FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 28, 2002

Pat Bates

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Pat for joining us. Congratulations. Great round of 63. 11-under par for the tournament. 131. Tied with Jay Haas. Why don't you just make a couple comments on your round today. Obviously you had a lot of fun out there.

PAT BATES: It was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was a great time out there. This morning I woke up awfully early. And finished well with a birdie on 9, to shoot 68. Teed it up again, and just hit the ball absolutely as good as I could hit it, tee to green. And I was able to make a few putts. And actually the key to the round was number 10. I shot 3-under on the front. Could have shot four or five or six. But I played solid and hit it left on 10, hoping to get through there and be in the fairway. And I was in the rough, chipped out, I hit a 7-iron in and hit a good 7-iron about 7 feet behind the hole and had a downhill putt and made that for par. And that kept me going. And then number 12, I just decided to play aggressive off the tee with a driver and it left me a hundred yards. And I hit a little three-quarter pitching wedge right behind the hole and it sunk in the hole. I made eagle there and that kind of got me going.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Go through the rest of the round.

PAT BATES: Okay. I birdied, eagled 12. Birdied 13. Birdied 15. The 9-iron about eight feet. And then 3-putted 16 on the back left green there. I had 235 front and, I think, that was it. And then just made two solid pars on 17. Had a chance to make about a 30-footer, had about a 10-footer on the last hole. And it kind of, it bounced off. But you never are disappointed when you par 17 and 18.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. You were talking a little bit out there about where have you been the last seven years?

PAT BATES: Seven years. Yeah I've been playing the Nike, BUY.COM TOUR for the past 7 years. And I enjoyed my time out there. There was a lot of struggle. Faced a lot of adversity. I had neck surgery in '99, which I was out for the whole year. So I've been through a lot but I wouldn't change anything. I'm a better person and a better player for it. I just had to be patient and last year was a great year for me to win three times and get back out here. So I'm just enjoying my time out here. I'm still actually limited in my left hand, that's as fast as I can move it. So I had some spinal cord damage after my surgery. So I'll hit -- i don't hit the ball as far as I used to, but I hit it a lot straighter. My father-in-law, Doug Tewell, he's a straight driver. He was on the Senior Tour. So I was kind of molding my game after his.

Q. Does the lack of mobility in your hand affect your short game at all?

PAT BATES: Not really, a few chip shots here and there maybe but doesn't really affect my short game. The only thing is power. And possibly 3- and 4-irons out of tight lies because I don't have quite the club head speed I used to. But my technique's much better than it's ever been. And when I get these type of conditions, where the fairways are fairly firm and the greens are soft, my ball flight's a little bit lower and I don't spin the ball as much as some of the guys. So my irons are just one hop-stop and where a lot of guys have to worry about spinning it back. They have to hit a lot of three-quarter shots so when the greens are soft, I feel like it's kind of an advantage for me. That doesn't happen a lot, unfortunately.

Q. The improvement in your play, particularly the last couple years, is that, can you credit that to the surgery, is it more of a mental development that you have had? Or has it helped you improve a particular part of your game?

PAT BATES: Well, my surgery definitely didn't help me in any way, it's something I've had to overcome. But my technique is definitely better. I've worked with a guy down in West Palm at The Breakers, Todd Anderson. We have improved my swing improved and fundamental. My brother Gary has helped with me too. I worked with a sports psychologist, David Cook. So I got a lot of people in my corner that's helped me. And I also studied Ben Hogan's golf swing and I've been able to imitate some of the things he did. So it's just been a long, been a process and even my years on the BUY.COM TOUR, you learn a little bit more every year. You hit a couple, you improve your swing a little bit more. But it's really just been a combination of those things.

Q. Was there a moment today when you really got it going and when you get to that point where you focus more? What happens?

PAT BATES: When I holed the wedge to go -- I think I was 5-under. Sometimes when you're playing real well you don't know how many under you are. You just try to play and hit shots. And I think the biggest difference for me, now when I get 4- or 5- or 6 -, 7-under par, I'm able to put the ball in the fairway and I trust my swing and I know that I'm confident that I can keep the ball in play and continue to hit good shots. So but I get -- I've been playing real well actually for about two months and just not doing the little things well and been kind of frustrated and hovering around the cut every week. And last week I kind of broke through on the weekend and now I'm making a few putts and just sharpening up my irons even more. When I get more under par, I get more focused. So it's always nice to be way under.

Q. Do you keep track, you said you're not even sure how many under you are. Is it better not to keep track at that point? PAT BATES: Yeah, you don't want to -- in the back of your mind, it's in the back of my mind when I'm playing. But it's not something that I'm concerned with. I just -- what helps me is that when I get, I get more under par, adrenaline starts kicking in for me and I'm able to hit the ball a little bit further and do things that I normally can't do whether I'm kind of hovering around par. So I like to -- I've done a lot of studying with great players and they always said let pressure be your friend. So I've always, really the last couple of years I've looked at pressure in a whole new way and tried to use it to benefit me.

Q. Is that the sports psychologist you said?

PAT BATES: Yeah, that's part of it. I've heard a quote from Tom Kite that said, you let pressure be your friend. He's going to teach his children about pressure because he can do super human things. So I try to embrace the challenge and embrace pressure. And it's helped me. Last year, I had three chances to win on the BUY.COM TOUR and I won all three of them. So it was obviously fortunate. But I enjoy -- this is going to be fun for me; this weekend having a chance to win.

Q. Did you get to a point last year -- I think I read that you had lost some sponsors at the beginning of the year, did you have a point where you ever thought about quitting golf or was it just get continuing through that period?

