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Second Round Interview Transcripts (9/3/05)
9/4/05 1:43 PM

Interview Transcripts Follow.  Click here to see up-to-date scoring and statistics from PGATOUR.com


Quotes from: TIGER WOODS, 65-73--138 (-4) five shots off lead

TIGER WOODS:  Well, I didn't hit it well, I didn't putt well and I didn't chip well.

Q.  Was the course playing tougher today?
TIGER WOODS:  It was playing a little bit tougher.  Some of the guys still shot good numbers.  You could shoot a good number if you hit the ball well.  A lot of the pins are in areas where if you pull up, you can hit the ball close and with good shaped shots. Unfortunately, I didn't hit the ball very good, so I wasn't in those positions and I didn't putt well, anyway.  I didn't control it.  I could hit it left or right at any given time.  It's tough to play when you're out there and you've got it going two ways. Thank God this is a tournament where we have a Monday finish.  I've got two rounds ahead of me, so I'm still in the ballgame; I'm only five back.  Hopefully tomorrow I can go ahead and post another low number like I did yesterday and climb back up there.

 Q.  Thoughts on the children of in the Gulf States?
 TIGER WOODS:  Everybody is suffering, kids, the elderly, anyone who can't get in touch with their loved ones.  It's very desperate down there.  It's a tough situation for everyone.  I'm not even involved in it. I don't even have any family members down there.  But for people who do, I don't know how you could go through that not knowing and then watching it from afar like we are, you feel helpless.  You want to do something, but you just can't.  Hopefully our armed services can help out in bridging the gap and making everyone feel safe and get things rolling in the right direction.

 Q.  How have the crowds been and have they grown louder over the years?
 TIGER WOODS:  Oh, they are definitely louder, there's no doubt about that and it has gotten bigger over the years.  Probably not as big as '97, but they are certainly loud.  Late in the afternoon, they are a little bit louder as they consume their beverages of choice throughout the day.  But they are out here supporting our sport and we are getting fans that have never been into golf, so we are growing our fan base and that's more than we can ask.

 Q.  Re: the speed of the greens today
 TIGER WOODS:  They were a little faster, not a lot faster but some that you have to pay attention to a little bit.  If you hit the ball in the bowls where some of the pins were, they were pretty flat, but if you have to putt up and over some knobs, they are pretty tough.  You can see guys playing well and posting good numbers, at 5  or 6 under par, so they didn�t get much more difficult.

           
An Interview With: BRAD FAXON, 74-67-- 141 (-1) made the cut on the number

Q.  Talk about your round.  You made a birdie on 18.  What are your chances to make the cut?
BRAD FAXON:  Yeah, I needed a birdie there.  I played very well today.  4 under par is a great round, could have been a little lower.  I missed a couple of shorter putts on 16 and 17, but played great.  And 4 under out here I think is a good score.  I just feel yesterday is going to hurt a little bit.  This cut is going to be very, very close to 1 under or 2 under par.  Right on the bubble again, so I had to make that putt.

 Q.  What was the difference between yesterday and today?
 BRAD FAXON:  Seven shots.

 Q.  Do you approach it any differently?
 BRAD FAXON:  Well, I don't know if I approached it any differently.  I certainly executed better.  I thought I felt a little more in control today.  I only made one bogey today, five birdies, hit some good irons.  You know, obviously I want to make this cut.  This is not a tournament that I want to be at home at during the weekend.  I want to be out here.  I want to be able to do what I did last week, all of those things.

 Q.  Does what happened last week give you some room for optimism?
 BRAD FAXON:  Well, I'm the worst, and my wife will tell you, what I am right on the cut number, I never think I'm going to make it.  I don't know why.  I really don't think this one is going to do it.  I think it's going to be 2 under.  The scores have come down an awful lot, and I'm going to have to have something lucky again.

 Q.  How long was that last putt?
 BRAD FAXON:  Five feet with a little break.  I missed about a 4 footer on 17 and about a 7 footer on 16.

 Q.  If you look back, the whirlwind of the whole week after winning, and all of the activities that you got involved in here, does it affect the way you've come into this tournament?
BRAD FAXON:  Absolutely.  It's all my own fault, but I do have a lot going on with this tournament.  Hats off to the guys that play well the week after they win.  Just because you have so many other things and commitments, so I'd like to keep trying to get good at that.  That would be a good problem to have.

 Q.  Hopefully you make it, but say you don't, will that have any effect on your decision for knee surgery?
 BRAD FAXON:  I don't know.  I have to make this decision when I'm sane, not insane, and I'll be insane if I miss the cut.

 Q.  What is the rehab time for something like that?
 BRAD FAXON:  Three to six months.  So I don't know what to do.

 Q.  Did you have a drop dead date for when you have to make this decision?
 BRAD FAXON:  No, absolutely not. 

An Interview With:  OLIN BROWNE, 68-65--133 (-9), tied for lead

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Thank you, Olin, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  Great start on the back nine there, 29 on the back nine, and a solid front nine.  Why don't you just talk about your day today and kind of compare it to yesterday.
 OLIN BROWNE:  The course is playing quite a bit differently than it did yesterday.  It's much faster and the greens are starting to firm up.  I thought yesterday morning the greens were quite slick but that's because they had just been rolled and cut.  But today they had overall speed.  But the course is playing beautifully.  It's in wonderful shape and I think that the changes that were made were terrific.  This is how the course should play.  It should play like this.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  You've had some great success over the summer and you're continuing, can you talk about your season.
OLIN BROWNE:  Great success means you get to hold a trophy.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  You're heading that direction.
 OLIN BROWNE:  But I'm heading that direction.  I've been playing well since June and I just need to get past when I play well finishing 15th to 20th.  So all I can do is keep stepping up at the plate and wait for my turn.
 I hit the ball solidly today, I only made one bogey and it was a 3 putt.  Looking forward to playing tomorrow and the next day.

