WGC ANDERSEN CONSULTING MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 26, 1999

Andrew Magee

ANDREW MAGEE: A couple of thoughts: I came here kind of expecting to play about one or two matches. Didn't know my game was going to rise to the occasion. I hadn't played Match Play in so long, probably since 1982 as an amateur. It has been exciting for me. It is a different way to play. I am obviously thriving under these conditions, and it has been thrilling. I have enjoyed every minute of it.

ANDREW MAGEE: Everybody wants to know the key. You know, where, what is up? This morning with Glasson the key was the last hole. And where he screwed up and hit it in the rough and I hit it in the fairway and he bounced it over the creek and made bogey and I made par to win 1-up. That was the key earlier today. Glasson and I played identical. Made a lot of pars, and nothing spectacular, just a few birdies here and there. Then he bogeyed the last hole and I parred it, and that's was that match. The key, today, I think was probably 17 when we are all square. After some really good golf in the middle there, we are all square going to 17 and Maruyama I think hit a 7-iron straight right in the water. He drove it left into the rough off the tee and laid up with whatever he could to slash it out of the rough. I think he hit 7- or 6-iron; hit it in the water. I kind of felt like that was the key. That was my chance right there.

ANDREW MAGEE: I hit 8-iron in the middle of the green and 2-putted for 5 and won the hole. After that, the second shot -- 8-iron I hit about eight feet, I think, was the key for me to know that I am going to seal this deal.

ANDREW MAGEE: Yeah, defense. I went in the four corners: De-fense. I was trying to kill the middle of the green. I went from thinking he'd make a birdie these next couple of holes to do something, because this guy is not going to make any mistakes, just knowing I had to make a par. Sometimes making a par is harder than being aggressive and hitting the shot at your target. I aimed way left and hit 30 feet left of the hole and 2-putted. Yeah, things definitely change.

ANDREW MAGEE: Not at all. I am not even -- I am numb to this. I have no feelings whatsoever towards this. The top-tier players, I play with them every week, Jeff, and, you know, sometimes they are up and sometimes they are down and Match Play is just a funny deal. You just -- anything can happen. The course is tough enough where you got to drive it in the fairway and you have got to keep it below the hole to make the putts and you have got to be a good putter to make some putts. It is just like any week on the TOUR. It is kind of funny that the four of us that are left are all pretty much regular Tour players. We play a lot of tournaments. You know, we are all 25- to 30-tournament kind of guys; used to doing a lot of golf. I haven't played many Match Play tournaments, but I am not surprised by watching -- remembering the Tucson Seiko Match Play deal. The big names always got knocked out here early. With any of these Match Play deals, you never know.

ANDREW MAGEE: No. You know, it is just every hole and I think we played Match Play every day anyway. You played Match Play in the practice rounds with the guys we play with. We play, you know, home with our buddies, always playing Match Play. We don't like to call it that. We just call it playing against him something. We don't call it Match Play. It is not so serious. It is Match Play. It is more -- it is just the game. It is the game of golf. You just go out and you are playing against somebody. Here the stakes are a little higher, of course, when you get here, it is Match Play. It is serious Match Play shit here.

ANDREW MAGEE: I will bet you if we played this thing -- if this was the first annual somewhere in Scotland or Wentworth or somewhere, I will bet you there would be a lot of Europeans left. They don't like our food. Weather sucks here in San Diego. They don't like all this sunny, nice weather. They think it's a long way to come. I think when we go to Australia in a couple of years, we will see a see a different result. We have all been playing, you know, Maggert and Huston and whoever else is left, we have been playing the West Coast. We are kind of into our Tour right now. We are playing those guys haven't been playing that much, I don't think. I mean, I think timing has really helped us, us regular Tour guys right now. What are you smiling about, Jeff?

ANDREW MAGEE: Yeah, tough shit. I don't care.

ANDREW MAGEE: I miss supporting the Tucson Open. I do. I am from Arizona. I actually I had some stupid thoughts of like you know, I can lose the first round Wednesday; I can still get to the Thursday round at Tucson, but if I commit to Tucson, people are really going to think I am stupid. So, you know, I miss playing Tuscon. I made a lot of money in Tucson. I have been a past champion there. I feel bad for them that they got none of the Top 64 in the world playing in their tournament. But right now, I am feeling pretty damn good about this whole deal. Things change and things change on every shot with me anyway. I am a Gemini. I jump from good to bad real fast. You like that, didn't you, Jeff? I have been waiting to use that one for a long time.

