CANON GREATER HARTFORD OPEN

July 4, 1998

Len Mattiace

MR. MURASE: Congratulations to hole-in-one, a check from Canon USA to congratulate.

LEN MATTIACE: Thank very much.

LEN MATTIACE: Thank you. Thank you, Mr.`Murase. Thank you and thanks a lot to Canon. (Applause) Thanks very much. It's great to be here, it really is.

LEN MATTIACE: Well, it was another nine iron. The hole was 163 yards and I felt like it was just a regular nine iron, you know, the hole plays downhill and been playing well up to that point. So I felt like just go ahead and hit it. And, you know, the whole day was going well. I was three under up to that point. I was playing real solid. So I had good thoughts going into the hole. I hit it really solid. You hate to say I hit it exactly how I thought I should hit it. It went out the way I wanted it to. It actually flew right in the hole on a fly, and it made a ballmark on the front lip of the hole, kind of half of the hole, and just stayed in. Right in on the fly, for a split second we thought it might come out. Usually balls come in with that, you know, velocity, it might pop out. But it stayed in.

LEN MATTIACE: Oh, yeah. Every pro that walks up on that tee, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday, because everybody is looking around and, you know, you're looking -- it's posted up there. Everybody knows that you make a hole-in-one, you get the check and the Canon camera.

LEN MATTIACE: I actually did a little dance on the tee. I was excited. I gave high-fives to everybody, and did a little dance on the tee, and kicked my legs up and it was exciting, you know, because, it's such a beautiful hole looking downhill that you really don't know exactly where the ball is going to come down, anybody knows when you hit downhill, it's a great-looking shot. It's exciting, you know. It's amazing that when we play, we try and make shots. And when the shot finally goes in, it's exciting. It's something.

LEN MATTIACE: This is my fourth.

LEN MATTIACE: Never in on a fly. Nope, couple bounced and rolled and one bounced in.

LEN MATTIACE: This is the first big one.

LEN MATTIACE: Super-nice camera.

LEN MATTIACE: I've had two on TOUR. This is my second on TOUR. I had one in high school and one in college.

LEN MATTIACE: In '93 we played in Milwaukee and the Sharp's company was giving a thousand dollars to hole-in-ones that year on TOUR.

LEN MATTIACE: That's right. I think on every par three this week, if you make a hole-in-one, you either get a camera -- I think one's a watch and 25,000 on a couple of them. This one happened to be both. I picked the right hole.

LEN MATTIACE: Tomorrow as well. You bet. On number 16 today when I came to that par three, I felt like there's no way I can miss, no way.

LEN MATTIACE: I hit a six iron about ten feet.

LEN MATTIACE: A score of 10.

LEN MATTIACE: Thanks for bringing that up. Everybody knows island hole, it's obvious, under those conditions that I played on Sunday, the players championship, you know, all those things are happening. I think, geez, it's obvious that that could happen. There have been eights before on the island green. I'm sure -- unfortunately, there will be sixes, eights and tens. That's an obvious hole. This hole, it doesn't -- it's under-rated. It's a difficult hole. The tee shot is difficult. Most guys try and slide it off the bunker into the fairway, miss a little, right, you're in the water? The second shot is a little under-rated in the sense that you've got to be precise with the iron shot, but it's not an island green. There's no water over, but it seems to play a little longer than the yardage. So I've seen guys in the last couple years hit good shots and come up short in the water. And they're like -- I just hit a good shot. It's in the water. So, you know a ten, obviously, there's some other balls in the water happening there. It's an under-rated hole. It's a great stage. I mean, second-to-last hole here, but it's a tough hole.

LEN MATTIACE: I didn't know that.

LEN MATTIACE: Well, it's a hard thing -- I mean, making a -- what did he make --

LEN MATTIACE: -- ten? It's a hard thing. You know, everybody is going to handle it differently and hopefully whoever that -- I don't know who it was. But that player hopefully goes to 18, place the hole like it should be played. I don't know what he'd done on 17. I'm sure that's devastating, you don't wish that on anybody.

LEN MATTIACE: I did, down at Sawgrass?

LEN MATTIACE: I did. I felt like that time all that just happened, we had a long walk from 17 to the 18 tee. 100 thoughts went through my head at that point. I probably just lost the tournament, lost all this money. I just made an embarrassing scene. I hit a great shot and got penalized. I made an eight on the bar -- all those thoughts went through my head. I felt like when I got on 18, 18 is a tough hole like this hole. A tough hole. I felt like I, at least, want to play this hole well, as best as I can. And then Sunday night I cried all I could, you know. But it's -- 17 is a scary hole here, you know. It's not the island green where everybody -- it's obvious, but it's a tough hole.

LEN MATTIACE: I do. Well, all my wife's family is from the Providence area. So her brother, her sister, her parents, nephews, nieces, they're all coming out.

LEN MATTIACE: I'm originally from Long Island. So my cousins came up and I got to see them.

LEN MATTIACE: Unfortunately, she passed.

LEN MATTIACE: She passed. She passed Sunday of Westchester. You know, she had cancer and stuff and the last couple of weeks of her life was real painful, and she's at piece now.

LEN MATTIACE: It was real bad the last couple of weeks. I think she's with me and I think she's with our whole family.

LEN MATTIACE: My wife was there and, yeah, some of our family, yeah.

LEN MATTIACE: They stuck it out. My father-in-law, my wife's parents and sister and brother-in-law, yeah, they were there.

LEN MATTIACE: I don't know. I may have to stay away from them.

LEN MATTIACE: That's right, free drinks, free food.

LEN MATTIACE: Lots of pictures.

LEN MATTIACE: Okay. Thanks very much, again.