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VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 24, 2005

Mark Wilson

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thanks, Mark, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Valero Texas Open. Excellent start to your day. You hung in there and you're in great position tomorrow. Why don't you just talk about the win, the conditions and how well you played.

MARK WILSON: Yeah, it was I guess less wind than I expected. I looked at the forecast yesterday and it looked like it was going to be 25 mile an hour winds, and this morning it was more like 13 mile an hour winds. It wasn't too bad.

I played in the afternoon yesterday so it was very similar, just from a little different direction. I just got off to a great start. I one putted the first nine greens and hit a lot of good shots on the greens that I missed, just hit them a little long and on the fringes and just rolled them all in the center of the cup.

I made a good two putt on 14, and things were just going real smooth as I had hoped on 16. I drove it exactly where I wanted to in that bunker and hit a great bunker shot to six feet, and that's probably the first putt I got a little tentative on and I left it out to the right there.

17 fooled us a little bit, both Robert and I, with how long it was playing because the day before it played really short and we thought the wind was similar. It played a lot longer, and obviously the putt really fooled me, left it about 15 feet short.

And then 18, I guess I was just unfortunately just trying to get to the clubhouse. I wasn't focusing on my target anymore, I was just kind of hoping it on the green. The wind was blowing hard. I got a good break off the tee shot and it went around the bunker and I had a great look at the hole and I didn't trust that the wind was going to push it, and I was aiming left center of the green and I didn't trust it, hit it at the flag and hit it in the bunker.

So the finish was a bummer, but I really putted well early, so I'll try to recreate that tomorrow.

Q. Are you noticing the greens with the wind and the sun firming up, rolling a lot faster than they have the past couple days?

MARK WILSON: Firming up just a little bit more I would say. They're about the same. I guess they are getting a little crustier and a little faster on some of the down grain putts, but it's pretty similar to what we started out with on Thursday.

Q. Obviously no big adjustment?

MARK WILSON: Not really, no. You've got to be a little careful with these. They can get away from you pretty quick because they are kind of burnt out. You've got to think about your approach shots and where you want to land the ball. You can't just think about flying it all the way to the hole. You have to think about where you're going to land it because it's probably going to roll.

Q. We've got a ton of guys within a couple shots of the lead and it's a pretty good scramble. Since Deutsche Bank, it's a pretty good month for you. Did something happen to your game that ran it into shape?

MARK WILSON: Probably the best thing that happened to me was shooting 82 last week at 84 Lumber. First round I came out with a lot of confidence from two weeks prior, and I was 6 over par sitting on the 4th tee, and I'm like, "What is going on?" I realized something that night, wow, I've got to shoot about 10 under the next day to make the cut, and I went out there without knowing and started focusing on what good could happen and where I wanted to hit it, and I was like, "wow, that might be a novel idea for Thursday."

I went with it this week, and I even got off to a bad start early. I turned at even par. I bogeyed 15 and 18 when I started on Thursday and then just caught fire, did the same thing on Friday, was 3 over par after six holes and caught fire again. So I guess I have a lot better attitude this week than last week.

Deutsche Bank, yeah, things came together a little bit there. It was the first week that I went to conventional putting. I had been left hand low for about three years, so that was it was kind of a new week and it worked great, and all of a sudden Canadian Open it didn't work again and I had to try something new. But it was really up in my mind.

I did a great job most of the week. I would say that I slipped in my thinking about the target the last three holes and it cost me a little bit today. I'll try my best to do a little better tomorrow.

Q. You and Robert are kind of in a similar position on the Money List. I think you're 180th, around there. This would be a big week for you, win or paycheck, either way, to get to the Top 125 or even higher?

MARK WILSON: Yeah, I've got a few more tournaments so I'm not really worried about that. If I have to go back to Q school, that's something that's been on my schedule the past eight years, so I'm not too worried about that. I'll try to focus on winning the tournament and a lot of doors will be open.

Q. Bart Bryant made that similar step last year. He was ready to go to Q school and then didn't have to.

MARK WILSON: I would love to do the same thing. I was looking at maybe shooting a 60 there as I was coming up the 12th fairway if I could get a few more birdies coming in. I thought about Bart. I've got one more try at it tomorrow.

