THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 29, 2003

Jim Furyk

Q. Any thoughts on the day?

JIM FURYK: Well, I played well. You know, four under par on this course is never bad. I was a little disappointed. I would have loved -- I had a four on 10 and I would have loved to have taken advantage on 11, 16. I had a couple good birdie putts that didn't go in. I would have liked to have made at least two more birdies and gotten to 9 and gotten closer for some of those rounds. I'll have to go out tomorrow and fire on them all.

Q. Tomorrow might be hard to come by with the forecast. It's supposed to be cold, rainy, windy.

JIM FURYK: Windy... I hadn't heard yet. This golf course is awful tough in the wind because you're not hitting a lot of low shots on this golf course. That would definitely change a little bit of a game plan, but you need to wake up in the morning, assess the situation, see what the weather is like, see what the scores are like going out there, and even par could be a good score tomorrow and if it's not all that windy and rainy and the greens are receptive, maybe it's possible to shoot a four, five, six, seven under and you can get yourself back into the tournament. A lot of it is going to depend on the weather.

Q. Because you live here have you had a chance to play this course in bad conditions?

JIM FURYK: Why would I want to come out and play in bad conditions? I have to do that enough in tournaments. The golf course doesn't set up anything this week like we play it all year. It's not worthless. I think what helps me is this course is very -- what's the word I'm looking for? There's not a lot of aim targets off the tee. It's not well defined off the tee. You look at a wall of pine trees and there's not a lot of targets to pick out. You try to draw it off of or cut it off of. It's an awkward course off the tee. You're not exactly sure where you should be aiming, especially in different wind conditions. That's probably the locals, the guys that play here more often, we have an idea where we're supposed to be and we hit it there. As far as the greens and the rest of the golf course, we see it in such a different condition, it's not that much helpful. Green reads, I've read a lot of greens poorly this week and they're usually much slower and most of the year we're playing on Bermuda grass instead of the overseed, so it really doesn't help out that much otherwise.

Q. You're playing a few groups in front of the leaders. Any advantage to getting out there and post a score depending on how the weather goes?

JIM FURYK: It could be, especially if the weather is growing worse as the day goes on, then it definitely could be. It's something you'd have to wait and see. I'd always rather be in the leader group.

Q. But knowing you'll be in contention on the final day?

JIM FURYK: Nice. It's rare for me here, but it feels good. I'm getting more comfortable around the golf course and I've played better as the week has gone on and given myself a lot of opportunities, so tomorrow I just need to take advantage of a few more of them.

Q. Jim, we're through the west coast swing, we're almost through the Florida swing. In your opinion what's been the story line on the PGA TOUR to this point as we head into Georgia?

JIM FURYK: Think like a reporter? Do you have to think? We don't think as golfers? Do you have to think as reporters? I'm just kidding.

I would say early on Ernie Els, the No. 2 player in the world is a story, and as of late Tiger Woods the No. 1 player is a story. They've combined for five wins so far in probably the seven tournaments they've played in. I think so far there's your story. That's probably the best I could come up with. You'd need to give me a few more minutes. I could come up with some really bad thing probably.

Q. Thanks, Jim.

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