THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 27, 2000

Justin Leonard

JUSTIN LEONARD: It's easy; only one shot. I think we had 189 yards today, and pretty much the same distance we had yesterday. And I come up about a half-club short, so I was kind of between a 5- and a 6-iron. Yesterday, I hit 6(-iron) and so I decided just hit a little 5-(-iron) and kind of cut it a little bit, and, you know, landed and it came off pretty good, landed about a foot and a half short. I could not tell if it bounced in or rolled in, but it doesn't really make any difference to me. 6, hit an 8-iron about eight feet and made that for birdie. 7, I drove it in the left rough. Pitched out. Hit a 7-iron about three feet; made that. 10, I hit an 8-iron about eight feet; made that. Missed putts at 11 and 12, both from about eight to 10 feet. 14, hit a pitching wedge to about 10 feet; made that. Missed about a 12-footer at 15. Missed about a 15-footer at 16. Bogeyed 17. I hit it in the left rough, left of the bunker short of the green down there in that ditch, and just hit it on the green and 2-putted from about 30 feet. 18, hit a 5-iron to about three feet and made that.

JUSTIN LEONARD: My last ace was at the Kemper Open in '98. And this was my fifth Hole-in-One, third on TOUR. And all five have been in tournaments.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, I mean, I kept -- I was watching the leaderboard, just to see what was going on. But, you know, not paying as much attention to it today, just because I was playing well. And, you know, didn't want to get too caught up in what was going on behind me.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I mean, the golf course is fairly soft. The greens are, you know, a good pace. They are comfortable. You can't get them real fast. Obviously, he's the only one there and nobody is within six or seven shots or maybe eight or nine, I don't know. I think, you know, the amazement has kind of gone away. A week like this on a golf course that suits him this well, I mean, you almost come to expect it. But I think, you know, certainly we as players can appreciate what he's doing, but I don't think we're as surprised as maybe we would have been two or three years ago.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yes, it is. You can think that we're playing for second, but I don't think we as players can go out and do that.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Try to go out, and if things feel well early in the morning, just go after it. There can be some two- and three-shot swings out here. At least, you know, I've been playing pretty aggressively all week, so I would just love to continue to do that. And if there's opportunity, maybe take a chance at something.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Exactly. Exactly.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yes.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yes.

JUSTIN LEONARD: That's true.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. I mean, you know, they asked me outside if I was, you know frustrated being eight back or whatever, and I said, "Look, I'm -- I'm not going to let that spoil what I've gained from this week so far." And, you know, this is the happiest I've been walking off the golf course with my play in the last eight or nine months. And, you know, I'm not going to let the fact that Tiger is running away or trying to, you know, spoil that for me. So, you know, I've got so many positives to take away from the last three days, and you know, I'm just going to try to build on that tomorrow and build on it next week and, I mean, I'm looking forward to the is U.S. Open.

JUSTIN LEONARD: You could keep playing, but yeah, I think there kind of comes a point, and if that point comes tomorrow it's probably going to be pretty late in the day with eight shots. There's times you get out there, you get a feeling, like, you know, "this is something I might be able to pull off." You know, whether it happens or not, I don't know, but when you do get that feeling, it's a lot of fun.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I birdied 6. I hit a good drive and then I missed the fairway on 7. I actually hit a pretty good drive, it kind of curled around the bunker and I was on the upslope. Yeah, sitting there on a par 5, not sure I'm going to be able to go for it, but at least get a sand wedge in my hands and I basically just have to kind of bunt in down there. And to hit a 7-iron in there three feet, shots like that are what turn around. When you do miss something and then hit a great shot to recover, those kind of things -- and those are things that have been lacking from my game, amongst many other things which we won't cover because I'm in a good mood. But it's fun to be able to go do something like that. And then the 8th hole, to make an ace there, you know, kind of caps the day.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't know if it's an advantage. I mean, you know, I wasn't in the last group at those tournaments you mentioned, but, I mean, I like playing with Tiger. I think it's fun. I think that the galleries here are great. They are as knowledgeable as anywhere. You know, it would be fun to play with him. I certainly wouldn't shy away from that.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Are you talking about me personally? Well, I don't build him up that much. I mean, there's going to be golf courses like here where he's going to be very hard to beat. I know when I'm playing well, on the right kind of golf course, I can beat the guy, and most of those golf courses happen to be major championships. So that's the way I think about it; that I know going out to a place, certain golf courses, he's got a huge advantage over me, and, you know I've got to do some incredible things to have a chance. But on other golf courses, I feel like we're brought down more to, you know, an even playing field. You know, I'm sure he looks at it -- he probably thinks he's got a huge advantage of me all the time, but if I look at it that way, I'm never going to beat the guy.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, and they are fairly soft. I mean, I saw him fly the tree on No. 10 yesterday and I'm trying to get it up to that tree. So, you know, do you think that's an advantage?

JUSTIN LEONARD: It was -- you know, my practice sessions like during the week off and things like that would go really well. You know, maybe work on a couple things, but no big changes. And, you know, once I got to a tournament I just got out on the golf course and it seemed to -- you know, may have been -- driving it really well in practice, things like that. I would get out on Thursday and I could not drive the ball. Things like that. Obviously, if I had been playing great all along, everything would have been fine; so that wasn't as good as it should be. But, you know, we worked on little things here and there, but there weren't any, you know, huge -- I mean, I wasn't getting the club away like this. Just little things here or there. You know, sometimes those little things tend to snowball. Sure, it started getting in my head and I would go out and miss a shot on Thursday the first few holes, and I'm thinking, "Well, I might as well make a plane reservation home now." I mean, I said it this week. But half the time, I'm just trying to get myself into it. But yeah, I mean, it's touched everything, mentally and physically. And hopefully, I'm on my way out of it.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Oh, No. 4, the par 3, I parred the first three holes and No. 4 I hit down there -- I mean, it was dark and cold where I hit it. (Laughter.). I mean, the sun was out that day, and I mean, I had to -- I had to hit a great chip shot just to give myself another chip shot. There was no way I could hit the green. "Well, this will be an interesting day". And that was the only one I hit like that.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah.

JUSTIN LEONARD: You know, I haven't really made -- it would be interesting, the longest putt I played. A made a couple 12- , 15-footers but I haven't made any real long putts this week. You know, I don't think it necessarily takes that. I think there are times in tournaments like that where, you know, you go and you make a 30-, 40-footer, whatever it may be, it just gives you such a huge momentum boost. But, you know, I haven't had any of those this week, and but I've played very solid. And done a pretty good job staying aggressive.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, it rained this morning; so it softened things up a little bit. And we've got the ball in our hands, which doesn't make a huge difference here in the fairway. But I know 14, I hit it down there and I was in a divot and I got to, you know, clean my ball and put it in a good lie and hit it about eight feet. So it may help a little bit. But the fairways being a little softer and the greens being a little softer.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, these greens are holding up very well.