FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 29, 2002

Glen Hnatiuk

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Glen, for joining us. Another fun day out there, another solid round. And obviously a great position going into Sunday. Why don't you make a comment or two about your position for tomorrow and then we will go into some questions.

GLEN HNATIUK: Well, obviously, I'm happy about the position I'm in. I don't know how to react because I've never been in this position before, any kind of lead. So I'm looking forward to it. As far as today's round, it was a great round. It wasn't a whole lot of fun. I didn't hit it nearly as well as I did the first two days. But boy, my short game, my chipping, my putting was just phenomenal. I don't know if you remember, but yesterday or the day before I had mentioned to you -- somebody had asked me a question about my short game and I said it's streaky, it's hit or miss and then today it was definitely hit.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. You mentioned you haven't been in this position, do you just change nothing at this point?

GLEN HNATIUK: Well, you know, the approach I had today was although I was leading, I just -- one thing I mentioned yesterday to you all is I'm going to treat it any other day, and that's it; as if the slate has been swept clean and just kind of start over and I'll do the same tomorrow, even though I have a four-shot lead.

Q. Having a four-shot lead, are you a little bit more comfortable then than the last two days?

GLEN HNATIUK: Not really. Like I said, I have nothing really to compare it to. The only thing I can do is rely on my game. Like I said, the only approach, I have to kind of take it as a Sunday and that's it. Obviously, four shots is better than a one-shot lead. To be honest with you, mindset-wise it's not going to make much of a difference.

Q. How hard was it to kind of stick to that approach today? Just treating it like a Saturday as you went through the round?

GLEN HNATIUK: Well, it was difficult. First of all, because I didn't play as well tee-to-green. I didn't drive it as well and I didn't hit as many greens. I didn't hit as many good iron shots as I had been hitting. Like I said, my chipping and putting kind of bailed me out. I chipped in twice. Other than that, there's really not a whole lot to say about today's round.

Q. What's the closest you've been before to a position like this?

GLEN HNATIUK: Couple of years ago at the B C Open, I think, I might have been second. Last year, I played with Fax anyway and I think it was, it might have been the last group on Saturday and the second to last group on Sunday. And I think that was in 2000. I think Fax won it the two years in a row or whatever it was. And that's about the closest. I didn't play my first year out here, I did play, I was paired with Tiger the third round of Atlanta. And talk about being thrown into the frying pan or whatever, however you want to put it, that was about my fifth or six tournament out here and it was quite a circus. But that's something that I can still draw back on. Even though it was four, five years ago.

Q. When was that with Tiger? Do you remember the year?

GLEN HNATIUK: It was '98 actually he won. We played together Saturday and he shot nine under, I shot two under. I played really solid. He shot nine under and it looked like I shot 80. That's when he was struggling too. He was going through a swing change.

Q. Are you a score board watcher?

GLEN HNATIUK: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Q. Can you ever be safe from a guy like David Toms?

GLEN HNATIUK: No. No, especially this week. This golf course lends itself to a lot of low scores. 63, 64, 62, those are shot every day. So I still have to stay aggressive at the right time anyway. And just kind of go according to game plan. Which is just basically, first of all, hitting fairways and giving myself opportunities for good iron shots.

Q. If you're looking at the score board today you see you take a four stroke lead, does that give you a comfort level or are you the kind of person that maybe wants to get pushed a little bit just to keep the edge?

GLEN HNATIUK: Like I said, it's new to me but I think you're right. Today I seemed to keep missing it. Every time I looked at the score board I would be down where the 10s and 9s were so I didn't know I had a four shot lead until I putted out on 18. I thought it was two, maybe three. I had birdied 16 so I figured it might have been three shots. But you're right, you still have to keep that edge and keep on going. And that's why I said that I'm just going to start the day like I don't have any lead, although I'm not going to do anything stupid, I'm not going to take any crazy chances because I may not have top. But I still have to go a long and go forward.

Q. How much more prepared are you for this day tomorrow than say you were a couple years ago?

GLEN HNATIUK: I think I'm much more prepared. Not really because of the fact that I've been in this position, but just because my game has, I guess, improved and matured kind of in the same way. I generally have driven the ball straight for a long time. And I think handling certain situations, even if it's a matter of maybe finishing the top-5 or finishing the top 10, just trying to make a cut, there's always something that's pushing you out here. And that's what I'm going to have to draw back on. That's the only thing I have.

Q. You said this golf course lends itself to low scores. Does that mean comparatively it's an easy golf course?

GLEN HNATIUK: I'm not going to say easy. First of all, playing on Zoysia fairways you cannot get a bad lie. And you may not think it's that big of a deal, but it is. Because it's a lot easier to hit a crisp iron shot off a perfect lie every time. Even though we play on perfectly manicured golf courses, there's still times when you don't have the greatest lie. Out here, you get a great lie every single time. And it allows you to be aggressive. I think the ball goes a little bit further in the heat and because the ball's teed up basically every time you hit it. I think that makes a difference. I think the golf course plays a little bit shorter because of that. And the greens are soft. Not that it's an easy golf course. But with those factored in, it makes it maybe a little bit easier. I'm not going to say it's easy because that may come back and bite me.

