INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY QWEST

August 1, 2002

Steve Pate

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Steve for joining us. You started out with a bang, eagle on 1, and probably didn't play like you wanted to coming in, but still a great day with the conditions out there.

STEVE PATE: Yeah, I was happy with it. I played nicely on the back. It was my first nine, I made four birdies and no bogeys, and then eagled first hole, which is really good in this tournament. I played all right after that. I made a couple good pars and a couple birdies that just didn't go in. Pretty decent shot on last hole, but four feet off the back of the green doesn't leave you much chance. So try to forget about it and move on.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. A lot of the guys early in the morning said conditions were very difficult, chilly and windy, how was it for you?

STEVE PATE: They were nice. We got the better end of it. I got up early this morning, which was a rarity, and I went out to get the paper at 7:30 and it was cold and windy. I was glad I wasn't playing in the morning. It was 80 degrees and perfect by the time we got out here. The wind had died out. What there was, it was a little swirly, a little hard to tell out there where it's going sometimes, but it didn't blow that hard. With the temperature being 20 degrees higher than it was in the morning, the ball is going a lot farther.

Q. (Inaudible.)

STEVE PATE: Well, last year my back was pretty messed up. I couldn't hit a shot, basically, and I didn't putt very well, either. This year, I started to play pretty decent at the U.S. Open. Played decent early in the year at the Hope, and not so good for four or five tournaments. Didn't make anything for a while this, then started to play decent, just not enough rounds like this, but playing well, shooting 2- and 3-under, and went a little deeper than that today.

Q. Was this a surprise to you?

STEVE PATE: I've played well the last six weeks. I'm not surprised that I actually shot a decent score.

Q. (Inaudible.)

STEVE PATE: I have played here a lot, not recently. I used to play well when the format was a cut every day. I enjoyed that. (Laughter.) I'd kind of like to go back to it, but actually not with the start I got today. Kind of happy I get to carry that over now.

Q. How are you playing this year on the Tour, having used up your career money exemption and things like that? How are you getting in the tournaments?

STEVE PATE: I've written every tournament for sponsor exemptions. I got one here, which was nice. I haven't gotten very many, to be honest. Since the U.S. Open I've started getting in tournaments, but I think I've got four or five exemptions and the rest of them go off the number.

Q. Does that tell you how competitive it is out here; that here you are, two years removed from being on the Ryder Cup team that you are in the situation that you are today?

STEVE PATE: Yeah, because a lot of the finishes I've had, they are mediocre, when maybe in year's past, I would have played all right, 15th, 20th, make a nice check; and now it's 45th, 50th, you make nothing. So, yeah, the depth of play has improved quite a bit.

Q. I think this is your 16th appearance in this tournament. Why do you like it so much?

STEVE PATE: I've played every one but one.

Q. '96 when you were hurt. What is it that attracts you to this place?

STEVE PATE: The food. (Laughter.) It's the best food of the year.

We get treated here -- this is, I'd say, the best, and THE PLAYERS Championship, and nothing else really comes close. Muirfield might come close. That lunchroom, eating on the deck is really a big attraction. And the Vickers and Tom up in the locker room, there's just nothing they won't do for and you it makes it really nice to come back.

Q. For a while you had a history, being healthy, have you been able to stay healthy?

STEVE PATE: This year I have been, but I wasn't last year, but that was my own doing. I got this brilliant idea that -- just to really work hard in the off-season in the gym and messed my back up.

Q. That was kind of a tricky pin placement on 18 today, seeing a lot of guys going down in that valley taking putters and wedges, and you dropped with a 3-wood. Can you run through your mind set for that shot?

STEVE PATE: Well, there was a lot of fresh sod in front of it. It was not very smooth, wasn't predictable at all. 3-wood just gets it airborne more than the putter. You get on top of it better. Some guy like Phil would probably be down there with an L-wedge taking a full swing. I thought keeping it on the ground was a really good idea. (Laughs).

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go over your birdies and bogeys?

STEVE PATE: I birdied 12, 8-iron.

Birdied 13, I hit a 3-wood and pitching wedge about ten feet.

I birdied 15, with a 3-wood and L-wedge to about four feet.

Birdied 17, I hit a driver, 7-iron about 20 feet and 2-putted.

I eagled 1. I hit a drive and I missed a 3-wood, six or eight yards short of the green, had a perfect lie and pitched it in.

Q. How far?

STEVE PATE: Six or eight yards.

Bogeyed 5. The fairway is only about 90 yards wide and that ball just didn't fit in it. (Laughter.) From the left rough to the short rough, ten feet, and missed it.

And I bogeyed 9, 2-iron, 6-iron, two yards off the back of the green, 15 feet by and 2-putted.

Q. When you got to plus 13, were you thinking, "Boy, if I could just keep it going here, I'm playing well, I've love to add on to it"?

STEVE PATE: No. Trying not to do that. Generally not a good thing to do. I was trying to hit the next shot.

Q. (Inaudible)?

STEVE PATE: Yeah, it was. I didn't think I could hit it close with anything, just make sure I got it down there and tried to hit the hole -- inaudible -- off the front of the green. So, wherever the pin was, another eight feet.

Q. Now in the leading spot, how do you deal with that as far as the pressure, keeping that out of your mind set?

STEVE PATE: It's Thursday. It doesn't mean anything. It will mean a lot more if this was Saturday. I'm going to go back and eat and go to bed because I'll be back here shortly.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Steve.

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