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CIALIS WESTERN OPEN

July 1, 2004

Mark Hensby

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Hensby, thanks for joining us, 4-under 67 today. Good to get off to a good start. Let's talk about your round today.

MARK HENSBY: I got off to a rough start on the 10th, but then I started to play pretty well. That set the tone for today.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Five birdies on your front side on the back nine of the golf course and then parred your way in. Talk about the course conditions and things like that.

MARK HENSBY: The rough is high. When you get in the rough, a lot of the times you just pitch it out. If you hit it in the wrong spots, it's like you're just trying to figure a spot where you can get it up-and-down, but the course is in good shape. The greens are not soft but they're soft. They ran really smoothly early this morning. The course is in great shape.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Talk about your season so for. You've exceeded a million dollars in earnings, certainly a fantastic year so far that you're hoping to build on almost halfway through the season.

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, I finished second in Atlanta and played really well on the weekend there. Obviously I gained a lot of confidence from that. Then I went through kind of a down period where I actually wasn't playing well at all. I think I was trying too hard. The last few weeks I started to play real well again. I played nicely last week, so it's been a good year so far, but I definitely want to keep it up.

Q. You're Australian but you have some history in Illinois as a State Amateur Champion and you have some history here at Cog Hill. For the people that may not know about that, talk about your history in Illinois here.

MARK HENSBY: I moved here when I first came over here because I knew some people from Australia. I spent a lot of time practicing at Cog Hill, not necessarily playing Course 4 because obviously it's so busy. It was hard always to get on, but I could get out there once in a while. I did all my practice here at the range, and Frank Jemcek, without him letting me practice and play out here at the time, it would have been difficult to keep going and obviously get to where I'm at right now. It's been great obviously to come back and play here now.

I've never played well here. I love the golf course but I've never played well, so it's kind of a bit of a shock to me.

Q. Just to follow up on that, did you see Frank at all today? Will you talk to him? Did he come and see you?

MARK HENSBY: I haven't seen him yet, no, but I'm sure I'll see him after the round. I actually went and looked for him the other day, but he wasn't here. I've seen a lot of the guys that I spent time with and it's obviously good to see them.

Q. I'm wondering, do you put a little more pressure on yourself more than usual when you come here because of the connection you have with Cog Hill and Frank?

MARK HENSBY: I think so. You always want to do well in front of people that you know. You know, sometimes it's easy to play well at home or where you've been, and then sometimes it's harder because of the amount of pressure you do put on yourself to try and perform for your friends.

I think I've played enough now where I don't really care, I just go out and play and see what happens.

Q. This seems like it's been kind of a breakthrough year for you in a lot of ways, hasn't it been? I mean, can you point to a reason for that?

MARK HENSBY: Well, I think it's been a breakthrough year on the Tour, there's no doubt about that, but I think I played so well last year, and just getting back into this year. Everybody talks about the Nationwide Tour, these guys aren't that good. I think I played better at the end of last year than I have this year, and it's just a different level. Obviously this is the biggest Tour in the world, but golf is golf. You know, I thought I might break through towards the end of last year when I won out there again and just started to gain some confidence and play good again.

Q. On the Nationwide Tour?

MARK HENSBY: Yes.

Q. I wonder if you could talk about specific differences or things. Have you changed anything you've done? Maybe expound on that, give us a little more explanation, why are you playing better? You won on the Nationwide Tour and you talked about the confidence it gave you. Were there some areas of your game that have improved or that you've worked on?

MARK HENSBY: Not really. Honestly, to give you an honest answer, no, there's nothing different. You know, golf is a game where it's not that easy. You can play well half the time and not be making putts and all of a sudden you start missing a few greens. That's the game. At the beginning of the year I started making putts, and everything just goes into a flow. I haven't done anything different than I've done the past two years really.

Q. When you were here in Illinois, in the winters didn't you used to go practice at the Dome up in Bensenville and one of your sponsors was up there? Can you talk about that?

MARK HENSBY: I used to go practice at the Dome at White Pines with a friend of mine who's 95 years old now, Art Blitstein. He's still alive. Obviously I'm staying with him this week. He used to help me out when I was first starting. Yeah, we used to practice at White Pines and come out here and practice at Hillcrest Country Club where he was a member and playing. He was still playing at 88.

Q. You had a rough start like you said. What do you think helped turn it around? Was there one specific hole that got you going?

MARK HENSBY: Not really. I mean, I've been playing so well, I just kind of flipped that off really, the 10th hole. I hit a beautiful drive at No. 2 and a 3-iron just off the front right and chipped it up, and I think that just settled it down a little bit. But I think 12 was probably the one where I hit a nice 6-iron in there and made the putt and got things going.

Q. Do you think getting out early today and playing was a benefit to you, getting a fresh start?

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, you have perfect greens, there's no doubt about it. I'm used to teeing off last most of the beginning of the year, and I've made enough money now where I get the better tee times. It's easy to gain two or three shots a round. The greens are perfect when we play early in the morning, and if you're the last group off on Friday afternoon, you've got no chance.

Q. Did you have to get that second place in the tournament order? Is that when you finally made a jump from playing late in rounds to earlier? Where did that occur?

MARK HENSBY: Actually just before that, I think. Actually that week I was still last, but the reshuffle after that I would have been in the better tee times.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on the rest of your round and we'll take one final question. First hole of the day, No. 10, you bogeyed. Just tell us what happened there.

MARK HENSBY: Not to make excuses, but I had a 3-wood out and one of the officials bent down to pick something up, and as he did, his shadow came in. I kind of backed off, but I didn't really back off, and I hit a poor tee shot off to the right. The rough is so high you can't get it on the green, and I hit it in the front right trap and didn't get it up-and-down.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You touched on 11 and 12, and then you birdied 16, 17 and 18.

MARK HENSBY: 16 I hit a 3-wood and a pitching wedge to about 15 feet.

17, I hit 3-wood, 8-iron to about 10 feet.

18, I hit driver, 8-iron to five, six feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: No birdies on the front side, your final nine, but you mentioned how tough the rough is. Any particularly good par saves on the first nine?

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, No. 5. 5 I didn't know where to hit it because I didn't get a practice round in so I hit it up the left side and I pulled it a little bit. You can't hit it on the left at all, and I hit it in the rough behind the tree and chipped it out about 70 yards, and then I hit a 9-iron to about three feet, made the putt for par.

Q. How far was the birdie putt at 12?

MARK HENSBY: 12 feet probably.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mark Hensby, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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