BELL CANADIAN OPEN

September 5, 2002

Per-Ulrik Johansson

MODERATOR: Per-Ulrik, thank you for coming by the media center. Congratulations on a great start today. Get some general comments on how it went.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Well, you know, it was pretty solid, six birdies, 12 pars. I didn't really make any mistakes. I drove the ball well, which is the key to this golf course, and I putted well.

You don't have to stick every iron shot. You can play a bit conservative, you know, go for 10-, 20-footers as well. As soon as you go for the pin, hit a bad shot, it's going to cost you a shot. I played pretty smart today.

MODERATOR: (Inaudible) the 3rd hole, No. 12.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Yeah. Are we going to start on the backside?

12, I hit a 4-iron about 20 feet.

Next one is a par 5, 14. I hit driver, 5-wood, just short of the green up to about three feet.

Driver off the next, 9-iron, about 20 feet again.

MODERATOR: Birdie on No. 3.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Birdie on No. 3. What hole was that?

MODERATOR: The par 4, 402 yards.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: 3-wood straight downwind. 70 yards to the flag, lob wedge to about 10 feet.

Then 7, par 5 -- I'm mixing the sides up here.

MODERATOR: Two birdies on the par 5s coming in.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: 9, 7.

MODERATOR: 551 yards.

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Driver, 5-wood on the green, 2-putt from about 40 feet, straight downhill. Pin is way on the right.

9, I absolutely killed the driver, absolutely killed the 3-wood. I got it on the green. Straight into the wind, 550. That was all I had there. Two good putts, you know, 60 feet.

MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about how this might not be the toughest course in the world that the pros have ever seen. Having just gotten through a round of 6-under, how would you assess this course?

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Well, I haven't played the other course. I never played here two years ago, so I can't really compare with the other one they used to play. But I think if the wind gets up, it's obviously a lot tougher. If it's not windy, they keep the greens pretty soft like they do now, it's going to be a lot of good scores out there.

But I think the scoring is going to be spread quite a bit. If guys miss fairways here, it's going to be really hard to make par. I think there's going to be a big diversion of scores. The rough is pretty much like the US Open rough.

Q. Your season, I'm sure you think it should have been gone better to this point, still struggling with this Money List issue. Can a round like this or a course that's not the toughest course, can this be a turning point to a season?

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Well, I planned my season this way because I got married in Sweden this summer. I was there nine, 10 weeks, played two tournaments there. I pretty much had a pretty long break because I wanted to get married the right way. I wanted to decide what food I was going to have, what napkins to have. We did all that together. We wanted it our way. It was either playing a lot of tournaments, let someone else do that, or us doing that. I chose to do that, which left me very fresh when I came back to the States for Reno because a lot of guys played loo the summer in the humidity. I'd been in Sweden. Pretty cool weather. That was really my plan.

Back to your question, yeah, obviously I played pretty nice in Vancouver last week. I had a bad last hole, doubled the last hole, finished 14th instead of Top 10. But I'm playing better. Just trying to hang on to that. Obviously, you can't really focus on the Money List too much. As soon as you start calculating how much money you need to keep your card or top 70, that's no good. You've just got to keep playing and really see what happens. This is, what, seven or eight more tournaments, including this one. That's plenty of time to do some damage.

You can have some guy who is 150 win two tournaments and maybe he'll be in THE TOUR Championship.

Q. You teed off in pretty calm conditions. How much did the wind pick up throughout your round? When it does start to blow, how much of a defense do you think that will be for the course in addition to the rough?

PER-ULRIK JOHANSSON: Well, the first 9 it pretty much didn't blow anything. On the backside it started. The last four, five holes it picked up about a club- or two-club wind. Obviously, we get crosswinds on the par 4s, 5s, it's going to be harder to hit the fairway. It's not wide, but maybe still a little bit wider than we're used to.

On the other hand, if the rough is as thick as it is, I think the fairways should be pretty wide, otherwise it's almost too difficult.

I think as the week goes on, the greens are going to dry out a little bit, going to make it a little more difficult.

MODERATOR: Congratulations on a great start. Good luck the rest of the week.

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