GENUITY CHAMPIONSHIP

March 1, 2001

Steve Flesch

STEVE FLESCH: I have been working pretty hard the first few days, getting it all tuned up again. Ran out of gas a little bit on the west coast, I played too many weeks in a row, finally had to skip last week to get some rest. I was kind of anxious to get back out and play this week. I worked out hard the first three days and it paid off a little bit today.

STEVE FLESCH: I don't think so. Maybe the way -- because he draws the ball off the tee, I fade the ball off the tee. To say it fits anyone better than another, I would not say that. Maybe just two lefties got hot with the putter today more than anything. Not a whole lot of wind out there. Conditions are playing pretty fast. It is in perfect shape, greens are great. If you hit the greens, you will have birdie opportunities because they are rolling so well.

STEVE FLESCH: Some of those events, like the Bob Hope, with the short rough, reachable par-5, you have to expect that. The greens are always perfect out there, too. I don't think that is the reason guys are shooting the numbers. There are more guys shooting lower scores. Guys are not scared off any more to shoot low. If you do not do it, you won't make any money. Conditions for the most part are so good week in, week out, the greens as good as they are, most everybody out here can hit it pretty well. If you get the putter hot you will get a lot of birdies.

STEVE FLESCH: Seems stacked up. Six guys in the Playoff. I just think it is a reflection of the depth of the Tour. There are so many more good players nowadays than probably fifteen, 20 years ago, that there is more guys contending each week. I don't know, I think that is the easiest way to explain it, the depth of the Tour is getting much better. The young guys are not afraid to stand up and shoot low with the rest of the guys.

STEVE FLESCH: As well as I played last year, last year was more just consistent than anything. I seemed to be playing well every week, expected to have a chance on the weekend, every week, because I played so well on Thursdays and Fridays. I kind of start out that way. Beginning of the year I played well in Match Play, ran into a buzz saw. I played well there. I did not hang my head. I finished 9th in Tucson, took a week off; went out to the west coast and wore myself out. I only went home for five days before I went out to Phoenix. Played too much golf, not to say got burnt out, was discouraged with how everything was going. I was tired, went home, skipped LA. Not that I was inpatient, but with the offseason I had, everything would keep flowing. I am glad I got off to a good start today, because that week off did me a lot of good, got a lot of good rest last week. I am just trying to stay patient.

STEVE FLESCH: After a year like last year, you expect you will jump in there and keep going. If you are not patient, it might not happen. I lost a little bit of patience on the west coast.

STEVE FLESCH: I don't know what I did last year to play so consistently, other than, I just kept hitting the ball so well. I was driving it well, really good with my irons last year. I had a great year putting it. If you do those three things, it is hard not to play well. I wanted to continue doing that this year. Not that I was -- I am not trying to do anything differently, more than anything, trying to stay patient, not expect, hey, everything will come so easily; because I know it is not.

STEVE FLESCH: Besides Disney?

STEVE FLESCH: Yes.

STEVE FLESCH: That was a little bit disheartening. I think I only shot 69 or 70 on Sunday, which obviously was not low enough compared to Duffy's 62. I played well all week. I played well with Tiger on Saturday and Sunday. I did everything I thought I had to do. I might have been focusing on the wrong guy. I figured if I was two ahead going head to head with Tiger going into Sunday, I will win the golf tournament. That is why we play a four-round tournament. Everybody has a chance to go out and shoot as low as they can. I do not feel like I lost that one as much as I got it stolen away from me there.

STEVE FLESCH: Yes. Without just using cliche after cliche, playing the same game, doing the same things, that is all you can do. That is what I learned, after screwing up the back nine at the Western, in the middle of the summer, worrying about, who is up there on the board, kind of playing it all out before you even play the back 9. I learned the hard way there. I tried doing things that did not really fit my game very well. I shot I think 39 or 40 on the back 9, so... I am just -- you know, cliche after cliche, doing --

STEVE FLESCH: Yes. Stuff you get sick of hearing, that is all that you can do, I think. Stay patient.

STEVE FLESCH: No, I never tried that. I am afraid I might break an ankle.

STEVE FLESCH: Yeah. I think can you definitely -- I can definitely take it away from that week, take that lesson away. But, there again, even though I was playing with Tiger, I kind of always knew where he was, where we stood. I cannot say that I was not playing aggressively. I was just doing the same things. I did not have as many putts go in on Sunday. I ran the table the first three days. I played well. Unfortunately, I just came up a shot short that week. I am learning, you know. This is only my fourth year out here, so, it is getting better. I am trying to hang in there and keep going.

STEVE FLESCH: I am definitely going to get up the Monday and Tuesday of the week before, which is Atlanta. But, between now and then I was thinking about going up the Monday and Tuesday of Bay Hill, but Tuesday is a Pro-Am at Bay Hill, so that kind of shot that. I will try to sneak up there. My friend Franco played this weekend. He said it is really wet. You are hitting driver three and four into No. 1, which is not indicative of how it will play during the tournament. I will wait and see.

