DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 5, 1997

Tom Kite

TOM KITE: I've got the update here. I'm sure you guys have seen it for the U.S. Team. It's looking pretty good. Looking very good. I'm very pleased where everybody is positioning themselves in the top-25 here. I think there are very few names not in that top-25 that I would like to see there. I'm very excited about where we are. Our team is taking shape and I'm happy about that. A lot of guys -- Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of motion within that for the last couple of weeks. Scott Hoch made a nice jump last week with his good tournament; Jeff Sluman with his win in Tucson made a big jump. That's nice to see. Other than that, there hasn't been a whole lot of movement the last couple of weeks. I've got three guys; for sure, two, and possibly three that have enough points now. And, they're guys that I'm glad are on the team.

TOM KITE: At the end of each Ryder Cup match the European PGA as well as the U.S. PGA evaluates the outcome; the results; any circumstances that may come up; any conditions that may arise during the matches that need to be addressed, be it picks -- it could be anything, the house - it could be accommodations. It could be getting over to -- how do you get the team organized and get them there. Do they need to get there early, get them one day later. How involved are the wives. How involved are the press. All of these things are evaluated after each and every Ryder Cup match. And, I would assume that after the last Ryder Cup match, the same thing happened. Based on the fact that we are not the defending champions of the Ryder Cup - the Europeans kicked us the last time as you may recall - there probably wasn't -- probably didn't feel like there was a great need to change anything. Probably at the end of the match - and I don't know this for sure - because I haven't talked to our officials, I would assume in light of the fact we got beat, we came closer to changing the way we selected our team than the way the Europeans did, based on the fact that we got beat. When Jim Awtry came down and talked to me to ask me if I wanted to be the captain of the team, he asked if I had any problems with anything. And, I was very, very comfortable with our selection process. I think having ten qualify and choosing two is nice. It rewards guys for a lot of good play, but gives you some flexibility in there. If you start putting more and more picks, then you open it up to a lot of questions. If you start making it cut and dry, well, then, you take some of the excitement and some of the anticipation out of it by not having that. So, I'm very comfortable with the position right now.

TOM KITE: Midstream? Gosh, -- well, I don't know that he would. I don't know that they could. I've got enough stuff to worry about with our team right now - trying to get our team organized; trying to get us in familiar with the golf course; get us over there to see the practice rounds and to see the golf course and become familiar with everything in Spain. I've got enough stuff to worry about without speculating whether they're going to change or not change. Like I said, I'm very comfortable with our position. I don't anticipate us changing. And, that's their business, as far as I'm concerned.

TOM KITE: I've got 85 points, two top-10s. I had a second place at Hartford last year, and then I finished 5th at Tucson two weeks ago. I didn't play last week in LA. So, you know, not in great position, but as we know -- I don't know how it totals out in terms of points - Julius may know this - tie for 6th. But, in terms of where we are in the total number of points, we're probably not much more than halfway there. So there is still a lot of time for a lot of movement from a number of players. Some of those players that played very well last year may not have as good a year this year and fall out of the top ranking. Some of the players that didn't play quite as well last year may move up. There's a lot of room for movement there. And whether I make the team or not, whether I choose to play or not, I'm planning on moving up that list quite a bit. I'm very excited about my game right now. I feel very good about it. It's better than it's been for a long, long time. I lost Tucson by about three shots. And, when you come that close, you can think back, golly, there was that putt, and I hit a ball in the water on the 4th hole one day and par 3 with an 8-iron; made double there. You can think of three shots, like that, usually you can think of six or seven shots, and if you just made half of those, you would have won the tournament. But I feel very good about my game and I think I will move up in the standings quite a bit in the remaining months before we choose the team.

TOM KITE: I'm going to play a full schedule for a number of reasons, trying to move up the list and trying to get my game back in a respectable form like it was a couple of years ago. But, also it allows me the opportunity to see a lot of the players that will be on the team; especially the young players that I haven't had many opportunities to play golf with. I'm very familiar with Tom Lehman and Mark O'Meara and Davis and Mark Brooks, and these guys. But, there are a lot of young guys like David Duval, Steve Stricker, Justin Leonard, Jim Furyk - let me go down the list - Jeff Maggert, Tommy Tolles, David Duval. Those are the guys that the more I can become familiar with their games, the better off I'm going to be when I start trying to pair these guys up. Two weeks ago at Tucson, I played with Steve Stricker and Woody Austin the first two days and then I played with Phil Mickelson the last day. So, that was a great opportunity for me there. I watched three young players play under tournament conditions. It's one thing to play with them at practice rounds. That's nice. You get to see them. But, it's another thing to watch them and see how they handle the pressure of trying to compete. And those are all good players.

TOM KITE: I don't have that problem. I've never seen Valderrama.

