THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 29, 1996

Tommy Tolles

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah, just kind of carrying on from last week. Fortunately not carrying on from Sunday's round, but from the first three. Little bit disappointed off the 18 green after everything was all said and done, I was pretty pleased with the entire week.

WES SEELEY: Take us around this day.

TOMMY TOLLES: Played two holes this morning, already hit my tee shot on 8 -- on the 8th hole yesterday and had about 20-footer for birdie, and just mediocre pars on 8 and 9. And started again this morning on the front 9, and I think 2 is my first birdie. I hit a good tee shot down the fairway, and 2-iron almost in the right bunker, pin high. Hit a good chip up there about a foot from the hole and tapped it in. And 4 was my next birdie; good tee shot down the middle and hit a sand wedge about six feet below the hole and made that putt.

WES SEELEY: 6?

TOMMY TOLLES: 6 hole was playing into the wind today. It was playing downwind in all the practice rounds and downwind yesterday, so it was kind of an unfamiliar hole to me. I just kind of was going to play it with a 2-iron or 3-wood all week long, and today I played it aggressively, hit a driver, got it down there about 125, 30 yards from the green; hit 9-iron, hit it about two and a half feet from the hole. So, got everything going now. I hit a poor 5-iron and on the edge of pot bunker; wasn't actually in the sand. It was in the grass. And had a really, really strange stance and no green to work with, and got pretty lucky, somehow chipped it in. So that was a big emotional boost shot; was only about 25 feet, but it was a pretty difficult one.

WES SEELEY: Came around and birdied -- 2 pars and birdied 12.

TOMMY TOLLES: 12, I hit a very poor tee shot about 25, 30 yards left of the fairway, but I had a great angle from the pin and I could actually see it. Hit a sand wedge from about 90 yards, trying to keep it under the limbs of the trees and hit it about 20 feet. Thought I had left the putt short, and last couple of rolls fortunately it went in. And next hole was playing downwind today and it had been playing into the wind the first few days, and hit a good solid 7-iron; probably the best shot I hit all day about seven or eight feet from behind the hole; hit a real good putt there. Just I think a lot of people are going to miss that putt to the right today.

WES SEELEY: Gave one back at 14.

TOMMY TOLLES: 14, I hit 2 good shots. Hole was playing pretty tough today. Hit 5-iron about 25 feet, and got a little careless with the first one; ran it about six or seven feet by, and then missed it coming back. 15, I hit a good iron shot, 7-iron from about -- I think it was about 160, and hit it right over the top of the flagstick down into a swale, hit a really good putt coming over the ridge. Had a lot of speed on it.

WES SEELEY: How far was that?

TOMMY TOLLES: 30 feet, 25 feet. Then on the par 5, next hole, I hit a good tee shot down the center of the fairway, and kind of missed my iron shot to the right a little bit, fortunately. That was right at the flag, and ended up flying just barely on the front of the green and releasing about ten feet, and 2-putted from about 25 feet.

WES SEELEY: What did you hit in?

TOMMY TOLLES: 3-iron. And then 17, I hit a pretty weak 9-iron about 30, 35 feet short of the flag, and thought I had missed the putt to the right. And thank God I didn't read it right, broke back to the left there at the end and putting the last hole Dave Junior was talking to me. I hit it about 40 feet to the right of the hole, he said "well, you might as well make this one, you made the rest of them." I came pretty close. So it was almost a perfect round of golf today.

Q. Tommy, what did you take away from last Sunday playing in that final group on the last day?

TOMMY TOLLES: That was a really tough round of golf last Sunday. We had high winds, and although the course was in perfect condition, it played really tough. And pretty apparent by looking at the scores on Sunday, outside of Scotty's score. But I think I gained a lot of mental toughness from a day like that, and you don't experience days like that. Normally when you do, if you are not completely focused, you tend to -- scores tend to inflate. And it was pretty big burden off my shoulders too. I hadn't played so well this year, and although I played pretty good at the Honda, everything else has been pretty disappointing. So it was really exciting and it was -- those nice big checks don't hurt either.

Q. Was it instructive watching Scott win?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah. It was -- I was really happy for him too. He is a pretty good friend. I have known him for two years now. We talk a lot every time we see each other, and I was really happy for him; to watch someone that was in control of his game like he was. It is a learning experience as much for me as it was for him.

Q. Where is Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: Halfway between Ashville, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina. So it is a small town, little over a thousand people.

Q. Is there a flat rock there?

TOMMY TOLLES: I don't think so. It is right in the foothills of the Appalachians, so it is about 2,500 feet. Not a hole lot happens there.

Q. Is there a golf course there?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah, there is a three of them.

Q. 18-hole?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah, three 18-hole golf courses. One's that Joel Lee designed; which is a pretty famous architect from the Carolinas area, Tom Fazio built it up there and Donald Ross had a course up there, so --

Q. Which one did you grow up playing on?

TOMMY TOLLES: I grew up in Fort Myers.

Q. Oh, okay.

TOMMY TOLLES: Moved up there three years ago.

