HP CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

May 4, 2003

Bob Estes

Q. Bob Estes, thanks for joining us. (Inaudible) especially on the Back 9 when you made birdies on 15 and 16 and then made a tremendous leave on 18 to go to the playoff. If we could start with some opening comments about your day and your week.

BOB ESTES: Yeah, obviously it was a really good week, I certainly hoped to win. I was playing golf with a bunch of buddies last week and I knew my game was coming around, and I told them I might just win this week, and I was sure hoping I could pull it off and prove myself right.

I hit the ball well for the most part this week and I just needed to putt better. I played pretty smart golf and real good golf at times, but I just didn't convert enough of the 10 -, 15-, 18-foot putts, in that range, to shoot any lower than I did this week.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: I didn't think he'd make it when he was lining up his putt. I knew he had a tough putt because once it comes up over that hill it was really browned out on top of that green, and I knew it was going to be real slippery, it could get away from him, and I actually had a better angle on it because I was putting a little bit more back up the hill, but it had nice speed. I mean, if it didn't hit the hole he might have had to hit a 3- or 4-footer coming back. But it was just the perfect putt, and I just didn't get mine high enough so it never had a chance.

Q. Questions?

BOB ESTES: My putt was -- I guess mine was about 35 feet, his was 40 or so. I can't tell you exactly how far they were.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: I knew I messed up on number 9, sure enough.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, you could maybe get away with a few more mistakes today because it was a more difficult day. I mean, it was obviously windier, and then the greens were drying out, so it was more difficult to stop the ball near the hole, but yeah, that was a mistake. When I came up short on number 9, I had a 105 to the hole, I had like 99 to carry the bunker to the green, then 104 or 5 to the hole, and the wind -- it's never blowing exactly in one direction. Sometimes it's a little bit (inaudible) but it was left to right, and I guess I had visions in my head of hitting a full sand wedge and landing it past the flag and having it bounce over in that swale back behind the green and it would have been a tough up and down, but I thought I was going to be okay in that bunker, but I didn't have a very good lie in the bunker, I was kind of sitting down a little bit in a depression so I had to hit my 56-degree sand wedge instead of my 60. And you could tell the way it came out, it kind of dumped it out, but I didn't need to come up short in the first place. That could have been a 2-shot swing right there easy.

I needed to give myself a good opportunity to make birdie on number 9 and I walked away with bogey, so that was kind of a turning point, but anyway, when I made the three birdies on the Back 9, and good up and down on 18, that got me back in the golf tournament, and after I hit my second shot in the center of the green on 18, you know, for a guy who hasn't won before, there is a lot of pressure there, but he stepped up there and hit the shot and, obviously, made the putt, but I did, for the most part, what I had to do except for I needed one more birdie somewhere out there.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: The way this course sets up, the way a lot of the pins are positioned, it makes it real difficult to play too aggressive on certain shots because you know if you miss on the short side with the pins in the corners, you just don't have a chance, so it's still kind of smart aggressive on almost all the shots that I play. Certain shots you can go right at it and some shots you have to play a little left or right of the flag, just like number 15, for instance, the pin is on the left side and I was hitting a 5-iron, and with the win right to left, I needed to hit it in the center of the green (inaudible) little bit, but it's not like you're going to go right at that flag on number 15 when it's on the green and not much room left of the flag.

But I was just trying to think about a few more shots. 16 I went right at the flag. 17 I needed to play a little left of the flag because if I went right I would have had a much more difficult second shot to get anywhere near the hole, so that's just a case-by-case basis, I guess.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: 16 was a 60-degree sand wedge.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: Yes, that's when I got the lead right.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: Well, that happened for the most part (inaudible) bogeyed 16, but when he made that par putt on 17 it kind of reminded me of the putt that he made on 18 in Greensboro a number of years back, the tournament Trevor Dodge won, Scott was, I guess, one down -- I think that was a birdie putt -- I think he was one down going into the last hole and Trevor was already finished and Scott just nailed this putt right in the backside of the hole, hopped up and went in, so that's immediately what I thought of when he made the par putt on 17 to keep him in it, so I thought maybe it was his week to win when he made that par putt on number 17, but anyway, he drove it right on 18 and had to kind of advance it and just got a little sloppy from there.

We had a good time. Scott and I have been playing against each other since we were 14, 15, 16 years old, so we get along fine, and we were having a good time. I think we probably thought it was going to be one of the two of us that was going to win the golf tournament. He played great rounds to get to 21-under. It was a great round today, too.

Yeah, it was really windy, real difficult to get the ball in the fairway on certain shots because there was a lot of cross-wind tee shots, real difficult to get the ball near the hole as well with the greens that firm a lot of cross-wind shots.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: I can feel it. I got an internal -- what do they call it? No, it measures the wind, wind gauge, but it was kind of -- it was anywhere from like 15 to 25, it probably never really gusted more than 25. A lot of times you had a real solid 20, 22 mile-an-hour wind, so that's when it's difficult, and especially when the greens are firm and the fairways.

Q. Finish up your scorecard, birdie on number 6 (inaudible)?

BOB ESTES: Okay. Yeah, driver, 5-iron, and then just 60-degree sand wedge to the green and right up there 6 feet from the hole maybe and made that for birdie.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: 13, I hit a 3-wood, 8-iron, made about a 20-footer, 22.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: 15, I hit a driver, 5-iron to the center of the green just past the pin and misread the putt for birdie.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: Yeah, in regulation, yeah, 2-iron. The wind was blowing it hard. That's when it was blowing just about the hardest is when we were playing 18. I mean, I had a pretty good drive and pretty good 2-iron and still couldn't get to the green, and so on the playoff we go back out there and all of a sudden it just laid and I hit a little better drive and hit a 4-iron in, so I was like 20 yards past where I was with my tee shot in regulation, so I was glad to see that and have a shorter shot into the green, and I had it right where I wanted to, I wanted to play it right at the flag and put some heat on Steve and he followed it up with the same shot.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BOB ESTES: Yeah, I mean, I thought that I had a real good chance. I hate to bring it up, but I may be 0 and 3 in playoffs or something like that, but people keep dogging me with birdies.

My rookie year on Tour I was real green and everything like that, and I think Mike Colbert parred the first hole when I made bogey, but my next playoff was the Buick whatever they called it at that time, the Buick Challenge at Callaway Gardens and on the very first playoff I hit the best drive, I hit the best approach shot, I hit an 8-iron in there about 4 feet and John Inman made about a 12-footer before I made mine, but I birdied the first playoff hole but then he goes and birdies the next playoff hole to my par so I'm not going to start (inaudible) playoffs because I hit some real good shots under the gun in playoffs, it just hasn't turned out in my favor.

But yeah, it is tough when you get in a playoff and you know you're that close, and it certainly could go your way, and it just doesn't. That's just the way it goes, I guess. Like I said, I should have scored one better in regulation.

Q. Bob Estes, thank you very much.

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