BUICK CLASSIC

June 9, 2000

Ernie Els

Vijay Singh

Duffy Waldorf

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, Westchester has a way of dealing out some pain, and today it was dealing out some pain. Especially for me, on the 8th hole I had a little problem and I missed a few short putts. But all in all, I stayed in the tournament. I had a good day yesterday. With these kind of conditions, par is a pretty good score.

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, I feel like -- I'm just happy to be in contention. After having such a good year last year, you don't always expect that you're going to have to come back and play as well. Exciting to have that good round yesterday. I'm just happy to be around the lead. If you can just stay a few shots from the lead, anything can happen.

DUFFY WALDORF: Well, I think the wind became a pretty big factor. The greens got drier. They were a little harder to putt in the afternoon, and the wind obviously was a big factor. I think it switched a good quarter-turn from where it was when we teed off on No. 1 to No. 18. It was quite variable.

DUFFY WALDORF: It's good preparation. You get to hit some shots. You get a lot of gut-checks out there. Hit the ball in the fairway, hitting some really tough greens, tough pins, and really there's no better way to prepare for the U.S. Open than right here.

DUFFY WALDORF: Yeah, when I get off the plane, I get a little smile on my face. I love the people. I love the town. It's like being on vacation.

DUFFY WALDORF: No, I don't try to figure it out. I'll just take what I can get. I've always liked New York. I think other guys who are on the TOUR don't love New York as much as I do, so that's probably why.

DUFFY WALDORF: They were tough. A little inconsistent. Some were -- they were firming up. Some were getting real hard. Others were just not so hard, and I thought they were a little hard to putt. They were a little bumpy. Overall tough conditions, I think. I didn't see a lot of putts go in today.

DUFFY WALDORF: I think the golf course, because the wind is drying things out, got some heat. And the greens were kind of in between they were kind of soft yesterday, and now they are kind of sort of soft but getting firmer and so they get a little bumpy because there's a lot of grass there still. So definitely is a much tougher day to putt today.

VIJAY SINGH: The greens are a little faster than it looks. A little faster on the putting greens we've been putting on, and the wind it makes a lot of holes very tricky. I mean, club selection is very difficult.

ERNIE ELS: The wind was blowing all day at a pretty good pace. And playing this golf course, when the wind is blowing is not all that easy, you know. I made some silly errors on easy holes; otherwise, I played well. So I felt like I really played very well to shoot 69.