THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 26, 2000

Justin Leonard

JUSTIN LEONARD: My play today was pretty interesting. Felt like I could have gotten a better score out of it. I don't think I hit the ball quite as well as I did yesterday, but I certainly had chances, and you know, wasn't able to do a whole lot with them. So I can't believe I say this after the last two months, but I'm actually a little disappointed with my round today. But, you know maybe that's good. I'm expecting a lot of myself, you know I am struggling quite a bit this year. It's good that I've still got, you know -- I still think I want to go out there and shoot 65 and think that I can.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Hoping. But you know I've been saying that to myself for the last three months. I've been working awfully hard. I haven't done any extra work to get ready for this week. If anything, maybe back off a little bit, and try that approach. You know, yeah, I felt like my game has been somewhat close, but, you know had a setback at the Byron Nelson, and last week wasn't very good. I try to pick myself up and every Thursday go out there with a good attitude, hoping that things will start to turn around and, you know, maybe this is the beginning of it.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I'm not a weatherman; so I don't try to predict. You know, I guess you just kind of prepare for the worst and hope it's better than that. But yeah, with the course in great shape and no wind, today was the day to shoot low.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yes.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I'm not surprised at all. You know, I've always felt like Harrison growing up, even at age 13 or 14, always said, "Man, I wish I could hit the ball like him." You know, I have always felt like he had more of a natural -- more natural ability than I had. And I just happened to work at it. But, you know, it's fun to see. I know yesterday when I was out there playing and seeing the start he got off to, I mean, that put a smile on my face, and those have been few and far between on the golf course. You know, yeah, it's fun to watch him play well. I don't watch golf when I'm at home for a week off, but, you know, I was watching New Orleans there a month ago when he was playing so well. You know, it's a rarity for me. So, yeah, I love seeing him do well, and, you know, it's -- he's a streaky player. He's going to go through steps where, you know he could win two or three tournaments in a row, and then who knows what lies down the road. But he knows that. And when he gets on a streak, he knows how to really go after it.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't know. Probably been playing with each other since we were 11 or 12 years old.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't know, I've probably got in his pocket before he got in mine, but when he did get in mine, it was a big chunk. (Laughs).

JUSTIN LEONARD: You know, it's pretty hard to ask guys about playing bad once you go through it because you don't -- my feeling is I don't want them -- I don't want the thoughts that I put in their head creep in there while they are playing. So I don't really want to talk to other players about it, because I wouldn't -- you know, I just -- I don't want to have any affect on anybody's game. So basically, you know, through my coach and my psychologist and my trainer and my grocery sack -- whatever, the guy at the car wash, between all those people, I've probably gotten a little too much information. You know, I was at home for three weeks, played the Byron Nelson, Colonial, and that was really difficult, because everybody was, you know -- everybody wanted to see me play well and everybody was telling me why I'm not. So I was kind of looking forward to this week and kind of getting away from that.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, you know, instead of hitting balls for three hours, in order to hit balls for three hours, so I can say I hit balls for three hours, you know, that's -- it's not -- it hasn't been mechanics. If I get in this position, everything will be fine. It's not that kind of solution. You know, my game has been something different every day. And, you know, if anybody has a solution for that, I'd love to hear it. I haven't found one. The last two days, it's been a little more consistent. But, you know, it's just -- when I say, "Back off". I mean, if I go play a round, I don't drive the ball well, go to the range, hit a couple balls, hit some drivers, get comfortable with it and leave, instead of sitting there hitting balls, after balls, after balls. And, you know, then maybe finding something else, oh, I need to work on this; oh, I need to do that. I think the thing I'm trying not to do is get desperate. I don't want to get desperate to where every day I've got to go fix something or fix everything. Just trying to find one thing to work on instead of 50. And, you know, then when I do get finished away from the golf course, leave it in my locker. You know, don't take it back to the room or back to my house with me. Leave it at the golf course.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, there's been periods where I've -- the topic my first four years on tour was why I couldn't play the West Coast. And so every year, I dreaded January. And I've gotten over that. You know, yeah there's been two, or three, or four months, but probably not this long.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't know, I was just kind of kidding. (Laughs). My attempt at humor.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don't want to go that far yet. For the first time in about 10 months, I am excited that I'm frustrated. I've had a lot of bad frustration, and I've done a good job of, like I said, leaving it at the golf course. But this was a frustration that I played good, didn't get much out of it, but I'm still, you know, in the tournament, if I can go out and play really well this weekend. That's a good frustration. So that's encouraging. Still frustrated, so I'm going to let those two things fight it out. But, you know that's encouraging to me. But, you know, I wouldn't say that I'm out of anything. If I go on to play well the rest of the weekend, I don't think I'm out of the woods yet. One week is not going to fix everything. You know, it's going to -- it has to snowball and hopefully, this is the beginning of that snowball.

JUSTIN LEONARD: You know, I was playing okay. The British Open was still pretty recent. Struggled a little bit in August. But I think I played -- I played okay somewhere before that, maybe the Canadian Open. But, you know it was -- I didn't see myself in the beginning of a slump at that time.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I'm not being a smart ass, but what is the definition of a slump? Nobody knows. But with my hair (lifting cap off) I'm in a slump. Look at this -- well, okay. But I think a slump is something you have to be able to come out of, and that's pretty permanent. (Laughter.) You know, unless you take drastic measures, it will all go.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Exactly. Just leave it in your locker. What is a slump? I think it's a level; you go back down. But a slump you come out of, and I'm going to come out of this. I would define it as a temporary decline in one's performance in whatever they may do. But that's the key thing, is that temporary? So, you know, I've kept that in the back of my mind the whole time.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, we do occasionally. I mean, the last couple weeks, he's been busy, he's got family and everything going on. So do I. But hopefully, we'll get together this weekend. We rode up together and played on Tuesday; so he was probably sick of me after that.