FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 27, 2002

Justin Leonard

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Justin for joining us. Great round today. Five under 66. I think the conditions started to get a little more windy as your day progressed. Why don't you just talk about the round and the conditions and we will go into some questions.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Got off to a great start today. Birdieing the first two holes and then made an eagle at 5, followed that up with a birdie at 6. And then played even-par the rest of the way in. With one birdie and one bogey. So I'm still pleased with the day. Obviously to get to have to a start like, that I was hoping to shoot a little lower score. But I hit the ball solid. I didn't play poorly the last 12 holes, I just didn't hit it quite as close. And obviously I didn't make any putts. So but all in all, it's a good score and a good start to the week.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. Garrett Willis just said you're one of the hottest golfers on Tour right now. Do you feel like that? Do you feel like you're gaining some momentum?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah, I've been playing pretty steady the last couple months. And that's, it's a nice feeling to come in with confidence and feel like before the week starts like I've got a chance to win the tournament. It's not always the case. It's nice of Garrett to say that. And I just feel very comfortable with my game right now and I think today's round and the start of my round was kind of a reflection of that.

Q. Does that add to your confidence how well you've played here? It seems look the last two or three times you've been here you've been top-5.

JUSTIN LEONARD: It does. But at the same time that was a long time ago. I guess '97 was maybe the last time I played here. And so it's been awhile. But I remember that last week when I was at home getting ready for this week. And sure, it made me look even a little more forward to it than I already was.

Q. What do you do? You said you were getting ready for this week. Did you pull out the yardage books. Do you do anything like that specific to the course?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Not really. I don't think this golf course, you just have to come here and play well. I don't think there's anything particular that -- I know there's nothing in particular that I worked on. Any certain shots or anything. Just you have to come here and play well and do everything, have everything pretty sharp.

Q. You said you kind of flipped-flopped Hartford and Memphis. Do you ever give any consideration to taking two weeks off or is that too long for you?

JUSTIN LEONARD: No, I did give it consideration. I was scheduled and did play in the CVS Charity Classic on Monday and Tuesday. And I figure if I'm going to go to Rhode Island and play for two days, I might as well either play a tournament before that or after that. Because if I take two weeks off, I want to have the full two weeks off and I'm going to go to Colorado and get away. And with the Monday, Tuesday I wasn't able to do that so it just made sense to play a week. But I look forward to a two-week break here at some point. But I don't think I'll see one until maybe September or October.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the condition of the course, what you thought of it today.

JUSTIN LEONARD: The golf course is beautiful. Fairways are great. The greens -- there's obviously been five years since I was last here there's a little more poa annua in them, but they're holding up okay. They spike up a little bit. This and that. But for bentgrass here in Memphis, it's pretty darn good. And I think that the staff here has done a great job. Hopefully they will get some good weather to where they can continue to kind of let the greens and golf course firm up a little bit.

Q. Could you go into a little bit the changes that you made with Butch Harmon and why you decided to make them. Obviously you're very comfortable at this point?

JUSTIN LEONARD: What's the Statute of Limitations on this question? No, no, I know. The reason I made changes was because I felt like my strengths, my body had changed over the last two, three years working out. Much stronger and I wasn't playing as consistently as I wanted to. I would have a good week here or there, and then struggle for awhile. And that doesn't mean missing cuts but just struggle with ball striking, things Ryder Cup like that. And so I needed to make a change. And I felt like I needed to go in kind of a different direction with my golf swing. Butch, it seemed pretty natural to go to him for help. He had helped me once earlier in the year when I was at a tournament on a Saturday evening at about 8 o'clock and I played pretty good the next day. So I felt confident with him and the things we did were to basically simplify things. Simplify my swing and it started with my address position. Moved my weight back towards my right side. I always started out with a lot of weight on my left side and had a big lateral shift. So took the lateral shift out of my golf swing and I was able to shorten the club up and get it in a better position on the way back. And from there it just makes things easier for me to understand, it makes it easier for me to repeat. And if something goes a little bit wrong, I can now I can feel it.

Q. When you make changes whether or not they're radical, do you have to, is there a mindset or a mind frame that you say, all right I'm going to make some changes, I got to be patient with them? Did you go through that?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Oh, yeah. I figure last year was kind of a rebuilding year. I played a little better toward the end of the year, the second half was fairly good. The first three or four months on Tour I was, there were days when I, it felt pretty good and there were days when I was lost. But fortunately patience is probably my greatest attribute. So I knew this was changes that I made weren't to play well last year, they're to play well for the next 10 years.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Couple more questions.

Q. Would you go into the marathon running a little bit. You ran in December?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. I have been into the marathon running and I'm out of it.

(Laughter.) One was enough. I am retired.

Q. Could you just go through your card?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Yeah. One, hit a 6-iron eight feet.

Two, hit a pitching wedge eight feet.

Five hit a 3-iron 12 feet.

Six hit a 9-iron a foot.

13 hit a pitching wedge 20 feet.

And then 17 hit it in the right bunker and hit maybe the worst bunker shot I've had hit on tour. Missed -- I didn't get it on the green and 3-putted from the fringe for bogey.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: All right. Thank you.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Thanks.

End of FastScripts....