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BUICK OPEN

August 4, 2006

Jeff Sluman

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

TODD BUDNICK: We want to thank Jeff Sluman for stopping in after a 5 under 67, the second round of the 2006 Buick Open. Of course you have to add that in with your 66, much of which was played today as well. A nice day of golf for you today, Jeff.

JEFF SLUMAN: I was pleasantly surprised. I woke up this morning, with about three hours of sleep. I woke up at about 2:30 and have been up ever since. I was exhausted starting the round. And the way I felt, I didn't know if I could play all 30. But as the day progressed, I felt a little better all day and then had a quick lunch break and that.

I really wasn't feeling well in the morning. We had a nice start. Like I said, I was pleasantly surprised. Once you make a few birdies and you're playing with Jim, and he played unbelievable golf. I'll tell you what, he should be leading by about five shots, as well as he played. I was a little scratchy around the edges, but he was dead on pure.

Chris, unfortunately, didn't finish well today, but he was playing well most of the tournament. It's just fun to play with two guys like that. We all just kind of pulled each other along.

TODD BUDNICK: You finished third last week in Milwaukee. You've got three Top 10s in the last six starts. Playing with two guys who are probably on the Ryder Cup team

JEFF SLUMAN: They're definitely on the team.

TODD BUDNICK: You're making a move yourself, though, you're moving up the list.

JEFF SLUMAN: I'm not going to worry about that at all. If I do I'll shoot a couple of 80s on the weekend. Every time throughout my career if I started focusing on making a team like that I never seem to play well. I'm going to kind of let it happen. If I don't make the team, I don't make the team, but we'll have 12 guys that will be playing great golf representing our country and I'll be cheering them on if I'm not somehow there.

TODD BUDNICK: Talk about what's come about in these last six starts.

JEFF SLUMAN: I wish I could tell you. I'm driving it a lot better, although today if you look statistically I didn't drive it as well as I have been. At Westchester and then at the U.S. Open, I think the U.S. Open I was first in fairways hit and greens hit. That's a good thing at the U.S. Open, let me tell you, especially at Winged Foot.

Last week I think I was first in greens again, third in fairways. When I start driving the ball well like that, I'm a decent enough iron player I'm not going to make too many mistakes. Then it's just a matter of can you make a few putts here and there.

I've worked very, very diligently and hard on my putting the last couple of years and it seems to be really coming along.

Chris showed me the claw grip, and I changed to that last year in New Orleans. And that's really paid a lot of dividends. Candidly, before that, I wasn't making a whole lot of putts, but I wasn't I just wasn't putting the way you're supposed to putt if you want a chance to win golf tournaments.

TODD BUDNICK: We'll take some questions.

Q. Can you tell us why you were up so early and why you didn't feel well?

JEFF SLUMAN: You know, I have no trouble going to sleep. I always have trouble staying asleep. That's just the way it is sometimes. I don't know if I'm still trying to catch up from I should have caught up well by now from the British Open, but I've been getting up every day since I came back at 5:00 or 5:30, but this morning it was 2:30. I finally gave up at about 5:00 and turned the computer on and wrote a few e mails and that was about it. I wish I knew.

Q. What are the conditions like out there? How soft is the golf course?

JEFF SLUMAN: It's still pretty soft, and obviously we're playing the ball up, which I think obviously is the right thing to do because you can get a tremendous amount of mud on the ball. The golf course was perfect prior to the deluge we had on Wednesday night and Thursday.

We played a little bit on Tuesday, and then of course the Pro Am on Wednesday. It was fantastic, a lot of chasing. The greens were nice and firm. You had to drive the ball in the fairway to spin it. It was Warwick Hills at its best, but unfortunately Mother Nature came in and changed the game. When that happens here you better take dead aim at the pins and make birdies because everybody is going to be making them.

Q. Not that you need any extra motivation, but was there any playing with two guys who are going to be on the Ryder Cup team?

JEFF SLUMAN: No, not really. They're good friends. It's always nice when you look down and see a pairing like that and say it's just going to be a great two days, because they are both unbelievable competitors and terrific guys on and off the golf course, professional out there. That's really a real pleasant experience when that happens.

Q. This course has produced a lot of different champions with a lot of different styles over the years. When you look back at the track records of Vijay and Tiger, who we know are elite players anyway, do they have a little extra advantage here?

We know they are elite players, but still this course has generated players with various styles of play. What kind of separates them here besides

JEFF SLUMAN: Tiger separates himself every week, but Vijay is on a roll here. He just feels, I would imagine, very comfortable over every shot. He's won it two times in a row. Has he won it three times? Yes. So obviously he's had a lot of success here. I think everywhere but the L.A. Open, anywhere Tiger has been more than four times, he's won. So I know he's won here.

Those guys just go into the week thinking, you know, they're going to have a very good chance to win. This golf course is one of those things that prior to the rain, all the 5's were very reachable for everybody. Now the long ball hitters, obviously Tiger and Vijay and there's a bunch of other guys, I really couldn't get home on 7 or 16, probably not even 1. I got close in a bunker today. But those guys can get it up and on those greens. And you take that over four rounds, if they play those holes well that's a significant advantage.

Really, what it boils down to, after four rounds of one or two or three shots they might pick up on those holes over four rounds is a big deal.

