WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 25, 2001

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: Taking into consideration I drove the ball in trouble on 16 and just had to wedge it back in the fairway and left myself about 65 yards to the pin in the third shot, you know, making par there and then pretty much playing really good golf from there on in; it turned into a very, very good day. Again, a two-shot lead -- things were not looking good early, but I was able to plug away and birdie a bunch of holes coming in. But at the time, it was pretty easy not to get down on myself, even though I bogeyed a couple holes, I was still within a shot or two of the lead, so it wasn't like all was lost or I had really given anything away. I was still in the thick of things and I needed to calm myself down and started to hit some good shots. I'm real happy with the day. Bogeyed 4. I drove it well, but I hit a 3-iron just trying to hit a hard draw into the green and missed it way right. Got on some of that trampled grass where the fans were and ended up farther right. Didn't have the great of the lie and pitched it up on the green about 30 feet and 2-putted. I missed a 5-iron a little left on 5. Just a yard or two off the green. The pin was cut left, so it was not very far from the pin, but it came out a little faster on my pitch than I thought it would and knocked it about eight or ten feet by and I missed that for par. First birdie of the day was 8. I hit a driver and a sand wedge to about seven feet. That got the day going, knocking that one in. Next birdie was No. 12. I hit a 6-iron to about 12 feet. Then 14, I hit a driver and a 7-iron to about ten feet. Then I birdied the last three. I hit a 3-wood off the tee on 16. Laid up with a 7-iron and hit a sand wedge to about six feet. 17, I hit a driver off the tee, not so well, actually and hit a 7-iron into the green. It landed kind of -- I blocked it. You want to miss the pin to the left a little bit because of where the slope was and I blocked it right at the pin. Not only that, it doesn't happen for me very often, but a 7-iron spun off the green. I left it kind of on the front fringe there and had to go up over a swale and through the fringe and actually got a good putt to go in there. I hit it a little firm and it hit the pin and went in. I would say I was probably 30 feet from the pin there. 18, I hit a driver and 8-iron to about eight feet and finished off a good day.

JIM FURYK: With how long he is off the tee, he's awfully dangerous, too.

JIM FURYK: I hit it about four feet, four or five feet. I left myself a good putt, uphill right-to-left. It was a good wedge shot that saved the day but things were looking down. I had just bogeyed two holes in a row and it was nice to make a good save there and get my feet underneath me.

JIM FURYK: Not really. I told my caddy at the time we had to stop the bleeding. It was a blind tee shot, I thought it was going to be in the fairway or short cut -- I hit one farther right yesterday that had I put in the short cut and was fine; and this one was left of yesterday's but it must have taken a harder kick off to the right on that slope. It was only in the foot or two off the heavy rough -- but, yeah, at this point I'm telling myself to just relax and calm down and we have to stop the bleeding and try to grind it out. And you have to just be patient, not sit there and fire at all the flags and try to hit heroic shots. Just be patient, hit some solid shots. Kind of catch your breath a little bit and start plugging away.

JIM FURYK: Well, I think to -- yeah, if you want to make an inch in history, you've got to start with the majors, first of all. When you start at the top of the list of great players or -- you don't start with guys -- you start with Nicklaus and Palmer and Player and Jones and you start with guys that have won a lot of major championships. I think you start there. I think -- I don't want to get ahead of myself because I think that the tour is very deep and very talented. There are a lot of wonderful players. A win is a win no matter what tournament it is. To win in an elite field, to win a major championship, I think your next level is going to be THE PLAYERS Championship and then the World Golf Championships. It's a bigger event. I think that here, we have a little bit of a smaller field, but it's a very elite field and a very strong field, so it would be a nice tournament to win.

JIM FURYK: Straight up or down?

