The last hole, great drive, good 9-iron and 3-putts for bogey. Other than that, they were pars.

DAVID PEOPLES: I think it could have been more than 15 feet above the hole.

DAVID PEOPLES: About, 4, 5.

DAVID PEOPLES: Well, I had a lot of opportunities. A lot of birdie opportunities and I made most of them. There were two holes that I -- three holes I felt like I left shots out there. No. 10 I had it from about seven feet for birdie. I didn't make that. No. 13 I had it about six feet and didn't make that one. Then the 3-putt on the last hole. Other than that, I don't think I left anything out there. I feel like, you know, pretty much got them in. That has been the difference for me all year, if you look at my statistics, you know, I am not very well -- I don't have a very good ranking in the putting stats, but I have been hitting the ball very good, driving it good, hitting a lot of greens in regulation and everything else has been pretty good, but if I can step my short game up a notch, I think I can -- I think I can get in position to get a little more nervous.

DAVID PEOPLES: I think somebody will go lower than that. Pretty sure.

DAVID PEOPLES: It is a good thing they are soft really, I think. The course is playing pretty long. It is a long golf course. I am driving it pretty long right now and you know, I mean, No. 10 played very hard today. You have to either have to hit it hard enough and high enough to go over those trees which I was able to do or you have got to aim it at the bunker; then turn it. If you don't, you are going to end up in the bunker and have a 175-yard fairway bunker shot over a creek -- you know, so there is a few holes out there that gets your attention. 18 is a good hole. If they were rock-hard, as short as they are, from front to back in some areas, I don't think that would be much fun. I don't think -- I think people got enough watching us make bogeys last week, you know, so it is fun. I think people enjoy watching guys stick shots in there close, I think it is fun for the galleries. It is fun for me.

DAVID PEOPLES: I don't think so. It is nice to go out and just play a nice relaxing round of golf. Whatever they do to it, you are going to adjust. You are going to do what you think you need to do to score the best. Obviously going out there today you know that the scores are going to be low, so you just try not to force a low number though. You try to stay within yourself and kind of let the number happen. It is enjoyable. I like the golf course. Good layout. I like the way they got the course set up. It is very enjoyable.

DAVID PEOPLES: I just take it one round at a time really. Try to go out and start a new day and pick my targets, commit to my shots and trust my swing. Not really look at the scoreboard. It is useless to look at that at this point in time. Maybe in the back nine somewhere on Sunday you will start looking up there and seeing where you stack up. Right now if you do that, I will stall out and that doesn't help me at all. I probably did peak up there and see that I was the only one at 7-under and started thinking about it and there you go. That doesn't do me any good. A tournament like this where you know they are going to shoot under par, you have got to just keep going forward. And realize I am not really not behind; I won't be behind tomorrow because those guys will have 36 holes under their belt and I won't have, so I have got 18 more opportunities to go, so it is all how you look at it.