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July 29, 2004

Olin Browne

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

JOE CHEMYCZ: Olin Browne, an 8 under par 64, matches low round of the year for you. Talk about your good play. You tied for fourth last week in Milwaukee, obviously still playing well.

OLIN BROWNE: Yeah, I didn't really know what to expect today. Missed playing this week the first three days. Got here on Monday because I was scheduled to play in the Pro Am and they reduced the field size, so it I was truly grateful for the day off. We got rained out Tuesday and hit a few balls yesterday. So I didn't get a practice round and just hit a few putts and chips and a few balls yesterday really. So I guess a couple of days off helped me out this week.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Your play today, what was good about that?

OLIN BROWNE: I've been playing pretty well since the Booz Allen, really. Hit a lot of quality shots. And the rounds where I shoot a good score, I seem to be making some putts. In the rounds I'm shooting around par, I'm not making the putts.

I changed my putter last week and had a really nice week. I changed my driver, actually starting at Booz Allen and I think those two things have really contributed to my good play in the last five or six weeks.

Q. When you're having the year you have, when you've missed a lot of cuts, how hard is it to stay on focus to get to the point where like the last few weeks when you've played really sound?

OLIN BROWNE: Well, focused isn't the problem. It's just poor play. Really, the last two years, I haven't played well. This year I made a commitment to changing some things that I knew were giving me trouble. And doing that, we spend a lot of time uncomfortable on the golf course. So I have not in the last six weeks been comfortable on the golf course. I blended some of the things I was working on that are reminiscent for me of my good play in the past and it seems to have worked out. I have been on a little bit of a roll a little bit and enjoying it again.

That's a big part of it, too. When you play poorly, you hate this game because it just abuses you up, down and inside out. Playing a little better makes it more enjoyable to be out there.

Q. What putter did you have and what did you change to?

OLIN BROWNE: I had just a regular old Odyssey putter and I changed to a Bettinardi, it's called an XD something or other. But the weighting of it is different. It's a little bit of a mallet shape but the weight is back behind the face. It's heel shafted. It's a little bit toe hang, it's not, what do you call it, a face balanced putter. But it seems to roll the ball really well.

I went to the Bettinardi Center they have got, you know a bunch of laser system and cameras and we watched the ball's roll and got fitted, really. It seems to be working better putting since. I went there in Chicago, but I put the putter in a couple of weeks ago.

It's not just my putter. I'm driving it better than I was. I've been perennially one of the top five or six guys in driving accuracy on TOUR, and last year I felt out of the Top 10 for the first time. I think that has a lot to do with it, as well. This driver has a lot less loft. It's a Big Bertha II, and has less loft than what I was trying to play with. So I was able to hit shots in both directions like I like, and I think the combination of the two things with the new driver and the new putter have really helped me.

Q. Vijay talked about the fact that he just switched to a new putter, he just went to a conventional putter this week. When you do and you immediately feel comfortable with a new putter, how much of a boost does that give to your game?

OLIN BROWNE: It's funny. When you are hitting poor shots, you start getting into a rut where you wonder if you will ever get it figured out. The minute you get it going again, you think, it wasn't that hard.

This is a nefarious game. It's an insidious game; it can play with your mind. Sometimes a change is good just for the sake of change, you know what I mean? As opposed to beating your head against the wall in the same spot all the time, move to a different spot; I'm going to find a softer spot on the wall. (Laughter).

Q. A lot of guys yesterday were saying the course is vulnerable and the scores would be low, is there a point after you've played a couple of holes that you know you'll be able to shoot a 64?

OLIN BROWNE: I think those kind of scores come to you. They don't I don't have the kind of talent where I think you step up on the first tee and say, all right, I'm going to abuse the golf course today. I don't hit the ball 320 in the air like Hank Kuehne or Tiger or John Daly or somebody like that. Guys like that who know the conditions are tough for the rest of us on the par 5s, they know they have a four shot advantage right out of the chute.

But, having played here, I think I've played here every year that I've been on TOUR, this is my 12th or 13th year playing here, you tend to see it under different kind of conditions. And when the weather is like this, we know the greens are holding because this place is just in beautiful shape. You know you're going to get some opportunities to roll in some putts. You get it anywhere inside 20 feet, you're thinking: Make, make, make. When the greens are soft, you can take a little more aggressive line at some of the flags, and the result is maybe it's a mentality starting the day.

But, you know, there are some scores out there that are not great today, too. So you have to be hitting the shots that you're trying to hit, because if you aim it in the middle of the green and try to fade it to the hole and you come over to the top, you're going to have 60 feet and you're going to 3 putt.

This is a wonderful course and when it's playing like this, you want to take advantage of it because it doesn't always play this easily.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Take us through your birdies, if you will, starting with the par 5 No. 1.

OLIN BROWNE: Yeah, I hit a good drive on 1. I had 265 to the front and it the kind of shot, should I go for it or not. Buck, my caddie says, no, there's no point because the pins on the back of the green; you do not want to be putting up and over that hill. I laid up and hit a wedge about 15 feet, and it was a nice way to start the day because I made a good read. The speed was good on the putt and it tells us the line it went in. It was a good start.

4, I hit a good drive there. I hit a little 9 iron. I had a 126 to the pin. And again you have to hit on a day like today when the greens are that soft, you don't want to be hitting full shots all the time. You're spinning the ball away from the hole. I eased off a 9 iron and hit it about four or five feet and made it.

7, I hit a pitching wedge about seven feet.

9, I hit an 8 iron about five feet.

12, I hit a pitching wedge about 12 feet, maybe 15 feet.

13, I hit a wedge about 15 feet.

16, the par 5, I hit a lob wedge about 12, 15 feet.

17, I hit a little 6 iron about eight feet.

So I had a nice mix of putts. All my putts were inside 15 feet, basically. I hit it close enough on enough occasions so that I had a reasonably easy run at it.

JOE CHEMYCZ: Olin, thank you. Play well the rest of the week. Appreciate you coming in.

End of FastScripts.

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