VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 11, 2002

Ernie Els

Q. Well, talk about the round.

ERNIE ELS: Well, I -- well, I had a pretty decent start and I was flowing from early on. Birdied the third hole, which is a good birdie to make. It's a tough hole and I just felt comfortable. I felt comfortable with my putting stroke for a change and, you know, actually changed my driver today. I've been hinting to put it into my bag this whole week and (inaudible) made me this new driver, and after just making the cut, I put it in and, you know, I drove it pretty well and hit my iron shots well and I had a lot of birdie opportunities.

Q. Which irons are you playing?

ERNIE ELS: My irons, the irons are the same. Just the one driver that's changed.

Q. Because this week you had some other irons?

ERNIE ELS: Oh, yeah. I'm back with my old ones. Yeah, last week I tried something new, but obviously it didn't go so well.

Q. (Laughter.) Will you go back to these eventually?

ERNIE ELS: I'm waiting for this new design that's coming out in June. Taylor Made is coming out with a new iron in June and I'm waiting for that and I think I'll change, but for now I'll stick with my old ones.

Q. What was wrong with the ones you played?

ERNIE ELS: Well, there was nothing really wrong with them, just the feel, you know. The weight in the club head makes a hell of a difference with that and felt a little bit light last week and just couldn't get them online.

Q. Were you not happy with your driver the first two days? Is that why you changed?

ERNIE ELS: No. Again, you know, there's not really a reason why I changed. Just on the range it felt like I was hitting it with a bit more of an (inaudible) flight into the breeze and that's good, yeah, and I think I can hit it a little bit lower, so I tried that today.

Q. What do you suspect this number will do for you today, 7?

ERNIE ELS: It's definitely a major (inaudible). I haven't played well the last month, so I really tried to get out there to play a good round today. My stats in third round isn't that good either, so I really wanted to change that today and just play a solid round. And as it turned out, I played really well, so I'm in with a chance now, you know. I don't know what the leaders are going to do, but it's not going to be easy.

Q. (Inaudible) with the wind seems to be blowing harder?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. It's picking up now. It was blowing this morning, but nothing like it is now, obviously. I would say the back 9 is probably really blowing and I think the (inaudible) is with us the next couple of days.

Q. Anyway, thank you.

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