home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 2, 2005

Jeff Sluman

DUBLIN, OHIO

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jeff, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center. Great round today, 65, ties for your lowest round in 48 attempts here, and your 15th visit here to Memorial. It's a good start to the week for you.

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, obviously I was pleased with how I played today, and I'd first like to thank the tournament committee for inviting me. I needed a sponsor's exemption this year for the first time in a long time after finishing I think 77th on last year's Money List, and without them considering me, I certainly wouldn't be here, I'd be watching this on television back home in Chicago. I'd like to thank them for putting me in the tournament, and Paul Latshaw, 18 months here, the golf course is in magnificent shape. The rough is very severe, so it pays to stay out of that for sure.

As I said before, just a little surprised to be in here but happy to be in here on the other hand. I changed my putting grip a couple weeks ago at Wachovia, and I'm not going to say it was the Gator, but it's a semi Gator, I guess. I don't know what that means.

It's been delightful to putt again like you feel like you're a kid, getting all the balls to the hole. It really does open and expand your game in that respect. You're not as concerned about if you miss a green you've got to chip it to this close to make it, so it's been a pleasurable experience the last three tournaments since I went to that grip. I think it's here to stay.

Q. When did you leave you went to the 32 inch belly here at Memorial.

JEFF SLUMAN: 32 inch? I'm not that short.

Q. Was it last year you went to the belly at this tournament? Sorry about that.

JEFF SLUMAN: (Laughing) I started with the belly putter here last year, and although it cut down on my three putts, it helped the one putts, if that makes any sense. And I just kind of got frustrated again and kept kind of picking at DiMarco's ear, and he gave me a few little pointers, and finally at Wachovia, I said, "I'm just going to put it in." Five minutes after practicing with it, it felt very, very comfortable. It's paid a lot of rewards already, dividends.

Q. What are you calling your grip?

JEFF SLUMAN: Well, kind of a paintbrush. We'll call it a Sherwin Williams, how's that?

Q. Is the putting the sole reason you did what you did today? You talk about being surprised; I don't recall any I think you had one Top 10 this year.

JEFF SLUMAN: Well, if you look at my only Top 10, I've played pretty consistently. Like I said, I've been consistently mediocre all year, missed one cut, made Joanie has probably got it in front of her, but I only had one Top 10 and it was at Pebble Beach with Chris Berman as my partner and Bill Murray in the group, so I get Peter Jacobson today; maybe that's what I need.

Q. Does DiMarco sort of function as a sort of pharmacist with guys who are ailing that way?

JEFF SLUMAN: Seems like it. He got it from Skip Kendall and skip got it from someone else, but as we found out I guess in Henry Cotton's book 100 years ago, he had it in there. He called it the "twitch." He used the grip to prevent the twitch stroke.

Q. You've seen other guys go through that same consultation progress?

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, and I putted well enough that Peter was kind of on the side of the green experimenting, so he might go to it tomorrow (laughing). That's the ultimate, when other people are imitating you out there.

Q. What's the best nickname? We've heard "Claw," we've heard "Gator," O'Meara calls it "The Saw."

JEFF SLUMAN: Should be called a desperation stroke (laughter). You know, you've just got to find a way to get the ball in the hole. It doesn't really matter.

Q. How does it look different from the regular claw?

JEFF SLUMAN: I guess Chris Noss I don't even know how it does it, but I've just got like two fingers in there and this third one kind of under the grip and the grip is in here and I've got a round grip on it, just kind of sits in there.

A couple years ago Dave Pelz said the best putter that he ever saw had an illegal putter by I don't know how the USGA figures this out, but the guy had it kind of this way, and he stroked it and he went like this (indicating). Everything else we do, throw, bow and arrow, shoot pool, we do like this, and he did it like that. He said golf was kind of weird because you turn and you're trying to putt like this. Maybe this is a little better, you just kind of mimic the way you've always thrown a ball or something, throw a dart, a little bit better than having your hand under I don't know, something to write about (laughter).

Q. Did the direction of the wind today and also the way the fairways were running, I guess, better than they usually do at this time of year here, did that contribute to bunching as many guys in the red as there seemed to be? I guess all the par 5s were reachable.

JEFF SLUMAN: Well, for some guys they were all reachable.

Q. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm trying to get you to say.

JEFF SLUMAN: I was really surprised at how low the scores were when we started. I looked up and it was Stewart Cink and Sabbatini and all those guys. Four or five guys were at 5 under through 12 or 14 holes, and the severity of the rough and as fast as the greens are, they don't just put easy pins out there certainly. It was a little surprising.

