JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

September 9, 2003

Shaun Micheel

TODD BUDNICK: All right, we thank Shaun Micheel, winner of the 2003 PGA Championship, for joining us today, Shaun making his seventh appearance here at the John Deere Classic. He had a T5 in 2000. Shaun, let's first talk about the major, obviously a great accomplishment in your life and in your golf game.

SHAUN MICHEEL: It has been. After the NEC I guess I thought things might calm down just a little bit at home, and it was just a little overwhelming, the reception I received from the people in Memphis and literally Tennessee. It was just a lot of phone calls, of course a lot of emails. Obviously I couldn't get to all of them, but it's been fun, but I'm certainly happy to be back out between the ropes.

TODD BUDNICK: You can save a lot of that for the off season, right?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Yeah, there's a lot of good things that have been coming of my victory, but ultimately it's just about getting back to playing good golf and validating some of the things that went along with winning that championship. It's probably my number one focus right now.

TODD BUDNICK: You talked about validating, but even without the victory there, you were on your way to your best season. You have four top tens are already this season. Talk about the consistency you had this year.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I felt like over the last few years my game has gotten a lot better. My greens in regulation stat over the last couple of years has really, I think, been probably my best stat, and that's something I think I've always been pretty good at. Any time you can hit greens in reg it sure makes the game a lot easier with your driving accuracy, but I felt like I've done a lot of good things.

I'm certainly comfortable out here now. The last couple of years I've really learned how to play, how to handle poor shots, how to handle crowds per se. I haven't really had to deal with too much media up until a couple weeks ago. I was still just another top-125 player, so things have changed a little bit in that respect. I'm pretty happy really with the way my game has progressed over the last few years. I think my mental game has certainly benefitted from just being out here, and I've finally gotten over the hump of handling all the stuff that goes on outside the ropes.

Q. When you say your mental game has gotten better, is that in the sense that I think it was Calvin Peete might have told us that he did better when he stays in the now and he forgets about his good shots, forgets about his bad shots, he delays any emotional reaction until after the round. Are you more tunnel-visioned than you were say two or three years ago?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Probably. People, my family is what I'm speaking of, kind of got on me over the last few years for not smiling more. I think either you have that part, either you have that charisma or you don't. I pretty much try to stay level-headed. There are certainly times where I've gotten a little upset at myself, as we all have a tendency to do, but for the most part that's probably the one thing that I'm most proud of.

When I went back and watched that video of the final round, I walked the same pace -- when I refer to my mental game, I refer to just trusting myself. I don't have a mental coach, I don't work with a sports psychologist, I just try to maintain the same routine, the same speed, the same thoughts and just really not get too emotional about anything that's going on out there. Comfort with your surroundings certainly helps that, and I think that I've achieved that part.

Q. Is dealing with success going to be tricky in its own way as dealing with adversity may have been in the past? You're going to be announced on the first tee as 2003 PGA Titleist Shaun Micheel, and the gallery is going to be bigger, there's going to be more of us. Is that going to be an adjustment for you?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I don't think so. It was unusual when I was at the NEC Wednesday afternoon when I finally got a chance to play. There were camera people out there, and that was certainly different. I've always wondered what it was like for Tiger and Davis and Justin, I mean, all the big-name players, Vijay, how they handle that. I welcome that. I don't think that's really going to be a challenge at all. Trying to improve my golf game and keep moving in the right direction so that I don't read too many negatives, because I do like to read the paper, and I think that's -- just trying to get my golf game. I know I keep going back to that, but just trying to improve and trying to justify what happened to me that week, that it was not just a fluke. I certainly welcome the opportunity.

It's just more challenging. You have to challenge yourself out here every week. You certainly are going to lose more than you win, and you always have to find something no matter how well you play to work on certain things. I alluded to it after I won. I looked at some of the shots and some of the swings, and I mentioned right after winning the championship that I felt like I needed to improve a few things in my golf swing. I think that's me and that's all of us. We're always trying to get better. So any challenge that presents itself, I hope that I'm able to overcome that.

Q. You mentioned fluke and said that you felt the need to want to validate. That really appears to be what your number one mission now is. How do you go about doing that? Do you have to win Wednesday? Do you have to win twice?