Q.  We've talked about it before but can you talk about playing this golf course your style, and Jeff Brehauts and what you're up against playing a golf course like this?
OLIN BROWNE:  It's my overpowering length that is such an asset on a golf course like this.  You look at my stats I'm about 200th in driving distance on the Tour.  The course is playing well and it's playing fast.  I've hit the ball solidly for the last couple of days and had enough opportunities and taking advantage of a few.  I made some nice putts today and hope I can continue that.
 I can't emphasize enough how well prepared this course is, and I know that there was a drought up here all summer, basically, and then we got torrential rains, I don't know if it was a residual from the hurricane or what but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the skies opened up.  I don't know how many inches of rain we got here, four or five.  The course if in great shape.  Kudos to the super and his staff and everybody who is helping out with that.

Q.  What happened from missing the cut last week and all of the sudden shooting 9 under over two days?
OLIN BROWNE:  I was a little flat on Friday last week.  I can't really explain it.  I didn't feel like I played poorly.  I played a nice round of golf Thursday, made a couple of bad swings and managed to turn a few under par round into an even par round.  Then I came out and 3 putted the first two holes and never looked forward.   I don't know, I mean, it was disappointing to miss the cut at Hartford.  I love playing there.  I wish I had played well.  I feel like my game is pretty sound and I'd like to have had a chance.  Look what Brad did, made the cut on the button and ended up hoisting the trophy.  I'm in a little better position this week and looking forward to the next couple of days.

 Q.  Is any part of your game better this week than last?
 OLIN BROWNE:  Nothing I can really put my hands on.  If I had a lot of answers I would be doing a lot better than I am.   I don't understand why I don't play better half the time.  But, you know, I've gotten off to a good start this week and I'm looking for a good finish.

 Q.  Can you talk about the first nine or ten holes in terms of ball striking?
 OLIN BROWNE:  Yeah, I hit the ball really nice the first    what did I shoot, I shot 29 on the first nine.  I burned the edge on three other putts and then I birdied 10.  I hit good shots.
 The thing about this golf course is it's got some variety to it.  It's got some holes that will browbeat you, but then it's got some holes that will give you a chance to score.  I happened to birdie 11, which is ridiculous; it's 240 or whatever it is up the hill.  You know, when you do something like that, it's a shot and a half, really, and it's such a boost mentally.  To have something like that happen early in the round like that on one of the hardest holes on the course, it certainly gives you a little boost.
 Ball striking wise, I hit in the fairway, hole 9, and gave myself some chances and managed to sneak it over the bunkers on 18 and was able to go for the green in two.  I hit it pin high and got up and down.  Overall it was just solid.  Nothing spectacular.  I didn't hit it a foot or anything.  But I hit it close ish between five and 15 feet or five and 20 feet and made a few of those putts.  I did make a good putt on 16 from above the hole.

 JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Let's go through your round.
 OLIN BROWNE:  11, I hit a 7 wood about six or seven feet.  13, I made an 18 or 20 footer.
 15, I hit it about    I don't know.  Where was the pin on 15?  I hit it ten feet and made it. 
 16, I hit a really good shot.  My ball mark was about four inches from the hole, but that's just one of those holes, you have to hitch your britches and hit a good one.  I was about 20 feet behind the hole and made it.
 17, I hit a sand wedge in there about 2 1/2 feet.
 18, I got up and down from the fringe and had about, I don't know, a 15 inch putt.
 Then 1, I hit it about 12 or 14 feet and made it and then that was the end of my birdie run.

Q.  What happened with the bogey?
OLIN BROWNE:  I 3 putted from 25 feet.  The green had more pace than I was anticipating.  I hit a good putt, I just hit it three feet by and then I hit a good putt and missed it.  Just happens, one of those bogeys you're a little irritated about.

 Q.  What was different today than yesterday, yesterday you had no shot  
 OLIN BROWNE:  I hit it in the rough yesterday off the tee.  Today I just made up my mind that if I went in the bunker off the tee, I was going to pitch out and do the best I could.  I just eked it over the bunker down the bottom of the hill and had 230 or something like that to the hole so I was able to go for it.

 Q.  What are your connections to New England?
 OLIN BROWNE:  My mom is from Providence, and all of her family, so she was born and raised here.  So summers on the Cape type thing as a kid.  We came up for ten years when I was a kid, so I consider myself half New Englander.

 Q. Do you family members live here and watch?
 OLIN BROWNE:  Some of them do.  There was a big article in the Hartford paper the year I won Hartford, so I had a lot of people pulling for me at Hartford and it was the whole New England connection, worked at New Seebrea (ph) when I was a kid, blah, blah, blah.  It's great.  This place has been starved for a golfing events.  It loves sports, it's a great sports town and it's riding high, between the Patriots, the Sox and hockey is coming back.  Now there's golf in this area, too.  It's great to be a part of it. .

