An Interview with:

GEORGE BRETT

Q. This is a good message for the kids. We'll be outside of the main entrance there below 17. We have a platform and bleachers for George to conduct a clinic.

I'll tell you a little bit about how George ended up being here today. Mia Hamm came to the Women's Open, Brett Favre came in 1999, we try to find a celebrity with a local flavor, not necessarily in golf, but to complement the activities for the week, and George graciously gave up his time.

He had a heck of a day yesterday, but he flew in this morning. And part of the reasoning behind bringing in a non-golf celebrity is attracting the sports fan who may otherwise not pay attention to see the place, get excited, and hopefully come back over the weekend.

Welcome, George. Tell us a little bit about your golf background. How much do you play now?

GEORGE BRETT: It's good to be here. I am a golf fan, I guess you would say. I'm a member of five courses in Kansas City, a couple in Palm Springs. I play golf an awful lot. Obviously, the older I get, the less I play.

My kids are getting to an age -- I have a 6 -, 7-, and 9-year-old, all boys. I guess one of my dreams would be to play in a foursome with my boys.

I am a member of an all men's course in Kansas City. My sons have been there. They love the course. We are members of two country clubs in the nearby neighborhood of my house, but I've been playing golf since 1980, had some wonderful, wonderful opportunities, played with pros, played with female pros, used to play a lot with Jane Geddes out in Palm Springs, played a lot with Fred Couples back in 1987. Fred and I won the AT&T Pebble Beach Open

Pro Am.

I respect the game of golf. I know how hard the game of golf is. I played in a lot of senior events, Pro  Ams. I've caddied for Larry Ziegler four or five years ago when he won the tournament. I caddied the last round for him, so I understand how tough the game is, how demanding it is, and how mentally sharp you have to stay in order to be successful.

And I think that's why I'm so honored to be here to watch these women play, and why I'm glued to the TV set every Sunday to see if anybody is going to be as tough as Tiger.

Q. Tell me about kids and how you have gotten involved with kids. I know we've bused down several buses of kids from Kansas City, intercity youth.

GEORGE BRETT: Yeah, I have three kids. And up until I got married -- I played baseball until I was 38 years old and a bachelor. I got married when I was 39 years old, and I used to take kids for granted. I would always play with the kids, my teammates' kids, you know, at the ball park, and things like that.

But once you have your own kids, you realize how important they are, not only to you, but to everybody else. And right now I have three kids that are very, very active in Little League baseball; three kids that are very, very active in the Swim Team at the Country Club; I have three kids that are very, very active in junior golf.

I'm the hitting coach on all their teams  -- just the assistant hitting coach, I should say. But I realize I have an opportunity to do things that a lot of parents don't have an opportunity to do, and that's to be a part of their kids' lives.

When I was a kid, I was the youngest of four boys, and my father went to work every Monday at 8:00 in the morning, and he'd be home every day at 5:30. I don't have that schedule with my work schedule at home. I take my kids to the pool at 8:00 every morning in the summer, Monday through Friday, for swim practice. I pick them up at 10:30, or my wife will.

I go to the practices and games as often as I can. In fact, two of my boys have Swim Meets today at 4:00 at Mission Hills Country Club in Kansas City, and one of my boys, I will try to get back to the 4:00 Swim Meet to root my kids on. And I will definitely be there tonight helping in any way I can, not only with my child, but anybody else on the team, teaching them about how to respect the game of baseball, to run your position , not to question the umpire's decision: Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, try to be ready at all times, be a team player. Those are the things that I'm trying to instill in my kids now at an early age that my father did to me.

The one thing I try to stress is the number one most important thing in life right now is education. My 8-year-old son fell behind a little bit. He's going to tutoring for nine weeks, two hours a day, every day, because I really, really believe in the world of being a sports figure, that you look at the money these outfits are making, and everybody wants to take the easy way out and be an athlete, but for everybody that makes it in sports, there's the billions of people that don't make it.

So for my family I know one thing, they are all going to have a very, very, very good education to the elementary school, high school, and hopefully college level. That way, in case their dreams of being a baseball or football player, or whatever, they are going to be able to go out and support themselves.

Q. Have you ever played Prairie Dunes before?

GEORGE BRETT: Once. The wind was blowing 50 miles an hour. I hit two balls off the first  tee , the first one went in the tall grass, the next one in the short grass. I knocked the one in the short grass on the green, and parred it, and proceeded to lose about 10 or 15 balls. It is going to be a test for these women.

Q. What's your handicap right now?

GEORGE BRETT: Right now probably about a 15. I had it down to about a 6. I've had some surgeries in the last three months  -- last three months, and one of the surgeries was on my gums from chewing tobacco for 30 years. I promised my wife and dentist that I wouldn't chew tobacco anymore, and my body has a little chemical imbalance from no nicotine.