SHAUN MICHEEL: I don't know, I think that's maybe for the writers to say. I'm just out here just trying to play good golf. I'm trying to support my family and certainly hit enough balls and hit enough putts and chips over my career that maybe some things are starting to pay off. I said that the PGA Championship, I think anyone that's doing anything by themselves, you don't have a team to rely on, and I think the fear of the unknown is probably the biggest thing that we have to really worry about.

I don't know what lies around the corner. I knew that I was committed to this tournament and I wanted to come up here, and I still want to play -- I want to win. It felt really nice to win a golf tournament, and I spent 160-some-odd tournaments out here and didn't win, and that's not fun. You know, when I look at some of the guys like Phil and Greg Norman and Tiger and some of the guys that have won 20 events, I find that just phenomenal from a numbers standpoint just because you do seem to lose more than you win. You're battling yourself out there every week, and to be able to win out here and stay out here really, I mean, that was always my number one goal was just to stay out here, but it's not fun at the end of the year worrying about your card and finishing top 125, and for the last few years that's exactly where I've been. I have a five-year exemption. That doesn't mean I'm going to -- I'm probably going to work harder now. I probably feel like I have to work harder.

By no means do I think it was a fluke. I've been playing well, I played well in Hartford, played pretty well in Flint, didn't play particularly well at Denver. That's a different format altogether. So I think it was just my time. Everything was lined up and the putter was hot and that's ultimately what carried me through.

Q. Does the confidence of winning a Major change your approach to a tournament like this?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No. I was anxious to get back. I really am. Two weeks off was a long time for me. Even without winning the tournament, over the years, you look at my schedule, there's been very few times where I've taken two weeks off by my choice. Where I was in the Q-school a couple years ago, I didn't really have that luxury to choose my schedule, but I've played here well before. I think maybe I missed the cut here last year, I didn't have a good first day, I think, but I like the golf course, I like playing golf in the fall when it's not too hot, and I've had some success at this tournament, so I feel like the golf course fits my eye a little bit and requires some good shot-making. I think that's what I've been good at so far, so I was anxious to get back up here.

Q. Have you thought about your schedule after this?

SHAUN MICHEEL: A little. You know, I still want to maintain my relationship with the PGA Tour throughout this year. I mean, the Tour has certainly been good to me, they've given me opportunities, and I feel like I've earned most of those opportunities. They're certainly not going to give you anything for free.

But I did withdraw from next week's tournament. I'm going to take my father over to Scotland to play in the Dunhill Links Championship. I met the president of Dunhill in March, and he invited me to play, so I'm going to take my father over there. That's the biggest thing that I'm really looking forward to.

Outside of that, I hope to stay in the top 50 or more rankings to get into the American Express Championship, but if I don't -- the world ranking system, it takes my manager back there, who's also an accountant, to figure it out for me and let me know how the points work. I've never had any reason to up until this point. I've always been between 169 and 300 or something. That is definitely something I'd like to play in. But if I don't, I'm going to play Jackson. I double committed to that event yesterday, and it's three hours from my house, and I had a nice week there last year. I think I'm going to play Las Vegas, I'm going to go from there to the World Match Play. I earned a position in that. I think there's only 12 people that are going to be playing. When I come back I'm going to play Disney.

I'm fighting a lot of things just because my wife is giving birth November 28th and now she's on me because there's baby showers to plan, and so she's being tough on me, but I still have a commitment to the Tour, and although I have met my obligation, I want to make sure I finish in the top 30.

Q. So you don't be at the Texas Open in two weeks?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, I won't. That's the same week as the Dunhill, and I played well last week. I think Loren Roberts won that event and I finished 5th I think last year there. I like that place, I really do. I like all the courses that we have coming up, it's just that there's two events that I really welcome playing, and that obviously is going to interfere with three events outside the PGA Tour, and I'm speaking of the Valero, the 84 Lumber and then Greensboro. Those are all tournaments that have been good to me, and no doubt they'll be on my schedule in the future.

Q. How much does winning a Major really change the spotlight? I know you said you want to maintain your relationship with the PGA Tour but then you also have extenuating circumstances like taking your father to some other tournament. Ben Curtis dropped out of this tournament, his plate got full. How much is the public not aware of the circumstances like he and his newlywed wife can go to Paris now? Maybe the public just views it as they just got burned.

