WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 26, 2001

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: It was a tough week. I played very, very well and it's a week I should be proud of, but I didn't walk off the green more than five minutes ago, so I'm honestly disappointed with the finish. I played well enough to win this week. My putter kind of failed me today and I was having problems with left-to-right putts. I kept getting real quick downhill left-to-right putts to win the tournament and was not putting a good solid -- earlier I put a good stroke on a couple of them, hit a couple of them weak, and I think that was the difference today. I putted super yesterday. I had a great putting round and that's what I needed today.

JIM FURYK: That was interesting. That bunker has a lot of sand in it. Both of our balls in regulation buried. I knew that going in there but got a tough, downhill lie and I knew there was a lot of sand underneath my ball and I went with my 60-degree wedge which doesn't have a lot of bounce which you normally would not use from that lie but I had to stop it fast and hit a great shot. Went after it, hit it solidly but there was too much sand under it and came out softer than I expected and didn't clear the bunker. From that point I'm thinking holing it the whole way and Tiger leaves his first putt about four feet short and that takes maybe a little bit of aggressiveness out of it. I'm thinking well, it's not totally -- I would hate to try to make it blow way by and give him the win I want to make him make that putt. I hit a good solid bunker shot and landed it right where I wanted it to. It was obviously the exciting part of the day for me. I selected it back and had some really good birdie putts the next few holes and 17 again. The best one I hit was that second playoff hole on 17; I thought I knocked that putt in but dove out at the end and lipped out on the low side.

JIM FURYK: I try to keep the task at hand and try to keep thinking about the very next shot. I hit a lot of good drives on 18 today and I let the last one slide on myself and I really don't know what happened. I drove the ball super today. I let one go and it ended up in the worst spot it possibly could. The whole day, I just tried to keep focus on that next shot I had to hit, and I thought I won the tournaments a couple times today and I thought I lost it a couple times.

JIM FURYK: One of the officials told me that he had a line of sight that they felt like he could play through that tree and the scoreboard would have been in his way; and he took relief and was able to pitch it out easier. I had a 12-footer to win the tournament there. I was aware of what was going on, I didn't go back to take a look. The rules officials are there to do their job and I'm sure they did.

JIM FURYK: I really don't care would be the best answer. It doesn't matter. It was a great shot but -- I'm not trying to be sarcastic but I never try to rank them, which was the best, which was the worst. It was a good shot at the time. It was very unique. Like I said, it was very exciting. I don't get too anxious or too emotional at times, and I let go there, so I was happy -- obviously, very happy but I never really sat down and ranked them what was a great shot.

JIM FURYK: It's not really tension because you are trying to hit one shot at a time and get it moving, but I think more than anything, it gets a little tiring. You are out there in the heat, you're sweating. We probably played an extra -- I would say those seven holes took an extra couple hours, so we took our time. Actually, we got in trouble quite a bit, too so there was some scrambling going on in the playoff. More than anything, it is keeping your concentration through a lot of extra time and a lot of tough situations and it's easy to let it slack.

JIM FURYK: I had quite a bit of time. Tiger took a little while over his putt, reading it from a few different angles. Definitely had some time to catch my breath. My caddy still needed to rake the bunker before we left in case we came back down 18; so I had to wait for him. I waited and my heart rate was right back where it started and I was fine. Sometimes if you hit a shot like that and race to the next tee you are going a mile a minute, but I had plenty of time to come down from that high.

JIM FURYK: Well, it's -- I think maybe the Ryder Cup is a little bit more nerve racking because you are playing for a team, not only yourself. I didn't let anyone down today. I don't feel like anyone is disappointed or -- you know, even if you play bad in the Ryder Cup, teammates don't get down on you, they are there to lift you up. But you still feel responsibility there. Today the only person I let down was myself and I can live with that. I've done it before and I'll do it again. But playing Tiger or not playing Tiger, it's exciting, to get a chance at the No. 1 player in the world, so go all 72 holes and play seven holes in a playoff; it's an exciting day. I'm disappointed; I felt like I could have -- I didn't lose the ball from tee-to-green. I lost the tournaments on the greens. I should have made more putts today?

JIM FURYK: Not really. I mean, it's not real difficult to see him up there about 20 feet back, and they are easy to read on the greens. It never really entered my mind. I had a couple slip ups today where I had some easy up-and-downs on both 6 and 13 that I didn't get it up-and-down. I had some good birdie putts left-to-right that I didn't strike solidly or that -- I thought the pin placements were very difficult today and I think the greens were a little -- actually, much quicker today, and I'm guessing the scores were not nearly as good today as they have been the first three. There's a couple times that I hit some good shots and left myself some 8- and 10-footers, but really quick left-to-right putts that I just could not control the speed and didn't hit as solid putts sometimes as I wanted and sometimes they just didn't go in. Yesterday those putts went in. That's the difference from a 66 to a 71.