What they said: Shaun Micheel

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Q. You have to wait to play. You've waited the last few days, haven't you?

SHAUN MICHEEL: You know I've been waiting a lot this year. I haven't played a PGA TOUR event since the PGA. So that's three months. So the Fall Series are tough events if you are not in. It has been a lot of waiting this fall. You know, this is a good event for me. I mean, I had a chance to win it a couple of years ago. I think I ended up finishing fifth. Chad won. Either a year or two before that I was sixth or so. I was kind of looking back over the last number of years, I made well over $300,000 playing this tournament without a win. So I had some pretty good success. It was nice to get in yesterday because it wasn't looking to good.

Q. You were right down almost on the cutoff?

SHAUN MICHEEL: No, there is no cutoff time. Being an alternate it's tough. I've been fully exempt out here since February of 2000 playing that game of writing for exemptions. It has been a bit of a challenge. Those are some of the things that I was thinking about when I was debating whether I was going to have my shoulder surgery because I knew my five-year exception for winning the PGA was coming up, and trying to get exemptions to some of these events was going to be difficult and of course trying to play well after being off for a year will be tough. So it's tough.

I consider this kind of a home tournament for me. I've played well here. I was excited to have gotten in. I guess Tommy Armour hurt his back yesterday, so obviously you don't wish anybody ill will towards that, but it is nice to have an alternate status to be able to get in. With the conditions they are, there might be a lot of guys saying next week, I've made my money. I'm just going to go home. I don't think anybody would fault anybody for that. I'm not advocating that for anybody, particularly with the sponsors and everything because Viking has done a great job. I suspect you might see a few names scratched off the list by the time the first round comes around.

Q. What is it to play here, does it impact you, or are you used to it through the years of golf?

SHAUN MICHEEL: It's just kind of what happens. It's kind of easier when the you don't even go out there. It's difficult on everyone, rules officials, tournament, the fans, if when you started playing two or three holes and you got to come in. You got evacuation vehicles that need to be positioned, so there is a lot of things outside of just the golf tournament per say that are affected.

From a player's standpoint, we try to think we are a patient group but we really aren't. At least I'm not, I should speak for myself. It's tough when you get a mindset you are going to play. I think it's easier when you know you're not going to play. I think they've done everything they could do today to try to get it in. Just living three hours up the road, I know the weather has been very difficult. That's why we are all out here today practicing. There is not much else to do. I'm thankful to get a little break in the weather to practice, they got the range open. The fans are walking around, they get a chance to see a few guys practice, too. The waiting game is never easy, but it is just part of it when you play the sport outdoors.