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FUNAI GOLF CLASSIC AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

October 22, 2004

Briny Baird

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Briny Baird. Thanks for coming in today. You shot 65 and 66 today, 13-under, current tournament leader. Why don't you just get us started talking about your mindset going in as the leader on Saturday.

BRINY BAIRD: As long as it holds up, we can talk about being the leader. Yeah, there's a lot of birdies to be had up there. Obviously the scores are going to be low. The mindset going into the weekend won't change. I probably need to make another 12 to 15 birdies on the weekend to have any chance at winning the golf tournament.

The mindset can't change. You know that low -- it's going to take low. You just keep looking at the scores.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: My brother, no, he caddies one week a year here. If this continues, that may change. I have a regular caddie who I gave the week off. He'll be back next week.

Q. Is it an annual thing?

BRINY BAIRD: He caddied last year for me and then obviously this year.

Q. Do you have a sister who lives around here?

BRINY BAIRD: Yes.

Q. What's her name?

BRINY BAIRD: Julie.

Q. Talk a little bit about, your family is almost the Disney poster for It's a Small World. Your mom is English and your adoptive brother --

BRINY BAIRD: I have another sister who's also adopted from Korea, and we do fit the Disney theme.

Q. That must be kind of cool.

BRINY BAIRD: My real sister and myself are the only ones in the house that are American.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Yes, my mom is English born.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: No, I don't think so. I think the wind -- the wind was there from the beginning to the end, believe it or not. If it intensified a little bit, it couldn't have been too much, but the wind was definitely a factor today and maybe contributed to the scores not being quite so low today. I haven't taken a look at them, but if the scores are not as low, it would be because of the wind. If it blew five miles an hour yesterday that would have been a huge gust.

Q. Is this all that's left for you? You were Top 22 last year. You've flirted with this thing now more times than you'd care to remember probably.

BRINY BAIRD: Yeah, it would be great. I don't think I put the emphasis on winning. It seems like all the media does. I pride myself in playing well and giving myself opportunities. You know, winning is difficult, I'm not going to deny that, but winning is just one week. Playing golf throughout the course of a year to me is a lot more -- I get more satisfaction out of playing well for an entire year than I would out of playing well for one week.

If I played well the next two days and won this golf tournament, it wouldn't be a lifelong fulfillment by any means. It's still coming back to next year. If I don't play well for the course of the year, then I'm not going look back and say, "well, I won Disney."

I don't think it's like that for many of the guys out here. I think winning is great, but once we've won, we need to do it again. I think they put the same amount of pressure on themselves to do it again.

Q. How did that putting stance evolve? I've never seen it, and you must have been playing around or something.

BRINY BAIRD: It was a drill. I was putting with pretty much a normal stance and I was moving around with my upper body, I was swaying. Mike Adams down in Palm Beach, who I've worked with for six or seven years, told me that I was falling back and forth on it and said that -- he goes, "Stand on your left foot and you'll be able to putt." I stood on my left foot and I hit a putt, and if your weight is moving around, you're going to fall. As soon as I took it back, I lost my balance, and he was like, "See where your weight is going?"

It was a drill, and he goes, "Putt like that for a little bit," and I putted like that, and next thing I know it was hard to get out of. I hadn't been putting all that great, and I kind of was of the mind frame, what the heck. It actually was here.

Now that you ask me that, it was here on the first hole playing with Jay Don Blake. I hit a putt on the first hole, probably the par 5, the first hole on The Palm, and I had probably the easiest putt you could have, 12 feet, uphill, left edge, and I left it a solid foot short, and right then, I was just like, "That's it, I'm not putting normal the rest of the day. I'm going to putt with my foot back," and if I looked like a goofball, so what, I'll make some putts.

Q. You were talking earlier about playing well throughout the course of the year. Would you say you're more of an even keel kind of a guy than you were before or is it a matter of your game coming together?

BRINY BAIRD: You asked me if I feel like I'm more of a steady player now? No, I don't think so. I don't think that. I have hot and cold moments like anybody does. I don't think I've changed. I get just as P.O.'d out there as I did when I was a rookie if that's answering your question. I don't look at it like if I hit a bad shot, I say, "It's okay, I've been playing pretty good this year." No. The greedy mentality is a competitive mentality.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Actually I felt a little better yesterday. I made some putts today that were a little unexpected. Yesterday I felt a little more in control than today. I didn't hit it quite as good today, so I felt fortunate to get in with the score I got in with.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: No, not necessarily. No, that doesn't surprise me. It's hard to go low two days in a row, low meaning like J.L. Lewis 62. For some reason it's hard to shoot it again. I don't know if it's the sudden disappointment when you're even after five holes after being 10-under before. It's like, oh, God.

Q. (Inaudible).

BRINY BAIRD: Yeah, they are.

Q. Was that last par 3 playing right at it and it didn't hold the green?

BRINY BAIRD: It was firm. I was surprised. Craig Parry told me yesterday, they are firm, and I was in shock because the greens over at Magnolia were really nice yesterday.

NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks, Briny.

End of FastScripts.

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