TOM KITE: It's very much a control golf course. You have to have the ball under control. It does not favor wild hitters. You need to hit the fairways. And you'll be looking for guys that are good drivers of the ball, they keep the ball in play, that can shape their shots. There are going to be many times throughout the Ryder Cup matches where a player is going to find his ball in the fairway and not going to have a direct view to the pin or even the green. He's going to have to hit a big cut shot or big hook. He's going to have to go high to keep it low; plus you have the wind over there. That's going to be a big factor, similar to here at Doral. The wind is always going to blow a little bit, and it may blow more than that. So, you need guys that can play a lot of varieties of shots.

TOM KITE: Well, my viewpoint is different. I'm looking at them trying to learn and appreciate the strengths and also the deficiencies that they have in their game as opposed to looking at them trying to beat them. That's a whole different game there. When you're out there competing against them, just trying to beat them by as many shots as you can, you have a certain approach and basically you're in your own world and paying attention to your own game with a little bit of observation as to what they're doing. But, now, I'm very much aware and certainly, after the rounds when I go back to the hotel at night and I have a chance to reflect on what they've done, it's a whole different viewpoint, there's no question.

TOM KITE: Not a real inspirational speech. There wasn't any need for that. You've got guys that are used to competing and they know what to do. You don't need to fire them up. They get fired up about the Ryder Cup. That's easy. It's not like you have to go in there and give a motivational speech because they're not motivated. Gosh, the Ryder Cup is easy to get excited about and really juiced. So, there's not that problem. The thing that every captain or most every captain that I've experienced has done is tried to make it as easy for the players as he could. Try to take all the pressure off of the players. And, the ones that have been the most successful, in my opinion, are the ones that make it easier for the players to go over there and concentrate on their golf; just really lock in on their games and not worry about all this other stuff that's going on - the demands from the public, the demands from the media. I mean, it's a tremendous attraction right now. I don't want to imply that I'm going to shelter these guys. But, I'm going to make it as easy for them to concentrate on their game as I can.

TOM KITE: Well, I guess the significance is that I'm going to play there and it's a tournament where a lot of players play. In years past, I think they've done that at Muirfield Village and they do a follow-up at the U.S. Open. Yeah, we need to get sizes for a number of these guys. We need to know -- you can't put -- send out a bunch of 32 slacks and hope that they fit everybody, because you may have somebody like -- okay, Craig Stadler, who is not going to fit in a 32. Somebody like that may make the team. So, everybody needs to be sized to find out the lengths and the waist and all that stuff for the clothes and at some point in time, you've got to do that. It's easier to do it at a tournament site. They had done it at Muirfield Village in the past and a follow-up for those guys that didn't play Muirfield at the U.S. Open. I'm not playing Muirfield this year, but I am playing Colonial. So we'll do it at Colonial and follow-up with the U.S. Open.

TOM KITE: No, not at all. It was just trying to coordinate the schedule. Trying to find the tournament where you have a number of these players that are going to play the tournament and one where I can help coordinate it to make sure the players -- because I remember with Lanny and with Tom and all the captains I've been in there, the captain has to encourage and keep reminding these guys, you've got to go by here for 15, 20 minutes to try on the stuff and let them get the measurements. The players are involved in their game and practicing and all the obligations in the tournament that they have. And, it's easy to let that slip. And, I've got to make sure I grab them by the ear and drag them into the room and make sure they get measured. But, no, there was no significance.

TOM KITE: Jeff, if I were to tell you that, you'd probably write it in the paper and Seve would read it and that would work against my team.

TOM KITE: If you knew I wasn't going to answer -- I'm not going to give you that. I don't know. I haven't even thought about it. I'm not to that point yet. We've still got a long way to go. And I'm busy watching the numbers here and seeing what's going on, knowing that it's going to take 560, 570 points to make it. I know I've got two guys that are on the team that I feel very comfortable with. I think Steve Jones may have enough. If he'd just get one more top-10, he's a lock, even if it's a 9th or 10th place finish. I think he's in good shape. Everybody else has still got a ways to go. And, everybody says you've got to be pleased with Mark Brooks and Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods and all these guys that are there, but you've still have got to have some top-10s.

TOM KITE: Jeff, the decision is going to be difficult no matter who the top-10 is because I could take 12 out of these top-25 or 12 out of the top 30, 12 out of the top 40 and feel very comfortable with my team. But as I said, I'm very pleased with the way things are stacking up right now and when and if the time comes around -- well, it will come around. I'll pick those two. But, a lot of it, it's going to have to do with how well those guys are playing at that particular time. I don't pick somebody who might have been playing well a couple of months ago or last year and then didn't play well through the summer months of 1997. I'll be looking at guys that will be playing well leading up to the matches.

TOM KITE: They have Ryder Cup experience. They're both excellent players, and there are certainly some that I'm going to be looking at.

