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

FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

May 28, 2004

Tim Herron

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome current leader in the clubhouse Tim Herron. Tim, great round today, 64, puts you at 6-under par for the tournament so far. Talk about your round today, a great one for you.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, it was kind of a scrambling 64. I didn't drive it super straight, but I got some good lies

and my irons were -- I hit good iron shots, so it was a good day. I made a lot of putts and had a good day, felt like I felt something out there, but still had a good day.

Q. Talk about the stretch of 13, 14, 15, 16 specifically. 14 you double bogeyed the hole, then you come back and hole out from 79 yards. It's a nice way to recover.

TIM HERRON: Yes, exactly. The game is tough and I just said I'm having a decent day, just hang in there, don't grind on it. That's a hard hole, just didn't commit to it. It was more the process than anything, didn't really commit to it and tried to force a 6-iron in there from 207 yards, where I needed to hit it on the left side of the green if I was going to do that. So a tough hole, and that's been kind of my game plan, just make sure I don't get too down and hard on myself. That's easy to do in golf.

Q. The FedEx St. Jude classic is a special tournament to you, partly with the affiliation of you with Target and the Target House. If you could maybe just talk about that. I know you're very active in that.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I mean, charity is great. It's hard for a lot of the guys and just people in general. They give, and they don't really know where the money is.

I went to the Target House about four years ago, and it just hit home, and because it's kids and you just want a good life for them, you try to help find the cure for cancer. It's just an amazing place. They're just kids. They're so young that it's hard for them to even be -- it's kind of tough to talk about. The kids are awesome.

Q. Did you go through earlier this week?

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I went there this week. For a lot of people it is hard to go there because it's sick kids and some of them are going to pass away or whatever, and people don't want to see that, but I try to really get myself there, and after that, you feel good that you went and that you participated in something good in life.

Q. You seem to always be in contention here.

TIM HERRON: That's another reason why I come here (laughter).

Q. Why is it about this course?

TIM HERRON: For some reason I putt the greens pretty well. From year to year I remember kind of what they do, how they break, you know. My putting feels great. This is the best it's felt in a long time, and the key for me this weekend is if I get the ball in play, I think I'm going to be in contention, depending on how far someone will go deep today, how close I'll be to the lead.

Q. Do you anticipate someone going pretty deep?

TIM HERRON: Well, yeah, not super deep, but it might get to 10-under or something like that. If it stays in single digits it's going to be a shootout.

Pretty much everyone in the field that makes the cut is going to have a chance to win, which has been kind of neat the last few weeks. It's been -- since Dallas it's amazing what wind does, and we only had one day of it, how it can make it a shootout, Dallas, Colonial and here.

Q. I guess without the wind, with the rain, soft conditions, did you expect with what you did today that you could reach a 64?

TIM HERRON: Yeah, like I said, I had a double, I left some out there. I had a four-footer on 18 that I missed for birdie.

But other than that, I mean, I made a ton of putts, and like I said, you've got to try to look at the positive. It's so easy to be pessimistic in this game. You've got to look and see what you did well, you know, it's important. I had a couple chip-ins so you've got to like that.

Q. You brought up staying positive. Is that something you've specifically been focusing on recently or is that generally the way you try to --

TIM HERRON: No, it's been recent. It's very easy to press when your expectations get high and you're not reaching your goals. It's easy to go backwards in this game. It's hard to stay grounded. You know, you just kind of have to step back and reevaluate and move on from there.

Q. Did anything trigger that?

TIM HERRON: Yeah, just horrible play. You just keep playing bad. You've just got to back up and reset your goals, and you've got to take smaller steps than bigger steps.

If you get into position with the big steps, you can get around from there, but other than that you want to set your goals where they're not quite as high.

Q. Was there a stretch in particular or a moment -- looking back over your career at some of the ups and downs, what's the highest high and what's the lowest low?

TIM HERRON: Well, winning is the highest high and the lowest low is not being able to find your golf ball (laughter) or missing it from a foot and a half. I think after ten years being on Tour, you kind of go through it all.

The important part is separating golf from who you are. It's what you do, golf isn't who you are, even though media and fans and people see me as Tim Herron, the golfer, that's actually just my job or what I do. That's kind of the perspective you kind of have to look at.

Q. David Gossett is a Memphis guy on the Tour and is now struggling in the way you described. That's just part of it. He came out the great fan fair, but this isn't the NBA where you get to sign a $7 million contract and you're set. You've got to do it every single day.

TIM HERRON: No, it's hard and it's the strive to get better, and what happens is that actually can backfire quite easy. If I can just do this, tweak this, it might be easier, and to get not totally involved in all this head process crap (laughter) -- what was my point (laughter)?

Q. Trying to get better.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, it can actually backfire. I think what a lot of people do is they go, you know what, we can make the game easier if it's easier mechanically. That way I don't have to think as hard where it's actually such a thinking game and how you think. That's actually probably the way to get better. Do you know what I'm saying? It's the way you think. That's why you see a lot of sports psychologists and things like that out there.

I mean, the reason why you're out here is because you have great qualities in golf, and everyone's qualities are different. There's always a better putter or a better driver. It's important to know what you have is good and it can work. I hope that kind of answered your question.

Q. In terms of the separating yourself and who you are from the game, does the stuff like the Target House at all feed into that? Is that Tim Herron, the golfer? Is it being with family and eating ribs that separates you from the game?

TIM HERRON: A little bit of both. To me personally, I can't really explain what the Target House means to me. I mean, that's personal and I don't want to go too overboard on what I have done for them or whatever. That's not the point.

The point is that I'm in a certain position where I can help the kids by getting the exposure or whatever. A lot of people do that with their charities or whatnot, so I guess what you're trying to say is, yeah, as a golfer, yeah, you can help by just me wearing my visor here, take a picture, there's exposure in the newspaper.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your round.

TIM HERRON: No, let's keep talking about the mental stuff (laughter).

3, I drove it right and laid it up to about 100 yards, hit it in there about eight inches.

Then on 4, about 20 feet, made that. I hit a 6-iron.

Drove it in the fairway on the next hole, hit a 4-iron in there about 13 feet and just missed that.

Made about a 13-footer on 6.

9, I actually drove it right. I hit a rescue club off the tee, and I chipped it short right of the green and knocked it in from there. It was probably about a 40-foot chip just right of the green.

13, I hit driver, wedge to about 30 feet, made that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I think you hit 6-iron off of 14?

TIM HERRON: Yeah, 6-iron off of 14 and hit it in the water. I thinned it. That was my worst swing in quite a few days. Then dropped it and hit a good putt down there, and it just didn't go in.

Then on the next hole, hit 3-wood off the tee and had L-wedge from 85 yards. It one-hopped, backed up and went in the hole.

Then the par 5, 16, hit a good drive, 3-iron, hooked it left of the green, had to chip it underneath a tree. Chipped it just left of the green and that's the only play I had, and then I chipped in from there for birdie, and then on 18 I had about a 4- or 5-footer that I missed for birdie.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Tim Herron, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297