BRAD FAXON: Are you talking about the 16th hole?
Q. Yeah.
BRAD FAXON: That's interesting. I just talked to John Brendall, the official. He was there on 16 and he said if any player had said this is unplayable, I don't want to do this, because the conditions there, you could not take complete relief without going, probably -- I don't know if you could take it. Would you have had to go into the heavy rough. He said would he have stopped play. He said to the players credit they kept going. We did get a club length, but there could have been a situation where if you were in those ponds out there, puddles, you might not have been able to get to a dry spot or to a place could you have played but everybody wanted to finish the round. I think that was really the only fairway that was completely bogged.
Q. Do you think everyone wanted to keep going and finish the round, just because?
BRAD FAXON: Yeah, they didn't want to stop and wait till tomorrow, I know that. Figure, if you're in that fairway, you're going to have a wedge or a sand wedge in there anyway, so I think most guys think they can do okay with that.
That was really the only hole that was like that at all.
Q. When you woke up this morning, would you have believed that you could have shoot a 62 if you knew that that was the number would you have to hit in order to beat Tiger today?
BRAD FAXON: Would I have believed that?
Q. Well, if you woke up this morning and saw the rain coming down and somebody said, you're probably going to have to shoot 62 today, would you believed you would have had a chance of doing just that?
BRAD FAXON: I would ever never thought about that.
When I woke up this morning, I didn't think we'd get 18 holes in. I saw the forecast, I just didn't think we could finish.
If you're asking me if I knew Tiger was going to shoot 68 with a five-shot lead, that doesn't surprise me.
Q. Heading into THE PLAYERS Championship and Augusta, he's saying his game is starting to come together. Again, does he seem like on obstacle that most players just can't overcome unless -- if he plays the way he can play, is he beatable?
BRAD FAXON: I think so. Somebody else has to be on, as well. To me, he's putting well, and that's -- that's maybe the most overlooked, and I don't think it's overrated. He's a great putter. He makes great putts all the time. If he keeps doing that, he's hard to beat.
Q. He keeps making references back to feeling as good as he did in 2000, and in all likelihood are we looking at a nine-win, three-major season from him?
BRAD FAXON: I don't know.
Q. What's the State of your confidence, you've been playing well all year, two big tournaments?
BRAD FAXON: I would have liked to have hit it a little better, especially early in the round than I did today. Last few holes I hit a couple good shots. I have a history of that, not being the best driver in the world, so I'm not too worried about it. If I'm going to be upset about finishing second here -- I'm not going to -- I'm going to be excited. These tournaments are big tournaments. I like the courses. I both of those tournaments mean a lot to me. I'll be ready to go.
Q. Is this close to being as good as you've played going into those two?
BRAD FAXON: I think '97 I was pretty good. But I'm feeling pretty good. I've love to get a win or two under my belt sooner or later, but I'm excited about my start and going up to the next few weeks.
Thank you for asking a question about me. (Laughter.)
Q. Speaking of finishing second, with the amount of money, I think you're 300K for second today and the ranking points and all of the things that are out there, is finishing second a good thing, is it better than it used to be? Is it more of a disappointment because you don't win? How do we look at second now?
BRAD FAXON: I mean, I could say the macho thing and say if I don't win, it doesn't mean anything.
Finishing second when a guy wins by 11, does it mean anything? I think so. There's a lot of other good players out here.
I use that as confidence-builder and I would have liked to have finished second alone, not tied for second. I've always been of the feeling that if you're not going to win, it's always better to finish better second than third, third than fourth, 50th than 51st. And I always try to give it my best shot no matter what position I'm in. I don't look at the leaderboard and think, this means dollars. Sometimes it's fun to mess around with that but it never really helps.
Q. You talked yesterday about one of your goals is to play with Tiger as much as you can. I'm assuming that's because if you do you have a chance to win an event, but I'm assuming you're taking something away from those experiences; what did you take away from today?
BRAD FAXON: I look at the way he just gathers himself and the way he -- I think he's got his game pretty simple right now. He looks like he's not trying very hard. He sees his shot, he gets up over it. He's very purposeful over the ball. His swing is great. Obviously, he can hit it far and he putts well. But his routine is very consistent. I look at all those things and just want to make mine more like that.
Q. Do you try to apply that kind of stuff at different times?
BRAD FAXON: Definitely.
Q. Are you coming closer to doing it more often?
BRAD FAXON: I think so. I mean, I've been fairly consistent this year. You know, this helps. Playing in the last group -- and I certainly did not have what I would call my A Game today but I hung in there and that's all you can ask for sometimes.
JOE CHEMYCZ: Thank you.
End of FastScripts....
