THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 30, 2003

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: I had a tough day. If you hit some good golf shots, the greens were receptive. With the greens in this condition it would have been impossible. What Davis is doing right now is absolutely incredible. He deserves to win the golf tournament.

Q. We were asking for gloom and doom and we've seen some really good golf scores.

JIM FURYK: There's been a lot of three unders. Has there been a lot of 5, 6, 7s? That's good shooting. I think a lot of it has to do with the greens softening up. This golf course when the greens are firm and fast when the wind blows it's not nice.

Q. How hard is this week on you living here? I mean, I'm sure there's some hassle involved playing at home, too.

JIM FURYK: Not really. There's a lot of ways to look at it. My wife handles all the tickets and parking passes and organizing dinner. We watched a lot of basketball with friends this week. I'm really sad about last night's game with Arizona losing. No, it really isn't. The other way you can look at it is I have a lot of support, a lot of friends and family. Even on a day like this, cold and windy, everyone is out there rooting you on. It's nice. You have to look at it that way. As players we try and put a little extra pressure on ourselves, we're at home, it's only once a year, but I'm happy with the week. I played my heart out today. I could have squeezed a few more out about the putts wouldn't go.

Q. At this point in Davis' career how big will this win be for him?

JIM FURYK: I don't know. I've never been to that point in my career. How's that? He's won a lot more than me and he's a little older than I am. I think this tournament -- this golf course is very difficult and it's very demanding, I don't care what the scores look like. It's frightening in spots. There's a lot of catastrophes waiting to happen. In order to go out on this golf course, a tough course, and beat the best field in golf, it's an accomplishment. I'm happy for him. He's been on the tear lately. I played my heart out today and I don't see seven or eight under in my bag today. I tried hard.

Q. We saw a bunch of putts inch this way and that way. Were you getting frustrated at the end?

JIM FURYK: No, I had a good time today. I would have liked to have seen some of those putts go in, and starting on the back nine -- I had an eagle putt on 11 that I missed, made a putt at 12, 13 didn't go in, 14 I ground down on the line, I left it six inches short in the dead middle. 15 caught a piece of the lip. It's a little frustrating but coming down the stretch I made some good ones on 16, 17 and 18. For a while I thought when I got to 10 under and I'm putting for birdie on 13, I thought about getting to 13 under and having a chance to win the golf tournament and Davis kind of stomped on that. For a while I was feeling like I need to make a few birdies and win this golf tournament. I had a good time.

Q. Do you feel if Davis wasn't so hot today maybe this was something you were really in the running even though you didn't make those putts?

JIM FURYK: Sure. At that time Davis was 12 the last we looked -- 11 the last we looked and he went to 13 and I'm at 10 with a putt to go to 11. With that back nine left if I make three birdies you never know what's going to happen. He's the guy that pulled away and deserves it. It was a great round.

Q. Was weather a factor in this? I know on 9 the wind was blowing across the fairway was really tough?

JIM FURYK: One of my two bogeys was on 9 today which was disappointing on a par 5, and the worst part was I hit five good shots. They weren't good enough. What made 9 hard is if you lay it back you've got to hit a high shot over that tree into the wind and my ball came up short and spun back off the green. You don't want to hit a lot of low shots into the greens, yet when you get into the wind it's hard not to hit the ball low. Thankfully we got some rain for the afternoon guys. I'm sure the morning guys didn't like it but it softened the greens up where we could still play the course.

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