THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 27, 1998

Tom Kite

TOM KITE: 3 on 18.

TOM KITE: Finished 6-under.

TOM KITE: Which was fun - kinds of the round that I have been waiting for. I have been on the verge of playing well; been having a lot of good things happen, but somehow I haven't been able to put it all together and then all of a sudden today, everything really did just kind of pop into place and got off to a really fast start and hit it very close on the first few holes and made some; got a lot of momentum going with four birdies to start out, and just kept it going throughout the entire day. The golf course was playing pretty difficult, but somehow I seem to get the good bounces when it landed on the green, hit enough good shots that got a lot of irons close to the pins, so, it was -- it was, you know, a very comfortable 66 on a very difficult golf course. So, very fortunate there.

TOM KITE: Okay. Birdied the first 4. Hit a 9-iron in on 1 about four feet. Hit 3-wood just short of the green on 2 and chipped up about a foot. Hit a 6-iron about five feet on 3. And hit a sand wedge about six feet on 4. And, parred No. 5. Bogeyed 6, drove it right in the middle of the fairway had easy 9-iron into the green and just -- I guess I got a little carried away with myself. I was -- really shot at the pin there and pulled it a little bit left and it hit on the edge and kicked in the bunker and kind of had a difficult stance where I was standing out of the bunker trying to play a shot out of one of those little Pete Dye pot bunkers and blasted by about ten feet and miss that. But, came back good with a birdie on 7 hit 5-iron in about. 18 feet and then birdied number 9, laid up with a 4-iron and hit pitching wedge about six inches on 9. Bogeyed No. 10 for the second day in a row. Drove it in the right rough and just drew a horrible lie, could not reach the green and had it up there in the short area about 40 yards short of the green and wedged it up there about ten feet and left it hanging on the lip short coming down. I hit a bogey there. Parred all the way around through -- until No. 15 and I hit a 7-iron in about 12 feet and made that. And then birdied No. 18, hit a good drive - it is playing straight down wind today - hit 8-iron about 15 feet and made that.

TOM KITE: Yes. Yes, I am. As Bruce alluded to, he is going to have a great time being the assistant to Ben. Ben is going to have a great time. I had a wonderful time being the captain of the Ryder Cup team. All the way through. Including the matches, including just about everything involved with it. But, yes, I am glad it is over. It was a busy couple of years. It took away a lot of time away from my golf and away from my family which are two things that I treasure, so, and try to protect the time that I have with them. And so I am glad it is back to normal now.

TOM KITE: Yeah, I mean, compared to Bruce I am playing about a 3-year schedule in one year (laughter). I have cut back a little bit the last few years. But, still, it is a fairly full schedule.

TOM KITE: The wind kicked up a little bit on our back 9. Yesterday in the afternoon, it looked like, while we were warming up, the wind was blowing very hard, and it looked like yesterday was going to be just a nightmarish day, playing in the afternoon as the greens dried out with the wind. Then all of a sudden the wind just blew itself out. There is more air circulating in this room than there was on the golf course yesterday. Today, the golf course is set up about the same way. I don't think they are trying to make it anymore difficult as the days go on. The greens are firm. And they have been firm and they are going to stay that way, I am sure. But, there was a little bit of wind out there today, so, probably played a little bit more difficult. But as I said, I was fortunate in the places that I landed the ball on the greens in that I got a number of 9-iron shots close. So that helps.

TOM KITE: I do most of my practicing out here on Tour. I will practice and play a little bit at home. But a lot of it is playing with my kids, just like Bruce does. I have got twin boys that are thirteen years old and they both love to play and so I will go out with them and maybe play some golf with some guys that I grew up with that are still around Austin; have a lot of fun with those guys. They are still pretty good players. But I don't do a whole heck of a lot of practicing at home. I usually try to get in one good session with Chuck Cook if I can. He teaches up at Barton Creek Lakeside and I usually try to get in one good session with him before coming out. And usually that is one day, maybe even a day and a half of that - I think we have got a couple of days set up next week in preparation for Augusta.

TOM KITE: Forever, yeah.

TOM KITE: Everybody is different. You know, Johnny Miller supposedly didn't practice an awful lot once he became a good player. Now, you know, Bruce had to do a little bit of practicing when he was a kid and some playing to get the game. But, he is of -- he has got that attitude that if he just doesn't touch it, it will stay right there where he wants it. I think that works very well for him. He is the exception to the rule. Most guys are having to spend some time out on the practice tee to keep their swing grooved and feel confident with their game. But, it depends on you know, what the player feels like he needs and everybody is trying to give themself a good dosage of what they, themselves, -- what works for them.

TOM KITE: It is very nice. I corrected to 20/20 with my glasses. It is not a whole heck of a lot different, but it is nice not to have to fight with the glasses, not to, you know, they are not fogging up. On a day like today glasses were never a bother, never a problem, but on rainy days or really humid days where they would start fogging up, they were a little bit of a pain. It is nice to not have to fight with them now.

TOM KITE: (laughs) I don't know. See that was -- that was windy, blustery day, but it wasn't raining. Where I had trouble and a lot of trouble was when you would have the wind blowing that hard and you would have some rain coming down with it. I remember one of the worst experiences I ever had -- I think it was in 1980, we played at Muirfield over at the British Open, and gollie, I caught a spell where -- it was raining very, very hard and the wind was coming and the rain was just coming in sideways. And, I would wipe those glasses off. And, I would kind of protect myself as much as could while I was trying to get over the ball. And, then I would look up and just like somebody just through a bucket of water right in my eyes. Everybody was having a lot of difficult times then, but that was about as bad as I have ever seen. And, when I looked back at the ball, the ball just kind of disappeared in all the rain drops on my glasses - even just a little mist was always a little bit of bother if the wind was blowing some. It was nice out on the West Coast with all the rain we had out there not having to fight with them.

TOM KITE: Always anxious to get back to Augusta. That is one of my favorite places, one of my favorite courses and I enjoy the atmosphere and the golf course, the challenge of the golf course and always feel like that I have a good chance of having a good week there. So, yeah, I am looking forward to it very much.

TOM KITE: People are saying that I am looking younger since I had the surgery. So, --

TOM KITE: I mean, the goal has not changed. The goal is to go out there and play as well as you can and try to contend in as many tournaments and win as many tournaments as possible. That hasn't changed whether I was a rookie competing against Nicklaus and Trevino and, you know, those strong players back then or whether I had been out there for ten or twelve years and was going against Watson and some of the strong players, you know, that played well at that time, or, you know, later on going against Faldo or now going against Tiger or Justin or Ernie, doesn't really matter. The competition -- you know the competition is going to be there and you never shy away from that and just looking forward to the opportunity to try to do what you can. Certainly the last few years it has been a little bit more difficult for me. Starting in, I guess, in 1995 I started not playing quite as well. I had very poor years in 1995 and 1996. Last year was a pretty good year especially in light of the fact of the Ryder Cup Captaincy, I had some good tournaments and I am just trying to build on that. And try to get back to where I can get in contention more and more often and I feel like if I can get in contention, then I have got a great shot of winning some tournaments again out here.