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FORD CHAMPIONSHIP AT DORAL

March 5, 2004

Joe Durant

DORAL, FLORIDA

JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Joe Durant to the interview room at even par 72 today. You finish at 6 under for two days of play.

Joe, maybe just talk a little bit about the conditions today and if it was different at all from yesterday.

JOE DURANT: You know, coming out in the morning, you'd like to think you might get nine holes in of, I don't want to say wind free golf but less wind. It was pretty windy from the get go at 7:36 this morning. Basically the same direction as yesterday. But it was every bit as strong, maybe even a little gustier at times today. It was very difficult.

I'd say the primary difference between yesterday and today was some of the pin locations. You had three or four pins on the very front of the green where it was virtually impossible to get close to the hole. Second hole was on the front left which is almost impossible to get to. Fifth hole was on front left which was hard to get to. There was three or four times where you were downwind shooting to a front pin that was hard to get close.

10, the par 5, it was on the front and it was tough to get close as well. That's what's going to be happening out there this afternoon. Guys are going to have trouble getting the ball close.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Most of the talk the first couple of days has been about 18, the distance and the wind. Talk about that hole today and how it played.

JOE DURANT: It didn't play much easier today. The tees were up a little bit, but it was still dead into the wind and we probably caught it in some of the stronger winds of the day. The pin is the front right and it is tough, because you have the bunkers on the right and it slopes away on the left. That's a very difficult pin today I think. I hit a drive and I blocked it right and hit probably the best shot I hit today. I hit a 4 iron out of the rough on the green.

It's just a very difficult hole. Again, you've got to step up and hit a great tee shot to even have a chance to play the hole and par typically unless you are very lucky.

Q. Do you like windy conditions generally or is it just at Doral?

JOE DURANT: I don't mind playing in the wind. I grew up in the wind in Pensacola. Maybe not to this extreme. I don't know, I feel comfortable playing in the wind and I feel comfortable on bermudagrass. With that combination, I don't have a problem with it. It's difficult but my trajectory, I have an easy time keeping the ball down. That certainly helps when it's like this.

Q. Is there an attitude involved, also?

JOE DURANT: Yeah, to a degree. You have to stay very patient. You have to realize that on a lot of holes par is a good score. You may sit there 120 yards from the hole but if you make par, sometimes that's all it's going to give you.

You just have to be very patient and just take it one at a time which sometimes you get in some tournaments where the conditions are a little easier and you get ahead of yourself thinking, "Well, I need to make a ton of birdies." This is more like, you know, if I can just make a lot of good, solid pars and throw in the occasional birdie or two, I'm going to be in good shape.

Q. When you won here with that 65, considering the conditions, that was one heck of a round and probably underrated. How did that round rank among the best you played?

JOE DURANT: That weekend, those last two rounds, that's best golf I've ever played, as far as I'm concerned. I made one bogey in 36 holes and that was a 3 putt on last hole. I really had control of the ball for two days off the tee and into the greens. I just I can't think of a time I've ever played better.

Q. The style now for most guys is tee the ball up about this high, throw it straight up in the air and let it parachute. Are you more of a lowball hitter, because it would seem like guys would have trouble adjusting back, say on cross wind downwind, when you throw that thing up there with no spin it could good anywhere?

JOE DURANT: It's always been easier for me to hit the ball on the lower trajectory and if I need to hit one high I'll hit it high. But you're right, though, I think most of the golf courses that we play on TOUR now tend to reward guys that launch it very high, not only off the tee but into the greens, to be able to put the ball up in the air. I've tried to adapt a little bit over the last two or three years to get my ball flight up a little bit, especially with irons. The courses are longer and you are hitting longer clubs into most of the holes so you just have to figure out a way to bring it in softer. When we get back to conditions like this, it's kind of fun. It's a little different.

Q. Can you just talk about your journey since your last win; have you been content with things or what's happened?

JOE DURANT: No, I haven't been content at all. The year after I won here, I played pretty poorly. I wasn't very happy with my game at all. Could have been a little lack of motivation maybe. Maybe a little bit uncomfortable with the position I put myself in the previous year. I had a lot of things happen after I won here back to back with the Hope and all of the attention that I got I was a little bit uncomfortable with it to be honest with you. I didn't expect that much attention. Got out of my comfort zone a little bit.

Last year I feel like I played pretty solid. I didn't putt well at all and still finished 66th on the Money List. I finished last in putting virtually in both categories, so I hit the ball pretty well. I just felt like if I wanted to get back and having chances to win on TOUR, my putting had to improve so I worked on a few things. It's getting better. It's not good but it was better.

Q. What was uncomfortable about the attention?

JOE DURANT: I don't know, just that I'm a little bit of everything, I guess. Just being tugged in a few different directions that I might not normally be tugged. Just having opportunities that wouldn't come my way, either. I don't know, I'm just a very family oriented person and I like my quiet time and private time. I don't know, just seemed like I was neglecting my wife and my kids, trying to do too much at one time. It just all kind of piled on top of one on top of the other and got to the point where I just couldn't handle it. I didn't handle it very well. I learned a lot, though. If it ever happens again I'll handle it better.

Q. That has to be a good and bad thing, double edged sword, being in that position, Jerry Kelly went through the same thing, won twice, same year, similar situation.

JOE DURANT: Yeah, trust me, it was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to experience that. But I guess in a way I never thought it would happen to me and I was kind of caught off guard. Like I said, I learned a lot. I'm just grateful to be out here playing now. I'm just looking forward to playing the next several years.

Q. You see a lot of guys, all bets are off on putting now, styles, Langer used to get laughed at because he was trying everything and now you can see a threesome, one guy with a belly putter, one guy is cross handed, switch putter; what have you tried or have you been pretty traditional?

JOE DURANT: I've just been traditional since the last nine holes of the tournament in Tampa. I decided I was going to go left hand low the last nine holes. I putted that way and over the winter I went to see Mike Shannon who is a putting instructor at Sea Island, Georgia and worked on a few things. He wholeheartedly agreed that left hand low was a good style of putting, squared my shoulders up a little more. It looked more natural than putting conventionally. I rolled the ball better. I haven't necessarily made a lot more putts but I haven't 3 putted as much and my long putting has been better.

You're right though, you can see anything and everything now.

Q. You talked about the patience that's required out here whereas compared to others, you can get ahead of yourself thinking you need birdies. How many tournaments out here, give or take, are patience requiring tournaments, as compared to birdie tournaments?

JOE DURANT: Other than the majors, not very many typically unless you have extreme conditions like this week. Most times, it's just, you know, how many birdies can you make. Don't even can't even really let off the accelerator for very long. Maybe a handful during the course of the year and again it just comes down to the conditions.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Joe, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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