ANDREW MAGEE: I have no idea what the money is; so don't even tell me. All I know first place; second place, is I have no idea what the breakdown is. I don't even look at that anymore. I know the purses you are huge. I feel like this is my 15th year on Tour. I am into this for the long haul. I am going to be a career Tour player, I think. I don't know for sure, but I still think I am maybe going to maybe make this a 20-year career. But I am just going to go out and try to do the best I can every day and play hard. That is what I have been training my whole life, is to do this. Sometimes I want to do something else, but I can always look back and as my friend Mark Brooks told me: You can't do anything else, you might as well just be a Tour player. So I keep reminding myself of that.

ANDREW MAGEE: Oh, boy, look at you jumping to conclusions there.

ANDREW MAGEE: Going deep with that one. No, it is just -- it is not a victory for anybody. It is just -- we are just -- we are the four guys still standing. I mean, anything can happen as we have seen out here. I am surprised we don't have Duval and Woods and Westwood and whoever else is No. 4, Mark O'Meara left, but obviously they weren't playing as good as somebody they were playing against. That sounded stupid, didn't it? (laughs).

ANDREW MAGEE: Yeah, how many times can you say that? Nice watch, Jeff. What kind of watch is that?

ANDREW MAGEE: That is pretty cool.

ANDREW MAGEE: A lot of ebb and flow, I mean, I saw a stat a few minutes ago when I was coming in here, I have trailed only two holes this week and I think that a couple of guys have trailed 16 and somebody else has trailed four, but I think that has been a key for me this week is I have been on top of my matches. I have been able to dictate the way that they hit the shots because I have been putting a hot of pressure on guys. Hitting a lot of greens and fairways... Every match ebbs and flows, you know, you think it ebb and flows, you ought to see what is going on in my mind. I am really ebbing and flowing in there.

ANDREW MAGEE: A lot of space up here in my head. Like I said, I am a Gemini, I fluctuate back and forth, back and forth. So, I am as surprised, as all you guys are, that I am here, and I would probably guess that John and Steve and whoever else is left, I keep -- they are probably not. They have had a good start to their season. I really haven't had too great a start. So I am excited about this opportunity.

ANDREW MAGEE: I always do that. I go to Japan every year and it is very proper. I learned this part in Ireland you take your hat off and I learned the bowing part in Japan so I know that courtesy thing when you go in the bar and you are all friends.

ANDREW MAGEE: I played with him in the Bridgestone Open I think when he was 19 or amateur, the best player in Japan, and I think he finished fourth or fifth that week and everybody knew he was going to be the next Jumbo. He is probably on the Bridgestone team and Jumbo accepted him as the next Jumbo because he can karioke better than he can, better than Jumbo. So Maruyama is in. He is a really nice guy. You can't really figure out who you are going to play, but I said I don't want to play Maruyama because I know he is a good player and obviously playing well this week, but you know, you just deal with what you got to deal with and last few times we played, he just shot 65 and made it look real easy. Blowing the ball way past me and all of a sudden I have got a long (inaudible) I was 1-putting the pressure on him. He is a great guy. I like him. He is a nice dude.

ANDREW MAGEE: I think we have been saying that for years. Especially on our Tour, anybody can win on our Tour. The depth is just incredible. Now that the money is increasing little kids are seeing the opportunity to be a professional golfer as a great way of life. 20 years ago guys were looking at -- 30 years ago, going: Oh, my parents, I can probably make more in my parents' business than I can playing golf, whatever, so it is spuring a lot of good players. A lot of hungry kids that are coming out of college that want to make a living that are really good and had a lot of great training for years. It is too hard to predict. You guys sit around and predict this all the time and you can't do this.

ANDREW MAGEE: I am going to start my day out as it is fun, yes. I am going to try my -- that is my goal in the morning is to wake up and be myself and try not to get all quiet and clammy and let my other -- my good Gemini side out, you know, I feel like I have had a victory anyway. I have been here this week. I am just going to go out and let it go. I feel like I have been the underdog in almost every match I have played which is where you want to be when you are playing in the tournament here. I feel like it is the NCAA basketball tournament, no one wants to play the underdog.

ANDREW MAGEE: That is a no.

ANDREW MAGEE: Wow!. That is great. I was 30 on Tour last year, so 50, feel like I have gone from being a running back to a linebacker, kind of like they should put numbers on our backs.

ANDREW MAGEE: I am 50th, shit, I am 50. I will take it. That got me in here; that is good enough. You know, I don't profess to try to be the world's greatest golfer. I am just trying to do the best I can. I have never strove to be No. 1 in the world or anything like that. I am just chopping along and just having a good time. I am not sure -- I have been doing this for 15 years. If I am not No. 1 by now, I am probably never going to be No. 1, so I am forgetting about that. I am just trying to make a nice living.