VERIZON BYRON NELSON CLASSIC

May 9, 2002

Steve Flesch

TODD BUDNICK: We'll go ahead and get going. 5-under, 65, one off the lead today. Looks like you started on the front side of tournament player course bogey on No. 3.

STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, that hole is --the way the wind is out of the north today that's a par 5 today. I think it is 480 or 90 anyway into a 25, 30 mile an hour breeze. If you don't drive it in the fairway it's tough to get home. I drove it in the left rough, hacked it up about 30 yards short of the green hit it on there about eight feet and missed the putt for par.

Then next hole made birdie. I hit 7-iron about six feet. 6, I hit a 9-iron about a foot. Made birdie. 9 hit a 9-iron about three feet.

11, I hit a pitching wedge about six feet.

And 14, I hit a sand wedge about four feet.

And then on 16, the par 5, hit my second shot in the green-side bunker knocked it out five feet, made that for birdie.

TODD BUDNICK: Go ahead and give us a comment on today, obviously it is a little tougher playing in the wind like that.

STEVE FLESCH: Yeah, fortunately I felt like it when I got on the practice tee really had control of the trajectory of the ball today and in a wind like this it always helps. All my birdies were inside six feet. Just hit a lot of great shots, really had control, where my irons today, really didn't make any that I shouldn't have. I made nothing I shouldn't have. I felt like I should make all those. Just a good solid ball striking day out there for me today.

Q. Was the wind constant?

STEVE FLESCH: The wind was.

Q. Up and down?

STEVE FLESCH: It was constant and blowing about 10 to 15. But there were some gusts to probably about 20. Yeah there was a constant northern breeze today.

Q. No swirls, all from the north?

STEVE FLESCH: No swirls, all from the north. At times you just had to watch on the three pars it would get gusty before you pulled the trigger just watch what it is doing.

Q. Prevailing wind is normally southwest?

STEVE FLESCH: I would think because that third hole, I mean, it is playing as a 5 par, it's -- probably how they play it in December and January around here right now. But because yesterday or when I played the practice round on Tuesday, we played the farther back tee and I hit a 7-iron into the hole. Today we played the up tee and it would have been a 5-wood, or a 2-iron in, so, yeah. Definitely I don't think this was the normal wind.

Q. Where is your game, talk about your year, where has your game been?

STEVE FLESCH: A lot of times it just hasn't been the same state I have been in. (Laughs) It isn't bad. I really -- I just really haven't been making the putts that I think I should have. I have been hitting it fine, getting little impatient out there. I am having -- I am having and all right year. I am a little bit on the frustrated side. I was hoping that I'd start off better than this. If I get the putter going, you know, a couple of good weeks turns the year around.

Q. Get a good start in on the TPC side, tomorrow with Cottonwood, do you feel like you have got kind of a leg up in some ways, that course --

STEVE FLESCH: Especially in the wind because if the wind dies down tomorrow you feel like, you know, if you shot even par 1-over par even though it might be that bad a round, it is TPC, you feel like you are kind of behind the 8-ball. To play well here, starting out, going over to Cottonwood you always have to feel pretty good.

Q. Had you been building up to this kind of a ball-striking round?

STEVE FLESCH: I have been hitting it great for two months. And I have been absolutely putting it horribly for --, you know, relatively speaking. I mean, I usually feel like I am a pretty good putter. Last week in New Orleans I really don't think there was anybody that probably hit it better than I did the whole week and I probably finished dead last in putting. A little bit of a confidence thing and a little bit of a routine issue, and, you know, once they start going in the hole you feel a lot better about everything else. Today was a good start for me.

Q. Any particular shot today being able to bounce back between the third and 4th hole -- took the bogey coming right back (inaudible) was that a freak thing or was it a big save you had during the course of the day that really kick-started you or --

STEVE FLESCH: Not really. I have been hitting it just so well, especially driving it well off the tee, put my ball in the fairway and I really just felt like I had such good control with my irons out there today in that wind, you con get the ball up there too high in the air because it is just -- judging your distances was so difficult, so just really -- you know, not to avoid the question -- I have been hitting my irons so well that I just really as long as I can get the ball in play I feel like I can get close to the hole. My longest putt I made for birdie today was six feet, so, you know, I had a lot of other 20, 25-footers, you know, but you don't really expect to make those, but you make one or two of those, you make 4, 5 of those a week, it makes a big difference.

Q. Good feeling, you feel like you have got everything; you didn't give anything away, --

STEVE FLESCH: Right, I made a good par save, I believe, on 12 from about seven, eight feet. Probably 8-footer for par. Which kind of kept the momentum going. Then I birdied 14 and 16 coming in, but that was big. When you haven't been making a lot of putts making an eight-foot par save really gives you a lot of confidence. If I can just free up my putting stroke a little bit I really look for good things to happen in the next couple of months.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you.

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