But the golf course was in such perfect shape, and really until the last three or four holes, there was kind of an absence of wind all day I thought. There wasn't enough wind to make that much of an effect.

Q. It's been a while since we've seen this much bunching. 7 alone, but then 6 to 3, there's got to be probably 30 guys or thereabouts. Why is that? Any explanation for that?

JEFF SLUMAN: These guys are good (laughing).

Q. Any explanation without promoting the PGA TOUR?

JEFF SLUMAN: No, I think it's just the conditions are just the ball is running but the fairways aren't super fast that it's going to chase into the rough, which would make the golf course play unbelievably difficult because then all of a sudden you've got to shape your shots a little better. But they're enough that we're not getting any mud like in previous years can happen out here. Like I said, they're running enough that you're hitting shorter irons in but not enough that the ball is going to chase into the rough.

Q. The winds were with you on the 5s, though, weren't they?

JEFF SLUMAN: The wind was with me, yeah, on the 5th hole, not really on 7. I never really even take a swing at 11 anyways, and then 15 is

Q. 15 you

JEFF SLUMAN: Kind of basically reachable almost in all conditions.

Q. Are you over at Brookside on Monday?

JEFF SLUMAN: Can't wait.

Q. Something to look forward to when you're playing good, huh?

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, it's still always a one day crap shoot, and who knows what's going to happen, but I'd love to obviously make it. I think Pinehurst is a very special venue for our national championship, and I'd love to get there.

Q. The phrase gets thrown around, "Open player," a guy who's well suited for the Open. Would you put yourself in that group?

JEFF SLUMAN: I would think so. I certainly was in the '90s. I had a lot of good finishes, finished 2nd and had a bunch of Top 10s. So I think if I'm playing well, I've got that kind of opportunity. In the last six years I haven't really played well in any of the Opens. So maybe Pinehurst is the type of golf course you can do it on, though.

Q. You mentioned Latshaw when you first came in here. With his Oak Hill connection, do you have any history with him?

JEFF SLUMAN: Just through Oak Hill. I met him a few times at Oak Hill, and the job he did there was absolutely spectacular. The golf course wasn't really in great shape when he got there, and not only was it immaculate for the PGA, it was immaculate on a daily basis for the members. He really knows what he's doing.

Q. How many greens in reg did he hit?

JEFF SLUMAN: Probably about seven.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 13 of 18, 24 putts, and let's go over your seven birdies, please, starting with 4.

JEFF SLUMAN: It was downwind and the pin was back left. I hit a 5 iron to about 15, 18 feet. It was a big swinging putt and just kind of sent it out there on memory more than anything, and it fell in.

6, hit a nice drive there and a 9 iron to about two feet, two and a half feet.

8 was kind of a fat pull hook 7 iron left of the green followed by a chip in that Peter was yelling, "get down," and as it trickled in the hole

Q. Across the green?

JEFF SLUMAN: Kind of across the green. It was pin high, the type of shot, yeah, obviously you feel you're going to at least make 3 and you're not expecting to make 2 certainly because it had three or four feet of break on it. But I hit a nice one there.

I had an aggressive play on 9 and hit a driver down there and hit a wedge to about six feet, seven feet.

10, I hit a nice drive for that hole, which I needed to now that that's got an extra 30 on it. I hit a 6 iron I'd say about 20 feet. It was just left of the hole, and once again, it was in a spot where you could make the putt. It had a little left break and then just kind of fed in there. The pin was kind of back left and it was just left of the hole, and if you're to the right I think there's a whole lot of swing in it but you're probably not going to make that.

12, I hit an 8 iron and kind of pulled it, kind of looked at each other, all three of us, and the pin was on the right, right, right side of it. At that point you just kind of want to hit the green. That had to be 40 feet, and that one was going past, but it hit dead center.

The last one was 15. I hit just short of the green, 5 wood, second shot, rolled back down and I think I chipped that to about six feet.

Q. Did you have any reluctance to go to something kind of gimmicky in a putting stroke, being kind of a traditionalist yourself?

JEFF SLUMAN: Not really. When you see it working for one guy, you might think it's a little gimmicky, but I watched a whole bunch of guys really, I think, have a lot of success with it from Timmy Herron to O'Meara has putted well, Billy Andrade went to it this year, and they're rolling the ball great, and I wasn't. You just kind of keep searching out there. I gave the belly a long enough try. I'm not one of those guys that switches putters every week or belly to this to blah, blah, blah. I tried it for eight or nine months and said, "there's got to be something better out there."

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jeff.

JEFF SLUMAN: Thanks.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297