GREATER GREENSBORO CHRYSLER CLASSIC

April 23, 1999

Jeff Maggert

JEFF MAGGERT: You'll have to show me. I can't remember all of them. Actually, it was a really good start, obviously, to shoot, you know, the round that I did. I had a good back nine. Started on 10 -- actually, I hit the ball really close on 10 and 11; and missed short putts for birdie. And then I birdied 12. And chipped in on 13 for eagle; and birdied 14 and 15, and 16 as well. Both the birdies on 14 and 15 were pretty close. 14 was about a 3-footer. 15 was a tap-in birdie. I hit it up close to the green in two and chipped it up close. 16 was a lengthy putt, probably 18- or 20-foot putt. That was my longest birdie putt of the day. And then I birdied 1 from about 15 feet, just in the fringe. The 2nd hole, I hit it on in two and 2-putted from about 18 feet. Birdied 7; again, a sand wedge to about three or four feet. Birdied 9; hit it on the green in two. 2-putted from about 30, 35 feet. It was -- made about a 4- or 5-footer coming back for the birdie, but had a chance to go in and actually caught part of the hole and went in as it went down the slope. You know, it was as I expected that I needed to shoot a pretty low score today. The greens were very soft this morning. The course was perfect for making birdies. You know, I made some birdies on the first nine holes, and I played with Jim Furyk, and he was playing well. And we were watching Jesper right in front of us, and he was obviously having a good round himself. I just tried to stay aggressive. After I -- when I made the long putt on 16 for birdie, that put me 6-under on those holes there, and I thought at that point I could shoot an 8- or 9-under. I thought I was hitting the ball well enough, and I tried to stay patient and get some birdies when I could. I wanted to birdie the two par 5s on the front nine, which I was able to do. And I made a couple other birdies there on 1 and on 7. It was kind of a textbook round. No mistakes today. I drove the ball very well; hit a lot of balls close to the hole. You know, it's hard to say that you shot 62 and missed a few putts. But I left -- I missed about a 4-footer on No. 8 for birdie. I missed about a 4-footer on my 2nd hole today for a birdie, and I missed it from petty close on the 1st hole. I missed a 6- or 7-footer straight up the hill. It was a fun round of golf to come out and miss a few putts and still shoot 10-under. You know, I'd like to do that a little bit more often.

JEFF MAGGERT: I'm certainly relaxed with the way I'm playing. I thought after last week my game was starting to make a turn for the better. And certainly the way I've played the last few days, it really boosts my confidence, so to speak, and kind of let's me know that things are really coming around. I'm hitting the ball well. I've been struggling with my iron play a little bit, and I'm certainly hitting the ball a lot better with my irons and giving myself a lot of chances to putt for birdie, and I think that's the difference between now and a few weeks ago.

JEFF MAGGERT: I got my girlfriend caddying for me, Michelle Austin. She lives here in Greensboro. We had actually talked about it three or four months ago. She wanted to know if maybe she could caddie sometime. I said, "How about in your hometown and everyone could watch you out there?" I told my regular caddie, Brian a few months ago she was going to caddie; so, we've had this planned for a while. It's probably helped. Kept me very relaxed this week. You know, certainly when you're struggling with your game, you can get a little uptight and a little bit worried about things that you should not be worrying about. And certainly with her caddying this week, it's kind of kept me a lot more relaxed, and she's done a great job. First time she's ever caddied was on Tuesday, and we went out and played nine holes, and I was kind of showing her the caddie etiquette, so to speak. And she picked up on it right away, and she's having a lot of fun.

JEFF MAGGERT: I do most of that on my own anyway. My regular caddie does all the yardages and helps me with club selection when I'm a little bit indecisive. Most of the time I read all my own greens. Really, other than doing my yardages, the way I've played around the course this week has been pretty similar to the way I normally would. Like I say, she's been great. I always say a good caddie is a caddie that you never see, and that means that they are staying out of everyone's way. And she's done a great job of keeping me on my toes and relaxed, and we're having fun.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I don't know if Brian would like to give up the bag permanently. But certainly, this is just a one-week thing. You know, Brian was looking forward to the week off, but I know that he's not going to be too happy if I was to win here. No, he'd be happy for me. You know, I think he's excited that he kind of saw my game turning around last week, and I'm sure he'll be, you know, pleased to be back on the bag next week in Houston on my home course where I've had some good tournaments. Hopefully I'd like to play a couple more good rounds on the weekend and contend on Sunday and have some more fun.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I was teasing her because she was reading through the caddy regulations. It says to be sure to negotiate your salary between player and caddie early in the week. And she said, "You don't have to pay me for doing it." I was like, "Okay, you said it, not me." (Laughter).

JEFF MAGGERT: It's kind of an awkward hole with the slope there for your second shot; and I hit a pretty good tee shot. I was in the first cut of rough there, but still on the downslope. I was just -- I didn't know if I could get it on the green, but I was -- had a pretty good lie, and I just tried to hit kind of a low hook with a 3-iron and it rolled up just short of the green in the first cut of rough and had a good angle. Chipped it in to the pin, and it was kind of a downhill chip; and all I had to do was just pitch it on the green and let it run down to the hole; and it had good speed and went in.

