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UBS CUP

November 17, 2004

Tom Kite

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

RODDY WILLIAMS: Tom Kite, thank you very much for coming to join us today. We've been hearing a lot about the golf course. What did you make of it out there?

TOM KITE: I like the golf course. I think it's very good. You know, they obviously had a very difficult piece of property to work with, with all of the wetlands out there that they had to stay away from and move around.

So routing the golf course had to be -- I should have asked Tom how many different routings they went through and tried to come up with the routing they came up with. But certainly, they played around with this thing a number of times to come up with a reasonable routing that works pretty well.

Then Tom incorporated his ideas with trying to incorporate a lot of the links-look into a piece of property that was not links at all and doesn't really appear to be links with all of the wetlands and the wooded areas. And yet he came up with a very good could have course and a lot of neat characteristics out there.

I think everybody is pleased with it. It's not a super penal golf course, but yet if you miss it, you can get tattooed pretty good. I think all in all, it's a very playable golf course for a majority of the players and I think there will be some fairly good scores shot this week.

Q. Looks pretty natural out there, especially from the original site?

TOM KITE: I didn't see it originally.

Q. Originally it was tomato fields.

TOM KITE: I think there's some argument that maybe in some areas, I hate to use the word contrived, because that almost has such a negative connotation. But I think there's some areas where it's a little forced. When you get back in the wooded areas and you know that there can't be those type of Dunes in that wooded area, I think that you may be pushing it a little bit. When you get out in the more open areas, it seems to fit a little bit better.

But, you know, certainly he had -- he wanted to create a playability. He had a playability philosophy that he was trying to incorporate on the golf course, and all in all, I think it's a very nice golf course. Some places he probably pushed it a little bit hard. From what I understand there have been a couple of greens they have either re-done or modified, so he probably pushed that a little bit to the limit in his original design, maybe getting them a little too severe.

It's a nice golf course and it's going to be fun to play. It's going to work really well for the tournament this week. It's going to be tough to spectate on obviously. As we know, all of the golf courses over for the Open Championship, those golf courses are nightmares to spectate on. They are pretty flat golf courses, except they go like that (indicating incline) and then they are fairly flat, it's just up and down and he has a lot of native grasses on some of the hills and that's going to make it severe as well to traverse those areas.

So, you know, that will be interesting to see how the spectators handle the golf course. It's going to show up great on TV. On TV it's going to look fabulous. They are going to get some great shots. You get those cameramen with the handheld mics and they start getting very artsy and creative in some of their shots and there's going to be some beautiful shots they are going to show this week.

Q. Talk a little bit about the quality of the field and how does this fit in in other team events? Obviously it's not the Ryder Cup.

TOM KITE: No, it's not the Ryder Cup and nothing is. The Presidents Cup is not even the Ryder Cup. Those are the two top of the team formats that we have in golf.

This is just a nice tournament. They have come up with a nice concept that allows us to kind of take the idea that the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup have and change the format just a little bit, tweak it a little bit, and still have a lot of very, very good name players compete. That's really what we are trying to do.

I think they have come up with a very unique format that a lot of guys really enjoy. A number of the people in the field have played multiple Ryder Cups or at least played in one or two Ryder Cups, and those are some of the best memories, certainly some of the best memories that I have, the seven teams that I made and the one that I captained are some of the best times that I've ever had in golf.

Now that I'm to a point where I'm not able to make that Ryder Cup Team. Still doesn't change the desire to want to compete in matches like this and tournaments like this. It gives us a great opportunity to continue.

Q. Can you talk about you feel about making the World Golf Hall of Fame?

TOM KITE: Just awesome. Just awesome. I'm not sure that it's totally hit me yet, I'm really not.

I played in the Pro-Am today and it's the first time that I've played in a Pro-Am since being inducted. We talked about it all day today, the Amateurs that I played with were so inquisitive about how I was chosen, the whole induction ceremony. It was pretty neat.

