FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 27, 2003

David Peoples

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Current leader in the clubhouse, David Peoples. Thank you for joining us, second round 66 coupled with a 65 puts you at 11-under par in first place with plenty of players still on the golf course, but things are going well for you so far. Let's start with opening comments.

DAVID PEOPLES: I played very well yesterday. I was 6-under when the rains halted play, and I think I had it from about 12, 15 feet this morning on No. 8 to finish the round. Missed that one.

Number 9 was playing hard and I parred it. Starting out the second round I hit a good drive and I was on the ground probably 35 feet short of the pin and I made it up and over the hill, breaking left-to-right and I made that one for birdie.

Made a really good up-and-down on No. 2, hit a poor iron shot long and left, had no green to work with, hit a good flop shot, it was about two feet and I parred there.

Then No. 3, I had another unlikely birdie, I made it from about 25 or 30 feet there for another birdie, and a good two-putt from across the green on No. 4. That was for par.

Then two good shots on the par-5, chipped it to about a foot, made birdie to go to 3-under on the day. I played two solid holes on 6 and 7, hit the fairway and hit the green on both holes, two-putted those for par.

And No. 8, I came to that hole, had 178 to the pin, and I didn't want to really hit it over that green. That hole tends to play shorter than the yardage, so I hit a just good solid 8-iron from 178 and I didn't think it would get to the hole but it was right on line and it went in the hole for an ace. So that was pretty amazing. All of a sudden I was 5-under.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: As far as your hole-in-one, how many is that on Tour for you?

DAVID PEOPLES: Last one came years ago in Hartford before they redesigned the golf course. That was back in the '80s, last time, so that's two for me.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nice to have a 1.

DAVID PEOPLES: Yes.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: And then one of your bogeys on the day on No. 10.

DAVID PEOPLES: I hit a perfect drive. Well, I don't know if I told you guys, I started to get a little bit ahead of myself, a little nervous, choking a little bit, plenty of green to the left and I just went at the pin and faded it right and didn't get it up-and-down. Just not good judgment there.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What did you have in there?

DAVID PEOPLES: I had like 154 to the pin, just dead in the middle of the fairway and I flared it out to the right.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What club was that?

DAVID PEOPLES: 8-iron. No. 11 I played very well, 182 straight downwind. A pretty difficult little par-3, hit an 8-iron in there about ten feet and missed that putt.

Then 12, I hit 3-iron off the tee and a sand wedge to about ten feet and made that to get the bogey back.

14, I hit long and left and I was really just trying to get it on the green, and I got it on line and it went in. It was pretty lucky. It was one of those shots where it's right down the hill going towards the water, and I hit a flop shot and just hoped that it landed soft. It landed soft but it was going to probably be 12 feet by easily, and it just went dead center right in the hole.

The next hole I hit a good drive and I was in a difficult spot. I was in between an 8- and 9-iron, chose the 9. I had a lot of things in my head and I played fast and didn't get in my mind what I wanted to do and just hit an awful shot way left, and then hit the next shot over the green, chipped it short and two-putted for double, so that was a pretty poorly executed hole.

Then I came back with a birdie at 16 and then pars on 17 and 18.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've got three top-25s this year. What are you going to have to do in your game to get into the top-10 or get another victory?

DAVID PEOPLES: I think just staying emotionally -- staying in the moment and trying to trust your game, trust yourself, and always continue putting well, continue to putt well. That's a major key. You know, if you stay in the moment and you trust your game, you tend to make good decisions, good club selections and things like that. If you get ahead of yourself and kind of get out of your element a little bit, that's when you can make mistakes. I think it's a matter of trusting my game and believing that I am playing well and I can do it.

Q. David, is this the kind of round that can get away from you, and are you happy that it didn't toward the end, that you were able to kind of maintain coming in?

DAVID PEOPLES: Yeah, that's probably a pretty accurate statement. It was a little bit of a jolt to my system, that double that I made. We were going along so well and then to play all that poorly, it's a little bit of a jolt to you. But, you know, by the same token I started thinking everybody is having a difficult time out there today. The wind is blowing a little bit, it's not the easiest golf course on Tour. Everybody knows that 17 and 18 are difficult holes, so I just tried to stay level-headed at that point and tried to get back in the game. I played two pretty solid holes to finish it off.

Q. Coming back out this morning and finishing up and then just diving back into the second round, did that maybe help yesterday to flow into today in your play?

DAVID PEOPLES: It does a little bit. I've always liked playing late and then early because you finish your first round and you go eat dinner and you go to bed and you're right back out there again. It's easy to continue, and especially if you played a good first round, the conditions are usually better because the greens are moist in the morning. This morning I wouldn't say we had an easy go of it, though, because the wind really started kicking up. It was definitely easier yesterday afternoon, even though it rained, than what I felt like today in the morning.

