MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 5, 2001

Len Mattiace

LEN MATTIACE: Actually I mean, I like obviously being up at the top because I mean, it's nice to be you know, seeing the good scores. After I made bogey today on one I wasn't certainly thinking you know, anything but how can I make bogey on 1. But it's nice to be in this position.

LEN MATTIACE: Well, I hit -- I just -- I hit 4-wood off the tee thinking I could carry the middle bunker in the fairway and I just miss-hit it a little bit and I caught a real heavy lie in the bunker and I hit it fat and proceeded to hit that second shot into another green-side bunker then blasted out about 30 feet, 2-putted.

LEN MATTIACE: Well, at that time it was just -- it was tough to take because the hole was playing downwind and you know, guys were hitting little wedges into the hole really close and I felt like I gave up probably two shots. So it was just did -- nothing really more than that, but just that you know, that was not a good start.

LEN MATTIACE: Oh, yeah.

LEN MATTIACE: Yeah, and then we had a long wait on two, the par 3, so, I was just you know, I was really upset with myself and I did a good job to par two. Two was playing -- the pin was in the back left, as a par 3, I did a good job just to par that hole after No. 1. Then you know, played on after that.

LEN MATTIACE: No, I can let it go. I can let that go. I can let a bogey be in the past and be in the present on the next shot. We don't always do it, you know, but some guys they it hangs with them and they hurt themselves more, but I have been pretty good to let that go.

LEN MATTIACE: Well, I birdied 9 which was -- that was a great birdie, any time you birdie 9 -- shooting pars on 9 is good. I hit driver 5-iron. It was playing a little into the wind and I hit it in there about ten feet and made that putt, so that was just a nice, you know, kind like I stole -- when you birdie something like that, you stole something.

LEN MATTIACE: Maybe. Bogeys on those little holes you just never -- they are like 3-putts. You feel like you never can get that back. That was a really solid birdie.

LEN MATTIACE: I didn't today. I try not to look. It's just too early to be looking and I didn't look at all today. I just tried to do my thing. I think that helped. Especially when you are playing -- I think when you are playing well you want to let the flow go. You want to let your momentum and your positive thoughts and your confidence take you to however many under you can shoot. I did that.

LEN MATTIACE: Yeah, it's there. That's certainly there. It's a good position instead of a pressing position, a stress position. But it just shows you that there are a few guys 9s and 8s and 7s that are playing really well, and that we're at the halfway point. So it is a good thing, but it really doesn't mean much right now.

LEN MATTIACE: That's like a commercial - think Hawaii. No, that's -- well, on two the pin was way in the back left so that on that particular tee some guys were going right at the pin but it was very hard to hold that shot into the green because it was downwind. I decided not to do that, not to force it, to play in the middle of the green with a 5-iron and I did just that. I did, so to speak, flush my mind of the past stuff and just try and hit what I was trying to do is middle of the green. And I did and I hit it 30, 40 feet and that's all I wanted to do there and 2-putted and moved on.

LEN MATTIACE: Right. Personally, me, I kill myself for a little bit, you know, in my mind, you know, I berate myself a little bit inside and then I let it go. That is kind of the, you know -- I mean, it really is tough to take when you make a bogey on that -- on a hole that's playing that short and you know, you are not going to say, oh, well, so be it, oh well. So I let myself have it. Then I was over so I can move on.

LEN MATTIACE: I think it will play a little more difficult. I think the wind would probably be blowing a little bit more and it will probably be a different -- probably be a change of direction, probably be more of a north wind, I would guess, so the holes will play different. It certainly won't play easier. Probably the greens will get firmer if we don't get any rain. Probably will play a little harder.

LEN MATTIACE: I enjoy the golf course, but I have not played well here. I don't know what my best finish is, but it's certainly nothing outstanding. So -- but I do enjoy playing here but I haven't played well here yet.

LEN MATTIACE: That's a different question.

LLEN MATTIACE: I see that. I felt very privileged to go to Wake Forest. Arnold Palmer wrote me a letter in the 11th grade saying would you please attend Wake Forest on my scholarship and I thought that was just, you know, an unbelievable thing, obviously from someone like that. I had a great time there at Wake and I went a fifth year to finish and get my degree and I felt like that was important. The school gave me four years of everything and I felt like I could stick in here and do another year and at least get my degree and help their stats, help their numbers and get a diploma. Because who knows what will happen in the future. And I felt that was an important thing to get back to the school that gave me so much. So deciding on some of the things to do with the school down the road I think we started that in 1992, I think that started, 1993. And a couple years after school I was able to start giving and hope to do it for a long time.

LEN MATTIACE: It's just starting now to kick in. So I think maybe three or four students have been affected by it so far.

LEN MATTIACE: No. But people have written me a letter saying thank you for -- the students have written staying thank you for the scholarship, but we do contact recruits to get them to come. It's so competitive now. It's a different -- I entered in 1985 and it's a different ball of wax, just -- it's so competitive with the schools now and just seems like there are a lot of really great golf schools. When I went in 1985 which is not that long ago Wake was maybe one of three schools. Curtis and Jay Haas went through that there. So it is important to me. It is important to give to what people gave me.