BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 15, 2003

Brad Faxon

MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Brad Faxon into the interview room. 1-under par 72 and 11-under par for the tournament. Brad, quite a start there the first holes.

BRAD FAXON: I didn't make any many pars early on. The golf course is really new for me. I didn't play last year and my first round was actually the round that was broken up over two days. But you got a real golf course here. This is tough. There's a lot of good spots to put the pins and you can get them in some corners where it's really hard to attack. And I don't think there were many low scores today. I haven't seen the whole board. But I know that Phil played well, but I didn't see too many 7- or 8-under out there.

MODERATOR: Will this be a dream pairing for you tomorrow with Phil and Tiger? How much fun will that be.

BRAD FAXON: A dream paring? I think I'll be the judge. Well, you know, I'm going to kind of get lost in the shuffle a little bit. But I got to go out there and try to play great golf. Not worry about -- I think Phil's going to have a little bit more of a home crowd, a little bit more vocal crowd. Tiger, everybody wants to see him play, because he hasn't played at all this year. So it's going to be mayhem out there. Your staff of security here is going to be overwhelmed. But I'm looking forward to it. I've played with both the guys -- I never played with both of them together. So it will be nice.

MODERATOR: Let's go through your card real quick.

BRAD FAXON: I birdied 2. I hit a good drive in the woods to about 10 feet.

I hit a 6-iron on number 3 to probably 20 feet. Made it from the fringe.

Drove it in the right rough and bogeyed 11, I mean 4.

5, I hit 6-iron to 12 feet.

7, I missed the green in the right bunker and made bogey.

Birdied 9 with about a 15 footer there with a 9-iron.

9-iron to the next hole, about a 15 footer. And then that was 10. Yeah.

And then I 3-putted both 11 and 13 from probably about 40 feet. 35, 40 feet.

I made a good save on 17. It was about that time I saw the leaderboard and I said, you know, this could be interesting if I make a par. If I made a bogey coming in I knew I wouldn't be in the last group. But I was going, is this what you want to do? And I made a nice save there on 17 and a par on 18.

MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I'll definitely be the third guy out there. I haven't played with both of them together, so I don't know what it's going to be like out there. There's going to be some screaming, some guys yelling for both -- I hope I will have a little crowd myself. It will be small, but I hope it will be vocal. I'm going to go out and try and play great golf too.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I don't know, I know the few times that they have played together that none of them have shot 63s and 4s. I shouldn't say never, but I know they have played together at times when they haven't brought out the best in each other. And I know both of them want to win badly tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Well, I was trying to be funny. Don't take that too serious. No, I'm not going to -- I shouldn't have said that.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Yeah, I'm going to watch both of them. I have never found watching a guy's swing really affects me. Whether it's a good swing or a bad swing. Some of the amateurs I play with I make sure I stay behind them, but I get a kick out of watching these guys. I watch all the guys I play with.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: 12? I hit a 3-iron to 15. That's with some mud, too. 477 and both of those are into the wind. It's wet too, so it's a totally different golf course.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: He always says stuff like that. It's weather dependent, it's wind dependent. I saw where they're going to put the pins. The pins are going to be in some pretty good spots.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Yeah. I can't imagine if the greens were hard how difficult it would be to play. I almost think it would be boring to watch. Because everybody would have to hit away from a pin. You would have to hit middle of the greens. And you're always putting up a tier, it seems like, if you don't play at the flag. But if you hit it in the bunker on the short side, if you're on the flag side of the green and miss the green, it's an impossible bunker shot. Everything is up and back down a hill.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: No, they were pretty nice. I missed a short putt on 11 that was a little bit bumpy, but they're pretty good. They're rolling pretty true. They're at a nice speed. You can give it a rap.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I think Phil will be a little bit more nervous, knowing that they're playing with me.

(Laughter.) You guys didn't ask them about that when they were in here, did you?

(Laughter.) I think they're going to be nervous. I don't think -- you think they're going to be calm on the first tee? I think they're going to be jumping around.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I think they will be. I get a kick out of it that you guys, all you think I can do is putt. If you hit it to 15 feet, you have to hit it there. It doesn't just get there. And tomorrow all parts of the game are going to be important. You're going to have to drive it in the -- I don't know if we're going to play ball in hand like we did today, but you've got to hit it in the fairways because you can't get it to the green from the rough. The rough is thick. I mean, it's spotty, but it's wet and it's no good. But if you want any chance to hit at a flag, you better be hitting it out of the fairway.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: It's been unbelievable.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: His record may be great, but I mean it's like whatever -- you know, what we do tomorrow has -- nothing we did in the past affects tomorrow. That's just what you got to look at. And hopefully that record will be one percentage point worse tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I don't even analyze the difference from, in distance, between the first nine and second. Because you play a hole like one and four, they're long. 7 is a long hole. You can reach the 6th hole if you hit two good shots. I can't reach the ninth hole. I don't know if Tiger or Phil reached it today. But I imagine pretty much everybody can reach the 13th hole. There's some long par fours, like we said before, 12 and 14 and 15 are great holes. And 18 is a, used to be one those holes where you could get on there, make a three, four, five or a six. And three is kind of out of the picture now for most of us.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Well to play and win with those two guys in the last group would be as big as I could do. Without a doubt.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: Do I relish that? Well, you know, when I think about statistically over the years my putting stats, if I'm thinking about those while I'm hitting putts, I'm not going to putt very well. Like I said last year I got a little caught up in that, not intentionally, but it affected the way I putted. If I can just go out there and putt like I do every other day, I'm going to be in pretty good shape.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I had a good start to last year. I had two seconds and lost the match play.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: You would be dying to get out of there too if you lived there in November, December. I like the west coast. California has got some great courses, it's exciting to play early in the year. But I've had some good success here on this course. Never had a great, great finish. But I would love to do that tomorrow.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: What am I going to feel like afterwards? Probably have to decide what kind of Buick, you know.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I think they're both important. I know whoever plays well tomorrow is going to have to make some putts. Whoever shoots a low score. Doesn't matter how good you hit it. If you hit it to 6 feet all day you still got to make it. If somebody is putting bad they can miss those easily.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRAD FAXON: I don't think I have played in the last group with Worlds 1 and 2. I mean, I played with some good guys in the last group.

MODERATOR: Brad, thanks for coming by and good luck tomorrow.

BRAD FAXON: Thank you.

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