THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 1, 2001

Paul Azinger

PAUL AZINGER: Thanks.

PAUL AZINGER: Played obviously pretty difficult, with the wind, but the greens were so soft; it made it very playable. I didn't drive it particularly well, either of the first two days, but I hit my irons laser-beam accurate. I think if -- to keep playing well, I'm going to have to hit a few more fairways. I still have some work to do. I'm not totally dialed in, but, you know, obviously, it was very good.

PAUL AZINGER: Maybe a little bit. It might have taken a little bit of the momentum away, but I wiped a drive on 6. I kind of just slid it off to the right and I did the same thing yesterday, and I had to lay up both times, and I bogeyed that hole twice. I hit a similar drive on 7 both days, but I managed pars. Today on 9, I drove it just an inch into the left-hand rough, and the first cut, and it made a big difference in that second shot. Then all of the sudden, I hit a good drive on 10. You know, it just started happening. I hit it reasonably close on 11. 12, I hit a beautiful shot there, and didn't birdie either one. Then 13 to 17, I played some really nice shots. I hit all the fairways. Actually, I missed the fairway on 14 and 17, now that I think about it. I need to drive it a little straighter. I played some good shots out of the rough on 14. I hit it three or four feet there from the right rough. And 17, pin-high left, probably 10 or 12 feet. Two really good shots considering the wind was blowing like it was. And the rough here, when it is wet, it's really tough.

PAUL AZINGER: Driver on first hole, 7-iron, ten feet. I laid up on No. 5. Hit sand wedge, four feet. 6, I hit it in the right rough, laid up. Hit sand wedge 20 feet, missed it. 9, 8-iron, left rough in the first cut; didn't get on the green. Didn't get up-and-down. Missed about a 10-footer. 13, I hit the fairway. I hit pitching wedge about to about eight feet. 14, right rough, pitching wedge four feet. 15, driver, driver, 25 feet, pin-high left and 2-putt. Hit 7-iron on 16, I would say about 12 to 15 feet, something like that. 17, was about the same. I hit a 9-iron second shot to 12 feet. Good putt on the last hole. I would have hated to make a bogey there. That was a good, solid 10-footer there for par.

PAUL AZINGER: I'm not into all that mystical stuff.

PAUL AZINGER: I don't know if any of it has carried through or not. I felt like it was a little more difficult to prepare. I didn't feel totally ready on Thursday. I'm glad I had an afternoon tee time, not a morning time. My Wednesday practice round was just horrible. It was after I gave that talk that I was able to finally gear in and focus. So I went back and changed clothes -- I'm staying across the driving range there. I came back and got, really, some effective practice in. But it wasn't really until after the ceremony that I was able to really get focused in. But I prepared reasonably well at home, too.

PAUL AZINGER: Yeah. Around the fourth or fifth week, friends start calling up and saying, "Are you hurt?" And I say, "No. Remember I did this the year before and the year before that and the year before that?"

PAUL AZINGER: It's just a good time to fish.

PAUL AZINGER: Mainly I like -- yeah, whatever. (Smiles).

PAUL AZINGER: In the bay, in the Gulf. In-shore, not off-shore.

PAUL AZINGER: Both days, my irons were really good. I hit only a couple marginal iron shots, but for the most part, my distance control was pretty good, and I was really good, you know, with my trajectory. I was controlling it; if I wanted to hit it in the air or down. I hit my irons really great both days. Hit a lot of shots close.

PAUL AZINGER: They are very fast.

PAUL AZINGER: Yeah, it's amazing that it can rain this much and they can be this fast. I just watched from the next hole that green on 5 today just fill up with water. There was more rain in five minutes standing on that green than we've had in three months. It's just unbelievable. It's funny, because you can watch the bunker just fill up with water, and the greens just soak it up.

PAUL AZINGER: Might have been just a hair slower, but not much. The wind is blowing so hard, it's drying them out. The wind was the major factor today, I thought. It really was whirling around.

PAUL AZINGER: Well, it wasn't easy. I know it wasn't easy. If it was easy, there would be a lot more low scores.

PAUL AZINGER: I hope so. Jack talked to me a little bit after I got done. Jack Cook watched me hit some balls before I started. I think I'm getting ahead of it. He said, "Just the start of the downswing, it looks like you might be getting ahead of it." He says, "Just stay back a split second," and he says, "you'll hit it great."

PAUL AZINGER: Clearly the fans in Ohio are just crazy about golf. The majority of the cities we play golf in, there would not have been a thousand people out there today. It was just amazing. It was almost like a British Open. Doesn't matter what the weather is like; they don't go home. It's always fun to play in front of that. You know, I don't know why I play decent in Ohio, but clearly, I think the most -- the most dramatic moment of my career took place right there behind us in that bunker.

PAUL AZINGER: The PGA was obviously the greatest feather in my cap, but I think the moment dramatic moment of my career was that moment.

PAUL AZINGER: No, I didn't want to be in the bunker, because it was wet, and it looks a little more downslope now than when I was in there a few years back. I really didn't have much of a shot. I was surprised it got as close as it did. When I hit it I thought it was gone, but it actually rolled up and came back. I would like to say I knew that it was going to do that, but I didn't. I had not hit a chip shot in a long time, since the ninth hole. So it's been a solid two and a half hours since I hit a chip shot, and it was a good one.