 Q.  What's the best thing you took away from the whole Pinehurst experience?
 OLIN BROWNE:  Well, I played great at Pinehurst.  I played with the guy that won the tournament, and I played with the defending champion the day before that.  You know, I didn't match him shot for shot, but I was there on most of it.  It's as hard a golf course as I've ever seen and as hard of a golf course as I hope I ever see, and everything else is easy after that    well, not easy, but easier.

You know, the U.S. Open, it's the pinnacle    well, any of the majors, any of those four would be the pinnacle in golf.  Everybody who has won one or two or three or however many it is they get a chance, they are as proud as they can be of it.  I didn't get to win the tournament, but it validated all of the things I've been working on for the last year and a half.  You get into that environment and you're naked out there and there's nowhere to hide, so you either step up and hit the shot our don't.  The only thing you can do is commit as completely as you can.  If you've done that, you've done your job.

And the other things happen the way they happen.  If you get a 21 5 yard shot out of the rough and you're hitting a squirter with a 6 iron that leaks its way over a bunker and runs up to eight feet and you tap in the putt, you've hit the great shot and you've got the great result.  But you can also hit a great shot, on an insane golf course like that, where you miss your spot by five feet and you roll down the hill and you're making 6.

I struggled on Sunday, didn't shoot a very good score, but I committed to every shot and I played really well Sunday.  I hit the ball much more solidly Sunday.  You couldn't see it in the box score, but there are days when you do a lot of things right and you end up empty handed.  And then there are days when balls are bouncing off of trees and putts are lipping in.  I can't explain it.  That's the way this game is. 
 
 
An Interview With: JEFF BREHAUT, 67-66--133 (-9), tied for lead

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Thank you, Jeff, for joining us for few minutes here in the media center at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  Nice, steady round out there you started out with a quick eagle and had just that one bogey.  Why don't you just kind of compare it from playing yesterday afternoon to this morning.  It seemed like yesterday afternoon was awfully tough, and yesterday morning was probably similar to today.
JEFF BREHAUT:  Yeah, the biggest thing for me yesterday was the greens were much faster than they looked.  I mean, I had    I could have shot a lot better yesterday and I could have shot a lot worse.  I had a lot of 15  and 20 footers that I rolled six or eight feet past.  I made a bunch of them coming back.
This morning, a little more dew on the ground and a little more softer conditions.  I wasn't running it past like I was.  I made it a point to adjust my speed a little.  I thought it played fairly difficult yesterday.  There's a little bit of wind out there today.  It's a good golf course.

 Q.  This is a little renaissance the last few weeks, pretty good at The INTERNATIONAL and pretty good at Cromwell last week, can you just talk about what's been going on here?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Mostly putting.  It was looking like probably the most frustrating year of my of my life until the end of May, and now it's turned into the best golf year of my life.  Just making a few more putts, getting a little more confident and hitting the ball pretty well.  The last 2 1/2 months, I've had a lot of Top 25s, a few Top 10s and get to visit you guys once in awhile, too.

 Q.  Have you been working with anybody?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Phil Rogers is my coach for 15 years.  He's taught me everything I know about golf, so I would give all the credit to him.

 Q.  Can you just talk about being up in the lead at this particular point in time?  Granted, I know it's early on, day two, but 9 under par, being at the top of the leaderboard?
JEFF BREHAUT:  Yeah, it feels great.  I think what I've done the last couple of months has kind of helped me deal with it a little better.  I feel more comfortable seeing my name up there towards the time.  I'm starting to think, hey, if I can keep doing what I'm doing, I can get a trophy one of these weeks.

 Q.  Did you change putters or your putting stroke?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Yeah, I went to the new TaylorMade just about the time when I started putting better, one of the new ones with the grooves in the face and the putter really roles the ball great.  So I think that has helped me, and a couple different practice routines I've really stuck to the last three months that every day I'm doing, and it's paying off.

 Q.  What was the old putter?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  My old putter was a Scottie Cameron.

 Q.  If I'm correct you've been a pro for 18, 19 years, can you talk about, was it an odyssey to get to the tour?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  I took a different path than most of the guys out here, for sure.  I spent five or six years on the minute I tours.  I spent six whole years on the Nike Tour at that time.  They used to always say I was the only guy that got to play The Tour Championship on the Nike Tour six straight years, which was kind of a half compliment, half not; I wasn't good enough to get out here, but I finally got out here when I was 35.  I'm 42 now, and I'm playing probably better than I ever have.  Not everybody gets out here two years after college and has great success.

 Q.  Did you have to augment your earnings with another career as well or did you just stick strictly with golf?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  I used to tell people that I wish I would have gotten better or worse faster, because I was playing well enough to kind of tease myself that I'm getting better every year, but I wasn't getting where I wanted to be.  But my wife and family have been really supportive through all of the ups and downs, and you know, sort of riding the up right now.

 Q.  They say this is a course that's tailor made for the bombers; you're not a bomber, are you?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  No, I'm not a bomber, no.

 Q.  Can other guys play this course, too?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Oh, yeah, definitely.  You've still got to make the putts.  I can hit it far enough where this course doesn't affect me a ton.  Like 18, I can carry those bunkers on the corner and hit a 4 iron in today and a 5 iron yesterday.  I can reach No. 2.  There's a couple of holes, 14, for example, where Tiger or somebody that really hits it far can hit a wedge in where I might have to hit a 5 iron in.  But, yeah, if you play well and you capitalize on your chances, I can play any place I think.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Let's go over your card, you started with an eagle on No. 2.
JEFF BREHAUT:  I hit a really good 5 wood into No. 2 about 25 feet and it rolled right in.  I bogeyed the next.  Hit a bad drive.  5, I hit it to the right, into the trees and just had to chip it back to the fairway and made a bogey.
 Then 8, I hit a 4 iron about four feet on the par 3 and made that.
 12, I hit a little 6 iron in there about a foot.
 Then 14, I hit an 8 iron in there.  15, I hit an 8 iron in there about a foot.  Then I 2 putted 18.
 I had a lot of chances today.  It could have been better.  I hit it about eight feet on No. 11 and a couple others.

