GREATER GREENSBORO CHRYSLER CLASSIC

April 24, 1999

Jesper Parnevik

JESPER PARNEVIK: 1st hole, I hit a driver and a 7-iron and I 3-putted from about 30 feet. Left my first putt about five feet short and missed that one. 2nd hole, I hit the sand wedge to about a foot. Pitch just short of the green. No. 4, I hit a 7-iron to about four feet. No. 5, I hit a sand wedge to -- it was just on the fringe. Six -- 18 feet. No. 6, drove it in the rough. Hit 6-iron short of the green. Chipped it up and missed the putt from about 15 feet. No. 8, I hit a 5-iron -- it must have been about 25, 30 feet; birdie. No. 10, I hit a driver and a sand wedge to five feet. 11, I hit a wedge to eight feet. 12, I hit a 7-iron to three feet. 13, I chipped it to about three feet short of the green. Driver, 3-wood, just short. I hit driver in the rough on -- oh, par 5. I hit driver in the rough left and hit a 5-iron; laid up hit a wedge to about 25 feet. 16, I hit it in the rough again. Hit an 8-iron. 3-putted from about 30 feet. Hit the first one about five feet short. 17, I hit a 6-iron right of the green. Chipped it and hit the slope; came all the way down and 2-putted from there. So I don't know what to say. It was a very up-and-down day. I really actually struggled with my driving today. It's pretty funny. I have a new putter. New Callaway irons and the only thing that doesn't work is my old driver; so, maybe I should change that one, as well for tomorrow. Apart from that, the game still feels very good, of course. I'm making a lot of birdies. I think I made nine again today. So it's I'm still having some good times out there.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, it's going to be fun to play with Jim Furyk, of course. We're going to keep a close eye on each other. I'm just going to try to increase my lead as much as possible.

JESPER PARNEVIK: When you're running away, you have to put like internal goals for yourself. So my goal was actually to make one more birdie on the last three holes. You know, I bogeyed 16 and 17. I actually made a good up-and-down on 18. My goal was to shoot a 64 today when I got it going on the back nine. You can't believe how much fun it is to play golf when you feel like you can birdie. It doesn't matter what the hole looks like and you feel you can birdie it. It doesn't matter if you're in the rough the fairway or whatever and you feel like you have a chance for birdie, and you don't get that feeling too often when you play golf.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think. So it was a very tough shot. It was probably the best shot I hit this year, by far. I was on the fairway, but I was very close to the green. And I was at a bit of a downslope. Maybe 35-, 40-yard pitch shot, but I only had about two or three yards of green to work with. At this bunker, the wind was going strong downwind; so I had to hit a high shot with a lot of spin on it. And it was right on the fringe; otherwise, it would just run over the green. It was just one of these shots that could come off over the green, or if you got too cute, you could hit it in the bunker short. So bogey-bogey was definitely not something I was looking for. So when it ended up a foot from the hole, I was very pleased.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. 8? 7, I was in the fairway trap. Hit a wedge there just left of the pin.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, more or less I would say. So I don't know what -- who is the next guy?

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, you know, someone can get it going like on Thursday or Friday when you had two 63s and a 62; anything is possible. But I would think it should be between me and Furyk tomorrow, if we don't start playing terrible.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, yeah, but as I said my goal was to get to 24, and then get to 30 tomorrow. But, yeah, if I can still make nine birdies, but no bogeys tomorrow, I'll get there. (Laughter.)

JESPER PARNEVIK: Oh, yeah, I was laughing out there, all day. I couldn't believe the putts. They just went in. A few of them, you just tried to 2-putt, and then in they go. It's just a great relief for your whole game to know you're putting well. And all of the sudden, you can be aggressive with your iron shots. You can go for pins. When you're struggling with your game, you feel like you have to play very defensively all the time, because you know as soon as you miss a green you're going to make bogey and then you start guiding the approach shots and so on. But when you've had the feeling I have now, you just go for everything. Try to stiff everything. And I had a lot of putts from around 6, 10 feet today. They tried to tuck the pins on most of the holes.

JESPER PARNEVIK: I think the greens firmed up a little bit today. I'm surprised if they are going to do a lot of changes now.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Yeah, so I'd better shoot 64 then.

JESPER PARNEVIK: That's the whole thing about golf. You can't figure it out. It's impossible. I remember two years ago I had a three-month break in the wintertime. And I go out completely fresh, haven't played, and I finished, I think, second-third, third-second or something in my first four tournaments. And I can't figure out what I'm doing different from anywhere else. And all the rest is, you know, you hole a couple 10-footers that you miss normally or you might make a 20-footer that you usually miss, and then you get one up-and-down where you didn't before, and all of the sudden you're talking two, three shots a round. And after 72 (holes), 12, 13 shots makes a very big difference.

JESPER PARNEVIK: No. I'm still as thrilled to shoot 67 today the way I played, actually. Because like I said, I was in the rough most of the day. And it is a pretty tough course from the rough.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, I missed one. I missed 2. I hit three with a 3-iron; so, that was pretty good. (Laughter.) I hit 5 with a 3-wood and I missed 6. I missed 7. I missed 9. I missed 10. I hit 11. I hit 13 and 14, but then I missed 15, 16 and 18; so, I didn't hit too many. Five. That's a tough course from the rough. It's thick.

JESPER PARNEVIK: The first two rounds I didn't miss very many. As good as it felt with my iron game, I felt, of course, it played easy because I could just go at every pin. It was a little bit tougher today, I have to say. So I'm actually going to go to the range now and try to sort my driver out.

JESPER PARNEVIK: Well, that's the secret because I've been eating the same thing actually last four days; so, I don't reveal that because then I will write a book about it should -- if I shoot low tomorrow. (Laughter.)

JESPER PARNEVIK: I can't reveal that, either.