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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

June 3, 2005

Lucas Glover

DUBLIN, OHIO

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Lucas Glover making your first start at The Memorial Tournament. You're off to a great start, 7 under par, and definitely in contention heading into the weekend. If we could start with some opening comments about your day today. You got off to kind of a rough start but recovered and played well.

LUCAS GLOVER: I did, 3 over through 4, bogeyed 2, 3 and 4 and kind of reeling. Just got up on 5 tee, had a little wait and I kind of if you're playing well, you never want the momentum to stop, and if you're playing bad, you do. It was nice to have a little wait there. No. 5 is a good hole and it's downwind for me, just 5 wood 5 wood, two solid shots and I can get home in two.

I had about a 12, 14 footer for eagle there, and that kind of got things going. I didn't make it, but two good solid shots there. That's a tough par 5. That kind of got things righted, and then I knew I had the other three par 5s with good tee balls I could make birdie. Just play smart from there, get it back under and kind of sneak in. I didn't have much early ball striking wise. It was kind of scrappy and I didn't make any putts, but to get in at 70 was a pleasure, two good pars on 17 and 18 out of some pretty interesting places.

Q. You said yesterday that maybe the difference between last year and this year is you were learning patience. Could you have done what you did today last year in terms of after that start?

LUCAS GLOVER: No. I'd have been well on my way to about a 77 because walking off of 4 tee I'd have been throwing my putter and kicking my bag and beating myself up. Today I just walked up to the 5th tee and said, "all right, I've got a wait, good par 5, let's who cares, it's over." Last year would have been totally different, honestly. I can say that because that's the mentality I've had all year is just "let it go, it's okay. There's always the next hole, always tomorrow. What's behind us is gone." That's one thing I had to learn last year, and it took until December to do it.

Q. Is some of that learning the fact that you've had five Top 10s this year and you don't really have to worry about your security?

LUCAS GLOVER: Well, the Top 10s were because of that mentality, and now it's easier, yes, but those my play previous to this is due to that, because I didn't every bogey wasn't the end of the world and every bad shot wasn't beating myself up inside and outwardly showing I was upset. But I still get mad, I just don't carry it on very far. I still think if you don't get mad, you don't care.

So it's upsetting to hit a bad shot, but you've got to eventually forget about it and go to the next one. Like I said, the play previous to this is due to that, that mentality that I've made myself have.

Q. How did you get there then if it's not a product of on course success? Did you just decide that your attitude was killing you?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yeah, last year, Thursday, Friday and even might have made half of my cuts last year or something, but every shot was like live and die, chasing my card and ended up not getting it. But it lived and died with every shot. You look at the guys that are winning five, six times a year, they don't do that. They go up there and say, "I've got enough game here, I'm going to make par, get up and down on this par 5 for birdie and just keep going," and that's it. You've watched Tiger and Vijay and Ernie and that's what they do. I think Davis might be the best at it, shortest memory. Those guys have incredibly short memories, their short game is good enough to get them out of anything, and that's why they are where they are. To get to there, that's what I've got to do.

Q. Is it fair to say you almost looked at tournaments as two day tournaments, you put so much pressure on yourself?

LUCAS GLOVER: I did at the end of the year. Any check I cashed was so important for my card that that first bogey on Thursday, oh, the week is over, and beating myself up and that. But this year, today was a prime example, three bogeys early and just, "heck with it, still 2 under, let's get it going," and if it didn't happen, it didn't happen. I wasn't going to change anything mentally. Physically I might have had to but mentally I wasn't going to.

Q. What was missing in your start that you got under control as the day went on?

LUCAS GLOVER: Just a minor adjustment with my setup. I was setting up closed a little bit to my target, and I just opened up a little bit and it just kind of clicked. I didn't hit every shot where I was looking, but it was closer.

Q. When was the last time, if ever, you made three bogeys in a row?

LUCAS GLOVER: Wednesday. I bogeyed 1, 2, doubled 3 and bogeyed 4. So I was 5 over through 4 on Wednesday.

Q. How about in competition?

LUCAS GLOVER: Charlotte maybe, Wachovia. I think I made two bogeys and a double in a row or something like that. I can get on some good strings like that (laughing). I can't recall exactly, but I think I had a pretty nasty one there.

Q. You talked a lot about patience but you still have to hit shots and make putts. Why are you doing physically better than last year?

LUCAS GLOVER: My putting is more consistent. Statistically it's still not very good, and I'm not going to tell you I'm a good putter, but when it is there, I hit the ball I feel like I want to most of the time, and when my putting is consistent throughout four days, it's usually a pretty good week.

But as a whole, the year, it's been more consistent. Last year it was as up and down and inconsistent as anybody could ever have seen or whatever. But that's all, it's just more consistent. It might not be great, but it might be consistently average. The last two days it's been consistently good, so that's these greens are about like home. When our greens are good at home, this is about the pace, and the grass is kind of the same, so I'm very comfortable. I like fast greens, and I think you've got to hit the ball in certain places better, and that kind of favors.

Q. Some people have complained about the pin at 4 today. Did you find it to be unfair at all or not?

LUCAS GLOVER: You've just got to hit it right of the hole. If you hit it on line, the wind is right to left, it's going to go down on the bottom there in the hole. I was walking to the green on the hole and I saw two balls that far (indicating three feet) so it can't be that bad. I think one guy in front of us made birdie. It's a demanding shot. It's a major hole location, like that's where it's going to be in two weeks at the Open if it was here.