Q. Is this the best round of golf you have played in your career?

TOMMY TOLLES: I would say so because I am not real familiar with this golf course. I haven't had a whole lot of experience here. I only played one other time here, that was about four years ago. And even then, the golf course seems different than from what it is now. And with the wind switching directions from yesterday to today, it was like playing a whole new golf course for me. And, you know, I have to really pace myself out there and think about what I am doing. Today I did a pretty good job of it. But if the wind keeps switching like this, it is going to wreak some havoc for me.

Q. Under this kind of company, was that special in this kind of company, with these kind of players around?

TOMMY TOLLES: That makes it even worse. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.) Yeah, but, you know, if I start thinking about that, you know, I have already defeated myself. It is me, the golf ball and the golf course. You know, as long as I limit it to those three things, I will be fine.

Q. How do you explain this burst of good play that you have put together?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, been working on my swing for about six months trying to change it from a hand swing to a body swing, and when I first started taking lessons, I have been taking lessons from the same guy for 15 years now, but when I first started taking these lessons about learning how to use my body more than my swing -- in my swing, I was pretty much clueless about what I was doing, and -- but lessons weren't going very well, but it was something I was committed to and I never really gave up on it and last few weeks, whatever, I have become a little bit more familiar started feeling, you know, the positions and where my body should be and things are starting on the up and up now.

Q. Who is that instructor and where is he?

TOMMY TOLLES: Jeff Eliman. He is from

Bonita Bay which is near Bonita Springs, Florida.

Q. Why did you move to Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: When I was in school up at the University of Georgia my parents bought a place up there and it was a couple of hours away and I went up there every other weekend for a couple of years and just became very familiar with the people up there and I am not a real big city person and everything is real quiet there. When I get home I can go about my business and I don't have 10 million people calling me wanting to do things, so...

Q. What is the nearest airport there?

TOMMY TOLLES: Ashville has an airport, real small one.

Q. What do you do for excitement in Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: Nothing. There is nothing to do. The fishing -- there is no fishing around there. Play golf every once in a while. Do a lot of yard work; a lot of honeydews.

Q. Did you say there is no fishing there?

TOMMY TOLLES: There is only the Green River that is probably 25 miles away. There is, you know, it is too cold for bass and too warm in the summertime for trout, so makes for a lot of frogs, though.

Q. Is there a movie theater there?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, Hendersonville is probably ten or fifteen miles away and it is probably 10,000 people; they even have a mall. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.) WES SEELEY: It is not Mayberry. It is Flat Rock.

Q. How many stoplights?

TOMMY TOLLES: I can count them all on this fist. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.)

Q. Is there a McDonald's?

TOMMY TOLLES: In Flat Rock?

Q. Yeah.

TOMMY TOLLES: No. There is an Amoco gas station; Po Boys Seafood Buffet - that is it.

Q. Where do they get the seafood? (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.)

TOMMY TOLLES: They import it from Hendersonville. Don't tell anybody.

Q. Do the people know what you do there in Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: Probably about ten or fifteen people know what I do. Rest of them have no idea; which is the way I like to keep it.

Q. Spend much time there?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah.

Q. Good luck.

TOMMY TOLLES: That is my home base and you know, during the winters I am either spending my Christmases in South Africa or Florida. The winters there are pretty miserable; gets awful windy that time of year and cold wind is pretty uncomfortable. Summertime, I enjoy it up there. It is -- the weather is nice and cool; very rarely does it get in the 90s; humidity always stays down a little bit. Pretty up there in the mountains.

Q. Keep playing like this people might find out what you do.

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, we will try and keep it hush.

Q. Yeah. Do they get ESPN?

TOMMY TOLLES: There is not a whole lot of TV in Flat Rock.

Q. You had this great desire to remain anonymous; is that basically what you are saying?

TOMMY TOLLES: No, I kind of -- I like to keep things small. One-on-one; more of a personal type basis and I am not a big people person.

Q. Professional golf, sort of strange for an introvert?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah.

Q. You could be --

TOMMY TOLLES: Everyone always tells me you are in the wrong business. I hate to fly, too, so. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.) I have to fly every week, so....

Q. Do they have enough people there on TV for cable or do they have dishes or what?

TOMMY TOLLES: Almost everybody has a satellite. You can get the cable company if you live close enough to the city limits of Hendersonville and there is one road in and one road out of town. Anybody bordering that road has cable. And we just got city water two years ago, so that was big for us. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.)

Q. What is the highway?

TOMMY TOLLES: 25. US-25. But everything is pretty quiet in Flat Rock.

Q. Who is the mayor?

TOMMY TOLLES: Actually, we are -- Flat Rock is a township, so there is no mayor, no counsel.

Q. You got a policeman?

TOMMY TOLLES: No, not as far as I know. I haven't run into him yet.

Q. Isn't there a race car driver from there?

TOMMY TOLLES: Sterling Marlin was looking at it. Bobby Hamilton or the Country Time Racing Team was just outside of Hendersonville. Actually they were in East Flat Rock. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.) There are some racing teams up in Bavard; one in Flushing.

