BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 12, 2004

Jesper Parnevik

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jesper, a first round 65 on the North Course. Why don't we start with some comments from you.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I'm very, very happy of course, playing well again. You know you've been playing badly and you don't get to go to the media at all of these tournaments.

I played very solid today. This is probably the best I've played so far this year. To shoot 7 under par with 32, 33 putts, that's pretty solid. I did what I had to do on the North Course, because the South Course is not giving up much, I know that.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've been in contention a couple of times and you've had two Top 10s; that has to be an encouraging start for you.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, this game, you have to put in a lot of time and work, and it doesn't have to pay off; it can actually get off. It's good to see the hard work I put in at the end the year and the off season is paying off because sometimes you don't know if you're working on the right things. Right now it seems like I've got it back to where I want to be here.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, I worked just as hard the last two years as I have any of the other years, but, you know of course, confidence is one thing. When that goes, it's very, very hard to be competitive because especially when I'm playing well and you don't have a shot pattern you can trust, it's very tough to start aiming on the golf course if you're going to cut it or fade it or whatever.

Right now I'm just trying to get a shot pattern and I can hit my fade and trust it, you know, just seeing the shot a shot all the time that I feel good with. Sometimes you work on something and you hit it okay on the range and you come out on the golf course and it doesn't work. I can't figure out why but that's just this game.

In this game, there's nowhere to hide. You're out there on your own, no teammate to back you up, and sometimes you definitely want to hide but you can't. I mean, I've played tournaments last year where I had pretty much no clue where's ball was going, zero. If I had a decent round, I knew the next day was not going to be as good. Now, every day, I'm looking forward to playing again.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Completely different game plan for me. You know on the first tee that this is where you're going to get your birdie chances. The greens are much softer, shorter, you can reach the par 5s. The South Course, you can see by the scores today, it's not giving up anything. The greens are a lot firmer. It's not like you play to be more aggressive or whatever on the North Course. It's just that you have so much more opportunities. The South Course is more like a major type setup where you won't get many birdie chances, period.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I can't remember. Last year was three shots average and that's a pretty big difference.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I work on everything. I mean, when you struggle, you try everything. And the weird thing about this game, too, is that when guys are struggling, it's not like in other sports where if you think you have a secret or something is working for you, you can't keep it a secret and don't tell anyone. This game is completely the opposite. If someone has something and you see someone struggling, they want to help that guy and tell them what they are doing that's working so well; and why don't you try this and why don't you try that. It's pretty strange this way. When someone is struggling he gets a lot of tips every day just standing on the range. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it can be very bad.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, that's the hard thing. What happens when other guys give you tips is that 99 percent, they give you tips that works for them. Something that they are working on that they have found, and it doesn't at all have to work for the other person.

But when you see someone like Vijay, for example, he is playing well. So he has something that's worked for him. So when he tells someone else, why don't you try this, it might even be worse for that guy.

Old guys pretty much have something I start asking people, what do you think about this, what should I do. I went to see David Leadbetter, not this winter, the winter before, and he helped me a little bit to come back in the right direction, anyway.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I actually started 2000. I had a great year going in 2000. I won twice, I think I was No. 1 on the Money List. I just wanted to play that year but my hip was giving away. I knew I was going to have hip surgery but I just kept playing. Then I started swinging around the hip injury and I started hooking the ball 30, 40, 50 yards.

And I remember playing Vancouver. I almost won the tournament with a 50 yard hook. I think the week after, I just said, that's it, I've got to have hip surgery. When I came back, the hook was gone, but I was hitting straight right. So now I'm really mind boggled where to aim every shot and the confidence goes. I just try to get back my old pattern of hitting a fade which was my save shot all the time. For the eye to go from a perfect fade to a big hook, it's very hard to play the game then.

So I've been working really hard at getting the club back on path again where it comes down the line instead of being stuck so far inside. So that's the No. 1 thing. I've kind of taken Vijay's drill and made it a little bit my own.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, it goes very fast. Just look at guys like Duval, for example who was No. 1 in the world and he pretty much had zero confidence last year when he played.

Q. Do you feel you have to go low on the North Course to be in contention on the weekend?

JESPER PARNEVIK: You don't have to, but I know Tiger last year when he won, he was over par for a while on the North Course. So you don't have to, but it's a huge advantage if you like I say, you know you're standing on the first tee on the North Course, I've got to shoot low today to have a good chance to win on Sunday.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think it's more been that I think the style on TOUR is changing. When I came out, it was a little bit more faster style (inaudible) outfits. It was so new to golf everybody thought, wow, what is this going on. If you look at most guys now they are starting to dress a little bit differently, more athletic, modern now, if you want to call it that. So I think everybody is getting used to the styles and it's not as crazy or different as whatever you asked about.

