MCI HERITAGE

April 18, 2003

Hal Sutton

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Hal for joining us for a few minutes. Great round today, 5-under par 66, 9-under par for the tournament. Talk about the round today and the conditions and then we'll go into questions.

HAL SUTTON: Conditions were good. Not a lot of breeze till the last few holes and still not a lot then but it was beginning to pick up just a little bit. Greens were receptive today, so if I hit a good shot, you could get the ball close to the hole.

Thought the golf course is in nice shape, and it's fun to be out on a golf course that requires you to hit the ball straight.

Q. You've come here a bunch of years, but you haven't been here in five years or so; what made you stop and what made you return?

HAL SUTTON: Well, this is my anniversary year, and my wife always wanted to do something else and I'm not ever sure I did what she wanted to do (laughing) but I ended up not playing golf.

Anyway, this year, I said how about we go to Hilton Head because that golf course usually sets up good for me and I need to be on something that I feel comfortable on right now, and she said okay. So here we are.

Q. Is she here but this week?

HAL SUTTON: Oh, yeah.

Q. What day and what year? What day is the anniversary?

HAL SUTTON: It was Wednesday and this is my ninth year anniversary.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies and bogeys. You started on 10.

HAL SUTTON: 10, 11 and 12 were routine; just hit it to the middle of the green and 2-putted. First one I hit close. I hit it in the edge of the right rough on 13 and hit an 8-iron six feet. Made that.

Then 15, I hit a sand wedge a foot.

17, I hit an 8-iron ten feet behind the hole.

18, I hit down the middle and I guess I hit too little club. I hit 5-iron and the wind just -- drug it into the hole, I liked it in the air, and the wind hit it a little bit and kicked it into the water. So I dropped it and got up-and-down, and made about a 5-footer for 5.

2, I 3-putted. I missed about a 3-footer there. I would have made birdie.

5, missed the green just off the right side. Chipped it about three feet and made it.

7, I hit 5-iron about ten feet behind the hole and made that.

9, I hit a pitching wedge about 15 feet and made that.

Q. Is this the best you've felt in a long time in a round?

HAL SUTTON: Obviously, yeah. I haven't hit my irons good in two years and that's the reason why I haven't played well. You can look at my stats. My driver is fine. I've driven the ball well, but iron play has been deplorable.

Nick Price gave me a tip on Tuesday, Wednesday -- Tuesday, and it really was the right tip and I've really hit the ball nicely for the last two days.

Q. What was that tip?

HAL SUTTON: Let's see if I can put this into words for y'all. I always carry the club back like this and have had this cock in my left wrist and I would start the club down with that cock and keeping my left arm in closer to my body but the last two years I've done this at the top, and when I do that, it gets the club behind me and gets the ball out behind me, gets the club out across the ball till my left shoulder comes out of the shot and I'm across it. So I've just held that longer.

It seemed technical when he first told me about it, but after I did it a few times, it was like a new found old friend, if you will. I knew that's what I had done a lot in my life.

Q. Had you done any -- looked at old videos or anything to see if I could find anything?

HAL SUTTON: I've done everything you know how to do. I've had probably three or four people accomplished on this, and they didn't see it, either.

Q. Is it something that he had picked up just from watching you?

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, he told me he had seen it for the last four or five months, "but I just haven't said anything to you about it. I made up my mind I'm going to say something to you about it."

Nick is a good friend. He even prefaced it by saying, "If you think I'm going to mess you up, you can run me off."

I thought, "How can you mess me up"? (Laughter.)

Q. How is the sleep apnea condition; are you still fighting it?

HAL SUTTON: It's all right. I just sleep on a machine.

Q. You said coming down here, it's your anniversary, but when did you make the plans to come down here, was this last week or was this on a schedule all year?

HAL SUTTON: No. About ten days or two weeks ago -- actually, it was last week that I made it, actually. It was the beginning of last week. I just said, I felt like I'm beginning to hit the ball a little bit better. I was already hitting the ball a little bit better. Nick said he watched me at TPC and said it really didn't look very good, but then, "I saw you this morning on the practice tee and it looked a lot better. I was hesitant not to say anything but I'm going to anyway."

I'm glad he did because all I'm trying to do is keep my left shoulder in the shot longer.

Q. Did you tell him the next time not to wait four or five months?

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, I did. But everybody is always hesitant to say something. You don't know if you should or what. But if you're a good friend, usually it comes across okay.

Q. The course restorations since the last time you've played here, is it still familiar for you or have you noticed any drastic changes to the course?

HAL SUTTON: I noticed a few changes, yeah. It's a little longer in places than it used to be. But it still looks like the same golf course. I like what they have done with the -- instead of the pine straw, the sand, in a waste area or whatever, but it looks pretty.

It's a fun place to play when there's a premium on accuracy. See, this place is even more so, because -- just because you're in the fairway doesn't mean that you have a good shot. You can be in one side of the fairway and it still might not be very good. For instance, on 2, if you're not in the left side of the fairway you're blocked. 8, you need to be on the right center of the fairway and if you're not you're blocked. Just because you're in the fairway doesn't mean that you have a good shot.

Q. That probably played into your game at some time but if your irons have been off for a couple years, that may not be a good thing for you?

HAL SUTTON: No. If I had not started seeing some improvement in my irons last week, I would not have come, because you've got to hit good irons here, there's no doubt. Just because you're in the fairway doesn't mean -- because the greens are small.

Q. How much of your time at tournaments is spent just conversing with some of the other American players who are hopeful to be on the Ryder Cup team, or does that not figure into it since 2004 is the next?

HAL SUTTON: I think it's a little early to be talking about the Ryder Cup. I mean, everybody -- the Ryder Cup is an important enough event that everybody has it in the back of their mind that they want to make the team, but they also realize that they have to put together a long period of very fine play to make the Ryder Cup team.

So, I think getting caught up in the event a year and a half out is the wrong thing to do.

Q. Do you yourself make any mental notes as potential captain or you don't want to get caught up too early?

HAL SUTTON: Right now, watching the players, I don't think they can do much because it's so far out. A guy could be playing great now and not be playing very good then and vice versa. A guy not playing very well now could be playing great then.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Hal, for joining us.

HAL SUTTON: Thank you. Nice to see the press tent. (Laughter.)

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