 Q.  Can you speak about, you mentioned May as kind of being the turning point for you, what it was like before that?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Well, I had to go back to the Qualifying School last year, so I got my card.  I finished 13th at the school, which normally gets you in enough tournaments, but this was kind of an unusual year with some medical exemptions and some other things.  A bunch of us guys in the qualifying school category weren't getting in.  I think I had only played six tournaments up until Westchester, and I didn't get off to a good start, so up until I made    I think I made 60 something thousand at Memphis and prior to that, I had only made two cuts and like $20,000.
 I was looking at this stretch in the summer where I knew I was going to get into seven tournaments in a row and I knew that I had to play well in that stretch in order to get myself into position where I could keep my card in the fall.  So not only did I do that, I blew it all out and got way past the numbers, and now I'm comfortably inside the 125 now and had to kind of reassess my goals.  And I'm looking at finishing in the Top 70 and that gets me in all of the invitationals next year, and finishing in the top 40 could get me into the Masters, which my ultimate dream is to play in the Masters.  I'm in a position where if I have a good weekend, I can do that right here.

 Q.  Just going back to the time it took you to get here, when you're out playing the Nike, is there any time to watch TV and watch these tournaments that are going on, and did you find yourself watching and saying, "I can get there" or "I'm not that much different than these guys?"
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Probably more than that is you see a lot of your friends that you played with on that tour that graduated and they are having success and saying, you know, I'm as good as that guy.  I think that was probably one of the things that kept me going when I was out there, kind of playing well enough to scrape a living, but not well enough to get out here.  I just kept thinking, you know, I want to get out there, I'm not going to quit until I make it.

 Q.  Could you just talk about some of the experiences you had on the mini tours, Nike Tour that people don't hear about what life was like out there?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  There's a lot more camaraderie out there.  You're caravanning with guys; you're playing with the same crumby hotels with the same people every week.  You're going out to dinner with them more.  So in that regard, I probably enjoy it more.  This tour is a little bit more, you've kind of got your elite and the rest of us, flying, a lot of the guys go private and the rest of us go coach.  It's different.  But there are so many guys that I played with on the Nike Tour that are here now; you just find that you gravitate to those guys more.  Those are the guys you play practice rounds with. 

 Q.  Who were some of your best friends from the Nike that are out here now, and what was the toughest time and what was the most fun time being in there?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  Back on the Nationwide Tour?  Bob Burns, Jay Williamson, Glen Hnatiuk, Chris DiMarco, Joe Durant; I could go on and on.  Probably the year that I qualified for the Tour, I was pretty much, if I didn't get through, that was    '98.

 Q.  What would you have done?
 JEFF BREHAUT:  I don't know.  (Laughing).  I don't know.  I would like to think that in all of the Pro Ams I've played in and all of the people I know around home that I could send enough resumes out that somebody would have hired me for something. 
 

An Interview With: JASON GORE, 69-67--136 (-6), three shots off the lead

Q.  Talk to us about how you feel out here, Jason.
 JASON GORE:  I feel good.  I'm starting to get pretty comfortable out here.  Never super comfortable, but I'm working my way into it.  I had a super week last week, and I'm just trying to learn every day.

 Q. In your experience from the Open to this week and last week, having a good week, is getting too comfortable a good thing or a bad thing?
 JASON GORE:  I don't think you ever want to get too comfortable because then you just, you know, rest on your laurels.  So I'm just going to try to keep getting better, and that's all I'm trying to do right now.

 Q.  Talk about your round today; was it a pretty conducive course for scoring today?
 JASON GORE:  It is.  The wind is actually blowing in a good direction, if there is such a thing.  The greens out here are perfect.  After 156 guys go through, the greens get a little bit beat up, but that would happen to concrete.  The greens are rolling fantastic.

 Q.  As you take a look at the leaderboard right now, in terms of where you are, you're right in the mix going into the weekend.  Talk about being in a position to do well this week.
 JASON GORE:  Well, I've just got to try to keep doing what I'm doing.  Like I said before, as boring and as cliche as it is, you just have to go out and play one at a time.  The first tee ball on Thursday is just as important as the last putt on Sunday.  They all count as one, and I'm trying to keep that in perspective.

 Q.  This is your first exposure to the Boston area, sports fans, talk about your reception.
 JASON GORE:  The Boston fans have been awesome.  I know this is a huge sports town, and I'm a big Red Sox fan.  I grew up as a Dodger fan, and I learned to hate the Yankees, and I became a Red Sox fan after that.  I love it here.  It's beautiful.

 Q.  You had five birdies on the front.  Did you feel like you let some go on the back?
 JASON GORE:  Yes, I got off to a really good start and that's what you need it do out here.  But I 3 putted 11.  I kind of threw up on myself a little bit.  I hit one over the green and I didn't get up and down, but that kind of stuff happens, you know.
 Finishing off with a birdie is a good thing, and I'm just going to try to keep it going for tomorrow.

