FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 27, 2003

Richard S. Johnson

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome current leader in the clubhouse, Richard Johnson. Great round today, 66. If we could start with some opening comments about your week so far, obviously pretty good, 12-under par.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I've been playing really well. Today was a different day. Yesterday was a really good -- I hit it real close and it was the easiest 7-under I ever shot. I reached every par-5 and just cruised around. Today was a little different. I hit it as well, missed a few shots but didn't get the putts to fall early. I just hung in there and stayed patient and had a really good finish.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Nice way to finish, birdie on 15, eagle on 16, followed by another birdie on 17. Just talk about your mindset at that point and all the things that were going well for you those last few holes.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I was really pleased to make that birdie on 6 because on 3, 4, 5, I had really good chances, middle of the fairway and just didn't convert to any birdies, so that was really disappointing, but it was nice to get one out of six and feel that you're in the round. You stay patient on the back nine, you know the back nine is a little bit trickier but you're going to have chances if you hit it well.

Q. Kind of get into the past as a skateboarder, or what was it, and can you take us through the injuries a little bit? What were they and how did you sustain them?

RICHARD JOHNSON: Everybody thinks I was a champion or something. I tried to compete a couple times. I started at an early age, so I guess I was a little bit better than the average person in the beginning, but people caught up with me and I got injured and found out that I wasn't very good anymore, and I quit. But injuries, I broke probably about six, seven ribs on four occasions, and that was mostly in miniramps, just hurting myself trying to make a trick and I'd get either any elbow or the coupling of the ramp just straight through the rib section. It's not a lot of fun to break a rib, but I got lucky anyway.

Q. Were there particular places you'd go to do your skateboarding? Where do skateboarders hang out in Stockholm?

RICHARD JOHNSON: The problem with Stockholm is that it's very cold, so in the wintertime, you sort of hang out and go -- you have maybe one or two indoor places that Stockholm put up for us. It was a bit of a travel, probably took me an hour to get there, but otherwise we just went down to the garage or under a supermarket and we'd hang out there for a few hours.

Q. When you did you take it up, the skateboarding, and then when did you take up golf? Describe the transition.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I've been doing a lot of sports. I probably did about five to seven different sports. I tried to get on the high level. I started playing tennis at a real early age, but after five, six years, I found out I wasn't very good at that so I stopped doing that. Then I played European handball, which you don't play over here. I played that for seven years, and found out I didn't do very well at that, so I stopped playing that.

Skateboarding probably started when I was, I don't know, maybe eight, seven years old, and I did that until I was probably about 15, 16. I picked up golf when I was 15 in '92.

Q. Was it at the urging of a girlfriend?

RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, I was seeing a girlfriend for the moment and her family was playing a bit of golf. She was going away to France, I think, and I didn't have much to do for two weeks, so I just tried to go out and hit a few balls and fell in love with the game.

Q. Richard, how is it that Sweden is beginning to produce so many good golfers? You can't possibly have very many playing days. We've got about 270 around here. What do you have, about 170 or 200?

RICHARD JOHNSON: The season in Sweden is probably in average March-April to October, but the difference with all the courses in Sweden are sort of private, semi-private I'd say. They're open to the rest of the community, but you have to have members to support the long season that we don't play golf. So an 18-hole golf course probably has 1,500 members, and 350 of those are probably juniors, and they take really good care of their juniors at every golf course. They tried to put them competing at an early age and make practice sessions with the coach. They take care of the juniors in a different way than they do in the rest of the world.

Q. How many holes of golf can you play in the dead of the summer when it stays light so long?

RICHARD JOHNSON: I'd say, it depends. You can say from probably 1:30 in the morning until 11:30 at night, so you'd probably lose about two hours. You can probably play then if you have orange balls.

Q. Do you have a record number of holes in a day?

RICHARD JOHNSON: I was never into playing 90 holes a day, but I probably played 45 or something as a junior just because it was fun, but I haven't really tried to go at it.

Q. Your father is American and your father is Swedish; is that right? Where did they meet?

RICHARD JOHNSON: No, actually my grandfather is American, and he went -- I think it really started I don't know how many generations, but he went over to America and then he went back in the Salvation Army and met my grandma and stayed in Sweden.

Q. I'm going to ask a little radical question, I'll ask you about your round.

RICHARD JOHNSON: That's fine.

