WGC WORLD CUP

November 14, 2003

Jim Furyk

Justin Leonard

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: We would like to welcome the United States team to the interview room at the World Cup. Great round today, guys. After some difficult conditions yesterday to come out here and play like that today was awesome. Each of you make a comment on your round and we'll take some questions.

JIM FURYK: I was pleased with the way we played today. I thought we had a couple of errant shots and missed a couple of putts, but we also scrambled pretty well. We got the ball up-and-down a couple of times when we needed to. Overall, the second or third best round of the day, so I'm pleased with the way we played. Basically, hopefully, we want to go out there and keep it up, keep the momentum going and have a good weekend.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I thought we started off a little shaky today. I missed three or four tee balls on the first nine, but as the day went we got pretty good rhythm out there, hitting fairways and greens. It got better as the day went on. That's the way I like to see rounds go. I think we'll probably look to get off to a little better start tomorrow. I thought for this format on this golf course, we played pretty solid and certainly improved from yesterday. Hopefully we can continue that through Sunday afternoon.

Q. Describe the birdies on 2 and 7 a little bit.

JUSTIN LEONARD: You take 2. I'll take 7.

JIM FURYK: Justin hit a little drive left on 2. He had even numbered holes today and it ended up in the waste area on some wood chips. I pitched an iron out back into the fairway and left him in the 150 yard range, in a divot. And then I hit a great iron shot to, I'll say, four feet and knocked a 4-footer in.

JUSTIN LEONARD: 7, Jim hit a perfect drive, and I laid it up down there in the fairway. He hit one of his wedges about six feet, pin-high right, and I was able to make that.

Q. Let's go to eight. What happened on eight?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I've got eight. I hit a really good tee shot about 15, 18 feet. Jim had a good putt down to about -- was it two feet?

JIM FURYK: It was two feet past the hole.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I just hit a bad putt and lipped it out. I think it hit the hole.

JIM FURYK: He hit a great iron shot, and the first putt was a little and misread it, and that didn't go in.

Q. Let's go to 10 and 11. Short putts missed there, too.

JUSTIN LEONARD: 10, I had about --

JIM FURYK: It wasn't that short.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Maybe 8 to 10 feet.

JIM FURYK: It might have been longer than that, 10 to 12.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I hit a decent putt. I just misread it. And then 11, I didn't hit a good putt. I had about four feet there, hit a poor putt there. You know, make a couple of those and it's an even better day. I felt we hit enough good chip shots and things, did some good things around the green, to where if we can both get to putting, holing some putts, then we can really have a lot of fun this weekend.

Q. As far as holing putts, are the greens difficult to read? Is it just the pressure of alternate shot?

JIM FURYK: I think they're relatively -- everyone has the pressure of the format and alternate shot. The greens are tough to read and they are in interesting grass. I'm not sure exactly what it is, it's some sort of hybrid. It's got grain going some different ways. I think they're difficult to putt, personally.

Q. Do you feel like you left stuff out there today? Do you feel it balanced out?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I feel pretty good about the round we played today. Certainly we left some out there. There's not too many times you can think I got every bit out of it today. When you say that, you usually hit it pretty bad or you shoot 62.

JIM FURYK: We had good up-and-downs. If we got into trouble off the tee, the second shot was always put in place around the greens or in the fairway where the other guy would hit a good pitch shot up there to four or five feet, where we could knock it in and make par. I think we scrambled pretty good on a couple of holes. A lot of that tends to even out.

Q. You guys are using Justin's ball this week; is that correct?

JIM FURYK: Yes.

Q. How did that decision come about?

JIM FURYK: I asked him for a sleeve of his balls last week and he had a previous engagement to go to on Monday, and he didn't arrive until Tuesday evening. I came in Monday evening and had a day of practice with his ball on Tuesday. And the fact that I got here first and had more time to work with his ball and didn't see it as a major adjustment. Now after a day in tournament play I have a pretty good handle on the differences between his product and mine. I was just here and able to work with it and I didn't think it was a big adjustment.

JUSTIN LEONARD: The golf balls are pretty similar.

Q. Do you go back to your golf ball tomorrow?

JIM FURYK: Absolutely. I played with it all year and played well. There are little differences that today I saw more in competition. Around the greens, the biggest difference is my ball is real soft or hard around the greens, and his would be opposite. But they chip and putt similar. That's where your touch goes. It hasn't been a problem at all for me.

Q. What balls do you guys use normally?

JIM FURYK: I use a Strata Tour Ace.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Precept.

Q. Have you guys played alternate shot together before?

JIM FURYK: No, we haven't, all the teams we've been on together. It's funny, when we go into the foursome matches the captains will have you write a list of the players you want to play in the foursomes. I always put his name on the list because he has a similar game and I don't think it's much of an adjustment. We were trying to figure out, we have been on three or four teams and never been paired.

Q. Did you have to make adjustments or are your games that similar?

JIM FURYK: I think the fact -- you talk.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think the biggest adjustment today is timing. It's getting into a rhythm in the round. And today on this golf course it seemed like I would go three or four holes without putting and then all of a sudden for three or four straight holes I was putting. So the hardest thing about foursomes is getting into a rhythm of the round. I felt we did that after the first few holes. But I think our games are similar and I think that makes this format easy -- or easier, certainly not easy. But playing on the Presidents Cup team next week, I think our playing together this week should help. We'll certainly pull Jack aside and let him know our thoughts.

Q. Have you ever looked at the scoreboard at this point, I know you try not to look and project ahead, but looked at it and sort of wondered -- you guys moved up on the scoreboard, there is a lot of moving backward today on alternate shot, does that surprise you?

JUSTIN LEONARD: It doesn't surprise me at all on this golf course. You swing a little freer when you have two balls in play. All of a sudden you have one ball in play and you know your partner is going to have to go in that bush and hack it out if you hit it in there. The tendency is to tighten up a little bit. When you start steering in a place like this you get into trouble. This format on this kind of golf course can be pretty brutal, especially if one or both aren't playing very well.

Q. Given what you just said, would you expect Sunday, under the same format, do you expect it to be wide open if it's a packed field, anybody can win it?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Definitely. You can certainly lose and gain ground faster in this format than you can in best ball.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us. Play well this weekend.

End of FastScripts.