CHRYSLER CHAMPIONSHIP

November 1, 2003

Briny Baird

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Briny, you kept it going today, second consecutive 66. Depending on how Retief finishes you will be one behind the leader's great position going into Sunday.

BRINY BAIRD: Definitely, I'm pleased coming in to this week. I felt I had two pretty good tournaments the last two tournaments. Tomorrow is going to be another chance to win a golf tournament. Hopefully it will happen.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You got a couple of things at stake. Obviously you would love to get your first PGA TOUR win and be 35 on the money list; a great finish regardless of whether you win or not; would also put you in THE TOUR Championship, another big goal of yours.

BRINY BAIRD: It's a big goal according to the media. I don't think that's going to come in to play that much tomorrow. Winning the tournament will come in to play. The top 30. From what a couple of the other players told me I said what's such a big deal about the Top-30. Being realistic, if you make $1.7 million, everybody is getting all worked up. Last place at THE TOUR Championship is 70 grand. I'm not saying 70 grand is not a lot of money. You are playing for $6 million but we play for $5 million almost every week. So the way I look at it is it's almost just another tournament. You are still going to have to play well at the TOUR Championship. Last place might be free, but there isn't anything else free that week.

The media puts a big number on the Top-30. If all of the other players say it's a big number then it's a big number.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: It has a nice ring to it.

BRINY BAIRD: It does. Winning the golf tournament night and day bigger ring than playing in THE TOUR Championship.

Q. You talk about how you want to have chances to win; talk about another chance, you had a couple this year?

BRINY BAIRD: Yes, I had another chance to win tournaments this year. Tomorrow I will have another chance. Having a chance to win a golf tournament with 18 holes to go is a pretty good feat. Having a chance to win golf tournament with nine holes to go is a better feat, and having a chance to win with one or two holes to go which is the position you'd like to put yourself into, barring a huge lead that you've let slip away or something like that.

Tomorrow is going to be no different than the other times. I have been in this situation more than a handful of times. I can definitely count them on two hands, probably one. Hopefully the result will be different. I played terrible playing in this position before; once earlier this year. I played great playing in this position and I lost a golf tournament by one shot. So I've covered both ends of the spectrum. Obviously, I hope I don't fall in that mediocre category tomorrow; one or the other would be nice. It would it be a 50/50 chance I could win it if I can do that.

Q. Do you think it will make a difference tomorrow playing with Retief and Vijay who have won so much on TOUR?

BRINY BAIRD: Someone has got to win the golf tournament. It might not be one of the three guys in the last group. I don't think it will be any different at all, playing with them or if they played in front of me or behind me. I don't see that being a problem. If this was my first year out here it probably would be a problem because they would look a lot bigger. Just right over there we put on our shoes in the same spot and our lockers are in the same spot. It's that simple when you play out here. For a few short years that changes pretty quick. Obviously I know probably the No. 1 player in the world is probably pulling for me to win tomorrow. I got that going for me. He is pulling for a lot of people. He is probably pulling against one.

Q. Last week you had that stretch of eight holes in a row, birdie eagle. This is kind of an entirely different golf course, isn't it; you got to pick your spots tomorrow and when to step on the gas versus flat out?

BRINY BAIRD: Yes, I did. I went on a run yesterday. I don't know if you saw me; I birdied seven of ten holes yesterday which on a golf course like this is pretty good. Today I made four birdies in a row. I mean the golf course is tough. I agree with what you said. It's not one of those golf courses where you can slam dunk the accelerator down and go. The golf course isn't like that. If you play well and your putter gets hot at the right time you are definitely going to be able to push the accelerator. It's not typical for it to happen on a golf course like this. You have to pick your spots. Some holes you will make some good pars on. It's nice on the really hard holes when you can make par look easy. Drive it in the fairway, hit a 4- or a 5-iron to the center of the green and 2 -putt from 30 feet. It's nice when you can do that as opposed to scramble and chip out of this rough.

Q. Every time you do get in contention you get more and more comfortable in that situation; is there something tomorrow that you know that is different, you will go in that round different than you did maybe the first several times you were in contention?

BRINY BAIRD: Yes, I'm sure I will feel better. I know I will feel better tomorrow. Like I said, I have been in the position before. It's going to feel more familiar than it did last time and the time before and the time before that. It's going to be harder to get rattled, no matter what. If I don't play well tomorrow, the good news is it's like it's almost like being in school -- I'm getting out for the summer tomorrow. I have two months to do whatever the heck I want. Having that in the back of your mind I think can be a very useful tool.

Q. Going back over the times that you have been in contention, is there a common denominator when you play well as opposed to when you don't play well?

BRINY BAIRD: No, I don't think so. It's probably easier if you get off to a good start. But even that aspect of it, I don't really think -- if you feel like you're playing well, I think it's just a question of -- it's more mental than anything.

Ideally you would like to get off to a good start. Your mental focus stays real sharp. If you get off to, not even a shaky start, if you drive it a foot into the rough and you got to chip out and make a bogey, the more stuff like that happens, your senses drop off a little bit. Your ability to pick up which direction the wind is blowing, seeing the greens a little bit better. It's easier to compound things.

Q. How many times for you in the final this year?

BRINY BAIRD: I don't know. I couldn't tell. Buick was one.

Q. You played about 27, 28 holes that day?

BRINY BAIRD: Right.

Q. You played almost two rounds?

BRINY BAIRD: Yes.

Q. Were you in the final group in San Diego, too?

BRINY BAIRD: No. There has got to be a third round in ther somewhere, I would imagine, that I was in the final group.

Q. You have had a strong year this year, what do you attribute that to?

BRINY BAIRD: Just experience. I think that's all it is. Just another year of getting familiar with everything; hotels, golf course, getting a caddy, familiarity with my own game, getting comfortable with my own game knowing went to get angry and not when to get angry. You can rattle off birdies at different times. I think it's getting comfortable with everything in general. Everybody out here would like to get better each year they play. I think that's kind of what's happened since I've turned pro. I feel like I've become a better player every year. It's no exception this year. I'm going to go into this off season feeling like I've played better this year than I did last year. And if I can sit down and say the same thing next year, it's just another step in the right direction, and before you know it you will be battling to be No. 1 if you can keep doing it.

Q. Have you had any success with the missing children that you put on your bag?

BRINY BAIRD: Nobody has been found. A girl named Kimberly Dudley who I carried the week of the Byron Nelson was found. It was unrelated to the golf bag.

Q. Birdie on No. 4?

BRINY BAIRD: Par-3, I hit a 7-iron. I hit a pretty decent shot to about 20 feet. I hit a real good put.

Q. 7 and 8.

BRINY BAIRD: 7, it was in between clubs. I had a real good pitching wedge from 110 yards which is a soft pitching wedge. I hit it in there about four or five feet.

8, was about a 45 foot putt, trying to get close, I was lucky it went in.

9, I hit a good drive and a 9-iron, actually a good drive and a 7-iron to about 15, 20 feet, a real nice putt there.

Q. 10?

BRINY BAIRD: 10, was a good drive right down the middle, kind of a thin 9-iron that I kind of got away with to about six feet and made the putt.

Q. 14, par-5?

BRINY BAIRD: 14, real good drive. Skinny 3-wood to the front of the green. If I would have hit it normal, it would have been real close because it was right on line but I had about a 90-foot putt, 80-foot putt, rolled it up there to about four feet and made the putt.

Q. Bogey on 15.

BRINY BAIRD: Chunked a 3-iron to the front, not even on the green, putted it from the front of the green, rolled it past about five feet and missed the putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Anything else?

End of FastScripts.