DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 5, 1999

Greg Kraft

GREG KRAFT: Birdies and pars. Birdie on two from about five feet. Punch 8-iron to about five feet.

GREG KRAFT: 7, I hit 7-iron about four feet for birdie. No. 9, I hit a punch 6-iron to about five feet. 10, hit perfect drive around the corner, hit a terrible pull-hook 3-iron in the water going for the green. It was a simple shot from the middle of the fairway and I just hit the worst shot I have hit in two days. I pulled it in the water, made bogey. Birdie at 12. Made a long putt there about 30-footer up the hill, hit sand wedge in there.

GREG KRAFT: I hit 6-iron to about three feet there for birdie. 18, I hit a punch 5-iron to about 18 feet behind the hole.

GREG KRAFT: No, pretty basic.

GREG KRAFT: I really noticed the difference probably going into about seven holes in the round. Teeing off so early, it was pretty calm for a while. As soon as we started hitting about 7 and 8, I noticed 8 was playing harder than it normally -- playing downwind yesterday, and I hit a 3-iron pin-high to the right on it yesterday. Today trying to really hit a hard drive, missed the fairway, had to lay up. 17 and 18 played -- I hit pitching wedge into 18 yesterday and 5-iron today. And 17 played a little harder as well.

GREG KRAFT: If it keeps up, yes, absolutely. Yesterday when we teed off, it was blowing pretty good. As the round went on after nine holes, it went away. So, I mean if it stays the way it is now, those guys definitely got a bad break on the draw.

GREG KRAFT: I assumed this morning that it was going to blow probably halfway into our round. And in fact, me and Lanny were talking about it. I said it is supposed to blow this afternoon. He kind of smiled. It was very rare that it would, what happened yesterday happens in Florida. Usually it blows twice as hard in the afternoon. If it doesn't blow in the morning, it blows in the afternoon. That was kind of a surprise yesterday.

GREG KRAFT: Well, the par 5s aren't as easy like 8, you can still get to No. 1. But finishing is tough. With the bunkers around 16, it is a tough fairway to hit. Because if you -- with the wind, if you hit it and it will run through the fairway because it is downwind and you still have to carry the short bunker and 17 -- makes 17 play a little harder off the tee and 18 -- makes 18 a bear because you have got to hit your second shot down the water line.

GREG KRAFT: All I have anything to prove is to myself. When I won there, it wasn't official, it didn't matter to me if it was Tiger Woods, Curtis Strange or David Duval was the guy next on the leaderboard, I was still trying to win. So even though it wasn't official win, I have no complaints and I don't worry about that. I mean, everybody wants to win. I mean, if you win five times, you want to win six. If you win zero, you want to win one. It will be nice to get it under your belt. This is my 8th year on Tour. I have been waiting a long time, but, you know, I could still remember that day like it was yesterday and the way I felt coming down the stretch there. So as far as the stigma of trying to end that, I don't have any.

GREG KRAFT: I am a Florida guy. I live in Florida. I have made almost $2 million on Tour in eight years and I think, other than Hawaii, I have probably made 20 grand of it on the West Coast. I just for the life of me can't seem to understand Indio is here and the ball breaks that way and there is ocean over here and -- it is very, very tough on me. I understand when people from out west come to Florida and they get on this Bermuda, they go grain pulls the ball which way -- to me, I just see it the -- it is natural for me. So I try to take more time off. I was only going to play four and then skip three weeks coming into here, but I was home practicing, hitting it really good. I said, I would go to Tuscon and see if there is anything that comes out that I need to work on before I get to Doral which is where I wanted to get ready for -- since it is Florida and it is -- I grew up on this grass, so this is like home almost. So as far as my year, it is kind of slow. I was -- I didn't like that Hawaii was first. I love playing there because that is just like playing in Florida really windy and it is all Bermuda grass just like here, but it was the first tournament of the year and I was very rusty. Then I didn't play very well. Played well for a little bit at Pebble until the storm came in.

GREG KRAFT: Well, I do feel I have a little bit of an advantage. You still got to play well and still got to hit the shots. But I have an advantage around the greens, or reading the greens, I would think. Living in Florida and playing on that grass, you should have a little advantage just like, you know, the West Coast guys, John Cook and Mark O'Meara and those guys all play great over there. And Phil Mickelson, you get him over on the desert or out west, he is tough. You take this tournament, for example, it is won by a lot of Floridians I think in the past - Mark McCumber, I don't think has ever won from out of the state of Florida, so it does make a difference, I think.

GREG KRAFT: No, because I am the same way when I go to Bob Hope and everybody says Indio's over that way, I am like, you know, I just don't see it. For me, I can look at Bermuda and the grass growing a certain way, I can see that. But Indio is a town miles away and I don't know where it is behind the mountains, and I look at the green it doesn't -- how much it is? Here in Florida if the grain is stronger, you see more of it. If it is not as strong, you see less. So the more grain, the more break. Indio, how much is the town going to affect it, that is the stuff where guys like John Cook just gets up there and he knows exactly, just been playing there for so long growing up in that area.

GREG KRAFT: Really doesn't to me. We are only halfway through the raise. I am just plugging away trying to go as low as I can go. It doesn't really -- doesn't really matter who is on the board. The goal is to finish first. Be more attractive for TV and everybody if Duval and Daly and you know, Norman all those guys were up there, but just finishing ahead of whoever else is there, is the only thing I am trying to do.

GREG KRAFT: I am trying not to. Because I know, I mean, I have been here before and I know, you know, it doesn't mean a lot. It is great to have a great start, you know, and get off well. That gives you confidence. I know there is a lot more work to be done. Out here, you know, a couple of poor drives or a couple mental errors, you know, you go from 9 to 5 in a hurry. Then once you start tumbling, I mean, this course is relentless if you are not hitting it real well. It is long. It's got a lot of traps and, you know, and the wind.

GREG KRAFT: I feel pretty comfortable in the wind. I have played -- seems like I play well in the win. Played well at Pebble the first day and it was kind of windy. Real well in Hawaii last year, more benign though. Played well, hit some good shots today in the wind. So I am comfortable in the wind.

GREG KRAFT: I think -- don't get me wrong, when I am on 18, I am telling it to stop, stop, stop, or when I am getting on a hole, you know, I don't want to face the wind, but I like it if it is the same for everybody. I think guys that are used to playing in windy conditions, you know, like Azinger, I am sure he wakes up in the morning just hoping it blows everyday in his life. He is the best wind player I have ever seen. I know he gets excited when he sees wind or some adverse conditions. I don't know if I get as excited as he is, but I kind of like it a little tough.