 Q.  What is your schedule for the rest of the year?
 JASON GORE:  I'm going to play Vancouver next week, 84 Lumber the week after that, and then I'm going to go play a Nationwide Tour event in Boise.  I'm going to play Greensboro and then I'm going to take a week off.

 Q.  Between the Open and now, what are the positives that have happened to you?
 JASON GORE:  Well, it's so boring and cliche, it's not some magic thing, and I'm not really getting ahead of myself.  I'm just trying to be patient and have my concentration for every shot.  That's really the only thing I have control over and I think it's just, you know, put it all many perspective.

 Q.  How is your popularity?  Would people know who Jason Gore was last year?
 JASON GORE:  No.  And it's wonderful, everyone has been so supportive and great.  There's a lot of good fans.

 Q.  Jeff Brehaut talked earlier about times when he was coming up that he wished he would get better or get worse.  So he could be done with the mini tours.  Have you ever had a point like that?
 JASON GORE:  Every day.  (Laughing).  You know, golf will do that.  It's a brutal time, six months ago I was ready to hang it up, and all of the sudden I realize it wasn't a life or death thing.  If I played a bad round, I thought I was a bad person, and it doesn't work like that.  It's just a job.  Once I realized that, I was able to go ahead and swing away and hit good shots and it got better all of a sudden.

 Q.  Was there something that allowed you to get to that thought?
 JASON GORE:  I just got out of my own way, realizing that shots, individual shots, weren't do or die situations.  I learned a lot about that at the last round at the Open from Retief Goosen.  Here is a guy who is defending champion and was having a bad day, and he walked off the golf course with his head high like the champion that he is.  You know, nobody died.  Nobody lost a finger on the golf course.  You know, you look down in Louisiana and you realize that life could be a lot worse.  You know, we get to play a game for a living, so it's pretty cool.


An Interview With:  JOEY SINDELAR, 67-68--135 (-7), two shots off the lead

 Q.  How do you feel about your round today?
 JOEY SINDELAR:  I'm happy.  I'm driving the ball well.  And I think any TOUR player will tell you when the driver is working and this course demands drivers, most of the day, this is not a lay up kind of a golf course.  When the course demands that and you're driving well, life begins to get a lot easier, and I'm happy.

 Q.  Heading into the rest of the weekend, Sunday and Monday, how is the course playing?
 JOEY SINDELAR:  Nice.  It's beautiful, it's changing as we go, the good news is the fairways will dry out as we go.  The bad news is the greens will dry out as we go.  Certainly they can control that, but they are not going to want to.  These semi large knobs are going to be very, very tall knobs by the end of the weekend, but that's the teeth of this golf course, so we'll just have to watch what we're doing on the weekend.

 Q.  With the weather absolutely perfect, are you going to have to be aggressive?
 JOEY SINDELAR:  Well, I think again, if the greens do get firm, it's going to get tough.  With these pin placements, you can get standing on your head or you can get on the wrong side.  You know, there's some little slopes that you just don't recognize until after the shot.
 I think that this would be a wonderful week not to be the first person to do anything on any golf hole.  You want to watch as much as you can before you play a shot.  Only three years into this event, we don't know this course intimately like we do some of the others.

 Q.  With the situation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, obviously you're playing but you're also thinking about the situation.
 JOEY SINDELAR:  It's mind boggling to me.  You know, up here in the north, we don't know much about hurricanes.  We get them two and three days later and it's just heavy rain for several days and 30 mile an hour winds and we think that's terrible.
 Now from I've seen on television the last few days, I just can't even imagine.  That one in Florida that leveled the houses and stuff, that was certainly terrible.  But this seems to be beyond that.  It's just the thought that we may not even be able to play down there six months, seven, eight months from now; they still may not be ready for us, it's a horrible thing and we certainly feel very bad for everyone.
 
 
An Interview With: BILLY ANDRADE, 66-68--134 (-8), one shot off the lead

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Billy, thank you for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the Deutsche Bank Championship.  You're in great position going into the weekend, and it probably feels good after a couple weeks of struggling out there.
 BILLY ANDRADE:  Yeah, absolutely.  Playing great, especially at home, is an added bonus.  And you never want to play lousy but I really haven't played well all summer, so it's nice to have a nice, solid round yesterday.  And then to back it up again today is real important to not only my confidence but real important to the state of my game right now.
 I made three birdies; I didn't make a bogey.  I was talking with Jim McCabe last week, thinking about guys that don't make a lot of bogeys are usually going to hang around.  It was a good, solid day.  I had a lot of good chances today, putts that didn't go in, but real happy with where I stand so far.  Because the horse race, as you know, it's 72 holes, not 36, so I'm happy with where I'm at now, and now it's just fun.  Now you just go here this weekend and try to let it all happen and play the best you can and add it up when it's over.  And usually when I get myself in these situations, I do fairly well.  So I'm looking forward.  I can't wait until tomorrow to tee it up.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  I know Brad is a good friend of yours, did his win last week inspire you?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  Absolutely.  I was talking about that yesterday, if you're not inspired by not, just because he's a really close friend and we're connected in a lot of ways up here, but just as a golf fan, if you're not inspired by what he accomplished    and we had a great talk when he was driving back from Hartford.  I went to his house and he was going to be late, so I knew I had to be up here early Monday morning for the Red Sox Pro Am.  So I was going home and I got him.
 We had a great talk.  It was so good that I pulled off    I pulled off in front of my house and I didn't go down into my driveway because I knew I would lose him because the cell service in my driveway is not very good.  I had my car from Atlanta that I drove to Hartford to leave up here, and my next door neighbor, who I guess she was a little bit nervous, was looking at my car and I'm in this deep conversation about letting it go and all of the things that he was doing the last couple of days, and his putting and then I pulled in the driveway and said, "Have a great time, I'll see you tomorrow," and all of a sudden it was like a SWAT team showed up.  (Laughter) Bristol police just, whew, three of them on me.
 I was putting clubs into the trunk and I went up the hill and the police know me well so, they were like, "Hey, Billy, what are doing back in town?"  The lady, she gave the wrong license plate, so it came up as no license plate.  So then they thought it was a stolen car and all that.  (Laughter).
 But it was a great, great conversation that we had and it was talking about the mental side and letting go with the putter and he was struggling with it and I'm listening to him like, this is exactly where I have been pretty much this summer.
 So going in here, I thought a lot about what we talked about, and, you know, when you play free golf, you can play.  We all can.  The problem is letting it go and freeing it up and not thinking about all of the things that can go wrong, and when we do that, is when we screw up and you know, Brad is an unbelievable golfer, and I think I am, too, at times when I let just my talent take over, and I think that's why this game is so frustrating and so great because you have times when you're awesome and then there's times when you're not.  It's trying to fight back and get it back.
 So I'm a quick study, and you know, it's like all of us, all of a sudden you've been doing this your whole life, you know it takes one little something to get you going, and I think I've got something going, so I'm looking forward to this weekend.