SHAUN MICHEEL: That's probably the toughest issue that I'm going through right now is trying to make everyone happy. I think for the most part I've always been that way. I've always had that problem. My wife says I'm too nice. That's why our relationship fizzled when I was in high school. I never had that bad-boy image and I certainly don't want to have that now.

I owe a lot to the communities because I feel like over the last few years the tournaments have treated me fairly and are starting to recognize some of the things that I've done. I think signing autographs, that was difficult for me at the NEC because it's very tough to get through -- get to everyone, and I'm sure Ben is going through the same thing. I've only spoken to him for about five minutes and that was at the NEC. We don't need any enemies out there. It's a tough enough game out there battling yourself; you certainly don't need anyone outside the ropes giving you a hard time, and so trying to please everyone, although impossible, is certainly something that I want to try to do.

Q. What was that conversation? You guys kind of made a name for each other as a couple.

SHAUN MICHEEL: I had met Ben for the first time in Memphis at the St. Jude. Of course I had heard of Ben Curtis, going to Kent State, or maybe it's Kent now. I met him and his fiance at the Target House in Memphis, which was a division of St. Jude.

He just came up to me on I think it was the second or third round in Ohio and just said congratulations. He was getting ready to go to the tee and so was I and we just exchanged congratulations because I didn't get a chance to see him after he got back, so that was really the first time that we had run into each other. We just exchanged pleasantries and looked forward to seeing each other in the future and hopefully being in the same pairing and just shared -- we're both new at this. Obviously this is my sixth year on the PGA Tour and his first, but we're both going to be new at how we're going to handle the things that are to come.

Q. Have you talked to anybody else, Tiger or Ernie or somebody like that about how to handle fame?

SHAUN MICHEEL: It was nice. I was able to play in the NEC Invitational in Ohio that very next week, and everyone was great to me. I mean, I felt like all along I had earned some respect just through some of my play, but I think when you win a tournament, and the way I won it, maybe I earned a little bit more respect. You know, the Tour I don't think is really clicquey. We are out here trying to beat each other's brains in, but at the same time after all is said and done, you get outside the ropes, outside the competition, we're all pretty good friends. It's nice to get to know major championship winners because they can do only good things for you. They can certainly help you, and I look forward to picking their brains a little bit on how they handle themselves after their first major championship. I mean, besides going on and trying to win another one, there are obvious things outside of golf that I want to make sure that I get better at.

Q. For instance, what kind of things?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, I've mentioned it several times. I think how I'm going to handle people. I mean, are there -- I don't think there is any way possible for a person to sign every single autograph. Someone is going to be left out. How is that going to make me feel? Is it going to affect my game? Hopefully not. I feel like I'm a pretty sensitive person and I want to try to treat everyone the same, but at the same time I know that there's just not a way to get to everyone, and I'm amazed at guys like Tiger, how they do it, because they have to do it every single week.

I'm assuming the next two or three weeks this will die down a little bit, and I'll just go back to maybe -- of course I'll be the PGA champion, but I think people will maybe move on. I mean, who knows. I know for the next 300-some-odd days I get to be the PGA champion and I look forward to doing that. I'm just trying to do the right things and meet all my obligations. That's the most important thing for me.

Q. How does this course, the TPC at Deere Run, match up with your game when you're playing the game that you want? When you're playing well, how does it suit you?

SHAUN MICHEEL: A lot of the tee shots are left to right. You can go to No. 2, 4, 5. I mean, most of the holes are bending left to right, and I don't really like the way that sets up for me, but the fairways are wide enough, and I think firm enough I can hit some drivers, some 3-woods, some irons. It's a great golf course because you're hitting a lot of different shots off the tee. The greens are perfect. It's all about the -- the wind direction certainly plays a big part in that, but I think it sets up fine. The fairways are wide enough, so even though the holes bend left to right, it's not going to affect me at all.

TODD BUDNICK: You played today a little bit. Any change from summer to the fall?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Last year it was after the BC.

TODD BUDNICK: Two months.

