WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 23, 2002

Scott McCarron

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Congratulations, what a match out there. It looked like you were having a lot of fun. Why don't you share your emotions after you made that putt on 18.

SCOTT McCARRON: It was just an unbelievable match, back and forth all day long. It really was probably one of the calmest, I think, I've ever felt in this position, I don't know if it's because I'm getting used to it after last weekend, and all of these matches here this week; or maybe going against one of your good friends where you hope you play well, but if you don't win, it's okay because he's going to go on. I don't know what it was, but I felt so calm today. It was just a phenomenal match.

Q. You were mentioning, obviously, the weather in California; it's good. You, and, I guess, both Sutherland brothers played against each other. When did you first meet him?

SCOTT McCARRON: I was living in Napa the first time I met Kevin. We played junior golf against each other, but we started playing high school golf. The Vintage Brothers used to play Christian Brothers in matches, and I played with Kevin and David and a good friend of mine, Carl Wagner and I, we would go take them on.

It was pretty close back in those days. I thought I was the better golfer, but Kevin and I were talking about it at breakfast this morning, we were up in Chico, at Butte, playing the Northern California High School in a 36-hole final. I played him real well and had him 5- or 6-down with nine to play, and that son-of-a-gun shot, like, 29 on the back side and just started making everything. So about six or seven years ago when he got on TOUR -- he ended up beating me by a shot, but I still had this picture of us shaking hands. And Kevin was wearing the ugliest pair of shorts you have ever seen in your life. They looked like little bikini shorts, they were so high and he had these little string bean legs; and I sent him a picture and said, "Welcome to the PGA TOUR. You cannot wear those shorts out here." He brought those pictures out a couple of weeks ago and we had a good laugh.

At breakfast this morning, we said, can you believe that two guys who were fighting it out for the High School Championship in northern California and all of the golf we have played together and have a chance to play in the finals of the World Match-Play and neither of us could believe it.

Q. Does knowing somebody that well; does it make it easier in your mind going in?

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, either one. Kevin and I go way back, but Brad Faxon and I are such great friends, winning together, Shark Shootouts together, our wives are very close. Either one is -- two of my best friends out here on TOUR.

So, it will be a great match and very fiercely competitive, I'm sure. Should be some great golf. Either one.

Q. Last week you were close friends with Len Mattiace, and now Azinger?

SCOTT McCARRON: I'm close with most of these guys out here, but it happens to be the last couple of weeks some of my best friends that I go out and have dinner with. This tour is unbelievable. These guys out here are great guys.

Q. Is it a good thing to play against these guys?

SCOTT McCARRON: It's a great thing. You can go out there and have a great competition and fight and battle and shake hands and have a beer afterwards.

Q. Do you want to beat them more than somebody else?

SCOTT McCARRON: I think you want to play well and hope you play your best and they play their best and you want to come out on top. That's what's great about golf is, we can go out and battle our hearts out for 36 holes and afterwards shake hands and then go have a beer. You don't get to see that in many other sports.

Q. Did you and Azinger have dinner last night?

SCOTT McCARRON: Of course not. I'm not going to have dinner with him. (Laughter.)

Q. What was your thought on that putt? Were you just trying to get it close?

SCOTT McCARRON: I was trying to make it. As I walked by, I tried to glance over and see what Paul's lie was and I could not see the ball so I knew it was sitting down good. Paul Azinger has one of best short games out here on the PGA TOUR; so I am expecting him to get that up-and-down. I felt I had to make it, and it was about 39 feet. And I knew I had to make it. I hit a great putt and I was walking thinking that that ball was going in the hole. And it just had enough.

Q. You said last week at Nissan that, basically, if you could see the pin, you think you can go after the putt?

SCOTT McCARRON: Exactly. Just like that on 17, when I had that shot, 106 yards or something like that, I'm seeing the pin, I am trying to make that pitching wedge. I know Paul is going to -- he had 50-, 75-yard sand wedges yesterday and he had 75 there on 17; so I knew he was going to hit it close; so I felt I had to make it. If you're trying to make it, your misses are a lot closer.

Q. How long was the approach on 17?

SCOTT McCARRON: It was about 106. He told me his was 75.

I hit it, really, 3 1/2 feet and he was 3 feet. That was a really good wedge shot for me and kind of turned it over a little bit. That's been a tough shot for me over the past and I really stepped up and hit a great shot there.

So the emotion was: All right, you know, I put the pressure on him but I knew, you know, these guys every time a guy gets over a shot out here, I'm planning on him hitting it close or making the putt. You know, I'm never rooting against the guy. I'm always thinking he's going to make it or hit it close. So that's the mindset I think you've got to have.

Q. Given that, how shocked were you when you shot what he did on the fairway?

SCOTT McCARRON: Not shocked -- on 18?

Q. Yeah.

SCOTT McCARRON: I didn't watch it. So I couldn't believe that he hit it over the green left there. That's just not a mistake Paul Azinger makes, especially if he would have come over and saw my lie, I basically had nothing. All I could do is go at the middle of the green. If he had gone and knocked it close, I don't know how I could have gout that ball close after the first cut, in the hole. I was completely shocked.

But, again, man, this is pressure-packed, playing for a lot of money and the World Championship, you know, anything is possible.

Q. Two weeks in a row you're in contention, are your nerves frayed?

SCOTT McCARRON: Like I said, that was the calmest I think I've ever been today. This morning I was more nervous coming down the stretch. But I was playing well and I won every hole on the back side, 10 through 15 and that was really the first time that I ever really put the pedal to the medal and played well. This afternoon I was just calm all day long.

Q. You were 2-down to Tom?

SCOTT McCARRON: Tom played beautifully. I shot 1-under and he shot 3-under, and making the turn he made one mistake on 10. He hit it in the water. You know, had a restricted backswing and that opened the door and I didn't look back after that.

Q. At any point was the energy supply a concern?

SCOTT McCARRON: Not at all. I could go play 36 holes right now. Let's get this thing on. (Laughter.)

Q. Is the worst part waiting now?

SCOTT McCARRON: Waiting to see who wins or waiting until tomorrow.

I'm going to go have a good dinner and relax with my wife and my friends and my family and just enjoy tonight. And go out there and know I've got 36 holes of golf tomorrow.

So whatever happens tomorrow, this has been a great week for me. But I feel very confident in my game right now and I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. Who will buy the beer?

SCOTT McCARRON: Who buys the beer when?

Q. After tomorrow.

SCOTT McCARRON: Obviously the winner. The winner always buys. (Smiles).

Q. Did you do anything to change your game or swing that's accounted for this dramatic upswing?

SCOTT McCARRON: I did. About a year and a half, almost two years ago now, one of my best friends on TOUR, Peter Jacobsen had me go see his teacher, Jim Hardy, and that has been probably the biggest change in my golf game.

I was working with another gentleman for about a year and a half, two years, and just going backwards fast. You know, finishing 97th on the Money List, 100th, after finishing 26th on the Money List the year before. So I wasn't sure I could continue playing this game the way I was playing it. I was not having fun, missing being at home with my wife and kids, I was missing cuts, thinking about, "What am I going to do for a living?"

At the urging of Peter, I went and saw Jim Hardy. And we only see each other a couple of times a year and really only talk a couple of times a year. But the thing he has taught me has turned me around and turned me into a player that I feel like I could be one of the best players in the world.

He's based out of Houston. He's retired; he's a golf course designer. He has a house at the end of Champions and he and Peter Jacobsen have the Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design. But he teaches myself, Peter Jacobsen, Brian Henninger, Tom Pernice, and that's about it. He has got to be the best teacher anywhere.

Q. What was the magical thing that he said?

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, we're writing a book, so you're going to have to buy the book.

Q. Are you really?

SCOTT McCARRON: No. (Laughter.)

There were a few things, but more than anything, it was keeping my arms and body connected through my golf swing; that was it. My old teacher was trying to get the club pointed more at the target on the top, and I had always been a little laid off and I tried to do that with my hands and arms; so when my shoulders stopped, my hands and arms continued; and I started hitting left and I had never hit it left before and I was lost.

Jim more than anything got me to get my arms and hands and body connected so as soon as my shoulders stop, my arms stopped and just ahead and turn hard left. After that, I hardly ever hit it left anywhere and just play my cut and that's been the biggest difference.

Q. Was it one of those things that he made the suggestion and all of a sudden you got it?

SCOTT McCARRON: Well, you know, he made the suggestion and I started understanding it. But I went and played the next week at MCI, which is a very tight golf course, and you've got to draw it all the time; and I'm not a drawer and I was lost. I missed the cut by a bunch. I think I shot 10- or 12-over; it wasn't even close, because I was going back and forth, back and forth, old swing, new swing.

And I started hitting the ball better and at Greensboro and I started clicking and just kept clicking after that. Since then, Greensboro or whenever that was, a couple of years ago, I have not missed many cuts. I think I've only missed two cuts since Pittsburgh 2000. My game is more consistent that it's ever been. I felt like I could win golf tournaments when I was in the hunt, but I was hardly ever putting myself there in the first couple of years. But now is seems like I'm putting myself in that position.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: If you win tomorrow you would win The St. Paul West Coast Swing; so that would make the purse for you 1.5 million. Does that make any difference?

SCOTT McCARRON: Don't tell me that. (Laughter.) Wow. What's your question, Joan? (Laughter.)

I am going to go out there and play golf tomorrow. I cannot be thinking about the money. I'll think about that afterwards.

But winning The St. Paul West Coast Swing would be really a thrill. But I've played some good golf so far on this West Coast and I'm looking forward to a great year. This is going to be a fantastic year for Scott McCarron.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Sutherland has a foot-and-a-half putt to win the match.

SCOTT McCARRON: Wow. Kevin and I, that will be quite a thrill. I can't believe it, two Sacramento boys.

I tell you what, I don't know if a lot of the people in the country are going to be watching, but everyone in Sacramento is going to be watching. (Laughter.)

Q. What course should be hosting this?

SCOTT McCARRON: This is unbelievable. I played at Rancho Murietta for the last 12 years and he's grown up basically at Northridge. We've had a lot of hope and homes together.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Basically, what happened was from the fairway, Kevin Sutherland hit it left in the rough, Brad Faxon was 15 feet on the green. Kevin chipped up, got caught up in the fringe, he putted it up to about two feet and then Brad Faxon 3-putted from 15 feet.

SCOTT McCARRON: Wow. You don't ever expect Brad Faxon to 3-putt from 15 feet. Obviously, he must have been trying to make it. Did he putt before?

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: He putted and it went three feet past and then he putted back.

SCOTT McCARRON: So he putted before Kevin putted up. You've got the best putter in the world -- like I said, anything can happen.

Q. Will any of the Kings be watching?

SCOTT McCARRON: Oh, yeah, some of the Kings will be watching.

Kevin has season tickets. I live up in Reno now; so it's a drive for me to go see a Kings game.

Q. With the final four all being Americans, what does that say?

SCOTT McCARRON: I thought that was great. This is a World Championship, had a star-studded field, great players, international cast, and to have four Americans in the semifinals, hopefully that's something that we can take over to the Ryder Cup.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Scott, and play well tomorrow.

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