BUICK OPEN

August 1, 2003

David Sutherland

TODD BUDNICK: David, thank you for stopping in today after your 5 under 67. You're at 11 under for the tournament and looking for your first Top 10 since 2000. I know you've had some injury problems.

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I haven't played really well, but yeah.

TODD BUDNICK: Must be nice to be back in the hunt.

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I played well at Houston earlier in the year. I finished 13th, which wasn't great. I did get my feet wet there. Yeah, I'm comfortable. I feel pleased. I feel like I'm coming off my injuries, feel like my game is hopefully kind of rounding back into shape. It's been a while since I've played a lot of competitive golf.

So, yeah, I mean, I'll probably just look forward to what's going on. I feel good about my game.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's walk through your round. You jumped off to a great start with five birdies in your first eight holes.

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, it was hit a good approach into No. 2. Hit it about three feet with a wedge.

No. 4, I hit a good drive. Just had a sand wedge to the green and hit it three feet. Made birdie there.

Had another great drive on No. 5 and hit a 9 iron to about maybe eight feet. Rolled that one in.

Knocked it on the green in two on 7 with a 3 wood.

Hit a 6 iron to about five feet on No. 8. It was just nice, solid, it wasn't like I was chipping in.

Then I hit a pitching wedge just off the front of the green on No. 10. I guess that was 15, 20 feet, I guess, and then I rolled that one in.

Then I made a mistake on 12. Knocked it on the green and made bogey.

Got that one back on 13. Hit it probably about ten feet with a sand wedge.

Then I bogeyed hit a 7 iron on 17. Made a mistake there and left it right. Made a quick bogey there. And that was it.

TODD BUDNICK: Nice way to get 5 under on the front nine to get you rolling.

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, I would like to have, particularly going into No. 12, being right in front of the green, I certainly would have liked to picked up a few more coming in. But, I don't know, I've always kind of felt like if you want to play one of them again, you've got to play all of them again. So I'll take the 67.

Q. You're at 11 (under) now. Where do you think you'll to have been to be in contention on Sunday?

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Well, that depends on the conditions. If the wind stays down, I would guess, you know, somewhere probably around 20 under, I guess. That would be probably a pretty good number to be at. I tell you what, I'll take 20 under right now and see what happens. (Laughing).

But if the wind blows, it will greatly affect conditions, and I've heard there's some weather.

Q. In a year where players start to look at that magical 125 spot on the PGA TOUR, do you think about that?

DAVID SUTHERLAND: I can't remember what year it was, but I think it was in '98. I finished I think 122nd on the Money List. You know, I never really looked at it. Just tried to not pay attention to it and that sort of thing.

I'm probably going to play close to a dozen more times this year. So at this point, certainly, yeah, I would love to make a bunch of money. But I go out to win a golf tournaments. I've made the Top 125 before, and I'm 37, I'd like to feel like I can win a golf tournament out here.

So if I'm on the back nine of Disney at the end of the year on the bubble, you're darned right I'll be thinking about it, but trying not to focus on it now.

Q. Having taken some years off recovering from injuries, is that tougher mentally or physically to come back?

DAVID SUTHERLAND: That's a good question. Best media question I've had. I would say that it's probably I would say it's probably tougher physically in the sense of, I don't know that was a really good question. I'll have to think about that.

I won my first golf tournament I played in. I didn't play golf for about ten months after my shoulder surgery. I went to a Nike Tour event and I won, which was a shock, because I had only played like four rounds of golf in about ten months.

So what that said, over the course of time, if I really thought about it, probably mentally. I think that there's a certain grind to this tour, playing every day, for four straight weeks. For basically two years, I didn't play much more than once a week inaudible because of my injuries. All of a sudden you're playing four rounds, you have to tee it up, play four rounds. So the more I think about it, I would say it's a little bit of both, but I would say the mental part of it.

That's probably true of rookies, too. That's what makes Ben Curtis's win all the more impressive at the British Open.

Q. Are you comfortable now?

DAVID SUTHERLAND: I'm a lot closer than I was at beginning of year, no doubt about that. I'm playing better than I was at the beginning of the year. You start to know your game more, kind of know your if I hit it right, you kind of can guess get a sense of why you make mistakes and why that makes it a good shot.

But on the same token, I mean, taking the time off, it was the greatest year of my life, so I don't have any regrets.

Q. Was that because you were home with the kids?

DAVID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, the experience of my first two years of my kids' lives. I've been traveling before I had my shoulder surgery for probably at least a dozen year years straight, on the road for 35 straight weeks, and getting a break and spending some time at home, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to playing golf. I love to do what I do now, but, you know, I'm very glad that I had a chance. There's not that many people at that age in your life, in your mid 30s that can say, I have 10 months of summer vacation. I mean, I wouldn't trade it for a major, put it that way.

End of FastScripts....