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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 7, 2005

Mark Hensby

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA

BILLY MORRIS: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We're delighted to have Mark Hensby with us. Mark Hensby had a very fine 69 today and currently is the leader in the clubhouse.

Mark, would you like to say anything or would you just like to begin with questions?

MARK HENSBY: Let's just begin with questions.

Q. Mark, take us through the round, and also how your expectations were obviously at least met? What were your goals coming in and how did you go against that?

MARK HENSBY: Well, obviously the goal is to play as well as you can around a course like this. It's hard to have expectations on such a demanding golf course. You can play good shots and get rewarded, and then on the other hand you can hit good shots and not get rewarded and have difficult chips and putts.

I played really well today, hit a lot of greens, and I putted well, and then when I did get into trouble, I pretty much got it up-and-down except for once.

Overall I was just really enthused in the way I played.

Q. Can you tell us what it's like playing The Masters, maybe watching at home as a kid, seeing your name on the leaderboard and everything? Is it an exciting thing?

MARK HENSBY: Oh, no doubt. As an Australian this is the biggest event to watch for us and it's the hardest event to get into. It's a thrill just to play here.

As a kid, everybody says this, but you dream to play this event. The quality of the field is unbelievable, and if you play well, you can definitely get it done around here. There's obviously a long way to go.

Q. Watching you for the first few holes, you were just cool as a cucumber. Were there nerves?

MARK HENSBY: You try not to show them outwardly, but of course. You're nervous and you want to do well, but you feel like you're under the microscope on every shot because there's so many people out here and the course is so demanding, you know every shot you've got to hit where you have to hit it or you're going to make bogey or something else, so I was definitely nervous, but once I started getting going -- it helps if you play with guys like Vijay a bit, and I played a practice round here and I practiced with him last week. He just told me, "Go out and relax, you can't force it out here. People say not to fire at flags, but there's some if you feel good, fire at it," so that's good advice, I think.

Q. How much did the conditions vary from what you played with here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday versus what you had today?

MARK HENSBY: A real lot. The greens were so firm on Monday and Tuesday, I was like dreading it, and then the fairways were a lot firmer so you're hitting a little shorter shots in. Today I hit 6-iron into 17, and in the practice round I hit gap wedge, so that's a big difference. The softness of the greens as I said earlier made the course so much longer. It's not an easy golf course when you hit 5-irons into the greens. The pins are tucked, and it's just --

Q. How much of an advantage is it for you that you got 18 in today when there's a number of players still out on the course?

MARK HENSBY: I think it's good. I don't know if it's an advantage, but it's good. We've dealt with that so much this year, we're just all used to it now. It's the second major. You think about every week it's been like this, but it's definitely an advantage getting done. I don't have to get up real early and I don't have to come out and play any more holes.

Q. Mark, for those who don't know the back story, take us through a little bit of your struggles as a golfer and sleeping in the car and not losing sight of the ultimate goal. Do you reflect on that now?

MARK HENSBY: You never forget where you come from, there's no doubt about that. There's been a lot tougher times for a lot of people. The ultimate goal in my career is to win a major, and I won on the PGA TOUR last year, the John Deere Classic, and I've always wanted to win a major, and that's been my ultimate goal as a kid.

Do I have the game to do it, I don't know, but you keep trying and keep trying, you don't give up on a dream, and whatever helps -- or if it doesn't happen, but the bottom line is you never forget the struggles you go through, but I think it makes you stronger in a way. To win an event like this or any major event, you have to have a lot inside, and that's not easy, there's no doubt.

Q. Was there any particular point where you thought you might not get to where you are now, or you always thought you'd get there?

MARK HENSBY: I don't think I ever thought I wouldn't get here. Obviously you get down on yourself sometimes, we all do, no matter what job we're doing. It was funny, it all happened so quick last year, I just had eight Top 10s and a win and all of a sudden I'm in bigger events. It kind of happened on the back burner really. When it happens, it's fun, but I feel like if I play my best golf I belong there, so that's about it.

