KEMPER INSURANCE OPEN

June 1, 2002

Bob May

TODD BUDNICK: Joined now with Bob May.

BOB MAY: Thanks.

TODD BUDNICK: 2-under 9 today. Has you at nine under. Started the day with birdies on two and three. Can you walk us through.

BOB MAY: Two I hit it over the green. I hit driver, 3-wood over the back of the green and putted from off the fringe up to about a foot or so.

Three I hit a 3-iron in there, I would say about eight feet. So I hit a good shot there.

TODD BUDNICK: Bogey on four.

BOB MAY: Bogey on four. I left my 2-iron out to the right a little bit off the tee and I hit a knuckle ball for my second shot that kind of went off to the right and didn't get up-and-down. So I was unfortunate there.

Birdied five, I hit a three wood, L wedge in there about eight, 10 feet.

Eight I hit a good drive, just kind of stayed down the right side and trickled into the rough and did the same thing as basically on four. I hit a 9-iron out of the rough and just knuckled on me and just went right. And I was trying to play at the pin or left. But when it's coming out of that rough it's hard to predict what the ball's going to do. And it shot right on me. Short sided myself. Hit a good bunker shot but didn't hit too good of a putt.

13 I hit a good drive down to the bottom of the hill. Hit 5-iron in there. I would say 25 feet. And 3-putted.

14 I hit a 4-iron and an L wedge in there about 10 feet behind the hole and made that.

17 I tried to hit an 8-iron, which was the right club for me, but I was trying to aim out to the right and draw it in there and I was trying to hit it a little harder than I needed to and just, right hand kind of came over the top of it and I just pulled it. Hit a bad shot. Unfortunately.

Had nothing to do with the water being there or anything I was just trying to hit a hard shot and sometimes when you try to hit it hard when you hit a natural draw like I do, you over turn it.

TODD BUDNICK: You got yourself in position for tomorrow. Tell us about today and what you're looking for tomorrow.

BOB MAY: I'm happy with today. I'm putting very well. So if I can get the ball on the greens a little quicker, I think I have a good chance.

Q. The lead is only going to be about 11. I think in the last two days it's pretty much stayed 10, 11. Has the course, is it very tough?

BOB MAY: The greens are getting a little harder. The ball's taking a pretty big first skip. And then you get to some greens where the ball hits and stops instantly. So it's kind of hard to judge. The golf course is firming up a little bit. So it always plays tougher when we haven't had rain now since Monday, I guess. That little shower we had yesterday wasn't really enough to soften it up. But the greens are rolling nice. You get a few little bounces but that's going to happen on poa annua greens.

Q. Is this the closest you've been in contention since the PGA and will you draw on that experience and also some of the other previous successes you had overseas?

BOB MAY: No, I had chances last year in Vegas. I missed the playoff by one shot the week after the PGA at Reno. So I had chances since then, but I would say in the last since Vegas last year this is the first chance that -- well I had, at the Hope I played really well at the Hope this year. It's just, the Hope was a shoot-out and if I would have been putting like I am now at the Hope, I think that because I was hitting it really well then. It would have been nice to see that. But right now, yeah, this is the best since I would say in the last eight months. 10 months.

Q. Have you drawn on that experience at the PGA?

BOB MAY: Sure. It's nice to know that when you could get in a pressure situation that you could rely on everything that you've practiced. And I'll be able to hopefully get myself in that subconscious thinking, you know, and just concentrate on my golf and not what's going on around me. I've done it before and in a situation that was more pressure on me. And so hopefully I could do it again.

Q. Once again there's a lot of guys up on the leaderboard who are looking for their first win and the Kemper seems conducive to that. Can you, do you have any theories on why that is?

BOB MAY: No, I don't know. I'm not sure why that is. I hope it goes true for one of us that's trying to break through in the next few days, nothing against Greg Norman or Bob Estes or some of the other guys, but it's nice to see someone break through and win their first tournament. We're all, we all work so hard to do that.

Q. You have won some nice money in the last couple of years, what does a first win mean if you were to get it?

BOB MAY: What would it mean? Oh, it's a dream that we all have to win out here. And to finally reach that dream it would be great. And to do it at golf course like this, that has so many first time winners, I think I might be able to pull off the gallery because they're going to maybe be rooting on another first time winner. So I think that some of us guys that haven't won might be able to pull off them. So I think maybe they will maybe try to root us on.

Q. You talked about a lot of especially at Valhalla and since then that you feel like you can win out here, I'm wondering has it been difficult being patient dealing with the back injuries and different things like that?

BOB MAY: Dealing with the back injury is the hardest thing. Because my back was feeling all right in Houston, it was a little tight at times and I woke up Sunday morning and I can only, I played two holes and had to quit. So just out of nowhere it starts hurting again. That's the only irritating part about it. The other irritating part is that how bad is it really. We really don't know until you were to open it up or -- I'm never going to have surgery on it, I hope. But it's frustrating because you don't know what to expect every day. One morning you wake up tighter than another. But I have been fortunate enough, I bought a big bus that I travel in. And my family and I travel in it. So I'm sleeping on the same bed every night. And I think that really helps a lot. I got a good mattress in that. Same kind of mattress I have at home. And so it's basically, it is, it's like my home. It's big and it's comfortable and it makes travel a little easier for me out here. And when you sleep on different hotel beds all the time it's not great for someone with a bad back.

Q. Do you find the fans root for you because of what happened at Valhalla and how much do you draw on that?

BOB MAY: Yeah, I think that the fans root for me because of what happened in Valhalla. I could pull off, you know, it's nice to have people out there rooting for you. You hear it. Okay, Bob, it's your turn this week. And a few people have said that today. And it's nice. But at the same time you got to focus on what you have at hand in front of you. And you got to focus on that golf shot. And it's great to have the fans there to support you when you do hit that golf shot that they're looking for you to hit.

Q. This may sound funny but did you consult John Madden or John Daly, people that have bought buses?

BOB MAY: Actually, I didn't, I went and looked at John Daly's, but another friend of mine out here on the Tour, Jay Don Blake he had one. And we talked a lot about it and I was looking at certain brands and he was telling me other brands to look at. And it took him one week to talk me into buying one. And it's taken me a year and a half to talk him into a buying a boat. So he's a little better talker I guess than me. Because we both travel, we both have the same bus, Jay Don and I. He just bought, he talked me into buying that one and then he went out and bought the same one.

Q. Can you talk about bus life a little bit? How big is it?

BOB MAY: It's a 40 foot Monaco bus. And it has three slideouts on it. I really enjoy it. Look I said, it's like a house. People go, why would you stay in one. And I said well come see it, you'll see. It's about, I would say about 15 to 18 feet across in the living room. It's got all cherry wood cabinets and stuff. Flat screen TV's with satellite. So I mean it's basically a house on wheels. It's very comfortable to travel in. The kids have all their toys in there. So it's easy for us. They can play with their toys that they're used to playing with.

Q. How big a flat screen?

BOB MAY: It's like 26 inches or so. I don't have the big plasma screen the 40 inch. That's what I want to get. Maybe if things go good tomorrow we will have that new bus. I would like to get a 45 foot. But right now we're working with this one and it's nice. I take it to NASCAR races and I've had nine adults sitting in the living room and you're not cramped. People can, people don't really understand when you slide them, when they have slideouts on it how big they really open up to.

TODD BUDNICK: All right. Thank you, Bob.

BOB MAY: All right. Thank you.

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