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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 11, 2004

John Morgan

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: John Morgan, thanks for joining us, an exciting day of golf for you and the fans of Silvis and the Quad Cities. 65 got you into a playoff with Mark Hensby. Maybe quickly go through the playoff, and second, talk about overall.

JOHN MORGAN: It's a great feeling. I'm pretty stuck for words at the moment, even though I just lost in a playoff, but I'm very, very proud of myself, very proud of everybody that supported me actually, just absolutely unbelievable feeling to have that much support with the fans. It really is breathtaking stuff.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about your day today, 65, no bogeys, and I think you birdied four of the last five holes to get in the playoff. Obviously your mindset was great and you executed the shots.

JOHN MORGAN: Yeah, I looked to my caddie, and I did sometimes go, just thought to myself, has he given me the right club. I trusted him 100 percent on everything and he came up with the goods every time, especially with lies and putts. There were crucial ones coming in, and he had them spot on. We were both on the same wavelength every time. He's a top man.

He's never caddied for anyone apart from me. He used to be a fighter. He was an ex-European kickboxing champion actually. He was a very, very good golfer, turned himself into a very good golfer, and I used to play against him very often when I was an amateur. My coach actually was able to pull his leg and twist his arm or whatever you call it and got his backside over here, and it's worked.

Q. What's his name?

JOHN MORGAN: Nick Lane.

Q. It almost seemed, on TV anyway, you seem to be kind of a real swashbuckling type of guy. Do you feel like you have a devil-make hairstyle or is that just an appearance? It's unusual for a golfer, grip it and rip it?

JOHN MORGAN: Definitely. I'm very straight off the tee. That's one of my strong points, very good short game, apart from the second playoff hole, but I couldn't do much about that one unfortunately. I do have that side in me. It's just something that comes over me. After that putt on the last hole to get to 16 under, it's a weird feeling. It's happened a few times where I've really needed to hole a putt, and the thing has just gone my way.

I mean, it's a funny feeling, I can't describe it. You want the fans to go crazy, everything. You just want everything to go absolutely nuts. Well, it did. I mean, it was brilliant, definitely the best golfing thing of my career so far, definitely.

Q. How much fun were you having out there down the stretch?

JOHN MORGAN: Oh, I was loving it. I had great partners, Jeff and Scott. They were brilliant, just saying come on, deep breaths, you can do it. I was just listening, and they've got a lot of experience between the two of them, and that's what my caddie was saying, as well, take loads of water and keep breathing strongly. It was good.

Q. Does it feel like there's two winners here in a sense?

JOHN MORGAN: I feel like a winner, I really do. I am just -- it'll take a bit of time to sink in, I must admit. The fans, I can't stress it enough, it's just awesome. It's what makes me play good. If every time I go to a tournament I've got fans like that, hopefully it will make me feel as good as that. It makes me feel like I want to anyway.

Q. Getting a British Open exemption, is it like a nice consolation prize?

JOHN MORGAN: It's massive. Krikey, look at Ben Curtis, that's all it is. Just get one shot at it and you never know what might happen. I'm obviously a man that's in form at the moment, so I'm looking forward to getting over there. I've never played the course before. I've played many times around it, but I'm looking forward to it anyway.

Q. What's your story? The PGA TOUR says that you've overcome dyslexia and epilepsy?

JOHN MORGAN: Yeah, just one of those things. At a young age I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and then when I was like 20, 21, I had my first fit, so that was it. I classified myself as an epileptic. It can't be helped.

Q. Last year was your ultimate goal. You qualified for both big Tours, right?

JOHN MORGAN: Yeah, I did.

Q. Why did you do that and where have you played back and forth this year?

JOHN MORGAN: Oh, I've just been over here really. I went back for the British Masters, played very, very bad, so got my backside back here again. I thought I'd say backside this time (laughter).

Now I've got my act together. I listened to Vijay. Vijay told me to switch to the belly putter, and it's kind of worked. I'm very happy.

Q. A lot of times nobody knows how their body, how their mind is going to react when they get into situations like this. You said you were feeding off the crowd. I mean, are you surprised at yourself, when you made two huge putts in the span of a few hours?

JOHN MORGAN: Absolutely. You just go into auto-pilot. You just want to succeed. You just want to keep shot-for-shot, one after the other, and try and calm yourself down because emotions are just flying. I felt like breaking down on 17. I was just so pumped with the crowd and everything like that. I mean, I was just getting more and more emotional as it was going on, and come 18, it just polished me off. It just obliterated me right there, and obviously I went out again.

