HP CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

May 2, 2003

Scott Verplank

Q. Scott Verplank, thanks for joining us. Great round today, 9-under par, 16-under par for the tournament. I was hoping you would comment, it was obviously a tremendous day for you.

SCOTT VERPLANK: I played terrible. No. It was, it really was one of those deals with the hole kept getting in the way of my putts. I just -- yesterday and today I've putted really nice, I've just rolled the ball beautifully and up to this point I have acquired a tremendous feel for these greens, so that makes up for a lot of other things when you continually make 10- and 15-footers, that makes up for a lot of other mess-ups, so I'm not -- i actually usually drive the ball very straight and pretty solid, but not very far, and I haven't really driven it that good here in the last few weeks, not quite as good as I'm used to, so hopefully I'm going to try to get that -- i was down a little bit last night when I finished, I ran over and hit a few balls, which I normally never do, which I guess that worked, I got my putting back in today.

Q. How long did you work on it last night?

SCOTT VERPLANK: About 20 minutes, just -- i'm just a little bit off, obviously not too far off, but a little bit off, you know, just for peace of mind, I think.

Q. You never played well here until last year. Are you finally liking it?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I don't know. I mean, I've always enjoyed playing here, I love coming here to eat for a week. I'll be -- i'll have more crawfish than anybody -- than I'll even think about having the rest of the year. I enjoyed playing around -- I have friends down here, I've been coming down to New Orleans for 20-some years, started playing junior golf down here, and I don't know -- Tommy Moore [ph] was pretty much my best friend in college and all that so, I don't know if you know who he is, but he was from here, so because of him I've been coming down here playing golf tournaments for 22 years, I think, so, his wife -- ex-wife whatever -- i'm not sure what you call that -- widow. I'm really not very smart. His widow is still a real good friend of mine, so I had dinner with her last night, and that's always enjoyable to check on her and their son.

Q. Can you talk about how easy the course is playing or how scoreable it is?

SCOTT VERPLANK: Well, yeah, I think part of it is the greens are obviously, at least to me, they are putting beautifully, and at this point they are not as hard as I have seen them here in the past. Obviously, the weather is great. This is as good a weather as you can have for out here. A lot of time it is much windier and maybe a little rain. I've played a lot of times where the wind was blowing a lot harder and the greens were firmer and the golf course was playing a lot more difficult.

I think with the dryness and not much rough, as far as all these young guys (inaudible), it's making the golf course play that much further (inaudible) otherwise the scores wouldn't be so low, but that's not the case this week.

Q. Did you have a game plan this morning?

SCOTT VERPLANK: To be honest with you, not any different than I had yesterday. You know, around here, the way conditions are, when you have a club in your hand out in the fairway, this is a terrible plot, or whatever you want to call it, you know, there is guys making a lot of birdies, and I guess the cut is going to be something ridiculously low, 4- or 5-under par, that shows the depth of our tour, but you better make some birdies.

Q. Would a win here be extra special because of Tommy Moore.

SCOTT VERPLANK: Oh, yeah, I mean, I think in that way it would for sure. You know, a win anywhere is pretty good to me, whatever. This is pretty good today, but yeah, winning here would be extra cool because his widow is here and their son, and his mom and dad still live here and, like I said, he was kind of my -- he was kind of my guide through college, and we were roommates and good buddies, and he had a pretty big influence on my life.

Q. You played all four years with him?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I just played two years with him.

Q. Go over your scorecard, started on the backside with birdies on 11, 12 and 13.

SCOTT VERPLANK: All right. Let's see, 11, I actually made about a 15 -- 15-foot putt there, (inaudible) less to the green on my second shot, which was 585, best thing you can do there is (inaudible), actually made it, that was nice. Then I hit it about 4 feet on 12, hit an 8-iron.

Next hole I hit a sand wedge about 8 feet, 8 or 9 feet, made that. 15, I hit a 3-iron on the green in two about 30 feet from the hole (inaudible).

17, I hit a 6-iron about 8 feet -- was it that one? (Inaudible) I had to hit an 8-iron out of there and, actually, hit a 9-iron to the green for my third shot about 15 feet, and went straight up the hill, pretty good putt, I made it. 4, I hit a sand wedge about 10 feet. 7, I hit a 9-iron about 6 feet. And then 9, I hit a sand wedge about 20 feet, right on the fringe (inaudible) some days they are going in; some days they are not. Maybe they are going in today. Kind of a nice ending to make on the last hole.

Q. Did you have any miracle saves?

SCOTT VERPLANK: I did have it under the lip on number 18, second shot, I was a little bit concerned it might hit the lip and come back and hit me, but I was standing over it. It was underneath me. The grass was grown over and I got a little sand, so other than that, I was pretty much putting birdies most of the day.

Q. Any one shot you are more proud of?

SCOTT VERPLANK: About all of it. Unfortunately, you get out there and you get more disgusted with one than proud of one. I had a few that I was scratching my head and shaking my head about. I hit enough good iron shots. Like I said, normally I drive the ball pretty straight, and if I'm playing well, I putt good, and I feel like I struggle with my irons, where this week I made a lot of nice iron -- solid iron shots and struggling a little off the tee. So maybe it's the better combination. So far it's the better mix.

Q. Would you be surprised if 16 didn't hold up today?

SCOTT VERPLANK: (Inaudible) to be honest with you, it doesn't really matter to me. (Inaudible) it doesn't matter if two days from now if I'm leading, it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter that much.

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