JEFF MAGGERT: Yeah, especially after missing the two short putts on 10 and 11. And then I hit a good shot on 12, and hit a good putt there and it just kind of lipped it in. I thought I missed that one, too. I made the birdie on 12, and I was, you know, pretty pleased and when I chipped in on 13. It was kind of like, okay, I made up for that little short one that I missed on 11. And then I had a good start yesterday, as well, but certainly the good start this morning, with the conditions, I just felt like if I stayed patient and hit the ball well, I was going to have an opportunity to make a lot of birdies.

JEFF MAGGERT: Probably 20 yards, maybe. I was probably 10 yards from the green. Maybe, but not quite that far. Seven or eight yards from the front of the green, and the pin was about 30 feet away.

JEFF MAGGERT: When you see the leader board like that, and you know guys are certainly-- the guy that you're playing with is making a lot of birdies and Jesper being right in front of us, we were watching him most of the time putting on the greens and watching him make birdies. You know, I think on a day like today, at least the way I was thinking is I wanted to stay close, and I knew Jesper was playing well. And I knew that I needed to make birdies to, you know, to stay close for the weekend. You'd hate to fall five or six shots behind going into the weekend; so, I was just, you know, trying to make as many birdies as I can to kind of keep up with him.

JEFF MAGGERT: Tom played some good golf the last two gay days. He shot 69 yesterday and 68 today. I'm sure he's disappointed. The course is playing fairly easy this morning, and, you know, I'm sure he thought that he left a few birdies out there, I'm sure.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I hope they don't put anymore water on the greens. They have really kind of overdone the water. You know, me and Tom and Jim were talking about that today. The golf course was really a tough golf course on Wednesday, and we all kind of expected it to play very difficult yesterday and today. And with the water on the greens, you know, it's really -- I don't want to say it's made the course too easy. It's always a difficult course. But certainly with the amount of moisture and water on the greens that they put on the past couple of days, even your downwind shots we've been able to fly pretty much right to the hole and stop it. I don't know what the forecast is this afternoon. I've heard they might get some thunderstorms. Certainly, if we get a little bit of rain on the course, the course is going to play pretty soft all weekend.

JEFF MAGGERT: No. I think on Wednesday afternoon in the Pro-Am, the course was a little bit too fix. Greens were difficult getting a little bit too firm. They were going to put some water on the greens after Wednesday's Pro-Am round, I'm sure. It's a tough situation. It's not easy to just go out and know exactly how much water we need to put on the greens. I thought after yesterday, the course was pretty good. The greens were pretty soft. I don't know if they watered the greens last night or not. You guys can figure that out. But if they did water the greens last night, they certainly didn't need anymore water than what was on them after yesterday's round. The golf course was playing -- the golf course was playing just about right yesterday afternoon, I thought, and I was surprised to come out this morning and see the greens so soft. I thought that they might cut the water off and the course would be pretty firm the rest of the week. But, you know, you have to adjust to the conditions sometime, and it's no different than if we would have had a big rain last night. We would have had to come out and adjust to that. We'll just see. I expect the greens to play pretty soft the next couple of days, and I expect I'll have to shoot some pretty good scores the next few days.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, it's looking in jeopardy right now. Certainly if the golf course stays soft the way it is, I wouldn't be surprised, 23-, 24-, 25-under might win.

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I started at Augusta. I worked on my game pretty hard going into Augusta. And Augusta is a tough place to really get confidence hitting your irons. The greens are so firm. I felt like I was starting to hit the ball a little bit better at Augusta. I played poorly; I missed the cut. But last week, I just tried to -- sometimes when I'm not hitting the ball, I just go back and work on some fundamentals, and I tried to do that last week at Hilton Head. I was starting to hit the ball better. I shot a good score the first day at Hilton Head. I shot 65. I didn't do much with the rest of the week. I was hitting the ball better. I felt good coming into this week. I felt like my game was on a little bit of an upturn. And certainly the round yesterday and today have helped my confidence out, and hopefully I can kind of ride this out for a few months.

JEFF MAGGERT: Personally, I'd like to see the golf course play a little tougher. You know, especially on the weekend, you like to go out and shoot 2- or 3-, 4-under and feel like you've really played a good round and you can pick up ground shooting 2-, 3-, 4-under on the weekend. But that's not going to be the case, certainly if the course plays the way it did this morning. 5-, 6-, 7-under is probably the score that you've got to be looking at to kind of keep pace.

JEFF MAGGERT: Pinehurst No. 2 I've played it a couple times. I'm looking obviously forward to the Open there in June. You know, I've got to worry about tomorrow and Sunday right now.

JEFF MAGGERT: I played there last summer, I guess. I don't know, that was really -- I don't know the old course really what the changes would have been. Other than it looks nice. I'm looking forward to it.