GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 25, 2003

Peter Jacobsen

TODD BUDNICK: I don't think we have to welcome the leader Peter Jacobsen.

PETER JACOBSEN: I'm sorry. I invited myself to the biggest parties.

TODD BUDNICK: His presence is well known, 3-under 67 today. Peter, a great way to follow up your 63. Kind of a slow front 9 and then at a few more on the back there.

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes, I played well today, I hit -- I drove the ball just as well as I did yesterday. I didn't hit as many -- I didn't have as many birdie opportunities as I did yesterday. I had the ball coming down hill. On these greens, if you leave your ball up below the hole and you have some uphill putts, you can be a lot more aggressive. Today I had some down-hillers. I made a bomb on 17 above the hole about 30 feet. That was a prayer that went in. I had a shorty on 9 that I missed. I had another shorty at one that I missed. But overall, I'm very happy with my game and how well I played.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. Were you kind of peeking back and forth?

PETER JACOBSEN: Oh, absolutely. I think that Jay and I are very, very close, obviously, same TOUR school. We watched both of our families grow up together. I almost feel like he is a brother. We came out of the same TOUR school. I was watching him and he started off. He birdied -- did he birdie 10 or 11?

TODD BUDNICK: 10.

PETER JACOBSEN: And he got to 10 and then he made a bogey and then I jumped to 11 and I made two bogeys in a row and he made a birdie and a bogey, are we were kind of watching back and forth. The golf course is in fabulous shape. You got to drive it in the fairway though. If you drive it in the rough, as I did on 4, I drove it straight through the fairway on 4 and had to hit a 7-iron about hundred yards. These greens are very tough to get the ball up and down from 40 or 50 yards around the green for par. You don't want to leave yourself too many times.

Q. Do you see the course drying out now?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes.

Q. It's starting to firm up everywhere?

PETER JACOBSEN: Everywhere. I think these greens are as tough to read when they get hard and firm. They get pretty crusty. There are slopes in them. They put the pins in some corners. They are very, very tricky. The golf course last year played hard and fast, and I know we got lucky the first couple of days having some soft greens to hit to.

Q. Are you surprised to be ahead after two rounds?

PETER JACOBSEN: Pardon me?

Q. Are you surprised at all to be ahead?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes, I'm surprised because I wouldn't think 10-under would be leading after two rounds. I would have thought that today after shooting 7 yesterday, I would have thought that when I came out today and teed off, somebody would have been at 12 or 13. So yeah, I was surprised. I'm surprised that 10-under is the lead at the half, at the halfway. I'm not surprised that I'm ahead, I'm just surprised about the number.

Q. You're not?

PETER JACOBSEN: Am I surprised that I'm ahead? No, not at all.

Q. Why not? People might say --

PETER JACOBSEN: I'm a good player. I'm a good player, a very good player. I have got a bio, I will let you read my bio. I actually played out here before. I played a few more tournaments on TOUR more than Suzy Whaley, about 800 of them.

One of the things that happens to players, we talked about it yesterday, you know, I think players limit themselves with age, with experience. People would say Ben Curtis was a huge surprise. Well, I don't think so. He didn't limit himself because of his inexperience. So why would I let my age limit me, or why would Jay Haas or Craig Stadler or Tom Watson or Jack Nicklaus limit themselves with their age? It's a state of mind, I think.

Definitely my best golf is behind me. I realize that. But that doesn't mean that I can't play well for four days or string 8 or 10 rounds together and possibly win a tournament.

Q. It's funny, Peter, just two years ago maybe the whole talk was goals of a young man's game now, that is what everybody was saying, maybe it still is but not always?

PETER JACOBSEN: I think pride enters into it, too. It's no surprise. I watched Stadler win two weeks in a row. Craig is another one in my age group and I think, would you look at this guy. If he can do it, I can do it. You can always light the burner and get the fire going again. Sometimes it takes your fellow competitors to do it.

I was talking to Pat Perez, he is not playing well he missed the cut. He said, my golf game has gone away like that, and I said, yes, it can come back like that, too (snapping fingers).

Q. The last time you played with Jay, you had a 64, do have you another 64 in you?

PETER JACOBSEN: Actually I played with Jay earlier in San Diego, the Buick Invitational. I think that's the last time we played.

Q. Not Memphis?

PETER JACOBSEN: Did we play in Memphis? We did play in Memphis, sorry.

Q. A senior moment?

PETER JACOBSEN: A senior moment, absolutely. I'm not 50 yet so I have sometimers, not Alzheimers. I thought it was San Diego, I see this guy all the time. Actually we go to a lot of movies, our families are not out on TOUR anymore so hey, what do you want to do? Go to a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, you buy the movie, I will by the popcorn. So we are a couple of kids at heart.

