JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

September 14, 2003

Paul Stankowski

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Paul, thanks for joining us. Solid playing today, puts you in contention going into tomorrow. You played a lot of golf today, not a lot of golf yesterday, but just maybe talk about your day today.

PAUL STANKOWSKI: All in all, I'm fairly pleased with where I'm at right now. Obviously being a shot or two off the lead is better than three or four. But I hit a lot of good shots early in the day, especially after a long day yesterday of sitting around, doing laundry, sitting around. It was nice to actually come out and hit some good shots. I got a couple lucky breaks. All in all, yeah, it was just kind of one of those days. It was just long. I tried to take it one at a time. There were a lot of one-at-a-times out there today.

Q. You seem to play fairly well here. Are you comfortable with this golf course?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Yeah, I do. I like this golf course a lot. I'm a big fan of what D.A. has done here and the property is fantastic and the trees are great. It's a cool place. It all starts from the airport. Once you get to Chicago, it's easy to get here, and it's just a cool place. I like the town. I can't say enough about it. The golf course itself is fairly generous off the tee. There are some good driving holes. I like the design. I like chipping areas around greens, and you can get creative. I just think he had a good piece of property to build on and did a good job, so I'm real pleased. It's nice to be here, and the course is set up good, and visually they look good, I like that. Flat, boring golf courses just don't do it for me, so this has got a lot of character, and it's fun to play.

Q. What was clicking for you today? What part of your game was working the best?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: All in all, my patience was probably the biggest thing. This is the third tournament back for me. I had wrist surgery back in May and had a long, long time off. So just from a mental standpoint, when you're sitting around taking your son to speech class and going to baseball games, you kind of lose the whole competitive edge. So this being the third tournament back -- I had a chance in Reno to play well and felt like I was patient, but my patience is probably better now than it was earlier in the year, and that's something that's important on a long day like this. Any time you're in contention or I'm in contention, that's the one thing that I really try and key on is just staying patient. I did that today.

I drove it good in spots and I drove it kind of sketchy in spots. I hit some really, really good iron shots. All in all, it was probably my iron play. It was windy in the day and it calmed down the second attempt at 18 holes, but early in the day I hit a lot of good shots and got a couple good breaks, so to answer your question, my iron play is probably clicking.

Q. Can you talk about the circumstances of this tournament? Is it kind of surreal for you, the fact that no play yesterday and more holes today?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: It is what it is. I just play when they tell me to. Sometimes I -- yeah.

Q. But you need a pillow?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I'm tired.

Q. Is it hard to go into overtime on a non-flat golf course like this?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I did at Reno. I played 32 holes my first week back after having to ride an exercise bike for three months, so that was tough. You're a mile high. At least here we're close to sea level so it doesn't take that much out of you, but I only played 25 holes today, I think, so it's not that bad. It could have been worse.

Q. With the wrist surgery and the time off and the fact that you play well here, is this one of the tournaments you point to, I can't wait to get back to that one?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: Oh, definitely. I was looking forward to playing here when I left last year. When I start the season, I set my schedule and there's probably 12 tournaments that I really like, and this was one of them. I picked those first 12 and then I kind of piecemealed the rest together to make out some kind of a schedule that flows. This is one I plan on playing every year. I like the venue. Yeah, I was looking forward to coming here and I'm glad I'm here.

Q. Two questions: I understand you got a bit of a break on No. 5; and your approach to tomorrow, what's tomorrow like? Is it a sprint?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: I did get a break on 5, and fortunately I didn't break the guy's leg, but I hit a guy behind the green and caught him in the pocket so I'm glad it didn't hit just to the right of where it hit. That's the third person I've hit. I hit a guy in the head, a guy named Ken Dinger, the first day with a 3-iron and busted him open. It scared the crap out of me to be honest with you. I hit a boy yesterday, a couple bounces into him, and today I flew it into the guy's thigh. I've got one more chance to hit another guy. John Deere makes hardhats, right?

As far as tomorrow as a sprint, no. I've got about 12 holes to go, and it's going to be cold in the morning. Apparently it's supposed to be about 50. You know, I guess it's a sprint, but I'm just going to play it one at a time like I've been doing and see what happens. I've got a good chance this week, a good chance tomorrow, and I like it when I have chances. It's good.

Q. You guys are so engrained in that you play 18 holes, 18 holes, 18 holes. How strange is it to come out here and pick it up in the middle?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: When I play practice rounds, I play five or six holes, so this is right up my alley, having to play 12. It's no big deal. It's going to be weird being done at about 10:00, which is strange. It doesn't really phase me. It's kind of nice, 12 holes. I kind of wish we played nine holes every day actually, 36-hole tournaments, nine holes Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday would be great.

Q. Between yesterday and today you had a good start mentally to play and then you got stopped and then started. How does that affect you?

PAUL STANKOWSKI: You know, sometimes it can affect you. It really didn't today. I got done with the round, I went in, I had a sandwich and went back to the tee and teed off. Yeah, I guess it really shouldn't bug you as long as you stay loose in between shots, and that's what I try and do, whether it's a 20-minute delay on a tee box because there's three groups in front of you, or this. You just try and stay loose and that's what I've done. It's not that big a deal. This happens quite a bit. We're used to it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Paul Stankowski, thank you.

End of FastScripts.