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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 10, 2004

Joe Durant

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

Q. Do you get home sick when you're on the road?

JOE DURANT: Absolutely. I'm a home body. I love my family and they're the most important thing in the world to me, so when we're apart, that's the most difficult thing about being a Tour player with a family is being away from your wife and your kids.

Q. How you strike that balance then?

JOE DURANT: Well, in our house we kind of have a two-week rule. I'm never gone more than two weeks at a stretch. If I'm going to play more than two in a row then they'll come out or I'll just go home and I won't play more than two in a row. That's our way of doing things. It seems to have struck a good balance because you don't get too overloaded with golf. You know, your kids are only little once. I don't want to miss them growing up.

Q. Is that kind of the way it's always been in the family or is that something you've morphed into it?

JOE DURANT: I think we've morphed into it because I've played well enough to be able to pick and choose where I want to play, and I take advantage of that. I don't ever play like five or six weeks in a row. I don't tend to perform well when I do that. Two or three weeks for me is a good stretch.

Q. And your wife and family actually like having you home that much (laughter)?

JOE DURANT: I don't know about that.

Q. Is it tough when you're doing that to maintain your golf game?

JOE DURANT: Very much so because I'm notoriously lazy when I go home as far as golf is concerned. I like to go out with my friends and piddle around the house and play with my kids and stuff, and I don't practice very much when I'm home. Consequently you suffer a little bit when you come back out, but I've gotten better at managing my time when I'm home and making sure that I get some work done so I'm not totally rusty when I come back out and play.

Q. Do you see more guys on Tour kind of doing that, spend are more family time? Nick Price talked about it earlier this week. Is it more prevalent on Tour now more than ever?

JOE DURANT: Certainly with guys my age. I'm 40, and guys in the 38 to 45 range that have children and school and stuff, it's hard. You kind of reassess what your priorities are, and mine has always been my family, and a lot of guys feel the same way, so they make a few little adjustments here and there and still make it work.

A lot of guys bring their families out. The Tour does a great job with day care out here, so we can bring our families out. It's one of the luxuries we do have is they have a great group of girls that take care of the kids, and that makes life a lot better on the road.

Q. Are there some events that you have missed while being out on Tour?

JOE DURANT: Oh, sure. When I played the Booz Allen tournament my little guy was in his tee ball all-star tournament. I hated missing that, but that's a tournament I've played well in the past, I love the golf course, I have family there, so that's one I had to play in. There's some events you miss. I had to get the blow by blow on the cell phone and videotape and stuff like that.

Q. How did you feel on the course today?

JOE DURANT: I felt pretty good, pretty solid, nothing spectacular, made a couple of good putts, hit a couple good iron shots, but I just played steady. I would have liked to have gotten a little closer to the lead, but if I can go out and shoot a real low round tomorrow, you never know what's going to happen.

Q. Given the conditions that this whole week has been through, do you feel it helped or heeded the game?

JOE DURANT: The golf course was getting fast, and unfortunately the rain kind of softened things up so it became a little bit more of target practice going into greens, but you still had to hit shots. I hit some good irons shots, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.

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