Q. Are you the real Tommy Tolles or is this -- (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER).

TOMMY TOLLES: That is what the whole part of being in a small town is.

Q. How big is East Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: I think it is probably a couple of thousand people.

Q. Hey.....

TOMMY TOLLES: Hendersonville tried to incorporate all the small towns in the area, you know, to enlarge itself, as far as you know, the small towns are considered you know, all they do is, you know, it raises their taxes and they really gain nothing out of it, so they have all branched off and you know, given themselves names Flat Rock East, Flat Rock, Saluda, Tuxedo, Zarconia; all little kind of places there. Sometimes 100, sometimes 500 people.

Q. You spend some time in South Africa. What is the reason for that?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, first year I went down, there is a guy playing the field, Nolan Henke. He got his TOUR card, but he had already bought a plane ticket. I ended up buying his plane ticket. It was my first year as a pro, so I needed someplace to go to start gaining experience. My college career was pretty short, and went down there for the first year and then met my future wife down there, so I had to go down for the next four years just to keep in touch with my in-laws. My phone bill was so high it was a lot are cheaper to fly.

Q. What does she think of Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: She grew up in Johannesburg, which is six million people, so she kind of likes the busy body and the active life. Myself, I grew up in Fort Myers when it was, you know, ten or fifteen, 20,000 people and then when they got too big, we moved to Cape Coral which has 4, 5,000 people. As soon as it got into the 50, 60 thousand people we decided to move out of there.

Q. What high school did you go to?

TOMMY TOLLES: Cape Coral.

Q. Why was your college career short?

TOMMY TOLLES: Academics problem. Forgot to open the books. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.)

Q. How long did you go for?

TOMMY TOLLES: I attended school for four years. Played in golf team for three years.

Q. What is the perfect day for you there in Flat Rock?

TOMMY TOLLES: 85 degrees and no rain.

Q. What do you do? What would be a perfect day? Work out in the yard?

TOMMY TOLLES: Yeah, that is a good day for me. Take my son out and pull some weeds out of the grass and plant a few bushes and even take the car for a spin around the block.

Q. Wow! (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER.) Is this an act or are you is this you?

TOMMY TOLLES: It is just a small town. There is not a whole lot to do.

Q. There is no cops. Does that mean there is no crime?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, it is not like everybody lives you know, on top of each other like they do here in Florida. I have a small piece of property and it is over an acre, so there is people up there five, six -- 500, 600 piece acre lots, so...

Q. Why did you decide to change your golf swing? Did it need a change? Was there a problem before or did you feel you hit the ball --

TOMMY TOLLES: I just think there is a trend in golf. The old swing was high hands and, you know, everything came from the inside and I think now everything, you know, pretty much one plane and by switching from hands to body swing, you know, prolongs everybody's career too because it takes a lot of pressure off the lower back and a lot of the joints in the swing. The body controls all the positions of the swing instead of the hands, the elbows and the shoulders and everything - all acting in separate pieces. Now everything can just act in one.

Q. How comfortable are you with that swing and how comfortable are you with it under pressure?

TOMMY TOLLES: When things were going well like they were doing today, it is pretty easily to deal with. Now your mental game pretty much takes over, the physical part of the game. There was a couple times today where I hit some pretty errant shots and I am still pretty unfamiliar with the had swing and I am not to sure what causes them. It is pretty much a learning basis for me and it will probably be six months to another year before, you know, I am totally comfortable, that when I do hit a bad shot I will know what the cause of it is.

Q. Can you win with this swing? Will it hold up?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, right now it is not the swing. It is the putting stroke. If the putter stays hot like it has the last two days, where I hit a lot of good putts in 18 holes, yeah, I think I can win, but if I putt like I did the first five or six weeks of the TOUR this year, be lucky to finish anything but dead last.

Q. Have you noticed the trend of the first-time winners?

TOMMY TOLLES: Been reading a lot about it in the papers.

Q. What do you think? I mean, do you think you can maybe be a part of that?

TOMMY TOLLES: First of all, I think it is great for the game. A lot of younger players are starting to shine through. There is a lot of really, really good young players out here that probably haven't quite gotten the exposure as some of the old trustee veterans, but you know, I think there is a lot more younger players this year and the past few years; they have played without any fear. They are not intimidated by some of these guys; whereas, before there was so much history behind it, everybody's championships and trophies and career money and all that, that everybody was a little intimidated, now that the money has gotten so high. I was just informed that if I were to win this week that my career money would be more than Ben Hogan.

Q. Also Sam Snead?

TOMMY TOLLES: Great.

WES SEELEY: Anything else for Tommy?

Q. Three first-time winners the last three weeks. Do you get a sense that if they can do it, "I can do it;" does that raise your level of hope?

TOMMY TOLLES: Well, last week when I played with Scott I was kind of worried that both of us might step on our faces, we would fall flat, but I was really impressed with the way he played and you know, I have seen how it is done now and it is only as hard as you make it out to be. So I have played with Scott several times and I have beaten him on occasions and he has beaten me, obviously, on a few occasions, so I am looking forward to it tomorrow. Yeah, I think I can do it.

WES SEELEY: Okay?

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