SHAUN MICHEEL: Was it that long? It's certainly a lot cooler. I notice the River is down a lot, a little water loss there, but it's firmer than I remember. I know in the summertime they have to keep it so soft because it's all bent. You've got to keep water on that. The greens may be a little firmer, maybe a little bit more difficult to keep on the greens, but you're hitting shorter clubs in there because the fairways are firm, also, so it's pretty consistent. There's enough rough out there I think that could make it tricky, but I don't care what course I play, there is no rough that's ever going to compare to the PGA Championship, so when I see rough out there like at the NEC Invitational, I just smile because I know I can get a club on it even though it's pretty deep. I don't think the rough is going to be a big issue this week. I expect to see pretty low numbers.

Q. I know a lot of discussion certainly on the periphery of the golf game is that you and Ben and Mike Weir to some extent, week in and week out, the old cliche, on any given week someone can win that hasn't won before. Is this as even as it's been? Is the discussion among the players about what a crazy year it's been as far as who's at the top of the leaderboard?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Not so much this year. You know, last year I think there were 19 first-time winners. There was certainly a lot more people at the Mercedes this year than there will be for next year, for '04. It's been kind of a strange year in golf really. As players we all know how good everyone is. It doesn't matter if you're teeing off at 2:03 in the last group or 7:00 o'clock in the morning. Everybody from top to bottom, they can all play out here. I certainly -- it took me a while to win, and I certainly know what it's like to be teeing off in the Q-school category and it certainly is difficult, but there have been a lot of good players play well. A lot of guys at the Q-school have played well. It's been a strange year. You've got Davis winning three or four times, Mike winning three, Tiger winning four, but there is a lot of depth. All the players know that.

Q. How about the ages? You've got guys in their upper 40s winning all the way down into the 20s?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Seasoned veterans, just being a seasoned veteran. Maybe seeing some of the younger guys win, maybe there's a little more desire there. I mean, maybe -- I don't know how it's going to be for me when I hit my 40s. Maybe people slow down. The kids get a little older, a lot more stuff going on. Guys get tired. You know, Bob Tway, I mean, what a win he had last week. I'm not sure how old Bob is, but he's been out here a long time, and I'm sure for a few years he was just going through the motions and maybe not working as hard. I know how hard he works. I see him out here all the time. But I just think that guys are realizing that there's a lot of good golf left to be played, even into your 50s on the Champions Tour. Guys just want to win. We're getting tired of being beat by 20-year olds. That's all I can chalk it up to is guys are just getting hungry.

Q. Do you see yourself differently now when you enter a tournament? If you were to enter this tournament a few weeks ago before the PGA looking at Vijay and Davis Love and Justin Leonard, did you look up at those guys then, and now you look and say I've beat those guys so I'm at the same level?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Not so much the last year or two. I felt like even though my -- I hadn't won any tournaments. I know the first couple years out here I'd be hitting balls and I'd be next to somebody and I'd say I can't believe I'm hitting balls next to this person. The novelty of that wears off. I still have a lot of respect for these guys out here that have won multiple Majors. I've only played three Majors up to this point and that just shows you how difficult it is to get into them, being six years out here and only playing three Majors. I think the general public thinks that because you're in the PGA Tour you get in every single tournament. I don't look at myself any differently. I'm a little bit more relaxed now. I'm not having to worry about my PGA Tour card for a while. That's certainly a lot easier, especially with a new child on the way.

I am going to be in a different pairing, teetime-wise. I'd go to the page every Tuesday afternoon and look up there and I never knew where to find myself. I was either in the first three tee times or behind the winners category. I always liked that time because I could sleep in a little more. At least I don't have to worry about teeing off first. I just look forward to getting out there and playing a lot of golf with these guys and hopefully keep learning because they've got a lot of success and ultimately I want to get to where some of these guys have been and where they're going. The only way to do that is to play with them and kind of pick their brain. I just look forward to it.

Q. Is there a different feeling when a Vijay and a Davis Love and a Justin Leonard are in a field than say a year ago? The second part of that question would be what difference would it have made who's here when J.P. shoots 22 under anyway?

SHAUN MICHEEL: Well, from a player's standpoint, again, I think we're all capable of winning a golf tournament. The fans, however, they want to see the name players. They want to see the franchise players. Certainly the charities and the tournament officials want to see the big name players because that brings more money to the tournament and to its associated charities. As I said earlier, I know how good all of us are, and just because we're not household names doesn't mean we're not great people and great players.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Shaun.

End of FastScripts.