BUICK INVITATIONAL

February 14, 2003

Arron Oberholser

TODD BUDNICK: We welcome Aaron to the interview room. Talk a little about the round today.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, I made a great save on 10, which kind of gave me some momentum. I drove it in the left rough, had a horrible lie, dumped it in the tongue of the right front bunker, took a pitching wedge and chipped and ran it to about eight feet, made a downhill kind of curling putt from left to right. That was a huge boost.

Sometimes guys come in here and say sometimes when you make a 10 putter for par, it's bigger than making a 15- or 20-footer for birdie. That was the case there.

On the next hole, I get up there, and I've got like two -- I don't know how long the hole was playing, like 235 or something like that to the pin. I don't have a club that goes 235. I mean, it's a tweener. My 5-wood is 225, my 3-wood is 245. It's downhill into the wind.

I just tried to nuke a 5-wood. I popped it up. Hit it solid, but it just went straight in the air, the wind killed it. I had about 60 feet. Just buried it. Perfect speed. It was unbelievable. Longest putt I've made in six years. That was fun.

Then the next hole, I get up there and kill the drive dead into the wind. I absolutely murdered it. I had a 5-wood in again. I hit 5-wood to a foot and a half and tapped that in.

The next hole I hit driver, 5-wood, chipped it on from just in front of the front right bunker, made about an 8-, 10-footer for birdie there.

TODD BUDNICK: Bogeyed the next hole.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Bogeyed the next hole. I had some extenuating circumstances that caused me to not focus very well on that hole. I had to use the lavatory very badly, so I 3-putted.

I get to the next hole and hit driver, 8-iron, to about 15 feet, make that to back it up, so that was good. Obviously, when you can make a birdie after you make a bogey, that's important to keep your momentum.

Hit a good shot on 16.

TODD BUDNICK: We'll take some questions.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I made bogey on 7, yeah.

Q. (Inaudible) what was going on there?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I really need to figure out what I'm doing wrong in the fairway bunkers. I really have I don't want to say a mental block, but I have a difficult time in fairway bunkers sometimes. It's something I've got to get with my teacher about and talk to him about because, I mean, in these fairway bunkers, they're so matted down because of the rain, it's like hitting off a hard pin, so it should be no problem, they should be easy.

Traditionally I have had some issues with fairway bunkers. That time I just took too big a swing because I didn't feel comfortable, like it was going to get all the way to the hole. Almost dead topped it. Then I hit an 8-iron in the right bunker, which was an error. Thought the wind was kind of cornering out of the right, so I thought the wind was going to sweep my ball onto the flag, and it stayed dead straight. I hit a good recovery shot and got it up and down for bogey.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: It was tough. It was tough. I admit. I was kind of back-pedaling a little bit. You know, I just sucked it up. On the next tee shot, I hit a really good 6-iron. It landed a foot from the hole but released to the back of the green, had about an 18-footer and didn't read it correctly.

But, I mean, the fact that I could hit that 6-iron was good for me. That was good. I mean, it's all part of the process, being able to deal with all the stuff that comes along with it and looking at guys that you're in front of on the leaderboard that when you're in high school you idolized. It's kind of cool. But sometimes it can be overwhelming if you let it.

Q. Who were the guys in high school you idolized?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Who didn't love Freddie when they were playing junior golf? Payne Stewart, Freddie Couples. I loved Peter Jacobsen. The fact that I get to share a locker room with him now is cool, because I thought he was one of the best guys. To meet him and talk to him is really neat. Just those three guys. Always liked Brad Faxon. You name it.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I saw them up there. Fax played well today.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Did he go over the story in Oregon where he almost hit it on my head, almost drove a par 4 and killed me? He didn't give you that one, huh (laughter)? Playing with Notah right in front of him.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Yeah, in Oregon, so the ball is going nowhere. Yeah, 355 yards, sharp dogleg right, over the trees, lands two feet in front of me. Scared me to death.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: No, but I yelled at him pretty good (laughter).

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: That was nice of him.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I agree with him. I said yesterday, you know, some of us mature slower than others. 28, I'm out here, I wouldn't call that a late-bloomer. I mean, everybody puts so much emphasis on the young guns, everybody coming out of college. I mean, that's just recent, in the last few years that that's happened. It never used to be that way out here from what I saw. Guys didn't hit their stride until they were in their mid 30s when you were mentally and physically mature.

