Q. Can you talk about your shoulder injury and how it came about and what you did afterwards to try to get it back?
JEFF BREHAUT: In 1999, about February or March, I guess at Doral, it was at the top of my backswing, my left shoulder kind of clicking, popping, dragging, not every time but maybe two or three times a round. Every time it did I hit a lousy shot. So then I went right into the fitness trailer guys and they gave me a bunch of rotator cuff exercises, small weights and just little things, things to kind of firm those muscles. It seemed to help. I got rid of it until November. Then it started coming back again. Then I had an MRI done. Originally they thought it was a split in the tendon which the guy said is more treatable through therapy. I did that through December and it still wasn't getting better. He said we will give you an cortisone shot, don't hit balls for three weeks go play Hawaii and see how you do. I did that. Hit some balls two days before Hawaii and felt okay. I'm a big practicer, too; not hitting golf balls for three weeks is pretty tough. I went to Hawaii, missed the cut. I played a pro-am the next day. It started bothering me. Then I went and saw Dr. Jobe in LOs Angeles and he looked at the MRI, he said, it's not a split in the tendon, something more severe, I won't know until I go in there. So we scheduled surgery and he said if there is a scar on the outside, it's going to be a year. If we do it arthroscopically it will be six to eight months. I woke up, I had a detached labrum and a bunch of freying, so he chopped out all of the freying, put three screws in there and sewed it all together.
It was an unusual year because I really didn't do much until about June or July and I started getting back in, played a few events at the end of the year and now it's pretty good. It's not 100% but it doesn't bother me on the golf course. I have to maintain my workout and keep those muscles in there strong. I think what happened was I was a very loose-jointed to begin with. And the 4 muscles that surrounded the rotator cuff weren't strong enough and it just kind of kept slipping and sliding in there and it detached. Since then I have been pretty religious about getting three days a week in the gym.
Q. Did you have to do anything with your swing because of that, once you came back?
JEFF BREHAUT: Nothing consciously. My ball flight has changed a little bit, and I don't know if it's the shoulder or me.
Q. There was good club pro out here and he watched you for a bit and said this guy has a beautiful swing. Why hasn't he won a million bucks. What would you say to him?
JEFF BREHAUT: You could say that about 100 guys out here. The difference is mostly mental, mostly confidence, scoring, getting this ball up and down, taking advantage of this easy par-5s. Believing in yourself. The guys that are killing it out here are guys that are doing all of those things. Then there is the bunch of those guys that think that we should be middle tier players or top 30 guys or whatever. And until you do it a few times and started believing that that's where you belong it's hard to do.
I missed 5 cuts in a row this year by one shot. And that kind of starts eating on you. Then you start thinking I got to make a cut. And you know Tiger words is never thinking about missing a cut. It's a totally different mindset. That's a big part of it. It's kind of exciting on the first tee on Thursday that I'm playing in this tournament to win, not to finish 30th, and the guys that are the best are doing that.
Q. And during this week, as you gotten to a point where making the cut was not a problem; now you are in a position to win your first tournament, how did you climb mentally, that ladder, this week?
JEFF BREHAUT: I just try not to even think about it. I mean yesterday -- on Thursday I bogeyed my first two holes and immediately I'm thinking now I'm behind the 8 ball and now I have to suck it up just to make the cut. But I hung in there, I didn't let it bother me too much. I hung in there and had a good backside and shot a good score. I was surprised the scores were as high as they were on Thursday. Then yesterday I birdied the first hole, got off to a good start, I made a really good 6 on 18 yesterday. It took me three shots to get out of the fairway bunker, it was right underneath the lip. I got a 9-iron up and down for a 6. That was probably the turning point of the tournament because I could have made a 7 or 8 on that one. Then I tried to focus on this shot right here and count them up at the time end. It sounds dumb, but that is how you do it, I think.
TODD BUDNICK: Okay. Thank you very much, Jeff, good luck tomorrow.
End of FastScripts....