Q. You were going along making a lot of pars and you kind of got hot late. Did that have anything to do with conditions out there? I know it was pretty windy early.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I think it's still pretty windy actually. I just tried to stay patient and I knew if I could get through that par-3 on the back there, which is 14. I mean, that hole today is just horrible. I thought after that I'd have some good chances on 15 and 16 and that I would birdie 17 was a bonus. I just hit it close the last three holes there, and I've been putting out well, so it wasn't really that hard.

Q. How good a round was it considering the wind?

RICHARD JOHNSON: I would say the round yesterday was better, but it was a really good round because I kept it together and I stayed patient and I got rewarded, but it's such a fine line. It's one of those rounds that can -- I shot 4- or 5-under today, and in the end you can go the opposite way. You stay patient, but you make one mistake and you shoot even, so it's a pretty fast game.

Q. How many holes did you have to finish up this morning before starting the second round?

RICHARD JOHNSON: Seven. I was 4-under total after 11 yesterday, and I had a good start this morning, as well, so I started with a birdie. I think I started birdie, par, birdie or something, and it was a nice way to finish this morning.

Q. Has it quite hit you yet? With that finish, you technically had a share of the lead after the first round, and now at this point you've got the lead to yourself. How is that for your career at this point?

RICHARD JOHNSON: I mean, I'm very happy as it stands out. My thought after the first -- when I was 4-under yesterday was just trying to go out and play your own game and see what it leads to. It's a long way left. We're only halfway there, but I'm really happy to be on top for the moment. If I can continue playing like I've done, I'm feeling pretty confident that this is going to go pretty good.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Three birdies and an eagle, if we could go through those starting on No. 6.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I hit a good drive on 6, hit a really good 7-iron up to probably about, got to about ten feet maybe.

15, hit a 5-wood off the tee and hit a 7-iron up to about nine feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Then on 16 you had 246 on your second shot. What did you hit there?

RICHARD JOHNSON: 3-wood. I hit a 3-wood up to -- six feet.

17, I hit a little 3-wood but it stood up in the wind a little bit. I had 225 or something left and I hit a low 4-iron up to about 10 feet again.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Any particular par saves you made that helped get your round going?

RICHARD JOHNSON: I made a good save at 9. I hit it left of the green and hit a really good pitch shot to about two feet, so that was a quite easy one.

14 is always nice. I mean, I hit a perfect shot exactly like I wanted it, but I aimed on the front part of the green and I knew it was going to be a tough two-putt. I hit a good first putt up to about six, seven feet and I holed that for par.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Definitely a hole you like to get a par and go to the next hole.

RICHARD JOHNSON: Yeah, the pin is on the right. You've got to have nerves of steel or be a maniac.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We touched on this earlier: Your thoughts going into the weekend. You said you have a lot of holes left but go through your game plan as far as what your preparation will be for the weekend.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I've been holing out really well from short distance and I've got good pace on my putts and I've been hitting fairways and hitting good irons, so there hasn't been a weak part of my game this week. I've been waiting for this really long now because I've been playing solid for the last month and a half, but I just tried really hard. I really kept it together and stayed focused on what I should try to do.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: How much of an adjustment period has it been? You finished at Q-school last year at, I think, 11th. Obviously that's a huge task to be able to get into the Tour through Q-school, but how much of an adjustment period has there been for you to get comfortable where you feel like you can compete week in and week out.

RICHARD JOHNSON: I actually didn't think it was going to be an adjustment because I came from the European Tour, but it always is. Mostly it's knowing the guys. It's a terrible feeling when you've been playing in Europe, which is a real friendly place, and you speak to everybody and you get over here and nobody knows you and you don't know anybody. I mean, the first two months I just made sure that I said hello to almost everybody. It's just nice to feel like you're one of the guys out here.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: In the future I'm sure it'll be nice being able to pick your schedule if things go well, where you can play golf courses you like or cities you like, whereas after a year or two you'll know the cities you like or don't like.

RICHARD JOHNSON: Absolutely. I got spoiled in Europe where you can pick and choose. Everybody is always asking, when are you coming home to Sweden again? I'll say, I'll see. Probably in about two months. Sure, I'm really looking forward to playing the schedule again. I mean, it's always going to help to prepare for a tournament and stay fresh.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Richard Johnson, thank you, good luck.

Q. What's the most money you've won on the European Tour?

RICHARD JOHNSON: In a year? Probably about $400,000 maybe.

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