JIM FURYK: I was asked that before, if I was ever paired with him in the last group on Sunday and I don't think I have been paired with him late on Sunday. Maybe in the last group or here last year, maybe the second or third round, I think we were pretty late or we were the last group off -- one of the middle rounds, I think. Yeah, I think even worse than that, I honestly think it's -- the hardest time is to play right in front of him, especially if you have massive galleries because those galleries, you know they are getting eight and ten deep at time. No one can see anything, so everyone is running up forward, trying to got a good spot on the ropes or a good spot on the green; and while guys are putting on the group ahead it's like a stampede coming at you. Sometimes it's a little more difficult to concentrate, but you have to. Everyone is going to be settled and steady and waiting for his every move tomorrow, so it should be quiet and it should be fine for when I play. I know he's the No. 1 player in the world, so I expect there's going to be a lot of people rooting for him. I have a small group out there with me tomorrow, so I'll take pride in that. (Laughs). I think you have to concentrate. We are all golf professionals out here. So it's our job to go out and focus on the things we need to do and not worry about0 on what's going on around us. There are a lot of talented people still within striking distance tomorrow, so I don't look at it as -- I'm not really looking at my shoulder over anyone. I'm just trying to go play a good round of golf. There's been some shuffling around this week. There could be a guy that could throw up a 62 or 63 and definitely put some pressure on.

JIM FURYK: I'm going to miss sleeping in. I was getting used to going to bed at midnight or one o'clock and sleeping in. I'm going to miss that a little, but I don't think so. You know, the golf course will be a little bit more moist in the morning, more damp. But by the time we finish, it will be dried up. I don't think it is going to change too much. I'm still happy that we are playing in twosomes, keeping that same rhythm; playing a fast round, playing about 3 1/2 hours now. That's been great and to jump back into threesomes would be -- would change the pace of things and change the flow a little, so I'm glad we are still going in twos.

JIM FURYK: I might not be the exact person to ask on this, from a rules issue, because I'm not a rules official. I hit it down the right side and Phil hit it left. When they did find his ball, he marked his ball and lifted it to identify the ball and he indicated that he was going to do so. But my understanding of the interpretation was that he had to indicate that to me and since I was so far away on the other side of the fairway, he said it, but I guess because he didn't say it to me -- I'm not sure, did he receive a one-stroke penalty for that? He received a one-stroke penalty. That was something that came up from the rules committee when we were in the trailer and something that we were totally unaware of out there.

JIM FURYK: Absolutely. Absolutely.

JIM FURYK: I just wasn't sure. Because I was so far away, I didn't even know he lifted his ball. But to say that I was aware of that rule, it's just something doesn't really come up.

JIM FURYK: I don't know. I don't know. Something I never thought about. Normally, you know, had he not found his ball, I would have been down there helping him look for it and he would have said "I'm just going to pick it up and make sure it's mine." Normally it's something that doesn't come up. Kind of a freak accident. It just happened.

JIM FURYK: It's hard to measure how confident he is, but I bet he's pretty confident. I think that -- I like the golf course. I've been playing very well the last couple of weeks. My game was in good shape coming in here and I kind of got over one hurdle today where I started off pretty poorly and fought my way through it. Hopefully, tomorrow, things will go smoothly and I'll have a good round, but I'll be prepared; if it's not looking well or it's not going well early, I know I can plug away and turn it around like I did today. I'm confident in my game, and there's no better feeling than coming off a couple of good weeks and putting yourself in position the third week. So I'm hoping to keep playing the same way and keep doing the same things right that I've been doing for a few weeks.

JIM FURYK: Well, yeah. I mean, it's inarguably, he's the best player in the world. Teeing off late on Sunday with him, it's nice. If you gave me my choice, I'd rather -- I'd rather be leading the golf tournament by two and teeing off with Tiger in the last group. There's a lot worse positions I could be in right now. So I don't really look at it as, you know, a bad thing. Like you said, I think that most players would be excited to be put in that position and getting to test themselves. I still am making it too much of a -- I have not really looked at the leaderboard, I guess. But like I said, there's a lot of great players in this field. Although most of the attention will be on the leader group tomorrow, I still think there's some attention that needs to be paid to everyone in the field.