THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY MERCEDES-BENZ AND MICHELOB

October 24, 1996

Brad Faxon

BRAD FAXON: I hit an iron and he hit a 3-wood, and I let him know about it. But playing with Tiger was something that gets me charged up. It's like I get charged up when I'm playing with any of the top players in the world and he's the guy that's going to make you concentrate pretty good from the first hole on. When you stand up at the first tee and see nothing about people and fairway, it gives you good definition. I played nicely today. I kept the ball in play, kept it below a few of the holes where you have to keep it below. It was a patient round. I hit a nice streak of birdies between 11, 12 and 13. A little disappointing bogeying 18 after I hit a beautiful tee shot that plays long, and I know "over" is dead, and it's a hard shot. It's a hard tee shot. And 2-under is a pretty good score. I think with this wind, swirling on the back 9, you have a lot of crosswinds. And there won't be too many scores much lower.

BRAD FAXON: It was a big factor. The ball sat on a leaf. It wasn't touching any bit of grass. I played the ball back, in my substance, and tried to keep my hands ahead and punch the sand wedge. It was a hard enough shot not to have that happen.

BRAD FAXON: I felt pretty good. I made a couple little swing changes I really felt comfortable with. I drove the ball nicely. This is a course -- you can choose a lot of different clubs off the tee, here. And -- it's one of these courses where well, it's a course you can hit a lot of 1-irons, 2-irons, if you play that club, a 3-wood driver. So it takes away a little bit of a guy's length. I think Tiger hit four drives, a total of 1500 yards. 350 on No. 5. And probably 370 on No. 16. But I don't think you'll see too many sand wedges in there from the middle of the fairway. But it's a great course. It reminds me a lot of Colonial. You've got to play placement. You've got to play placement on the greens. And these greens to me, you look at them, there's a lot of -- you can see a lot of the blade of grass, you don't look that fast, you get above them and you can't believe how fast they are. It's a pure surface. It's nice having -- 30 guys on the green. You can get in a spot where you can make some putts out here.

BRAD FAXON: I felt pretty good. The worse putt I hit was on 18. I had good speed almost all day and made a couple of nice par-saving putts early in the rounds, and made a couple of nice birdie putts, too.

BRAD FAXON: I guess on the first hole, he has a couple of security guards, they're plainclothes, and a couple of them really in the first couple of holes were really in the way, and I called the TOUR official over, and said we're going to have a lot of problems over here the whole day. I'm prepared for it, but we're not going to be able to play as quickly as the other groups, and I know we held the group up behind the whole time. Both Tiger and I had to wait for guys to get in position and out of position. It can be a little distracting if you let it bother you. If you play with him, you've got to get used to that.

BRAD FAXON: I told him on the second hole, I said say something, keep your eye open for people wanting to move and wanting to run. And you've got to be prepared when Tiger finishes a hole where I do, the people are going to run, run out of the way. So it's the same thing that everybody has to go through playing with the grates, Palmer, Nicklaus, Norman, Watson.

BRAD FAXON: Playing with Tiger? It's a younger crowd, that's for sure. There's a lot of kids out there. I was amazed at how many kids skipped school today. We saw a lot of kids, 8, 9, 10 years old. I think it's great. It's hard to believe that Tiger is 20 years old. When you look at his poise and his determination out there, he handles himself unbelievably well. He's been prepared and training for this a long time, it looks like. But he's got the maturity of Faldo and Norman, you know.

BRAD FAXON: I like playing a course like this where no matter how good you are, short game is important. You've got to -- it's not like you're going to hit every fairway and every green out here, there's no way. So you've got to be patient, there's a lot of holes you can't fire at flags, you can't -- even if you've got a wedge, you've just got to be a little bit conservative in your approach off the tees and into the greens.

BRAD FAXON: I moved to Rhode Island three years ago, and when we played Tuesday, I play in that stuff a lot. That's not foreign to me, and you talk to the guys like Faldo and Els and Lehman and Mears that were at the World Matchplay, they play in that stuff. I didn't think it was unplayable. And certainly if I'm back home in November that's a nice day. I'm not saying I want it to be like that, but --

BRAD FAXON: My "lodge brothers," is that what you said?

BRAD FAXON: I think the most surprising thing to me is his amateur record in professional tournaments and now his professional record in professional tournaments, it's so different. There was no question in his amateur record. And three U.S. Amateurs in a row is spectacular - no question about it. But to see how well he's done professionally, I think it's a little bit surprising. There's no question the tools are there, but I would say, you're exactly right, that if you looked at his -- like The Masters, where, hey, this kid is going to play good in The Masters, and murdering par 5s out there. But I don't know, it shows when he puts his head to it --

BRAD FAXON: That's where he said he did something the second or third round that he found it. I want to find that thing, where is it?

