Q. You mentioned 45. Last week Jeff Sluman had the early lead, Nick Price, Vijay Singh, 40 plus, wins the tournament. I'll ask you, what is it about your game that's going good right now even at your age?
DAN FORSMAN: Today I was hitting the ball in the center of the club face so everything was solid. So right there it just buoys your spirits. You're real positive, real confident. And then to make some putts, as I told my caddy, I made a birdie on 2 and I got under par out here. Before you go around the Horseshoe. And that a birdie -- a good start is very important on any golf course, but it certainly is on this one. Because if you don't you come around that Horseshoe and you might be 1-over, you might be 2-over, you might be worse. I was able to get around there at even par and then I felt like the course set up for me. I started gaining some confidence with some good solid shots and what's the difference for guys playing better longer I think it's the Champions tour. I think it's just the overall emphasis of the competition is so good now that guys are really sort of battling and I think that, whereas before some guys may have played a few weeks and then said I'll go do some outings and I'll see you guys in June or July or whatever. Now they're saying, hey, we're competing against the best players in the world week in, week out with substantial purse structures here. And this is pretty much my focus. I think that's -- I think as you mature and my age, at 44, going to be 45 in July, how many more years do I have? I got to eliminate the distractions and just narrow it down to playing pro golf. And I think there are some distractions out there. Although it's changing, the economy is changing, there's not so much opportunities as some guys have had as in the past. But again look at Fred Couples, the guy who's been known for these end of season events where he's made a bundle of money and won a lot. But nothing compared to Fred Couples at the Houston Open where he stepped up and won the tournament and couldn't speak to the microphone. That says it all. That's what I remember. And that's what I'm going to try to go for my balance of my career. With the Lord's help, and good hard work ethic and the determined committed effort to the TOUR, I think I can continue to play well.
Q. Was the book Natural Golf?
DAN FORSMAN: You know I'm not sure. I have to go back. I'll bring it back tonight. I hope I see you tomorrow. I don't know, if I play like this. It might have been Natural Golf. You know, real old sketches.
Q. Paper back?
DAN FORSMAN: No, it was a hard back. Hard bound.
Q. The only one I can think of --
DAN FORSMAN: And Jackie Burke, which I had never seen before, it was like the only instructional. All the rest of them were pictorials, best resorts, humor books. And there was this one instructional. I thought, Jackie Burke, here's a Texas legend which we don't really hear that much about, frankly, because it was before my time. But I thought well here's a guy that -- I was playing with Elke and he lives at Champions and one of my guys in the pro-am was a member of Champions, said Jackie Burke. So all of a sudden it was like, boom, I should read his book. It was like it was meant to be. So I opened it up. And it was, tap putter, it's like he was speaking to me. Tap it, Dan, you don't have to finish it. There it is. You're always learn something. I don't want to tell you about the other books I was looking at. A couple of psychology books, let me tell you.
Q. How well did you tap it today? Did you tap in some?
DAN FORSMAN: As far as my birdie putts, well I made about a 12 footer on 2 to get me started.
And I made a nice birdie on 6 from about 10 feet.
And I made a save at 7 from about 8 feet. Those are key.
And I birdied 11 from about 6 feet.
Made a nice save at 12 from about 8 feet.
Again just kind of feeling good. The ball's rolling in, something is going good. I kept saying, "Thanks, Jackie", you know. But anyway, birdied the par-3, is it 14 there? 13? With a 7-iron about 6 feet.
Then it was over the hole basically the next two holes.
And then on 16, hit it just behind the hole about eight feet and made that. Kind of a tricky right-to-left putt.
And just missed a birdie on 18. I had a good putt there I thought I might have made it. But the other thing was around the hole, good leaves, getting it to the hole, but not running it by three and a half, four feet. Which that was my problem last week at the Nelson. I hit the ball well and I had 35 putts the first day, 34 the second. And I missed the cut by a shot. And that's on the heels of some difficult finishes recently. And so I was looking for something. I found it at the book store. Courtesy of Mr. Jackie Burke.
Q. Was in your mind, your experience today, is the course and the greens set up in a way that you can afford to be aggressive? Should you be aggressive? How would you determine what is out there today for each golfer?
DAN FORSMAN: Well I think like in golf always there's always an ideal shot and way to be aggressive. But it's the ability of the player to determine his level of efficiency that day, that instant to be able to pull it off.
Now for me out there with 7, 8 irons and 6 irons, it's one thing. For Annika Sorenstam with 7-woods and 9-woods and who knows maybe a 4-iron or two, that's another. But again that's the kind of nature of this golf course. It sort of lends itself to really thinking your way around it. If you get -- you look at a guy -- for example on the 17th hole today, pin's back right over the big bunker on the right, and I got a 9-iron and I'm thinking I ought to be able to go right at this. But looking at it, just miss by a touch, it catches the wall of the bunker you're down in that difficult up-and-down. So you just have to err to the center of the green. So a good thinker is somebody around this golf course that's going to do very well. I think I think that's kind of what it's shown today with Annika thus far I think she's even par through 15.
Q. If she posts even par or better what will that say?
DAN FORSMAN: It would say she's a hell of a player. Excuse me, a heck of a player. Let's face it. With all the media that she's standing up to, that's tremendous. You tip your cap to her and hope she continues it. What a story this would be. My gosh. This is exciting. I don't know. Exciting to us players to see her play like that. And then I can imagine the media it's got to be unbelievable. So I hope she does it. I'm pulling for her.
Q. Tell me a little bit about the crowd out there the fans the atmosphere?
DAN FORSMAN: As I was going down number 10 we looked over to 17 and saw the crowd that Annika had. I said it looked like Tiger Woods' gallery when he's in town. That's substantial. And I haven't been in any LPGA events since the J.C. Penney Classic which I miss. It was a lot of fun. And it was great to see and I could when she was walking down every one was clapping for her as she went along. That's cool. That's really neat. I'm impressed. A lot of people following her. But she's -- in fact Elke, Steve made a comment he said, "You know, Dan, this gal's got a lot of class." He was talking about her walking down the back nine how she's handled everything. And she's really a sharp gal. He says, "I don't know if I could have handled it as well as she's handle it." I said, yeah, she's a classy lady. And he says, "Yeah, she's got class. "So even he was saying, yeah, this was really impressive. The guy's won Majors.
TODD BUDNICK: It looks like she's having fun out there too.
DAN FORSMAN: Yeah, that's the life. What could be better than that?
TODD BUDNICK: That's right. Any more questions?
Q. Sounds like a lot of those birdies, none of them were really long. You must have been striking it pretty well?
DAN FORSMAN: Yeah, I was hitting the ball solid and it just kind of kept growing. It was just kind of hopeful that it would build. It was just kept building through the round which was really exciting for me. So often times you get it going and all of a sudden whoops, and then you're doubting again. And you shouldn't, because they tell you just forget the shot. But as far as doing it, it's something else. The momentum kept building and I'm hopeful for tomorrow is keeps building.
TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Dan.
DAN FORSMAN: Thank you.
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