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CHARLES SCHWAB CUP CHAMPIONSHIP


October 23, 2004


Tom Kite


SONOMA, CALIFORNIA

TOM KITE: I think it probably got close to 60 out there today, so at least we were able to play in short sleeves. My goodness, it was unrelenting, never let up. I'm sure the guys that teed off at 9:30 this morning were playing in rain and we played in it the whole day and it was never, we never got the torrential downpour that would knock the round down, and yet it was just that steady mist, you know, I guess they call it the London fog or whatever. But I'll tell you, it was a brutal day out there.

The golf course is unbelievably saturated. There's casual water practically everywhere. If you drive it in the fairway, you're probably going to be in casual water. If you don't play lift, clean and place, we don't finish at all. There's no question about that. And if you drove it in the rough, holy smokes that stuff is heavy right now. It's wet and grown so much in the last couple of days since they were able to top it, and it is really a mess.

Fortunately I drove it a little better today than I did yesterday, or it would have been a long long day. It was a good check day again. I played better today than yesterday, but didn't score a whole lot better. There couldn't have been too many good scores today, I wouldn't think?

Q. (Inaudible)?

TOM KITE: I'm so glad I wasn't wearing glasses. Thank goodness for Lasix. This is the exact rain that would drive someone who wears glasses crazy. It's not heavy enough that's it's coming straight down, it's actually blowing in, so it would always blow up under the visor or cap, or whatever I had on, and there was no way to keep them clean. And we went through, I know, three towels, we may have gone through four towels today and you can ring every one of them out.

It was just a brutal day. Actually, surprisingly, I got through on one glove today. I put it on and took it off immediately on every shot, hit a number of shots today without a glove, which I don't do very often, but some chip shots and short irons and things.

Q. AT&T?

TOM KITE: In '83, it was the same conditions. We played lift, clean and place there because it was so sloppy.

Q. Does anybody ever get used to this, where you go out and say, okay, it's going to be a tough day, I'm just going to fight it?

TOM KITE: I think you get used to it and you know what to do and you understand the conditions and you know the scores are going to be high and you fight it out and grind it out for every shot, but do you enjoy it, heck no. There's no way to ever enjoy it. After the thing is done, if you played well, you can say that was a pretty good day, I fought out and did some good things out there.

Q. (Oak Hills)?

TOM KITE: That was bad. We've played in a lot of bad conditions through the years in the rain. You just don't expect it in October in Sonoma. That's the shocker of the deal.

Q. Napa was warm and dry?

TOM KITE: This is absolutely the first time I've ever seen bad weather in this area. I went through the Q‑School in '72 in Napa and it was absolutely perfect, all the tournaments that we have had in this region. You know, it's just thank goodness we don't have that. Of course that's one of the reasons we have this late in the year tournament out in this neck of the woods, because you can count on so much good weather.

Q. Third straight day you birdied 18?

TOM KITE: That's fun. I drove it much much better today than I did yesterday. Wasn't as quite as sharp with my irons. A lot of that is not feeling you have total control over the ball with all the squishy conditions and sloppy conditions out there.

But I finally really hit ‑‑ the 7‑iron that I hit on No. 18 today was really one of the most solid shots that I hit all day. We had the honorary observers and scorers and everybody that was right with me, and as soon as I hit it, while the ball was in the air, I said I finally hit a decent shot, and it went up there four or five feet, and the honorary observers were saying, Great shot, great shot. I said, "Folks, you just watched the only decent iron shot I've hit all day." We had fun with them out there.

Q. Tom, you're obviously in the lead ‑‑

TOM KITE: I have no idea what anybody else is. I have no clue. Again, like we talked about yesterday, there wasn't enough time today to go scoreboard watching. There was too much stuff going on. I couldn't tell you what's in second for anything right now.

Q. Care to share your thoughts on the putts going out, winning not only this tournament but possibly winning the year‑long Charles Schwab Cup?

TOM KITE: Obviously that's a nice goal and coming into this tournament there were only four of us that had a chance to win that thing. For me ‑‑ or for Peter Jacobson and I for us to have a chance to win the Schwab Cup. I think both of us had to win, and then we had to have some help from Hale and Stadler. And I can try to take care of my play, I can't worry about what Hale and Craig do, so I'm going to just worry about my stuff and if it happens it would be great.

The Schwab sponsorship on the Champions Tour has been spectacular. They've done a great job for us through the years, and it would be very pleasing to win that. But I've got a long ways to go. It's getting way too far ahead of the game, as far as I'm concerned.

Q. You'll be playing in the last group tomorrow.

TOM KITE: That's where you want to be.

Q. Some people like coming from behind.

TOM KITE: I would rather be in the last group. No guarantees. I've got to play well. I know somebody that can come from way behind. They've got to catch me now, and if I play well ‑‑ I like my chances when people give me shots from the first tee. And basically, that's what I've got tomorrow. I've got a couple of shots on the guys. I don't know, one, two, three ‑‑ two‑shot lead on the guys. Again, I know I've got to play well. Two shots is not very much, but it's better than not having two shots, and it's certainly better than being two shots behind. I'm pleased with the position.

Q. The weather?

TOM KITE: We're going to find out. I played good today in very sloppy conditions. It's going to be the same tomorrow. It may not rain, but the golf course is not going to dry out. This golf course will be saturated for the next two months. Now you get into the rainy season, so this golf course will be wet until March.

Q. Do you have a number on the yardages?

TOM KITE: Last year we were laughing at one point out on the golf course. On the 13th hole, the par 5, last year it was playing firm and downwind and we're bombing it down there and we were hitting ‑‑ there was one day I think I hit a 6‑ or 7‑iron into the green on my second shot. And I busted a tee ball today and I'm not sure I could have hit a full wedge to where my drive ended up last year on that particular hole. The golf course is really really playing long right now. The conditions are tough. The ball is not flying very far, and it's obviously not rolling. It's backing up most of the time. It's a tough golf course right now.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TOM KITE: Well, obviously this has been a good year. I've done some really nice things here. I've won a tournament, I've played well in a number of tournaments, played well in the major championships on this Tour. And this has been a very, very good year. With one day left, I can make it even better. But this could have been a phenomenal year. There's no question about it.

Finishing second at the Senior British, finishing as poorly as I did at the Senior Open. I had chances to win a number of golf tournaments right there in a row and I wasn't able to do it. Either somebody shot some good scores and nudged me out or I did some bad things coming down the stretch. But yes, I'm looking at this thing. I have a choice. I can look at this cup of coffee right here as half full or empty and it's still got some coffee in it and I'm saying it's half full. It's a whole lot better to look at it that way. It's a good year. Could it have been better? Yes, it could have been a phenomenal year. It could have been one of those years like Hale had a couple of years ago, like Craig had ‑‑ was it last year when Craig had that phenomenal year? It could have been one of those years. It didn't, it wasn't, but it's still

a very good year

End of FastScripts.

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