 Q.  Have you talked to Mark McGwire?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  No, I haven't, not.  Usually he's a delay guy; I usually get him a week later.  I have to do better than just shoot a couple of good scores the first two days, especially pitching tonight.

 Q.  Inaudible?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  It's clear right now.  So I like what I'm doing.  I felt great out there today.  I didn't make a few that I could have made, but it didn't affect my outlook and I'm not going to let it affect it.  I know that if I just let things happen, I'm pretty good, so I'm going to continue to do that.

 Q.  You said when you're in this position, you usually fair pretty well, why do you think that is?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  I like it.  I enjoy it.  I don't back down from it.  I don't get    I thrive on it, I don't know why, but I've always been that way.  Every time I've had a chance to win tournaments, I've won or I've come close to winning.  Some guys don't like being in that position and back off.  And you know what, I don't know what's going to happen this weekend but it's not because I'm afraid to be in the position I'm in.  I've been that way since I was a little kid.  I love it.  My problem is just getting there and being able to get myself in position.  But once I'm in position, I usually do fairly well.
 So I just enjoy the feeling.  I enjoy everything that comes with it.  I seem to focus better.  I'm not as sloppy.  And my problem has always been trying to get myself in this position on Thursday and Friday.  I think tournaments are won on Thursday and Friday more than they are on Saturday, until you get yourself in that position, because all it takes is one sloppy nine.   Out here, all it takes is a couple sloppy holes and you're gone for the weekend.  So I enjoy that position when I get in it and I'm going to enjoy it this weekend immensely.

 Q.  Some of us have spoken for two years about this being a bomber's course with Vijay and Tiger; the leaders are now you and Jeff Brehaut and Olin Browne, is the course changing?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  You just mentioned three pretty good bombers.  (Laughter).  Olin Browne hits the heck out of it, let me tell you.  (Laughter.)  I think guys are learning the golf course a little more.  It does favor guys, if you can hit it far, but the guys you mentioned, Jeff Brehaut is playing great golf right now.  If you've noticed, he finished I think second or third at The INTERNATIONAL.  He played well again somewhere else, so he's on a bit of a roll.  And he's a good putter.  Olin Browne is a streaky player as we all know and he's won tournaments.  When he gets his putter going, he can contend with anyone, as well.  So I think it's nice to play a course that doesn't favor the guys that bomb it, but I think that over the course of three years now, guys are learning the golf course a little better and figuring it out.

 Q.  Is it a distraction playing at home?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  There's really not many distractions at home.  When you get inside the ropes, to be honest with you, it's the same as any other tournament.  I think the distractions are overrated.  It's all what you perceive with yourself, if you want to say they are.  A lot of friends are out there supporting you.  They are not out here laughing you at you if you hit bad shots.
 So I don't really see anything playing at home or playing around home as a distraction.  So you've just got to go out there and execute.  You know, I'll be honest with you, the first two years here, I didn't play that bad.  I just putted, I didn't make anything.  If you don't make anything out here, you're going to pack it up after two days and go home.

 Q.  How long does it take you to get home?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  You know, it's about 50 minutes, give myself 45 to 50 minutes.  There's two ways I can go.  I can go through Providence, I can go 24 South, so I usually go home 24 South.  It's usually not too bad, I don't have to go through Providence, all of the construction there.  It's not too bad.

 Q.  The confidence, how much pressure does that take off your game overall?
 BILLY ANDRADE:  It gives you freedom.  It gives you    you know I've always putted pretty and chipped pretty well and always drove it terrible.  If I could just keep it in play, I that would be freedom for me, and now I'm driving it pretty solid and letting that go and I haven't been putting well.  You don't finish tired would be a good way of putting it.  You know, when you're struggling with one part of your game or a couple parts of your game and you're just holding on for dear life, whatever it is, you finish the round and you want to go take a nap, you're so fatigued and so tired.
 You know, right now I can go out there play 18 more, I'm ready to go.  I think that's what happens when you're flowing and you're not    the pressure is not as, I guess, it's there but it's not as tiring when you get done.  I think that's one key when you finish and you're not like, man, I've just been through the ringer, and we all have been there.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Let's go over your birdies.
BILLY ANDRADE:  I birdied 15, I hit a good drive and a 9 iron to about five feet and I made that.
 2, I had a lay up.  I was just in the left rough and laid up and hit a sand wedge about ten feet and made that.
 5, I was on the right fringe, I hid driver and 7 iron on the right fringe and made about a 30 footer.  That was nice.
 And I will see you guys tomorrow.

