CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 3, 1998

Scott Gump

SCOTT GUMP: Just got in a good rhythm today. I didn't have many expectations. I was trying to go out and do my thing as always. I just got on a roll and before you know it I was six or eight under. I go, hmm, that's kind of nice. Playing Olin Browne and Joey Sindelar is kind of nice. We got in a good rhythm just playing golf.

SCOTT GUMP: Where do I start? 11 hit one in, nine iron in there about 15 feet above the hole and made it, which was mighty nice. And excuse me, 12 -- 12?

SCOTT GUMP: And 13 par five I hit a wedge in there, almost went in the hole. About a foot behind it spun back three feet and made it. 15 I was able to hit a sand wedge in there about 15 feet behind the hole and a little left to right breaker, made it.

SCOTT GUMP: 17 hit a seven iron in there, about 20 feet right made it. I was beginning to have fun then. 18 was a thrill. I hit a poor tee shot in the right fairway bunker, had a nice lie, 210 in the hole. I figured I cut forward there, get around the green. I hit it just right. It just hit left of the bunker, rolled up about four feet and made it. That was a bonus. I wasn't planning on that one. One, seven iron in there about 20 feet and made it. Two, hit a pitching wedge in there about four feet and made it. Let's see. I guess I made all pars till eight. Eight, made a five iron in there about 8 feet and made that one.

SCOTT GUMP: I think I've had a couple of 64s, nothing --

SCOTT GUMP: On tour, I've had a couple of 61s in a mini-tour fooling around. Yeah, on tour.

SCOTT GUMP: I forget.

SCOTT GUMP: I'll find out, yeah.

SCOTT GUMP: I've been working on it all year. As you guys know, it's hard to win tournaments if you don't putt well. I've been working on it all year. The pace of the greens was really nice this week, especially with the rain. The ball doesn't get away from you too bad. So, like I said, just all three of us got in a good rhythm. Everybody was hitting good speed putts. I was able to look at the breaks on theirs too. It was just a good rhythm thing. That's all it was.

SCOTT GUMP: I don't think I ever led; finished second once.

SCOTT GUMP: Oh, yeah. I led a first round somewhere. Not after two days, one round doesn't count.

SCOTT GUMP: Kemper.

SCOTT GUMP: '91 or '92.

SCOTT GUMP: Shot 65, I think Norman or -- that was a long time ago.

SCOTT GUMP: I changed back to irons. I was playing a set of irons for a while and then I actually went back to a set of Pings starting the week of Atlanta, played well since then. So it's been a lot of hard work. I'm the first one to change equipment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I stayed patient, I just keep on plugging along.

SCOTT GUMP: Very. Yeah, I played here in other years of when it's brutally hard. The greens get firm. You miss a green it's so hard to get it up and down. So yeah, thank goodness for the rain, I suppose. Two more days, I'm sure it will get nice and crispy out there.

SCOTT GUMP: I just like getting out there and playing golf. I think being number two on the money list on the NIKE TOUR in '94, helped me a lot. I was in contention there an awful lot. I won two events out there. I know how to win tournaments. I haven't won a TOUR event, as everybody else in here. I want to get in that position again.

SCOTT GUMP: I was hoping. I knew the course of the fairways were going to firm up. I knew I was going to play shorter. You never know. I didn't know how fast the greens were going to get. If they start drying out and get away from us, fast. There was just enough moisture out there. Obviously, very playable.

SCOTT GUMP: I haven't seen Forrest Gump.

SCOTT GUMP: I haven't seen anything lately. I've been kind of slack.

SCOTT GUMP: He's got a lot of time on his hands. He's not married.

SCOTT GUMP: Yes, great movie. The heckling has come down a little bit. It was pretty bad for a while. Everybody thinks you're deaf, they scream it at you: "Run Forrest, run." The first hundred times it's pretty funny. After that ...

SCOTT GUMP: I made a bunch of cuts the last five cuts I think. I played well in Chicago, even though it was 130 degrees, whatever. The change in the irons was a big thing for me. For me -- I'm one of those type players, I'll play well a long stretch. I'm not the type of guy that will finish second one week and miss four cuts. I get in a rhythm. Once I play well, I play well for a long stretch usually.

SCOTT GUMP: That was pure luck. You're always trying to do that, when you pull it up. Anybody that doesn't tell you it's pure luck is crazy.

SCOTT GUMP: I had a good lie. If I had a bad lie, when I was walking up, I knew along I was going to layup and give myself a hundred-yard shot. I had a great lie, I figured, what the heck, even if I topped it, I knew it would still run down the fairway. I knew that would be okay.

SCOTT GUMP: I hit it in the right fairway bunker, had 210 to the pin, just had a great lie. That's the only reason I tried it. I had a little four-wood and I was trying to hit one up there around the green. I got lucky and role it up there four feet.

SCOTT GUMP: I don't practice those too much.

SCOTT GUMP: Well -- but there wasn't a water hazard, the lip in front of me wasn't all that high, the pin was in the back, so even if I topped it, hit it in the rough, I could still hit it on the green and roll it to the pin. Really, there weren't any -- no obstructions in front of me for a change. I don't think I would have done that on 17.

SCOTT GUMP: No, never is. Every round of golf is so different, but I just get up do the same old thing. This is my eighth year I'm out here, so I played a lot of golf. So you know the game doesn't change any. 150 yards is still 150 yards.

SCOTT GUMP: Little bit. Actually, I played -- how about this one, I played in a junior tournament called Annie Bean Pro Junior. Annie Bean got some of the pros together. I played with Ed Sneed. I was 16 and Omar, I think, was 12, I don't know how old he is. We had three different age group kids playing with the pro and he was the youngest.

SCOTT GUMP: That was however many years ago it was.

SCOTT GUMP: Greenley, in Orlando. That's 16 years ago, I think.

SCOTT GUMP: No.

SCOTT GUMP: If the greens stay soft, yes. That's the whole key, always the key. Look at the U.S. Open, that is it. If you can't control how far your ball will go on the green, that's the number one factor how well the scores are.

SCOTT GUMP: Just keep it going. It was fun. I think everybody wanted to see a low round. I knew if I was seven under after 11. I said, hey, four more birdies, I had a chance to shoot 59. You don't get those opportunities too often. That was in my mind. You never know. I may get lucky, make a couple of putts and boom. They were pulling for me.

SCOTT GUMP: Sure. Any time you get lucky and have good breaks and you're seven under, you say four more, what the heck, while I'm out there.