Some guys are just blessed with the ability to just focus so incredibly well and block out everything so incredibly well at a young age that they're able to handle the pressures that go along with playing out here or the pressures they put on themselves - what they allow themselves to feel, I should say.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: No, not at all. I wasn't at all. I never really worried about it. I always knew that someday I was going to be out here. I always had faith in myself that I'd be out here, that I'd be playing on the PGA TOUR someday.

I was to going to hang with it till I did it, you know? I realistically gave myself till 30, then I was going to get into golf course design, get on with a design company, start designing stuff because I think there's a lack of good designers these days. That's another story.

Q. Another story for another day?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Another story for another day. Don't get me started.

Q. Who is your favorite designer?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: It's Alister Mackenzie and I'd -- if you're talking old school, I'd have to say Alister or Tillinghast.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Tillinghast, San Francisco Golf Club. Mackenzie is Meadow Club, Pasatiempo, Augusta, Sharp Park if you can believe that, Claremont Country Club, lots of Bay Area courses I grew up playing, Cypress Point. His stuff is incredible in my mind.

As far as modern-day guys, I like Arthur Hills. I think he's really good. Any guy who uses the natural land and doesn't move a lot of dirt. I think there's just -- I think there's too much machinery on the golf course. I think guys use too much dirt-moving equipment. I think you get a piece of land and shape it and roll out the carpet, man. Seed it, sod it, do whatever you have to do, but don't leave a lot of dirt. I'm a total purist as far as that's concern.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'll be very honest with you. I think that he's done some great changes, and I think there's some changes that he didn't need to make. The tees on 11 and 16 are a little too far back. I mean, you're probably 235 into a prevailing wind to a green where they can -- where they put the two pins today. Those were great 4-iron and 3-iron holes with the old tees in the prevailing winds. He didn't need to put new tees up there. I don't care where technology goes. When you're coming down the stretch of the US Open like some guys will be doing in 2008, you tell me how hard it's going to be to hit a 4-iron or 5-iron to one of those flags. Give me a break.

He did a great job on the rest of the golf course, in my opinion. The tee in 12, you don't need either, because that's into a prevailing wind with a tough green. Other than that, the rest of the golf course is fantastic. He did a great job.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: No, I did not.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: New York?

Q. Yes.

ARRON OBERHOLSER: That's a cool course. The girls play there, don't they, ladies?

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Completely different ballgame. You could roll your ball on these greens on the south. They were smooth, they were good, they're just slow. That's fine. Actually with as much slope as he put in these greens, with some of the pins today, if you were beyond the pins, you had some really quick putts if the greens were very fast. But they were very manageable today.

The TOUR stuffed a lot of pins, from what I noticed, on that south course. For 66, like Tiger, that's a good round.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: He's good. He's really good. He is. I mean, I'm happy for him. He was a great guy to play with in college. He was a gentleman. He was very respectful of other guys when we played. We had a good time when we played together on the golf course. You know, even though we wanted to beat each other's brains in, we had a great time playing together.

I always enjoyed playing with him because he drew the crowd, and I love playing in front of people. It was fun playing with him.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I'll tell you what, it seemed like every time I missed the fairway today I made a bogey. So when he's shooting 66 and he can't find earth with his driver, if he finds earth this weekend with his driver or his 3-wood, I mean, he's going to be really hard to beat, really hard to beat.

I mean, he shot 66, man, on this golf course, soaking wet. How many fairways did he hit?

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Total or on the backside?

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: So he hit nine fairways in two days and he's 8-under-par, okay. That's good. New flash. I mean, the rough is five inches, six inches in spots. I mean, the guy is a beast. He's strong. I mean, he can maneuver his golf ball out of the rough, out of six-inch rough. That's impressive.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: I can't do that. I'm playing for the front edge of the green, hoping for a 2-putt if I can get to it the front edge of the green. I mean, he's in another league. He's still in another league than Ernie, in my opinion.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Did he win it again? Maybe the golf is closing. The X ball is probably pretty good for Ernie. If I don't get into the Masters, I'm going to have fun watching.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: We had one at USC's tournament at North Ranch, West Lake Village. It's LA, north part of LA up there. He was leading by one going into the last day. I was trailing. We went out there, had a good time. We had a good time. He ended up winning the golf tournament, I ended up finishing second or third.

I clipped him twice. I'm happy about that.

Q. (Inaudible)?

ARRON OBERHOLSER: Maybe it was only one (laughter). I like to think it's twice. I got him somewhere else. We only played one round. West Regionals, my sophomore year when I made it -- no, I didn't get him there. Pasatiempo and I know there was somewhere else. Usually you'd think you remember these things when you beat him.

The one I'm most proud of is Pasatiempo. That was cool.

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