Q. Can you refresh our memories on last year? You did make that jump in driving. I think the ball, wasn't it your shaft setup?
JEFF SLUMAN: I really think there's about six different reasons why at times, you get a statistical leap like that. I mean, there's no question the ball goes a little further. I changed drivers. Like Jose said last week, he's got a 20-yard increase this year. He says, "You know, I'm hitting it in the middle of the club face, and the ball actually goes farther when you do that." That's kind of where I was last year. Not that I'm whiffing it this year.
I'm down about 13 yards statistically this year. I also, this year, played at the Mercedes Tournament and Pebble Beach, and last year I didn't, and those things are killers as far as driving distance average, those two tournaments, because basically the conditions and the holes that they measure on.
So you kind of can get different stats any kind of way you look at it.
Q. Last year, were you consciously seeking more distance, though?
JEFF SLUMAN: No. It just kind of happens. I was hitting really solid and really flush, and the golf courses were relatively dry and fast early in the year. And most of the year, I don't think we had hardly any delays last year at all, did we, Joan, rain delays? The couple of tournaments you had them, I missed actually.
All of those little things do kind of add up at the end of the year, but I think really the biggest factor was I hitting it dead on the nose and the ball will go farther that way.
Q. Even though you mentioned the fact that there might be some lower scores later in the day, are you pleased with your opening round and your position right now?
JEFF SLUMAN: Oh, absolutely. I think any time you play the TPC and your score starts with a 6, you've got to be happy. This golf course tests your patience, tests your nerves. I mean, it's a complete test of golf out there, especially with the wind and that.
So I think starting out with 69, I couldn't be happier.
Q. Colin Montgomerie, there's been a lot of talk after La Costa, his comments about him being taunted and whatnot, he had a pretty good round today, and he talked afterwards about how he heard from a lot of players a little bit after that and some fans urging him to stick around. Just wondered if you had any comments on what your reaction was to think that he might not stick around playing the U.S.?
JEFF SLUMAN: Well, obviously, that's up to him. Nobody can make out his schedule. But it would be a shame for the small minority to run a great player off. I'm glad he's over here playing.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your round, please.
JEFF SLUMAN: My round I started on 10, so I made a bunch of pars until I got to 16. Hit driver, 3-iron just short of the green and kind of little chip-and-run with a 7-iron to about three feet.
Then 17, kind of trapped a little 9, a little hook in there and held my breath and watched it go on the green to about 12 feet.
18, I made bogey. Actually that could have almost been the key to the round. I hit it to the right. I thought I hit a good chip out because it hit the cart path and wiggled over on the side of the hill and hit a tree and ended up dead. And I kind of just slashed that out short of the green and I got up-and-down for bogey, which, at that point, after finally getting something going and making two birdies, I felt a double-bogey at 18, that probably would not have left me in a great frame of mind.
Then I made a bunch of pars until 4. I hit a gap wedge. The pin was down on the right front, which is kind of a little treacherous pin, but not as bad today because the green is kind of soft. I think I hit that to about a foot.
Then the next hole on 5, I hit a nice drive and a 9-iron to about three feet.
Q. When you nearly won here, did that motivate your driving to really want to get back and get another shot at this thing?
JEFF SLUMAN: Well, every year you come here, at least I have always tried to get my game going as if it was a major. I view this tournament and the field and everything, the field and the feel of the tournament, as if it's a major. So I'm here usually on Sunday night from Bay Hill and putting in three good days of practice, and hopefully it works out.
But after 1987, I never had that feeling or the belief that a golf course owes you one or anything. All you can do is be as prepared as you possibly and play the golf you're capable of. If somebody plays better, that's all you can do.
Q. Getting back to 17, with the wind up today, there's been a lot of balls in the water already.
JEFF SLUMAN: It's a tough wind, too, because it's kind of left-to-right -- when I played it. I don't know what it's doing now.
Q. In general, it's such a great theatrical hole for the spectators, but for you guys, particularly on a Saturday or a Sunday if you're in or around contention, can you talk about the nerves?
JEFF SLUMAN: Well, obviously you're probably going to be a little bit jumpy. There's no bail-out anywhere. You've just got to step up and hit the golf shot. It's probably one of the easiest holes you'll ever play except Thursday through Sunday this week.
I remember my dad, when we had qualifying here for the Tour card in '82, he said, "Well, what are you hitting into 17," because the golf course had just opened.
I said, "Either an 8-iron or a 9-iron."
He said, "Oh, I thought it was a 3-iron."
I said, "Well, Dad, it's still a pretty hard hole." Until you actually play it under conditions when your livelihood is at stake, it's not that intimidating. But like I said, Thursday through Sunday, your belly is jumping a little bit and you just understand that your name is on your bag; and there's a reason there is and you've just got to step up and hit the shot. And sometimes even then, obviously, you're going to hit balls in the water.
Q. What are your recollections of '87 and how is the course different?
JEFF SLUMAN: My recollections of '87 are, obviously, I played well. I hit very good shot in on 18 and made birdie to tie Sandy and he made a bomb. But the golf course conditions were -- the Tour had a different kind of theme of setting the golf course up and I think it changed in about -- after Greg's year, in '94. They decided to really -- seems like slow the golf course down on the fairway for the most part. We've had a lot of moisture, put a lot of ryegrass in the roughs and grow the roughs up, where it used to be kind of that patchy, gnarly, kind of dormant bermuda that's really hard to play out of. You could get up on 2, and if you didn't turn that ball, that ball might -- in the 80s, chase all the way into the trees and you could make 6, 7, 8 from there. It doesn't seem to happen anymore.
We make more bogeys by missing fairways, hitting in the rough, slashing it out and then hitting your wedge up there. You don't make those huge numbers that you used to see out here from the rough, because the rough a lot of times now has been virtually unplayable. It's just kind of advance it out. Where before, if you got that bermuda, the lie looks good, I'm going to go for it, and anything can happen. That 8-iron goes 180 instead of 150. I think that's really the big change.
I'm not really saying that I like it. I kind of think the other way is the way this golf course was described and if you probably ask Pete Dye, I would be willing to bet he would agree with me.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jeff, for joining us.
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