Q. How many courses on the Tour have zoysia grass fairways?

GLEN HNATIUK: Boy.

Q. Very few?

GLEN HNATIUK: Very few. Riviera has an, I don't know what it's called it's like a Zoysia. The ball kind of sits up. I can't remember the name of it. Kikuyu, that's what it. But other than this I can't really remember any week that we have Zoysia.

Q. You like that?

GLEN HNATIUK: Yeah. Absolutely. As long as you're hitting it in the fairway because the rough is, you can get some really bad lies out here. I found that out today.

Q. What are you going to do tonight?

GLEN HNATIUK: Tonight? Go baby-sit my kids. Play with my kids. Hang out with my wife. The usual. It gives me a sense of normalcy when my family's on the road. If they weren't, because they, my kids have just started school last year and they have always traveled with me before that. So it's been a little bit of an adjustment for us this year. And I've played a couple good tournaments where they hadn't been on the road, but it's different because I go back to may hotel room and I get to kind of sit there and think about it all night as opposed to being occupied with them.

Q. Is there anyone in particular you will be watching? Anybody in the following group or just whoever starts to make a move?

GLEN HNATIUK: No, not really. Yeah, it's like I say, everybody out here playing is capable of shooting a low number. There's a lot of good players, like you talk about a David Toms. I mean he's capable of shooting anything low. And I don't know what his total is, but I mean even if he's at 10, 11, 12, 13-under, I mean anybody in that pack has a chance to win. I suppose if I let it.

Q. How did you get from Selkirk Manitoba to Mississippi?

GLEN HNATIUK: There was a couple guys from Winnipeg, which is just, Selkirk is just outside Winnipeg and there was a couple guys from the golf team from Winnipeg and they talked to the golf coach. I sent them a resume. He offered me a partial scholarship and I was still playing hockey at the time. And I went down there and played my way on to the team and got a full or three quarter scholarship, whatever it was.

Q. That had to be culture shock.

GLEN HNATIUK: Yeah. Heat-wise too. It was end of August. It was terrible. Nice people though.

Q. What was the name of the hockey team?

GLEN HNATIUK: I played for the Selkirk Fishermen. We were Western Canadian Junior B champions. I don't know what year it was. But it was '83 maybe. No, '84.

Q. What position?

GLEN HNATIUK: Center.

Q. The Selkirk?

GLEN HNATIUK: Yeah. Never heard of it?

Q. Did you find any hockey fans in Hattiesburg?

GLEN HNATIUK: No, in fact I was never really part of a fraternity. I'm not going to say which one, but this fraternity recruited a couple of us Canadians, we played floor hockey for them and for their intermural team because they were really big into winning the overall sports deal. And we actually had guys who kind of started to hate us because we had a pretty good team.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Go through your birdies and bogeys, please.

GLEN HNATIUK: First hole, made about a 12 footer.

Second hole made about a 40 footer.

Fifth hole chipped up and made about two feet.

Six was a bogey. I pulled my tee shot and had a terrible lie. Pulled it from there and didn't get up-and-down.

Chipped in from about 25 feet on 7.

Nine, actually hit a good iron shot there, just it flew to the back of the green and that was probably about 35, 40 feet. That was a 9-iron.

I didn't hit a very good drive. I hit it just in the rough on 10. I had a pretty good lie. I hit 7-iron and came up in the front bunker. Actually hit a good bunker shot about six feet and missed it.

11 I hit an 8-iron to about 12 feet.

Birdie on 12. I hit an L wedge that landed in front of the hole about here (indicating) and spun off the front of the green and I chipped in. So it was only about 18 feet or so.

16, I hit 3-wood just kind of long left of the green and chipped up to about six inches.

Q. How good did it feel to start the day with birdies on one and two?

GLEN HNATIUK: It was a great pressure reliever, I guess you could say. Because I didn't hit a very good drive on one and I hit a real nice 7-iron there. Like I said about 12 feet and made it. So that was nice.

Hit a pretty decent wedge on two, but just spun on back and then came down the hill. And I was just trying to lag it up there and it went in. So I feel, I wasn't thinking right away this is my day or this is my tournament, but it obviously did help a lot to know that I had the putter going.

Q. Talk about 15.

GLEN HNATIUK: 15? Talk about the hole? Or the way I played it today?

Q. The way you played it all week?

GLEN HNATIUK: All week. Not very well, actually. I bogeyed it the first day. I had only missed a couple fairways the first day, but that was one of them. And I had 152 yards to the hole and I flew an 8-iron over the green into the back whatever ABC stand or whatever. It was probably 30 yards over the green. I made bogey there. And I hadn't played that hole very well. Actually from then on I've been perfect, in the middle of the fairway, I just haven't been able to get the ball close.

Q. Is there something about that hole?

GLEN HNATIUK: It's a weird angle. I told that to my caddy in the practice round. It's the way the green -- you're coming at it this way and the green kind of sits at an angle. And obviously you have your yardage, but it doesn't quite look right. You can't get yourself to -- you don't know if you want to fly it back there. There's slopes in the green and actually it's a tough shot to get close. And you're standing there with a wedge in your hand or a 9-iron. I had sand wedge today.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: All right. Thank you, Glen.

GLEN HNATIUK: All right. Thank you.

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