Q. You're a mathematics major from UNC. You're just kind of a come out of nowhere guy at this tournament. Is that an advantage in a situation like this going into a final round, or do you like the anonymity of it or would you like to do you want to step into that spotlight a little more than normal?

MARK WILSON: Yeah, I guess it's new ground for me. I don't have the TV cameras running around all the time and Hank Haney walking along with me telling everybody what I'm doing, so I guess that is new for me. I know that all my family and friends are at home just praying to death that I make that putt or whatever, and so I've got to put that aside, so I think it's definitely an advantage to a veteran who's been there many times before who probably doesn't think about that stuff anymore because he's had past success. So that will be a challenge for me tomorrow.

Q. We talked with some of the younger players in here this week, Ryan Moore, some of the younger players, and just the no fear factor of the players on Tour these days, and he was saying across the board pretty much that players just don't play with a whole lot of fear anymore. Would you describe your game that way?

MARK WILSON: At times. I think we all

Q. Intimidation factor I guess.

MARK WILSON: I would say when I first came on Tour, yes, you're playing with some of the guys that I followed very hard in junior golf and amateur golf, and then when I was playing the mini Tours I'd watch them on TV and then all of a sudden I'm playing with them, and then when I got out here I realized that they hit bad shots, too, and they're human and they have more experience than me, but I have game, too. I might do it a little bit different. That's one of the hard things is I'm a little shorter hitter, I've been working on my swing really hard all year, and that didn't help at all. I don't think it's smart to change it. I think I've decided to just go with what I have and play it, and I think I've got enough game to compete.

Q. Have you ever been in this position before going into the last round of a tournament?

MARK WILSON: Not really. New Orleans I finished 4th. I think I was 6th place going in. I don't know what I'll be tomorrow. No, this will probably be the best. I've been there on other levels, the Hooters Tour, so I can draw from that experience.

Q. Any suspicions as to how you'll handle it? You know yourself obviously.

MARK WILSON: I have no idea. I was thrilled that all those putts were going in early and I was really staying in the present tense. It's just weird how this game works, that I would just go the opposite way on the last three holes. Why? Why don't I just keep doing what's working? You get a little scared. So I hope the guy that teed off on the 1st hole today shows up for the whole day tomorrow.

Q. When you look at this golf course, you talk about being a little shorter hitter than Duval hitting 340 yard drives all week. Does this golf course meet your eye as far as that part of your game?

MARK WILSON: Well, it's so firm that the length really isn't a factor, other than 15 played a little long yesterday, had to hit a long iron there into the green. And 10 is a tough hole up the hill, but there aren't many truly really long par 4s. If I can drive it straight, I'm going to get 30 yards of roll and have wedges into a lot of greens.

So with it being firm, it's great. I don't like it when it rains a ton on us and then the ball doesn't roll; it's definitely a disadvantage to me.

Q. You don't find too many guys who are mathematics majors out here. Obviously you played golf at UNC and you knew that there might be a future there?

MARK WILSON: I always liked math, and I was going to go the business route, get the business major like everyone else on my team, but I decided to just do a little something different. I always planned on playing golf, but I just kind of wanted to see how good I could be at the math, and an actuary was kind of more the focus, and I took one of the extra tests that you have to take after college without studying, and it kicked my butt, and I said I'd better start playing better golf or study, and I didn't want to study anymore.

Q. So this whole Money List and ranking thing is no problem for you?

MARK WILSON: Oh, right. I love numbers, so that new what's that game that just came out?

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Sudoku.

MARK WILSON: Sudoku, yeah. I still carry a yardage book, and my caddie does the same thing to double check me. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love calculating the numbers and figuring out how far up and down it is in terms of elevation and what the wind is going to do.

Q. So if I gave you some numbers, like six of them on a check tomorrow, you could add those up pretty easily?

MARK WILSON: Yeah, you bet. I love that when it comes into my account on Wednesday, and if it's a six figure check, I would love that.

End of FastScripts.

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