The colors I still have. That way, it's not but I feel I love different colors, still, yeah.

Q. The confidence you have now, when was the last time you felt that

JESPER PARNEVIK: I haven't had this kind of confidence in my game since 2000, I would say. Even when I won in 2001, I didn't feel that good about my game.

But this year when I came out on TOUR in Hawaii, I knew I was playing well and I knew I was working on the right things. I could feel it, that the swing was going the direction that I wanted. It's not that I've changed my goals but I feel a lot more comfortable playing now. It's more of a shot pattern.

At worst was probably when I played Ryder Cup at Belfry because I was playing really bad. Then to get the draw with Tiger Woods in the last group on Sunday, which could be the deciding match, I don't know how I tied that match, I have no idea. I felt so bad, I was so nervous teeing off, it was scary.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Definitely not something I want to miss. Being on the team last three years, I would say the most fun that you can have on the golf course is the Ryder Cup. The atmosphere is by far beyond any tournament that we play during the year and it's just a lot of fun. So I definitely don't want to miss it.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I wouldn't say they are really giving me a push. I know I didn't win a major last year but, you know, you're talking about a legend pretty much right now. And just because I don't know when the last time he won, was probably not more than four or five tournaments ago, Vijay played great last year. I honestly did not think anyone was going to ever steal the No. 1 on the Money List spot from Tiger the next 15, 20 years and he did it last year.

The difference is not as big as the results show sometimes. I think that Vijay has inched up a little bit, not much, he might just have to hole one more 6 footer every round and he's going to beat Tiger every week.

Q. Did you reach a point where you thought you would never get back?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Definitely that creeps into your mind. Of course, you feel completely clueless. You're standing over a shot and you have no idea where the ball is going. So you are thinking, "How am I ever going to play well again," because this ball can go everywhere. The confidence is low, so you're not thinking, "next week I'm going to play well." It just doesn't come into your head because you know it's not going to happen.

So what I'm happy with now is I have my shot pattern back again where you aim a certain way and trust it.

The frustration and bad confidence is definitely a result of that. I also think the biggest mistake you do when you're struggling over a period of time, and it goes with anything in life I guess is that you're waiting for something to happen, a tournament to happen where you did do well, to start enjoying it again. It's almost like you have to start enjoying playing badly and enjoying being out there again and having fun with it and then the game might come around, slowly. But it's usually not a good tournament, so now I can't look forward to having fun. But I think you have to work on it the other way around.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: It was pretty much this year because I worked really hard not only with my game but with myself and all that the last six months probably. You just have to change pretty much how you look at everything. You know, it's the easiest thing to say to start having a better attitude or start thinking better or this and that. I think you have to start on that end some how and that's what I've been working on.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, Hawaii I would say because I felt good about my game. I was looking forward to it. It's not like I was because when you're playing bad, you're almost scared of going to that first tee. You don't really want to go there. I was actually looking forward to playing. I shot 65 the first round. I thought, wow, I can feel it, it's on the right direction now. There's a huge difference than shooting a 65 and knowing tomorrow it could be any score.

Q. How much more will you play in the next couple of weeks?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, I'm scared to play next week in L.A. because my world ranking, I have to play well this week or next week to sneak into The Match Play . Of course I'll play there if I do why do I say I'll take that week off.

When you're struggling, you don't know if you should take time off like Duval does and really try to sort things out on your own, or if you sort it out playing. Because a lot of times when you take time off and you feel good about it on the range, but you get out and all of a sudden the pin is not in the middle of the green anymore and the fairways are not 40 yards wide, and you go, wow, it's not as easy as I thought it was.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I would say most of them, yeah. Yeah, I had that crazy idea, I don't know where it came from. I gave up at Honda when I was just off the lead and I think I finished with five bogeys to miss the cut by one. I said, that's it, I'm done.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Let's go through your seven birdies.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I hit driver, 5 iron to about 20 feet on 1, two putts.

I hit driver, L wedge to about two feet on 2.

4, I hit a driver, wedge to about ten feet.

9, I hit driver, 3 iron, I would say to about 40 feet, 2 putted.

14, I hit driver, 3 wood to about 30 feet.

15, I hit driver, sand wedge to about five feet.

18, I hit driver, 3 iron to about 25 feet.

Q. Still working with Leadbetter?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, I haven't seen him in a while. I think it's good to have someone point you in the right direction, but you have to find it on your own. You can't have someone tell you or show you what to do. You have too feel like you found it on your own and then you can trust it.

Q. Inaudible?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Caddying for me, has nothing to do with changing caddies or anything like that. I'm sure Lance one day is going to be back on the bag again. That was just temporary breakup, I would say. So it's not like I have found a Supercaddie and Lance sucks. (Laughter.)

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jesper, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.