October 20, 2003

TERRA ALTA, WV — Mark Young was sitting on his couch the last few weeks before Golfapalooza listening to nephews talk about playing aggressively. The struggling golfer took it to heart in Golfapalooza 2003, but saw very little results.

Uncle Mark, who was honored with the 2002 Best Line, started slow with 23 points in the first round of his 2nd major tournament. "My front nine on Thursday was awful.  The putting was really good on the back nine, but all-in-all terrible", said Young. "I made three key putts on the back nine and saw some late momentum, but that was surely not the case in Round 2."  Mark did not score putt points in Round 2 and only had one putt in the final round of play.  He finished in last place with Jeff Blankenburg and Rick Dosky with 8 putt points.

"I said this week that I was going to come out and fire at the pins and see what happened," Young continued. "Nobody goes back to the cabin happy with a triple-digit round.  A little bit of confidence while playing aggressively would have been nice.  Aggressive play did not pay off during this tournament.  At least I am still better than half the field in straight up score."

"This guy was all-world in 1996", said Brent Kaniecki.  "I think the tournament atmosphere and lack of sleep ruined his chances."

"I just love playing golf," Young said. "Yeah, not finishing well, but swinging well has been very frustrating."  Uncle Mark finished his interview by remarking, "Something inside of me thinks I can win the MELC championship.  Players need to remember that as long as they attend Golfapalooza, I will be right over their shoulder looking for my first championship."