Q. It should be a lot of fun tomorrow?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes. Jay Haas wants to win the tournament as badly as I do.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through those birdies of yours, 14.

PETER JACOBSEN: No. 14, hit a great drive and had a pitching wedge down the hill. I hit it to about 12 feet and made it.

No. 17, I hit a really good 3-wood off the tee and hit an 8-iron over the top of the flag to about 30 feet past the hole, was lagging it down there to get it close, it went in. Love those.

No. 2, hit a 3-wood off the tee and hit a sand wedge. I had about a 60-yard sand wedge, hit it to about two feet.

No. 3, hit a good drive and hit a pitching wedge to about 20 feet, made that.

Now my bogeys on 4 and 5, I hit a great drive on 4 but it went through the fairway into the rough. Laid it out, at a 50-yard pitch, laid it to green, 2-putt bogey.

No. 5, I hit a 3-iron to the right of the green into the heavy rough and it just exploded out of the heavy stuff, got it to green about 30 feet and 2-putted.

Then I followed it up with a birdie on 6. I had a big drive. I hit a 3-wood just short of the green and I pitched it to about a foot. Made that. And then parred the last 3.

Q. Did you realize you had a 3-shot lead there?

PETER JACOBSEN: No. When? Today?

Q. After the third hole?

PETER JACOBSEN: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Did Jay bogey a hole?

Q. You went to 11 he was at 8?

PETER JACOBSEN: I thought he was 10 the whole time.

Q. He birdied the first hole, had the straight pars and 10 straight pars sailed along.

PETER JACOBSEN: One thing I learned in my 27 years of playing the PGA TOUR, if you start looking at the scoreboards and worrying about other guys on the back nine of the second round, you've got the wrong focus.

I could very well be sitting in this chair tomorrow or I could very well be at the back of the driving range trying to figure out why I played bad.

Somebody who is at 5-under right now could shoot 61 and be sitting in this chair. You just got to keep the pedal to the metal.

Q. I just want to ask you about Suzy Whaley, now that Annika played and she played on the TOUR, do you think this will mean anything or just a fun weekend to her?

PETER JACOBSEN: I think it means a lot, I played with Suzy on Tuesday, I played nine holes with her, I was so I'm impressed with her game, No. 1. But I was more impressed with her attitude and her personality. She took it all in as she should. She enjoyed herself. I watched her on TV yesterday afternoon when I was through. I loved watching her play. She is a great person. She is a great representative of golf, not women's golf, not club pros of America, but just golf. And I applaud her efforts. I know she worked very hard to compete. I think she did a great job.

And as Jay said she played well. There is a lot of guys that qualified through the sections on tournaments around the country that come in shoot a pair of 84's. She shot 75, 78. She played good.

Q. Do you think we will see this more often?

PETER JACOBSEN: I hope so. I know that is an invitation out to Jan Stevenson to play in the Champions Tour in Hawaii. I think she should play. I think it's great.

Q. She is playing well too now?

PETER JACOBSEN: Yes. She was the poster child or the pin-up girl for the LPGA for many, many years. She has a great name and a great following, I think she should play in the Champions Tour event if she gets invited.

Q. You went out with Jay Don before you guys teed off?

PETER JACOBSEN: I whacked him in the face. We had a little delay, a couple groups delay on the first tee, we were behind. We were standing on the tee all crowding around, Jay Haas and David Edwards teed off I had a 5-iron in my hand. I was swinging it back and forth, and I looked to see, Jay was standing behind me, looked to see where he was, he was not there, he walked behind me and not toward me, I swung the club and the grip whacked him on his cheek. He said, "trying to beat me up?" I said, "I got to get rid of my fellow competitors." He birdied the last two holes, it looked like, to make the cut. I was really glad to see that.

Q. Does it mean any more to be in contention this week than the year you won the tournament?

PETER JACOBSEN: Absolutely. Absolutely. If you have a player who has had success in the tournament, it doesn't always have to be a victory, but if you played well you've got great feelings and great emotions about that facility and that tournament.

I love the GHO. It's going to be hard for me not to come back here when I'm 50.

I know my win in '84, I don't think it's a lifetime exemption. Some tournaments you get in forever until you get a letter, they tell you not to come anymore. I never got the letter, thank God. But I do know Colonial. I won Colonial, I won Bob Hope and I won AT&T and those I'm in forever.

And there is something that is very special about that. I don't think -- you can probably check. I love this tournament. I love the Jaycees, the Chamber of Commerce. The Jaycees?

TODD BUDNICK: Jaycees.

PETER JACOBSEN: Service organization, Ted May and Dan, it's a great place, I love it here.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you very much, Peter.

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