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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 10, 2005

Hank Kuehne

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Okay. Hank, we'll go ahead and start. You equal your career best finish on the PGA TOUR. Just sort of a couple thoughts about the day and then take us down the stretch if you could.

HANK KUEHNE: You know, I mean, I felt like I played pretty solid golf today. I mean, I was pretty pleased with the way that I played, especially under the gun. You know, there was only two shots I want back all day, the second shot I hit on 8 and the drive I hit on 15. But things happen. I hit 13 out of 14 fairways. That's not much you can do about it. It just happened to be the one that I hit was bad timing.

Like I said, I played solid golf. I'm pleased with the result, and I'm happy I gave myself really good looks at it coming down the stretch.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Can you talk about the drive at 18? It was measured at 375.

HANK KUEHNE: I hit it pretty good.

Q. That gave you 94 yards to the hole. Can you talk about the hole? You knew the situation.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, I knew the situation and J.L. hit it in the water, so basically it was down to just down to me making birdie to try to force a playoff.

You know, where I was, a back pin, it kind of slopes back to front, the green does, and I thought I needed to land it 94 yards just right of the hole and it would take one skip forward and back and left, and it did everything I did what I thought I needed to do. I landed it dead pin high, 94 yards, and I guess it just skipped through the green. I was shocked when it skipped through the green because I hit it exactly the way I wanted to. The ball came off good. It was dead on the line and I landed it where I wanted to.

It was one of those things. You know, putting through the fringe there, it was kind of into the grain and a little bit different, and just kind of the ball was bouncing; I couldn't get it rolling. I had maybe two feet too much fringe to go through, and I just wasn't able to hold the putt to force a playoff.

Q. You seemed awful loose on 18 with that putt to tie. You were over there helping J.L. and you did the thing with your foot and gave Richard a pat on the back after he chipped in. Was that just your nature, the way you play golf?

HANK KUEHNE: That's just the way I am. I'm a pretty relaxed person. I'm intense on the golf course, but I'm pretty relaxed. I talk to the guys out there. I mean, even when I bogeyed 15, J.L. birdied 15 and 16, I waited for him to come off 16 green and tell him, "Great birdie, keep it going." It's impressive. I'm one of those guys, I want everybody to play well, and then I want to play well. I want to play my best, play their best and see where it stacks up.

I'm just trying to do my part and help J.L. figure out where his ball crossed in the hazard. Richard hit a great shot for par there. He chipped in for par and I was happy for him. I was still focused and in tune to what I needed to do but wasn't able to hole a putt.

Q. So it didn't get all of you? Richard had chili dipped a chip before and then you had the ruling. That had to extend the time you had to hit the shot.

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, but when you play golf long enough sometimes you have to hit 20 minutes in between shots and other times you're hitting it on the run, based on where you are or if you're on the clock or what you have to do. You really try to take it in stride and I wasn't too concerned about it.

Q. What do you know about Sean, Sean's game, Sean's background and are you familiar with him?

HANK KUEHNE: Yeah, I knew Sean when he turned pro right out of high school. He's a fantastic kid, a really, really good player. He finally worked his way on the Tour this year. He's going to be here for a long time to come. He's a great player, and even more important than that, he's a great person on top of it.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to win, but if I had to get beat by somebody, he's a great guy and a solid kid and a very, very good player, so I'm very happy for him.

Q. You were sort of born into golf coming from the Kuehne family. Obviously your sister is on the LPGA Tour. Your parents probably helped you get into golf.

HANK KUEHNE: Uh huh.

Q. Sean's dad did a little bit more than that.

HANK KUEHNE: I'm not going to talk about his relationship with his father or any of that stuff. I mean, I know some of the things that went on with his father, but you're going to have to ask him those questions.

Q. What's this week mean to you? What do you think it'll do for you?

HANK KUEHNE: Well, you know, definitely I finally feel like I've turned the corner, finally feel like everything is headed the direction that it needs to go, and I was able to actually execute with all my new equipment and my golf swing and all the things that I've changed this year coming down the stretch. I mean, I hit great golf shots on 16, 17 and 18. That's kind of when things are really under the gun, what do you do? And I was very pleased with the outcome there, pleased with the way that I hit golf shots coming down the stretch, so I just take it and build on it and hopefully I'll head over to BC either later on tonight or in the morning and carry it into next week and try to win there.

Q. Did you give that last drive a little extra something?

HANK KUEHNE: I must have. I mean, I don't know, I ripped the one on 17, too. The one on 18, I hit it perfect. I knew I had to just hug that tree, and I just ripped it. You know, like I said, I still can't believe that ball skipped through the green before it spun, but what can you do? Not much I can do about it now.

Q. What happened to the drive on 15?

HANK KUEHNE: Just hit a bad shot. It's a tough game. I mean, the wind is in and off the left. You know, I know I've got to land it on the right side of the fair way to keep it in the fairway, and those right trees are dead, and I just it was the only swing all day that I really just didn't kind of finish my back swing, and I just kind of hit a fat pull, you know, basically. It just was not a good golf shot.

The shot I had for a third shot was actually a really difficult shot, and I was able to I hit a pretty good shot there to even give myself a chance to make par. You hit bad shots, you hit bad ones. At least it wasn't 18.

Q. Do you balance the positives with the negatives? Obviously you came close, but.... do you walk out of here on a positive note then?

HANK KUEHNE: There's no buts. I'm living my dream. I'm happy to be here. I'm lucky just to be alive with everything I've been through, much less finishing 2nd in PGA TOUR events. I've got no regrets, no regrets about this week or anything else. Things happen out there, just fell one shot short of being able to force a playoff. So I have no regrets, no reservations about what happened this week.

Q. Can you talk about your upbringing and how you were directed to golf?

HANK KUEHNE: Neither one of my parents play golf. I mean, my dad is an 85 shooter and my mom has played nine holes maybe five times in her life. So, I mean, my brother is my brother and my dad, we played every sport you could play, and my dad thought my brother was going to be too small to play the other sports, so he started getting him golf lessons when he was nine, and I of course wanted to do whatever my big brother did, so they'd give me a club and a bucket of balls to get out of the way, and my brother and I and my dad would drive around playing golf. At that point I started taking lessons, too, and I really enjoyed the game because it was difficult. All the other sports were really easy.

Then when my sister, basically she was playing tennis traveling around with my mom, and then it was me and my brother and my dad driving around playing tournaments, and I talked her into playing golf when she was 11 so we could all travel together basically. We seem to have all done all right.

Q. You played the AJGA?

HANK KUEHNE: From the time I was 11 on.

Q. Could Trip play out here if he wanted to?

HANK KUEHNE: If he had his card, I think he'd keep it, if that answers your question. But, I mean, there's a lot of golfers throughout the world that are good enough to play out here, but they just can't seem to get out here. I think my brother is an amazing golfer, and if he had his PGA TOUR card, I have no doubts that he'd keep it.

Now, what he'd have to do to get out here, I mean, he's been away from the game for five years. You know, he's working. He's been away from the game for a long time. He'd have to do a lot to get ready to get out here. Hopefully he makes the Walker Cup, so that's what I'm pulling for for him.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Hank, thank you very much.

HANK KUEHNE: You got it. Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts.

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