BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

February 14, 2001

Jeff Maggert

JEFF MAGGERT: Yeah, well, I was just happy to see some sunshine. I was watching the forecast last night and they were talking about rain. It was just nice. I've been -- I hit the ball pretty well in the practice round and I didn't play last week, so I was pleased to be hitting the ball well yesterday. And I just felt real confident today and comfortable on the course. I've been putting a little bit better this year than I did last year, so I just kept the ball in play today and made a few putts.

JEFF MAGGERT: I think the big thing is just patience. It's five rounds. You know, the weather is always going to be good and you've got to make a lot of birdies. And I think you just can't get impatient with your game. If you play seven or eight holes without any birdies, you've just got to try to hang in there and keep hitting the ball well and giving yourself opportunities to make putts. It is a putting tournament. The greens here in Palm Springs are always just perfect, probably the best greens we play all year on all four courses, so you really have to putt well to win this week, and there's no excuses. You can't blame it on bouncy greens or getting bad breaks or bad hops. The greens are perfect. It gives you an opportunity to -- it gives me an opportunity to really work on my putting and work on my stroke, because I know the greens are so good. It is just fun to come out here and enjoy the good weather and good greens.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think it gets better every year. This is the start of my 11th year on TOUR, and I think it has gotten better every year since I've been on TOUR, the last ten years. The players keep getting better. More athletic skill coming out every year. The young kids are better athletes. Tiger has certainly elevated, you know, the standard to a higher level, and I think all of the other players are working hard to achieve his standard. You know, everyone talks about his little slump, but it's a tough game and if you're not on your game -- I'm sure Tiger is not pleased with the way he's been playing, but it does show you the caliber of players that we have out here. Tiger is a great player and he had a great year last year, but it doesn't take much to kind of slip down a notch and the other players are right there in front of him. The way Davis has played the last few weeks, and Phil, there's a lot of other guys out here that are playing well. Certainly, I've tried to work hard on my game the last three or four years, especially my physical conditioning. I've lost probably 20 to 25 pound since four years ago and spent a lot more time in the gym the last two or three years. And I feel like it is helping my game. Not only is it helping my game, I feel like it's a must to stay competitive. Fortunately we can play until we are 45 to 50 years out here, so it is definitely paying dividends for me, staying in shape.

JEFF MAGGERT: Oh, definitely. I think across the board, players are taking a note on keeping physically conditioned. The young players, they are taller, they are stronger. I remember when I first started playing, they said, "Well, he's too tall to play golf. He's six-foot. Anyone over six-foot can't play this game," and the ideal golfer was 5-foot 10 or 5-foot nine. Now, everyone is over six-foot. These kids are all strong and they hit the ball a long way. Golf is attracting a lot stronger athletes, more so than it did 15 or 20 years ago.

JEFF MAGGERT: I didn't play well last year, for my own standard. I didn't feel like I had a good year. I know it's hard to complain. I finished 36 or 37 on the money list, somewhere in that range. But I didn't feel like I played as well as I could have last year, and I took almost 11 weeks off at the end of the year. I didn't play from the tournament in Spain all the way until the tournament in Tucson. So, it was a long stretch for me. It was a good break, actually. It kind of rejuvenated me. I really felt motivated when I came out in the beginning of the year, and I've been working hard this year on my golf game, especially my putting, and I feel like it's starting to payoff a little bit.

JEFF MAGGERT: It's been great. Our sport has enjoyed a lot of success the last ten years. Every tournament is a good tournament. The courses are better, better conditioned. Everything about the Tour is just getting better and better, and certainly when Tiger came aboard four or five years ago, it just gave us another boost in the direction we were already headed. I saw on TV that the ratings last week for the golf tournament were higher than the NBA All-Star Game. That's great news for us as golfers. It's just great to be playing a sport that's at an all-time high, as far as popularity goes. I can't see it going anywhere but up. A lot of young people are being attracted to the game.

JEFF MAGGERT: Not jealousy, maybe I enjoy it because he is such a good player. I wish my game was as good as his. He's doing the things that I dreamed about when I was a kid. It's great. There is some -- I don't think it's anything negative at all. I don't know if -- how other players feel. I think it is 100% positive to have a guy like that in your sport. Look what Michael Jordan did for the NBA. Tiger is just an awesome player. You know, it's just good to have guys like that around. I wish there was a dozen of those guys around, and I wish I was one of them. (Laughs). But it elevates everyone's game. It brings everyone's game to a higher level, and it gives you a chance to show the public your skills, with the high ratings and everything.

JEFF MAGGERT: I didn't play golf. It was the longest stretch that I'd probably gone since my time on the Tour. Literally I did not swing a golf club for probably 10 weeks. I don't know, it was just -- I didn't feel like -- you know, I just felt like I needed that. I worked hard in the gym. Stayed in good shape. But I didn't really want to spend my mental energy focusing on golf. I have a family. My kids are at an age where it's just fun to be around them. They have a lot of activities. My kids are 12, 10 and 9, and just having a lot of fun at home. I'm gone so much that it was good to be -- it's nice to spend 9 or 10 or 11 weeks in a row at home and kind of catch up on some of the things that I've missed, you know, over the course of my career. You know, that's the only drawback of playing on the Tour. Being on the road 25 or 30 weeks a year makes it difficult, and the older I get, the older my family gets. It makes it -- you really have to stay focused, you know, and balance your time better, pick and choose your schedule better, and I really try to focus on golf and working on my game when I'm on the Tour, and then when I'm at home, I just don't think about golf at all when I'm at home.

JEFF MAGGERT: Birdied No. 11. That was a par 5. I didn't hit a very good chip shot there. I made a nice putt about 20 feet. I went for the green in two but hit a bad shot. 14, the par 5, again -- again, I had a pretty long putt there. I didn't hit a very good wedge shot in there. I had a pretty easy shot, about 60 yards, and left it about 15 or 18 feet short, but I made a nice putt there. Then birdied 1. I hit it close, about eight or nine feet. No. 4 is kind of a short par 4 there. I hit an 8-iron in there about 15 or -- about 15 feet. Made a nice putt there. 6, the par 5, about a 6-footer for birdie there. Then I hit it close on 7 and 8, about two feet on both of those holes. No. 9 was about a 10- or 12-footer.