INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY QWEST

August 3, 2002

Craig Barlow

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Craig, for joining us. Great round today. Very consistent play and in position for the final round.

CRAIG BARLOW: Absolutely. I'm excited. First time I've led after three days. I'm excited.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. What will be your mindset tomorrow, going in with the lead?

CRAIG BARLOW: I'm not going to treat it any different because I'm in the lead. I just want to go out there and execute my golf shots, pick out my target, be smart, be aggressive when I have to be. Hopefully come the back nine, I have a great chance to win the golf tournament.

So the beauty of this format is you're going to have a bunch of guys firing low numbers and jumping up that leaderboard if they are making eagle, so I have to think that there's going to be a lot of guys shooting low tomorrow if the weather holds up.

So I'm just going to play golf. Yes, I'll be nervous, but it's something that I can handle.

Q. How strange is it for the Top 3 guys to go out together as the last group and still be 1, 2, 3, coming back in? Did you guys carry each other by your play? Did that help you out?

CRAIG BARLOW: Yeah, I think we all got off to a slow start. And on the back nine, we started playing well as a group. Definitely, when that goes on, you know, you kind of -- there's just a lot of energy in the group. I birdied four of my last five holes and Steve Lowery birdied the last two holes and Mark Brooks made a few birdies coming down the stretch, so it was fun, definitely.

Q. When you see Els, Norman, Garcia climb up the leaderboard, what are you thinking?

CRAIG BARLOW: I didn't watch the leaderboard today and I probably won't watch it tomorrow until the end. I'll have my caddie watch the leaderboard, and definitely, there's a time when you need to know where you're at, but I have to do my job tomorrow and that's go out and try to play good golf.

Yes, those guys have great records and they are big names, but I've got to worry about me, not them.

Q. You only played in a few tournaments this year, is that because of the exemption status?

CRAIG BARLOW: I'm fully exempt. I had two surgeries at the end of last year. I missed the last eight tournaments last year and the first ten tournaments this year. The Honda Classic was my first tournament, and that was because that's when my body allowed it. I finished 122nd on the Money List last year, so I'm fully exempt this year.

Q. Was it a tough decision for you to come here or had you already made the decision?

CRAIG BARLOW: No. I love this tournament. I would always put it in my schedule. It's our hardest walk all year, and I had a hip surgery last year and it's doing pretty good, but I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't feel these hills. It's a hard walk, but going pretty well.

Q. Where was the surgery?

CRAIG BARLOW: Left shoulder, right hip.

Q. Same time?

CRAIG BARLOW: No. Eight weeks apart.

Q. Historically, one of those guys that's 10 or 12 back is going to shoot at every flag and going to make it, and you're going to go to the first tee and they will probably be in the lead. Does that change things?

CRAIG BARLOW: Like I said, I would think the front nine, no matter who goes out and posts a number, on the front nine, I'll hopefully get in the rhythm of things, get a feel for the round. If I'm swinging that well, then I can be aggressive.

I think I made nine straight pars today. I saw Sergio had 19 points and at one time was in the lead. But you make a few birdies, you start leaping up that leaderboard.

The tournament is on the back nine, for sure.

Q. How huge would a win be for you here?

CRAIG BARLOW: It would be a dream come true. Who doesn't want to win on the PGA TOUR? This is my fifth year out here. My best finish was a third place, so I've had a few chances to win and haven't done it.

You know, this is what I do for a living, so it definitely would be -- it would be a dream come true.

Q. What kind of things do you have to do with your hip, stretching or exercises, to keep it strong again? Are you still strengthening it?

CRAIG BARLOW: Absolutely. It's something that I'll never not strengthen anymore.

I'm 30 years old, and I was 29 and had two surgeries as a young guy. Just over-repetition. It's something that -- the physical fitness part of the game is something that I have to take more seriously and I haven't in the past. The last year -- it's part of my routine now. It's something that I have to do. It isn't going to make me necessarily a better player, but it's going to make me play for a longer time.

Q. Did your bio say you worked at Pizza Hut?

CRAIG BARLOW: I did.

Q. Take us back through before your career in the PGA?

CRAIG BARLOW: I played one year of college golf in 1991, and when I came back from there, I started working at Pizza Hut at night, just while going to school at in the community college. It was just something that I could do at night so that I could go to school during the day and golf during the day.

And at that time of my life, I didn't think I was going to be a pro golfer. There became a time when I just really started to see improvements in my game, and I worked at it a little bit harder.

So, I didn't graduate from college. I went three years of college and there came a time when I worked at night and golfed all day long.

Q. (Inaudible.)

CRAIG BARLOW: No. Not at Pizza Hut. I was 19 and 20 years old, so, you know, it was something for that age group, was fine. It was five years, delivering pizzas.

Q. How was it?

CRAIG BARLOW: It was okay. It paid the bills. Actually, I met my wife at Pizza Hut, also. She delivered pizzas. We climbed the ladder pretty good.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Why don't we go through your round real quick.

No. 2, birdie.

CRAIG BARLOW: I birdied 2, I hit pitching wedge about two feet.

Then 3 was my only bogey of the day, and I actually 3-putted from about 20 feet, so that was frustrating.

Then I played okay golf in the middle of the round. I think I made nine straight pars. I parred 4 through 12. So I didn't play great, but in the same sense, I was hanging in there.

I made a couple good par saves. I short-sided myself on 12, which I was just praying that I would have a decent par chance and I hit a great bunker shot to about five feet and made it. That was actually kind of the boost of my round.

Starting on the next hole, 13, I hit sand wedge about four feet and made it.

14, the par 5, I knocked it on in two and 2-putted.

15, I drove it in the left rough and just -- I made a good par.

16, I hit probably the best swing of the day. I hit 4-iron from -- I don't remember the yardage, but I hit 4-iron about three feet and that's really not a hole that you expect to birdie. I don't know how other guys were doing, but that's a hole that you make par on and walk off.

Then 17, obviously, everybody tried to make eagle there. Hit two good shots just short of the green and got it down for birdie.

18, I hit a great drive and a great 9-iron about five feet and made it.

So I definitely had fun at the end.

14, it about a 60-footer for eagle and lagged it up to three feet.

16, I hit it three feet.

17, I was short of the green in two and chipped up to four feet and made it.

And then five feet on 18.

End of FastScripts....