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THE NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP


March 23, 2001


Pat Hurst


RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

PAT HURST: No. 2 I hit 3-wood. I was about 214 to the pin. I hit it to about 20 feet and 2-putted for birdie. Birdied No. 6, hit 7-iron from 158 yards to about 30 feet. I birdied No. 7. I hit 6-iron from 10 six feet to about 20 feet. Birdied No. 11, I hit a 3-wood from 244 yards to about 20 feet, 2-putted: Bogeyed 15, I hit it right in the trees ended up just short of the green didn't get it up-and-down. Chipped it by about five feet and missed the putt. I birdied 16. I had 121 yards and I hit wedge to about four feet.

Q. How did your day go out there?

PAT HURST: I played pretty consistent out there today other than I missed the fairway on 12, chipped out and made par there and I also missed the fairway on 15 again. But other than that, played pretty consistent, hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens.

Q. Coming into a tournament like this, are you playing off your previous win to have expectations of winning this time, your Nabisco win previously, is that memory impacting you this week?

PAT HURST: Any time - I think any course that you win at, you know, when you step up to the tee you feel comfortable out there or else -- I don't think I would have won if I didn't feel comfortable. So, I do enjoy coming here and I look forward to playing in this event. So I wouldn't say that I am feeding off of 1998, but I do like coming here. I feel very comfortable on the course.

Q. Watching you on the front nine making the birdies at 6 and 7, you still have a pretty good little cheering section that follows you around here. How many contacts do you still have and does that help make you feel comfortable out there?

PAT HURST: Actually out here this week I have a lot of family and friends from the Bay area and also from the La Quinta so I do have a family here that we stay with every time we come into town. They are like our second parents here and I do feel very comfortable here. It is like my second home and we do visit often. We came in December and we will come again in a couple of weeks. I still have a lot of contacts in this area.

Q. When did you play this course for the first time in your life?

PAT HURST: I wanted to say I played the Dinah Shore in -- I want to say it was 1988, maybe. I am not sure. I think around 1988. I played twice as an amateur. I think it was 1988 and I also played maybe in 1991 as an amateur.

Q. Looking at the leaderboard, four shots is a precious few, but does it feel like a lot more?

PAT HURST: It doesn't feel like enough. Out here anything can happen with two rounds left. I think I feel comfortable going into Sunday with a 4-shot lead but there's still a lot of golfers out there left to play. But I don't think any lead is too big out at a major championship with the rough being as high as it is and the conditions as tough as they are, I don't think any amount of lead is large enough.

Q. Are you surprised that nobody else has gotten good scoring -- (inaudible)?

PAT HURST: I am a little bit. The greens are lot softer. They are still firm but they are a lot softer than they have been in the past. But the rough is up and if you are not keeping it in the fairway it is tough. But I am just surprised there aren't some lower scores out there. But you never know, like I said, there is two more rounds so we will see how it goes.

Q. You played very consistently in the majors last year but didn't have a real spectacular finish. Talk about that last year, how you played the majors, did you feel like you were aggressive enough?

PAT HURST: Last year in the majors I didn't play as well as I played in let's say in 1998, but I just I feel like I have the length to play and I feel like I am strong enough to hit it out of the rough so I can get away with a little bit of being a little erratic at times, but yet par 5s sometimes I can knock on in 2 and stuff like that which I did twice today. I think that is where I can make up a lot of shots versus being a little bit of a shorter hitter where you can't really make up those shots and like I said if I knocked it in the rough, I still have a chance to get out on the green. I just try -- in most majors the rough is up, but I try to play mostly at the angles where I have a good angle into the greens where the pin is more accessible. Even if it is in the rough a little bit I feel like I still have the angle into the green and I am strong enough to get out of the rough. I think that has helped me out a great deal in the major championships.

Q. Do you think you are much different of a player than when you won here the last time; do you think much has changed?

PAT HURST: In 1998 I felt like I had complete control of my game. I was playing well. I felt very comfortable. I felt comfortable right now. My life is a little bit different than it was in 1998. But I think in a better way. But you know, I don't know, I feel like I am in control and I felt like I was in control in 1998 also.

Q. You talk about the length on the par 5s. Is length is a huge deal on the PGA TOUR now. Those that have it versus those that don't. Is it the same on the LPGA Tour?

PAT HURST: There is not, you know, a lot of our courses -- I mean, both par 5s I have to hit 3-woods into. We are not hitting irons into them, but that is where I feel like I can have an advantage over some other players. But the shorter hitters seem like they are more accurate. So it all depends on how you look at it. I do think length is an advantage, but at times it can be a disadvantage too.

End of FastScripts....

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