I didn't have any problem with it. I made bogey. I hit two bad shots.

As the day goes on, if it's sunny and breezy, maybe, but when I played it I didn't have any problem.

Q. It's one thing to tell yourself to be more patient and not get upset and not throw a club and another to do it. Did you talk to anyone or how difficult was the process or the will of getting to that point?

LUCAS GLOVER: It was just a mindset that I had when I got out here in January. I still throw my putter and kick my bag, but it's not as often, and I'm not as outwardly upset, because number one, you show your pain, and number two, you're hurting yourself. So I decided to let it go. If you hit a bad shot by the time you're off the tee, be thinking about the next shot, a little area of 15 yards or whatever, then you're done.

I played with Davis last year at Wachovia and he had two triples on the front and shot 72. That's probably the best learning round I've ever seen. I think he birdied three of the last six with an eagle in there, too, and that just showed me there that he's there because he doesn't care about ten minutes ago. He's looking ahead. I took a lot from that round watching him. I played well and he finished well with 72, and man, I'd have been same thing, I'd have been well on my way to some high score. I look at that round a lot and think about throwing the putter across the green or something.

Q. Was your tendency to get caught up in your emotions brought on by the pressure to keep your card, or were you always a really emotional player?

LUCAS GLOVER: Both. I was always very emotional, and I still am, like I said, but forgetting about it was the key. Last year the added pressure to trying to chase down the card made things a little worse for sure.

Q. How about developing this shorter memory, did you go and see a sports psychologist or one of those guys?

LUCAS GLOVER: I've been working with Morris Pickens, who's out of Columbia, South Carolina, for about three years now. He's always told me that, and I've always told him that I've been working on it, but until this year I really wasn't.

Q. How do you work on that, practice that?

LUCAS GLOVER: I just don't do it. I just say, "who cares, I made a bogey. Go make a birdie on the next hole." It's not a matter of doing it or not doing it, it's just I just don't anymore. Like on 4 today, like I said, I walked off the green and said, "all right, that's it, we've got a wait, let's go, calm down, let's get two good shots and get birdie." I think that's also being comfortable out here, whereas last year was still kind of a learning experience.

Q. Was it last year at Q school that you hit a shot on the 18th hole stiff?

LUCAS GLOVER: Yes, sir.

Q. So you stayed focused there. I mean, that was

LUCAS GLOVER: I was behind the eight ball there and I birdied 15, 16 and 18 to get my card, hit it like two and a half feet on the last or something like that.

Q. So you had reason to believe you could stay in the moment before you even started this year because you did it there?

LUCAS GLOVER: I played well at the end of last year. I played well at Disney, played well at Vegas, and I had some momentum going into Q school. Looking back on that just kind of made me realize, hey, you can do it under the gun, and I'm proving it this year on Sundays in contention, but it's still there.

Q. Could we go through the round, birdies and bogeys?

LUCAS GLOVER: Sure.

Par on 1, bogey 2, 3 and 4 and my favorite hole, 14, bogey.

Q. What happened on 2?

LUCAS GLOVER: 2, I hit it left off the tee behind a tree about a foot, had to pitch out to the fairway, hit pitching wedge to about six feet and missed it.

3, I flared a 3 wood into the right rough, pitched out again, hit 9 iron to six feet and missed it.

4, I mis clubbed there, hit 8 iron short and right of that bunker over there. I hit a pretty good shot to keep it on the green to about seven feet and missed it.

Par 5, 5th, 5 wood, 5 wood, if it's downwind it's perfect for me. I hit it yesterday to about ten feet and hit it today to about 13, 14 feet. Fast putt, two putted.

7 was a driver, 5 wood again, probably the best shot I hit all day, the second shot on the 7th. I hit it right over the flag and just bounced over into the bunker and hit a tough bunker shot. Hit an okay bunker shot to about 12 feet and made that one. That was the big momentum switcher there because if I don't get that one up and down, then I'm still kind of fighting. After that one, that was the one where I said, "okay, you can go now."

8 was the perfect yardage for a low 6 iron, a low draw up against the wind. You've got to keep it right of the hole there. I hit it 18, 20 feet, I think, and snuck that one in.

9 was a 5 wood again off the tee to a good pitching wedge yardage, it was like 137 a little into, but the downhill kind of made it about perfect for the wedge. Honestly I shoved it and it ended up two feet right of the hole, kind of spun back down the slope to pretty close.

11, driver again, hit it a little too far right and then just cut a 3 wood and actually hit it long, tough shot, hit a little flop kind of an iffy flop shot to eight or nine feet below the hole, made that one.

14, hooked a 3 iron into the water off the tee, dropped out, and actually hit a wedge to about five feet right above the hole and misread it and missed it on the right side.

15 is a good 3 wood for me to get right up top, and then I just played a 4 iron to the middle of the green and tried to get it to catch the slope there. I didn't quite catch it, but I had 20 feet, 25 feet straight down the hill, just a speed putt and two putted.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Lucas, thanks. Good luck this week.

LUCAS GLOVER: Thanks, y'all.

End of FastScripts.

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