TOM KITE: Not totally, but you can make them aware of it. Until you experience it, there's no way to totally prepare anybody for the Ryder Cup experience. We talk -- I mean, the great, great story in chapter one of Feinstein's book, with Davis Love going to the first tee. That is nothing but fact. Davis and I are playing alternate shot. We had discussed everything numerous times about where he was going to start. He was going to play the odds. I was going to play the evens. And we discussed how it was going to be very difficult going to the first tee. He was going to be one of the first ones. Turns out he was the first one to hit a shot. He was as prepped as I thought anybody in that situation could be. And, as we were walking from the putting green to the first tee, he said, "Do you think you ought to playoff the odds and I ought to playoff the evens?" (Laughter.) I said, "Davis, you'll be fine." And he just ripped it down the fairway a million miles and did a fine job. But, there's no way to totally prepare somebody who's never been there for the Ryder Cup experience. It is different than all the other stuff. It doesn't come around very often. Major championships, if you've been out here a few years, you've played in a lot of major championships. I've played in over 80 major championships. I've played in seven Ryder Cups. When something comes around that seldom and the format is already that different than what you're seeing on a day-to-day basis, it's tough to prepare.

TOM KITE: I spent a good deal of time with him when I was over in Spain at the end of last year. I played a Pro Am - the new tournament in Madrid - and I went down to Valderrama a couple of days after that. So I had a nice couple of discussions with him. We did a couple of press conferences together - just had a great relationship there. Really, other than exchanging Christmas cards and a little bit of just how things are going, that kind of stuff, nothing since that time.

TOM KITE: Certainly that will have -- when I start getting down to my two picks, I'm going to start looking at the guys that are playing well at that particular time. And the closer you get to the Ryder Cup matches, the more emphasis I'm going to put on my selections. Now, we all know just because you played good yesterday doesn't mean you're going to play good the very next day. Or because you played well one week doesn't mean you're going to play well the next week. But, certainly, if someone has not played particularly well for four or five months, their stock is going to drop a little bit as it relates to those two picks. And, those that are playing well leading up to that time, their stock is going to go up. But, in terms of the golf courses, they're both great golf courses, and they're both very hard, difficult, but there's not a whole lot of similarities between the golf courses. You have perched up greens at Winged Foot with very, very deep bunkers, and the greens kind of lay in there nicely. They're not push-up greens. At Valderrama, they have a lot of bunkers, but the dominant feature at Valderrama is the oak trees they have, the cork oak trees, the way they hang out over the fairways; the fact that, literally, you can be well in the fairway and not have a clear shot to the green is the dominant feature of that golf course. And, that's not an overriding factor at Winged Foot.

TOM KITE: I have no way of knowing. I don't know what the players are going to do in terms of their schedule. I'd have a tough time even speculating on that.

TOM KITE: He's only played in one tournament in the last two years, two and a half years.

TOM KITE: Year and a half. I think that's pretty speculative. That may turn out to be, in fact, the case. But it may be a little premature to do that. I would love to see Jose Maria come back and have a great career and play very well. As we know, he's a tremendous talent, a great guy, just a -- he's the type guys we need in golf. People like him, they enjoy following him, he's very charismatic. And he's got a fabulous golf game. You hate to see any kind of talent ended because of health problems. But, I think our prayers are all with him and hopefully he'll do it and hopefully he'll come back and at some point in time become another Ryder Cup team member. Whether it's this year or not, I don't know.

TOM KITE: They've toughened it up, no question about it. How much tougher, I think it remains to be seen. But, I would be shocked if we have the type scores that we've had the last few years. Raymond has definitely -- his No. 1 goal was to get this golf course much, much more difficult than it has been the last few years, and there's no question that he has done that. If the wind blows, this will be a very difficult golf course this beak. The added length, the fact that he's narrowed the fairways down significantly, especially in the landing areas, the fact that the greens have more pin placements now, the shaved banks on those slopes leading down to the water hazards, all those things contribute to a golf course that was already pretty darn good. We had some very low scores the last few years, but we haven't had any wind like we can get here in South Florida for quite a few years. And it's definitely much more difficult.

TOM KITE: Difficulty?

TOM KITE: Oh, yeah.

TOM KITE: Well, 18 at Winged Foot, if you want to count that, is probably pretty close to that. Even though that's --

TOM KITE: That's not a real TOUR stop, it just happens to be in there this year. No, I'd say this is probably it right now. The added length -- of course, the two times that I've played it, I've only played it a couple of times; now it's been dead into the wind. I haven't seen that thing downwind, but now he's added, what, 10 or 12 yards to the length of the hole and extended that bunker up the left-hand side some 8 or 10 yards. Now, to carry the water, you've got to carry it 15 or 20 yards further. I haven't seen it downwind to find out if I can do it. I'm hitting a little further than I used to. How much further? I don't know. If it ever turns around and we catch it downwind, it's going to be a little bit of a guessing game for me.

TOM KITE: Yeah, the bunkers are much more difficult. And the odds of catching a shot a little thin or a little heavy out of the bunker is so much greater than even out of the rough, unless the rough is just -- if the rough is really heavy you lay it up. And that may be how a lot of the guys play it out of the bunker. If you don't get a good, clean line, they may be pitching out and trying to get it up-and-down.

TOM KITE: I'm swinging better, finally starting to swing back like I did in '92 and '93. I was hitting some pretty good distance back then. The last couple of years I lost a little distance, and now I've got some of that back again.

TOM KITE: Oh, yes.