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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC


May 28, 2004


Steve Allan


MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Steve Allan, great round today, 67. I know you didn't finish the way you wanted to, but you're right in contention through 36 holes. If we could talk about your day today, a good one for you.

STEVE ALLAN: It was pretty good. I got off to a good start and just really hit the ball well all day, putted well. Yeah, that was good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about 18. I hate to bring it up, but obviously you didn't finish the way you wanted to. Let's talk about that hole. What happened there?

STEVE ALLAN: Just a 3-wood off the tee and I just pulled it and it caught the edge of the water, and then the angle that I had, I had to hook it around the tree really to get to the green and I didn't hook it and left it out in the bunker and pretty much an extremely difficult bunker shot from there.

I didn't hit a bad shot at all but it was hard to get it close the way the slope was, and I missed the putt. It was pretty disappointing.

Q. All in all, six birdies on the day. Talk about what's going well for you out there.

STEVE ALLAN: Well, I think pretty much everything. I think the previous couple of months I've struggled with my putting, and I've been hitting the ball well pretty much all the time. I just had a week off last week and I did a bit of work on my putting and it's been better so far this week.

Q. We were just talking to Steve Lowery about being in the wave you guys were, the afternoon wave and then this morning. It seems like maybe that was the tougher end of the deal this week. I know sometimes it balances out in fields like that.

STEVE ALLAN: Yesterday afternoon -- I didn't see the conditions in the morning, but I know it was extremely difficult yesterday afternoon. I think the greens were getting harder and harder and the wind didn't really let up my whole round, so I think it was pretty tough.

Then this morning, I don't know if the golf was going to be any more difficult this morning than the guys this afternoon, but the rain was just annoying more than anything else. It was definitely a lot easier today, and maybe we were on the wrong side of the draw a little bit, but you don't know what's going to happen.

Q. Does that sort of thing balance out?

STEVE ALLAN: You'd like to think it does. I think sometimes you get on little runs where you get the good side and sometimes you get the bad side. If you worry about it too much it's a lot of stress going in the wrong direction.

Q. You said you took the week off, but you've made, I guess, two of your last three cuts. Have you been playing better over the last month or so?

STEVE ALLAN: Yeah, since the Masters from tee to green I've been hitting the ball great. I think I missed two cuts by a shot, and I felt like if I had putted just reasonable in those first two weeks that I would have been not only making the cut but in contention.

Then at New Orleans through two rounds I was tided for 2nd in greens in regulation. It's just been my putting that I had to get into good shape. I think my long game has been pretty good, pretty consistent. I really didn't putt very well at all in that last five-week stretch, so I'm hoping from now on I'm going to be putting a lot better.

Q. What specifically did you do last week to work on your putting? Did you consult with anyone or just get out and hit balls?

STEVE ALLAN: I spoke to my coach, went and saw my coach a couple of times. I guess I had a similar problem this time last year. I was putting poorly here in Memphis, and I changed my putting routine to be a lot quicker and sort of -- no practice strokes over the ball, I guess. I just was struggling with it, so around Masters time, The Players Championship, I sort of slipped away from that a little bit, so I basically went become to the basics and just tried to get my alignment right, my grip right, my balance right and then just trust that I'm going to putt well.

He sort of didn't think my stroke was too bad, and I think it's just been a couple weeks of bad putting and your confidence can drain away and it can be hard to get it back sometimes. I think it was nice to step away for a week and do some work knowing that you didn't have to putt in a tournament and just work on what you need to work on, and then again, it just comes back to trust after that. You've just got to trust that you've got a good putting stroke.

Q. Are you still e-mailing videos of your swing? Is that something you still do?

STEVE ALLAN: I do, but not as often as I used to. I think Dale comes over to the States probably five or six times a year, so not quite as often as I used to.

Q. Was the course still playing firm the first couple holes? Was there a point when you noticed things were starting to soften up?

STEVE ALLAN: It was still softer than yesterday straight away. The first hole I just hit it in the right rough, and I think it was an 8-iron maybe, 9-iron, and it came out and stopped pretty quickly on the green, so really straight away, it was softer than yesterday. Then as the day went on with the little bit more rain we had, it was definitely -- at the end you had no fear going for the pin.

Q. Is there a part of you that's kind of rooting for the wind to kick up here now? Do you even concern yourself with that for the afternoon group?

STEVE ALLAN: It's not something that you can do. I probably won't watch too much of the golf. I'll probably just check the scores at the end of the day and see where I'm sitting and go from there.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your round, six birdies and then double on 18 starting on 1. Did you hit 8-iron did you say?

STEVE ALLAN: I think it was maybe a 9-iron, I'm not sure, from the right rough, probably to about 15 feet.

4, birdie, par 3, 7-iron to about five feet, I guess.

9, a 3-wood just in the right rough and then a wedge to short right and then I chipped it in.

10 was a 3-wood which actually got lucky and went through the trees and snuck on the edge of the fairway. Then I hit a 9-iron to about 15 feet probably and made it.

13 was a drive and sand wedge to probably four feet.

16 was a drive and then a 2-iron to the bunker, bunker shot to about 12 feet and made it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Steve, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.
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