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BUICK CLASSIC

June 12, 2004

Loren Roberts

HARRISON, NEW YORK

CHRIS REIMER: 7-under par, 64, best round of the year for you so far, congratulations.

LOREN ROBERTS: I'm sure it probably is, yeah (laughter).

CHRIS REIMER: Did you see that coming today?

LOREN ROBERTS: No, not at all. I mean, obviously I've been working on my golf swing, struggling with my game a little bit, and working on my golf swing real hard, in fact still working on a lot this week. I was working on it about every shot on the golf course today. I just happened to hit it good, first on the back nine and made some putts.

I had a lot of things going my way today. I started out the first hole and made one from 65 feet up and over the hump, and that just kind of started the day.

The only hole I really hit a bad shot or was really in any trouble was the 8th hole.

CHRIS REIMER: The conditions today, sun being out, did you see all those low scores in the afternoon, or did you figure that the course would get harder as the day went on.

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, the course is holding up really well. The fairways are a little faster. We're used to having rain and slowing the course down, but I was even knocking it down over the hill down on 12. It's playing fast.

If you can get it in the fairway, you can have shorter irons into the greens, so you can make some birdies.

Q. Is that beneficial to you that it is playing fast? I mean, do you think that a softer course would have made it much more difficult for you?

LOREN ROBERTS: I think so. I mean, if the ball is going out there and hitting the fairway and plugging or running a yard or something, I mean, obviously I'm going to be hitting longer clubs in.

If it's a little faster and they've got so many doglegs out here you're going to have to work the ball off the tee, too.

You have to think around this golf course. I've always loved this golf course. I've played well here in the past, so I just love old style traditional golf courses. This is one of the finest that we play on the Tour, I think.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the pace of play? Did you find it was excruciatingly slow?

LOREN ROBERTS: I don't know what happened, but from the 5th hole up until -- through the 9th hole there was three groups on every tee. I don't know what happened, but it was punishingly slow. In fact, I know the guys on TV are probably pulling their hair out.

Q. When you say you were struggling, what's been the problem?

LOREN ROBERTS: I just haven't been hitting the ball solid. You know, sometimes if you're missing the ball, if it's going the same direction every miss, you can still play, but I've had it going both ways on and off this year, and my short game has been a little rusty. I don't know if I'm starting to feel my age or what, but hopefully I've still got some competitive fire in me, so I'm looking to get things going because I still think for me there's some golf courses out here on Tour that I compete on, and I think this is one of them.

Q. On that same subject, is it hard to adjust your rhythm when something like this happens? I mean, if you're in a rhythm and you're playing, all of a sudden you hit the brick wall, now all of a sudden you have to scale down; is it hard to do that?

LOREN ROBERTS: Sometimes it is. It depends how hard you're playing. If you're kind of focused in on your game and thinking about doing some things with your swing or whatever, it's just how you take the approach. If you hit that brick wall, if you just kind of take a vacation, think about other things or just kind of thinking about what you're doing and not worry about it, it's not going to bother you.

But if you've maybe made a bogey or two before you come up and you've maybe missed a couple of short putts and you're a little mad and you come up with something like that, then it can affect you.

Q. How do you feel about your chances knowing that you've been working on your swing and have been playing as well as you can?

LOREN ROBERTS: Obviously I had a great round today. It would be great to dial up another one tomorrow, but for heaven's sake, we'll just see what happens tomorrow.

A lot of great players in this field, Sergio and Vijay, Ernie is here, Phil is here, a lot of great players in this field, so there's no way I'm going to say how I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm just going to take it one shot at a time.

CHRIS REIMER: Can we real quickly go through your club selections for your birdies and bogeys.

LOREN ROBERTS: I started on the 1st hole and tried to hit a kind of a cut 4-iron in there and hit it on the left side of the green, I don't know, 65 feet, 60 feet, and it was up and over the hill, and I knocked it right in the hole to start out with on a pin that really is not even accessible really.

6th hole I hit a wedge, almost hit it in the hole. I hit about a foot and a half, two-foot putt from right behind the hole, made it from about five feet on the next hole, right below the hole on 7.

Made my bogey, kind of hit a poor tee shot down in the right rough and hit it in the front right bunker and didn't get it up-and-down, but I think the real key was I played a sloppy 9th hole but still got a par out of it.

Then hit a good tee shot with a 3-wood down there, hit a sand wedge up there, made birdie at 10.

I think the real key that got me going was I drove it in the right side of the fairway at 11 and I hit a cut 5-iron, probably the best shot I hit all week kind of around the tree probably six feet from the hole and knocked it in for birdie, and that kind of got me going because I ended up missing a fairly short putt, 10 or 12 feet for birdie at 12.

Then hit it in there close, from probably six feet, at 13.

Made a good sand save out of the left bunker on 16. I haven't hit that green yet. But it was a good up-and-down out of the left-hand bunker, probably hit it up there three feet.

Then finished with two good birdies. On 17 things went my way because I hit a tee shot going up the right side, and it looked like it might kick in the right bunker, hit a sprinkler head and kicked 20 yards up the fairway and out into the middle of the fairway, then I put a wedge on the green and made about an 18-footer for birdie there.

Then the two-putt from the front edge at 18, which I was just trying to get it within a three-foot circle on 18 from the front edge and knocked it up there about a foot short of the hole. I really got just about everything out of my round I could have gotten today.

Q. Where you are right now and how you've gotten here over these first three days, is this reminiscent to you of any one of your victories in the past?

LOREN ROBERTS: No. I'm not even thinking about that. I'm at the point where I'm really trying to enjoy playing golf, and I enjoy playing the Tour. I still like to compete and I enjoy playing great golf courses like this. I can't really think of anything that's reminiscent of anything that I've done in the past other than I've had 64s in the past the third round, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q. Have you had a 30?

LOREN ROBERTS: I think I have had a 30. I think I had a 30 at Harbor Town one time on the back nine. That's about the lowest nine I think I've had.

Q. 30 is the lowest you've ever had?

LOREN ROBERTS: Yes.

Q. Generally when you've had those 64s in the third round what's happened?

LOREN ROBERTS: One of them was at Oakmont in '94 on Saturday. That didn't turn out too well, but that's all right.

Q. That turned out all right.

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah.

Q. You did not get in the Open qualifier on Monday; is that right?

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah, I was in the 10 for one playoff down in New Jersey.

Q. Is that disappointing?

LOREN ROBERTS: Very disappointing. I really wanted to play Shinnecock. I think it could be the finest golf course in America, and I had a little -- tried to get a little bit of revenge because in '95 I bent over to get my ball out of the cup after I made birdie on the 8th hole to go 1 or 2 under par and I blew my back out and I had to withdraw. I finished the round but I shot 76 and I had to withdraw.

Q. The first round you did that, second round?

LOREN ROBERTS: First round, on Thursday. Maybe they'll have a Senior Open there in ten years.

CHRIS REIMER: Thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts.

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