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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

February 25, 2006

Hale Irwin

LUTZ, FLORIDA

DAVE SENKO: You finished with birdie at 18.

HALE IRWIN: I did birdie the last hole, yes. The last two holes. It was, again, I played quite nicely, although yesterday I really it's sort of been a two day process here and I don't want to belabor it. Yesterday, I just left so many holes, so many birdies out there on the back nine in particular, which is my first nine holes. And I think a little frustration set in, and I came back over on the back nine, the front nine, yesterday.

So I just tried today to keep I changed my putting style a little bit. I've been putting so poorly, I figured if I could just change the style, address position a little bit, maybe I could start rolling the ball better. I made a nice putt at the very first hole today for a birdie from about 15 feet. Followed it up with a nice birdie at 3, hitting 7 iron to within six feet. Then followed that up two holes later with a sand wedge from 86 yards on No. 5 to within a foot.

And then we went into our dry spell. I had a number of opportunities throughout the rest of those holes. Although I did drive it poorly at nine and came up short of the green, I drove it in the fairway bunker and came up short of the green and made about a 10 foot putt for a par.

But I missed consecutive putts at 11, 13, 14, 15, all for birdies. Then I finally hit one close enough on 17 from about three feet that I could make that with a 5 iron.

And then at 18, I had a pitching wedge to the last hole. I hit that about nine feet from the hole and made that for a birdie.

From the fifth hole to the 17th hole, I went birdieless and it wasn't from a lack of opportunities, just from a lack of skill. But overall, two very good days hitting the ball. It seems like I'm either doing things very, very well or doing some silly things, missing the green perhaps on the short side and driving the ball well out of play, missing some easier putts than one would think you would miss. At 7 under, I feel like I've left a few out there, but at the same time, coming in with two birdies on the last two holes, sort of helps eliminate some of that.

Q. The fact you managed to birdie the last two holes after getting frustrated

HALE IRWIN: There's no maybe about it. I think really it started yesterday. I thought I would make just a little side trip. Yesterday, I hit it six feet at 10 and missed it. Made if from 12 feet at 11 and then I missed it from about six feet at 12 for an eagle and about five feet at 13 for a birdie.

So I could have been, you know, after five or six holes, I could have been 6 under par. Then I missed a few more coming in. Suffice it to say that yesterday, the putter really abandoned me early and I never really got it back. Hence, why I went to a little different putting style today, and really it's not that much different. So I just widened my stance a little bit, moved the ball back in my stance to get my arms to swing a bit more, and I did roll the ball much better today. I had more opportunities. The greens got a little more on tricky out there this afternoon with the wind and the sun drying them out, so they got a little bit shaky in some spots. They will put some water on them tonight I think, which maybe nature is going to provide.

Just try to be a little bit more patient, just continue hitting good shots. Eventually you're going to make a couple, even if you don't putt well; eventually if you keep hitting the ball well, you'll make a couple of them, and that's what I did the last couple of holes.

Q. Last week you came storming back on Sunday; this week, you'll be in the final group?

HALE IRWIN: No, I don't think I will be. I'll be in the next to last, depending on the way they come in. Unless somebody comes in better, but I don't know who is going to do what. But I'm tied for the lead, but I'll probably be in the next to last group.

Q. Can you just talk about what your thoughts are as compared to last week, and also, how long did it take to you get over last week, missing that shot on No. 18. ?

HALE IRWIN: Well, actually I had forgotten about it, thank you for reminding me. (Laughing).

Basically, there's very little one can do after you do something like that. And it's been my experience that if I dwell on it, it just festers. So I just try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. My frustration really came after I shouldn't say frustration.

When I drove up here from Naples Sunday night, it was a long drive because you've got to replay the shot, replay it wasn't necessarily just that shot. That was a bad shot, yes. But there are shots on that back nine that I didn't convert that really kind of to be truthful, I hit a 4 iron at 12 last week and I hit it left, in the left bunker, and I had acres of room to the right. If you're going to miss it, you miss it to the long side, and I missed it to the short side and I birdied 10 and 11. So I really had some momentum going if I just make par there.

So really, really stabbed myself badly at the 12th hole last week. However, the fact that you have to recreate the momentum again, and then I got to 18, the ball was up in my face a little bit and it's the kind of shot, I was hitting a 7 iron pretty solidly that you could pull, and I didn't want to hit it 40 or 50 feet from the hole because I felt like Loren would probably birdie 17. And I didn't know what was going on back there. Not that I was hitting the shot any better or worse, but I did attack the flag and I just hit it heavy and just enough that it didn't carry.

But the frustration of that was gone. Hopefully at this stage in my career, I can put those things behind me and not let them negatively affect the next day or the next week. I try to use it more as a positive reinforcement that, hey, I had a good week and I could have hit that shot better, true. But I've hit poor shots before and all and I'll hit poor shots again but hopefully I'll hit more better shots than poorer shots. Long answer to a very short question.

Q. You just seemed a little miffed about it at the time.

HALE IRWIN: Well, yeah, I was, but you get over it. And I was over it very quickly.

Q. Mark James, Mark McNulty, they made their mark somewhere else

HALE IRWIN: Ha ha. Boy that, was good.

Q. Did you know much about them during your regular Tour career?

HALE IRWIN: Oh, yeah.

Q. Could they have done well over here if they had put their mind to it?

HALE IRWIN: More than likely they could have. Mark James was certainly familiar with Mark from Ryder Cups and other tournaments in which I played in Europe. He was always a good player over there, as attested by the number of Ryder Cups in which he played.

McNulty, he played in Europe a lot but was not eligible for Ryder Cup play, but we certainly knew of Mark McNulty. The Mo on Mark McNulty was he was a great short game player, didn't overpower golf courses, and that's what he still is. He keeps the ball very much in play and terrific with the short game, and has the same sort of credentials I think that Loren Roberts has; I think credentials in terms of how he plays. He plays very solidly, hits good golf shots and really controls the ball around the greens.

Now, Jamesie, he's a little bit longer than the other guys, perhaps a bit more left to right and can't control his shots as much, but when he's on, he can really play. He played right in front of us today, and it looked like he was hitting a lot of good shots. He was making some nice putts, they were not 60 footers but it looked like nice, solid, 6 , 8 , 10 foot putts from what I could see, so he was playing well. Several times Tom Kite doesn't hit the ball short, and Mark was after Tom on quite a few occasions, so he was outdriving Tom. So you can only assume that Jamesie is hitting the ball really well.

End of FastScripts.

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