STEVE FLESCH: I don't know. A lot of it, I think it just depends -- like this course here, I know 25 or 6 under won last year.

STEVE FLESCH: You go around and play, you do not think you will shoot 25 under. All of a sudden you are out there, the wind is down, couple of par fives a reachable, greens are perfect, if you hit well, the opportunities are there. To say you have to go out there and feel like you have to make birdies, yes, but, you know, you can look up at the board and see there are plenty of birdies going. I think that now on Tour when you put that tee in the ground on the first tee, you better be ready to go and hope you hit it well. You will get passed by if you are not. You have to take an aggressive attitude. You have to pick your spots, but at the same time -- not that you need to take chances -- you cannot play as conservatively now as you maybe could have five or ten years ago because of the depth.

STEVE FLESCH: Exactly. Par is not a good score any more out here. Last week it wasn't bad. What was the Playoff, 8 under?

STEVE FLESCH: Riviera is a different golf course. One of these things, you better be aggressive every week. Cuts are getting lower. The cut at The Hope was 11 under, 76 guys or something were at 11 under or better; San Diego 3-under. That is a lot of guys between the lead of maybe ten or eleven, 3-under par, 75 guys within eight shots. It is just the depth is there. There is a lot of great players.

STEVE FLESCH: I think it is. A lot of it, Mike is 9 or 10 -- I don't know. You look up on the board, if you get ready to play now and see somebody shot 9 under, you are 9 back, have not started the first round, you can not go out there trying to be conservative. You better go at it. It is frustrating - especially like at the Bob Hope, if you did not shoot 3-under, or 4-under, you were losing ground. Granted, the golf courses are set up pretty generously for us, but, still....

STEVE FLESCH: It is really not. As far as everybody is hitting it nowadays, you figure, at least two of the par fives will be reachable. They are four and a halves, basically. Not-not all easy par fours, but four and a halves, that is two shots. Tiger reaches all of them. His par is basically 68.

STEVE FLESCH: Kind of. Because we are lefties. He lives in Utah. I live in Kentucky. Other than just seeing each other when playing the same tournaments, we do not hang out. We know each other. It is kind of that lefty bond (laughter).

STEVE FLESCH: No, Russ Cochran, I am probably closest, fellow Kentuckian. Kind of the same between me and Chalmers, Mike Weir, Kevin Wentworth. I know him pretty well from the Asian Tour.

STEVE FLESCH: Definitely not Russ Cochran's. He has goofy looking stuff in his bag. It looks like his stuff is put together with bubble gum. He is always tinkering. Probably Mike and Greg Chalmers.

STEVE FLESCH: We are always looking at drivers.

STEVE FLESCH: You cannot get them. If they make -- Taylor Made makes all three. Ping makes their one. Some companies do not even make the left-handed version. Or it is not the top of the line model. We are always looking.

STEVE FLESCH: Yes, that big blew Mizuno 300. Cleveland is coming out with a new one. I am not pushing Cleveland or nothing. But they are coming out with their new one, too. Vijay is hitting it. Harrison Frazar, it goes a long way.

STEVE FLESCH: Probably another month or two.

STEVE FLESCH: Usually 6 months, at least. Understandably so. They make the right-handed version first, then they decide if they will make it lefty, because there is not a market for it, especially a high-end club that is built for, like this new Cleveland, it is built for better ball strikers, less spin, high launch; the general public cannot hit clubs like that. Just to make them is $100,000 for the molds, by the time you do the castings, that is a lot to dedicate to a club which only one guy might use. Make one set, expensive clubs.

STEVE FLESCH: I am one of the dinosaurs. I am still hitting the Old Professional. I asked the guys yesterday, there are only five guys now playing the ProV 1.

STEVE FLESCH: 80 Titleist players, 70 of them are playing the ProV.

STEVE FLESCH: A little bit of that. The equipment deal, it is everybody is curious - wedges, putters, there is just not a lot of it to come across. So if you find one, it is something good and you hit it well, the other guys are like, what is it, maybe I have not seen that. A lot of it is when we go on the range, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you have how many thousands of drivers, there might only be five of them left-handed. So, you do not have the selection; where right-handers can stay all day long and hit a different one every shot; where we, if we see something we like, we ask first of all, do you make it left-handed, the next question, can it be made to my specs. Not all of them can. It is just curiosity factor out there among all the left-handers. And, since there is only 6 of us playing, we are kind of always, you know, rooting for one another, seeing what each other is doing.

STEVE FLESCH: I saw that, yes. Yes. That is one of those things, I putted really well today. I am sure Mike did. You do not shoot 9 under without putting well. It does not surprise me.