I'm trying to cut down on the coffee, too, getting rid of the caffeine and nicotine. The closer I get to the green, I got the yips and chilly dips.

My last two rounds in Florida this year I shot 75-76, and I was real happy with my game, and then I made the drastic mistake that I think so many of amateurs make. I started telling people I figured out how to play the game of golf, and the golf God heard me and punished me because my game has gone South.

I'm going to Lake Tahoe to play in the celebrity event out there, something I've done the last two years. I always look forward to going, but for those of you that are weekend warriers like myself, once they put up the yellow ropes, once they give you a caddy with your name on the back of that caddy's vest, once they put those TV cameras up in the TV towers behind the greens, once they put those little stands behind tee boxes when they introduce you at these events, they don't just say Number 5, George Brett, from the Kansas City Royals, they build you up like you're something really special.

And being a baseball player, I think the people  -- and known, basically, as a hitter and a Hall  of  Fame member in baseball, everybody expects a baseball player that was a good hitter to be a good golfer, so there's more pressure on you.

If I get the ball to stay on the tee the first hole without falling off, that's good. Now, if I can hit the ball over that little creek in front of the first hole on the first troll at the Country Club in Tahoe, if I get it airborne, there's a big sigh of relief.

In the practice round two years ago I shot 75. The first round I shot 81. I woke up the next night, and all of a sudden I dreamed that I shanked one and couldn't get back to sleep. That day I go out and shot 88, and the next day shot 92.

Ladies and gentlemen, the game of golf gets difficult when they put up yellow ropes. It gets difficult when you have to putt a 2-footer with a 1,000 people watching and TV cameras.

I remember one shot I hit, the 15th hole, there was a TV camera covering two holes, and I was just getting ready to hit looking at the flag, and all of a standard I saw that TV camera zoom and come to me from the other green or something, and all of a sudden my grip on my hands went (indicating) where the pressure was on. If you're not used to it, it's going to affect you, and I'm not used to playing golf in front of a lot of people, and it does affect me.

A lot of people, when you're playing at the Country Club, say "Come on, you want to play through? We're holding you up." And you probably feel a little more pressure there because you want to hit a good shot there, and your tension in your grip gets tighter.

Ultimately I'm going to get better. Already I've had nightmares. I'm going to try to relax a little bit, but there's nothing I like better than playing a good round of golf.

Q. One final question from up here, then we'll go up the floor.

Baseball: Will there be a lock-out this year.

GEORGE BRETT: Let's hope not. I'm not really sure of the situation, being a little bit in a management situation, and not really knowing what the players and the Players Association are feeling. I just wish they would learn from past mistakes.

I know as a player there was a lot of times we went on strike, there was a lot of times we were locked out. Was it the majority of the players that actually felt that a strike or a lock-out was necessary? I would say probably 50/50 through some of those, but the Union heads all felt it necessary for something drastic to happen.

I really think right now baseball cannot afford a work stoppage so, hopefully, major league baseball, the owners, and players have all learned from past mistakes and they will figure something out. I don't know why they wait for the last minute of the last day. I wish both sides would negotiate more in good faith prior to the last week or last two days, but I really don't think the sport can afford it right now.

Q. What can a spectator learn about playing golf from watching the women golfers play, given they don't have as much strength as, say, you would have, or a pro would have?

GEORGE BRETT: I would trade my game with any woman playing this event right now, and I think most men would. To me, it's not how far, but how straight you hit it.

When I used to play a lot of golf with Jane  Geddes, who was a long hitter, when we were all neighbors out in Palm Springs, the thing is that these girls can play. These girls can really play.

Annika wants to play  -- doesn't she want to play Tiger head-to-head? Didn't I read that somewhere? Did I read that?

Q. I'm not sure.

GEORGE BRETT: Did anybody read or write that somewhere? You read it? She wants to play him head-to-head. I'd like to play Tiger head-to-head. I don't think I can win, but this gal thinks she can beat him.

Q. You said you got turned on to the game in 1980, the golf game. Was that the first time? How did you fall in love with it?

GEORGE BRETT: 1980 is when I first started playing. I went out to Palm Springs -- I had never been there before. And I went out there with two of my brothers and ended up buying a house, and that ended up being two to three months before I went to spring training.

Kansas City was not the greatest place to live in the winter. I never really could afford to play golf as a youngster. No course in my small hometown where I grew up, so golf was kind of a spectator sport for me.

