THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY SOUTHERN COMPANY

October 27, 1999

Hal Sutton

HAL SUTTON: Well, I have just said it several times: The golfing world is going to miss a flamboyant, easy-to-get-along with personality in Payne. Payne is in a better place. I am sure he is not going to make anymore bogeys in his life. He is going to make all pars and birdies, but I do feel bad for Tracey and the kids. It is going to be hard to go on with their life. I am sure they will, but it will be difficult. I am glad that we are taking the day off Friday so we can go to the services. He deserves his day.

HAL SUTTON: Somebody was saying this and I wouldn't normally be for this. I have kidded Payne all my life about his knickers, but just as a tribute to him, I think it would be kind of neat if we all wore knickers on Sunday. I don't know if that is possible or not. But be kind of neat, I think. As far as everybody going down there, I am not sure who is going. Getting planes together to go to, that is all I know.

HAL SUTTON: There has certainly been a different feel around here this week. I think the one thing that this challenges us to think about is how short life really is. And although Payne wasn't a family member of mine, I almost feel like I lost a family member. Payne and I have been competing against one another for a better part of 22 years, whether it was amateur golf or professional golf, and because our names were so close together, we were always lockered beside one another and we were parking in alphabetical order; when we were parking beside one another. Every time I look at his locker this week, it just causes distress in my insides.

HAL SUTTON: Most recently was the things that we -- Payne and I got a lot closer at the Ryder Cup and spent a lot of time together there. He was kidding me about he'd never been on a horse in his life; that he was going to come up to my farm and ride a horse with me. And he was -- he had a hunting trip planned after we got back from Spain. He invited me to go on the hunting trip with him. Then the night after we won, we were sitting there, and everybody else was having a good time. He and I were quietly talking. He said, "I know I feel sure that one or both of us will be a Captain of this Ryder Cup team one day." He said, "You and I both share the same passion for the Ryder Cup." They have got this code, this assistant Captain thing going on. He said, "If I am ever Captain, I'd really want you to be a part of my team." Of course, I said the same thing. Payne was an interesting personality. He had an arrogance about him that he was able to get away with that not a lot of other guys were able to get away with because he always had that twinkle in his eye and that smile. He might say something that might be a little bit brash, but then he would wink at you or he'd have that twinkle in his eye. If somebody else had said, it you might have thought that is a little bit too much. But because Payne said it, you know he didn't mean anything brash by it; if he did, you overlooked it. Payne had his own style, his own way. I don't have to explain that to everybody. Everybody knows Payne's style. We will miss him.

HAL SUTTON: No. That is not things that we ever talked about. I mean, I think this is -- as tragic as this is, I think it makes us all evaluate what we are all going through in our life. We are a lot more of a family out here than everybody has always made us to seem to be, and in a tragic situation like this, you find out how much more of a family you really are. In the past, we haven't shared moments of -- you know, when we were distraught and out with our game. We didn't talk about it with other guys. Payne and I never had that kind of conversation together. Maybe we should have. Maybe together we with could have pulled one another out of it, but if he were here today and we were having that same problem, I know we would talk about it.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, last year or so, I guess you might say we took some pride in the fact that we were coming back at the age that we were at. We were being competitive. And he'd say to me, "Let's win one for the old guys," or things like that. Although, Payne and I don't want to admit we are older; so I don't know. Payne and I shared a lot of moments together. I mean, being as honest as I know how to be, you know, early on in our careers, Payne was so aggressive with his self-confidence that, you know, it was almost intimidating to some degree. When he'd sign a cap, he'd sign all the way across the bill. That would aggravate me. I'd kid him. I'd say, "They need to make hats bigger for you so you can sign your name." But as we grew out here and matured out here together, you know, that never bothered me anymore. I knew Payne and he knew Hal.

HAL SUTTON: I have been thinking about that all day long. And I think the only answer that I have to that question is that this is one of those situations in life where you are asked to prioritize. And I think the priority here is not this golf tournament, but what has happened to us as a TOUR with the loss of Payne; the loss of a friend; what Tracey and the kids are going through. So I am sure we will all be putting our best foot forward, and there will an winner on Sunday night. But there is a greater priority; so I am not really worried about how I focus or I don't focus this week. I think about being how many times we have all flown on private airplanes and how many times we have gotten in that private airplane and we didn't know anything about that airplane or anything about the pilots in that airplane. I think about how many times I have put my family into a situation like that, and, you know, that is just tragic that Payne had to be an example for us.