BRAD FAXON: I played with him a bunch of practice rounds, but I don't think I played with him in a tournament. We've played a lot of practice rounds. I've played him since he was 16.

BRAD FAXON: 10 actually I hit a good second shot in there about 8, 9 feet and hit it by about 5 feet. That was beautiful. I had a beautiful 7-iron into No. 11, about two and a half feet below the hole. 12, I had a good drive with a 7-iron. It almost landed in the cup, it looked like, about 15 feet. And then hit a drive and the highest 4-wood I ever hit in my life on 14. It hit the green and kind of stopped there and had a 25-foot for eagle, and 2-putted. Made a nice up-and-down on the next hole, too.

BRAD FAXON: That helped, that definitely helped. That's one of the easier holes. It was a tough green if you're above, and I was above it. You're certainly not going to 3-putt from there.

BRAD FAXON: I've had a very consistent, solid year. I lost in a couple of playoffs, and two or three things happen the right way it's a good year -- it's a great year. So as far as -- it was the first year I ever made every single cut. And I think that's a pretty good thing to be proud of, but obviously I'd trade a win for a couple of missed cuts. But it would be nice to do it here, cap off the year.

BRAD FAXON: I think four, three or four, '92, maybe. I'm not sure. I haven't checked on that. But definitely the most I've made in a row, most I've made in one year.

BRAD FAXON: I don't have to think about this, because it's not in this week, so that's not going to jinx me to talk about it, right? (Laughter.) Probably last year at the Texas Open in San Antonio.

BRAD FAXON: You know, it's amazing that you asked me that because I was talking to Fred Funk driving home last night, and I said, what's your attitude about this tournament? Because I feel like a lot of guys spend so much energy to get into this tournament and it's like a goal to get in the top 30 that when you get there you kind of are just relieved, it doesn't matter how you finish, if you make 50 grand or whatever it is. But I think two years ago I had that attitude that I just -- and it really kind of ticks you off. If you throw yourself out of this tournament the first day it's really hard to catch up. It's only 30 guys, if you throw yourself way behind, I don't know, it's hard to make up ground on a course like this. I got some things I want to do this year to make this year complete. And one of them would be to play great and win here. But I got myself psyched up to play here. Playing with Tiger was a big help to me, because I've been juiced about playing. A lot of guys will come here, believe it or not, playing the 30 best guys in the world, not be psyched about playing. That's hard to imagine.

BRAD FAXON: This is the time of the year guys are just kind of winding down, they've played a lot. You can go over the Dunhill Cup and the World Cup in Japan -- the World Matchplay. There's a lot of stuff going on. That's why I'm not so sure -- here we go -- I stopped myself before I said it. But if we have a world tour or world events where all the best players are playing together, you get too many of them, and other things become meaningless. And I just -- I'm not sure -- I think we've got to treat that, whatever we do, the right way. Because there's something special about the major championship, something special about gearing up for The Masters, and scheduling yourself and playing against these great players. And it's, hey, maybe it would be in a perfect world great to play against great players every week, but where are the other guys, where would the stories be like the Tommy Tolleses, and the David Duvals and the Justin Leonards? But I think we've got to watch it. I think I better watch it before I say something.

BRAD FAXON: Yeah, you're right. Which is kind of mind boggling, because you've got a huge purse, only 29 guys to beat. And you've got a great golf course, you get a Mercedes to drive.

BRAD FAXON: The first place prize kind of scews the money list, doesn't it, like the TPC does, doesn't it? But I think in a way that drives me. I mean I still want to win that first prize. That's a lot of money. And it can move you from 15th to 20th on the money list to 5th or 4th or 3rd. And a guy like Mickelson, I'm sure he's got a chance to make two million now. And guys that are in the top ten can catch him. So the money title, the Player-of-the-Year title on the line, I think you should be pretty psyched about playing it.

BRAD FAXON: I don't think you can tell before this week. You've got a case for a lot of different guys if they win here. You have a case for Tiger if he won. Obviously the Brookses and the Mickelsons, their wins. But you will get a guy like Lehman that won and played so consistently well all year, if he wins here he'd be a vote.

BRAD FAXON: One of what -- if Lehman, Brooks --

BRAD FAXON: Tiger and Mickelson. I don't know if Tiger is in there as an automatic, but I think the other three would be pretty close. Has anyone won four? Has Mickelson won four? I think he's won four.