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FUNAI GOLF CLASSIC AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

October 23, 2004

Briny Baird

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Briny, for joining us. Briny Baird and Tom Lehman share the 54-hole lead and they are the winners of this week's Crestor Charity Challenge. In his name a donation of $25,000 will be given to the health care charity of his choice, and in addition a Healthy Community Initiative will receive $50,000 from the Funai Classic at Walt Disney World Resort. Congratulations.

BRINY BAIRD: Congratulations to the people who are donating the money. That's very, very noble.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: And on to golf. Good day out there, in great position. Should be plenty more tomorrow.

BRINY BAIRD: Obviously any time you can put yourself in the position I'm in right now, it's a great opportunity. Hopefully this will be the week. If not, I will look down and smile again.

Q. By the time you guys get to the course you may not be the leaders.

BRINY BAIRD: I would be shocked if we were by the time we got to the tee, whether it's in the group in front of us or two groups in front of us that makes birdies on the first two holes or someone goes out and goes 8-under through 12, you can never come here and just expect to make pars and do well. Everyone knows that. We knew that before the week started.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: 1-over through 8, so yeah, I was ready toÃ‚Â -- not panicked, but I was ready to be like all right, here goes this week. Hang in there and see if we can make a few extra dollars while we're here. It's a funny game. I didn't feel very comfortable most of the game. The putter didn't feel all that good and the irons weren't all that crisp and somehow I still hit a couple good shots. Just because you stay patient doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: No, I hit a bad shot. I hit that shot, again, onÃ‚Â -- somewhere coming in. The next parÃ‚Â -- not the next par 5, but I think 14 is a par 5, I hit a wedge, same thing. I've got that shot in my game where I can hang back on it and not flip the hands and the ball just goes left.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Hit a good drive, a perfect layup and a little in-between clubs, but it was fine because I was into the wind and you don't want to hit it hard anyway, and I hit a 9-iron and pulled it, complete unforced error. I wasn't trying to get greedy and play safe, just trying to hit a quality shot in there.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Can we go through the five birdies?

BRINY BAIRD: Birdie on 9, good drive, a little PO'd getting onto 9. Hit a good 8-iron to about six feet and just hit a putt that ended up going in. I didn't hit a great putt but it went in.

10, hit a really good 5-wood 15, 20 feet from the cup so all I had to do was two-putt.

Next hole, made it from about two feet, hit a good wedge in there, didn't take much work there.

One more birdie on the par 5, made a 25-, 30-, maybe even 35-foot putt that was unexpected. Would have rolled by six or seven feet, so nice catch.

Oh, 16, I hit it a foot and a half, 9-iron.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: It's still too early. I wasn't playing against Tom today, I was playing against myself. I was playing to hit some quality shots and make some putts. It did cross my mind when he made that that I was three back at the time, but then I also realized we're here at Disney where we're going toÃ‚Â -- you can make a lot of birdies so you're not going to panic being three back.

So for a split second I did think, okay, you're three back, let's not let him get too far away, but that was only for a split second. I am not playing against Tom Lehman, Tom Lehman is not playing against me. We're playing against 15, 20, maybe even 25 guys.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: I haven't heard the Wolf all year from the Haunted House, so something is up.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Yeah, right, so that's how quick. You make a bogey out here and you're getting passed by four, five, six guys. You try to keep those bogeys to a minimum.

Q. (Inaudible) -- versus one week that might be way better than the overall. Do you suppose you'll feel that way when you finally win? Some people might construe that as kind of a coping mechanism. Do you know what I'm saying?

BRINY BAIRD: I know exactly what you're saying, not putting too much pressure on yourself trying to win your first event. I thought about what I said yesterday and I think it would be hard for people to grasp that concept, and I also think it would be hard to justify that concept if you've never won. It can be looked at as a copout, like, of course he's going to say that, he's never won, and he may never win.

If I win and I still agree with that theory, then yeah, you'll know what I was saying was true. If I maybe say noÃ‚Â -- I just don't see why you would trade in one, two, three solid years for one great week. The sport is already filled with enough disappointment that you don't want to walk away every single week disappointed except for one.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: I'm going to give you all the cliches I've got. I'm going to take it one shot at a time. Same as I was today, just go out there and hit solid shots. The wind is going to blow a little bit tomorrow so you've got to hit solid shots. Shooting 5-under is not a piece of cake, although guys are shooting 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-under like they are a piece of cake, but you have to play well to do that. Tomorrow I'm going to try to hit some quality shots and hopefully some good, solid putts.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Then we're playing each other. It can change in a heartbeat. If we both shoot 30 on the front and we're 5 ahead of everybody, then I'm playing Tom for nine holes for a trophy.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: He's hitting his irons real solid. He's making putts, doing everything it takes to be in the final group. His all-around game is sharp. He's not making any mistakes. He made a mistake today, hit a 3-wood in the rough and then holed it. Hopefully he hits it right down the middle all day tomorrow (laughter).

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Less pressure. I think the first few timesÃ‚Â -- I think the first real chance I had to win was John Deere, and actually I played really well, ended up losing by one. It's probably the way I played that day. I've done both, played poorly on Sunday in contention, played good on Sunday either in contention or close to being in contention where I've lost by two or three. So less panicky. It's golf.

I realize now having a wife and a daughter that there's more to this game than just playing well. I'm still going to go out there tomorrow and give it my best and try to kick everybody's butt, there's no doubt about that. I'm going to get just as mad when I miss a shot.

At times you realize that sometimes it's only for a split second, there's bigger things than golf, and then you quickly remember that golf is everything and you slam your club (laughter).

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

BRINY BAIRD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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