HAL SUTTON: No, I don't. I just bought an airplane about two months ago.

HAL SUTTON: I bought a small jet. So I looked at that Fractional (sic) Jet Program. I will be honest with you, that is something that I almost bought into the Fractional Jet Program, but the reason why I didn't was because I didn't know the pilot and I don't know the airplanes. And you fly with a different set of pilots every time; in a different airplane every time, and I just felt like that was -- that is taking too much of a gamble and too much of a risk. This way, I know the airplane and maintenance program that it has been on and I know the pilot. And then if they tell me something is wrong with the airplane, it is my choice. My choice, I would promise you, would be not to go.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah.

HAL SUTTON: They fly strictly for me. They have just been in the business for a long time.

HAL SUTTON: I will tell you in the morning about 10:36, Jerry. I would think that we will. I would think that Payne would want us to. I think it is going to be just individually how we cope with it. I don't know the answer to that question, to be honest. I am not trying to avoid you there.

HAL SUTTON: I saw Ben earlier. We didn't sit down and chat about it. We are going to. I think it is important that we do that. I guess the nicest thing about having spent the last six weeks in the large part with Payne is that I got to know Payne on a much deeper level. Maybe why it hurts a little bit right now is because I do know him on a much more deeper level.

HAL SUTTON: I feel like my game is pretty good. I had a little slipup last week, but all and all, my game feels really good to me. Mindset is to go out and attack it one shot at a time the same way I do every week. East Lake was a great golf course, but I will tell you what, Champions is, also. It is going to take, just like East Lake, you are going to have to drive your ball really well here. Big greens, and you need to be pretty good iron player because you can be on the green and be in a different zip code, basically. So you better be a pretty good ball-striker.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah, I think about it all the time, but I don't know what I can do about it, or anything else, other than cope with each day just like we did prior to this tragedy. We are reminded a lot of the time by how short life really is, and we are just passing through this life that we are living. When a friend gets taken in a tragedy like Payne has, you are just reminded of how short it really is. So all the people you haven't told you love lately, you better tell them. And you better live your days like you mean it.

HAL SUTTON: I don't really think so. I don't think it will be that big a deal. No more fatigue than normal, basically. I think we are down to the end of the year. Everybody has gone through a long, hard year. We are all tired before we start, basically. We are all ready for things to quit meaning so much; that we can settle down and have a two-month family life here. But I don't think it is any more so than normal.

HAL SUTTON: I was at lunch with my dad. And my sister called me and said she had just heard it on the news; that it was a prominent golfer from Orlando on board the plane. And she was -- didn't know who it was. And, of course, I will be honest, but I felt like it was Payne going to Dallas and I knew it was either going to be him or Scott Hoch -- or who else flew out there on Flex Jet. When they said it was --.

HAL SUTTON: Yeah. Mark O'Meara, he is in there, too. No. We weren't having lunch here. We were in Shreveport. I hoped it wasn't. I hoped it was one that was chartered by him and he wasn't on it. But --.

HAL SUTTON: No, I didn't. I called my wife and told her to turn on the TV. And then I left and went straight home. And, you know, how do you know who to call to confirm, and don't call the house. You know, I was just like anybody else, watching it. Only thing I think is a little bit wrong with our country right now, I am not sure that everybody deserves to know every detail of what is going on in somebody's life. I have not talked to Tracey or anybody else, but I hope she didn't have to sit there and watch that and hear everything they talked about and everything else. That was her husband and her children's daddy in that airplane. If I can caution any of you all about anything, it is not the obligation to point out every detail of everything that goes on with everybody. It is not necessarily your responsibility to share every detail with everybody. That was a tragic moment in life. I just know that if that would have been my situation there, I wouldn't have wanted to have to dealt with everything that was on that TV.

HAL SUTTON: Yes.