CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

June 21, 2002

Briny Baird

TODD BUDNICK: All right. We'll go ahead and get started. We have Briny Baird, 3-under 67 today. You started on the back side. Start with your bogey on No. 13.

BRINY BAIRD: Yep. On 13, I got up there and didn't really have any good swing thoughts with my driver and aimed down the center of the fairway. It flew a bunker and I knew it was in trouble and ended up going out of bounds. And from then, I hit another drive after knowing it was out of bounds and hit a 3-wood on the green. So, I salvaged what could have easily been a 7 into a 6. So, I felt good with that.

TODD BUDNICK: And then 15?

BRINY BAIRD: 15, I hit 3-wood today and hit it almost pin-high down to the right swale, hit a good chip and to about 5 feet and made ailed the putt.

TODD BUDNICK: 16, bogey?

BRINY BAIRD: I hit a 6-iron and hit it the way I wanted to, came up short. It was actually in the hazard, not in the water but in the hazard line, had a very difficult chip and just hit a marginal chip and 2-putted.

TODD BUDNICK: Birdie, next hole?

BRINY BAIRD: Hit a good drive. Hit a 5-wood off the tee because the tees are still up and hit a very good 9-iron, had a perfect number, and it caught the slope just like we thought it would and went to probably 6, 7 feet and hit a good putt, putt broke about a cup.

TODD BUDNICK: Number 5.

BRINY BAIRD: Par 3? Hit a good 4-iron just past the pin probably 25 feet and made a real fast left-to-right putt, just never looked like it wasn't going to go in. That was actually really nice.

TODD BUDNICK: 7?

BRINY BAIRD: 7. Wow, 5, 7 and 9. 7, hit a good drive, yeah. Hit a good drive, just an okay sand wedge to probably about 25 feet and made that putt.

TODD BUDNICK: And 9?

BRINY BAIRD: 9, had a good drive. Hit a 5-wood off the tee today because the wind and the fairways are firming up, conditions are getting a little different out there. Hit a 9-iron 10 feet, made the putt.

TODD BUDNICK: Tell us about today. Looks like the wind kicked up a bit, but it didn't appear to affect your game very much.

BRINY BAIRD: Yeah. Wind definitely played with the ball more today because there wasn't any wind yesterday to speak of. The fairways I think are getting firmer. Everybody knows the greens are because they were bouncing pretty good yesterday, so the golf course is going to play shorter. More balls rolling into the rough. With the wind picking up the way it is, when you're into the wind, it's not downwind there's a pin that's cut 5 in and it's hard to get the ball close on several holes. Yesterday, I felt pretty good with my game, hit one bad drive. Today I hit another bad drive. Hopefully, I can eliminate the really bad drive. I don't see any reason why I can't, it's just putting your mind to the and hopefully we'll do it again tomorrow.

Q. Any specific difference between yesterday and today?

BRINY BAIRD: No, no. Felt pretty good yesterday, my irons feel pretty solid, made a couple more putts today than I did yesterday, also made a couple more bogies today too.

Q. The wind is probably blowing 10, 15 miles per hour. I know you guys are good but --

BRINY BAIRD: That's not really a lot of wind. It seems like its a lot of wind because there wasn't any yesterday.

Q. There were some good scores today. Some guys are 5 under, some guys shot 63 and --

BRINY BAIRD: Oh, okay. Well, those guys are good.

TODD BUDNICK: Anybody else?

Q. What would a win this weekend and cashing a big check mean to you?

BRINY BAIRD: It would mean I'm a lot richer and it would probably make the people at Canon really happy. I told some of the reporters as I walked off the green, you know, are you building a continuation of a good year, for someone like myself, yes. I've been building. I've had a couple chances, especially one chance at the Bob Hope to win a good tournament. It's just building. You know, the more times you put yourself in a position to be in the top 5, it doesn't necessarily have to be a win, the more comfortable you're going to feel in that position. This might be just another building block, it could be the big step I've been waiting for. I can't think of a better week than this week to do it.

Q. When you go into a tournament, do you have a specific plan or thoughts of numbers and if so, are you on where you want to be?

BRINY BAIRD: No. I've never once gone into a tournament thinking this is where you need to get to. It's -- you know, you can feel it when you're out there playing, what's good and what's not good. Today, to be honest with you, I'm a little surprised 8 under is leading. I was a little surprised 6 was yesterday. I thought somebody would shoot 7, and obviously Quigley had a chance. I thought maybe with so many guys at 5 under, maybe we'd even have 6 today, but I felt the golf course might be playing a little easier than the score cards are showing. I don't want to sound like I think I'm better than anybody else, but I thought the number would be 9 or 10 today. I've gone into a final round thinking, you know, wow, if I can somehow shoot 64, most of the time it's if I can somehow shoot 56, I might have a chance to win.

Q. Now that you're halfway through, how much more is your confidence built up that you're in a position to do something?

BRINY BAIRD: None, none. It's all Saturday, it's all Sunday. You know, tomorrow is moving day, you kind of put up or shut up on Sunday. It's that simple. Sunday is probably -- for sure the hardest day to play golf. That's when you start thinking, "Wow, tournament win." Golf is a very, very mental sport and there's a reason why it's so difficult to win out here and it's not because of a lack of ability.

It's knowing where your misses are going to be at certain times when you're under the gun, so, no, I don't think it's necessarily helped my confidence going through 36 holes. I felt like I've been playing well the last month. If I keep playing the way I'm playing, obviously, I'm going to have a really good chance to win on Sunday. If I shoot another good round on Saturday, my confidence will grow. If I shoot a really good round on Sunday and win, my confidence is going to grow. But to say my confidence has grown, it's growing, but not to the extent you might think.

TODD BUDNICK: All right. Thank you, Briny.

BRINY BAIRD: All right.

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