FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 7, 2001

John Riegger

JOHN RIEGGER: I started on No. 10 today. Made two pars starting out, and then hit a little 9-iron in on 12 about 15 feet and made that. Then the next two holes, hit really good shots on 13, about a 6-footer there for birdie. Then on 14, that's a long par 3. I hit it in there about 10 feet there and lipped that one out. Then just pretty much played pretty solid for the rest of the back nine. I got it up-and-down from just off the green on 16 for birdie. Went around to the front nine and my caddy somehow hurt his ankle. After the second hole, I had a buddy of mine in the crowd watching and he ends up starting to caddy for me and kind of reeled off three birdies in a row: The par 5, the par 3, the par 5. I didn't really do anything spectacular today. I drove the ball in the fairway. Hit a lot of good iron shots. Seemed to make the putts -- the makeable putts that I had -- and a couple -- you know, really, the key for me today was No. 6. I drove it in the middle of the fairway. It was just so wet there, I couldn't really get any kind of a dry lie there and kind of laid the sod right over it and went about 50 yards short of the green and pitched it on and made about a 12-footer there for par. That kind of kept the momentum going there. That was probably really the key to my round today.

JOHN RIEGGER: No. 3, I hit a driver. Laid up with a 5-iron. Hit a sand wedge in about ten feet from the hole. 4, I hit a 6-iron. I hit that right after 15 feet. 5, I hit driver, 3-wood about 12 feet from the hole for eagle. 2-putted for birdie. 7, I hit driver, 6-iron. Hit it probably around 15 feet there and made that one.

JOHN RIEGGER: You know, that might have a little to do with it. You know, generally, this tournament is played in August, and I love playing in the heat. I think just the combination of the two. I played well when we played, used to play at Colonial. I had a good tournament there, the year Curtis won, over there. You know, when I first came to this one, I was still playing on the Tour and I didn't really care for it that much and I said I wasn't going to come back just because I didn't like this golf course. Then the following year, I wasn't in the tournament. So Monday I qualified, and then I played well that year, so I've been coming back ever since. I played well here in '98. I just had a bad nine holes on Saturday, because of the heat, got leg cramps and shot 76 on Saturday, but came back and shot 66 Sunday. So without that, I would have probably -- I would have been in the top 5.

JOHN RIEGGER: You know, the guy that's caddying for me -- started out caddying for me is an ex-teammate from college and he caddied for me out here. He's diabetic. He's kind of been having some problems, so he had to work for me for a couple years. It just worked out that he was feeling better, so I brought him out this week just to see how he would hold up, and his health is fine. I just don't know if he turned his ankle or what. I just noticed him limping when we were walking up the first hole. I told him, I said, "There's no sense, we've got three more days. There's no sense, if it's hurting you that bad, I can get somebody to carry it for you the rest of the way."

JOHN RIEGGER: Yeah, I was surprised. The first couple of holes that we went out, it was just so wet out there. I was just really amazed that we started when we did. I don't know what the forecast is for later in the day, but, you know, I know with the Open being next week, there's probably not too much of a chance they are going to try to play on Monday, so they wanted to get as many holes in as they could today. It was really wet. There was a lot of times, you didn't have a choice but to kind of hit it out of the slop.

JOHN RIEGGER: Last year I was playing Nike Tour, BUY.COM TOUR. Last year, I had like nine chances to win out there; I never won a tournament, but it wasn't because that I played bad. I just had -- I can think of four tournaments just off the top of my head where somebody just lit it up on Sunday and ended up beating me. You know, just from playing out there and having played out here in the past, it's not like I'm a spring chicken. So I've been around and I've won a lot of golf tournaments, mini-tours overseas. Being in contention out in the BUY.COM TOUR, there's a lot of great players that have played down there that are playing out here now. That tour is no cakewalk.

JOHN RIEGGER: Well, it was on my 11th hole. We started on the back nine first; so it was on No. 2. Just a childhood friend. We grew up next door to each other and every year that I'm playing this event, he comes down and watches me. Actually, I was kind of surprised to see him today because I kind of thought he was coming down for the weekend and he showed up this morning. So, you know, I guess I was pretty lucky. I had a lot of friends out there following me today. So I had several other guys who could have done it. And he caddied for me and I've toured with him before, so I felt pretty comfortable letting him come inside the ropes and carry it the rest of the way.

JOHN RIEGGER: Just off the top of my head, I think maybe I think I shot 65 to be honest with you. I think 65 might be my low round out here. Just off the top of my head, I'm not really certain.

JOHN RIEGGER: I've been around long enough to know that you don't win golf tournaments the first round of a tournament. You can win a lot of tournaments in the first round, but you're not going to win them. I've just got to try to go out the next three days and just approach it like I did today, and go out and hit the golf shots; and hopefully, make a lot of putts like I did today.

JOHN RIEGGER: Not at all. It's like I said, it's not like this is the first time I've been in contention in a golf tournament. Whether you are playing on the PGA TOUR or the BUY.COM TOUR, it is still the same feelings and emotions that you go through. I've won in Europe. I've won in South America. I'm going to go out and just play my style of game. I play aggressive when I can and when the time calls for me to be conservative, I'm conservative. That's the way I've always played.

JOHN RIEGGER: It was the Cadillac --

JOHN RIEGGER: This was back in 1988. It wasn't -- it wasn't an event that was full-fledged, to where you got status for the European Tour.