BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 21, 1999

Tom Lehman

TOM LEHMAN: Well, it was a very tough day to play. I felt, starting the day, if I could break par I would have a good chance to win. I shot 71, two birdies, one bogey. Feel like I played pretty well. The only bogey on 17, I still, I hit it one of the best putts I hit all week -- exactly where I wanted to and looked like it should break a hair right. It didn't. Spun out. I missed. Not much you can do about that. But I give credit to Tim Herron. And Davis -- Davis played great as well. It was a hard day to hang in there, and they both hung in there. And Tim hung in just a little bit better.

TOM LEHMAN: It was a little furrow. It was when somebody raked the bunker, it created a real deep furrow where the ball was sitting. So it was almost like a plugged lie there. I had to go down after it and, of course, the toe caught some of the sand in the side, which gapped between the ball and the club and made it go way left. Just a bizarre lie in the bunker. It was strange. But it was pitching wedge. Just trying to get it out in the fairway, wedge onto the green. Hopefully it would stay in there, but then the next shot was a real bad lie also over the green and I was lucky to make a par, but he hit two really good shots there. And I shouldn't be in the bunker in the first place, so it is my own fault.

TOM LEHMAN: Felt good. I was nervous definitely. I was -- it is a good nervous kind of nervous that gets you real focused and I felt good to be able to hit some good shots when you needed to. I felt like I putted real well all week long; hit a couple good putts that didn't go in today, but made some really key putts, 6-footers, 8-footers so, I feel real pretty good about the way I played.

TOM LEHMAN: Well, it was hard to get it close because of the way the wind was blowing; hard to get the ball up in the -- par was really a pretty good score on most of the holes. So, yeah, I guess I tried to kind of avoid looking at the scoreboard. My game plan was to try to go ahead and not make mistakes and let the other guys lose, if you want to say, but they didn't do that, so, you know, that why I give Tim complete credit. He won the golf tournament.

TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, I knew that.

TOM LEHMAN: Definitely a boost. It is a big disappointment not winning. Honestly, I feel like I had a really good chance to win on the first playoff hole; had about a 14-footer and misread it and looked like it was really fast, but it wasn't. Looked like it was going to go right, but it didn't. I had my chance there. I am disappointed that I didn't win. But you've got to take the good with the bad and if you would have told me before the week started that I would have been in a playoff, I probably would have been overjoyed.

TOM LEHMAN: Didn't really know anything about him until he was in college. I think he went to New Mexico or New Mexico State, one of those schools, and was and All-American, and so I really hadn't heard much of him until then. He is eleven years younger than I am. So I didn't really hear a whole lot about the younger guys of that age until he became a well known college player.

TOM LEHMAN: I was thinking I wish I wouldn't have drove it in the bunker. I hit it in the bunker almost every time I played the hole. Kind of thing where the wind is blowing hard right-to-left, expecting the wind to blow it back in the fairway. It stays dead straight and I did it in the regulation; did it in the playoff; did it once before this week; did it probably three times last year, and for some reason I have a hard time with that tee shot. So once you hit in that bunker, you really need to -- you have your work cut out to make a birdie especially because there is really a big lip there so it is hard to get it down the fairway real far.

TOM LEHMAN: Hit 4-iron, hit it a hair heavy, just a hair. It was hard. It is hard to tell if it was helping a little or hurting a little. That little bit of help or hurt could make a big difference. So you want to make sure you know what it is doing. You want to hit it solid. I just didn't quite catch it.

TOM LEHMAN: That was about ten feet. Maybe nine feet.

TOM LEHMAN: Well, nothing surprises me. The hole I think comes to - the secret is to put the ball in play and give yourself a chance, keep the heat on the other guy. When you drive it in the bunker where you can't reach it now in two, it gives a big advantage to the other guy who is sitting in the middle of the fairway with a 5-iron, so you have got to put the ball in play.