 

An Interview With: TIM PETROVIC, 68-66--134 (-8), one shot off the lead

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Thank you, Tim, for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the Deutsche Bank Championship. You had a solid round out there, and you�re in great position going into the weekend.
 TIM PETROVIC:  Yeah, I made another mental error today completely out of nowhere, I hit a shot, I just looked up said, I think I said, "Oh, my God," went straight in the middle of the lake, straight fairway bunker shot.  So I doubled two of the easiest holes out here.  But considering I'll only one shot out, I'm pretty happy with that because I basically through about four shots away on those two holes.  I managed to erase a couple of mistakes on my putter.  Putted really well yesterday, I started out good yesterday and I started out good yesterday, so I was happy to start out, I think I birdied three of the first four holes today.

 Q.  It was an adventuresome day, did you feel a little out of sync or in sync or what?
 TIM PETROVIC:  No, I mean, there was no adventure until No. 6 when I hit it in the water.  I was pretty much just coasting along and birdied my first four holes today; and birdied 18, finally hit a good tee shot there and hit 7 iron on the green and then made a couple of birdies on 2 and 3.  I laid up on No. 2 so I could get my wedge in there.  But I started leaking the ball out to the right.
 I think I was a little tired; I was at the ballgame last night.

 Q.  You were in the bunker and you just hooked it left  
 TIM PETROVIC:  I don't know what I did.  I just made kind of a lazy swing I guess.  I hit it a little fat and it went just left and short.  It was just a terrible golf shot.  Probably the worst shot I've hit all year.
 I think what happened, I wanted to hit an 8 iron and I decided to try a smooth 7 iron, like 175 yards.  I didn't hit a very good tee shot, I was pretty far back and it flew into the bunker.  You're probably better off going with a full shot out of the bunker and I think I eased up on the shot a little bit and just caught some sand.  We've all done it.

 Q.  Inaudible?
 TIM PETROVIC:  This is a baseball question?
 "How did you play today?"
 "Well, how did the Sox do?"
 "Well, they didn't win last night."

 Q.  What time did you get to bed last night?
 TIM PETROVIC:  I stayed to the end.  By the time they got my car out, I probably got back at about 11:30.  But I got to sleep in.

 Q.  Fighting a cold?
 TIM PETROVIC:  Yeah, my daughter has got it so I woke up, on top of that, bruised arm, sore ribs, so like you said, beware of the sick golfer.

 Q.  What flavor Day Quil do you recommend?
 TIM PETROVIC:  I don't know, the non drowsy kind.  Otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it 18 holes.

 Q.  Is it too far out to start thinking TOUR Championship? .
 TIM PETROVIC:  Just trying to go week to week.  I'm going to take next week off and rest up a little bit.  It's kind of down the road.  I don't think I'm playing many more tournaments.  I say that, and then I start ticking them off and then there's five more have got to play.  That's absolutely one of my goals at the beginning of the year, Top 30.  I missed out a couple years ago I made a little run at the end and just missed out.  That would definitely make the year.  That would be the cherry on top of the cake or the whatever, sundae, whatever, after winning.
 I was thinking about New Orleans most of the day, watching that stuff on TV, I wasn't even thinking about golf most of the day.  Just hope they can regroup down there, I'm not even concerned    we're concerned about the golf course but there's other issues to deal with down there at this point.  Hopefully they can get people out of there and get the water out to the city and get the city running.  With the city not running, there is no golf tournament down there.
 So hopefully we'll see some good news in the next couple of days.  I think they have water and food actually coming in on a regular basis, so that's basically where my mind was most of the day.

