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BANK OF AMERICA COLONIAL

May 20, 2004

Jeff Maggert

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jeff Maggert, good round today 4-under par 66, got a little windier in the afternoon, but you posted a good score. Start with some opening comments on the day.

JEFF MAGGERT: A good solid day. I hit the ball well all day. I knew it was going to be a tough afternoon with the gusty winds and I wanted to get off to a good start, and certainly the eagle on 1 and the birdie on the second hole was about as good as you could expect.

I survived Hogan's Alley there with three pars and I just felt I could shoot a good score from that point and play steady and keep the ball in the fairway and give myself some birdie putts.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You've had a great season so far. You had a great finish at the AT&T and played well at Wachovia. You're giving yourself a chance almost every time out.

JEFF MAGGERT: It's still inconsistent, but it's getting better. It's probably the best year I've got going in the last three or four. In 2000, I played pretty well, but 2001, 2002, and 2003 were a little off. I'm getting my game back into a consistent style of play that I like to play. I get a little over anxious sometimes. I play one good tournament and start thinking that my game is back, and then I seem to stumble a little bit.

I've been trying to stay a little bit more patient and not concentrate so much on this has to be the week that I have to do it and just try to play good solid rounds of golf. I played very well at Charlotte, I had kind of a rough week last week at Nelson, but overall the golf game is a lot more consistent. I'm hitting shots I used to hit and I've been able to get the ball close to the hole and give myself some chances for birdies.

Q. When you talk about the cycle of getting over anxious when you play well, does that manifest itself in your swing or your decision-making process? Where do you think that shows up?

JEFF MAGGERT: For me, it's been -- I've had a couple of things that I've worked hard on my golf swing and when I quit thinking about what I'm trying to do with my golf swing, that's when I've had problems. I start playing a little bit better and I start thinking about, you know, how I'm doing in the tournament, I've got a chance to win, I'm focusing more on -- I'm focused more on the result instead of the process of how I need to get there.

I just have been working hard on thinking about my golf swing and working on things I've tried to work on the past 2 or 3 years. I've watched my swing a lot on the video this season and I've made tons of improvements from where I was a couple of years ago. The short game is starting to come around, and that's what's been holding me back all year, just making the putts when you need to and getting the ball up and down. I'm starting to do that a lot more consistently. I just feel like my game is going to kind of steady out here and be a little more even keel as opposed to all the ups and downs I've had in the past 2 or 3 years.

Q. Jeff, you talk about the short game being so good for you. How important is it out here on this course to get it up and down, and did you have some good ones today?

JEFF MAGGERT: Well, certainly when it gets windy like it is today, you're not going to hit 18 greens on a day like today, so you're going to have some little testy chips out here. The Bermuda rough is difficult to chip out of, even though it's not very long, if it sits down in there it's hard to get back spin on your chip shots and you have to be really careful and patient. The main thing this week for me or for today was just the 5-, 6-, 8-footers that I've made to save some pars.

It's amazing when you make two or three or four of those a round, what your score ends up being, as opposed to the days you don't make those. It just seems I'm starting to make those again. I've been struggling and turning a lot of 72s and 73s into 68s and 69s by making a few putts here and there.

Q. You were in a position to win a few weeks ago, did you come away from that feeling like that was a tournament with a lot of progress or did you come away thinking there was one that was there for the taking?

JEFF MAGGERT: It was such a tough golf course, those last three holes there. All week I didn't really feel totally comfortable with my ball-striking and I knew those holes were tough. I just tried to approach that week, especially Sunday, you're playing well again, you don't have to come out here and shoot a 65 and try to win this golf tournament, and I just tried to play a good steady round and make some early birdies.

I was fortunate enough, I got in the lead or tied for the lead at one stretch there early on in the back nine and I just tried to stick with the game plan and just try to play my way in and hit some good shots and just made a couple of bogeys on 16 and 17 and dropped back a little bit.

Overall, I felt really good there in Charlotte, the way I handled my golf swing in kind of a pressure situation. I feel like definitely it was a little bit of a step forward for me. Really, I just need to get myself in that position three or four more times here this summer and I feel like I'm going to get a win here shortly.

Q. This course I would think suits your game very well. How would you rate it over the years as to how you played here?

JEFF MAGGERT: I've had some very good tournaments here. I can't say that I've really had a chance to win late on Sunday, but I've always played well and I've played a lot of good rounds on Sunday and got near the lead, but I like the golf course. It suits my style of golf. You don't have to hit the ball 300 yards on every tee shot, you have to think your way around, a lot of par 4s where you hit 3-woods and 2-irons.

Some players criticize the golf course because you can't hit a driver on every hole, but it just forces you to play every single club in your bag. If you look at all the players that have won here over the years, they're all very good. Their career records are very outstanding and you've just got to be really a shotmaker, you have to think well, it's a good test of golf here.

Q. Does this tournament have any particularly special place in your heart, on your priority list of things you would like to win?

JEFF MAGGERT: Growing up in Texas, this was probably the most famous tournament when I was a kid. I would love to win here. I would love to win anywhere, but certainly when you win in your home state there's a little extra pride in that. This club and the course has a lot of tradition to it and certainly with Ben Hogan's influence here, it would be special to win here.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your round and we'll take one last question.

JEFF MAGGERT: I started on 1 and hit driver, 3-wood about 20 feet there, made the putt for eagle.

Next hole, probably about a 10-footer for birdie.

Made bogey on 6. I was actually in the fairway but standing in the trap. My feet were about two feet below the ball, not much of a swing there, and hit it in the green-side trap and didn't get it up and down.

9 was about a 15-foot-er with a 7-iron.

Q. What did you hit into 2?

JEFF MAGGERT: A little sand wedge.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 11?

JEFF MAGGERT: 11, the par 5, I hit my second shot short of the green into the green-side trap and got it up and down.

15 was a 6-iron to probably about a 20-foot, a good putt there.

16, I just kind of pushed my shot to the right a little in that sand trap. I was a little bit too far up the bunker to have much of a chance to stop the ball close to the hole. I had a pretty good bunker shot out of there but I think I missed about a seven or eight-footer there. I hit a 7-iron off the tee.

Q. I was curious, is there any different kind of club you might throw in the bag for this week as opposed to the other tournaments?

JEFF MAGGERT: Not for me. I've never really switched clubs for certain courses. I've always played the same 14. Some guys are throwing in a popular club now, they call it the rescue iron, but it's like a 2-iron and looks kind of like between a fairway wood and an iron. I see a lot of those in the bags now. The guys that are playing those are pretty much playing them full time. You're starting to see a lot of those clubs as opposed to a 2-iron.

I hit a lot of irons -- I hit probably three 2-irons off some of the tee shots here and it's just a good club for me. I can keep the ball down out of the wind, and the fairways are pretty firm and I can hit that club 240, 250 off the tee if I get a little run out of it.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jeff Maggert, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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