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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 15, 2005

Thomas Bjorn

SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY

JULIUS MASON: Thanks for coming down, Thomas. Let's just open up with some of your thoughts about this morning and we'll go to Q&A.

THOMAS BJORN: Well, you know, I felt pretty good about myself this morning. Probably a little bit better about my game than I did yesterday. So I went out there and I gave it a good chance. And it wasn't to be.

But I've told myself again that I've stuck my nose in there and played hard and tried hard. You know, I tried a 110 percent this week, and you know, I came up one shot short of, you know, very good things.

But, what can you do? You can only say that that was not to be. Add I said to the TV guys, there's a guy that won this golf tournament and he led from day one. When you lead from day one and you stand with the trophy in hand on Sunday, you certainly deserve to win.

Q. Could you talk about the putt that I'm sure you'll be replaying that for a while; as you said in the TV interview, everybody in the world thought that was going in. Can you go through that?

THOMAS BJORN: Yeah, you know, you stand up, you hit it, it was on a perfect line and a foot from the hole. It was going nowhere else but in the hole. Somehow it stayed out. There's not much more to it than that.

You try your hardest. I put myself in position on 18 off the tee, where I thought I put myself in great position coming down there, and it's a poor yardage for me. It's a very poor yardage for me, I had 273 meters to the flag, carrying a 7 wood and a 3 wood this week, that put me I put myself in the position where, you know, it became a hard birdie to make after the second shot. It wasn't to be. You've got to think I had a great chance here, but you also have to say that I've done some very good things this week for myself and worked hard on my game and got myself into a position where I can contend for major championships. I'll just keep going. 2006 is not too far away, and I'll look forward to those majors.

Q. Could you talk about the difficulty of the bunker shot that you had to execute on 18?

THOMAS BJORN: It's a difficult one because I can't really get a good footing. I was standing quite a bit above the ball, and it's very easy to hit it thin from that position. So, you know, I thought I'd just try and get it just on the green and see if I could release it down to the hole and it just came up a fraction short for me, and came halfway. But, you know, it wasn't the easiest of bunker shots. It's just, you know, that's golf.

But the second shot brought me into that position, and you deal with it. You know, I gave it the best I had today and there's no doubt I gave one 110 percent this week to everything I did. I committed myself to playing as hard as I can and I came up one shot short. One day, these major championships are going to break my way. I feel I've got the game, I feel I can get myself in there often enough and one day, the game gives you that thing. If you stick your nose in often enough, the game is going to give you one, one day.

Q. Could you run through the birdie that got you to 3 under, and after 18, did you have a gut feeling one way or another, if you thought you were going to have a chance in a playoff?

THOMAS BJORN: The birdie on 17? I felt good over every single shot I stood over today. I hit a good drive, I hit a good 3 wood. I had a great little 9 iron in there and a fantastic putt. You stand up on 18, and I felt really, really solid about things. I stood up and probably hit one of the best drives of the week on 18; that in itself I take a lot of good from.

I saw where he hit it on the last, and if there was anybody you'd back to get up and down from there in the world, it would be Phil Mickelson. I didn't think there was much hope whenever I saw where he was. You know, Phil deserves this more than anybody. He's not a one major guy; he's a ten major guy. He's going to go on now and contend for majors as he's always done, but it's going to be easier and easier for him to win them now. And he deserves greatness. He's come so close for so many years, and the way he did things this week was better than the next guy.

Q. Steve Elkington was just in here talking about how hard it was for him to sleep another day with all of the pressure on him and it was hard for him to get to sleep. What was your routine like last night?

THOMAS BJORN: Didn't really change. It becomes, there's a little bit of things going on just when you come off the golf course and you all of a sudden have to stay an extra night and get everybody in place.

But other than that, when I get off the golf course, I don't really think too much about things, about the golf. I go home and do my things and I get up in the morning and then when I get to the golf course, I start really focusing on it again. I go home and spend time with the people that I've got here and have a good time with them. I don't particularly I don't see the difficulty in it. If the tournament had finished yesterday, you still had to get up and do something. (Laughter).

Q. You've come back from so many knocks, do you think that helped it to keep you together as well as you did in the final round this time and be so generous in defeat?

THOMAS BJORN: I have a strong belief in my game. You know, I take the up and downs that happens to me in stride. I feel like I've had some really big knocks over the last couple of years but I still have a strong belief in what I can do and I have a strong belief that I am a good player. I've shown it enough times to myself that I can handle myself well, I can go out in big championships and play well.

You know, the one thing I said this week was I said it earlier in the week, I have not had enough belief in my golf swing. And when I don't have belief in my golf swing, I can't perform. This week, the belief early in the week started to grow in my golf swing, and then I can go out and hit the golf shot and feel comfortable with that. And that again to me shows that I can all of a sudden focus 100% on my mental the mental side of the game. I don't have to fight my golf swing on the golf course. Today and yesterday, it was all about the mental attitude, and when I get my mental attitude going, then I can then I can perform.

Q. What's it like sitting in that trailer watching Phil finish his round? Are you guys talking to each other at all?

THOMAS BJORN: No, you just watch it and you try and prepare yourself for what could happen. If you've got to go out there again, you've got to try and get your head around how to do that and how to approach that.

So, no, you don't really there's time for talk and then there's time for just being on your own, and that's certainly one of the times you just want to be on your own.

Q. Do you allow yourself to root either way for Phil?

THOMAS BJORN: You know, I don't what happens, happens. When it's out of your control, it's out of your control. It's different whenever you're out there yourself, it's in your control, you can do something about it. Whatever Phil was going to do on the last hole was out of your control. As I said before, this guy deserves to win this championship because he led it from day one.

End of FastScripts.

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