 Q.  Have you talked to anyone from New Orleans?
 TIM PETROVIC:  John Subers was here this week, he's from the Zurich Classic, and he had not gotten in touch with anybody    this was Tuesday and Wednesday.  All of the phone lines are down; the towers are all knocked down.  They are trying to find their people that work at the golf course and they just haven't gotten through to anybody.
 I feel helpless, because I want to do something, but it's not even a money thing right now.  They need to get people in there and they are finally getting food and water.  They just need hands on, they don't want money, they just want to get out of there.  Hopefully we get some good news by Monday.
 People are asking me about it, obviously because I won there, so I am sensitive to it, but I feel a bit helpless.  I want to do something and there's really nothing I can do at this point.  It's kind of tough.  Kind of tough to watch it.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Let's go through your birdies.
TIM PETROVIC:  Yeah, No. 10, just hit a nice little 3 wood off the tee and just hit a beautiful little 7 iron in there.  Ball is really not flying that far this week, I don't know why.  I think we're not at 6,000 feet anymore, but I'm kind of smoothing all of my iron shots in there this week.
 I think the biggest shot of the day was on 11.  11 is probably the hardest hole to birdie out here, it's a 240 yard par 3.  Hit a nice little utility club through the green, all three of us, just caught a terrible lie, one of those lies that, okay, do I putt it out, do I try to pop it out or do I take a swing and hit like a bunker shot.  I decided to take a swing at it and it just came out perfect.  It just plopped on the green and rolled down to the hole.  That gave me a boost.
 And I hit another great iron shot on No. 12, they had the pin way back on the right corner, it's a hard pin to get to.   It's a little easier at this point because the greens are a little softer.  Normally the greens are a little harder and you just can't hold anything back on that right side.  I made a nice 10 foot putt there.
 13, I hit it to five feet.  I hit a nice tee shot there and I think I hit an 8 iron in there, just hit a real nice shot, and actually didn't over read the putt for a change and knocked it right in the middle.  So that was a nice start, just getting off birdieing the first four after kind of limping home yesterday, I think I shot 3 over, I shot 30 on the front and limped home with a 3 over on the back.  I wasn't really that happy, but probably the best thing I did yesterday leading into today was probably laying up on 18, even though I made par, it's really hard after you've given some shots away to try to make something happen.  Just took my medicine, wedged it on and got my par and got out of there, because I probably could have made a bogey and that would not give me any kind of momentum going into today.
 On 16, just another shot to the right, no shocker there, all of my misses to the today were to the right.  It was a lot of club, I probably could have hit 6 iron but short is no good there, either, so that's water.  I just blocked it out.  It was a terrible swing.  Just took my medicine there, just pitched it on the green, about 15 feet.  I almost made the putt but I walked out of there.
 Made a nice birdie on 18.  Finally drove it over the bunkers and had an opportunity to hit the green with a 7 iron and almost made the eagle putt.  Had about two inch putt for birdie.  That was a nice way to finish the nine and get some momentum going for the other nine.
 I think the greens were still just about as soft as they were yesterday.  I think the fairways are drying out a little bit, so I don't think it played as long as it did yesterday.  For some reason yesterday the ball just wasn't running.  It depends where you hit it, but I think the conditions were about the same both days I think.  A little breezy in the afternoon.  I think yesterday afternoon it was breezy.  I think it was about the same.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  And birdie on 2?
TIM PETROVIC:  I hit a tee shot out to the right, no shocker there, right, and just laid up, hit a nice lay up shot, I was talking to Joey, it's hard to lay it up 80 yards from the green because it gets narrow there.  I hit a nice shot out of the rough and had a full lob wedge in there and hit it about four feet, four or five feet.  I had about a six footer and made a nice read there.  It was a tough putt.  It was the kind of putt you look at, it looks like it's going to break but you've just got to trust that it's not going to break, and I hit it right in the middle.
 No. 3, it's always a bonus out here to birdie a par 3 and I birdied    I think I birdied two of them today.  So just hit a conservative shot, middle of the green, use the slope and rolled it down there about 20 feet and made the putt, made a nice read on it.  I just hit a bad tee shot to the right again, we'll work on that.  I actually missed one to the left today.  Just chunked it, chunked it right in the water, no excuses, just a terrible shot and just kind of    had about a 10 footer there to save bogey and I missed that.  Yesterday I had a 10 footer, and made a double on another hole yesterday and I had a 10 footer to save bogey there.  That was just one of those fluke things that happens in golf.
 7 really helped because I hit the fairway off the tee, laid it up and had a nice full lob wedge in there, maybe a three quarter lob wedge from about 83 yards and hit it in there about a foot.  So it was nice to get that birdie, get that stroke back and bounce back.
 I made a nice save on 8 out of the bunker, so I actually felt like I got two shots back.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER:  Thank you, Tim.

 

An interview with MARCEL SIEM, 74-62--136 (-6), tied course record in the second round with 33-29 � 62 (-9)

Q: Very nice round.  Take me through the birdies and bogies.
MS: I had a pretty good start.  Four in a row and a good eagle chance on two.  I got my putting sorted yesterday. The greens are so quick and if you come from Europe it�s a different way to putt.  I just got the pace right today.  It was quite nice.  I made a three-putt on nine, my only bogey today and I had a pretty good start on 10 again.

First hole, 3-wood, mid-wedge to 5 foot.  Next hole, driver, 7-iron to about 15 foot.  Next hole, 6iron to about 6 foot. Next hole, driver, 9iron and holed a 20 footer. Then played quite nicely but couldn�t hole the putts.  I knew then I was on the cut line, and then I three putted nine.  Then I hit a 7-iron to 3 foot.   On 11 I hit 3iron to 9 foot, and missed the putt.  On 12, I hit drive and pitching wedge to 9 foot and holed the putt.  13, hit driver and mid-wedge to two feet.  Next hole 3-wood. 7-iron.  On 17, 3-wood, mid-wedge to 9 feet.  On 18, had to lay up unfortunately and hit my lob wedge to about 12 feet and holed my putt again. 

Q: When you get in the zone like that, what do you think about?
MS: Usually I think just go as low as possible especially this week I was quite happy I went over the 1-under mark.  Now you can say you can afford a bogey and still make a putt.  Then I was three under and we say now we�re going for score and hole position and not thinking about the cut anymore.   That was a special day. Actually 9 under is my best professional round.  My best was 8 under on the European Tour before as an amateur.  But it was quite nice to play my best round here in the States. 

Q: Given the state of your game right now, was this expected or did it come out of nowhere?
MS: I was always a good putter and my long game as well.  My drives are quite straight now and my irons are so much better.  My clubface was extremely open and I worked on that and I�m playing quite steady this year as well.  My was bad the whole season, but today was my putting was unbelievable.  I can�t believe it and I love it and I�ll go to the putting green and putt some more to get it for the next two rounds. 

-end-

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