Once I moved out there and I met the likes of Fred  Couples, John  Cook, and Greg Twiggs, and the people that lived at the same complex I did, and started playing golf, and saw how easy they made it look.

Being an athlete, I thought that would be something fun to do. Plus, when you get an opportunity to play with those people, and a lot of guys that didn't make it, it makes it fun to play with some of the people that are on the Tour.

And, you know, I dreamed of becoming a scratch player. I probably will still continue to work to be a scratch player.

Will I ever get there? I don't know. I don't know if mentally I'm strong enough to be a scratch player. In baseball, you react. Goose /TKPWAFPS will throw a baseball at you 98 to 100 miles an hour. You see it coming, and you react. In golf, you put the tee down, and now you have to react to something standing still. And you get these thoughts going through your mind where, in baseball, you can't have that, and I get those negative thoughts going through my mind all the time.

The shot on the last hole went okay. Okay, you start thinking about these things, and then you forget to do something else. It's got to be just a reaction. You got to put that ball there, clear your mind, know what a good swing feels like, and emulate it.

My problem is I can't emulate it time and time again, because once I splice one, I'm saying oh and (inaudible).

Q. Is golf the most difficult game  --

GEORGE BRETT: It's of the most difficult I've ever attempted to play. I played high school basketball, high school football. I was never good enough to play in the pros, obviously, but I played Little League baseball, never went to college, signed out of high school, but I was able to climb the ranks in the minor league and make it to the pros.

Golf is the most difficult sport for me. Ted Williams used to say baseball is the hardest game. They give you a round bat and round ball, and the object of the game is to hit it square. It doesn't make sense.

There's 40,000 people yelling and screaming, 50,000 yelling and screaming. In golf, nobody says a word. They tell you to be quiet. You hit the ball in the fairway, and then you got to hit it to the green. The ball doesn't move. The game looks so simple on television. They make it look so simple, but it's not.

You know, there's a story that I was going to tell at this clinic today that we're doing. I got to know Fred  Couples over the years out in California, and as I stated earlier, we won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. We had a game against the Chicago White Sox when the tournament in Chicago was going on, so the White  Sox invited some of the Tour players to come out and have a closest-to-the-pin contest where they put a pin in center field 390 feet away, and they put the players behind home plate and gave them a pitching wedge or sand wedge, a couple guys from the Royals, couple guys from the White  Sox.

Fred was one of the guys from the PGA. Sure enough, Fred goes out, knocks one about 15 feet, and then after the game we have dinner and he says he's never been so nervous in all his life. I said, Fred, you won the Master's. How could you be nervous? He said he was out of his element.

It was the back-up pitcher for the White  Sox who won it, knocked it probably 3 feet because, you know why? He was in his element. He was in the baseball stadium, and he could hear the popcorn guy and beer guy yelling in the stands. He wasn't expected to win. He wasn't expected to be Tom Kite or whoever else was there with Fred.

Q. What do you think of the success of Rick Rhoden winning the celebrity tournaments? Do you have any aspirations?

GEORGE BRETT: I play in that one event, and the reason I only play in that one event is because my kids play baseball, and being the assistant hitting coach on my son's baseball teams, it's important for me to be there.

If you play in the celebrity events, 10 or 12 of them, that's 10 or 12 weeks I'm going to be away from my family. You've got to leave on Tuesday, the Pro  Am, practice round, play Friday, Saturday, Sunday, then you fly home.

For me to make these trips for 1500 or a $1,000 does not make sense. You look at people who play on the Tour, my age or a little older, but they got married when they were 20, 21, to 25. Their kids are grown. They play golf a lot more than I do. For the Rick Rhoden, Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, the kids are grown. They play a lot more golf than I do where they didn't get a chance to be with their children because they were always playing their sports at the time.

Dan Quinn in hockey, I don't know if they have young kids, Rick Rhoden, but I know they play in a lot of those events, and I'm pretty sure all their kids are grown up.

It's a very, very competitive Tour, that celebrity Tour event, very, very, very competitive. It's nice to see different people win. I know last year Dan Quinn won. These guys are good players. They are really good players.

And when you go into a tournament and you're a 7 or 8 or 10 handicap, like probably I am now, you have no chance to win, so I have to go out there and have fun and hope you don't get in anybody else's way, and because it's very, very, very competitive. It's more competitive than you see on TV because they will show the group that's winning, but they also show the groups like Charles Barkley, the big names that are entertaining, for Joe at home, to watch for the elite 10 or 15 players. Very, very, very serious out there.

It's really fun to be a part of. I just wish with my schedule I could play in more of the events, because the more you play, the more comfortable you become, and then the better you're going to shoot.

Q. George, thank you so very much for joining us. We'll see you at the clinic.