THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 30, 1997

Jim Furyk

JIM FURYK: I made all my birdies after b

WES SEELEY: 71-66-127. Seven under par. Bogey free. Why don't you take us through?

JIM FURYK: Birdied No. 3 first, hit a driver and -- it seems like it was a day ago. Driver and a pitching wedge about 15-feet short of the pin, knocked that in. Par 5, I hit driver and laid up with a 3-iron, hit a sand wedge to about six feet, knocked that in for birdie. Next birdie was at 14. 3-wood and pitching wedge about three foot left of the pin. And made that one. Birdied 15, hit driver, 3-wood just short of the green, pitched up to about three feet, knocked that in. Mo. 16 was a 4-iron, about ten feet, short right of the pin, and made that one. And 17 I hit driver and a pitching wedge to about eight feet.

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I think because the course was playing longer because it's wet, but I think that's also -- it makes it a little easier to hit the fairways because the balls are having a hard time running out of the fairway, they're landing soft and the greens are very receptive, and as always the course is in nice shape, and the greens are well, so it adds it up and the guys are shooting low numbers.

JIM FURYK: Yeah, it's possible. You never know what's going to happen. If it gets windy or if they start hiding some pins on us and tucking them down bunkers, that will bring the scores up. They can set the course up harder, I believe, and that will increase the scores. It seems like we tend to make people mad early in the week, because someone shoots well and a low number. In Fort Worth last week, the scores were lower than they've been for a long time until the first three rounds and they started hiding the pins and the weather got bad and all of a sudden par was a good score. It all depends on the weather, if it stays like this, we'll see some low scores.

JIM FURYK: Yeah. I like the course, I don't really particularly think that it suits my game great. I don't think it's a bad course for me, but I think of this golf course as being more of a power -- a guy hits the ball long, far, high, spins the ball well, is normally going to play this course well. That's not my game. I'm more of a control player, keep the ball in play, not really a high-ball hitter, don't spin the ball a lot. I think with the greens being soft, it's helped me a little bit going into the greens. And the course is playing fairly long, because it's wet. It's a beautiful golf course. It's a good layout, and so I'm excited to come here, it's a great tournament.

JIM FURYK: I like Waialae, Colonial. I haven't played there very well the last couple of years, but Riviera is one of my favorite courses. A course being suited to your game helps sometimes, its helped me in Hawaii the last couple of years, but if you're not playing well before USGA there, it's not magical you're going to play well because the course suits your game. And vice-versa. You get a course that doesn't suit your game, but if you hit the ball well and you're playing good, you might finish well in the tournament and win. You're more comfortable at certain places.

JIM FURYK: I've played very well. Pretty good golf for 36 holes, only missed a few greens. Coming off of two top-10s the last couple of weeks, I should have played a little more in contention in Dallas and Forth Worth, I thought I had a chance to win both tournaments. So I feel good about my game. I'm a little -- I think I'm a little tired this week after -- just after being in contention for two weeks in a row, I'm a little mentally tired. But if I get enough sleep, I'll be all right.

JIM FURYK: No, I don't.

JIM FURYK: I work a lot on my setup, address the grip. That's where I look first. I've rarely worked on mechanics too much, and you've heard me say it a bunch of times. So I immediately go back to my setup, still putting clubs on the ground, work on alignment, work on grip. I feel like I've hit the ball great for a couple of weeks and if something were to go bad I didn't hit the ball well I wouldn't immediately say my swing broke down. I would go back and say there's something -- I've worked into a bad habit into my setup somewhere, I'd try to find it, go on the range and work on some different things. I have a habit of getting a little strong with my grip with my right hand. I have a habit of setting up left; different things that improves different shots. I look through all those bad habits and call my dad and ask for help.

JIM FURYK: A lot of times he can work through the ball flight. And he'll say I remember back when I was with you in Tucson this certain year you were doing a lot of the same things, this is what we worked on. We go back and he'll refresh my memory. He'll say back in Tucson we worked on something, what was it, and between the two of us we'll remember. And I'll try that. If it gets really bad he'll fly out and come help me.

JIM FURYK: I haven't. When I was a kid a lot of times we'd go together to someone, and he just felt maybe to get a little different ideas. He would talk to -- he was a sales rep. so he talked to golf professionals every day, and some of the guys that were better players or better teachers, he'd talk about some different things, if he liked what they said and felt like I could learn something, we might go down and take a lesson or talk -- it was never a lesson like you need to switch this, they just explained things to me. That these bad habits might produce these shots, this is something you might want to work on, just to learn a little bit. But I'm a firm believer in one person. My dad's seen me for -- studied my swing and seen me for years. And someone -- I know that he's going to give me a hundred percent, no matter what. So to go to another person, I think would be foolish. One, they're splitting their time between a lot of different pupils. They haven't seen me grow up, they haven't seen me evolve through all of this. My dad is really only teaching me, and my mom, I guess, these guys -- I've got his attention, undivided. And it would be dumb, I think, to go anywhere else.

JIM FURYK: I'm pretty much more the second way. I don't really get it in my mind that I have to shoot 65 tomorrow. Like I said, the weather could be awful and miserable, it could be raining and thunderstorms and 70 might be a good score tomorrow. I kind of wake up and take every day as it is. I think if you start putting numbers out there to shoot for every day, for me, at least, say if I win after Dallas and said 65 is going to win the tournament for me today, I might limit myself. Might be the day I was going to go shoot 62. And vice-versa. If I would have said that at Colonial last week, I'm going to shoot 64 tomorrow to win, it wouldn't have been true. The course was set up harder, the conditions were harder, and it really would have been 67, and I would be pushing too hard. I wanted to take it one hole at a time. I've been extremely patient this week through -- through 31 holes this week I made three birdies and 28 pars, just playing real solid golf and haven't pushed it. And all of a sudden I rattled four birdies off in a row. So I think to be patient and let things happen the rest of the week will be the key.