You know, it's a great experience in my life and a great thrill, and you know, if they want to talk about it, that's okay with me. I certainly don't mind talking about it as much as they want to. To have the guys come up on the practice tee today that I had not seen and congratulate me for that, it means lot it's very special.

Q. How is life on the Champions Tour now?

TOM KITE: It pretty good. It's good. The Champions Tour is coming back. There's no question about it. We are on the upswing and there's a lot of enthusiasm and there's a lot of excitement. There have been a number of changes that have been made. They call them initiatives, but basically it's changes in philosophy of what the Champions Tour has done or had done. I think all in all, most of them, if not all of them, are very, very positive and it's created a lot of enthusiasm and excitement up there.

The galleries are up. I think they were up in every tournament we had this year except where we had inclement weather. The PGA Seniors at Valhalla where we were getting rain all the time, I think the gallery was down a little bit in that tournament and maybe a couple of others. But any place where we didn't have inclement weather, we had increases in the gallery. Our television ratings were higher.

There seems to be a renewed enthusiasm with the print media about what's going on on the Champions Tour, and of course that comes along with having more names that people recognize coming out there and doing well.

Stadler has been a great addition to the Champions Tour and created a lot of enthusiasm and people love following him. We've got a number of players coming on the horizon that are going to continue to build on that: Peter Jacobsen, obviously Jay Haas; the times that he's going to play; Curtis is coming on in January. I think we're on the upswing. I think we're moving in the right discretion and it's good.

Q. One of the initiatives, the cart rule, do you like that? Do you think it's going to be good?

TOM KITE: I really don't care one way or the other on the decision. It really doesn't make a bit of difference to me. I'm going to walk. I don't use a cart. Sometimes in a Pro-Am we'll take it just to keep up with the amateurs. But once the tournament starts, I'm walking all the time. I'm going to fight using those carts as long as I can.

Basically what I want is what the sponsors think is good for their tournament. If they think that getting rid of carts and not having the carts run through the galleries, you always have some marshal or a caddie yelling, "Cart coming, cart coming," and people have to step out of the way and are not able to keep up. If that is detrimental to the tournament, well, then, let's do away with the carts.

Certainly there's some argument that you may be rushing a few guys off that can't compete because of some injuries. You now, we've already been the beneficiary of a huge mulligan out here anyway. The whole Champions Tour is nothing but a huge mulligan. At some point in time whether we want it to or not, it's going to end.

Main thing I'm concerned with is what do the sponsors want; are they telling us that they would prefer not to have carts? If they are, then let's do away with them. If they don't care, it doesn't make a bit of difference.

Q. Do you think about what happened last year --

TOM KITE: Sure. I wasn't here last time. I played two years ago and we won. So, you know, I guess the reason that they lost last year was because I want here. Maybe that's -- can I tell Arnold? (Laughing).

You know, this is a wonderful event and it's great to be a part of. I was very, very pleased and excited when I got the invitation to play in the UBS Cup. It's a neat tournament. You just kind of want to build on the thing. And hopefully over time, this tournament will continue to build its credibility and there will be a little bit of a history.

Like I said, it's never going to catch on like the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, but it's pretty nice version of that for guys that are over 40, it really.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Is there any sense in the American team of trying to get even after the Ryder Cup? It's obviously the first event since the Ryder Cup.

TOM KITE: Well, I'm sure there are a couple of guys -- a couple of guys on our team that were on that Ryder Cup Team, and I'm sure they have some motivation to try to get back. Hal and Jay in particular, they have got to be wanting to win this match as much as they can.

You know, it's two different events and it's kind of hard to compare the two. Certainly the Americans are not pleased with the way the Ryder Cup came out this time, and you know, we need to do something to right the ship. I'm not sure whether we win or lose the UBS Cup this year is going to have any effect or those people that were on the U.S. side. I don't think they are going to feel any better about losing the Ryder Cup whether we win or not.

Certainly we want to win and we'll do everything we can to do so.

End of FastScripts.

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