Q. David, is it hard to keep a rhythm with all the rain delays that you had yesterday, just stop and go?

DAVID PEOPLES: Normally, yes, but it's happened about, I'm telling you, it must be the last four or five tournaments I've played in. I'm so used to getting my rainsuit on and umbrella out, lift, clean and place. I think up until this week, every Pro Am was reduced to nine holes up until this week's Pro Am, so we're getting pretty used to it. It's pretty hard when you get out there to not mark your ball and pick it up and clean it and place it back because that's what's been happening every week, so I wonder if somebody would do that because we've been doing it so much. It's tough on your rhythm. I was fortunate, though, because I played two holes, they blew the siren, came in for an hour and a half yesterday, then we went back out. I'm just glad that when it rained it just deluged, so they stopped us.

What's really hard is when you're playing in the rain like that and you're holding the umbrella trying to keep your glove dry, looking at your yardage book. You just don't have enough hands, you know, so it's -- the rain is difficult. It's something that young guys could -- I've heard Tiger say when he was learning to play, he would go out and practice in the rain with his rainsuit on, just to get used to all the stuff you've got to deal with. It's a big adjustment.

Q. What's been working particularly well for you the last two, three weeks? It seems like your finishes having getting better each and every week. Anything in particular working well?

DAVID PEOPLES: Yeah, toward the end of the Memorial Tournament, I hit on something in my setup that's really helped my golf swing out. It's helped me get more comfortable at address. If I'm comfortable at address, I'm normally going to swing pretty solid, and then I've kind of improved on that as each week has gone by and I'm gaining a little more confidence as we play tournament to tournament, so I feel comfortable. I feel like I'm going to hit the ball solid most of the time, and if I keep good tempo I'll probably be okay. The last two weeks are a result of probably just having a better handle on my golf swing.

Q. What did you do, just move it up in the stance? What was the change?

DAVID PEOPLES: I'm a feel player, so this sounds really ridiculous, but for me it was trying to stay behind the ball a little more at address, lining up the club face and looking at my target. I have a tendency to really chase after it and stay high with my right side and I was overdoing that, and I needed a chance to stay in the shot longer, and it seemed to give me a little bit more width to my swing. Now I feel like I can hit a normal cut shot easier.

Q. What about since turning 40, your career? You've played some of the best golf of your life since then. What's been the turnaround there or the reason for it?

DAVID PEOPLES: Well, being a feel player, I don't think I really understood my tendencies in my golf swing as well as I needed to when I was younger, and I've learned a lot more about my own particular style. It's taken a long time to learn that. I wish I would have known it when I was younger. It's easier for me to fix what's wrong in my game now at this age than it was then, and normally I'm a little more patient, not much, but a little more patient. I just think really it's more knowledge of my style and what makes it work.

Q. Offer some perspective to the field and your position on the leaderboard and how you picked this spot in your schedule and kind of what do you say to the people who say Tiger is not here and there aren't enough big names here to make this a marquee event.

DAVID PEOPLES: Naturally when Tiger is here, the whole atmosphere changes and you know that you've got to play your best to have a chance. But I'm not really -- I don't really ever feel like I've been one of those players that comes to a tournament that points to this and says, "I'm going to tear this up." I've been a journeyman player, I think, and I have to be patient and wait for my hot streak to come, and I've started playing good the last few weeks, pretty solid, and, you know, I think there's plenty of very good players out here, and the scores are always very competitive, whether the top five or ten guys are here. They seem to be the same scores anyway, but the media attention is not quite there, not quite the same, and that's understandable.

For me, I just have to try to have a game plan for the course that I'm going to. This is one I like. I'm from the South. I like playing in the South and have always liked Memphis. I met my wife here in 1984, so it's a natural for me. You know, I don't really look at tournaments in the strength of field so much. I'm going to go play BC in a couple weeks because it's a course that I like. I play it pretty well. Next week is a much bigger purse, the Western Open, and it's a very strong field but I've never done well there so I'm going to skip it. I think the guys that have been out as long as I have, they look to where they feel like they're going to be the strongest, and the ones that they're not, they try to conserve energy, go to the beach and take the week off.

Q. Tell the story about how you met your wife.

DAVID PEOPLES: That was back in '84. I don't know, I didn't make many cuts that year, and I happened to make the cut that year. Melissa was working in the clubhouse at Colonial Country Club, working in the dining room, weren't you? And we went out that week with another fellow Clyde Rigo that was from Hawaii. He and I roomed together, he was on Tour back then. Melissa's friend went out with him and I went out with Melissa and we hit it off. We got together at the Pensacola Open, the last tournament of the year right before I had to go back to Q-school for the thousandth time. In '85 we got married.

Q. You're a shy guy. How did you say hi to her or how did you break the ice?

DAVID PEOPLES: I had to get a courtesy driver get me set up. I've got no game at all.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: David Peoples, thank you very much. Good luck.

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