MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2001

James Driscoll

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know. I try not to think too much. I tend to play better when I don't have too many thoughts running through my head, so I try to think of nothing, if possible. I did that today, actually. I just -- no expectations. Just, you know, didn't think of the outcome of any shots. Just tried to look at the shots, see what I had and tried to pull it off. I feel like I could have shot 4-under with way I played, because I wasn't exactly hitting fairways and greens all day. I got lucky with a lot of putts and lucky with a lot of tee balls. So hopefully I can tighten up my game a little bit and shoot some of the same scores. That would be great.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Probably. I'll try.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Oh, yes. I actually met both those

gentlemen, really. Mr. Coe was at the Amateurs dinner on Monday and I spoke with him briefly. This place just oozes with history. The people that are walking around the clubhouse that have won so many majors. You never know who you are going to bump into, but it is just great to stay in the Crow's Nest and be able to take it all in, by being here, basically 24 hours a day. It's great.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I think I had to calm him down a couple times, actually. (Laughter) I saw him jumping around on the fourth hole after I missed that putt. His name is Marion Harrington and he is a local caddy. He caddied for Seve Ballesteros from '77 to '82, he's won this tournament before. When I heard that, I was pretty much certain I was going to pick him up and use him. I tried a bunch of different caddies when I took practice rounds, like weeks, months before I came before this week, and Marion was very good.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I was psyched when I got over there. My ball was sitting up okay and I had a shot to the green. I couldn't believe it. I had about 210 to the front left, and a little flyer, and I hit my 5-iron 205 yards typically, a full one. So, I figured: Fly, lie, downhill, 5-iron, just hit it solid and hit it perfect. It was in the air, hit it tight. I thought that was one of the best shots I hit. When we were walking up there, we didn't notice the wind. There was just a breath of wind that must have held it up, that's the only thing I can think of for it to come up short. Hit it solid with a flyer lie, and I don't know how it came up with where it did. I thought it was going to go over the green.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Just some lucky breaks. That putt on 4, I hit way too hard, but it went in the hole. Just one of those days where some bad putts go in the hole, and just take advantage of it and then hopefully tune up your game so you don't need those breaks anymore, because I know I'm not going to get them for more than one day. I usually don't.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I played it seven times before, Monday Tuesday and then played nine holes Wednesday, so nine and a half rounds.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I think -- no. It's just, the putts go in. You try and -- you just try and be confident with your read, even though sometimes you are not going to be right just because Rae's Creek is pulling it one way and sometimes it is not pulling it that way, and just try and be confident over the putts and be confident where you want to hit them that they'll go in, and today they did. The putt on 18 was a great putt. The putt on 17 could have snuck out. It is not that I feel overly confident on the greens, but I started out -- I started a lot of my putts out on the right line and had some good reads.

JAMES DRISCOLL: He had a much different shot. We had slightly different lies. He was further away from the lip. His shot was -- didn't look like it, but his shot was ten times tougher than my shot, and my ball was sitting in flat sand, and I just -- it came out perfectly. I wanted to land it in the fringe and just was perfect. It was one of those shots, I had visions of leaving it in the bunker, of putting it in the water and having it go in the hole and it went in the hole.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I was a little nervous but I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. I've been pretty calm like in the practice rounds and I thought all of a sudden Thursday morning I was just going to be shaking. I was a little bit, but I was pretty calm.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I was thinking I can get -- I was thinking I can get that up-and-down. I didn't know where it was. I thought it was going to be short of the bunker. I was like, this is going to be tough, but I knew I could get this up-and-down. When I saw it in the bunker, I was like, I can knock that in the hole. You know, it went in. I don't know.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I finished -- I graduated last spring, four years. Was planning on turning professional right after this week, but actually, like two weeks ago, I decided to stay amateur and play the U.S. Amateur one more time and I'll probably turn pro in September.

JAMES DRISCOLL: If they let me.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't really have a -- I'm not really a consistent dresser. I've got different looks I go with. (Laughter.) I had a little Euro look the other day. I might have a little Euro-look tomorrow, a little Jesper Parnevik look tomorrow. Just go with whatever. I don't have that many clothes.

JAMES DRISCOLL: No, it's just that I brought a mixed bag of clothes.

JAMES DRISCOLL: A little bit. On Tuesday night, I was running up to the Crow's Nest to drop off my clubs and take a quick shower to go over to the house that my family rented this week and the Champion's Dinner was going on. I was trying to avoid it. There are two ways you can go out the bottom of the stairs in the Crow's Nest, you can go out through the dining room or the Champions Locker Room. They were starting in the locker room and they were moving to the dining room. I wanted to avoid them. I didn't want to get in their way. I kind of looked through the -- they were taking the picture and I saw Arnold Palmer. I could see a bunch of people through the -- through the glass window in the door and I tried to go the other way. As I turned the corner, Seve was walking right out, I was like, "Oh, sorry." Monday night was great, the Amateur Dinner, meeting all of the interesting people that were members here and getting invited to that dinner.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Oh, a lot. Two right there and there's -- I don't know how many of here total with, cousins, but I've got five brothers and a sister. Two sisters-in-law and both my parents are here. A bunch of cousins.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Oh, yes. They were not going to miss it.

JAMES DRISCOLL: It can help or hurt, because if you are playing badly, you feel bad that -- you feel bad that so many people are here, but if you're playing well, there's nothing better.

