BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 5, 2002

Jesper Parnevik

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about your two eagles today and one hole-in-one if you would, talk about those to start out with.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I hit a good drive on one and had I think it was 172 to the pin. Pin was on the back left shelf which is almost an impossible shot to get it close there and I hit this really nice 6-iron and I mean it looked good all the way but usually the good ones don't go in, but this one went in the hole. So it was a nice start, got a lot warmer, put it that way.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: No. 8 you had your hole-in-one.

JESPER PARNEVIK: 8 I had 217 to the pin and I hit a 5-iron, same thing there, really just a perfect golf shot, pitched about three yards onto the green and we couldn't really see it from the tee because we had the sun in our eyes.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Real quick going through the rest of the round, you had a birdie on No. 3 as well.

JESPER PARNEVIK: 5-wood, wedge to No. 3 to about 15 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Birdie No. 6.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Driver, 5-wood short of the green chipped it to about four feet holed the putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Bogey on No. 10.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, 10, I hit left fairway bunker from there, it went into the thick bushes on the left; from there it went even farther left in the thick bushes; chopped it over the green from there after getting relief from a line of site from the scoreboard. Chipped it up about three feet and holed it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Came back with a birdie on the next hole par 3.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Hit a wedge there to about 20 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Then a double-bogey at No. 12.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, that one, that's the one that really hurt my round today. Everything was going very nicely up to then and I had 174 to the pin on 12 and the wind was gusting into and down and I was standing there with a 6-iron and my caddie said: Hold on, seems like the wind is dying down. We switched to a 7 and I hit it maybe two feet right of the pin and hit in that bank. It went down in the water. After that it was -- the momentum seems like it was a little bit gone. Started going downhill.

17 perfect drive. Had a wedge in my hand there and should have hit a 9-iron, same thing, the wind was gusting downwind and just the wind switched a bit. I tried to beat on it too hard, pulled it left. Hit a great bunker shot six feet from there and missed the putt.

Q. How has your iron play been?

JESPER PARNEVIK: My iron-play has been very, very good for a while now actually. At TPC my iron game was unbelievably good. My driving was unbelievably bad. I was in some places there that I don't think anyone has been in the history of the TPC. I hit it in the water on 10 for example, I don't think too many guys have done that, 40 yards from front of the tee there, the water. Hit it in the water on 15, that's also only 50 yards in front of the tee. And I hit some other really crooked ones, so it was just that I -- any time I had hit it in the fairway I knocked it close, but I was just not in the fairway too often.

Q. (Inaudible)

JESPER PARNEVIK: My iron game has always been fairly good. It is my driver I have been working on the last week or so. It seems a little bit better but still have the odd wild one.

Q. (Inaudible)

JESPER PARNEVIK: Of course last week I tried to stop drawing the ball off the tee because going to Augusta you have a few tee shots you have to draw the ball. Not too many courses where you really are forced to hit a shot like that, but I hit on 10. Now you really have to duck-hook it off the tee and 13 and 14 too, if you don't have a draw there, it's very tough to play those holes.

The draw is working sometimes.

Q. Did you get over there for a practice round?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I did not yet.

Q. Hole-in-one is an incredible experience. What was it like for you?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Of course it is a lot of fun. Best thing I had, I think I was in China in 1995 playing with Freddie Couples and Davis Love and it was in World Cup. I holed a 5-iron there as well, and Heineken gave me free beer for a year. Today I didn't even get a car.

Q. You played a lot of events this year. I know at one point you are going to play -- (inaudible) your family --

JESPER PARNEVIK: It was just -- I mean it was joke with my caddie. At the same time I was a little bit serious because I felt like my game needed tournament-play; not just practice and resting. Sometimes you can feel like you have it, you found it at home on the range, whatever; you turn up at the tournament, it always seems to -- seems like you never found it. My key is always to find it on the golf course or in a tournament where I can feel confident hitting certain shots and so on. That's why I felt like playing a lot of tournaments to get my game back where I wanted it to be.

Q. How do you feel about your game now with Augusta knowing what you do?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I feel very good. Driver needs a little bit of tweaking to get the sweeping hook going, but apart from that I feel very good about my iron game which is you know, a big key there as well.

Q. Be nice to get some actual results from -- all-scoring results from --

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, I mean, golf is one of the few sports where you can work really, really really hard and get worse. If you are running or whatever you are doing, working out, usually you are getting in better condition, better shape. With golf, you can spend 10 hours a day working on it and it gets worse. So it's not that hard-work-reward thing in golf. So I don't think any players really expect to be rewarded for hard work, but like you said it would be nice if things start showing up.

Q. (Inaudible)

JESPER PARNEVIK: My last hole-in-one? Good question.

I remember a funny hole-in-one when you said that -- I don't know if I should tell you this one. I played in Jersey, Jersey Open way back when and my caddie and I are struggling with clubbing the whole round. We finally get up on the 15th hole, I think it is, and I think it's a 6-iron; he thinks it's a 5-iron, and we argue for a while. In the end I hit this 5-iron and it pitches on the green and we cannot see where it went. So I was positive it went over the green. I started yelling at him all the way from the tee all the way to the green, and the thing went in the hole.

Q. What did you do afterwards?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I felt pretty stupid actually.

Q. Lately you are getting questioned about your former employees than your golf game...

JESPER PARNEVIK: I haven't commented that much on it, but it was a hot topic there for a week or so, few weeks ago especially in Sweden, I have to say, they went crazy over this, about the news.

Q. Did you introduce Tiger to her?

JESPER PARNEVIK: They kind of met on Tour. It was hard not to -- yeah.

Q. Colin has issues with U.S. galleries. How do you get along with the folks over here and do you hear things in the gallery that are unkind at all?

JESPER PARNEVIK: No, I mean, U.S. fans have always been great to me. I think with Colin it's just -- I don't think it's the U.S. fans in general. I think it's one or two guys you know, at the tournaments that -- it's more become a thing with him. Even if Colin doesn't do anything, someone has read or someone heard that this is the way it is and they scream something just to scream something even though they probably 99% don't even mean it because they don't know, you know, who he is and what he is all about.

Q. How did the Heineken deal work? Did you order what you needed?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah. Kept sending it to me. It was perfect because we had a lot of really good parties that summer.

Q. With the changes at Augusta even though you haven't been there do you believe that it's probably going to help you versus the field?

JESPER PARNEVIK: I hope so because I have really struggled there. I don't know if 10th or 11th is my best finish there. It's not that the course -- I am too aggressive for the course. The course always beats up on me. When you stand there in the middle of a fairway with a wedge or 9-iron in your hand, you know you cannot aim for the pin, but it's so hard to resist. Then you walk away with double-bogey. Now with lengthening the course you stand there with a 4-, 5-iron, maybe that's going to make me play a little bit more conservative, and shoot some better scores hopefully.

Definitely hard. It's going to be very tough for Mike Reese, for example, who has played well at Augusta many times, but I think guys like that are not going to show up anymore.

Q. A lot of guys think if it plays firm and fast like that, it might reduce that effect, put more guys into it?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, but I also heard it is going to rain Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so.....

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