Q. How nerve wracking was it playing your first Masters and how did you overcome that, if there were nerves?

MARK HENSBY: There was definitely nerves, but I've been playing pretty well the last couple of weeks. I don't know, sometimes when you're playing really well and you're nervous, it's a good thing. Then other times where you know you're a little bit on the edge and you get in contention and you're nervous, it's a horror.

As I said earlier, I was nervous, but I felt like I was playing well enough so it didn't bother me too much.

Q. For those of us who aren't from Australia, why is this tournament so big in Australia or with Australians?

MARK HENSBY: I guess because no Australian has ever won it maybe. That would be one factor I would think. Greg obviously had so many close calls here. I don't know, just the history of the event. The Australians, they know how hard it is to get into this event. There's no qualifying for this one.

I think that might have something to do with it, plus we get to watch it early in the morning before we go to work (laughter). That might have something to do with it, too. Plus you get a green jacket. Australian colors are green and gold obviously.

Q. Could you run through what you did this morning, your routine? Did you go back to your house or hotel, or how did you deal with the delay?

MARK HENSBY: I went back to my house.

Q. What time did you get out here?

MARK HENSBY: I got out here at 6:30 maybe, quarter to 7:00, somewhere in there, had some breakfast, and then they told us there was a delay, so I went back and kept checking the TV. They called and updated us and so on.

Q. So you didn't hit any balls or anything, it was already raining?

MARK HENSBY: I hit balls one time or twice before they -- because when they said we're playing and they kept putting it back half an hour, so no, I didn't hit any earlier.

Q. When did you actually get back to the course then?

MARK HENSBY: About 11:30.

Q. Just to go back to that, we've all heard the story about sleeping in the car. Was that the hardest you've had to deal with?

MARK HENSBY: Not really. I mean, that's a -- that's not that big a deal. Maybe to some people it is because -- to me that's not a big deal.

To me a bigger deal is when you only have $1,000 left in your bank account and you're on the Nike Tour back in '97 and you don't have enough money to play if you don't play well. So I think that's more -- that's a lot harder than sleeping in the car. I only sleep four hours a night anyway. I mean, that's not the hardest thing.

Q. Did you pick up any tricks on how you actually get comfortable enough to sleep in a car?

MARK HENSBY: There's no comfortable way (laughter).

Q. What kind of car?

MARK HENSBY: It was an old bomb. I don't even know what it was called.

Q. What do you do tonight, watch the sports shows and look at the highlights or just try and get as far away from it as possible?

MARK HENSBY: I'm not into watching golf unless it's a major. I probably won't watch too much TV. I'll come out tomorrow and see what's going on. It's only the first day, but it's exciting. There's no doubt it'll be exciting tomorrow to play, and hopefully I'll just keep it going.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your -- Vijay sort of has a reputation of maybe not being the friendliest guy, but you seem to get along quite well with him. What's the back story to that?

MARK HENSBY: Vijay three or four years ago when I Monday qualified for the Phoenix Open, he was leading the golf tournament after Saturday and I was on the range and I was struggling. I Monday qualified and I was struggling. I made the cut but wasn't hitting the ball very well, and he came over for about 35 minutes and gave me a hand with my swing. He's a generous person. I mean, he really is, it's just getting to know him.

You know, he's helped me and he's always been very cordial to me. It's fun to be able to be around a person with so much success, but he's so laid back, and he really is. I mean, he's so laid back.

He's just obviously a champion golfer. I think a lot of people just take him the wrong way. You've just got to -- when he starts being a little mouthy to me, I just say, "What, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" I just humor him back. If you can treat him that way, he's fine. He's definitely fun to play with and you can learn a lot from playing with guys like that.

BILLY MORRIS: Mark, thank you so much and good luck to you.

End of FastScripts.

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