JAMES DRISCOLL: It's one of the best conferences in the country. You have Georgia Tech, Clemson, probably even --

JAMES DRISCOLL: Wake, the last couple years, has not been as strong as the other two, but Virginia has a really good program, plays a really good schedule and it's a really fun school. It's a really good school academically. I like the golf coach a lot. I've enjoyed it there. I don't think I would have gone anywhere else.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Well, the first part of your question, right after the U.S. Amateur, I've practiced for a while, through maybe Thanksgiving. Then I took a couple of months off and just -- I figured it was a great time to just try and get in shape, just get strong and fit. I worked out with a trainer up in Boston for a couple months. Never got a job. It was kind of weird to have those couple of months. I had too much time on my hands. I was wasting a lot of time, but then January, I moved down to Florida and started practicing. So, I was trying to give myself enough time to get my game in shape.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Never. If I turn pro, I'll be a pro for a long time, and this is -- playing this tournament is one thing, but I think playing as an amateur is more special, and I really wanted to do that.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I played the Jones Cup, was my first amateur tournament. I played pretty badly there. Then the Gasparilla Tournament in Tampa, I played okay there, not very well. Then I played Doral and missed the cut. Then I played the Azalea last week. Started to hit the ball better and finished like 7th or something, which wasn't great, but there were some signs of encouragement.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Definitely. I think all the Amateurs -- that was a crazy year that year for amateur golf. I think Jenny Chuasiripron almost won the Open that year, and I think amateurs now are just -- I don't know if they are more confident or better, but there are young kids seeming to do really well all the time, Ty Tryon the other week and a young 16-year-old kid won the Azalea last week. I think people, amateurs, feed off each other and the success of one amateur helps the psyche of other amateurs.

JAMES DRISCOLL: The short putts, like the one on 18 was hit really well. Some other ones, 9 was way too hard, but in general, I putted pretty well. I putted well on the back side.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I think it was going to go off the green, all the way down.

JAMES DRISCOLL: No. My eyes were getting pretty big. It was holding it's line. If we read this right and we does what they think, it was going to go in, but it was moving pretty good.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know. I didn't really get into golf I started playing golf when I was like seven. I don't remember really watching much golf. The Masters is the tournament that always sticks out, but I don't really remember -- I don't remember '86 when Jack won. I don't remember watching that. I don't know what my first Masters memory. So I've been watching it probably consistently since I was 12 or 13. But I played a lot of other sports, and this time of year, I was playing -- I wasn't playing golf yet. So it wasn't, really.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Well, when I was really young, I played hockey in the winter and baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall when I was like 10, 11, 12. So it was almost like I only thought of golf for about four or five months in the year, but when I was 12, 13, I started to watch this every year, no question.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't think I tried to focus any harder over the last couple of holes. But I just, you know, the day of a tournament, I just try and tune everything out, clear my mind and if I'm able to do that, and I'm swinging okay, I usually have a good day, but that's not easy to do. It's easy to say, but it's not easy to play with a clear mind.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I think so. It took a while, though. It was such a weird tournament, because on one hand, I came back from 3-down with three to go and took it to extra holes and -- which was great and made it to the finals, but on the other hand, I lost. So it was weird. I didn't know how to handle it, really, for a while. But now, I've just kind of accepted it as kind of what it was, whatever that means. I don't even know what that means, but I just tell myself that. (Laughter.) I just try -- you know, it is in the past. I try to not think of too many things that have happened with golf. Just try and think of what's next. It was an experience that was unbelievable to play in the final of the U.S. Amateur is just amazing. Playing this as an amateur is also amazing.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I got over that, after the semifinal match, I thought about that a little bit, because then you are in. But during the match, I never really thought about that, or after the match. But it's a nice consolation prize, that's for sure.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I don't know, sometimes I make a lot of pars and just solid, and sometimes I can make a lot of birdies. I don't know, I hit it kind of long, not really long. Everyone is long nowadays, but I don't know. I don't think I've got any part of my game that's really -- sticks out.

JAMES DRISCOLL: 63.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I shot 63 at Plymouth, which is a par 69. I shot 64, 65 a couple times. I've never really taken it super low, though.

JAMES DRISCOLL: No. I never really -- that thought never really crept in. I mean, a little bit when I hit it in the water on 15, but not really.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Okay. I'll just try and go through quickly. Sand wedge to eight feet. Birdie on 1. Lob-wedge to 12 feet. Birdie on 2. 4, 5-iron to wife 25, 30 feet, birdie. 9, 8-iron to -- I don't know, 25 feet. 13, 7-iron left of the green and putted it up about seven feet. 16 was the bunker shot. I think that's it.

JAMES DRISCOLL: 20 feet. It wasn't far at all.

JAMES DRISCOLL: Bogeyed 10. I just came over a 6-iron. Had a pretty easy shot. Just came over it. I had a medium up-and-down. Didn't get it up-and-down. 15, I hit it in the water. Dropped it. Hit it 25 -- 20 feet and missed it.

JAMES DRISCOLL: The second one? Five feet.

JAMES DRISCOLL: I haven't really -- yeah, I was pretty sure. I mean that's what the drop area is there for, I think, is for that water. So I was just kind of checking out that angle, and the more I saw it, the more I had to go up on the rough and I had a downhill lie and that made no sense. As soon as I saw that, I went over there.