CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 26, 1997

Wayne Levi

WAYNE LEVI: Well, like I was saying earlier after birdieing the first hole I was feeling pretty good. I got to the second hole, hit a beautiful shot there. It couldn't have been a foot and a half. I still don't know how it missed. Really after that I kind of felt like I got hit in the head and was in a daze and for the rest of the day, I couldn't really compose myself and settle down. I felt uncomfortable, I was not at ease. I never really hit many real good shots. You know, I was always fairly far from the pin. The short holes from there on in I didn't play very well. I didn't get the ball close to the hole for a reasonable birdie putt. A couple I did have, I was tentative with. Just, you know, that second hole like I say, I just kind of, you know, couldn't regroup after that. And, you know, here I am shooting out par. Look at the leader board, it's all red. It wasn't good.

WAYNE LEVI: Just time will settle you down. I guess and, you know. Just try to -- hit a few balls and do a little putting on the green. The same I have been doing. And hopefully tomorrow will be a different day.

WAYNE LEVI: Yup. I just want to make sure, you know, I hopefully get off to a good start, you know. And, you know. Get around -- stay around that lead all the time until the game can get hot.

WAYNE LEVI: A little sand wedge about 85 yards. Back the pin back up there about a foot and a half. Just stuff you can't do. Not just stuff that derails knocks you right off track. That goes back to what I was staying earlier about the mistakes. Mistakes here and a couple there. If they come at the wrong time, it's costly.

WAYNE LEVI: I didn't play that bad. I didn't get the balls close to the ball. The ones I did hit good, didn't go in. It's not like I hit the ball over the course and fat and did this and dump it in traps and scrammed it. I was down the fair way and put the ball on the wide parts of the green and didn't do anything crazy. I just didn't get anything out of it.

WAYNE LEVI: Not really. I don't even think about it. I don't think about it being a bad round. I have to produce another good one.

WAYNE LEVI: I know what I have to do. I'm hitting the ball well. I just have to, you know, tighten up my zone there of thinking and perception of where I'm going to hit the ball. I have to tighten it up a little bit tomorrow and playing out there too wide and too safe, you know, and the shots I didn't work enough into the pins and when I did put the ball -- when I did put the ball fairly close, I had tough putts. They were big breaking putts, ones that broke down and away to the right, they are hard putts to make, even if they are fairly close, five to six feet, you know. I never really had a nice straight uphill putt and knock it right in, you know.

WAYNE LEVI: Possibly. In fact, I even feel better today. My back feels pretty good. The work I had getting done on the truck over there, was doing me good. I feel good. It is a perfect day. I put the ball -- like I said it's not like I drove it off in the rough and trees, I was right there.

WAYNE LEVI: Definitely more aggressive. I have to put birdies on the board.

WAYNE LEVI: I'm sure it does. It has to affect you some. Being the leader just after the third round. Teeing off just after 2:00. Usually at 2:00, I'm back at the hotel and have half the paper read. So, sure that has to factor in there too. Maybe that's the fun of it. If you don't come out here and be nervous and it effects you, you get a little nervous out there and you can get a little tight, that's the fun of it. If it didn't do that, I wouldn't play. It wouldn't be any fun.

WAYNE LEVI: Beautiful. Perfect. Just beautiful.

WAYNE LEVI: Hopefully. I think it well. Those guys are up there now to where I was. They are further up like on that board where I was starting off today. So, they may not be as aggressive. In fact I will tell you they won't be as aggressive as they were today. I bet you, three quarters of them shoot higher than they did today, tomorrow. So, I just have to reverse my way. I went in the other direction already one round, so, I have to go the other way now. The tournaments I won I won coming back this year, I one here I was behind. Until the last few holes, but I won tournaments leading the whole time, so, some too so..

WAYNE LEVI: Yeah, it is. It really is. I used to fire the ball right at the flag almost no matter where it is. And after thinking about how I played today, you know, I call myself a wimp after the way I really went about it today. I just kind of, you know, really tried not to make a mistake. And that's why I didn't score very well. So, I have to go back to, you know, go back to being a lot more aggressive. And if I hit a couple bad shots, so what.

WAYNE LEVI: First of all, I hit a good drive, a soft 6-iron. Right in there, I would say about 10 feet. Short of the hole and made that one.

WAYNE LEVI: A bogey on No. 7. I hit not a bad drive there and it kick to the left and rolled right up against it didn't go in the high grass, but it rolled against the high grass and I had to shoot across the zone between the high grass and the short grass and the high grass just shut the club down and I knew it was going to do. And I stood over and I said have to aim to the right over there. It's going to do that and I couldn't get myself to do it. There was a big trap there to the right of the pin and I didn't want to put it in that trap, so, I tried to aim and swing harder at it and sure enough it shut the club down and I pulled to the left and hit short another enough. I was luck to make a five. I left my bunker shot in the trap. It's a good lie. It wasn't a bad lie. I left it in the trap and blasted that one out about five feet and made that one for a five.

WAYNE LEVI: Yeah, No. 13 the par five. I was right there I hit about five feet and let that one die off. Then on No. 15 I had a pretty good putt and birdie there about 12 feet. Just six inches off the green and I left it short. On 16, I hit a beautiful putt there. I just -- I mean just got to the hole and was coming up and looked like it was going right in and caught the bottom edge of the hole and eased up to the right. It was only about like that (INDICATING). I really didn't drop.

WAYNE LEVI: Probably about 25 feet.

WAYNE LEVI: From there I am just trying to get the ball down there close and I as soon as I hit it too hard -- as soon as I hit it I said oh, know. It died somewhere and caught some of the hole too. That would have been a nice one to drop.

WAYNE LEVI: Like I said, I drove -- I put the ball in play. I have to get the irons in there closer and I guess I have to concentrate a little harder tomorrow.

WAYNE LEVI: Thank you.