THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

May 24, 2002

Bob Tway

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We're joined by Bob Tway in the media center.

Thank you, Bob, for spending a few minutes with us. You had a chance to get out of there early this morning on the course. Why don't you talk a little bit about the conditions compared to yesterday.

BOB TWAY: It's always nice to play early. The greens are smooth. Obviously, no one's been on them in front of us. So from that standpoint, it's very nice. The golf course to me, played a lot different than yesterday. Yesterday we talked about how kind of soft the greens were and they weren't fairly fast. I got to take my words back now. Because today the greens were much firmer. Most of them, except for the ones that seemed like they were sodded. But the speeds was drastically different. In some spots probably three or four feet different. So it was quite of an adjustment to make out there.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. What do you suppose causes that?

BOB TWAY: It's that voodoo that they can do at night.

(Laughter.) I think they instead of having a 25-pound roller, they fill it with water and it's a hundred pound roller and you got faster greens. They do that every year at Augusta and I'm sure they know all the tricks here too.

Q. Can you talk about holes 14 and 17, you had some difficulty there?

BOB TWAY: I had a beautiful 3-iron on 14. I couldn't have been in a better spot and I actually had a beautiful yardage for the shot that I needed to hit. The pin's in the back. And it's very difficult to hit it straight at that pin because the water is short. If you don't quite catch it, you go in the water. So I tried to play left of the pin just barely, and I pulled it maybe five feet of where I was trying to and it takes one bounce and skips into the bunker. So you're five feet from trickling down to have a gimmie birdie or in the bunker with an impossible shot. I can't even stop it on the green. So on this golf course there's a very fine line on some shots and I knew exactly what was happening. I've hit it in the bunker before and knew I was dead. I was trying to go at it but favor just a hair left. And I just pulled it just slightly. So sometimes you get in a position where you just can't make par.

17 was disappointing. I hit a poor 3-wood into the right rough and kind of drew a horrible lie in the rough. But that's kind of the way it is here. The fairways are wide here and you shouldn't miss the fairways so I was actually very pleased with how I played I was 3-under through 12 holes and with a little bit of luck on the greens I could have been more than that. It was playing very similar to yesterday. Yesterday I made the birdie at 14 and hit a great shot and make eagle at 15. Today I played those holes 1-over. Yesterday I played them 3-under. So it's a very fine line from good and not so good. So today was a little disappointing. I hit the ball better than the 71 that I shot, but that's the way golf is.

Q. Do you feel pretty good about the draw in that you got your two at-bats in before the skies are supposed to start caving in, I guess you can go home and watch TV?

BOB TWAY: You know, you never know about the conditions. It could rain and the wind could stop and all of a sudden it could be like throwing darts. So sometimes you get an advantage and sometimes you don't. I don't know what's going to happen. It was nice. Yesterday when we played I think we played through a pretty difficult part of the day. Obviously this morning being first off it was a little bit easier. I don't know. I think that you just kind of keep going and sometimes you catch a break, sometimes you don't.

Q. There was a lot of talk before the tournament about what kind of conditions favor what kind of player on this golf course. You talked yesterday about back in '89 how you played when it was very wet and you were playing lift, clean and place. This far into your career, what kind of conditions would you prefer for the final two rounds the way it's played the last two days or the way it may play the next two days if we get some rain?

BOB TWAY: I would probably prefer it to play like these two days. I think that is just the way the golf course was meant to be played. You don't necessarily have to hit drivers off the tees, you need to position your ball in the fairway. Length is not the most important thing. I think it's more difficult when the greens get a little harder and a little faster. Like they were today. There's some shots out there that were very difficult because of that. I don't know what's going to happen throughout the day, but hopefully the weather won't come until later and I think if you watch on television you'll see some good shots, but you'll also see some guys getting into some spots that it's very difficult. And I think that the golf course plays tougher when it's like that. You get a lot of rain and the greens are going to go back to being soft again and then you are throwing darts at it. And I just don't think that it plays as difficult when it does that. Plus the fairways get wider too because the ball just hits and stops.

Q. How are you a different player, if you are, than you were what, 13 years ago?

BOB TWAY: I think I'm a smarter player than I was back then. I think I strike the ball maybe better than I did back then. I don't think that my short game is probably as good as it was then. Confidence-wise, I probably had a little bit more confidence or I was too young to know back then. I feel good about my game. I haven't won since '95 and I only won one time since '90. But I feel like I played some good golf throughout that time. Just not good enough to win. That's really the only thing we're trying to do out here is just keep banging our heads against the wall to win. So I still think I have some good golf in me. So hopefully one of these days it will work out.

Q. The longer you are out here the more time you have for bad thoughts to seep in, is that it?

BOB TWAY: I think in some respects, yeah, you go through a lot. I've definitely gone through a lot in my career. I don't know. I guess you let bad thoughts creep in or you can gain from the good. So I tray to gain from the good as much as I can.

Q. Bob, can we go through the birdies and bogeys.

BOB TWAY: I hit a pitching wedge on No. 2 about, I don't know, 14 feet from the hole and made that.

A nice 5-iron at the fourth hole. That was the one of the greens that was extremely firmer than yesterday. And it rolled over just off the back of the green and I kind of hit with the toe of my putter out of the first cut and was able to make that.

I made just kind of parred around. And then I made a nice putt at 13 or a nice putt at 12 from about 20 feet below the hole. Hit an 8-iron in there. That hole's playing tough against the wind. And then a couple bogeys. But I had a lot of opportunities that yesterday I made and today I didn't. And that was kind of the difference.

Q. The toe of the putter shot, the Vijay-style turned around?

BOB TWAY: Yeah.

Q. And that went in?

BOB TWAY: Yeah.

Q. How many feet do you think you were?

BOB TWAY: I was probably 20 feet there.

Q. You try that one under live fire frequently?

BOB TWAY: I've been doing that since I was a kid. I've always used a -- well I haven't always used a Ping Anser but most of the time I do -- it was pretty tough with a Bulls-eye but with the Ping it's a pretty good spot there to use. I just have been doing that for a long time. I don't like the 5-wood because I don't hit as consistent as I do with the toe.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Bob, for joining us.

BOB TWAY: Okay. Thank you.

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