PAT BATES: No, it was definitely a matter of quitting -- actually after my surgery, I couldn't move my hand for a month. So that whole -- during that whole time I figured, heck I may not ever play golf. But I just put my faith in the Lord and felt like whatever happened would be okay. Obviously, I wanted to play the PGA Tour. But going back to your question, my wife and I talked last January about playing the Nike, BUY.COM TOUR is not that easy. We have never had sponsors. So it's been a financial pressure the last five years, I would say. So we decided my hand wasn't going to get much better. We decided we would give it one more year and just give it all we had. And here I am. I can't really explain it. I'm just I feel very blessed very grateful to be here.

Q. What do you mark your ball with?

PAT BATES: Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Cast all your cares upon me because I care for you. And my yoke is easy, my burden is light -- I can't remember the whole thing. That's why I write it down. But I put my card in the -- you guys go look it up for homework, Matthew 11, 28 to 30.

Q. Is there any rhyme or reason to what scripture applies to golf?

PAT BATES: Yeah, I started doing it because I've hit the wrong ball three times. Three different times. Twice in college and once as a pro. And it only took me once as a pro, I didn't need that to happen again. So it's just something from our bible study that we have or something that I've been reading in scripture that's for the week.

Q. Do you do you determine what particular day you will use what verse? Do you have it mapped out what you will use? As far as scripture?

PAT BATES: No, it's for the whole week. When I first started doing it I would do a different one each day and then I couldn't remember any of them, so now I just do with one and it's easy to remember it that way.

Q. Is there a regular bible study group on Tour?

PAT BATES: Yeah, we meet every Wednesday night at 8 o'clock.

Q. How long have you worked with Todd?

PAT BATES: Been working with Todd since right before I got hurt. But really mainly the last three years. Started in 2000.

Q. What do you expect to happen this afternoon? Considering no, there's no delays. Do you think someone else will put something up there?

PAT BATES: Yeah, if you put the ball in the fairway I think. Normally there is not as much rough as there is this year, so, yeah I would expect the guys who shot five and six under they will probably shoot another five or six and be right around 11. That's what I would expect. But if you finish on the back nine, 17 and 18 are pretty tough holes. So I was happy to par them both. But, yeah, I think I'll be somewhere in the lead. Maybe 12, somebody might get to 12. But I'm in the hunt and that's all you can ask for. I don't think the wind's picking up too much.

Q. Whose idea was it to study Ben Hogan's swing?

PAT BATES: My brother Gary. Actually he caddied for me in the one of the tournaments back in May on the BUY.COM TOUR. And growing up I spent a lot of time with a guy who kind of took me under his wing, his name was Richard Rick and he always taught me about the lower body controlling the swing. And I always worked on that. But which I when I watched Ben Hogan give a tip he said the most important part of the golf swing is the movement of your lower body from the top of the swing. And it just kind of a light went off in how I needed to swing. And I always felt like my, I would spin out, I was getting my hips ahead of the club and get stuck. But I really didn't have enough lateral movement so I had to work on my lower body to create more lateral movement left and then rotate. So but really watching him, just kind of a light went off in my head of how I wanted to swing. And that was actually last May. And then it's just been a building process from there and. Two months later I won out there.

Q. Can you explain the circumstances of the three lost balls, just what happened?

PAT BATES: The three wrong balls?

Q. Yeah, three wrong balls.

PAT BATES: Well twice in college her husband Buddy Alexander is my golf coach. So anyway I think me and Paul Stankowski did it one time. I just had like a pencil dot in the side and we hit the -- we were real close and we hit the wrong ball. Got up to the green, well, what do you got? I got Titleist three, I got Titleist four. Well I hit your ball. Go back. Did the same thing with another guy. Actually in the same semester. So needless to say I heard from Buddy. But as a pro actually I was playing the back nine on Sunday, I was in third place up on a Canadian Tour event. This was way back in '93. Hit my second shot to the right in this high heather right. Went down and found it. Titleist 4. Gave a lash, gave another lash, got it up to the green. And it was in such high grass you couldn't really see it. And I marked and it was like this old mangled up Titleist 4. So it wasn't my ball. So I was like, oh, gee, I thought I was disqualified. Rules official came. Said, no you just got to go back and hit it. Yeah, you're right, hit it, two shot penalty for wrong ball, two shot penalty for lost ball. Made a 10. So obviously off the leaderboard. I went home that night and I said you know what, it only takes me one time to learn that as a pro. And fortunately with Bible verses on my golf ball I haven't hit the wrong ball since. I can see it from 50 feet away.

Q. From that point you started using Bible verses, is that or --

PAT BATES: Yeah from that point. Yeah. I figured what better than scripture? Me and Duffy.

Q. I know you're joking about your father-in-law helping you drive it straight, but has he done anything for you?

PAT BATES: Yeah, last year, last -- it's all been a lot of combination of a lot of things what's helped me to get here. But last May -- the guys on the BUY.COM TOUR might even be longer than they are out here. They kill it. So anyway guys were hitting it 40 yards by me last year and I was getting frustrated because I used to be one of those guys. Anyway he said, listen, forget about hitting it far. He goes, you put the ball in the fairway, make the fewest amount of mistakes, that's how you got to build your game. And so I took his advice. And he always was one of the straightest drivers, played out here for 20 years. So I just had to change my game or just had to accept my game and then just go from there and put the ball in the fairway. And I think right now I'm like 17th or 18th in driving accuracy out here. So that's really my MO, so to speak. But he has helped me. Yes.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Is that it? Thank you.

PAT BATES: Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts....