FORD SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2002

Mike McCullough

Q. You obviously were focused on your game. Were you kind of impressed with the run that Stewart made in the middle there, kind of hung on?

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Oh, yeah. Stewart played well. You can't take away anything from a winner of any golf tournament. He deservedly played well. He came from way back, played a real, good, solid last day. He made some key shots and putts when he had to. Just marvelous.

It's good for Stewart. He's been knocking on the door for a long time. It's good for him to get a victory.

Q. Can you particularly relate to his finally winning after you went a long time yourself?

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Well, Stewart has won internationally. It isn't new for him to win; it's new for Americans to know that he could win. There's several players from overseas that are pretty good players, and he's one of them.

Q. How did you play today yourself?

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I really didn't have control of my golf ball today. That's it. Pretty much had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do. I had an idea of what direction I wanted to hit it, but I just didn't have control or solidity today. A couple times I had to shoot away from the hole more often than not.

I had three penalties today. I had a penalty on No. 2. Hit a drive, hit a tree, came back in a hazard. Had a penalty on 11 when I hit it into a hazard, had to drop. Had a penalty on 17 where I had to drop. And I finished second. You know, I didn't hit too many . I hit some bad shots.

I don't want to take away from victory, but I hit some bad shots.

Q. Is Stewart a known player among you guys from his past experiences, things like three wins in the Tasmanian Open, things of that nature, or is he as unknown to you guys as to us when he first came to the TOUR?

MIKE McCULLOUGH: Oh, he was probably unknown to a lot of people that's never played in Asia. I played in Asia. I knew him from over there. We both knew each other from days we can't talk about. We were a little different personalities at one time or another.

But Stewart, he's not quite a free spirit like people think he is. He wears a bushy hair, but he's a real God-fearing person. He's a good guy. Real special heart. He has a lot of friends and a lot of people know him. A lot of people are happy for him. I'm happy for him.

I said this before I teed off. I said, "I sure want to win. But, you know, somebody is going to win this tournament who it's really going to help." Had a feeling that's going to happen. Sure enough, Stewart won. It probably helped him more than it helped me, more than it helped Hubert, more than it helped Jim Thorpe. It helped Stewart a lot. Good tournament for him.

Q. From what we've read of him, he thought earlier in his life he wasn't quite talented enough to play in America, so he played other places.

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I think everybody thinks that at one time or another, unless you're a Tom Weiskopf growing up. Unless you're really, really talented, most people probably feel that way. They probably doubt themselves for a while, then when it finally works, they feel good about it.

If you don't have anyplace to play... You have to remember, when we first start playing, goodness, I don't want to say 50 years ago, but when we were younger, there was no place to play. If you didn't play on the major tour, there was no place to play.

For him to doubt himself was more than likely that he didn't have any opportunity to play to find out how good he was. And that's probably more in tune with reality for him.

Q. Did you ever play in the Tasmanian Open?

MIKE McCULLOUGH: I don't think I could spell it. I'm the guy that came out of a bobble head. You're asking me about Tasmania (laughter).

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