It was a nice putt on 18. I liked holing that second putt to carry on to the next one, so I'm very pleased.

Q. As high as you got out there, how tough was it to sit out in the middle of sudden death as pumped as you were?

JOHN MORGAN: It's tough, there's no question. I actually went into the crowd and started doing some autographs and it just kept feeding it to me really, making me feel on top of the world. They were good. I had them all queued up on the stairway coming up to me. I must have done like 200 on the break. It was lovely, very nice.

Q. Could you talk about the second playoff hole? What happened on your drive and then your second shot, the chip? We could tell you didn't have a very good stance, but what kind of lie did you have on the ball?

JOHN MORGAN: Well, there was a lot of grass behind the ball. Unfortunately it was in the hazard. I nearly touched my hand down in the hazard. I had to be very careful. No, I couldn't get any stance whatsoever. There was a few big bits of wood coming out from under the grass, and unfortunately I could have stepped on them, but they were very, very slippery, so I had to try and maneuver my way around it. I just couldn't get a stance. It was too hard. I was on tiptoes hitting that chip. I just slipped as I went through the shot, and that's why I thinned it really. It was just one of those things. It can't be helped.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: What did you hit off the tee there?

JOHN MORGAN: I hit an 8-iron.

Q. Did you just pull it?

JOHN MORGAN: Yeah, I hit it crap (laughter), literally. It's one of those things that can't be helped.

Q. Was the second shot a shot that thought you could get on the green and get it close or did you know walking to the hazard trying to get a stance that you were in trouble?

JOHN MORGAN: Anything can happen. I think I'm a pretty good short game player and I think I can get up-and-down from anywhere you put me. But it was just one of those things. It was just very, very awkward. I didn't understand how awkward it was until I got over the ball. It just so happens -- it's water under the bridge.

Q. Did you think you had holed the bunker shot? It looked like it was going to go in.

JOHN MORGAN: I didn't know what to expect. If it would have gone in, I would have gone absolutely haywire. I would have done somersaults in the bunker. The crowd is just phenomenal. I can't stop saying that. I mean, it made me feel like the happiest man in the world definitely.

Q. Tell us about the hat. Have you played that way all week this week?

JOHN MORGAN: Yes. Well, no, I didn't play it all week. I just decided it for the last day actually. It was kind of weird because yesterday I played and I switched my cap back around and I actually started to play pretty good and got a couple of birdies and finished 10-under, and then today, you know, everybody was saying, "Come on, Blue," that was my old name when I had the blue hair, and they were like, "Come on, put the rally cap on," so I did that off the 1st and it worked.

Q. What's the story with the blue hair?

JOHN MORGAN: Yeah, that was a bet. That was a serious bet going on (laughter). I was actually with a guy who invented MTV. We were down in Miami playing a game of golf, and the guy, he's like 55 years old, and we had a bet on the golf course and he had to go pink if he lost, but he played off of like 13. I had to give him like 13 strokes, and he shot 76, so I had no bloody chance. It was like, that was it, so I went blue.

Q. Can you talk about the closing stretch, the four birdies? Did you feel that coming on?

JOHN MORGAN: Well, I just really got in the zone. I mean, it was just one shot after another. I had my chances. I mean, 17, you know, that putt just came up just so shy on me. That would have been five birdies in a row if that baby would have gone in. But c'est la vie, it can't be helped. I'm still a very happy chappie.

Q. What does the E stand for?

JOHN MORGAN: Edward.

Q. Is that how you like to be called, John E.?

JOHN MORGAN: No, just anything. You can call me anything you like. I'll respond to anything. Mugsy was normally the term I got given when I was in the amateur ranks coming through by a couple of teammates, and that stuck for a long time, but Morgie or what Hank calls me. I've got a lot of names.

Q. What are your pastimes besides golf? What other sports have you played?

JOHN MORGAN: I played everything when I was young, rugby, football, cricket, obviously a very English sport. I mean, I'm mad on music. I've just bought so many things -- I was in New Orleans and I bought myself two signed guitars, one by Rolling Stones and one by Guns 'n' Roses, and I bought three albums, one by Guns 'n' Roses and Rolling Stones and the other one by John Lennon, Imagine. I'm a big music fan. That's why me and this MTV guy got in so well, because I can't get enough of it.

Q. How do you spell krikey?

JOHN MORGAN: I haven't got a bloody clue. I really don't know.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: John Morgan, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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