BAY HILL INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES

March 14, 2000

Tim Herron

TIM HERRON: My game is starting to come around a little bit. I'm going to probably after this go out and hit a few. I've been grinding pretty hard. I've been searching a little bit for somewhat -- if it wasn't my long game, it's my putting, you know, one of those things. You know, that's how golf is. But the putting is starting to come around. I putted well on the weekend last week, and I'm looking for a good tournament. I think I'm right there.

TIM HERRON: I don't think so. I think, you know, it might be, maybe your first win or something to defend well or do something, I don't know what you'd be thinking, but you know the golf course suits you because you've won there. Just go in and play golf. I think -- I don't think there's a lot of pressure because I don't think a lot of people defend; so, you don't really have really high expectations, which is good. You just kind of go out and free-wheel it and hopefully shoot some low numbers the first few days, and then you can really feel like you can actually defend.

TIM HERRON: I think it's a great golf course. I think you have to shape it both ways. I think the holes really setup nice. You can kind of see them and visualize your shot. And I like the greens. For some reason, growing up in Minnesota, I feel like I put Bermuda greens or overseeded Bermuda very well. I think these are the type of greens where you get the putter going, you can make a lot of putts.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I think so. You know, who was it -- like a Jim Carter, he's been out, what, 17 years, that's pretty close. He's probably played -- I don't know if he's played Augusta or not through certain categories, but, you know a guy like that, dream come true, he finally won, finally broke through, and, you know he doesn't get to say, "Well, I'm also going to Augusta." That was kind of part of it. It seems now that you don't get as much for winning as consistent play. Even though the money is still good at the top, you know, second place is good, too. I mean, if you go -- finish off, go second, second, in two weeks you're making more than the guy that actually won in one week. So it's very top-heavy and it seems like, you know, there's only one tournament now, the Mercedes now, where if you win, you're in, where I think my rookie year, there was almost three or four tournaments like that, NEC, Augusta, La Costa, the Mercedes, and the PLAYERS, yeah, exactly.

TIM HERRON: I think they did that for -- no, I don't think it hurts the field at all. It might take a little of the -- on the players' side, the mystique out of Augusta a little bit, on how you get in. Now it's a world ranking, and actually they did it to try to expand the field, I think. That's what I've heard. I think there's more players actually playing this year than ever before. I don't know. You guys would know that.

TIM HERRON: They do still want to keep it -- they probably do want the best field. They probably felt like all these winners were getting in in smaller tournaments. Like in '97 I won the Texas Open and they are thinking, "Texas Open champ" or whatever, because I think there's another tournament, the Ryder Cup was during that or something. I think they wanted world-ranked players in there more, to make the field stronger.

TIM HERRON: I don't know. When did the world rankings start, '98?

TIM HERRON: Oh, okay. They had the Sony rankings and then they had the world rankings? I didn't know that.

TIM HERRON: Not very long. I think a half an hour or something, until somebody brought it up in the media room: "You're going to Augusta," because I was kind of focused on getting dry from that tournament, (laughter), getting dry; and trying to find my first beer.

TIM HERRON: No, I haven't. I assume Jim Carter is not. I haven't talked to him. I just kind of said, you know, there's a bummer that -- that you won two years too late or one year too late, but a win's a win, you know. He's still ecstatic. At least he's working towards getting in the Masters next year if he has a good year. He can still drop his world ranking.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, it got a little off. I was getting a little side-tracked. In the off-season, I try not to work too hard, but when I went out, I go, you know, there's one thing I would like to do with my game is probably perfect my draw a little better, if I could hit a draw, and I just overexaggerated what I was doing, and I came out this fall and started in way right. So I'm kind of working back towards hitting a fade, hitting it a little straighter. And West Coast, those bumpy greens are tough and you can lose your confidence. It's just nice to get back on greens that you're fairly confident on. So it's a long, long year. I've put a lot of pressure on myself to really get started, and now I'm just going to kind of go the opposite way, just take it when it comes. I know I'm going to play 20-some events and I know I'll have a few good weeks in there.

TIM HERRON: Streaky? Yeah, I'm probably somewhat streaky. I felt I was fairly consistent last year and I kind of wanted to go that route this year. You know, it's a little less stressful, I guess. But, you know, I had a win and couple of seconds and a bunch of Top-10s last year, so I figure if you're playing well you have better opportunities to win. So instead of streaky, but, you know --

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I'm trying to work, make the game easier. And I think I learned on the West Coast that you'll never make it easy. It's always going to be a pain in the butt. It's always going to be hard.

TIM HERRON: This guy throws out some tough questions. No, I don't think so. I think, you know, the way the world works now is, you know, everyone strives to be No. 1. Everyone wants to watch the No. 1 player, and I think that's great. I think the best players in the world should make the most money. I think that's right. You know, in golf, it gives the guys an opportunity to go out and beat the top players, and they will make the money as well as the top players are.

TIM HERRON: I don't know. You know, they are both ranked up there. My sister's -- is one of the best feelings in golf I've ever had, caddying, actually. It was great to see someone else actually get enjoyment like I have, winning a golf tournament, and it was kind of fun to be with her in that and watch her succeed and win a National Championship as an amateur. It was pretty awesome.

TIM HERRON: Crucial caddie advice that week, I don't know, I just kept on talking to her, make sure she stayed loose. The last round she was pretty tough and I told her the night before, I've caddied 36, 36, 36 and we're playing 18, and she's like, "Well, at least I made it to the final 2." I'm like, "Well, I'm not caddying if you're not going to win. Let's go out and try to win this thing. I'm not going to go 36, 36, 36 for second. Come on." She played awesome and both of them were nervous at the -- in the finals, and it just kind of happened where she kind of walked into it. I mean, Ellen had a good chance, really good chance of beating Alyssa, and she missed quite a few short putts, and I just kind of told her to hang in there and she did and boom. I just tried to stay out of the way.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I was as active as I could be. She kept it down the middle pretty good.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, the commercial was great. People I hear, enjoy it, every week. It was fun. I hope to see his career -- he's such a great guy, old "sign boy" and I hope it helps his career go up. It's been fun, get some recognition and get some attention for Footjoy.

TIM HERRON: That was a hot dog, man, 7:30 in the morning. Don't think I like it. I needed a little spit bucket.

TIM HERRON: Yeah, I try to be. I fluctuate a little.

TIM HERRON: I got a trainer named Boris and I tell him every day that I'm going to -- I tell him every day right before I go, "This is my last day, I'm going to quit after this," but I keep going on in.

TIM HERRON: Exactly. It's for golf, but it's also for your -- you know, for yourself, for your well-being, I guess, in a way. You know, if you feel like you've accomplished something outside of golf, it makes you feel better. That will help bring it to the golf course, you know what I mean. That will help when you're on the golf course. It's good to kind of work on things outside of golf. You know, sometime you just get too wrapped up into this, oh, I'm going to be around for 10, 15, 20 years playing this game; so, kind of want to do something to extend your -- extend your career.

TIM HERRON: I don't know, a couple months, I guess. I did it pretty much working out. I stuck to a fairly good diet. It's tough on the road, but a fairly good diet, you know, no sushi, no bread and all that stuff. Maybe one Diet Coke a day the rest water. You know, now I've kind of gone to M&Ms and stuff like that, but I'm still working out.

TIM HERRON: Yes.

TIM HERRON: He didn't talk about it, but the other guys talked about it quite a bit. I don't know. I just wondered if he could beat up my governor, Jesse. I guess he's not mine, in Arizona, but we talked about Jesse Ventura a little bit. Says he's a good guy, so we had fun out there.