Q. You've been playing well for most of the summer. Last week Corey Pavin won. It puts his victory into perspective because he's not the longest hitter in the world, obviously he hasn't won in a decade. He found victory in the latter stages of his career. Obviously you're trying to do the same thing this week.

JEFF SLUMAN: Cory's record speaks for itself. He is a wonderful player and magical around the greens. He got off to a great start and nobody was really able to press him all week within one shot. I don't know if Jerry got within two last week. I don't know that for a fact. He just played wonderful golf. I think he hit every green on Sunday. Before that, prior to that, the first three days he played great golf and then holed a lot of putts, which he has to do to be 17 under, which he was after three rounds.

I think it's great to see that and it just goes to show you that there is a little bit left in the tank for some of the older players. It's great to see. He's not afraid of winning, obviously. He's won 15, 16 events, something like that. But his last win, I was runner up in that tournament, in '96, so he's been a little thorn in my side, but he played great. I thought it was a great story.

Q. How much of a break did you get between the two rounds? And second, with Chris coming off the performance at the British, how surprised were you that he never really got anything going this week and it looks like he's going to miss the cut?

JEFF SLUMAN: You're always surprised to see a great player like Chris miss the cut. But he did have it to four and had a couple of loose shots. The hole that killed him was No. 1, the 28th hole. He had it on the fringe, tipped up like this and three putted. Usually on these greens from here, not only is it going in for sure, but you're not going to 3 putt.

I think that really took the wind out of his sails and he felt he had to make something and he just couldn't get it done this time. Like I said, I was a little surprised. He'll be ready. He's swinging good. I thought he putted well, although he didn't make much this week.

Q. Jeff, your history here, although a missed the cut last year, seven Top 15s, three Top 10s, what part of your history can you use to continue the good play here and what has been your strength in those years that you've played especially well here?

JEFF SLUMAN: I think probably one of the strong things is probably Vijay and Tiger weren't in the field then. I just have to play my own game and realize that I've got to hit those shorter wedges close to the hole on a number of the opportunities they had on 12 and 14, and maybe get it up or nearer the green on 1 or 13 and take advantage of those type of holes, because those guys are certainly going to take advantage of them.

You don't want to give away too much there because the other holes are it's difficult to make up that many shots on the other holes. You have got to make some birdies, but I have to take advantage of those holes especially, really.

Q. Not much sleep last night, maybe not expecting much today, is there something that jump started this round for you?

JEFF SLUMAN: A bunch of birdies early. I birdied I started on 7, I birdied 8, 9, and 10. And then you're like, okay, I think I've got a little adrenaline going now, and then I birdied 12 and 13, 14, and 15. Is that right? 16. I wasn't tired then. (Laughter). So that's what I was kind of hoping for. I was pretty tired. I didn't want to get off to a sluggish start and drag myself around, so I did what I hoped to do, and obviously get off to a good start.

Q. With you missing the cut for the first time in 13 years at this tournament last year, was that something that was providing you extra motivation coming into the first two rounds this year? And the second part of that question, was that something that was on your mind last night when you were up at 2:30 in the morning?

JEFF SLUMAN: That definitely wasn't on my mind at 2:30 in the morning. I didn't realize that was the first cut I've missed in a long time here. I think any professional that's been out here for a long time, like myself, you just can't stand to miss a cut. I mean it really, even to this day, upsets me and frustrates me and makes you go to the range and practice harder. I just can't stand missing the cut. But I wasn't thinking about that obviously during the play today. I think after you're 2 or 3 under, you're thinking I don't want to miss this thing. It's one of those pride things. You think you're better than that, than to go out and miss cuts.

Q. I thought I overheard you tell somebody you didn't shave today?

JEFF SLUMAN: I was too tired to shave. I didn't even really think about it. I'm sure I'll be well shaved tomorrow. No reason, I just didn't really think about it.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your birdies on the second round starting on No. 10.

JEFF SLUMAN: Nice drive out there and I think I had a gap wedge from 112 and just chipped it in there to two or three feet.

12, I drove it down the middle and hit a sand wedge, I don't know what the yardage was, 79 yards. Once again, hit a nice, kind of a low hopping sand wedge in there about a foot.

15, I drove it in the right rough both days and actually made birdie both times. I hit a 5 iron out of the rough just past the hole about probably 30 feet and made the putt that was so perfect. It just looked like you tapped it in from a foot. It went in dead center, right perfect. That was a pleasant surprise.

No. 1, I drove it well there and hit a 3 wood into the right bunker. And the pin was just over the bunker about four paces on the right side. I hit a nice bunker shot to about two and a half feet.

I bogeyed 6. At that point I was a little wild off the tee. I drove it under a tree and hacked it out, just made a basic routine bogey, knocked it on 15 feet and missed it.

I don't know if you saw it on TV, but I pulled it again just a yard on 7. I hit it in the bunker, flashed out and hit it kind of this way because I couldn't get I had to get my feet out of the bunker and kind of hacked it over to the right onto the crosswalk and called for a ruling and I got a drop off of that.

I had 220 yards from there and I hit my whatever they call those, what are those called? A hybrid. I knew somebody would know that, especially here in Detroit. I hit that to 20 feet and made that. That was a very pleasant surprise.

I hit a beautiful 4 iron on 8. It was kind of into the wind left to right. I think I had 201 to about six, seven feet. Right where you want to have it, right up the hill, right to left, and made that.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Jeff.

End of FastScripts.

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